An audit released Tuesday by the Secretary of State may indicate that Oregon universities are not efficiently allocating money and resources, which University administrators dismiss as inaccurate.@@http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/05/oregon_university_system_lacks.html@@
“There is a perception that higher education in Oregon is too expensive relative to the average income of Oregonians,” James Bean, University senior vice president and provost, said of what may have provoked the audit.@@http://provost.uoregon.edu/@@
The investigation focused on all universities within the Oregon University System to determine how $373 million awarded in 2010 for faculty and graduate assistant salaries was spent. It found, among other things, that universities did not have adequate systems in place to measure the workload of faculty relative to how much they were being paid.@@http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/05/oregon_university_system_lacks.html@@
Time and effort put into a course or research project varies across disciplines, Bean said. A graduate assistant in the music school, for example, might spend more time working one-on-one with a student than one in the business school, but their compensation might still be the same.
“Some of the things they came up with are good ideas, and we’ll find ways to refine our practices,” Bean said, explaining that the University plans to do a better job monitoring faculty workload to ensure that salaries are appropriate.
OUS has taken a similar stance.
“The OUS joint audit committee has decided to take no action,” Sona Andrews, OUS vice chancellor for academic strategies, said, adding that while the committee will consider the recommendations, there were holes in the investigation.@@http://www.ous.edu/about/andrewsbio@@
“The audit report did not capture the range of what faculty do, and there was little acknowledgment of the efficiencies that OUS has already gained,” Andrews said. “If you look at combined amount of money, Oregon is still one of the most efficient in the country.”
Andrews noted that Oregon’s universities are graduating more students than they were 10 years ago, and its research institutions are 48th in the nation in cost it takes to produce a graduate — meaning they spend less than the majority of states.
“It’s really hard to calculate what faculty do,” Andrews said. “The audit was getting at counting hours faculty spent — it doesn’t work that way.”