Pacific Index

Pacific University and Willamette University announce their intentions to merge, forming a mega institution 

   The 2025 school year ends with a bang, as Pacific University administrators revealed a potential merger with Willamette University. As most students were wrapping up finals, out of the complete blue, a memo was sent on Thursday, December 11, to all Pacific students and staff announcing the possible merger—and quickly questions arose; primarily, what does that even mean? 

   President Jenny Coyle and Willamette’s President Steve Thorsett sat down with the Index to clarify. 

    “Really,” President Coyle commented, “it’s a strategic move for five years from now and ten years from now. Can we build a larger institution that has the capacity and the resources of a large university, but still has the small scale, small college feel.” She continue, “Can we scale up other things by working together? Can we approach industry in a much stronger way…going to them and saying here, together we have 6,000 students and 73,000 alumni. I think that will help us with our goals with increasing the skills-based learning that students are asking for.” 

   For Willamette University, this merger will not be their first, as President Thorsett explained their successful merge with Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) around five years ago. “We brought the two undergraduate colleges, then the graduate programs and the fine arts together into Willamette and have been really successful at maintaining what made PNCA, PNCA. While at the same time being able to use the resources of a bigger institution to improve student support…” 

   It has been announced that very little will actually change for students in the ways of campus life, athletic teams, and admission processes. The Boxer will remain Pacific’s faithful mascot, and we’ll still be Pacific University. The main changes will be addressed with faculty—and, as such, depends on their say so. 

   “A lot of what we will do together if this moves forward is going to be faculty defined,” President Thorsett divulged. “I don’t want to go too far down the road of saying what the faculty are going to approve and what they aren’t going to approve, but I can tell you that at PNCA we found all different ways to connect the two campuses. We’ve had students taking individual courses on the other campus, in the way of PNCA they don’t have NCAA sports, so we’ve had some PNCA students who’ve come down to Salem to compete in soccer and other sports. We also have had students take a semester away, and we also have moved faculty back and forth. There’re all those different kinds of models, that any one of which, all of which probably, will be really interesting to explore.” 

   While faculty will be the main stakeholders in deciding what this merger looks like, for many this news is still fresh. “I don’t think we have an idea yet what the overall faculty view is,” President Thorsett said. “But individual faculty members who I’ve been talking with have been very enthusiastic…and of course we’ve got faculty working together already…so they know each other and I think they’re going to be really interested in building on those relationships.” 

   Summarizing what she’s heard from Pacific faculty, President Coyle added, “I know it’s change, and I know that everyone has their own feelings about things and worries and concerns, but I’ve heard a lot of ‘well that’s cool.’ I’ve been thinking about this and had the ability to kind of think through for a lot longer, so I know– it just takes time. We’re going to do our best to open up possibilities so that people see what we’re trying to do is create a platform where we have more to do more.”

   For many faculty, though, the memo and announcement was more of a WTF! 

   The blueprint for this merger is still hardly more than a thought, so for now, there’s little to know. President Coyle ensured that updates will be consistently shared with students and staff, as well as opportunities for public comment. “Right now, it’s such the early kind of research phase– we’ve got a lot of steps…but we can start having conversations now with faculty about pathways and new ideas, and with students.” 

   While the merger news might have been quite a shock to both the Pacific and Willamette communities, speaking up with thoughts and concerns is the best way to move forward. “As you could tell, we’re excited about the possibilities,” exclaimed President Thorsett. “There’s a ton of work to do in the next couple of years, but it’s good work, it’s work building important institutions. I think the more we can get a big group of people engaged in that work, the better.”