DECEMBER 11, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH
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1. BREAKING: Pacific and Willamette Universities Explore Joining Forces to Create Oregon’s Largest Private University

“Pacific University and Willamette University, Oregon’s two founding institutions of higher education, have signed a letter of intent agreeing to move forward with due diligence and the negotiation of a definitive agreement to merge to become the state’s largest private university.

If approved, this historic combination, provisionally the University of the Northwest, would work to create more pathways for students, more avenues for collaboration, and more opportunities for Oregon and the West in an institution that would combine the flexibility and nimbleness of a small school with the breadth and resources of a larger institution.

Pacific University and Willamette University have a combined student body of about 6,000 students across distinctive independent undergraduate colleges and expansive graduate and professional programs, and a network of more than 73,000 alumni.”

» State of Play. “If the merger is finalized and approved, the combined university would operate as a “collegiate university,” where distinct schools and colleges maintain their character, identities, and historic campuses while unified under a shared administrative structure as a single institution.”

» Worth Noting. The undergraduate colleges at Pacific, Willamette, and PNCA would continue to operate with their current names as colleges within the combined university on their historic campuses in Forest Grove, Salem and Portland and would maintain separate admissions requirements, academic programs and athletics. Existing graduate and professional programs would continue to offer students pathways toward their career goals.”

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