State budget cuts leave students with higher costs

A new academic year has begun. But we continue with the same old issues of tuition increases and budget cuts at Oregon's universities.

Public university systems — in Oregon and elsewhere — reflect a notion that higher education is a public good and that citizens should not be deprived of an opportunity to gain higher education simply because of lack of money. The kind of money it would take to attend private universities like Harvard.

Harvard, the country's oldest university, charges about $52,000 a year for the annual tuition, fees and dormitory expenses. It might surprise more than a few readers that the university is managed by the Harvard Corporation, which is, according to the university, the "oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere." Yes, Harvard is the oldest multinational corporation!

But our public universities are not corporate entities. However, while it is a wonderful ideal that the sticker price of higher education should not prevent any Oregonian from pursuing knowledge, we ought to recognize that knowledge, like most things in life, has costs associated with it. Unfortunately, we do not have enough loose change in the state's coffers to pay for knowledge.

Thus, it is a no-brainer that when state governments decrease allocations for higher education, universities are then forced to suddenly increase tuition and fees — even if that were not in prior plans and even if it means disastrous public relations.

The lack of state funding has, therefore, resulted in the shifting of the cost burden onto students and families. No wonder that a typical graduate of the Oregon University System carries debts of more than $20,000.

Thus, if dramatic reductions in state funding are now making it more expensive for students to attend public universities, what happens then to the original notion to ensure that Oregonians do not walk away from higher education because of lack of money?

It appears that we are at the metaphorical fork in the road where decisions made could result in lowering the quality, or making higher education inaccessible, or both.

In no way do I mean to suggest that there is an easy way out of the conundrum. But I would prefer public discussions on our commitment to public higher education instead of relegating this to backroom budget negotiations at the Capitol.

In the current chaotic approach, we force universities and students to manage their ways through uncertainty when it comes to their respective budgets. In a recent research paper, Professors William Doyle (Vanderbilt University) and Jennifer Delaney (University of Wisconsin, Madison) conclude that "the costs of an increasingly volatile system, with unpredictable finances for institutions and unexpected tuition increases for students and families, are too great to continue to ignore."

Indeed! I suppose we can only take comfort in the news that Harvard, too, is having a tough time with the economic downturn. Its endowment has taken a huge hit and has lost $11 billion over the past year. The Harvard Corporation now manages an endowment of only $26 billion.

Wait a second, $26 billion?

For the Statesman Journal, October 4 2009