Dear Colleagues,

It is with mixed emotions that I tell you Interim Provost Ed Feser has accepted the position of provost and executive vice president at Oregon State University. While this is an opportunity for Ed to guide an aspirational institution with growing strength in disciplines that are dear to him, we all will miss his wise and thoughtful counsel, his unwavering integrity and his deep understanding of all aspects of our great university.

During my time at Illinois, Ed has been an invaluable partner. Most critically, he has helped lead through one of the most difficult financial times in the university’s history and has championed a new budgeting system and model that will benefit our students, faculty and staff and support our mission for years to come.

This opportunity at OSU allows Ed and his wife Kathy to be closer to their family and to the mountains, ocean and great outdoors that are a sustaining force in their lives, and to help a great, west coast land-grant institution fulfill its mission.

Ed is one of the nation’s most outstanding academic leaders, and he will make a transformational impact at Oregon State just as he has done at Illinois. We are a stronger institution because of Ed’s contributions.

Ed begins his new role in late February.

Please join me in thanking him for his dedicated service to the university and wishing him all the best in his new role.

Best wishes,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor