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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2021)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Saturday, January 9, 2021 EOU’s president sees windfall as pandemic degrades enrollment Tom Insko awarded two bonuses by board of trustees By KALEB LAY La Grande Observer LA GRANDE — As 2020 closed out on a year of declining enrollment and tuition revenue for many of Oregon’s public univer- sities, Eastern Oregon University in La Grande opted to increase President Tom Insko’s salary and to award him $22,500 in year-end bonuses. The EOU Board of Trustees on Nov. 12, 2020, approved two bonuses for Insko: a $7,500 “goal attainment award” and a $15,000 “meritorious achievement award.” The trustees also awarded Insko a 2.6% increase to his roughly $250,000 salary. The move came even as year-over- year enrollment declined at EOU in 2020 — a trend universities across Insko the state and the country have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to fact sheets from the university’s website, on-campus enrollment from fall 2019 to fall 2020 fell by 10.8%, from 1,508 to 1,345 students. Off-campus enroll- ment also fell from 1,246 to 1,153 students — a drop of more than 7%. Kaleb Lay/La Grande Observer A bench sits unoccupied on the campus of Eastern Oregon University on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Despite declining enrollment due to the pandemic, EOU recently granted its president, Tom Insko, $22,500 in bonuses and a 2.6% increase to his roughly $250,000 salary. expected to be fl at from fall 2020 as well, according to EOU’s vice pres- ident for university advancement, Tim Seydel. EOU Board of Trustees Chair- Eastern also recorded declines in overall enrollment for both full- and part-time students from fall 2019 to fall 2020 terms. Enroll- ment for the coming semester was Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY man Richard Chaves credited Insko’s leadership, saying he’d been instrumental in minimiz- ing damage from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as shoring up the university’s fi nancial position during recent years. “Today, even having gone through the pandemic this last year, EOU is in the strongest fi nancial position in the history of EOU,” Chaves said. He went on to say EOU has fared far better than other universi- ties through the pandemic, many of which have had to cut programs or lay off employees due to decreased revenue. “If you look at EOU, we have not had to take those kind of dras- tic measures,” Chaves said. “In fact, we haven’t had any permanent layoffs, except one, which was due to the closure of our copy center, and that was planned before the pandemic hit.” Chaves said while he couldn’t speak on the full board’s behalf, its members generally “felt that presi- dent Insko was performing beyond what he was being paid, especially in comparison with most other universities in the state.” To illustrate that point, Chaves pointed out Insko had turned down bonuses offered to him by the board in prior years. He also noted East- ern’s faculty and administrative professionals had received raises of more than 3%, and workers with the Service Employees Inter- national Union, which represents public sector employees, received World’s largest plant for nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford ready for startup By ANNETTE CARY Tri-City Herald Some sun Cloudy and seasonably cool Cloudy Cloudy, a shower in the p.m. Cloudy PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 40° 30° 44° 32° 45° 35° 52° 44° 55° 41° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 43° 32° 43° 30° 43° 37° 49° 42° OREGON FORECAST 56° 37° ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 45/41 Kennewick Walla Walla 42/33 Lewiston 45/40 44/34 Astoria 49/43 39/31 40/32 Longview 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Pullman Yakima 41/33 43/37 44/34 Portland Hermiston 48/40 The Dalles 43/32 Salem Corvallis 43/36 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 38/30 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 45/38 39/27 39/25 Ontario 41/30 40/26 32/18 0.15" 0.30" 0.32" 0.30" Trace 0.32" WINDS (in mph) Caldwell Burns 41° 29° 40° 28° 65° (2002) -20° (1937) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 43/37 through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 37/28 43/36 0.09" 0.35" 0.46" 0.35" 0.15" 0.46" HERMISTON Enterprise 40/30 41/35 37° 30° 41° 27° 65° (1933) -14° (1937) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 44/36 Aberdeen 37/30 36/31 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 47/40 Today Medford 46/35 RICHLAND, Wash. — After more than 18 years, construction is finished on the key parts of the $17 billion Hanford vitrifi cation plant that will be needed for initial treatment of radioac- tive waste. Building the world’s larg- est plant to treat radioactive waste is “truly a scientifi c and engineering feat,”said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in taped remarks played at a Wednesday, Jan. 6, ceremony announcing the accomplish- ment. “This is an unprecedented step toward cleaning up the most toxic site in the United States ... and restoring the Hanford site to return it to the community,” she said. Mark Menezes, deputy secretary for energy, was at Hanford for the announce- ment and said it “marks a tremendous leap forward for the Hanford workforce and the Tri-Cities community.” “Hanford is on the precipice of actual tank waste treatment,” he said. “Decades of hard work are paying off.” T he Depar t ment of Energy and its contractor Bechtel National now will spend the next three years starting up all the systems needed to treat low activity radioactive waste, and then practice operating the plant with a nonradioactive waste simulant. The vitrifi cation plant, or Waste Treatment Plant, is planned to treat much of the 56 million gallons of radio- active and hazardous chem- ical waste in underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Eastern Wash- ington. The Hanford site was used ESE 3-6 SE 4-8 IN BRIEF SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 36/24 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 7:35 a.m. 4:30 p.m. 3:54 a.m. 1:25 p.m. New First Full Last Jan 12 Jan 20 Jan 28 Feb 4 NATIONAL EXTREMES Anthony Lakes offers free opportunity to older grade-schoolers Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 79° in Van Nuys, Calif. Low -15° in Crested Butte, Colo. from World War II through the Cold War to produce two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weap- ons program. Construction started at the plant in 2002, with a deadline set by the federal court in 2016 requiring DOE to start treating radioactive waste at the plant by the end of 2023. The court recently agreed to give DOE at least eight more months to start treating waste because of the COVID-19 pandemic. All but about 10% of the workers at the nuclear reser- vation were sent home in late April 2020, with work done by telecommuting when possible, to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. Workers area returning to on-site work in phases. But Brian Vance, the DOE Hanford manager, said he believes waste treatment still will start in 2023. Sun. NNE 4-8 NNE 4-8 Boardman Pendleton a 6.85% bonus. But that did not stop the union’s local are of SEIU 503 from voicing its displeasure with Insko’s wind- fall in a recent press release. “Part of the reason that the universities were unable to main- tain full staffi ng was a lack of reve- nue in the form of tuition,” SEIU 503 said. “That is why it was so frustrating to see Eastern Oregon University announce that it will be giving its President, Tom Insko, a $22,500 end of the year bonus, which is on top of his $250,351 salary. That is more than fi ve times the average salary of a Classifi ed employee.” In fact, Insko’s $22,500 in bonuses represent more than a signifi cant portion of people in La Grande earn in a year, coming in at more than half the city’s median annual income. According to the city of La Grande’s 2019 housing needs anal- ysis, median local income in 2017 was just $40,750, which was nearly $16,000 below the statewide aver- age. The analysis also found nearly two in fi ve people in La Grande earned less than $30,000 per year in 2017, before the economic hard- ship of the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Eastern Oregon Universi- ty’s presidential annual salary of $250,351 is more than six times the median income in La Grande and 29% more than the median price of a home in the city in 2019, as listed by the housing needs report. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY NORTH POWDER — Learn to ski or snowboard for free. An opportunity for fi fth- and sixth-grad- ers will be given at Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort starting Sunday, Jan. 10. Free ski and snowboard lessons will be given to all fi fth- and sixth-graders every Sunday starting Jan. 10 and running through Feb. 28. Children will be given free ski and snowboard rentals to be used for skiing and snowboarding throughout the day. After receiving a free lesson each Sunday, children will be given a free ski lift pass they can use for the rest of that day . Students must register each Sunday at the Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort’s ticket booth between 8:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m before receiving their free lesson. Children should bring identifi cation from their school or their report card, according to an Anthony Lakes press release. Later in the year, there is a possibility that students will be able to register online rather than at the ticket booth. Adults who want to accompany the fi fth- and sixth-graders on the ski slope after their lessons will be sold lift tickets for $25, which is less than what is normally charged. The families of the children who attend at least seven of the eight free instructional sessions will have a chance to purchase a ski lift pass for their children for the remainder of the ski season for $150, a price discounted signifi cantly. The Anthony Lakes ski season normally runs well into March. — EO Media Group CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s ice 50s 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 70s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low Circulation Dept. 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