President Crawford Featured in "President to President" Thought Series

President Isiaah Crawford smiles at the camera as he stands in front of the campus arches.

University of Puget Sound President Isiaah Crawford is featured alongside other esteemed college and university presidents in the "President to President" thought series, distributed electronically throughout the 2023-24 academic year. The series explores the environmental priorities of 10 college presidents and their campus strategies for a sustainable future driven by change-making insights.

An Evening With Acclaimed Poet and Essayist Ross Gay

Ross Gay faces the camera with his chin resting in the palm of his left hand.

The University of Puget Sound welcomes the public to an enchanting evening with Ross Gay, an expert in appreciating life's small delights, the featured speaker of the Fall 2023 Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts. Everyone is welcome to attend and listen to the acclaimed essayist and poet on Monday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Schneebeck Concert Hall.

University of Puget Sound Announces New Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences

Ellie Olpin ’24 and Reisha Foertsch ’25 collect seedling samples from nurse logs in the Hoh Rainforest in Washington’s Olympic National Park.

University of Puget Sound announced today that it is creating a new academic department to house its environmental programs starting in Fall 2024. The Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences will allow students to explore the evolving issues of environmental studies through an interdisciplinary approach combining natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

Environmental Studies & Sciences will offer four academic options:

The Call of the West

Provost Drew Kerkhoff

When Drew Kerkhoff left Ohio, to follow his future wife to New Mexico, he had no plans of ever heading back east. The western landscape and ecology fascinated him, and Kerkhoff—who at the time made a living building custom furniture—spent his downtime exploring his surroundings. It was out in nature that he found a new career path, a path that would eventually lead him to become Puget Sound’s new provost.

University of Puget Sound Welcomes New Trustees

Board of trustees open session. May 2023.

At its spring business meeting in May 2023, the University of Puget Sound’s Board of Trustees elected trustee and non-trustee officers for the coming year, including formally electing Beth Picardo ’83, J.D.’86, to serve as chair effective July 1, 2023. The board’s previous chair, Robert Pohlad P’07, was elected as Immediate Past Chair and will continue to serve on the board in this capacity through June 30, 2024. The board also elected five new trustees and recognized four outgoing members who have completed nine years of service on the board.

Landmark Gift Creates an Endowment to Support the Legacies Project at University of Puget Sound

Aerial view of the College of Puget Sound, 1954.

Since its founding in 1888, University of Puget Sound has played a pivotal role in the unfolding history of Tacoma and the Pacific Northwest. Today, the university announced it will launch the Legacies Project, an initiative to examine and reckon with its long and complex past, understand how those legacies continue to resonate in the present, and take steps to create a more welcoming and inclusive future.

University of Puget Sound Celebrates Major Fundraising Milestones in 2022-23

Athletics and Aquatics Center at night.

University of Puget Sound’s motto—"To the heights!”—has rarely felt so apt. In July, the university closed the books on another successful year as it celebrated raising $26.16 million, a 43% increase from the previous fiscal year. The gifts will help Puget Sound continue to work toward the ambitious goals set forth in its Leadership for a Changing World strategic plan. Puget Sound's endowment sits at $448.6 million.