May 2025 Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

The majority of the Board’s plenary meeting was dedicated to a presentation by members of the Strategic Imperatives Advisory Council. Co-chairs Janice Weis, Liz Safran and Kathy Fitzgibbon, joined by council members Ellen Seljan, Brian Detweiler-Bedell, Reiko Hillyer and Amy Dvorak, shared the council’s recommendations about initiatives that offer the greatest potential to achieve the institution’s strategic imperatives. The council’s full report will be shared with faculty and staff shortly, once the strategic planning webpage is updated.

The Board also approved the FY26 budget during the plenary meeting. When doing so, the Board requested that the administration and Board take another look at the budget, in the hope that we could find a way to responsibly provide compensation increases to faculty and exempt staff in CAS and Common Services. Further work and additional meetings will take place over the summer to follow up on this request.

The Board bestowed emeritus status on retiring Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Admissions Steve Johansen. The Board also posthumously bestowed emerita status on Professor of Law Barbara Safriet, who passed away on March 21, 2025. These emeriti appointments are in addition to the February approvals of emeriti status for retiring faculty members Rob Kugler in the College of Arts and Sciences and Janet Bixby, Liza Finkel, and Linda Griffin in the Graduate School of Education and Counseling. The Board also congratulated and thanked retiring Graduate School Dean Scott Fletcher and named him dean emeritus.

The Board appointed three new trustees for terms to begin this fall. The new trustees are recently retired Congressman Earl Blumenauer (BA ’70, JD ’76), Dr. Molly McAllister (BA ’98), and David Officer (BS ’85).

Highlights from the Board’s committee meetings included an update regarding Lewis & Clark’s burgeoning partnership with the Albina Vision Trust in the Academic Affairs Committee, along with admissions updates and a review of accreditation processes; a discussion in the Campus Life Committee regarding the rise of antisemitism with former U.S. Ambassador and Emory University History Professor Deborah Lipstadt; and an in-depth discussion in the Institutional Advancement Committee about the next philanthropic campaign.