At an all-campus forum on Tuesday, the university administration continued to discuss the possibility of the Oregon University System being restructured. Currently, the OUS faces budget cuts, tuition increases and a lack of state funding.
About 150 people attended the forum—though few were students—at which the administration stressed that the progressive cusp upon which the OUS once rode must return to the forefront, and that new solutions need to be created to address the future.
Though Oregon boasted one of the best higher education systems in the world in 1968, according to Chancellor George Pernsteiner, the chief executive of the OUS, its current relationship with the state is degrading.
During the forum, Pernsteiner outlined the general decline of the OUS and addressed many of the problems and challenges that exist within its relationship with the state.
Though funding from the state has been in decline over the years, tuition rates have continued to rise, according to PSU President Wim Wiewel.
“When those two lines cross, that is when a university goes from public to private,” he said. “We crossed that line 10 years ago.”
With only 16 percent of PSU’s funding coming from the state, PSU faces serious problems in the near future. Tuition and fees will continue to increase, as they have over the years. Currently, full-time, in-state students pay $6,400 per year, whereas only 20 years ago they were paying $1,540. Also, students are paying for two-thirds of tuition while the state only pays for one-third, according to Lindsay Desrochers, president for finance and administration at PSU.
According to Pernsteiner and Desrochers, the university student has become a “customer” student. With the increase in tuition, students who attend PSU must have the financial means to do so.
“The problem in Oregon is that the upper middle class and above have the capability to pay for college,” Pernsteiner said. “That leaves out the lower classes.”
In order for students from all socio-economic backgrounds to be able to attend PSU, Pernsteiner said that the reformation of the OUS would have to occur.
Given the OUS’ current trajectory, budget cuts are likely to occur and tuition will continue to rise if its relationship with the state is not changed, according to Desrochers.
After the presentations, Wiewel’s seven restructuring ad hoc committees held a Q-and-A forum regarding what a possible restructure could mean for PSU. Each committee stated its purpose, but the consensus was that PSU needed a change for students, faculty and staff.