Colleges Get Easy Test: Spend More Cash

By Suzanne Pardington, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Sep. 7–Flush with a $142 million two-year boost in state funding and a $151 million increase for construction, Oregon’s public universities are gearing up this fall to raise faculty salaries, improve student support and repair and expand campus buildings.

Legislators this year gave the university system a record amount of money, thanks to the state’s economic recovery. Educators say it’s the first step toward filling gaps at the state’s seven universities, but Oregon still has a long way to go to catch up to other states.

“It puts us on the right track, and it gives the campus hope that higher education may become more of a priority in this state,” said Lindsay Desrochers, Portland State University’s vice president for finance and administration.

The State Board of Higher Education meets today in Bend to divvy the money among campuses. The proposed $834 million operating budget includes:

At least $10 million for professor pay raises.

$6.9 million for about 35 more faculty positions to lower the student-faculty ratio.

$7.5 million to improve student retention and graduation rates.

The campuses are under pressure to show quick results, primarily by increasing the percentage of students who earn a degree within six years. Less than 60 percent of freshmen who entered the university system in fall 1999 graduated by 2005.

Each university must submit a plan for spending the retention and graduation money to the chancellor’s office and set improvement goals for the next six years. The schools that demonstrate success will be in line for future funding.

“The board feels like they are making an investment in campuses, and therefore they want to see a return,” said Jay Kenton, vice chancellor for finance and administration for the university system.

To that end, PSU plans to expand its faculty and professional advising, reach out to more community college students who are preparing to transfer, offer more courses on how to be successful in college and tie year-long theme-based freshman courses to dorms so students live and study together.

The goal is to give students the academic skills they need to succeed and help students feel more connected to the campus, said Dan Fortmiller, interim vice provost for student affairs.

The state’s universities also plan to spend $561 million on construction, repairs and overdue maintenance in the next two years, a 37 percent increase from the last biennium. The additional money will enable the campuses to renovate and repair some long-neglected buildings, such as $29 million in work on PSU’s Lincoln Hall, built in 1911.

The biggest change for students and families is likely to come in fall 2008, when the annual amount of state financial aid will double, increasing the average grant award and expanding the pool of eligible students.

Ryan Mann, a 20-year-old junior at Oregon State University who helped lobby the Legislature for more money for higher education, said the additional grant money will prevent some students from dropping out.

“There’s a lot of people who are right on that borderline,” he said. “A little bit of an increase (in cost) is enough to cause them not to be able to go anymore.”

When he starts classes in two weeks, however, Mann is not expecting much of a difference in his daily educational experience.

He had to take courses this summer to catch up on credits and get back on track to graduate in four years. One class, a public speaking course, is required for his communications minor but hard to get into during the regular school year, he said.

The addition of seven to 10 faculty positions at OSU is not likely to improve class sizes and availability much, said Mark McCambridge, OSU’s vice president for finance and administration.

“For each person we add, it does decrease the class size by a little bit,” he said. “If we do it 10 years in a row, it will change what our class sizes look like, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Likewise, faculty salaries will inch up but are likely to remain below those of comparable universities. In 2006-07, average faculty salaries at PSU, OSU and UO were 81 to 84 percent of other schools. Average faculty salaries at PSU ranged from $37,800 for an instructor to $83,000 for a professor. The numbers are slightly higher at OSU and UO.

The added money for faculty salaries is enough for an average raise of about 5 percent systemwide per year, but it will depend on tuition income, contract negotiations and how each campus distributes the money, Kenton said. Some money might be directed to high-profile professors who might otherwise leave.

“It’s not enough to get us anywhere soon,” said Gary Brodowicz, professor in PSU’s School of Community Health and president of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

“We’re still behind,” he said. “It’s a little light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s just a really, really long tunnel. I don’t see it making a serious dent in faculty salaries.”

The history department at OSU is down two faculty members and has made do with a steady supply of adjunct instructors, said Mina Carson, an associate professor and president of the Inter-Institutional Faculty Senate.

The additional money for hiring and raises will help, she said, but “we need to do this four more times to have the kind of parity with the average of our competitors that we want to achieve.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

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