Oregon’s higher education is in trouble.
As jobless rates continue to increase across Oregon, the state faces a projected $1.3 billion budget shortfall for the 2003-05 biennium, a deficit that could leave public colleges and universities grossly underfunded.
State legislators have drafted Senate Bill 437, part of the Higher Education Efficiency Act, as a means of cushioning cuts to education. However, many University students, including ASUO President Rachel Pilliod, say Senate Bill 437 would cause more harm than good.
Senate Bill 437 includes wording that could grant each of the seven public colleges and universities within the Oregon University System autonomy from state legislative rule. Each university president could ultimately end up with the control to set pay scales for faculty, tuition for students and run the school as he or she saw fit without having to answer to a separate state agency.
Pilliod traveled to the State Capitol on Monday to testify against the bill, joining representatives from Western Oregon University and Oregon State University in saying accountability should remain with the state legislature, not with OUS or individual universities within the system.
Currently, each university in OUS works within the system. OUS answers to the state legislature on funding and other issues, and the State Board of Higher Education is appointed by, and therefore ultimately controlled by, Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Under this system, if students or faculty members have a problem with how the school is being run or how money is being spent, they can appeal to the Legislature for an intervention. If the Legislature fails to act, the grievance could be taken all the way to the governor.
If Senate Bill 437 passes without amendment, however, OUS could hand over many powers to the individual schools. Then, theoretically, a grievance could only be taken to the president of the school — in the University’s case, President Dave Frohnmayer — where it could either be addressed or dismissed. That could be the final appeal, although the wording is murky, and an OUS fact sheet states the system could still be responsible to the state board.
According to a letter signed by Frohnmayer and the other six university presidents in OUS, Oregon universities — in order to maintain the status quo — need: greater flexibility to increase and use nonstate revenues, the ability to operate more efficiently and the ability to increase entrepreneurial activity. These needs form the basis of Senate Bill 437.
The letter said the current economic problems surrounding higher education may cause the system to fail. The presidents added that this failure would inevitably lead to a loss of access and would be “measured in course and program reductions, increased time to degree for students, and to decreased enrollment.”
OUS spokeswoman Di Saunders said only 17 percent of University funding comes from the state and now, more than ever, all OUS universities “rely heavily on tuition revenues, grants and contracts, and private donors to support their campuses.” The gap in state funding is one of the primary motivators behind the bill and has left University Senior Vice President and Provost John Mosely eager for reform.
Mosely said the implementation of Senate Bill 437 would provide some additional revenue for the University, mostly through interest gained from student tuition. He said this slight increase, coupled with a more efficient system, would help ensure students had access to higher education, something that is threatened should the measure fail.
“The state ought to back off and let the University handle their own business,” Mosely said.