Portland State Magazine Winter 2011

1 I Universities call for system restructuring Oregon's public universities are asking the state for more control over their finances and future. WRITTEN BY SUZANNE PARDINGTON WHEN ENROLLMENT hit a record high of nearly 29,000 students this fall at Portland State, tl1e University needed more faculty, classes, and support services to educate diem all. No problem, right? Just use tuition to pay for it. Not so fasr. Scare lawmakers are allowed to take rhe University's tuition revenue and give it co prisons and other srate agencies instead. Thar's exactly what happened two years ago, when rhe Oregon Legislature swept about $33 million in ruirion and otlier funds from the Oregon University System to help close a state budget gap. The risk of such an unexpected state sweep of University money is one of the many drawbacks of PSU's status as a scare agency. As state resources dwindle and demand for higher education increases, leaders of Oregon's public universities, including PSU President Wim Wiewel, say it is rime for change. "To have our students-who them– selves are hardly wealthy-be die ones who wind up giving the state subsidies, that is ridiculous and unfair," Wiewel says. "We need to keep our students' tuition money at PSU." All seven presidents of Oregon's public universities have joined the Oregon State Board of Higher Education this year in pushing state lawmakers to restructure the university system, giving campuses more control over their finances and their future. University leaders say the change would enable chem to stretch tuition revenue, control costs, and better educate more students at a critical time of economic uncertainty and global competition. OV ER THE PAST two decades, the state has steadily shifted more respon– sibility for funding its universities from the state ro students and their families in the form of tuition and fees. At PSU, the state's share of total support dropped from 35 percent in 1994-95 to 16 percent in 2009-10. In die san1e time period, tuition and mandatory fees rose from 31 percent to 39 percent of total revenue. As a result, Oregon is among the states spending the least amount per student for higher education (44tl1 in the nation in 2008) and among those with the highest level of state control. "We're saying, 'Things are pretty bad, so let's cry something different,"' says George Pernsreiner, chancellor of the Oregon University System (OUS). "How can we most effectively muster rhe resources we do have to be effective and raise the education level in Oregon?" One an wer, Pernsteiner says, is to free the university system from its ratus as a stare agency and the rules that come witli ir. Under the proposal, OUS would receive srate funding in die san1e way as community colleges and public schools: in a lump sum contingent on annual per– formance targets and progress reports co tl1e Legislature-oversight char presently is not required of the university system. The new structure would hold the universities more accountable for how well they educate students, Pernsteiner says. Bur some student leaders have reservations about rhe proposed change. Katie Markey, president of rhe Associ– ated Students of PSU, says students understand rhe need for restructuring, but they are worried the change will result in big tuition hikes. "When students are paying most of the cost, they should have a say in how much tliey pay," Markey says. Oregon University System officials understand chose concerns. Pernsreiner says srudenrs would have more input on ruirion rares under rhe new proposal, because they would serve on new campus-level review committees. The Scare Board of Higher Education would continue co sec tuition, and rhe Legisla– ture could continue to ask for limits. Still, students want more derails about how the system will work, Markey says. "They talk about access and afford– ability, bur they don't define it," she says. "You need co make sure mat everyone in Oregon can get a college education, and chat's our biggest focus."