After much debate, funding for the Oregon State University-Cascades Campus in Bend will continue, with the branch campus suffering only a $1.8 million funding reduction. The compromise, reached Tuesday, is a decision we can only half-heartedly support.
The new proposal follows an October mandate
issued by Gov. John Kitzhaber that required all state agencies to submit budget reduction plans in order to cover a projected $290 million deficit in state revenues. Oregon University System officials have said that because they have already spent most of their state funds on the Cascades Campus, they are unable to reduce funding for the project by more than $1.8 million.
There can be no doubt the Cascades Campus is a good idea and that it will provide a valuable service to the state and the residents of Central Oregon. Also, the more students enrolled at OSU, including the Bend campus, the more federal funding the school is eligible to receive.
But even with the positive effects such a campus would provide, the project needs to be put on hold. There simply isn’t enough money to continue such a major undertaking at this time. The State Board of
Education should have taken a tougher position to withhold funding for the new campus, and produced a budget that excluded funding for building the branch campus until at least next year, when more state money may be available.
In the meantime, Bend’s current OSU outreach program can satisfy the educational needs of those in Central Oregon who wish to take classes, but who are unable or unwilling to travel to Corvallis or Eugene to do so.
The bottom line is that the OUS should be looking after their bottom line. It doesn’t make good fiscal sense to spend money on new projects, such as the Bend campus, when we can’t even afford to maintain the schools and programs the university system currently offers.