Submitted by Elaine Deutschman substituting for Gary Tiedeman
Academic Council "met" via speaker phone because of fall-term
opening schedules. Topics of interest to faculty included:
Cascade campus opening: the formal grand-opening was postponed/cancelled
because of the WTC attacks; debate continues on whether to spend more money
on such an event or to have a simpler dedication at some later time. Tim
White detailed figures on fall enrollment: 230 FTE (the goal is 250), 370
student headcount, 873 student credit hours. Courses are being offered
by EOU, UO, OSU, Linfield and OHSU. The search for a Cascades campus CEO
is underway; 4 finalists are expected on campus the first weekend in November.
Insurance/liability for students in off-campus experiences: OUS is investigating
insurance (health, accident and liability) for students in externships,
internships, practica etc. Sites offering these experiences are expecting
OUS to cover these students as they definitely donÕt want to. Having
no such insurance reduces the ability to place students. Some students
can join professional associations and utilize insurance through those
organizations but many cannot. The spotty nature of such coverage contributes
to the problems OUS faces in finding an encompassing solution. Costs and
plans are now being compared.
Fall high school visitations: The annual fall high school visitation program
begins next Monday and ends in November. Two teams, traveling the entire
state, expect to talk with 18,000 prospective students. This program gets
very high marks from high school counselors who note it may be the only
time students in their schools can talk with folks from colleges and universities.
Economic matters (woes): Grattan Kerans noted the economic forecast of
revenue for the biennium is down $212M and anticipations are the December
forecast will show a further decline. Tobacco settlement money will cover
only a portion of the shortfall. A special session of the legislature is
expected in late winter, after the March forecast is available, at which
the budget will be rebalanced; the outcome will probably be budget reversions.
Tuition for the 2002-2003 school year may be impacted if there are budget
reversions
The EOU and SOU capital building projects are in trouble as they are to
be funded by selling lottery bonds. However, the lottery is being sued
under the same premises as the term-limits case now before the Supreme
Court, so bond underwriters will not go forward with the sale. The CourtÕs
ruling in the term limits case will probably be a clue as to how the lottery
case will go.
The E-board (an arm of the legislature) has excoriated the system over
the energy resource fee being charged students starting this fall. KeransÕ
opinion is the Board cannot rationally question the fee but are offended
by the procedure used to impose it the fee was discussed and passed at
the same OUS Board meeting without adequate notice or publicity. OSA and
students at OSU are complaining about the fee and are asking the OUS Board
to drop the fee beginning winter quarter. Kerans feels the offended E-BoardÕs
reaction is clearly symbolic they were not in the loop for the decision.
He further surmised that OUS has lost the battle and must find a graceful
way of doing without the fee. The problem is a $12M increase in energy
costs that must be covered by conservation and increased fees.
Bruce Sheppard (soon to be ex-provost at EOU) responded to the effect that
the legislature is demagoguing after 30 years of underfunding higher ed.
A second provost noted that students have voted to increase student fees
by an amount considerably more than the energy fee. Kerans noted that if
one fee (energy resource) is explored, then perhaps all student fees should
students may not want to open that can of worms . At UO, students have
been asked to come up with a plan to reduce energy use; if energy costs
are reduced by a certain amount, the university will do away with the fee
winter term.
Sarah Hopkins-Powell (SOU) wondered about the impact of the OPEU settlement
and the expected faculty salary increases resulting therefrom on tuition.
Shirley Clark noted that raising tuition isnÕt a new approach as
the University of Minnesota is raising tuition 13% in each of the next
two years and expects to raise faculty salaries by 5% each of those years.
Tuition increases loom.
Board plans for next legislative session: Grattan Kerans reported the OUS
Board is planning to take a simple, basic two-pronged funding plan for
OUS to the legislature. One prong is a capital renewal (read maintenance)
piece and the other prong will be enrollment funding. The Board is engaged
in focused discussion of the capital renewal portion and plans to submit
a substantial request to the legislature.