It’s been a bad year to be an empty-walleted college student.
Students found out during the last month that tuition is likely to swell by 12 percent this fall. For an in-state undergraduate taking 16 credits, that’s up from $5,079 this year to about $5,700 next year. Much of this is due to about $5 million in unanticipated cuts in funding; the failure of Measure 30 alone accounts for $1 million to $2 million in cuts.
But even if students are being squeezed by tuition and fee rates that far outpace inflation, some people are making life a little easier on the University community.
Philanthropists have announced more than $20 million in new donations to the University in recent months, and their timing couldn’t be better.
University President Dave Frohnmayer announced recently that a group of 15 donors — including alumni — have pledged $12 million, which will fund about 100 University scholarships annually. The Ann and Bill Swindells Charitable Trust of Portland alone is funding 32 scholarships.
The private Northern California-based HEDCO Foundation, an organization that helps fund social and educational initiatives, announced it was donating $10 million to pay for a new complex for the space-strapped College of Education.
The new facility, which is set to include some 100,000 square feet dedicated to teaching and research, is a welcome boon to a college whose often insufficient workspaces are spread across 21 locations. The college should also benefit from the project’s planned “teaching performance studio.”
Frohnmayer stressed that the University needs legislative support, too, to help build the new education complex.
“It’s imperative that this donation be matched by the state of Oregon,” he asserted.
While it’s unfortunate from a philosophical and political standpoint that the University must increasingly rely on private sponsors, students, administrators, faculty and staff should all nonetheless be grateful for generous acts like these that help the University better fulfill its mission statement of being a community “dedicated to the highest standards of academic inquiry, learning and service.”
William Swindells, of the Swindells trust, has the right idea:
“Oregon’s past includes a heritage rich in natural resources, but its future is in the knowledge economy, so we need educated citizens,” he said in a release.
The Emerald Editorial Board commends the generous efforts of the Swindells trust, the HEDCO Foundation and others, for their commitment to improving the quality of the University.