Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey said Oregon is poised to rank 46th in the nation for public university funding under the Legislature's proposed budget.
“What we have to do as an institution is say, 'How do we bridge the gap before they wake up and decide that higher-ed needs to be a priority?'" he said. "And what we can't do is just sit back and hope that it's going to come, because it's clearly not coming in the next two years.”
Like other public universities in Oregon, SOU is facing significant budget cuts. Bailey said the university needs to trim $5 million from next year’s budget, which he said was still a compromise.
“At the end of that work, we would end up with a fund balance that is right at 2.5%, which basically gives us nine days of operation, which is insufficient.”
The university previously faced a multimillion-dollar deficit a couple of years ago. But despite a smaller gap this time, Bailey said it’ll be a lot harder, likely involving more involuntary layoffs.
Trustee Hala Schepmann, an SOU chemistry professor, was concerned that cutting more faculty could make the university too unattractive for students and become a death spiral.
"It takes an entire community to get those students across the stage," Schepmann said. "But at some point, you cut so much that you actually can't overcome these budget imbalances if you can't draw on the students, and you can't keep those students."
For the last two years, SOU has raised tuition by just under 5% for most students. But Bailey said the current higher education market is too competitive to risk a higher increase than that, because it could push prospective students elsewhere.
Bailey has just a month to present a draft financial plan to the board. He said he’s going to look at anything and everything the university can do to cut spending and increase revenues.
