As Oregon universities are forced to tackle a $127-million deficit in higher education, students can expect another round of tuition increases next fall and other changes to the university system, according to the legislative budget announced Friday.
A $91-million deficit from the 2007-09 biennium will be included in the total deficit for the next biennium, and will require the University to make arduous decisions about its future priorities.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski is looking to reduce the deficit and cost to students by decreasing administrative costs throughout many state programs.
He suggested in his address to the City Club of Portland on Friday that the Oregon Student Assistance Commission, the state’s financial aid program, should be integrated into the Oregon University System.
“This critical program is a long-standing priority of mine, but nothing state government does gets special treatment if there is a better, more strategic and less expensive way to provide the same service,” Kulongoski said.
The Oregon Opportunity Grant provides assistance to students who are Oregon residents in financial need.
Governor spokesperson Anna Richard Taylor said Kulongoski will not be the person to make the decision regarding the OSAC, but that the decision will be left up to the legislature.
Diane Saunders, OUS director of communications, said OUS is still processing how changing the OSAC structure would affect the system.
Saunders said that because of the budget, students next year at large public universities including the University of Oregon can expect a 7- to 9-percent increase in tuition, 30 percent of which will go toward student financial aid.
Geoff Sugerman, communications director for the Speaker of the House Dave Hunt, said he sympathizes with families and students who are going to be plagued by the increases, but said in financial hardship every department is forced to make cuts.
“The state allocates a budget based off of what they project they will receive in income,” he said. “Because the economy plummeted globally and the state is at 12-percent unemployment, the revenues from taxes have gone down. We have a $4.2-billion gap for next year, and so unfortunately students are going to be forced to assist the state in filling that in.”
Sugerman said education, human service programs and crime and safety make up 94 percent of the state’s budget, which is why education is heavily affected. Higher education is taking a slightly higher cut than K-12 education, but Sugerman said it is a reality that community colleges and universities have the ability to raise tuition, while K-12 classrooms only have the ability to cut classes, teachers and resources. However, OUS has the ultimate authority on tuition increases.
In Washington, tuition increases are double that of what is anticipated in the OUS. Sugerman said he hopes tuition increases will be enough to keep universities from having to make program cuts that could affect the quality of students’ education.
However, Saunders is not sure that is possible.
“We expect employee losses,” she said. “We also expect courses to be cut and class sizes to grow significantly to make up for the budget shortfall. As a result, students might have less interaction with faculty and they might not have access to the classes they need. It could potentially take students longer to graduate.”
Saunders said she expects Oregon universities will see a 1,000-student enrollment drop because some students will not be able to afford tuition increases, but University Provost Jim Bean said that so far he has not seen a drop in student enrollment for the next academic year.
“We have the second-largest freshman class in the history of the University coming in next year,” he said. “We don’t anticipate having to cut faculty because we are confident that student tuition will generate enough revenue to make up for the deficit. One of our greatest challenges is going to be big class sizes.”
Sugerman said large class sizes drain resources and make the educational experience more expensive for everyone.
“More students means more cost,” he said.
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