What will Portland State look like next year in the face of potential double-digit budget cuts? President Wim Wiewel says that students will have to look hard to see the differences, but they will be there.
In preliminary budget projections released last week, departments revealed the subtle ways things will be changing next year. Expect one or two extra students in sometimes packed classrooms. Count on fewer courses offered. Bathrooms will be a little dirtier.
Wiewel explained that these projections are still subject to change. A number of factors, including the subsidy from the state and the actual tuition increase to be implemented in the fall, are not yet finalized.
“We are now moving forward with telling the faculty the cuts that are the best case,” Wiewel said. “At the same time we don’t want people to do more drastic things.”
In preparation for the final budget, which administrators expect to be released by July, the colleges and departments around campus were asked to create budget projections based on what the administration called the best-case scenario, which would require an average reduction of 7 percent across the board.
The 7 percent reduction is the university’s hope, but as Wiewel pointed out in his initial budget meetings in December, the university must also plan for the worst.
The worst case, which administrators say looks less likely as the Legislature progresses through the state budget, would almost double the amount of money cut from some departments, and significantly increase the amount cut from others.
Wiewel said this option is still on the table.
Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Sciences
Despite increasing enrollment in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, it potentially faces double the budget cuts of other schools are PSU because it is funded from two sources: through the general university funding and from a separate set of funds called E-Tech, said interim Dean Richard Knight.
E-Tech was established in 1998 to accelerate Oregon engineering college development. Unlike most of the colleges on campus, the MCECS also receives financial support from community members and private industry, but it’s not enough to cover expenses, Knight said.
Similar to other colleges, MCECS has a number of plans ready in case the state allocations don’t provide the best-case situation.
Back-up plans include reducing the breadth of courses offered, increasing class sizes and cutting some teaching assistant and graduate assistant positions.
One of the more extreme contingency plans includes capping enrollment in department programs, Knight said.
“An increase in tuition is inevitable, but hopefully we can find ways to increase aid and scholarships for students,” Knight said. “But the value of the education we offer is quite high, so I don’t believe that there is an imbalance between value and quality.”
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
CLAS has the largest enrollment of any college at Portland State, and the projected cuts will force the school to reduce the budget by a minimum of $1.53 million.
“The more likely scenario is these reductions and more,” said Dean Marvin Kaiser.
Kaiser said his departments are focused on eliminating vacant positions. He gave the example of a receptionist in his own office that decided to leave, and they chose not to rehire anyone for the position.
According to the budget proposal, other schools are taking similar measures by eliminating vacant positions, particularly within administrative or supportive roles.
Wiewel pointed out that within CLAS some class sections may be offered less often and class sizes may increase by one or two students, but overall the changes will not significantly impact the institution’s educational aspects.
“We are trying our best to be as efficient and as parsimonious as we can with any dollars that we spend—whether they are in the classroom, whether they are to support their work here as students,” Kaiser said.
School of Business Administration
Scott Dawson, the dean of the School of Business Administration, said his department has already had to eliminate a crucial student service.
The director of undergraduate career services position was terminated earlier this year, and Dawson was not pleased about having to do so.
“[The director] ran a mentor program, she did résumé seminars, mock interviews, did some one-on-one counseling, she ran a career fair,” Dawson said. “Some of that is just plain not going to happen. Some will be absorbed by the career center.”
Dawson did mention that many students access similar services through professional and student organizations, such as Beta Alpha Psi Epsilon Alpha Chapter, the accounting student group.
SBA has witnessed unfunded growth over the past few years, stretching the small budget even thinner, Dawson said.
To cope with this, the school was already planning on increasing the admission requirement to a 3.0 GPA to enter the college, and to require that students be admitted to the college before taking their 300-level business courses.
Graduate admission standards will increase as well, increasing to a G-MAT score of 650, instead of 615—the current average.
Buildings
“The buildings will be cleaned less often, the broken windows will take longer to get fixed, a bathroom might not be cleaned as often,” Wiewel said. “It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, but it’s not as immediate as the education.”
The Office of Facilities and Planning will take deep cuts, no matter how the budget ends up looking, Wiewel explained.
The administration has already begun cutting some of the janitorial positions, and the physical university itself may look a little dirtier come fall term, upon close examination, he said.
Classes
Wiewel said that most classes will still be offered regularly, but some classes won’t repeat two or three terms per year, and instead just run during one term.
“There will be some switching around, laying off adjuncts and offering some classes less frequently,” Wiewel said.
He expressed the dilemma with reducing the frequency and flexibility of classes given the large and unique student population at Portland State.
“A lot of our students have jobs, so it matters to have our classes flexible,” Wiewel said.
As for class size, Wiewel pointed to the obvious restrictions on potential increases, and said that most every class fills up the physical classroom already.
“No doubt the average class size will get bigger,” he said. “But the average class size will go up by one or two students.”
Tuition
It is certain, at this point, that tuition will increase by some amount, but that could be anywhere from 5¬–9 percent.
The tuition increase for resident undergraduate students cannot exceed double-digits, Wiewel said, but it may get near that percentage. The deficit in revenue from tuition may be pulled from other types of students, however.
“We may need to increase tuition a little more on the nonresidents and the graduate students,” he said.
A call to the state
Wiewel outlined what he calls the “Democrat model” and the “Republican model,” and asked for something in between.
The Democrat model, he said, was a large subsidy from the state coupled with a large amount of oversight and regulation.
The Republican model, he explained, was a small subsidy with very little oversight and regulation.
“What we’ve been moving to is Republican subsidies and Democratic regulation,” Wiewel said.
Wiewel’s ideal system would include a large—or Democrat model—subsidy with Republican-style oversight, but he said that combination is highly unlikely.
In the end, Wiewel said, “Most things will be remarkably the same.”