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Page ll
Volume 84, Number 20
Thursday, September 30, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Officials point fingers while tuition triples
By Debbie Howlett
Of tfx Emerald
Tuition and fees, according to
whoever happens to be talking,
are either sky-rocketing or just
barely inching upward
One method of guaging the
cost of tuition is via comparison
Figures from Bill Lemman, the
vice chancellor for the admin
istration's office, show that 13
years ago, in 1970-71 a student
paid a total of $136 a term to
attend the University This fall,
the total cost of attending the
Univeristy as a full-time student,
excluding the $50 general
deposit, is $460 — an increase
of 235 percent
Another barometer, the one
Wil Post, vice chancellor tor
public affairs, likes to use, is the
percentage of instructional
costs that students pay Post
explains that the State Board of
Higher Education has
“reluctantly allowed tuition to
creep up "
Post places the student's
share of paying "cost of in
struction" at 25 percent, he
adds that the increase is only a
few percentage points, up to
about 27 percent of instruc
tional costs Two-percent. Post
says, isn't much of an increase
"We have a rule of thumb in
Oregon." Post says Students
The Legislature, in regular session, sought “a lot more money from
students " These students, lined up outside Oregon Hall
Wednesday, are paying the price of a University education.
Judge frees Springfield from WPPSS debt
EUGENE, (AP) — A circuit judge ruied
Wednesday that Oregon publicly owned
utilities are not obligated to help pay for
two unfinished nuclear power plants in
Washington state
Judge George J Woodrich ruled that
the utilities lacked authority to obligate
themselves to help pay the $2.25 billion
debt on two Washington Public Power
Supply System plants, known as WPPSS
4 and 5. The system wants to collect the
money from the 88 utilities that signed on
as participants in the projects, which
ground to a halt after generating millions
of dollars in cost overruns.
The ruling resulted from a suit filed last
December by 26 Springfield, Ore.,
ratepayers who contended the Spring
field Utility Board lacked authority to sign
a contract to take part in WPPSS Plants 4
and 5 without voters’ approval, as it had
done
The Springfield utility's share of the
debt was $57.8 million. It was not imme
diately clear who, if anybody, would
make up the money.
Woodrich ruled that the participants’
agreement for financing the two plants
doesn't fall within Oregon’s legal
provisions for public bodies to go into
debt without voter approval
Projects qualify for the "special-fund
financing” if revenue from the project is
used solely to retire the debt obligation
“The participants agreement exceeds
the authority of special-fund financing,
creating an obligation requiring a vote of
the people of each of the Oregon dis
tricts signing the agreement, as debt
limitations of the districts would be
exceeded,” Woodrich ruled following a
conference call among participants.
In a news conference after the ruling,
lawyers for the plaintiffs said if the ruling
withstands appeal, it will affect all Ore
gon publicly owned utilities participating
in Plants 4 and 5.
Craig Doupe, WPPSS legal counsel,
said top supply system officials would
have nothing formal to say about the
ruling until Thursday
“We are disappointed in the result and
probably will appeal," Doupe said. He
said the Springfield suit affects only
Oregon utilities, "which are a relatively
small percentage of the participants.”
Appeals from an Oregon circuit court
are to the Oregon Court of Appeals and
then to the state Supreme Court.
The ruling is not connected with a plan
announced Monday, asking Congress to
bail out the system by loaning Bonneville
Power Administration $1.5 billion, which
then would be loaned to WPPSS for
reinvestment at at a higher interest rate
The profits would be used to pay off the
WPPSS debt.
But chances are "very, very low” that
Congress will approve a plan to have the
federal government pay off part of the
huge debt on two abandoned nuclear
power plants in Washington state, says
former Washington Gov. Dan Evans.
"When you strip away the complexity
of the proposal, it is simply a federal
subsidy,” Evans said Tuesday.
The former Republican governor, who
now heads the Northwest Power
Planning Council, was in Washington,
D C., to brief members of Congress on
the council’s activities
Several Northwest congressmen said
they would keep an open mind toward
any scheme that might help pay the
multibillion-dollar debt on abandoned
Washington Public Power Supply
System nuclear project No. 4 at Hanford
and No. 5 at Satsop, Wash.
pay 25 percent of the cost of
instruction, 75 percent comes
from other sources, legislative
acquisitions.”
‘Because of budget^
pressure, the Legislature has
not met that need," he says. “If
the state board had their way,
access would be high and tui
tion would be low ”
However, Post says the
235-percent figure might be
misleading — if one doesn't
consider the effect of inflation
A quick look at the Consumer
Price Index shows that during
the 13 years tuition was creep
ing up to $460, the consumer
price index rose 133 percent.
The index works on the basis
of what $100 would buy in 1967
compared to what those goods
are worth in another year.
Another figure that has risen
in the past 13 years is the
amount of money the state
appropriates for higher educa
tion. The percentage of in
crease (134 percent) for the
past six biennial budgets is
nearly identical to the increase
in the consumer price index. It is
also far below the percentage of
increase students have seen for
tuition
Sen Ed Fadeley, D-Eugene,
who is co-chairer of the Joint
Ways and Means Committee,
says he feels the last time the
Legislature "did right" on fund
ing for higher education was in
1977.
Since that time, Fadeley says
there has been "substantial
pressure to increase tuition by
the Oregon Educational Coor
dinating Commission and the
state board "
"The pressure has been there
for some time,” Fadeley says
He adds that the major thrust
at the regular sessions and the
first two special sessions of the
Legislature was to "get a lot
more money from students,"
mostly through tuition
increases
"There are limitations (for the
Legislature) because of a lack
of money," Fadeley says. "I
think the state has done the
wrong thing by increasing tui
tion as much as it has.”
Fadeley adds that he feels the
amount of the instructional
costs students must pay is
closer to 30 percent. Fadeley
also says that may be the
beginning of a trend toward
‘ elitism,” favoritism among the
economically advantaged,
through prohibitive costs of
education
‘‘I don't mind elitism at
Stanford," Fadeley says, “but it
doesn’t belong at a public insti
tution Whether parents, or
students, have enough money
(to afford rising education
costs) is no indicator of whether
it is good for society.”
Lemman, who handles the
budget details for the state
systems, says that “one can
make a good case philoso
phically for no tuition and you
can make the same case for
paying full cost. Anything in
between is arbitrary."
Lemman says the trend to in
crease the share of costs
students pay is related to poli
tical philosophy. "Republicans
tend to say yes, Democrats,
no."
And depending on who you
care to talk to, tuition is either
creeping up or going through
the ceiling.