Officials objected to portions of a draft plan Friday that would chop as much as $80.9 million from the Oregon University System budget to accommodate a predicted state budget shortfall.
Gov. John Kitzhaber ordered all OUS schools to submit plans that detail how each would trim costs in 2 percent increments up to 10 percent to clear financial room for a projected $290 million state budget shortfall, which could grow larger if the economy follows a similar earthward trend. For the University, that means cutting anywhere from $3 million to $15 million from the school’s budget.
The draft plan, critiqued during Friday’s meeting of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, is the second segment of a two-part plan to reduce school budgets with specifically targeted cuts in administration, academic programs and non-academic programs.
Some members of the board, the governing body for Oregon’s seven public universities, said the draft plan did little to safeguard research and graduate student programs while affording too much protection to engineering and the new Oregon State University branch campus in Bend.
“Research is important on campuses,” Geraldine Richmond, a University chemistry professor and board member, said. “This (draft plan) sends a statement that the board values public services as much as research.”
Student board member Tim Young said research can generate substantial revenue with limited investment, and agreed with Richmond that research programs should be shielded at the cost of public services.
But the cuts, which could run as shallow as $16.2 million or as deep as $80.9 million, must be made somewhere, and there are many interests to represent, OUS Chancellor Joe Cox said.
“Research is clearly a revenue-generating activity that pays real dividends,” Cox said. “But if we move funds into research, they have to come from somewhere. And when you’re talking about large numbers, pretty soon you get into instruction.”
The board has said from the outset that the top priority in making reductions is to mitigate the impact those reductions could have on instruction and undergraduate programs. The draft plan armors those areas until cuts reach the 6 percent level, but leaves others, such as statewide public services, exposed at higher levels.
Hardest hit would be non-instructional programs like the OSU extension services, agriculture experiment stations and forestry research laboratories.
“Those would sustain a reduction of about 16 and 17 percent at higher levels,” OUS spokesman Bob Bruce said.
Cox said protections for all programs, including instruction, would erode with higher-level cuts. He said another route the board may consider is capping enrollment to shield the integrity of academic programs.
“I believe so strongly in access” that enables colleges to accept new students, Cox said. “But if it’s not access to quality, we haven’t done the right thing.”
Authors of the draft plan — vice presidents of finance and administration at each OUS school — will take board member suggestions and submit a revised proposal for evaluation at a Nov. 16 meeting in Portland. The plans will be finalized at the meeting and passed to Kitzhaber for review.