University of Oregon may be going private

Funds appropriated to U of O aren't likely to be dispersed among other public universities

By: Jeff Gale

Posted: 10/22/07

The word is out that the University of Oregon is looking at the possibility of leaving the Oregon University System.

Dave Frohnmayer, the president of the University of Oregon, was among a group of university presidents who gave mission presentations to the State Board of Higher Education.

University of Oregon's mission statement, to "serve the people of Oregon, the nation, and the world," inspired Frohnmayer to voice the lack of state funding given to the university.

In fact, only 13% of state funding goes to the University of Oregon - the least amount of per student funding of any Oregon university.

In his presentation to the State Board of Education, Frohnmayer outlined why the university should receive more funding than it currently does.

Phil Weiler, spokesperson for the U of O, said that "Frohnmayer gave two proposals in his presentation to the State Board of Education."

The second proposal was that in the absence of more funding, the University of Oregon would need a new system of governance in order to succeed.

"The University of Oregon is the Association of American Universities flagship institution of the OUS," Frohnmayer said.

The OUS is responsible for funding U of O's mission statement or allowing the university to form a new governance.

The proposed system of governance would allow the University of Oregon to find new sources of funding - which it cannot do as a state institution.

University of Oregon would not be the first college in the state to make such a move.

Oregon Health Sciences University became a public corporation in 1995.

Upon its creation, OHSU separated itself from the Oregon State System of Education.

Governance of the university passed from the Board of Higher Education to the OHSU Board of Directors, whose members are nominated by the governor and approved by the Oregon Senate.

The University of Oregon is likely to follow the same formula if it indeed becomes a public corporation.

The move would give the University of Oregon more flexibility with tuition prices. It would give the school the option to increase or decrease tuition however it saw fit. Currently it is restricted to a maximum of a 3 percent increase per year.

The advantage to this new system is that the university will be able to borrow money, making expansion much easier with less red tape.

The university will lose state funding either in part or in its entirety, but the school may receive transitional funding while it undergoes transformation from public to private.

If the University of Oregon were to transform into a public corporation, the move would not result in more funds for the rest of Oregon's public universities.

"Currently the interest gained on all tuition received is retained by the State of Oregon and can be used in any manner by the state," said Diane Saunders, director of communications for the OUS.

A public corporation would allow the University of Oregon to keep the interest earned on the tuition collected and therefore could be put back into the university itself in the form of grants, more student groups, and more.