Oregon’s public universities and community colleges are set to get a bump in state funding compared to the last biennium.
But leaders in the higher education realm say the increase is still far from what’s needed to keep institutions financially stable and to meet evolving student needs.
“The budget that’s being proposed and likely to be adopted will effectively be a reduction in resources available to [institutions],” said Kevin Neely, interim executive director of the Oregon Council of Presidents. The group represents the state’s seven public universities.
“The result will either be a tuition increase or a reduction in services,” Neely said.
Nearly half of the $3.9 billion higher education budget in Senate Bill 5525 is specifically set aside for Oregon’s higher education institutions. The schools lean on state funding to help pay for basic operational costs, like the salaries and benefits of faculty and staff as well as instructional expenses.
Public universities are getting $1.1 billion through the Public University Support Fund, a slight increase from the 2023-2025 biennium. Lawmakers OK’d more than $854 million for Oregon’s 17 community colleges, a nearly 7% increase in funding from the previous two years.
The budget also restores funding for benefit navigator positions at all of the state’s public higher education institutions. These staff positions were created by lawmakers in 2021 to help connect college students to various aid programs, such as housing assistance, food stamps and mental health services.
Legislators in Salem notably left out investments highlighted in Gov. Tina Kotek’s recommended budget. That includes a $26 million request to expand training pathways for the state’s behavioral health workforce. Addressing Oregon’s behavioral health care crisis is among the governor’s top priorities.
The governor’s office also sought an additional $29 million to grow state financial student aid programs like the Oregon Opportunity Grant and Oregon Tribal Student Grant. That boost was abandoned but the bill does fund these two grant programs at $329 million and $26 million, respectively.
Current-service-level budget
The funds in the higher education bill represents what lawmakers call a current-service-level, or CSL, budget. The CSL budget is an estimate of what universities and colleges will need to function at baseline in the next biennium: keep the lights on, pay staff and faculty, and operate student programs and services.
But higher education advocates throughout the state say this estimation is off by a long shot, saying they need hundreds of millions more to adequately serve all Oregon students and higher ed workers.
The Oregon Community College Association lobbied for an additional $120 million for colleges. OCCA Deputy Director John Wykoff acknowledged the state’s lackluster revenue forecast has made the legislature’s job difficult.
“Legislators were faced with a pretty challenging fiscal budget which, in turn, meant that the community colleges got a fairly challenging budget allocation. That will create additional challenges for our students,” Wykoff said. “At that budget level, we can’t maintain all our current services, programming or student support.”
Groups representing Oregon’s colleges and universities have been calling on the state legislature to invest more in higher education since late last year. They say current funding levels aren’t keeping pace with increasing personnel costs and the need for more wraparound student services.
And advocates warn cutting back on higher education will hurt Oregon’s economy, which is increasingly relying on a workforce that has obtained a postsecondary degree or credential.
Financial uncertainty under Trump administration
Higher education has historically not been a major priority in the state legislature. And during times of economic uncertainty this sector is often the first to see funds slashed.
Further complicating institutions’ budgets is the financial anxiety caused by the Trump administration. Federal agencies have been following directives signed by the president that aim to claw back billions of dollars in research grants and other federal funding from universities and colleges.
The federal Reconciliation Bill making its way through Congress also includes proposals to reduce eligibility for the Pell Grant, the federal government’s largest form of student financial aid.
Schools are already bracing. The University of Oregon is expecting a $25 to $30 million budget shortfall next year due to declining enrollment, rising workforce costs and federal pressures.
“It’s really hard to predict what is going to happen. We know that there’s a lot of risk,” Neely said. “But the budget that’s being contemplated by the Oregon legislature is just a straight current service level budget. It doesn’t anticipate the types of cuts that could occur on both the research and student aid side.”
Oregon’s higher education funding bill passed the Senate on June 16 and it is expected to sail through the House for approval early next week. The legislative session is scheduled to conclude on June 30.
Even though the end is in sight, university and college advocates are still hopeful lawmakers will push through some additional funding for college students in the legislature’s omnibus funding bill.
A coalition that includes OCOP, OCCA, the Oregon Education Association and others is urging legislators to provide an additional $25 million for the Oregon Opportunity Grant and $6 million for student basic needs resources in the end-of-session bill.