Dear Pacificans,

I hope this message finds everyone off to a strong new academic year across our three campuses. For those of you who were not able to attend or Zoom in to the State of the University address, I wanted to provide you access to both the excellent video produced by Strategic Communications summarizing your great successes over the 2024-25 academic year as well as a condensed video of the State of the University address.

I also include in this correspondence some themes and highlights. If I may – borrowing a phrase from my old profession of journalism – I would write the lede of our story as follows: Despite daunting financial, health, demographic, political and cultural challenges buffeting higher education over the past five years, Pacific – thanks to our dedicated faculty and staff – had its best five-year period ever, setting new records for academic excellence, financial strength, enrollment, fundraising, grants and new academic programs. And while the challenges we will face over the next five years – the enrollment cliff, a new administration in Washington and the erosion of Americans’ faith in the transformational power of a college education – are enormous, our opportunities are even greater. I am supremely confident we will continue our sharp trajectory upward to becoming the nation’s best student-centric comprehensive university. And that success again will be because of the efforts of our faculty, staff, deans, vice presidents, Regents, alumni, donors and community supporters.

The following are some of the key themes from the State of the University:

The strongest five years in our history were highlighted by the elimination of annual budget deficits, taking us from second-worst financially among the 10 West Coast Conference universities over the previous five years to second best over the last five years; our highest two years of enrollment ever; fundraising that nearly doubled the previous annual average; an endowment that has increased by 60 percent; 24 new academic degree programs; and new capital projects across all three campuses.

Our national rankings are at all-time highs. The Wall Street Journal ranked Pacific No. 87 in the nation while The New York Times rated Pacific as No. 23 in socioeconomic diversity and The Wall Street Journal ranked the university No. 36 in social mobility. Just this week, author Jeff Selingo named Pacific as one of 75 “Dream Schools” in the country – colleges and universities that place an emphasis on academic excellence, access, affordability, experiential learning and outcomes of graduates.

Early indicators show that this will be another strong year at Pacific. Despite severe new disruptions in the market, our new student enrollment remains steady this fall following our record numbers last year (undergraduate transfers and master’s students are up, international students and first-time undergraduates are down and professional schools are flat). Undergraduate retention, unfortunately, is down from last year, so our overall enrollment will be lower than last year, but is still the second highest in our history.

We also are taking important steps to strengthen – both structurally and culturally – shared governance at Pacific on the recommendation of our faculty leadership. Some of those initiatives include the Academic Council working with the Provost to hire an outside expert to provide advice on shared governance; the hiring of a university ombudsman; creating a transparent engagement calendar to show where Cabinet members are connecting with our different schools, colleges and divisions and inviting the AC Chair to the weekly meeting of the President’s Cabinet. That is in addition to my traditional biweekly meetings with the AC Chair and Chair-elect, monthly meetings with the SAC and ASUOP leadership and annual visits to each school, college and division.

Importantly, we are starting the process to conduct a university-wide salary compensation review for faculty and staff on all three campuses for the first time in eight years. I have asked our executive vice presidents – CFO James Walsh and Provost Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert – to partner with the Faculty Compensation Committee, Academic Council and the Staff Advisory Council to begin that process, which will lead to an RFP for an external firm to conduct the review and make recommendations. Additionally, we are starting a similar process that will lead to the hiring of an outside firm to conduct an analysis of the administrative side of the university to find operational and cost efficiencies. Again, I have asked the CFO and Provost to engage with our faculty and staff leaders as we start that process.

This academic year also will see the completion or near completion of several critical capital projects, including the opening of the new Southwest Hall (summer 2026), the new Ambulatory Surgical Center in San Francisco (summer 2026) and the opening of the Jie Du Inn, which will be a key component of our undergraduate recruitment strategy for visiting families (fall 2026). And we are just beginning the planning of a year-long celebration of our demisemiseptcentennial – the 175th anniversary of California’s first university. Please send your ideas!

The next five years will bring some even greater and more threatening new challenges to higher education, and Pacific is no exception. The Big 3 threats are the long-projected enrollment cliff for traditional-age undergraduates, the new administration in Washington and Americans’ diminishing belief in the value of a college degree.

The immediate concerns from Washington are the significant decline in visa approvals for international students and the planned elimination of the Grad PLUS program, which many of our professional school students rely on to fund their education. CFO Walsh is working closely with commercial lenders to seek loan alternatives for our professional students while I am engaged with several members of Congress to try to at least mitigate the planned elimination of this important program. The other immediate dimension is the dramatic decline in international students. We have been designing new approaches to our international recruitment strategy, which for most of the past decade has been driven by a long-term contract with an outside vendor. More to come on both these critically important fronts.

The enrollment cliff, of course, has been long looming on the higher education horizon, but is just starting now and will continue for 15 years, with the numbers of new U.S. college-age students shrinking. Our faculty, staff and leadership have been preparing for this demographic shift for the past five years with new academic programs, new strategies focusing on growth areas such as undergraduate transfers, graduate programs and online executive programs, new enrollment marketing strategies to expand beyond our local base and more. In the meantime, the next five years will see more of those initiatives – with new creative ideas driven by you – as well as the opening of the Jie Du Inn for prospective students and families, the new Southwest Hall and a continued focus on discipline diversification and new academic programs.

My largest concern over the next five years is less tangible, but I believe the most dangerous: Americans’ diminishing belief in the power of a college education. The numbers of Americans who have a great deal of confidence in higher education has fallen dramatically from a high of 60 percent just a decade ago, and those who have little to no confidence in colleges and universities has more than doubled from a low of 10 percent. Our colleagues in Strategic Communications and Enrollment Strategy are working together on new marketing campaigns – directed largely towards parents and families – to tell our story and the value of a Pacific education in more compelling, tangible and accessible ways for families.

But as I said at the State of the University, while those are all serious challenges, I truly believe our opportunities in this fast-changing higher education landscape are even greater. The past five years at Pacific were a great success because of you – our extraordinary faculty and staff. And I am confident the next five years will bring even greater successes because of you and your passion, dedication, talent and deep belief in our students and our university’s student-centric approach to higher education.

I’ll be starting my annual visits soon to all schools, colleges and divisions. In the meantime, please reach out to continue the conversation or to send your thoughts and ideas.

Thank you for all you do for Pacific. And Go Tigers!

Sincerely,

Christopher Callahan
President
University of the Pacific