IFS meeting December 7, 2007

1-1:30 Mina overview of schedule for weekend. Reports tomorrow re board retreat that were held this weekend. Reports to come tomorrow.

Peter G. made Motion made re schedule for 2008, motion seconded.

Feb 8-9 UO

April 4-5 tentative at WOU or OHSU

June 6-7 EOU

Oct 3-4 SOU (Get reservations quickly – end of Shakespeare festival)

Dec 5-6 PSU

Discussion: Mina hesitation about WOU because State Board Meeting will be held in Portland. Motion passed.

Senator Richard Devlin (may be late) . Per Scott B. very knowledgeable about Higher Ed. He is savy about what is going on and we need to stay in contact with him in the future. Our message should be that we are concerned. PSU not close on contract even though we were supposed to be getting more money. Remind that the extra money is just the beginning. This biennium money is an investment strategy, not a completed project. We are trying to build something and need a reliable funding stream.

1:30 Report from WOU by Peter Gilkey. Things are positive at WOU. Faculty & staff searches in works after a long freeze. Projections for next fall’s enrollment are very strong. Because of that, there is talk of a new dormitory. OHSU is opening outlying campus at WOU.

PSU report – Interim President is very ill with Pneumonia. Contract negotiations are dragging on and on. Student recreation center going up but still a big hole in the ground. President search moving slowing. Lincoln Hall will be renovated but funds are very bare bones. Music & Theatre programs will move out of building for 2 years during the renovation. PSU has an initiative to add 9-10 positions for sustainability. PSU enrollment is up by 2%. Numerous problem because of the number of fixed term faculty. With this new full-time tenured faculty the problem will hopefully be reduced.

1:53 Senator Richard Devlin. 12^th years in legislature. House representative for Tuallitin and now in Senate. Chaired Ways & Means now Majority Leader of Senate. As we know we had pluses for higher ed. Mentioned PreK-20. Legistature increased funding for Headstart this biennium. Also did increase K-12 budget. Maybe not all that we wanted but still good. 1999 good budget, 2001 slight increase and then recession hit and legislature cut as much as they could from anywhere possible. 23% increase this biennium for Higher Ed. Extra money for enrollment and some funds specifically earmarked for regionals, faculty salaries and some OHSU programs (nursing & dentistry). Funded a substantial new and renovation of buildings, Lincoln Hall mentioned. OIT had one project that was not funded. Legislature did fund Community Colleges quite as much as Higher Ed. Governor and Sen. Devlin will be looking Quality Education Committee for Higher Ed, to determine what we need to sustain university services and what to grow. 2007 Opportunity Grants combined with Shared Responsibility Model. Needs based contribution program that includes calculation of all money that students can contribute including working and scholarships. Some bad news is that Higher Ed is just a vulnerable as we have been in the past. Medical for special needs, K-12 and public safety may receive more

2:09-2:49pm OHSU Pres. Joe Robertson. Welcome IFS members. President since Sept 2006. Still enjoying job. Came from Indiana in 1999. Having been a faculty he was a member of many committees but never IFS. OHSU Clinical enterprise supplements university operation. Some of clinical money does fund research. Can’t recruit without teaching. Now strategic planning going on at OHSU. OHSU Vision 2020 plan, what aspiration is for 2020. Want to be world leaders in improving health. Partnerships, collaboration are terms used in the plan. Intra- and Inter-institutional working together. Tram system is very “green” project. Tram is metaphor for the strategic plan. Tram is a bridge and the plan must be also. Stressing transparency in future as a public institution. Sometimes people do take only one piece of the data and can take it out of context. The recent article about a $50 million requirement for future funding was true but has since that time been almost completely found. Workforce issues. In 2001 was appointed as Interim Dean. He had to begin cutting faculty. There are shortages in all health care professions. Health care needed more because of more elderly population. Oregon is a net-importer of physician. Oregon trains only ½ of the physicians that are needed. As crisis increases the percentage will be worse. Bend can’t recruit the physicians that they need. New campus will stress teamwork by training different areas in same building.

Mina question – differences between faculty career and construction of work space. Are units entrepreneurial? Yes, the more successful areas are entrepreneurial. Faculty set their split of research teaching and

Duncan – mention of PSU & OHSU merging, wondered about comments. Sen. Devlin answered. Re the merger issue is that it would have been an interesting if it had happened before. They need to cooperate and work together but probably insufficient funds on the table to complete this.

Craig – Do you have to reform medical education to increase enrollment. Pres. Roberson – agreed but there must be some cap on the individual funding issued. Most individuals need medical funding in the last years of their life. OHSU may roll out of program last year of college simultaneously as first year of medical school. Increasing capacity by 2% can make a great difference. People are retiring earlier and working less hours. Taking time off more. Within the next 2 decades there will be more women in medical professions. This starts in middle school. Must get the students hooked by that time.

2:49 Senator Richard Devlin. Questions: As the % of state support decreases, the legislature wants to increase their say in the institutions. Perspective is probably different. Don’t want to turn public institutions into private like some states. So as long as the institutions are public, the involvement by the legislature will continue. We, in Oregon, are not producing the number of graduates with the skills that are needed. From 9^th grade on, for every 100 students in 9^th grade Oregon will graduate only 15 of those with a AA or BA/BS. Our population over 35 will have a higher education level than those under 35.

Clarified question, does the legislature know better than each institution individually. Sen. Devlin said that it was a management issue. Rather than the legislature dictating issues, they should be only giving outcomes. If we take entire Higher Ed budget, yes, the legislature provides 11% of funding but if you look at administrative costs, then the percentage is actually higher.

Issue of access versus quality. Increase enrollment and reduce faculty therefore increasing classroom sizes. We should approach this issue at the beginning. Invest more money along the entire continuum to bring students up to level and then more money at our level to continue to bring up to appropriate level.

As we prepare for the next session, what can we do? Identify where the legislature is dictating outcomes and method of accomplishing them. Stay in touch with local legislature. One issue coming up is the prevalence of part-time faculty. Legislature is becoming aware and concerned about that issue. What is the priority when there are limited resources. We need to help identify what issues are investments and what issues are just expenses. Higher Ed is such an investment and we need to stress that to Sen. Devlin’s colleagues.

3:20 PK-20, Karen Sprague (UO, OUS), Theresa Levy, & Bob Turner

Requesting specific help from IFS. Handout given to be shared with universities. Changes to HS Diploma. More English, Math, Science. New requirements called “Essential Skills” and “Standards and Assessments.” Lots of concurrence from members of the Essential Skills committee, all agreeing on the requirements (specific handout on Essential Skills passed out). How to measure the essential skills.

What kind of assessment would we find useful?

ü Automatic placement?

ü Automatic acceptance?

OUS board and Dept of Ed are interested in our input. GPA is not objective measure of proficiency, SAT is more objective measure. Statewide Math placement test. Students are graduating from HS with 4.0 GPA and yet test into lower level of Math at university level. Letter from Hal Sadofsky sent to State Board.

Consult with faculty who teach incoming freshmen. Bring back issues from them about the needed skills.

This discussion also relates to HS students taking advanced placement courses that are taught in such a manner that we have confidence in the level of course being taught.

We need a base line for what performance really is before we continue with the discussion. Some type of sample of students.

Timeline: Dept. of Ed is really making a change they understand that students don’t have the essential skills right now. The change must happen in 2012. SIM/CAM was not ever required so it was not effective. Students were required to test but not pass those tests.

It was brought up that a mathematically challenged student may not be able to receive a HS diploma if they do not pass an Algebra I course. There are variations in human development we may be setting the “norm” to high for some students are naturally slow (remedial level). We are not going to get every child to meet these guidelines. A single standard may be set too high and may not be universally acceptable so perhaps we should consider a double level.

Currently a HS 3.0 GPA really does not tell us anything. We should be willing to work toward this new system that will provide us with better information. Whatever the system, it must be “doable” by the school systems so resources must be made available. This was a problem with the SIM/CAM program.

Teachers are not always qualified to teach and even if trained in specific programs, they are not guaranteed that they will be able to teach the subject after that training. We are holding the students responsible for the lack of ability of the teachers.

There are some basic skills that are lacking in the students and those are the issues that the Essential Skills requirement may be addressing.

Specifically what the team wanted from IFS is for us to go to as many faculty (teaching incoming student) and get their reaction to essential skills but more importantly, how should the essential skills be measured. There will probably be multiple assessments. Ask that the faculty at the institutions then contact IFS representatives so that those reps can return in February to provide the feedback to the committee.

4:05 Mike Burton, PSU, Lincoln Commemoration.

National Abraham celebration Feb 12, 2009 celebration will take place 2008-2010. Lincoln rejected territorial governorship to Oregon and some other links to Lincoln. Wants to link each one of the OUS campuses create an event in 2008. The 150^th anniversary of the State of Oregon will be taking place in 2009 so we want this to be done in 2008 if at all possible. The Chancellor will give a $2,000 stipend for faculty or graduate assistance ship to plan an event. Other departments other than History are acceptable if institutions don’t have history departments.

4:15 Lesley Hallick, OHSU Provost

Handout given called OHSU 101, a PowerPoint slide show given to visitors. Since Joe talked about the health care shortage. She specifically talked about page 3 (slide 5) revenue structures for OHSU. Clinical revenue is largest percentage. Faculty is self-supporting. Dynamics on faculty can be very strong because funding comes from so many different sources.

Reiterated the fact that there will be a shortage in healthcare providers in the future. Robotics do allow OHSU to provide simulated treatment. Even students watching and not necessarily taking part are learning just as much as the student doing the simulated treatment. Main issue at OHSU is going to be capacity (Slide #38) and may add to the shortage problem. Slide 27 & 28 show the dramatic change in aging demographics and use of healthcare based on age.

Review the articulation agreement that was funded by the current legislative session. She explained the way that the program was structured for the community colleges and at the Regional OUS University institution. The regionals become the hubs for the community colleges as well.

Medicine is another area that was not funded by this legislature for a similar program to nursing. OHSU will continue to seeking support and funding for the program. She also described a conceptual program that would provide provisional acceptance to medical school which will save 1 year of tuition and get students through the pipeline more quickly. Providing the provisional acceptance may also stop students from applying to other medical programs once they know that they are accepted.

4:45 Chancellor George Persteiner

Annual Board retreat this weekend. What the board did today shows direction for future.

4 subcommittees turned into 6 full committees.

1. Relationship with state – constitutional amendment to include Higher Ed in funding amendment. Governor would like to have all education as constitutionally guaranteed. Will amendment deal with funding only or also with flexibility is one of the questions.

2. Second governance group that will look at relationship between OUS office and campuses.

3. Portland Committee – budget related. Initiatives with metropolitan issues. Who offers what courses.

4. Student Success Committee – Dalton Miller Jones, Chair. Cost is one issue for Higher Ed students but how do you serve underserved students. Relationship exists to K-12 schools. What we are being told by teachers is that what they do now is not what is required in the field. May need an exchange between teachers and faculty to update our curriculum to be more practical and fit the needs of the students. We are not educating students at secondary level, there are still many HS dropouts in Oregon.

5. Graduate education & research primarily Doctoral level – this is imperative for this state. When we go after money, we have to worry about the economy and you have to plant the seed. UO & OSU primarily (some for PSU). This is a different messaging from the past so it may take a few years.

6. Regional Campus Committee – to make them more successful in reaching and educating students in the rural parts of state and make them much more financially stable in the future. We cannot move money from the larger campuses to the small campuses just to keep them afloat. May have to work together with other regional. Support side on Administration level may be that one campus will serve as a service center for all of the regionals.

The Chancellor is cautious about budget as is Senator Devlin. Now in more of an economy is that the rate of growth has slowed. Not really a recession, yet. State does have a reserve. Don’t know what that portends for 2009-11. Other issues are what will happen to the population in the next few years. Healthcare costs will be a huge issue in the future. The state must determine it’s priorities in the future. Indicators are not good for 09-11 but not necessarily awful either. If consumer confidence continues strong, then things may be OK. If $ loses it importance on the world financial market and how long the war goes on are two other issues that may have an effect on the future. We are at the mercy of forces that we cannot control. We have to deal with getting our importance as Higher Ed to be more important than keeping taxes low.

Lee A. – China was discussed at the retreat and we have talked about Ireland. How do we convince students that Higher Ed is important?

Jeff J. – Comment by President of Board that Board cannot afford to support the regionals. We are a rural state and it does cost more to provide services statewide. If we cut funds and program we will be sending the message that students should go to the Willamette Valley if they want to get an education. Chancellor tries to remind the board that there are 2 functions of the OUS system, Education and Service to the community.

Mina C. – The board is not looking to close the regionals. They are just looking toward improving the system.

Further discussion entailed about the way that the board is working toward strengthening the institutions in each region to promote their individual strengths. We can’t be all things to all people. How do we collaborate more efficiently?

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