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Independent UO Board legislation, LC 978

12/10/2012: The draft legislation for independent university boards, LC 978, has been posted, here, by the House Higher Ed committee. That committee has no Eugene representatives. From what I can see the bill does not require the appointment of voting faculty representatives – even though the OUS board has two.

There are many other parts I don’t understand. I hope people will take a serious look at this and post comments. Full text here. Here’s the beginning:

SECTION 5. (1) An institutional board of a public university shall
be formed and maintained as provided in this section.
(2)(a) The Governor shall appoint 11 to 15 members of an institutional board, subject to confirmation by the Senate in the manner
provided in ORS 171.562 and 171.565.
(b) For each appointment, the university shall nominate a slate of
candidates and shall forward the recommended candidates to the
Governor for consideration.
(c) The institutional board must include one person who is a member of the State Board of Higher Education or Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
(d) The president of the university shall be an ex officio nonvoting
member of the institutional board.
(3)(a) Except for the president of the university, the term of office
for each nonstudent member of the institutional board is four years.
(b) The term of office of each student member of the institutional
board, if any, is two years.

The elephant in the room is Phil Knight. His Oregonians for Higher Education Excellence has raised $445,000 to push this thru the legislature, and hasn’t yet spent a dime. Knight’s dislike of the UO faculty goes back to the Worker’s Rights Consortium fiasco. And now we’re unionized. This could get ugly.

11 Comments

  1. Anonymous 12/11/2012

    Quick read: gets UO out of OUS/SBHE to integrate us under OEIB/HECC, achievement compacts, and maybe newly proposed Dept of Post-Secondary Education. Otherwise, lots of verbiage the same as in past drafts. Main diff is section 5: the structure of the board is left wide open, and UO will propose its own slate of possible nominees to the gov. Could include faculty, but no guarantee. Board picks new prez, but in consultation with gov and subject to approval by HECC.

  2. UO Matters 12/11/2012

    UO as in the UO President alone, or with advice and consent of the UO Senate?

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      The board and board alone hires and fires: Gov or HECC (OUS is dead) can veto.
      SECTION 6. (1)(a) In consultation with the Governor, or the
      Governor’s designee, and subject to the approval of a majority of the
      members of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, the institutional board of a public university shall appoint the president of the university.

      (c) The institutional board shall evaluate the president of the university based on input from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission and the presidents of the public universities listed in ORS
      352.002.
      (2) The institutional board is responsible for the reappointment or
      removal of the president of the university.

      The Prez serves the board as the CEO. The prez is the middle manger to deal with and govern faculty. Faculty do not have say regarding prez.
      (3) The president of the university is the president of the faculty
      and is the chief executive officer of the university. The president of
      the university has authority to direct the affairs and operation of the
      university, subject to the policies and direction of the institutional
      board.

      Board can abdjicate their power to prez and as they are voted out every two years and are business people that know nothing about Education other than how to leverage taxes to line their pockets they will?
      (4) The institutional board may delegate to the president any of the
      powers, rights and duties granted to the board.

      Board can pretty much do what the school, president or Provost already does
      (a) Approve a mission statement and academic programs for the
      university.
      (b) Determine or approve policies for the organization, administration and development of the university.

      Perhaps with LESS transparency and oversight?
      (c) Make any and all contracts and agreements, enter into any
      partnership, joint venture or other business arrangement, and create
      and participate fully in the operation of any business structure, including but not limited to the development of business structures for
      health care delivery systems and networks with any public or private
      government, nonprofit or for-profit person or entity that in the judgment of the university or the board is necessary or appropriate to
      carry out the university’s missions and goals.

      This is strange because a previous paragraph said all real property is owend by the state. So can they take out a mortgage against the paid for Business School and Law School to pay for a new Golf course and hundred thousand seat football stadium or not? Can they sell the Eugene campus and move the school to Portland? It looks like they can borrow any amount of money so Anyone want to buy a dorm?

      (d) Acquire, purchase, receive, hold, control, convey, sell, manage,
      operate, lease, license, lend, invest, improve, develop, use, dispose of
      and hold title to real and personal property of any nature, including
      intellectual property, in its own name.
      (h) Borrow money for the needs of the university, in such amounts
      and for such time and upon such terms as may be determined by the
      university or the board.

      This ability to become a real estate developer was so important it is in there twice.
      (i) Erect, construct, improve, develop, repair, maintain, equip, furnish, lease, lend, convey, sell, manage, operate, use and dispose of any
      building, land or project.

      Just in case the real property is classified as equity or interest, they make sure to state they can mortgage that as well (This really really must be important!)
      (o) Acquire, receive, own, hold, use, sell, mortgage, lend, pledge,
      invest in or otherwise dispose of and deal in or with the shares, stock,
      bonds or other equity or interests in or obligations of any entity.

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      abdicate

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      More they can De-facto do already.
      (f) Encourage gifts and donations for the benefit of the university,
      and subject to the terms of the gift, retain, invest and use such gifts
      as deemed appropriate by the university or the board.
      (g) Acquire, receive, hold, keep, pledge, control, convey, manage,
      use, lend, expend and invest all funds, appropriations, gifts, bequests,
      stock and revenue from any source to the university.
      (k) Create, develop, manage and control educational, research, service and any other programs.
      (L) Set standards for the admission, graduation and discipline of
      students.
      (m) Authorize, establish, eliminate, manage, operate, reorganize,
      reduce or expand any program, school, institute, college or unit of
      operation, except that any new degree or program and any policy regarding transferability of credits to and from a public university listed
      in ORS 352.002, a community college in this state or the Oregon Health
      and Science University must be authorized by the Higher Education
      Coordinating Commission.
      (n) Authorize, establish, eliminate, charge, collect, manage, use in
      any manner and expend all revenue derived from tuition, fees and any
      other charges and fines. The board shall request the joint recommendation of the recognized student government and the president of the
      university, who shall obtain the recommendation of the recognized
      student government, prior to authorizing, establishing or eliminating
      incidental fees for programs under the supervision or control of the
      board and found by the board to be advantageous to the cultural or
      physical development of students. Any increase in tuition or any
      student fees above five percent on an annual basis must be approved
      by the Oregon Education Investment Board.

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      Wow:
      (2) The institutional board shall have authority over employees of
      the university as follows:
      (a) The institutional board is responsible for hiring and terminating
      all employees and prescribing all conditions of employment, including
      but not limited to compensation, benefits and tenure.

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      Most of this the school already has De-facto authority over. The legislature and state board have approved higher tuition increases, consistently higher than the budget cut the increase was meant to fill. But do not worry the must only attempt to keep tuition low. The last line is the only one that is a concrete statement, that cant be disputed regarding non residents and grad students, but again this is the way it is now.

      SECTION 8. (1) An institutional board shall establish enrollment
      fees, including tuition for education and services and any other
      charges found by the board to be necessary to carry out the educational program of the university, as provided in this section.
      (2) The institutional board may not increase tuition rates and fees
      for resident students by a total amount of five percent or more per
      academic year unless the board first receives approval from:
      (a) The Oregon Education Investment Board, with advice from the
      Higher Education Coordinating Commission; or
      (b) The Legislative Assembly.
      (3) The institutional board shall attempt to increase tuition rates
      and fees for resident students per academic year by a percentage that
      is no greater than the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers of the Portland, Oregon, Metropolitan
      Statistical Area, as compiled by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

      (4) The institutional board shall have complete discretion in establishing tuition rates and fees for nonresident students and graduate
      students.

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      Actually just in case you missed it the first three times. Here is an entire section on how the board can buy, sell and mortgage any and all property and equity. The section about it being state property is back. But if I can buy, sell and mortgage your property out from underneath you is it really yours?

      SECTION 9. (1) An institutional board of a public university may
      purchase such real property as in its sole discretion may be necessary
      for the present or future development of the university. The board
      may enter into contracts of purchase or agreements that the board
      deems necessary in carrying out this authorization.
      (2) The board may apply any funds toward the purchase of property
      authorized under this section. The board may mortgage or pledge any
      property so purchased, or its contracts to purchase, or in relation
      thereto, together with the income from such property, to secure the
      payment of the purchase price.
      (3) The board may purchase real property or undertake capital construction projects that do not require the use of moneys appropriated from state funds or obtained through general obligation bonds,
      for purposes consistent with the promotion and enhancement of public
      higher education.
      (4) Legal title to all real property acquired by the board shall be
      taken and held in the name of the State of Oregon. Legal title to all
      real property conveyed to the university is deemed to be conveyed to
      and vested in the State of Oregon. Authorized conveyances of all real
      property, other than university lands, acquired by or vested in the
      State of Oregon for the use or benefit of the university shall be executed in the name of the State of Oregon by the chair of the board.
      (5) The board shall have custody and control of and shall care for
      all real property used for university purposes. Management, maintenance and preservation of all real property used for university purposes is the responsibility of the university

    • Anonymous 12/11/2012

      Is what’s left to OUS or OSU?

      SECTION 13. ORS 351.011 is amended to read:
      351.011. (1) The Oregon University System is established as a public university system, consisting of the office of the Chancellor of the Oregon
      University System[, the public universities listed in ORS 352.002 and any related offices, departments or activities.] and the following public universities, and any related offices, departments or activities:
      (a) Oregon State University.
      (b) Oregon Institute of Technology.
      (c) Western Oregon University.
      (d) Southern Oregon University.
      (e) Eastern Oregon University.
      (2) The State Board of Higher Education, on behalf of the Oregon Uni-

  3. UO Matters 12/11/2012

    Thanks lots for this review. If you would be willing to put it together as a post, I’d be very happy to put it up. FYI, you can always email long comments to uomatters at gmail dot com and I will post them.

  4. Anonymous 12/13/2012

    The UO already has a board. It’s called the UO Foundation. All this legislation will do is grant to the UO Foundation the power it already believes it deserves.

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