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Bdavies - I want to be perfectly clear that I'm not suggesting that the LaGrande campus (or any of the other regional campuses) be closed.  My idea is that mergers would involve efficiencies and growth opportunities for all of the campuses.  I certainly am not in a position to come up with numerical projections, but there ought to be some administrative efficiencies from a merger or alliance.  There are other ways to get these efficiencies - there's been a lot of talk about all of the regional universities outsourcing basic business services to a single shared business center.  But I think the merger model could be superior because it would give the regionals the very valuable brand names of the big three and could pave the way for more significant collaboration.

What is there to gain?  I think the goal is to increase enrollment at all of the regionals.  What if it were painless - as easy as normally registering for classes - for a student at OSU-Corvallis to spend a year, or even just a term, at OSU-LaGrande?  For an engineering student at PSU to spend a couple quarters in Klamath Falls with their renewable energy program?  The reality is that the big three are starting to approach capacity limitations in various respects.  UO is extremely short on housing, so they have already started a partnership with SOU where students get admitted to UO, do their first two years in Ashland, then finish in Eugene.  Why not go all the way and make SOU into the University of Oregon - Ashland campus and make it just as easy for any students to go back and forth?  Maybe it could get to the point where even professors on occaision go back and forth.  I think the opportunities from working together could be really amazing and could give the regionals what they need (enrollment and a more valuable brand) and the big three what they increasingly need (capacity, efficiencies in the system).  For example, why should both WOU and OSU have separate education colleges with separate programs, administrations, etc.  (Now our education college is moving to Bend, but if it weren't, it seems like there would be opportunities for efficiencies and synergies there.) 

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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That sounds good - except that the reason we are not following the RAM model is that the regional universities would not survive if we did.  Your suggestion would mean the regionals would be eliminated.  I suspect that is a political non starter. I think it would better serve the state if we found a way to make the regionals more successful.  I tend to think that some sort of merger or alliance between the regionals and the big three (UO and SOU since they are both liberal arts, OSU and EOU since both have an ag focus, PSU and OIT since both have a sustainability/engineering focus, OSU and WOU because they are geographically close) and making it easy for students to go back and forth between campuses would be worth exploring.  But there is no question that the State of Oregon is not matching its ambitions for our higher education system (and the education level of Oregonians) with the funding necessary to make it happen.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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I read Mr. von Schlegell's letter and I agreed with many of the points he made.  There is too much micromanagement of our universities from the legislature, and the OUS board should have more authority and independence.  I do think board members should continue to be appointed by the Governor, as ultimately they need to be accountable to the public.

But the major problem facing our universities is funding.  We cannot continue to provide a quality higher education for Oregonians when funding levels are among the lowest per capita of all of the states, especially if we want to continue to operate institutions throughout the state, provide expensive majors, such as engineering, that are critical to the state's economic growth, and bring more Oregonians into the system.  As is stands, my generation (20s) is on track to be less educated than my parents generation.  This is not happening in other advanced, industrial democracies, and it is a threat to our future standard of living.

Here's my fianancing reform idea: it's called "One Dollar for Higher Education."  Let's use an initiative or legislative referral to ask the voters to establish a $1 property tax for universities. (In comparison, the property tax for K-12 education is $5 per thousand of assessed value).  That would generate about $500 million per biennium.  The general fund would be required to at least match every dollar raised, so that would provide the university system with a minimum $1 billion per biennium budget, substantially higher than the current $800 million per biennium.  And because property taxes are relatively stable and grow about 4-5% a year, this would provide our universities with a guaranteed, stable minimum budget that could ensure quality and expand the system to reach more Oregonians.  We should sell it as an investment in the future of our state, and hopefully it would be something that business and labor, republicans and democrats could support.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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I'm not sure how you get 10 layers of management. First, students don't have managers (we are the customer). If the main, individual contributor at a university is a Professor, here is what I see as the layers: Professor reports to Dept. Chair, who reports to Dean of the College, who reports to the Provost, who reports to the President of the University, who reports to the OUS Chancellor, who is hired by the state board of higher education (which is appointed by the governor). That looks like six layers of management to me. Certainly, there are many administrative employees who do not teach or do research, but that is because universities are large, complex organizations with lots of accounting, maintenance, grant administration, and other work that needs to be done.

I also think your metric of the governor's salary is quite unrealistic. Oregon's governor is paid about $93,000 a year. While that is well more than the median family income, it is low compared to other state governors and extremely low compared to jobs of that level of responsibility. If we offered less than $93k for the person we want to preside over our state's largest universities, I don't think we would get very qualified people because those folks are going to be offered much higher salaries by other campuses. I'm not saying that Oregon needs to be the high price leader - we don't and we aren't - but we can't expect to underbid the market by that much and have competent people running the university. And believe me, the results of incompentent leadership are far more costly than what we are currently paying our university leaders.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I can't speak on the first two items, but the recreation center you mention is paid for by student fees, and Portland State students voted to raise fees for that project, not school officials. Some people, and I take it you are one of them, believe that recreation centers are an extravagance. I disagree. Given the public health crisis that is obesity and the sedentary lifestyle of many Americans, it is vital that students are given the oportunity to establish healthful behaviors, and exercise is one of those. I go to Oregon State and the rec center here is heavily utilized; I suspect the one at PSU will be as well.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I would like to correct some misinformation from one of the earlier participants. Oregon does not have any oil refineries; gasoline and diesel purchased in Oregon comes from refineries in the Seattle area and the San Francisco Bay Area, and is transported to Oregon via pipeline (from Seattle) or ship (from California). There are two locations for terminals (facilities that store gasoline/diesel and load trucks) one in Portland (Willbridge/Linnton) the other in Eugene. So, gasoline in Medford or Bend or K Falls has to be trucked a long way. All of these add to the cost of gasoline in Oregon.

So, some might ask, why is gasoline so much more expensive in California? Because CA has a special blend of gasoline that is designed to fight its smog problem. This is both more expensive to manufacture and makes it so supply is more limited - refineries producing gasoline for outside of California cannot send gasoline to California to help with supply issues.

I also want to address another wrong statement that was made, that the tax incdience of the gas tax only falls on the oil companies. In plain language, the claim that was made is that any increase or decrease in the gas tax would be felt by the oil companies, not consumers. This is just as false as people saying that consumers pay the entire gas tax. The gax tax is split between consumers and producers. The split is determined by what economists call the "elasticity of demand." I'm not the best person to explain it, but the gist of it is that an increase in the gasoline tax will result in consumers paying part and oil companies paying part.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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