The Oregon Student Association board of directors voted unanimously last Saturday to combat the University’s New Partnership, arguing that excluding public officials from the school’s governance process threatens its accountability to the state.
The New Partnership, fashioned last May by University President Richard Lariviere, asks for the establishment of a University governing board separate from the state, in addition to the creation of a massive $1.6 billion endowment initiated with state-backed bonds and sustained through private donations. OSA, a statewide advocacy non-profit organization established in 1975 to represent the collective interest of Oregon college students, opposes the new plan’s novel and drastic governance reform, which would create a local oversight board beyond the State Board of Higher Education’s control.
The OSA board of directors, comprising student body presidents from all seven Oregon public universities and representatives from several community colleges, contended last Saturday that the state’s bond money would not necessarily ensure lower University tuition rates. In addition, the board expressed uneasiness in regards to the New Partnership’s investing state endowment money in an unsure open financial market.
“The state of Oregon cannot afford placing a risky bet like this, especially when it does nothing to guarantee an affordable college education for Oregon students,” OSA Board Chairperson Mario Parker-Milligan said.
Since the localized governing board would comprise unelected members, OSA members worry that the University could be cast into the role of a public corporation, which could gravely increase attendance costs at whim without state-mandated tuition caps.
“There has been no mention of a tuition cap process in (Lariviere’s) plan,” said ASUO President Amelie Rousseau, who was present at the OSA meeting. “Legislators are accountable to voters, and they know students can’t afford tuition increases.”
Rousseau and her fellow representatives have yet to voice support or opposition of the other two higher education reform bills currently being considered by the state legislature in the recently convened session. One of the bills was penned by the State Board of Higher Education and the other by a Legislative Higher Education Working Group led by state Sen. Mark Hass and Rep. Tobias Read . Both pieces of legislation are devoid of calls for the creation of endowments, and dictate continued state control of higher education by allocating money annually into universities’ general funds.
“Both of these plans have a more holistic view of higher education reform,” Rousseau said. “(The University’s) plan just isn’t going to be in Oregon’s long-term best interests. That is very obvious.”
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