Love, Complexity, and Interconnection: the Heart of University Life Our efforts to respond to the current political threats to higher education are undermined by a disparity between professed values and lived-experience.

Our efforts to respond to the current political threats to higher education are undermined by a disparity between professed values and lived-experience.

cplong.org/2026/01/love...

Sunset over the distant snow-capped mountains of Sisters and Mt. Batchelor in Oregon with orange and yellow sky, dark forest in the middle ground, and the dry grassy hillside of Pine Mountain in the foreground.

cplong.org/2025/10/lear...

Arendt's account of understanding here speaks to a way of knowing that has been eclipsed in a social and political culture that has long demonstrated an incapacity to engage complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty with nuance and grace.

Are you wrestling with difficult decisions in #highered? Need time and space to tackle them with a team and with intention? Applications are now open for the 2026 Values-Enacted Leadership Institute, to be held in Portland, OR next July.
humetricshss.org/veli

The core values of the Public Philosophy Journal, says @cplong.org, are thick collegiality; ethical imagination; diversity, equity, inclusion; and transparency and trust. Find out more publicphilosophyjournal.org #openscience #cmuoss25

"The great secret of values-enacted work lies in the intentionality and discipline required to specify what each value-term means in a given context and how it will be enacted in relationships and show forth in what is created." Read @cplong.org's reflections on the inaugural VELI: shorturl.at/jt5xY

In the wake of the inaugural Values Enacted Leadership Institute, I have been reflecting on the relationship between excellence and integrity. "Excellence" is too often too abstract a term to be useful. Thinking of excellence in but terms of integrity helps in this regard: cplong.org/2025/07/inte...

"When...[federal] funding is the coin of the realm, artistic and humanistic ways of knowing are disadvantaged and our understanding of the world impoverished."

Associate Dean for Academic Engagement Nicky Agate @terrainsvagues.bsky.social recently posted this op-ed in The LSE Impact blog along with other collaborators from @humetricshss.bsky.social.

The piece addresses the viability of federal funding in the current climate.

💻 bit.ly/4l85be3

Is federal funding still a viable research assessment indicator in the age of Trump? - Impact of Social Sciences Federal funding has long played an important role in research assessment in the United States. The HuMetricsHSS Initiative argues this must now be reassessed in light of the Trump administration’s int...

My @humetricshss.bsky.social colleagues and I have an op-ed in @lseimpactblog.bsky.social today. Take a peek: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

A graphic featuring the logo for the HuMetricsHSS Values-Enacted Leadership Institute, a white mountain with silhouetted pine trees against a yellow sky with wavy topographical lines. Around the edge it reads, Values-Enacted Leadership Institute. The logo itself is superimposed over a photograph of a mountain, trees, and starry sky.

We're excited to announce the project teams for the inaugural Values-Enacted Leadership Institute. Can't wait to see you all next month!

humetricshss.org/values-enact...

Before the sun sets here in the West on this difficult day in these United States, let me post the remarks I made at the induction ceremony of The Phi Beta Kappa Society at the University of Oregon - The University is the Beating Heart of a Free Society.

cplong.org/2025/06/the-...

A screencap from the blog post linked, which reads, "The great threat to higher education posed by the current actions of the federal administration lies in the pall of fear and uncertainty they cast over our core educational and research activities. Even so, a great opportunity for higher education presents itself here, if, in the face of this fear and uncertainty, we are able to cultivate practices of wholeheartedness rooted in the worthiness of our shared purpose."

Blog Post: "Wholeheartedness in a Time of Fear and Uncertainty," by @cplong.org. humetricshss.org/wholehearted...

Provost Long with six University of Oregon leaders in advising in business attire smile for a group selfie in a meeting room with large windows, trees and water outside. Sticky notes cover part of the window, and a blank flip chart stands nearby.

In early May, I had the opportunity to join a group of leaders at the University of Oregon who have committed themselves to the important work of student advising. Here are a few reflections on that experience. @humetricshss.bsky.social #Advising #Values

cplong.org/2025/05/whol...

The Activity of Being: An Essay on Aristotle's Ontology Aristotle's thinking is peripatetic. It moves along paths, some well-worn, others newly cleared by the creative elasticity of his thinking. It pursues q...

if that is intriguing, I cannot recommend highly enough this review by @cplong.org of Aryeh Kosman's magisterial The Activity of Being

The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org have filed a lawsuit in federal district court today, seeking to reverse the recent actions to devastate the National Endowment for the Humanities. www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...

I had the pleasure of doing an interview last week with Dane Anderson of Humanities Last Chance. He's made me sound amazingly coherent! humanitieslastchance.org/article/kath...

Information Exchange about the NEH Appeal Process - AHA Many of our members have had grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly terminated. In response, the AHA and partner organizations are convening an Information Exchange about the N...

Many of our members have had grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly terminated. In response, the AHA, @modernlanguage.bsky.social, & @ach.bsky.social are convening an Information Exchange about the NEH Appeal Process on Wednesday, April 30th at 11am ET on Zoom. Register now 🗃️

Rapids on the Willamette River fill the frame of this image, taken from the South side of the river, looking North with evergreens and blue skies and wispy clouds in the background.

As we navigate the difficult challenges that face us in higher education — and across our civic life in these United States — I return to the practices of blogging that have long enriched my academic and personal life. #HigherEd @humetricshss.bsky.social

cplong.org/2025/04/find...

Here is @cplong.bsky.social on the transformative power of values-enacted work in higher ed, particularly at the current moment.

There is nobody with whom I’d rather plan a leadership institute than Chris & the rest of @humetricshss.bsky.social team.

research.uoregon.edu/news/confron...

Today we'd like to highlight another blog post, this one by Dr. Naomi Greyser. Naomi's ability to balance the realities of budget and consolidation with her values and those of her colleagues is an excellent example of values-enacted leadership: humetricshss.org/building-for...

My recently published essay, "The Hideously Difficult Task Before Us," attempts to read James Baldwin with Reiner Schürmann in an effort to imagine and begin to enact the possibility of a more perfect union. #philosophy cplong.org/2024/12/the-...

Interested in facilitating values-aligned change at your institution? Get those applications in stat!

Have a transformative project in higher education you’ve been thinking about with like-minded colleagues? Want some time and space to think through how to actually make it happen? Apply to the Values-Enacted Leadership Institute, to be held this coming July: humetricshss.org/values-enact...

We are thrilled to invite applications from institutional teams for the inaugural Values-Enacted Leadership Institute (VELI), taking place in Oregon from July 13 - 18, 2025. Applications are due February 12. humetricshss.org/values-enact...

We're holding VELI information sessions on Dec 16 at Jan 21 at 12pm Eastern. Sign up or find out more: humetricshss.org/values-enact...

What an energizing couple of days in Oregon with my @humetricshss.bsky.social colleagues @drbtd.bsky.social, @cplong.bsky.social, @simosacchi.bsky.social, @jasonrhody.bsky.social, Penny, & Bonnie, planning our 2025 Values-Enacted Leadership Institute (VELI) humetricshss.org/values-enact...