Fall classes have started at the University of Oregon in Eugene with a new president at the helm: Karl Scholz, an internally respected economist who came most recently from University of Wisconsin-Madison where he served as provost. Meanwhile the university is getting ready to consolidate its Portland presence at a new Northeast campus, the former Concordia University. The property that was purchased in 2022 will house the university’s new Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. UO also plans to move graduate programs currently housed at the White Stag building in the city’s Old Town neighborhood and is putting that building up for sale. We sit down with Scholz in our Portland studios to hear more about the Ballmer Institute, the university’s footprint in the city and how he’s thinking about the rising costs of higher education, both as an economist and a university president.