Colleagues,
I hope you had a chance to see President Percy's message today about the upcoming town hall where we will have a chance to learn about and discuss the university's current budget situation. There have been several recent opportunities to gather information about the budget, including the presentations at this week's Faculty Senate meeting and at the most recent Board of Trustees meeting. You may also have seen an article in OPB.
Those presentations summarized correctly that enrollment has been declining steadily at PSU over the past decade, a pattern that is anticipated to continue for the next five years. The result has been a parallel decrease in the university's General Fund revenue, again, a pattern that is expected to continue through the next five years. These impacts have been exacerbated by the pandemic, as many of our students have lost the jobs that supported them going to college, have been mobilizing for racial justice, have cared for families, and have been challenged by remote learning.
I want to assure you that the University is doing everything possible to address these challenges. For example, we have lobbied for revisions to Oregon's Student Success and Completion funding model in ways that recognize PSU's important role in serving low-income and diverse students. We also continue to advocate for increased funding for universities in federal COVID-relief packages in the state legislature.
While we continue to look at ways to reduce expenses across the university. In just one instance, the recent decision to relocate units from the University Center Building into the proposed Gateway Center, along with the School of Art & Design, is estimated to save the university approximately $95m in lease costs over the next twenty years. In addition, President Percy is initiating a review of administrative work to see what savings we might realize there.
These and other efforts will undoubtedly ameliorate the university's budget shortfall, they will not be sufficient to close the gap. You will hear more about university-wide efforts in the coming weeks, and we invite you to join us on February 22 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. for a Budget Town Hall (at this URL: https://video.ibm.com/channel/vGfGtyfbjwL) that will include an update on our current year budget, enrollment, and budget forecasts. We will also provide information on the longer range tactics we are implementing in order to emerge as a stronger institution, better equipped to serve the changing demographics of our students. You can submit questions for consideration to townhall@pdx.edu. Today, I write to share with you the steps we are taking in OAA to address the declining budget over the coming years.
Budget and Program Reduction
While we have been making small reductions in budgets for the past few years to adapt to the declining enrollment picture. Since I arrived at PSU, OAA resources overall have been declining. Though the actual total budget for OAA has increased from $200m to $207m, many of these dollars went to cover the increased costs of salaries plus and costs of operations, which means that the total available funds have declined by $13.8m. While those reductions have led to smaller overall budgets, these reductions have been neither strategic nor sufficient, relying almost exclusively on the elimination of vacant positions. Those of you who were unable to fill retirement vacancies in areas important to your curriculum understand the problems with such an approach. I believe that it is in the long-term interest of our students and the health of the university for us to approach the reductions ahead of us in a more strategic manner, one that makes hard choices about those parts of the university we should retain and grow and those that can no longer be sustained under our current budgets. I have been engaged with the Faculty Senate in planning how to approach these important questions. In recognition of the need to take a more intentional approach, the Faculty Senate appointed in the fall of 2020 an Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Program Reduction and Curricular Adjustments charged with the task of ensuring that any reductions in programs be guided by key principles and enacted with transparency and faculty input, following all processes outlined by the Faculty Senate and the Collective Bargaining Agreements.
As difficult as these decisions will be, I am prepared to take the steps needed to ensure the long-term health of the essential academic enterprise that underlies and defines this university. Let me say this as clearly as possible. It is imperative that we be able to sustain the quality of what defines PSU. We are faced with a choice between having a broadly diminished university that retains everything we currently offer and having a university that reflects the quality and character of PSU but does so with fewer and more targeted offerings. For me, this choice is not hard to make, but I look forward to opportunities to engage all of you in this important conversation. Our students and the state of Oregon need PSU to remain the high-quality engine of opportunity and social mobility that we are. To do so, we must face the critical realities of what lies ahead.
I am pleased to partner with the Faculty Senate in this work and am grateful for the Faculty Senate's leadership. While the Ad Hoc committee will establish important guideposts and processes for our work, it is the responsibility of the Provost and academic administration to engage in the difficult task of putting forward programs to be considered for possible reduction, reorganization, or elimination.
To undertake this work, I have appointed a Program Reduction Working Group whose charge is to identify metrics and conduct analyses that will inform recommendations to me of units to consider in the program reduction process. I have asked Graduate School Dean Rossitza Wooster and Associate Dean of CLAS Matt Carlson to co-chair this working group, and I am grateful to them for agreeing to take on this important charge. The membership of the working group includes representatives from all schools and colleges
- College of the Arts, School of Architecture Director Jeffrey Schnabel
- College of Education, Associate Dean Tina Anctil
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Associate Dean and Co-Chair, Matt Carlson
- College of Urban and Public Administration, Associate Dean Laura Hickman
- Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, Associate Dean James Hook
- School of Business Administration, Associate Dean Erica Wagner
- School of Public Health, Assistant Dean for Graduate Academic Affairs Lynn Messer
- School of Social Work, Associate Dean Keva Miller
- The Graduate School, Dean and Co-Chair Rossitza Wooster
- The Honors College, Assistant Dean, Senior Fiscal Officer Gil Miller
- University Studies Program, Interim Director Linda George
I have asked the Working Group to make its recommendations about proposed metrics by February 15 and to complete its analyses by April 1. We will share the proposed metrics during an upcoming town hall and with appropriate Faculty Senate committees in order to engage feedback from the campus community in this process. I want to ensure that any actions taken from these recommendations will be undertaken with due seriousness and a commitment to the principles of shared governance that underlie our work.
Strategic Hiring Freeze
President Percy announced last year a Strategic Hiring Freeze as part of a broader effort to reduce the university's expenditures. To implement that freeze in OAA, I set up a review process for requests for exemptions from the freeze. The OAA Position Review Committee is composed of Vice Provost Shelly Chabon, Vice Provost Michele Toppe, Interim Vice Provost Dave Maddox, and Presiding Officer Michele Gamburd. While the strategic hiring freeze to date has limited the number of new hires going forward, I believe that we need to update the criteria for exemptions to the strategic hiring freeze in light of this most recent budget information. Effective today, exemptions will be reviewed through the following criteria: if they are necessary to retain accreditation, if they are funded by external sources, if they are part of a start-up commitment, if they would dramatically diminish safety or compliance functions, if they are critical to achieving our racial equity goals, or if they are tied to strategic high-demand enrollment needs.
In light of these recent budget updates, I also have made the difficult decision to postpone for one year the search for the next Dean for CUPA. Though that search had been announced earlier in the year, I do not believe that we should move forward at this time. I understand that this is a significant disappointment to the faculty, staff, and students in CUPA, but I believe that we will be far more successful in any senior recruitments once we have identified our path forward.
Students First
We will continue to prioritize Students First. This is the right thing to do for our students and for the state. In addition, retaining students contributes to overall university enrollments and reputation. The Students First website shows the exciting work that is being done under that initiative as well as the progress that is being made on behalf of student persistence.
As part of fulfilling our Students First efforts, I hope you have seen the announcement of PSU's Open for Fall, Open for All program, which outlines the university's commitment to serving students high school graduates who have been impacted by the disruptive and often traumatic events of the past year. We will do so by making it easier for them to apply and be accepted to PSU, offering a Summer Bridge program, providing residence hall subsidies for qualified students, and expanding academic support throughout the first year. This program will support our students and hopefully encourage them to see college as an option this fall.
PSU "Next"
We have learned much about ourselves and our students during this challenging year. We have learned the ways in which we need to be present for each other and the multiple modalities in which we can do that. We have learned more about our students—how they learn and how we can support them in balancing their lives to fulfill their educational dreams. We have learned about the places where we can and cannot be flexible. And I suspect that all of you, like me, have learned more about the ways in which we think, work, and connect to each other. What do we want to retain from this past year? What have we learned that will enable us to show up for our students and each other more meaningfully and intentionally? And how can we take what we have learned to enhance our collective abilities to listen to and advocate for each other as we seek to fulfill our aspirations of racial justice?
I remain optimistic and confident about PSU's future. The PSU community is creative, impactful, and transformational, and I believe that our fundamental commitment to our students will carry us through this period. There are many opportunities for us to think about the university we will become as we face these challenges, and I look forward to engaging all of you in those important discussions. I will be writing to you soon about ways in which we can begin discussions about the transformational opportunities that lie ahead.
These will be difficult years, have no doubt. PSU, however, has a long history of staying focused on our mission while embracing challenges. Throughout all of the deliberations ahead, we need to stay focused on the university we will continue to be—a place that students, faculty, staff, and communities see as a partner in achieving the futures they envision. If we remain true to that vision—the university that rose up from the Vanport floods to become a regional engine for transformation—we will not only weather these years but triumph through them. I can't imagine having better partners than all of you on that journey.
Best,
Susan Jeffords
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
