Dr. Wim Wiewel, president of Portland State University, Oregon's largest university, had an Op-Ed in today's Oregonian.
Here is a sampling of his piece:
Few Oregonians are aware of the downsides that universities face as a state agency. For example, some of the tuition money paid by Oregon students and the interest accrued on total tuition dollars have been used by the state to pay for nonuniversity spending. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, pledged a week ago that lawmakers won't redirect student tuition money to fill the current budget gap. That's welcome news to students, because those dollars are crucial for their education. Still, they worry that tuition could rise during a future budget shortfall.
Being a state agency has added hurdles that undermine our ability to respond to student needs. At Portland State, for instance, our 28,000-student campus has grown so fast that we need to expand our capacity to provide adequate resources and classroom space to accommodate that growth. Our ability to acquire and develop more facilities is compromised because, as a state agency, our bidding process is slow and cumbersome, requiring frequent trips to both the higher education board and the state Capitol.
The result: We not only pay more for local properties than other bidders but also often have to wait 18 to 24 months to close the deal.
Wiewel notes that Oregon's community colleges have a more autonomous governance structure.
Good reading.
Perhaps an academic Tea Party movement is in order.
"Academic arguments are the bitterest because the stakes are the lowest." -- Unknown, sometimes attributed to Henry Kissinger
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