SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM ❚ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020 ❚ 3A
Tuition
Continued from Page 1A
the single largest investment. This
would enable us to tell families and stu-
dents, ‘This is what your cost is going to
be,’ as opposed to fluctuations that we
might see as we move through (the
years).”
Risk and reward
The concept carries benefits and
risks for the university.
It would provide students and fam-
ilies with financial predictability as they
look to budget for the expense of col-
lege, Thompson said.
Keeping tuition at a fixed rate also
would protect the value of scholarships
the UO offers, which he said are often for
set amounts and don’t account for year-
to-year tuition increases.
But two major benefits Thompson
sees for the UO are in recruiting new
students and holding on to existing
ones.
The UO essentially works year-round
to recruit new students from across the
U.S. and other countries, because stu-
dent tuition and fees is the largest reve-
nue pool to fund operations. Enrollment
at UO has been in decline each fall since
2012, its data shows.
Thompson said having guaranteed
tuition would be a “game changer” for
recruiting and would help students stay
and finish out their degree with less fi-
nancial pressure.
“It removes a major stressor in our
students’ lives,” he said.
For Luallen, the financial stress from
tuition hikes first came her second year.
“I started out taking 12 credits per
term. I wanted to up it to 16 credits per
term and realized I couldn’t pay off the
registration hold between the first year
and the second year as easily,” she said,
which she found was because of the tu-
ition increase.
In her fourth year, Luallen wanted to
take a two-credit internship seminar to
have a better chance at an internship at
a local software company but found af-
ter more increases that instead of get-
ting money back from the UO through
financial aid, she actually owed $2,000,
so she couldn’t take the seminar.
She got to one of the last rounds for
the internships but didn’t get it. It was
competitive to begin with, she said, but
also believes it would have improved her
chances if she could have taken the
seminar.
The increases also have impacted
Luallen in being able to provide basic
needs for herself and her companion
animal, Dargie. Because Dargie is older,
she requires multiple vet visits a year,
which cost $60 each. If tuition were to
go up even 2%, it could mean foregoing a
vet visit.
“That’s usually the first thing that
has to go when I’m thinking of priori-
ties,” she said. “I have to think of rent
and shelter — that has to stay stable. I
have to pay my power and water bill. I
have to have internet because I’m a stu-
dent, and I can’t be on campus 24 hours
a day.”
Laullen said she’ll never skimp on
food for Dargie, so if she can’t pay her
bills it may mean paying for food first.
“If I had a tuition guarantee for five
years, that would have been nothing
short of amazing in my situation,” she
said. “I really do feel like it would give
(students) more opportunity.”
It would give some relief to students
like Luallen, but the model also could
pose some issues for UO should the
state decide to disinvest in higher edu-
cation or if enrollment continues to de-
cline.
“In the short term, it would take us
more time to come out of a challenging
budget situation,” said Moffitt, because
the university would not be able to use
Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon campus. THOMAS BOYD, THE
REGISTER-GUARD
Students at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Ore. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
tuition increases as a part of a budget
solution.
“In an ideal world, if we move to a
program like this, we would want to
have some reserves built up so that
when we hit that situation — if and
when we hit a state recession — that we
are able to recover,” she said.
It would require UO to build up a solid
reserve, which could come from one last
increase to tuition before setting the
rates and using that extra amount to set
aside for that reserve.
But the risk is worth it for students
like Luallen.
“I don’t see where it could hurt the
students and I really think they need to
be thinking more about what is good for
the students because it seems like we’ve
leveled off on what’s good for everybody
else,” she said. “I think we need to bring
more of the focus back to just helping
students make it through college.”
In 2014, the school changed that set
tuition rate from mandatory for stu-
dents to an opt-in program. Students
could decide at the start of their WOU
college career to sign up for the locked
tuition rate, understanding the cost was
about 15% higher than the traditional
plan, but would protect them in case of
massive tuition increases.
Pinkard said many colleges set the
fixed rates higher than the expected in-
crease. “They bake in some of that risk,”
he said.
But the program only worked in the-
ory.
“The state gradually and fortunately
started to reinvest a little bit more into
higher education and that then dropped
the pressure on tuition to the institu-
tions,” McDonald said. “So the utility of
the tuition promise became less and
less as our tuition increases on an annu-
al basis, were below 5%.”
By 2018, WOU found that students
who opted into the fixed tuition rate be-
tween 2012 and 2015 actually paid “be-
tween 5.6% and 8.1% more in tuition
over their four years at WOU” than stu-
dents who had the traditional tuition
structure, according to its Board of
Trustees documents. Because of this,
the university declared the program “in-
active” in April 2018 to suspend the pro-
gram with the option to revisit it in the
future.
“We had unintentionally created a
more complicated tuition structure for
our students” and staff, McDonald said,
because tuition payoff schedules were
different for transfer students and for
those who had enrolled for different
amounts of time.
Many colleges have tried the guaran-
teed tuition model, he said, but it means
the institution and students take a
chance. More times than not, this has
led to a return to the traditional model.
“Affordability and student success
are key goals of our commission,” Pin-
kard said. “So if (institutions) come up
with anything that’s going to bend in the
direction of more affordability for stu-
dents, we’re probably going to jump on
board and say, ‘hell yes.’ But from the
data that I’ve seen, guaranteed tuition
plans have more risk than the potential
benefit.”
Most of the states that have attempt-
ed a guaranteed tuition model have dis-
continued it, he said.
“The devil is in the details. So if you
design it well, and if you appropriately
account for the risks as an institution,
then you probably could pull it off well,”
Pinkard said. “To date ... nobody has
really struck on the right design, the
right balance yet.”
UO will be seeking input from the
community and a recommendation
from the tuition and fees advisory board
as it continues to explore what its right-
balanced model could look like. That
community input piece is anticipated to
come in February, and President Mi-
chael Schill will make his final recom-
mendation to the Board of Trustees in
early March, according to board docu-
ments.
Pinkard said he would love if the Uni-
versity of Oregon were to be the first in-
stitution to make it work.
“The experiment has to start some-
where,” he said.
Follow Jordyn Brown on Twitter
@thejordynbrown
or
email
at
jbrown@registerguard.com.
Precedent
Some schools that currently have a
program include University of Arizona,
University of Colorado at Boulder and
Ohio State University.
The Illinois state university system
was the first to really explore the option
in 2004, according to Jim Pinkard, di-
rector of the office of post secondary fi-
nance and capital in the Higher Educa-
tion Coordinating Commission. It also
was attempted in Texas.
Many systems have failed, largely be-
cause they were attempted during the
Great Recession or didn’t account for
state investment.
In Oregon, tuition guarantee models
have seen limited success.
The latest case in Oregon was at
Western Oregon University. In 2010,
WOU started a four-year tuition guaran-
tee for in-state students, said David Mc-
Donald, WOU’s associate vice president
for public affairs and strategic initia-
tives.
When WOU first put the “tuition
promise” in place in 2010, the state was
experiencing “significant disinvestment
in higher education,” McDonald said. As
a result, universities were increasing tu-
ition every year between 7% and 12%.
So, at that time, the change made sense.
LOCAL
ADVISORS
Salem Area
www.edwardjones.com
Member SIPC
Michael Wooters
Garry Falor CFP ®
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
South | 503-362-5439
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
West | 503-588-5426
Caitlin Davis CFP ®
Chip Hutchings
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
West | 503-585-1464
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Lancaster | 503-585-4689
Jeff Davis
Tim Sparks
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Mission | 503-363-0445
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Commercial | 503-370-6159
legacyhealth.org/keepmoving
Keep moving …
Time to fix your joint pain?
Do you want to return to doing
the things you love? To live your
best life?
We can help, with a complete,
expert approach to knee and hip
surgery, plus care for other bones
and joints.
We’ve been keeping this
community moving for years, so
you know we’ll be with you every
step of the way.
Call 503-386-4355 or visit
legacyhealth.org/keepmoving
Locations
Legacy Medical Group–
Orthopedics and Sports
Medicine
Keizer Health Center
5685 Inland Shores Way North
Keizer, OR 97303
452 Welch St.
Medical Office Building 1
Silverton, OR 97381
Woodburn Health Center
1475 Mt. Hood Ave.
Woodburn, OR 97071
Our legacy is yours.
Tyson Wooters
Keizer Area
Mario Montiel
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Keizer | 503-393-8166
OR-USW0002200-01
Surrounding Area
Do you own too many
stocks? Let’s talk.
Bridgette Justis
Kelly Denney
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Sublimity | 503-769-3180
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Dallas | 503-623-2146
Tim Yount
David Eder
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Silverton | 503-873-2454
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Stayton | 503-769-4902
AD-1406 ©2020
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
South | 503-362-5439