On August 5, UO President Michael Gottfredson and UO Vice President for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Graduate School Kimberly Espy sent a letter to the Oregon Congressional Delegation urging funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at the levels contained in the FY2014 Administration budget proposal. The letter comes in response to a 49 percent cut to the NEH recommended by the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. The cut would bring NEH funding to $71 million. The full House will consider this recommendation when it resumes business in September.

Over the last ten years, UO faculty and staff have earned more than $5.5 million in NEH grants for a variety of programming and research activities.

The letter notes that humanities funding is backed by the bipartisan Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Economic development, global engagement and cultural enrichment are all enhanced by NEH support. The current NEH funding level has already declined from that granted by Congress in previous years; Gottfredson and Espy urged Oregon’s congressional delegation to oppose this continued trend of disinvestment in the humanities.