Chris is a visionary leader with a demonstrated track record of catalyzing innovation in teaching and impactful scholarship. He has twenty years of leadership experience at two public AAU universities—MSU and Pennsylvania State University. As the UO’s chief academic officer, Chris will steward the university’s academic mission, working with the faculty, deans, students, and staff to maintain the highest quality of scholarly activity and educational programs at the UO.
During his nine years as the arts and letters dean at MSU, Chris elevated the college’s international reputation by creating new centers, programs, and departments focused on collaborative research, raising resources for more than ten new endowed professorships and chairs, enriching student experiences, advancing equity, and increasing external research funding across the arts and humanities. This included creating a new Department of African American and African Studies, the Citizen Scholars program, the Excel Network, and the Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative. Since 2021, he has also led the honors college, helping to diversify the student body and enhance the undergraduate research experience.
The search committee was especially impressed by Chris’ track record for collaboration and his values-enacted approach to leadership. He’s credited with building trust among faculty and staff through a strategic planning process in the College of Arts & Letters focused on equity, openness, and community, redressing salary inequities, enhancing the undergraduate experience, and reimagining the promotional and tenure process to elevate and support faculty’s most meaningful work.
An advocate of public scholarship, open access, and digital approaches to research and teaching, he is cofounder of the Public Philosophy Journal, an open forum for the curation and creation of accessible scholarship that deepens our understanding of publicly relevant issues, and he has served as editor of The Journal for General Education, a publication focused on general education as a cornerstone of efforts to prepare citizens to live engaged, responsible, and meaningful lives.
With a formidable record of securing grants and fundraising, Chris has received over $7 million in research funding as primary investigator for projects that include over $3.7 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to improve the teaching of less commonly taught languages with the Big Ten Academic Alliance and almost $1 million for the HuMetricsHSS initiative, which seeks to transform the academy by aligning shared values with the policies and practices that shape academic life.
Prior to joining MSU, he was associate dean for graduate and undergraduate education and a professor of philosophy and classics in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. Chris received his master of arts and doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York and bachelor of arts from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.
I am deeply grateful for Professor Leslie Leve’s leadership of the provost search committee, which recruited an outstanding pool of diverse and experienced candidates. I thank the search committee members and the many hundreds of individuals who participated in the international search process and interviews of the candidates. I am also deeply appreciative of Karen Ford, serving as interim provost, for her leadership and steady guidance.
I could not be more excited for Chris to begin as provost in time to join us for our university commencement ceremony on June 17. As we propel the university forward guided by a new strategic plan, I am confident that Chris’ vision and experience will enhance our commitment to student success, career preparation, belonging and flourishing, and elevate the impact of our research and scholarship. I look forward to collaborating closely with him for years to come.
Please join me in congratulating Chris and welcoming him to the University of Oregon community.
Sincerely,
Karl Scholz
President
Our new provost is a blogger – just like UO Matters! And it looks like we’re all going to have to learn a lot of new buzzwords. https://cplong.org/2024/01/coalition-for-the-future-academy/
Yay! Another white man in UO leadership. Our great university continues to set itself apart in its steadfast effort to preserve the place of the great white man at the top.
What a sexist and racist comment. This attitude is reprehensible and utterly unacceptable.
What?? What is sexist — the complaint that yet another man is in leadership? What is racist — the complaint that yet another white person is in leadership?
Your MAGA attitude is reprehensible and utterly unacceptable.
Yes, we are false to our professed principles, but our principles themselves need to be re-imagined from a more ontologically responsible perspective. The systems of higher education in the United States are designed to legitimate and reinforce a conception of subjectivity rooted in the misguided ideology of liberal individualism that presumes independence and self-sufficiency while diminishing the existential importance of relational interdependence. [UOM: I have no idea what this means, I’m just quoting from Provost Long’s blog.]
I can explain it to you if you give me a call. His views draw on mainstream philosophical discussions + their terminology (which philosophy has, like any other field).
How would you grade Chat GPT’s interpretation?
Sure! Let’s break it down:
False to our professed principles: This means that we often don’t live up to the values or beliefs we claim to have.
Principles need to be re-imagined: The author is suggesting that instead of just sticking to our current principles, we should rethink them.
From a more ontologically responsible perspective: Ontology deals with the nature of existence and reality. So, a more “ontologically responsible” perspective means considering how things really are in the world.
Systems of higher education in the United States: Refers to the structure and organization of colleges and universities in the US.
Designed to legitimate and reinforce a conception of subjectivity: The author is saying that these systems are set up to support and strengthen a particular idea about individuals and their experiences.
Rooted in the misguided ideology of liberal individualism: This means that the way we think about people being independent and self-sufficient (liberal individualism) is seen as flawed or wrong by the author.
Presumes independence and self-sufficiency: This refers to the assumption that individuals can exist and thrive on their own without relying on others.
While diminishing the existential importance of relational interdependence: At the same time, this perspective downplays the significance of how people depend on and interact with each other for their existence and well-being.
Putting it all together, the statement is criticizing how the education system in the US supports an idea of individuals being independent and self-sufficient, which the author believes is flawed. They argue that we should reconsider our principles from a perspective that acknowledges the importance of how people rely on and relate to each other.
“Immorality is subjective.”
“Yes but subjectivity is objective.”
“Not in an irrational scheme of perception.”
“Perception is irrational and implies immanence, but judgement of any system or a priori relation of phenomena exists in any rational or metaphysical or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract and empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself or of the thing itself…..”