Tag Archives: new partnership plan

in New York. 12/13/2011. From the NYT:

[James H. Simons] joined two governors, David A. Paterson and Andrew M. Cuomo, in pressing the Legislature to shore up the finances of the State University of New York, the parent system of Stony Brook, in part by raising tuition. He made it clear that he could be very generous if the state acted, and this year lawmakers made the kinds of changes he sought.

On Wednesday, Mr. Simons, 73, and his wife, Marilyn, will announce the biggest gift by far in SUNY’s history, $150 million to Stony Brook. It is the sixth largest donation ever made to an American public university, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, and is twice as large as the previous record for a gift to a public university in New York — the $60 million that the Simonses’ foundation gave to Stony Brook in 2008.

Simons’ plan was not just “raising tuition”. More here.

but Dr. Pernsteiner and his crack team will decide when, and how much authority and independence it will have. Or that’s the essence of this 11/18/2011 press release from OUS:

Next steps for the committee outlined by co-chairs Paul Kelly and Allyn Ford are to develop what delegated authorities could be granted to university-level boards; determine what statutory changes would need to be made to implement these; and to prepare a draft legislative concept that would be presented in spring 2012.

The tone in Governor Kitzhaber’s letter, here, is a little more positive for UO and Lariviere’s New Partnership. But this process will take years, and meantime UO’s legal advice will all be from Pernsteiner approved lawyers. We are so screwed.

9/22/2011: His math makes no sense, but we appreciate the sentiment. Op-Ed here:

The OUS has identified eight comparator universities against which to evaluate the UO, ranging from the University of California at Santa Barbara to the University of Michigan. Based on that scale, UO salaries for tenured faculty in comparable fields were just 85 percent of the average last year. After the increase, it’s 97 percent (and, yes, that includes PERS).

The data for administrators and non-tenured faculty is more anecdotal, but the gap was real. And considering the UO is bursting at the seams with record undergraduate enrollment — including record out-of-state and international enrollment, which pays the highest tuition rates — its non-state revenues are also booming.

Any successful business in a comparable situation would reinvest a significant portion of those revenues in its workforce without a second thought. So should a public university. The fact that President Lariviere’s action is so controversial says less about the economy than about a state that talks excellence while pursuing mediocrity.

8/9/2011: From Insidehighered.com:

Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro will on Thursday unveil a
plan designed to reduce government involvement in the state’s 14 public
universities, giving the institutions more authority in administrative
and financial matters if they meet certain performance benchmarks.  …

Because the process to date has not involved many faculty members,
students, or employees, Kilpatrick said, there are more likely to be
aspects of the plan that various campus groups oppose, potentially
making the process of getting the plan through the state legislature —
which would have to take place before any reforms are enacted —
messier. “The plan could have a lot better buy-in and consensus before
the legislative process if they had consulted folks,” Kilpatrick said.
“Instead, they’ve set themselves up for a very adversarial legislative
battle.”

6/27/2011: Bill Graves of the Oregonian has a good story with some analysis. Saul Hubbard of the RG has some good quotes here. You can get a pdf of SB909 here, and of SB242 here. (In these pdf’s the bold parts are new law, the italic parts are deletions of old law.)

Comments?

6/24/1011

SB242, having passed the Senate a while ago, is now moving through the House. If you understand what is going on please leave a comment.

6/23/2011:

The Oregonian reports the legislature has cut Chancellor Pernsteiner’s pay and benefits package by 11%. Just kidding, it’s for higher ed in general. Academic programs will take the hit – George won’t be touched.

6/22/2011:

12:25 PM: If I understand this Tony van Vliet rant correctly, SB242 is dead.

From what I can tell the legislature is done with education. Maybe they will get back to SB242 before adjourning but it seems unlikely. Odd. This bill was Pernsteiner’s reaction to Lariviere’s new partnership, designed to give more power to OUS instead of UO. But now, with SB909 passed and Nancy Golden in power to keep an eye on Pernsteiner, SB242 would be good for UO.

6/21/2011: 

11:11PM Jeff Mapes gives his analysis of the day, focused on K-12.

4:10 SB909 passes. Good news for UO and Pres Lariviere. Not sure what happened to SB242/HB2118.

3:54 Debate on SB909 starts.

3:19PM: All day kindergarten passes.

3:00PM:  The house is now onto all day kindergarten, may take a bit to get to higher ed. I’m no political science professor, but I have to say I’m impressed by the quality (and passion) of the debate by the legislators on these K-12 bills.

1:10: House is in recess til 2PM

12:00: HB2301, the “virtual schools” bill – requiring licensed teachers, has now passed, with amendments from the Republicans, potentially breaking the logjam.

11:30AM Jeff Mapes reports they are working on a charter school compromise that would get higher ed bill rolling again.

11:00 the house is back in session

9:30AM The House session does not seem to be starting as scheduled. See below for possible reason.

6/20/2011:

SB 242 and SB909 have now passed the Senate. They will likely come up in the House Tuesday, the session starts at 9:30 AM. Audio and video here: http://www.leg.state.or.us/listn/ (If you need a political fix meanwhile, watch this. I’ll miss this guy.)

I understand the relationship between SB909 and SB242 to now be as follows. (Both have been amended substantially.)

SB242:  This is Pernsteiner’s bill: Redefines Oregon University System (OUS) as public university system with greater authority and independence to manage affairs, operations and obligations. Creates Higher Education Coordinating Commission (Commission). So, 242 gives OUS independence from the state and creates an HECC to oversee the current OUS Board and Chancellor.

SB909: This is Kitzhaber’s bill: Establishes the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB) to oversee a unified public education system. (K-16 or K-20). Jeff Mapes has a good summary here.

If they both pass, SB909 contains language ensuring that Kitzhaber’s OIEB will “oversee” the HECC, which in turn oversees the existing OUS Board and Chancellor. Or so I understand it. So, best case for UO is SB242 plus SB909, and that’s where my money is. But it’s possible that the coalition will break up, over K-12 issues.

A break up which Jeff Mapes and Saul Hubbard now report has in fact happened:

The defeat, on the House floor, of a bill that would have made it easier for students to enroll in online charter schools caused a blow-up Monday in the evenly divided chamber, one that casts some doubt over the path ahead for a series of key education reform bills that still need House approval this session.

Legislators had hoped to either approve or defeat a total of 14 wide-ranging education policy bills in both chambers Monday, potentially an important step in bringing the legislative session to a close.

The bills included Gov. John Kitzhaber’s plan to create a single board to oversee the state’s entire public education system; a bill that would have allocated an additional $25 million for K-12 education over the next two years; and three “school choice” bills, among them the online charter schools enrollment bill: House Bill 2301. …