News

POLITICAL SCIENCE - Longtime professor Daniel Goldrich died Dec. 21, 2025. Goldrich joined the UO faculty in 1963. He focused on Latin and Central American politics and Pacific Northwest energy politics. Rarely did a day pass without a former student stopping him to say how profoundly his teaching had shaped them. In 1997, Dan received the Herman Faculty Award for excellence in teaching. Goldrich helped found organizations in Eugene that have since grown to be fixtures of the community.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - Funded through federal, state and institutional grants, the University of Oregon Home Flight program provides financial support, academic advising and culture-rich activities for qualifying American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduates. Now in its fourth year, the program has more than tripled in enrollment, to 170-plus students, while increasing the number of Native graduates.

POLITICAL SCIENCE - Sarah Koski graduated with a degree in political science in 2006 from the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences and Robert D. Clark Honors College. To find her purpose and mission, Koski first had to break up with the notion that all success is a high-powered executive job. Now a community resource liaison for Lane Transit District, Koski works to help people feel seen and heard, and to make real change in the unhoused community.

ECONOMICS - Research by CAS Assistant Professor Jonathan Davis is featured in the Nov. 8 print and digital issue of the Economist. A study co-authored by Davis showed that CAHOOTS reduced the probability that a 911 call ends in an arrest by 76%. Each arrest costs taxpayers, so the service provided significant savings. “CAHOOTS is a low-cost way to expand the police force,” Davis tells the Economist.

ECONOMICS - College of Arts and Sciences economist Keaton Miller speaks with The Oregonian/OregonLive about the loss of SNAP funds and what it means for the state's grocery stores. “(Grocery stores) have to pay for their facilities. They have to pay for their staff. They have to pay for all of the logistics, no matter how much they’re selling to consumers,” he said. “So, that’s going to put potentially upward pressure on pricing.”

SOCIOLOGY - As part of the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History summer field school, the students are spending a month immersed in Indigenous cultural landscapes while studying archaeology, history and ecology and, at the same time, helping restore oyster beds. They’re learning vital career skills while helping usher in a new era of archaeology with Gabe Sanchez, a CAS assistant professor of sociology.

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES - In spring 2025, Assistant Professor Lana Lopesi received the Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of her early career excellence. Lopesi said the award was affirming for her because teaching can feel like a private exercise between her and her students, invisible beyond the classroom. Since joining the UO, she has developed five courses within her department and helped put together the first IRES study abroad program to Sāmoa in partnership with political science professor Ronald Mitchell.