By: Rex Fuller President of Western Oregon University
The April 12 edition of the Western Journal included an article responding to an email I sent to faculty and staff about our next budget. I’d like to take this opportunity to provide students with some context and background.
First and most importantly, I want our objective to be clear that at Western Oregon University we aim to provide a transformative education for our students at an affordable price. As we work to achieve that goal, increasing tuition is always our last resort.
That brings me to my recent letter to Western’s faculty and staff. In it, I explained our current budget situation and the likelihood that the Legislature will not be able to provide the funding for the recommended budget all seven universities presented to the Higher Education Coordinating Committee in 2016. We are considering three areas in which to make up financial shortfalls: cutting budgets, tapping one-time reserve funds and raising tuition. In my next guest column, I will share more about these areas, this week my aim is to provide students with additional information about why we have a shortfall.
Some background, the Higher Education Coordinating Committee is responsible for distributing state funds to higher education. It is a complex funding system, so I’ll just paint a broad picture. Today, the state provides slightly over 22 percent of our budget while tuition accounts for nearly 70 percent.
To put that shift in context, consider this: in 2007, Oregon’s seven public universities received about $692 million from the Legislature.
10 years down the road, the 2017 number as proposed is $667 million. So Oregon universities are receiving millions less in support from the state at the same time that we are serving more students and mandatory costs related to operations have increased.
Ultimately, the way in which Oregon financially supports its public universities has changed significantly in the past decade, and money is much harder to come by. In 2016, Oregon ranked 37th nationwide in terms of financial support for public higher education, up from 45th in 2015. The question remains, is this a blip or will the legislature maintain their investment?
I invite all of our students to get involved in the fight against tuition increases. If you are an Oregon resident, please contact your legislative representative to voice your concerns.
Joining our voices can make a difference for Oregon higher education because together we succeed.
Contact the author at president@wou.edu
