Oregon legislators, students and University leaders exhibited overwhelming support toward changes to state regulation of public universities last Wednesday during a public hearing on Senate Bill 242.
Presumably, the unanimous support by the subcommittee indicated that the bill will now be passed on to the Oregon Senate and House for a vote.
“There wasn’t anyone that was not in support,” Oregon University System spokesperson Diane Saunders said of the hearing, which was held in the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education.
The bill, which has been amended several times from its original form, proposes granting the OUS more freedom to make monetary decisions by treating it as a public university system rather than a state agency.
As it currently stands, to make any funding change, the OUS must get approval by the Oregon State Legislature, Saunders said. For example, if in a given year the OUS tuition revenue is higher than what the Legislative Fiscal Office initially predicted, the chancellor has to submit a formal petition to use the money. If SB 242 becomes law, the OUS will not be subjected to the same limitations.
The legislature also has authority to impose a “fund balance sweep” — meaning it can tap into a university’s tuition reserves to get funding for other state programs.
“This is essentially taxing students twice,” Saunders said, adding that though it is uncommon for the legislator to do a sweep, the threat alone puts a strain on administrators. “To not know what your costs and your revenues are at any point because the legislator could come in and take it away makes it difficult to be able to plan.”
The proposed bill accounts for this by granting universities control over tuition reserves and the interest they accrue.
“The hard-earned money that you pay for tuition will actually stay on campus and be used on you,” Saunders said, estimating that the interest alone totals around $7 million for the seven universities under the OUS.
Based on recommendations from the Oregon Student Association, all interest will go towards need-based financial aid.
“It will definitely benefit students,” Saunders said.
But the increased moving room under the new bill is still not without some restriction.
The Oregon State Board of Education will be held to a new level of accountability in achieving performance goals in enrollment, student retention and degree completion, which the state will evaluate in conjunction with biennial funding requests.
“This ensures that we’re performing on par with the state to make sure we have a stable economy,” Saunders said.
SB 242 lays the foundation for the several other education reform measures proposed this year, including University President Richard Lariviere’s New Partnership and Governor John Kitzhaber’s Oregon Education Investment Board proposals. Both Lariviere and Kitzhaber have expressed continuous support for it.
“New Partnership proposals compliment — do not compete — with other ideas,” Lariviere said in a March letter written to Sen. Mark Hass, chair of the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee. “Indeed, taken together these proposals complement and strengthen the overall system of postsecondary education.”
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