Fresh off the primary elections that set the stage for a race for governor between Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber and Republican candidate Chris Dudley, students may be wondering how the emergent gubernatorial candidates might affect higher education policy and operations at the University.
Though November’s general election is considered a long way off, it gives students plenty of time to examine the platforms of the candidates attempting to commandeer the highest office in the state. It also gives the opportunity for other candidates looking to run for gubernatorial office, such as the Progressive Party’s Jerry Wilson, to speak out on the issue of higher education.
On his campaign Web site, Republican nominee Dudley pledges to transform the community college and university system in Oregon “by unshackling them from the outdated regulations that unnecessarily increase costs and limit innovation and accountability of individual institutions.”
Dudley’s plan also calls for the reversal of several decades of retreat from investment in higher education. In his primary election victory speech, Dudley associated investing in education with job creation and preparedness in a healthy economy.
Kitzhaber and Oregon Democrats stake much of their political livelihood on education, and the party’s newly nominated gubernatorial candidate made a point of mentioning higher education as a central piece of his campaign push for the governor’s office.
His education plan asks for a transition of the state role in colleges and universities from “owner/regulator to a major investor.”
“The idea here is that the universities ought to have more flexibility,” Kitzhaber’s policy director, Scott Nelson, said in reference to private investors taking a larger share of the public university system. “For instance, when you are in a recession, school enrollment shoots sky high. The university system should have the flexibility to hire adjunct professors if they need to … That said, the public university should remain a public resource.”
The shrinking share of state capital in the public university system that Kitzhaber’s plan addresses isn’t a trend unique to Oregon.
In a document released several weeks ago, University President Richard Lariviere proposed a new relationship between state funding of the University by forming a public endowment that would be matched with private investment that would be worth about $1.6 billion.
Lariviere wrote in his white paper, which details the funding plan, “As a result of this (funding) paradox, state policies have been adopted across the United States that have fundamentally restructured public higher education systems as states and their public institutions negotiate a new balance of autonomy and accountability.”
Kitzhaber’s campaign declined to take a stance on Lariviere’s proposal, saying the campaign hadn’t yet familiarized itself with Lariviere’s lofty plan.
“From my understanding, the state only has so much bond capacity,” Nelson said, “but anything that comes from a university president is worth discussing.”
Nelson also spoke for Kitzhaber’s plan to make college credits in Oregon transferable across all public community colleges and universities. He did not believe this would require a legislative fix, but leadership to coordinate the institutions involved.
The Dudley campaign did not respond to phone calls or e-mails to comment on its candidate’s higher education platform.
Though most of the media spotlight focuses on Kitzhaber and Dudley, Progressive Party candidate Wilson wants to address higher education in the context of financial collapse in the country.
“Frankly, I think everybody should just hit the library,” Wilson said, “All practical or useful education could be learned much less expensively.”
Wilson anticipates that higher education institutions will undergo massive changes in the next 10 years. He said the university system had failed to deliver effective leaders, which he says undermines the credibility of their current plight to contain costs.
“This country has been led by graduates of Ivy League colleges — supposedly the best colleges in the world — and look where they’ve led us,” Wilson said. “Those guys couldn’t run a … lemonade stand.”
Despite his disenchantment with universities, Wilson said he would implement the proposals of David Pearce Snyder, strategic forecaster and lifestyles editor of The Futurist magazine, who calls for drastic technological investment in American schools, from kindergarten to post-secondary institutions.
Wilson said he is attempting to get the endorsement of the Independent Party in Oregon to compete in the general election, and potentially debate, against major party candidates Kitzhaber and Dudley.
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