A bill sponsored by Lane County Rep. Phil Barnhart that would have established a local governing board for the University in the upcoming academic year has been dropped as a proposal.
Instead, lawmakers are now backing House Bill 4061@@http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2012/HB4061/@@, a bill that would create a committee in the upcoming year that would analyze the issue of university governance for Portland State University and the University. This committee would be in charge of creating legislation for next year that would allow all of Oregon’s public institutions to establish independent boards if they want to. The committee would consist of four members of the Senate, four members of the House of Representatives, and two members appointed by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber from the Oregon Education Investment Board.
“What they have essentially said is that this is too short of a session to take on a complex piece of legislation like the Barnhart bill or any other that would enact a board immediately,” Interim University President Robert Berdahl said. “The committee will study how to get there with legislation in 2013 and I think this is a good step forward.”
The bill was voted to the floor on Tuesday along with amendments that were promoted by student group Students for Higher Education Excellence Now @@http://www.facebook.com/OregonSHEEN@@that strengthen the language of the bill. These amendments include a stricter timeline for the committee as well as different wording regarding the actual creation of governing boards.
On the opposite side, the Student Power Coalition, which is composed of members from the Oregon Student Association and the ASUO, attempted to pass amendments as well. These amendments were voted down by the Ways and Means Committee by a vote of 8-1.
“Last week, we saw the ASUO at the capitol pulling out all the stops to silence the conversation around local governing boards with their attempted amendment to HB 4061,” SHEEN coordinator Sam Dotters-Katz@@http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/14/politics/uwire/main4261446.shtml@@ said. “These amendments would have rendered the task force almost meaningless, and I am glad the committee voted them down.”
Dotters-Katz said he and the rest of SHEEN are behind any legislators willing to carry the torch on this issue, but a stronger alliance will need to be built in order to facilitate change.
“To pass a meaningful higher education governance reform package, we need to build a broader coalition, which includes at least PSU,” Dotters-Katz said.
ASUO spokesperson Andrew Rogers@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/executive.php?a=12#toc1109@@ said that the Student Power Coalition believes the issues that HB 4061 @@http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2012/HB4061/@@ deals with cannot be adequately addressed in a short legislative session. Rogers said that the Coalition will remain active in the discussion over the bill in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to keep following it and communicating with our representatives that the bill as it stands now is not what we think is best for students at the University of Oregon, and it’s not what we think is best for state of Oregon,” Rogers said.