OPB Radio’s Think Out Loud visited Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom Wednesday night, hosting four Oregon university presidents to discuss the condition of Oregon’s higher education, to be aired next week.
Wim Wiewel of PSU, David Frohnmayer of the University of Oregon, Ed Ray of Oregon State University and Dixie Lund of Eastern Oregon University spoke and addressed issues put forth by program hosts Emily Harris and David Miller, as well as members of the audience.
The first hour of the two-hour taping focused upon the financial concerns felt by Oregon universities during the recent economic hardships that have fallen on people across the country. Aside from national economic woes, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s state budget proposal for next year only included a 5 percent increase in education funding.
Some see Kulongoski’s assessment of education funding as worrisome, and is still under the operating costs of Oregon’s universities.
“We all need to remind ourselves that even during the most difficult times, we need to invest in the future,” said Ray. “And there is no better way to do that than with young people who will have to compete nationally and internationally.”
The second hour of the program centered on whether students are getting the quality education for which they are paying and often going into debt for.
“I think it’s going to make a lot of students have to go part time while the job market is really hard,” said Kyle Cady, vice president of the Associated Students of Portland State University, who spoke during the taped broadcast.
“The cuts are not going to restrict access. It’s going to be your advising, your counseling, all the resources that make your college experience well,” Cady said. “PSU, out of the three major universities, always seems to get the short end of the stick, and hasn’t seen the money they need for the growth they have seen over the years.”
The evening concluded with a short statement from each president about their experiences with higher education from his or her own college years. A moment that gained laughter was when PSU president Wim Wiewel made a joke about his college years in Amsterdam.
“I remember, we had a public demonstration in 1969 in Amsterdam when the state raised the cost of education from $14 to $20,” Wiewel said. “So, I am very sympathetic to the strain of education costs.”