University President Dave Frohnmayer said Friday that he anticipates an $880,000 cut to the University’s budget as a result of Measure 30’s failure even if the Oregon University System Chancellor’s Office absorbs half of the overall impact.
At the State Board of Higher Education meeting in the EMU Ballroom, Frohnmayer said tuition surcharges will not be implemented for winter and spring terms of 2004. However, courses or course sections will likely be cut next year. He said the cuts could be about $1.8 million if the Chancellor’s Office doesn’t split the overall $7.5 million cut to higher education.
“Obviously we don’t want to hurt the quality of the students’ education,” he said. “And we don’t want a midterm surcharge. That doesn’t leave us with a lot of options.”
He said it is difficult to anticipate impacts on next year’s tuition rates given that the budget is not yet finalized.
“Next year, we’ll look at tuition, but there’s been no decision at all even as to what we’d recommend to the board,” he said, adding that no other University programs should be affected.

The meeting was the first full board meeting since its new members were appointed, including former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. Other OUS presidents and OUS Chancellor Richard Jarvis also attended the meeting in which the impact of Measure 30 was a key issue of discussion.
The Chancellor’s Office has been under review for the past couple of weeks to determine where extra costs can be eliminated. Although the decision to split the $7.5 million has not been set in stone, Jarvis said campuses need a starting point in determining how to manage cuts.
“We’re trying to give the campuses a planning model to work with,” he said, adding that the full brunt of the measure’s failure was originally set to fall solely on campuses and undergraduate education specifically.
He said the important thing is the proposed ’50-50 split’ should prevent tuition increases for this year.
Jarvis said sharing half the burden means nearly 20 percent of the office’s annual $10 million general fund budget would be cut each year for the next two years.
“You’re left with 80 percent; you do fewer things,” he said. “I would have to reduce my workforce by 20 percent.”
The review of the office, which employs about 125 people, will determine which of its functions campuses can take. The office provides internal auditing, institutional research and technology services, among others, according to its Web site.
Goldschmidt, the board’s president, said it is unlikely that downsizing the Chancellor’s Office would ultimately have an effect on University students because the University provides many of its own functions.
“Almost anything that affects a student, it’s provided here on the campus,” he said, adding that the office provides more services for smaller universities, such as data processing and finance services.
If the tentative plan to split the $7.5 million falls through, Frohnmayer said it is even more difficult to determine where the cuts will fall.
“We really haven’t formulated exactly how we’re going to do it because it’s a moving target,” he said. “I think we’re just going to have to absorb it as best we can, while protecting the instructional core of the University.”
He said more specific plans should be developed before the May 1 deadline for final cut proposals to be submitted to Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services.