Emily Goodykoontz has a good story on the overall budget picture in the Emerald here. The meeting is tonight:
Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board’s student forum. The roundtable meeting, aimed at discussing tuition and the school’s budget, is at 5 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom. Check back at dailyemerald.com for coverage of the forum.
From the Emerald articles, their plan for the budget problems seems to be: (1) ramp up enrollment once again, by 3000 students; (2) defer the added costs of doing this, e.g. new space and faculty; (3) hope that something will come along a few years from now to meet the new financial deficit, e.g. more money from the state, a big infusion from Uncle Phil, etc.
I think (3) is wishful thinking, more money down the line to pay for added expenses. I even think (1) may be wishful thinking. Enrollment dropping for several years now; international students becoming problematic; out of state American demand has demographic problems, so does Oregon demand (and anyway, Oregon students are a money loser).
I feel for Jamie M, Brad S, etc — they need to find a way to pay for my Tier 1 ORP plan, plus raises for the union, health insurance, etc — but I think they are dreaming.
Maybe they should really take seriously the issue of rapidly escalating “administrative” personnel seen so often here at UOM in statistics — not the super fat cats like Schill, Banavar, Jamie M, etc — but the legions of OA’s. I am sure said OA’s will not like this, but it is where the money is, unless they want to cut faculty, especially the highly paid TTF.