The University Senate spent much of its first meeting of the year, held yesterday, addressing the state of the University amidst what President Richard Lariviere called “the greatest economic crisis in our lifetimes.”
Faculty, administrators and student government members alike presented their news, hopes and concerns for the coming year. Much of the news, especially budget-wise, was grim, but there were silver linings to be found.
Addressing the Senate, Lariviere said that the University was in fact “a beneficiary of the
economic downturn.”
Because state funding makes up a small part of the University’s funding, it has been more resilient than comparable schools.
Lariviere noted that the University of California at Berkeley, part of the beleaguered University of California system, usually hires 100 new faculty a year. Next year, he said, it is hiring 10. Meanwhile, the University of Oregon is in a hiring boom.
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Russ Tomlin announced later in the meeting that the University had “an exceptional hiring year,” bringing on 47 new faculty. Of those, Tomlin said 14 were self-identified minorities and 16 were women.
But the University is far from invulnerable to the economic downturn.
ASUO President Emma Kallaway also addressed the University Senate. She said that the first week of classes was “shaky,” with students complaining of crowded classes.
Kallaway also told the Senate she was particularly concerned about the Oregon Opportunity Grant — the largest need-based college grant in the state. She said the grant fund was already almost exhausted for the year.
Vice President of Finance and Administration Frances Dyke confirmed much of what Kallaway said. The total student head count for the second week was 22,347 — an increase of 4.3 percent from the same time last year.
The increase in tuition wasn’t enough to cover both cuts in state funding and rising maintenance and service costs. As a result, Dyke said there was a 2.5 percent cut across the board to general fund budgets.
Dyke said the University “was endeavoring to fill student need” for grants and fee remissions. The administration diverted $4 million to fee remission, but Dyke said the decision was made before the University was aware of the state of the Oregon
Opportunity Grant.
Also looming on the horizon are two ballot referendums, to be voted on in January, that would repeal a state tax increase worth $733 million. Dyke said the minimum loss for the University if the referendums pass would be $3 million.
Lariviere said he has been criss-crossing the state, talking to legislators, newspaper editorial boards and business people about state’s funding problems and how to move forward.
“We are forced to come up with new solutions,” Lariviere said. “The solutions will be different than anything Oregon has seen. If we’re lucky, different than anything, anywhere.
“I may be naive, but I sense we have an opportunity — a constellation of interests coming together — to find this new way.”