Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced Friday that he will temporarily take over as State Board of Higher Education president in the wake of former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s resignation from the board Thursday.
Goldschmidt’s resignation as the board’s president and his subsequent admission to a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl nearly 30 years ago left the board without its top leader, prompting the governor to take action.
“Because this is one of my most important initiatives, I will take over the leadership of the Board of Higher Education,” Kulongoski said in a statement.
Goldschmidt, the former mayor of Portland and a University graduate, was appointed to the board in January with the hope that he would spearhead Kulongoski’s plan to overhaul Oregon’s higher
education system.
Kulongoski will lead the board as a nonvoting, ex officio member during the search for a new president over coming weeks.
“As I said when I reformed the Board of Higher Education last year, the board must reconnect postsecondary education to its statewide mission: access, excellence, targeted investments and reinvestment by the state,” he said in the statement. “That is my mission and I intend to lead the Board in that direction.”
Kulongoski spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said the governor is looking for
potential candidates from both inside and outside the board, but most importantly the candidate should be somebody who can handle the time commitment and will “see it through.”
“We’ll look at a whole bunch of prominent people,” she said.
In the meantime, the board continued with its regular meeting at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande last week, which included a discussion about the impacts of Measure 30’s failure on the Oregon University System.
Goldschmidt’s resignation was one unexpected topic added to the agenda. According to an OUS press release, Board Vice President Geri Richmond expressed sadness over the resignation, but added that she is thankful the other board members share the Governor’s commitment to overhaul postsecondary education in the state.
“This board has incredible momentum and energy, and a change in leadership will not slow this group down,” she said in the release.
University of Oregon administrators attending the board meeting briefly discussed plans to take a hit of approximately $1.5 million as a result of Measure 30’s failure.
The University is proposing $800,000 in cuts to administrative areas and $900,000 in cuts to instructional support over the biennium, according to the board’s meeting docket.
The instructional reductions will result in the loss of about 16 instructional positions that each teach seven to nine course sections, according to the board’s meeting docket.
Associate Vice President for Budget and Finance Frances Dyke said it is too early to say which positions will be eliminated, and that the discussion is ongoing among deans and department heads who will make the final decisions.
“Unfortunately, with the current financial circumstances it is not possible to absorb all the necessary reductions without some impact on the instructional program,” she said.
She said, as it is, some departments lack the funds to hire outside faculty to cover classes normally taught by faculty on sabbatical. She added that students have been doubled up in some class sections, and some searches for new faculty have already been put on hold.
Vice President for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt said the $800,000 in cuts to administrative areas is “the best figure we have now.” She said the cuts will not be distributed until the beginning of fall term, when each area’s needs can be better evaluated.
“I’ve asked all my units to try and save money,” she said.
Leavitt said she oversees eight units that receive funds from the University’s general fund, including the Office of Student Life, the Office of Student Financial Aid and the Office of Admissions.
She said last year when the University faced state budget cuts, each unit took a 3 percent cut, which Leavitt said seemed to be the fairest method.
“What student service do you want to abandon?” she said. “Not any of them.”