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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1993)
Oregon Daily THURSDAY. OCTOBER 28. 1993 Measure 1 tax revenue could benefit students □ Higher education would benefit indirectly from implementation of sales tax By Julie S wen sen Oregon Daily fmtwjftf University students may be wondering why they should vote for a five percent sales lax when its proceeds would l>e devoted only for K-12 and community college education. Higher education was excluded from the measure because that option was most appealing to voters, said Ed Dennis, field director for the Oregon Student Lobby. Because only about 20 percent of Orego nians have a college degree, many people view higher education almost as a "priv ilege." but favor K-12 and community col lege education because they can relate to it, he said. Still, without that direct revenue from the salt's tax. Oregon colleges and univer sities would still indirectly benefit. As a sales tax devoted to K. 1<! and t omnium tv colleges would take a burden off the state general fund, more money could be made available for higher education insti tutions For that reason, the Oregon Stu dent Lobby wasn't too upset when the measure excluded higher education. Den nis said. "If this were to pass, it would still do tremendous things for us," he said One expected benefit is that Universi ty students would see a lower rate of tuition increases. University President Myles Brand said Hut the extent of Measure 1 s benefits is uncertain, according to University and legislative officials The University’s anticipated gain from the proposed saies tax is "up in the air.” said Trent Spradling, budget director for Turn to REVENUE. Page 6 Measure 5 cuts may push University to privatization □ State education system asks schools to consider privatizing in near future By Doreen Johnson For the Oregon Daily truerakl The next four to six years may see the University make the transformation to a private institution, as 1990‘s Ballot Mea sure 5 forces state schools to examine such a future. The passage of Measure 5 came on the heels of 10 years of recession and budget reductions for the institutions in the Ore gon vState System of Higher Kducation. The effects of the tax cut are living phased in over a period of four years. Without tax base restructuring, public colleges and universities will have to accept major financial changes Privatizing the University is one of sev eral possible new directions considered bv the state system. The result of the switch could mean the cost of a college education may shift more to the students and may change the governing struc ture of the school. State Representative Carolyn Oakley. K Albanv and chairwoman of the House Education Committee, and Vice Chair man |im Whitty have asked Oregon to consider the effec ts of such a transition University Senior Vice Provost Gerald Kisslor understands that such a change Turn to PRIVATE. Page! Devil in disguise At¥ HAS* AV/£inv*««J Five-year-old Sean Maher takes a walk with hla family Wednesday afternoon. Sean dressed up as a devil and went looking for pumpkins and cats on 19th Street. Administration faces problem of balancing productivity, funding j University hopes productivity plan could offer a new sense of direction By Rivers Janssen Oregon Daily f merakl If University administrators had their way, the sce nario would go like this: A student begin* her first year at the University and joins a Freshmen Interest Group, which guides her through a variety of social and class room activities. She enjoys the experience and believes the University provided her with a personal, interactive education. Her second year, she goes to academic advising and is helped closely by faculty counselors. They not only plan her course load, but also give her a career direction so she doesn't feel us if she's drifting aimlessly through school. Her last two years, she toils at internships, takes sem inars where she can work closely with a professor doing research, and labors at a campus lab. In other words, she begins "intensive applied learning." a favorite Universi ty phrase to describe students taking the initiative toward improving their own education. She is in and out of the University in four years, mak ing room for someone else. If every University student were to follow that pattern, administrators figure student retention would be much higher. And student retention needs to lie high because University President Myles Brand is kicking around the idea of expanding enrollment from about 16,500 to roughly 16,000 or 19.000. This would both so flu n the blow of another $10 mil lion in cuts pur year from 1095-97 by adding the tuition money of another few thousand students, and help the state prepare for the estimated 40 percent increase in Oregon high school graduates by the year 2000 At the same time, Brand says the University (an’l add any more faculty or staff because it doesn't have the money. Welcome to the next crisis in higher education at the University. There are several dilemmas that the administration faces. First, how do you attract more students to a Uni versity that is offering higher tuition and fewer programs than it would like? Second, how do you teach several thousand more stu dents with the same number of faculty without creating a robo-oducation environment, where students feel like statistics rather than people? Third, how do you retain those students oncu they're here — particularly the non-residents whose tuition money contributes heavily to the school's operating bud gat? And fourth, how can you maintain the University's mission as a research institution, as Brand has continu ally advocated, while you're trying to figure out how to accommodate these students? The answer: Nobody knows for sure. The only thing they do know is something has to be done. Charley Wright, a math professor at the University, wrote in a faculty memo that: "Given the facts, we re forced to depend on increased tuition, especially from out-of-state students. That means that we have to make our programs attractive and to offer perceived value for money, provide solid looming opportunities. and mini mi/.H tho harriers we set up for students. II we don't, if we can't attract and keep out-of-state students, then it's all over." The University is currently working on a productivi ty plan to prestint to the state chancellor by March. The plan is mandated by Chancellor Thomas Hart left's office for all state colleges and universities as a way to hope fully resolve some of these questions. And while no one knows what ideas the planning committee will come up with, it's hoped that them will be enough concrete ideas to come up with a few answers. The chancellor's office gave the committee five areas to focus on. The first is student self-puced learning pro jects, specifically related to technology Brand discusses (he possibility of studunts spending only two hours of a four credit course in lecture and spending the other two working with a computer. That way the professor could lecture more classes without increasing his or her work load. Jerry Kissler. senior vice provost for the University, says that such a program is feasible as long ns students learn the class material. "There may lie pockets of opportunity." Kissler said. "Particular courses could Ire taught differently, and the technology could be used differently. The challenge is to make the students learn the same amount of material but in different ways than going to a lecture for three or four hours." Turn to EDUCATION. Page 8