Student leaders said that a new proposal in front of the Oregon Legislature will permit individual schools within the Oregon University System to raise tuition up to three percent more than they are currently allowed.
The amendment, in front of the Senate Budget and Finance committee, would allow individual OUS schools to raise tuition expenditures from the current 3 percent to 6 percent at each university’s discretion.
University officials following the budget deliberations said the amendment would not immediately raise tuition.
“This is not a tuition increase. It allows (universities) the flexibility to increase revenue as they require,” said Michael Redding, University director of governmental affairs. “However, it doesn’t say the universities would use it.”
Joelle Lester, executive director of the Oregon Student Association, said the senate committee did not act on the amendment Wednesday but could pick it up today. The legislature completed its third day of the second special session to find a solution to the state’s $846 million budget deficit.
Lester said the amendment was “introduced with the idea of raising tuition,” and she vowed to fight possible hikes.
“We don’t even want the possibility of a tuition increase,” she said. “Students are already paying more and getting less.”
A spokesman for Gov. John Kitzhaber’s office said the governor has not publicly sided on the issue of a possible tuition increase.
ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn said she was disturbed to hear about the proposal from the Senate floor and not from Oregon universities.
“The method of communication completely eclipses students from the process,” she said.
Redding said that each university would make the decision for an increase based on merits of state funding and academic standards.
While Oregon universities laud the low cost of higher education in the state, legislators have passed two tuition increases in the last two years. During the beginning of the 2001-02 academic year, students paid 4 percent more in tuition. Students will also pay another 3 percent more at the beginning of the 2002-03 academic year.
Currently, in-state students at the University pay $1,054 in tuition per term. Out of state students pay $4,828 per term.
Redding added that the tuition debate should happen during a larger debate about state funding in general. Gov. John Kitzhaber and different caucuses in the legislature have published competing budget deficit plans. Most of those plans consistently cut OUS funding by $48 million, which include $8 million in cuts to the University.