This is a time of achievements and milestones and new beginnings. Our campuses have just graduated thousands of bright, ambitious students. Our faculty, other than those who will be teaching on into the summer, are recuperating and beginning preparations for the Fall. And, if I may personalize for just a moment, I have just concluded my 30th consecutive year of service at Oregon State University! (I have been arguing for all thirty of those years, incidentally, for a faculty dependent tuition benefit. I am very pleased, as are faculty throughout the system, about your pending approval today of such a plan - - although I have thus far searched in vain for a retroactivity clause to cover what I have already spent on degrees for my spouse and both children.) Anyway, because of all of these happy milestones, I thought it appropriate to vary the nature of my message. So, instead of lecturing to you about academic freedom, or complaining about outmoded equipment and deteriorated buildings, instead of campaigning against some new rule or for some new program, and certainly, Mr. Aschkenasy and others, instead of "whining" about inordinately low, non-competitive faculty salaries . . . instead of any of that, I have a surprise: today I simply want to thank you and congratulate you. On behalf of IFS, and, I dare say, on behalf of all the faculty throughout the OUS system, thank you for your diligent service and your tireless efforts to make higher education in the State of Oregon the best it can possibly be. You are the targets of unfair criticism from time to time, for you face the same resource limitations and procedural mysteries that frustrate your accusers. Differences of opinion arise, of course, but the spirited dialogue that follows is fruitful, essential, productive; it opens up new cal tasks here seriously, sincerely, and with a clear regard for doing what will best keep us vital and competitive. And I want you to know that faculty really do appreciate your enduring efforts. Together, we work toward a common goal.

That's it. Thank you for the terribly important role that you all play. And congratulations on your fine, continuing work on behalf of higher education in Oregon. Please appreciate that you have the right to feel just as personally proud of our glowing new graduates as those of us who have guided them through their actual classroom experiences. We have new and continuing challenges before us, as this morning's discussion clearly demonstrates. But IFS looks forward to working productively with you in helping to resolve those challenges.

I wish you all a wonderful summer.

Gary H. Tiedeman Professor of Sociology/Director, Liberal Studies Fairbanks 303/Social Science 213F 541-737-5383/541-737-0628 FAX: 737-5372/737-2434 email GTiedeman@orst.edu