Since the passage of measures 5 and 47 in the 90s, the University has gone though very difficult financial times. Cuts have been taken across the University, some deep - we lost departments and an entire school - all painful. Throughout these repeated financial body blows, the University tried to protect most of its instructional core. It has taken 10 years to recover from the monsoons caused by Measure 5 and 47 cutbacks, and just when those black clouds start to dissipate, with the re-appearance of rising enrollments, discretionary funds, and improved faculty salaries, wham! We get smacked with huge cuts that threaten the University's health once again. No wonder Provost Moseley always wears an instantly inflatable, fiscal flak jacket under his well pressed shirt.

The near constant fiscal dissection of the body academic in Oregon has caused real pain to real people - to students, colleagues, and the public at large. Although its rarely mentioned, the U of O has been negatively affected: our national rankings in many fields have declined, the number of GTFs has dropped, and we are seeing significant increases in class sizes. These are not good omens. How many appendages have to be amputated before the body academic becomes paraplegic or worse? To be fair we have won a few battles. Yet we're losing the war.

But what exactly is this ``war"? The war is not the perennial budgetary battles in Salem but larger in scope and meaning. This war I'm referring to is to convince the citizens of Oregon that education is the key to a better future.

It is a war because of the enlarging gap between the intellectual haves and have nots in our society. The ``have nots" are afraid - afraid of not getting their piece of the American dream, of working harder and earning less, of not making a better life for their children. In bitterness and fear, these intellectual ``have nots" are attacking the entire academic enterprise. This anti-intellectual backlash is growing as the routines of daily life become more technological and complex. Those who would benefit most from education are increasingly fearful. One consequence is that the ``have nots" begun to be against funding education in general and higher ed in particular. Such a response is not surprising considering that 80% of the Oregon electorate has never attended an institution of higher education.

The anti-intellectualists have joined forces with the anti-tax brigade to put a stranglehold on not just higher ed but the entire educational continuum in Oregon from kindergarten through graduate school, K-20. The fallout from the zero-taxists and anti-intellectualists is currently most visible in our public schools, which are crumbling under the weight of red ink. Provost Moseley has more than once proclaimed that the average class size of the UO is smaller than that of South Eugene HS. This statement makes me want to cry as I see our 4J school system, arguable one of the state's best, disintegrate before my eyes. Given these negative changes, why are we so surprised that 22% of Oregon's students don't finish high school?

Whose telling students, parents and the general public about the importance of a quality education? That a quality education is the foundation for higher earnings, longer lifespans, a healthier and more fulfilling life? It isn't our state legislators who are more worried about re-election than funding education or anything else. It isn't the professional education lobby - incredulously, the lobbyist for the Oregon Associated Faculties is also the beer and tobacco industry lobbyist and helped kill the recent legislative effort to fund education through increases in ``sin" taxes. And it is not our state and local public leaders, who pay lip service to education but don't produce the goods, as amply demonstrated by Mike Kellman's graph. A well known state education leader (not from the UO) recently said that higher education is important because it reduces the chances of going to prison. Now there's a positive reason to go to school, eh? And the first public sound bite from our new OUS chancellor on Friday was not about academic quality but that our Univ. Presidents must find federal and private funding to fill the gaps caused by chronic state underfunding. Five minutes in office and already passing the buck. Even those of you who aren't jewish know how to say ``oy vey".

The state has broken its covenant with its citizens to provide a quality K-20 education. Sadly, we in education must share the blame. We have not done a good enough job of articulating the values and benefits of education to the state's populace. And by ``we" I don't mean our able UO administrators and government affairs people, who have been tirelessly pushing this rock uphill on their own for years. It's got to be all of us - students, staff, faculty, administrators & alumni - promoting education in the short, intermediate and long terms.

The solution to the short term problem - how to keep the financial sky from falling on higher ed - is simple and obvious: Contact your legislators. All of them. Now. And again next month. And a third time during next year's budget season. Play hard ball. Tell them that your vote is dependent upon finding funds to reverse the erosion of higher ed. Remind them that the recovery from Measures 5 and 47 took 10 long years and we remain way behind other states. Contact the various campus and state faculty organizations including the Univ. Senate on campus, the Oregon Chapter of the AAUP, the Associated Oregon Faculties and the Interinstitutional Faculty Senate. Pressure all these groups to act on your behalf. As individuals we lobby all the time for the things in life we cherish -cleaner rivers, responsible growth, better health care, save this, protect that - but we leave the lobbying for education to the so-called professionals. Time for that to change. If you are a student, lobby the ASUO and its parent organization in Portland. Practice blasphemy -- consider a tuition increase. A 3% tuition increase is $100/yr for in-state students. That's $11/month or $0.36/day for the academic year. That increase may help moderate the severe cuts this campus is currently facing. Tuition increase not palatable? How much is a premium education worth? LCC students recently insisted on a 25% tuition increase rather than eliminate classes. Think about it - you can pay a little more now, or a lot more for the rest of your life.

In the intermediate term we must elect pro-education local and state candidates for public office. All candidates are for education but few are willing to make hard decisions. Insist that candidates explain their plan. Don't vote for someone without a solution to the education crisis.

Lobbying and electing pro-education candidates are a good start but the real challenge is to affect long term change. We have to reverse the current fashionable notion that higher ed is just another state agency fighting for funds with other state agencies. Better exit ramps vs poorer schools? Please. To reverse this attitude, I suggest we do an end run around the governor, legislators and local elected officials, and appeal directly to the grass roots - to the public, who are genuinely worried about the future of their children's education. The current issue in K-12 is not access but quality, and it is rapidly emerging as a major statewide issue in the November election. We in higher ed must not sit on the sidelines during this state wide conversation on academic quality. But what to do?

Make a presentation at a local public school. Speak to a local civic or retirement group. Invite grade schoolers to your lab or office. Write an op-ed piece to the papers. Play in a music group. Mentor a middle schooler. Lead an field trip. Volunteer anywhere. Take someone else's son or daughter to work. Tell all your relatives and friends what you really do and why it is interesting. You get the picture. The University of Oregon is all of you -- fantastic people with enormous energy, thoughtful insight and outstanding life skills. Yet, most outsiders think of us as pointy headed, functionally useless dinosaurs who need help dressing in the morning. The best demonstration of the power of education is us Ð the students, faculty, staff and alumni of the U of O. I humbly suggest that we each spend a very modest 3 hours/yr sharing our knowledge and expertise with the community. 3 hrs/yr (only 29.67 sec/day) X 22,000+ students and staff is a heck of an outreach program. And public outreach is exactly what is needed to convince our citizens that quality higher education is worthy of state support. It will pay long term dividends for our state's most precious economic commodity, our children. Don't sit idly by on this one. I humbly suggest that on this issue we should follow the University's 125th Anniversary motto and ``make a difference".

Nathan Tublitz
Institute of Neuroscience
University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403
Phone: 1-541-346-4510 FAX: 1-541-346-4548