Pacific University and Willamette University are pursuing a merger that could create the largest private university in Oregon.
In a joint press release issued Thursday, the two nonprofit universities said that by combining, they could offer additional opportunities for students, increase collaboration, and create a larger institution that could benefit Oregon and the West by combining the nimbleness of a smaller university and the resources of what they say would become the largest private university in Oregon.
Tentatively dubbed "University of the Northwest," the institution would take two distinct university offerings and combine them into one. With Thursday's announcement of the signing of a letter of intent between the two universities, the heads of each university told News in the Grove that a multiyear process to explore a merger has begun.
"We kind of took a step back and compared programs, and realized we have this pretty amazing, non-overlapping, complementary portfolio of programs, and could we actually think bigger? Could we think about ways we could really offer something more for our students," said Jenny Coyle, president of Pacific University.
Pacific University, founded in Forest Grove in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, started Oregon's first degree programs in teaching, optometry, occupational therapy and physical therapy, according to the university. Today, it is the number one private educator of healthcare professionals in Oregon, the university said. It has a total enrollment of 3,440 students.
Willamette University, founded in 1842 in Salem as the Oregon Institute, founded the first medical school and law school in Oregon. The university, which includes the Pacific Northwest College of Art, has a total enrollment of 2,786 students.
If the merger were to be completed, the university would operate as a collegiate university, meaning each distinct school or college would maintain their existing character and identities, while the administration structure around the university would operate as a single institution. The undergraduate colleges at Pacific and Willamette and the Pacific Northwest College of Art would keep their names and distinct identities and continue to operate at their existing campuses. Sports, too, would remain distinct.
Coyle and Steve Thorsett, president of Willamette University, spoke with News in the Grove on what led their universities to consider a merger and what could be next for the two venerable institutions that together serve more than 6,000 students at campuses in Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Salem, and Portland.
Coyle said that leaders in higher education often speak with each other in an effort to collaborate.
"Leaders of higher ed, we're always talking about ways that we can collaborate and offer more for our students and for our faculty," Coyle said.
Coyle said conversations around the potential merger began earlier this year.
"This particular idea started to get some traction sometime in the spring, when we had our usual "how can we collaborate" conversation," Coyle said.
In the ensuing months, the two universities discussed what a merger would look like, and eventually decided to take the concrete step of signing a letter of intent.
Thorsett explained that the two university boards, which include local business leaders, alumni, faculty, and in Pacific's case, KISS lead guitarist and vocalist Tommy Thayer, took the step now to start bringing more people into the conversation.
"By going public, we can bring in a lot of other voices, including, crucially, the faculty, who are really important for building out the academic vision of what we want to do," he said.
Thorsett hopes that if all goes well, the universities could have at the first stages of a corporate merger by the summer of 2026.
That starts the federal review of a merger, which can take 12 to 18 months, Thorsett said, before the universities can fully merge.
"So we're two years out," he said.
Beyond what they said were the "big ones," the accreditors and the U.S. Department of Education, Thorsett and Coyle listed the state of Oregon, financial institutions, and other entities as all having to be part of the process
"There are so many contracts that need to be reviewed," he said.
The universities plan to bring the student bodies of each campus into the conversation, too.
Coyle said each campus would be hosting student town halls and conversations with students. Thorsett noted that coaches and other people close to the student body were also being consulted starting this week.
Willamette's very first intercollegiate football game was against Pacific in 1894, Thorsett said, a winning game for Willamette. The Bearcats beat the Badgers (the Boxer didn't become the official school mascot until 1968) 18-4, according to school records.
"You can find records of debate tournaments between the two schools in the 1870s," he said.
Coyle said that ensuring the two schools could continue to compete was an early issue they had to hammer out.
Ultimately, while the combination of the universities could change much about how the schools are administered, what options are available to students, including a combined network of 73,000 alumni, and more, the look and feel of each university shouldn't change much.
"The whole point is to maintain the culture and the identity and tradition of the individual campuses," Thorsett said.
If you're immersed in the campus, and a student in the campus, the hope is that you'll start to see a richer set of intellectual activities," he said.
"It's not so much the physical space that we envision changing, it's the opportunities, and the pathways, and the way that we can provide our student-centered program that is really important to both institutions."
Coyle said the universities are aware that the cost of tuition is a concern for students. Estimated tuition for a Pacific undergraduate student living on campus in the 2025-26 school year was $77,542, while a year at Willamette is $71,254.
The two universities could save money with combined HR platforms and learning platforms, Coyle said, and the opportunity for scholarships and fundraising could widen with a larger combined alumni network.
"Our whole goal is to lower the cost of education," Coyle said.
