No money. Yet, new academic programs and hires? Screw the students, eh :(

I used to be a contributor to the university's Foundation.  Yes, “used to be.”

Over the recent years, I have come to understand that the university has sharply deviated from a focus on the education and success of students and has, instead, pursued, and continues to pursue, a calculated strategy of treating the university as a business enterprise and is failing at that as well.

The clincher for me was in the summer of 2010 when I read in the Statesman Journal the following statement by the previous president:

Since moving from NAIA to NCAA Division II in 2000, Western Oregon University has been adjusting to the economic realities of competing at a higher level.  More money was needed for scholarships, travel and increased investment in facilities, such as the new Health and Wellness Center opening this year, that will relocate the football team from the Old PE Building on campus.

Occam’s Razor principle offers a different adjustment to the economic realities: put an end to the financial disaster that the NCAA Division II requirements cause, and return athletics to the ranks of the NAIA.  Such a practical response would have then precluded the multiple millions of taxpayer and student dollars that went into an expensive facility that is far more luxurious than most local gyms, and for which students are now mandated to pay a fee every term, whether or not they patronize it.

So, that summer, I decided to cancel my small monthly contribution to the university's advancement and, thereby, stop enabling such wasteful and unnecessary expenditures.

Since then the economic conditions have not significantly improved in the state and the country.  Against such a background, was a near simultaneous reporting in the local media about:

• The possible end to the tuition promise—because of the need to balance the university’s budget;
• The renegotiation of staff compensation, which included belt-tightening measures and furlough days; and
• A six percent salary increase over two years for faculty (including me)

Here again, I am struck by the contradictions. When economic conditions are unfavorable, and are expected to be so for a couple of more years at least, triggering the university to abandon the idea of holding tuition constant , I would think that there will not be money for faculty pay raises.  In an email to the campus, the president noted that "WOU will realize deficits this biennium in excess of $5 million. This is after removing $2 million of costs from the budget" and yet the investments in faculty and facilities for newly initiated undergraduate and graduate programs.

At the end of it all, it seems highly likely then that all these wasteful expenditures in athletics and academics alike will result in students facing significant increases in tuition and fees, yet again, in the coming years.

It is not that economic conditions worsened only a few months ago and that we have been caught unprepared—it is now four years of doldrums as a result of the Great Recession, on top of the trend of decreasing allocation from the state over the years.  I worry that the university is not being prudent, especially in its social contract with taxpayers, and students and their families.  Even more worrisome is the distinct possibility that all these are being played out at other universities too!

But, who cares for what I think, right?