Subject: iifs: OUS Board Meeting 3/22/03
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 09:48:42 -0800

From: "William Danley" danley@sou.edu

Friends,

I have some fairly depressing news to pass on in regard to funding. May I first say that nothing we are experiencing compares to the reality of war, and I wish to send my support to any of you who may have family members in the military, and my heart goes out to those on both sides who stand in harm's way through no fault of their own.

In an early Friday morning meeting, I met with Chancellor Jarvis, Board President Lussier, OUS vice President Leslie Lehmann, Student Association Representative Rachel Pelliod, and Student Association Executive Director John Wycoff before the OUS Board meeting.

Basically the message to us was that the Joint Ways and Means Committee has asked the Board to present options of further cuts of 2,4,6,8, and 10% from the Governor's previous budget. It is apparent that the 4% level will be the minimum cut because of the "rainy day fund" of 4%, and likely we will face 8 or 10% cuts at the April 1 session of Ways and Means, 2003. The Board and Chancellor wanted the faculty and students to know in advance that this was happening. We discussed some options, but an extensive analysis of options was to be presented at the Board Meeting later in the morning.

At the Board meeting, very specific options at each of the levels of cuts were presented, and programs were prioritized (which cuts would come first, which programs would be least affected). I will send a detailed report soon (after grades are in Monday), or you can read the minutes on the OUS web site when they are prepared.

The bottom line is, as Peter Gilkey reported from the Academic Council, we are looking at a maximum 72% funding level instead of 80% (it could be much worse), and moving to 90% over four biennia (8 years) instead of two. The reality is that we may go even lower than 72% if the legislature does not take immediate action. Obviously, we are talking about the very real possibility of a reduction in enrollment at these levels, the reduction of programs offered, and a reduction in faculty. Tuition will increase dramatically in any forseeable circumstance, the exact amount of which will depend on the individual institution and the amount of the cut recommended by Ways and Means from the Governor's budget.

The OUS Board has recommended some 55 priority items for preservation with the proposed cuts. Topping the "preservation" list are undergraduate education, graduate education, and small school funding, followed by research and engineering programs, but each of these will still take hits in each scenario. For example, if a 2% cut is declared, UG and Grad ed. will take a proportional 2% cut, but programs like the fee remission program, collaborative programs, and partnerships will be reduced by 50%, 64%, and 100% respectively. As the cuts get worse, as they almost certainly will, more programs become involved and the cuts get deeper.

To give you an idea of how bad it could get, at the 10% level we would be looking at funding 35.1% below our peer median funding. This would probably put Oregon squarely at the bottom of funding across the country; if one takes into account changes in our peer institution funding in the last year or so, our position deteriorates even further according to Tom Anderes, the Vice Chancellor for finance, because other states are not cutting as much as we are.

Our IFS meeting in Salem will be critical, because we will be seeing the legislators just before the important April 1 Ways and Means meeting where OUS must present their priorities and reduction options.

I also met Friday with Grattan Kerans, and he is preparing some talking points for us which I will pass on to you immediately so you can prepare some remarks for your legislators. Any of you who has local legislators on the Ways and Means Committee are urged to make appointments now.

The students are hoping for more aid programs and more shared governance instead of stopping the tuition increases.

Details on all of this will come next week.

Sorry for messing up your spring break, but wanted to get you the gist of this information as soon as possible.

Bill