The 2000-2001 academic year has seen its share of controversial issues at the University. The debates have ranged from a tuition hike that could go as high as 5 percent, to the diversity of students and faculty at the University, to the battle between how sports and academics can co-exist on campus in an equitable manner.
Anne Leavitt, associate vice president of Student Affairs, as well as dean of students, and Philip Romero, dean of the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, recently sat down with the Emerald and gave their opinions on the these and other topics.
Question: What were some of the goals you had in mind for the University this year, and do you feel they were achieved?
Anne Leavitt: One is to focus student affairs around the concept of a residential campus. We have only 17 percent of our students living with us, but we have over 17,000 students coming to school here. The facilities and programs I work with in housing, the Rec Center, in the EMU, student life, counseling and health have these units thinking about life outside of class. I think we’ve partially achieved this, and I think we’re more purposeful in what we’re doing. But the campus after 5 p.m. still doesn’t feel as exciting and compelling as I want it to be.
Philip Romero: The University’s 125th anniversary will occur next year. This will be a vital opportunity to expand our connections throughout Oregon, and to reconnect with distant alumni and friends. The Lundquist College of Business’s main goals for next year are: Complete fundraising for, and break ground on, our new Lillis Business Complex; complete the strategic planning process begun in 2001, including tasks identified during our recent successful reaccreditation; play a leading role in expanding the University’s exposure in the Portland area; plan a major development campaign to raise scholarship and faculty support funds; and expand our Master’s of Accounting and MBA enrollments.
Q: For the first time in four years, the University is facing a tuition increase. Are you concerned about this and how do you feel it could affect the University?
AL: I am concerned about this probably on about three or four dimensions. My first and most immediate concern is for the continuing student who has come to this University with one set of tuition rates and will now face a possible increase in those. Any change in tuition will be phased in at the start of the year, but it is still like sticker shock; you don’t see it coming at times. We also have some generous donors who are putting money into scholarships these days in ways we haven’t experienced before. But [the concern is] you have got to get the scholarship money into the hands of students who need it. My third concern is sensitivity in pricing to the non-resident student. I think if the non-resident tuition went up much, it could reduce the amount who come to school here. For residents, we are still what people call a very affordable place to go to school.
PR: [Gov. John Kitzhaber’s] budget called for an unacceptably large increase in tuition to make up for forecast shortfalls in revenues. I believe that some tuition increase is unavoidable, but it should be in the range of a few percent, not over 10 percent. I also believe, however, that there are inequities on what different colleges in the Oregon University System are allowed to charge, with many limited at charges well below cost. That undercuts the intent of the state’s funding model, which is supposed to encourage colleges to seek more students by saving them better. This is vitiated if a college loses money on every student.
Q: There has been a focus on diversity this year at the campus. Do you believe the University does a good job in this area, and what can we do to ensure students and faculty are a diverse group in the future?
AL: The most important consideration I have around diversity is focusing on never being complacent. The greatest anxiety I would have about feeling we do a good job is that we never thought we could divert our attention and not focus on it. When we talk about diversity, we talk about international students, students of color, students with different geographic origins and students with different sexual orientations. You need to be pretty vigilant and proactive in these areas. I think we have to stay on a high level of diversity. I think our students, both incoming and returning, very much pick the University because we honor and speak about diversity.
PR: The University’s leadership is completely sincere and committed to increasing diversity. I came from the most ethnically diverse state in the nation, California, but I find the climate at the University inclusive and tolerant. Much of each dean’s council retreats have been devoted to diversity discussions. And [University] President [Dave] Frohnmayer has made a significant commitment to the proposed interdisciplinary center. In my opinion, our challenge is even greater for faculty than for students.
Q: Are you concerned with the ever-growing importance of sports in higher education, and the funding that reflects that?
AL: I see today’s incoming student as very orientated toward fitness and participation. And a large number of our students are interested in playing sports on the club sports level or the intramural level. So often in the conversation about athletics and academics is the juxtaposition of the big sports, which would be men’s football, men’s, and to a growing amount, women’s basketball juxtaposed with academics and it’s described in terms of where the discretionary dollars are going. And many people who are worried about the interplay between athletics and academics are worried about the erosion of dollars away from learning and to these big money sports. And that would worry me as well if it drained the dollars available for the academy. But those in the business of advancement tell me that the first dollar from a sports fan is often to athletics. But the second dollar and the third dollar is quite possible coming to our academic mission. So if athletics coaxes in a donor dollar that then is distributed toward academics then there is some value even in the big money sports in terms of the contribution it is making to the University as a whole.
PR: Athletics does not detract from the University’s academic mission, it adds to it. First, athletic challenges discipline many of our students and foster leadership skills. Second, many University friends and alumni know the University first through athletics, but then deepen their relationship into academic programs. However, in my opinion these benefits do not justify a perpetual subsidy, which occurs at many universities, so I am happy that the University leadership is committed to ending the athletic financial deficit.
Q: What are some of the things the University needs to do to ensure a successful future?
AL: I think we need to believe in ourselves. I think we need to tell our story to incoming students and their families, to the legislature, to our graduates and to the residents of Oregon about what it is the University of Oregon is doing that changes peoples’ lives. The lives of the students who are here, the lives of the families that they come from and the communities that they are going off to live and work within are what we need to become much more articulate, purposeful and demonstrative about what a difference in the quality of community life and education can make. And I think we need to be extremely nimble and resourceful and strategic about our dollars because the state dollars are not going around very well for education. Individuals getting ready to come to school today don’t have lifetime family savings to give to higher education.
PR: The most important thi
ng the University needs to do is to secure a sizable continued revenue stream to backfill the huge reductions in state funding that have occurred over the past dozen years. This can occur by renewing the Legislature’s commitment to higher education, which is the key priority for Oregon’s business community, or by expanding the University’s endowment very significantly.