Proposed cuts to Gov. Kulongoski’s budget for higher education could force the Oregon University System to raise tuition 18 percent during the next two years. More than one hundred students plan to show their opposition to the proposed budget cuts and give public testimony at the State Capitol this afternoon and tomorrow.
“Gov. Kulongoski submitted a really favorable budget for higher education, the most favorable in a long time,” said Madeline Wigen, a student from the University of Oregon who will testify today. “The Ways and Means Subcommittee (on Education) trimmed the budget to what they thought was an acceptable level, and there are a lot of students who don’t feel that it is an acceptable level.”
Students converging from all over the state will give public testimony to the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education in Salem today. A two-person co-chair cut the Governor’s original budget proposal from $875 million to $840 million. They also reduced the Governor’s proposed funding for capital construction by 85 percent, from $325 million down to $50 million.
Enrollment at Oregon Universities had plateaued, and in the fall of 2006 they saw resident enrollment drop 1.2 percent, the first time enrollment has dropped in more than 10 years, according to a report prepared by the Oregon Student Association (OSA).
Over the past six years tuition has increased on average of $1,734 at Oregon universities and the report states the raising tuition forces students to make a life decision of whether they can afford to stay in college.
With rising tuition, students on remission scholarships are forced to pay the difference between their original scholarship amount and the new tuition amount.
“I wanted to stay a fifth year to double major in Spanish, and if tuition goes up 18 percent that will significantly impact my ability to make up the difference,” said Jen Lleras, a junior majoring in Ethnic Studies. “I won’t be able to stay the extra year to get the double major.”
Oregon students graduate with an average debt of $19,420 and of the university students surveyed in the OSA study, 67 percent reported being in debt.
The 85 percent reduction to the capital construction fund will dramatically affect areas such as building maintenance, the construction of new buildings and updating science labs.
Student’s rallying in Salem today will give testimony in opposition of the co-chair’s proposed budget cuts and to support House Bill 2198.
Student tuition is sent to a special checking account to accrue interest and that interest is sent to the State’s General Fund. HB 2198 allows the State Treasurer to invest that money, approximately $19 million, in the Department of Higher Education instead of in the General Fund.
HB 2198 passed the House Revenue Committee on Mar. 15 and now has been referred to the Ways and Means Committee.
The proposed budget cuts will also slash student services funding across the university system. Since 2004 the University has already cut $324,444 from student services, including the Career Center, the Office of Student Life, the Counseling Center, the student union and the Office of International Programs. The prospect of even less funding has some students worried about the future of other student services programs.
“ASPIRE (Access to Student assistance Programs in Reach of Everyone) is being zero-funded to make up for other budget cuts,” said Lleras, who is also testifying on behalf of the Oregon Students of Color Coalition today. “It helps one of Oregon’s fastest growing populations, under-represented students, and right now we’re losing some of Oregon’s best and brightest because they are losing funding.”
ASPIRE pairs high school students with volunteer mentors to help them apply for financial aid and college and provides other tools to help them reach higher education. Students of color, low-income students, first-generation and rural students have been brought to Oregon’s colleges through the help of the ASPIRE program.
“The Co-chairs’ budget spells disaster for Oregon’s university students,” said OSA Board Vice Chair and Portland State University Student Body President Courtney Morse in a press release. “How many more students would opt out of a degree? How many more would struggle through college only find themselves buried under a mountain of student loan debt? Students from across the state will be asking members of the Ways and Means Committee to restore the investment that the Governor made in us.”
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