President Michael H. Schill shared his enthusiasm for several campus projects and initiatives during a recent interview on UO Today, touching on many highlights, including the newly opened Tykeson Hall, which he called “a state of mind, saying our students come first.”

During the interview, Schill also described the UO’s new biomedical data science venture with Oregon Health & Science University and praised this year’s entering class, which already has set records for size, GPA and diverse representation.

Now in his fifth year at the UO, Schill is presiding over one of the most remarkable bursts of growth in the university’s history, with four landmark facilities at or near completion.

The first two, both dedicated to student success, just opened: Tykeson Hall, which is the new, integrated academic advising and career planning center, and the new Black Cultural Center, named for longtime civil rights advocate and UO alum Lyllye Reynolds-Parker.

The other two projects both will be significant additions. They include the first building in the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and the reimagined Hayward Field. Both are on time and on budget to open by mid 2020.

The full interview is available on the UO Today channel. UO Today is a weekly half-hour interview program hosted by Paul Peppis, a UO English professor and director of the Oregon Humanities Center.

Each episode features a conversation with UO faculty members and administrators, visiting scholars, authors or artists. The Oregon Humanities Center produces UO Today in collaboration with UO Libraries’ Center for Media and Educational Technology.

An archive of past interviews is available on the Oregon Humanities Center’s website or on their YouTube channel.

—By Melody Ward Leslie, University Communications