Amid the excitement leading up to the national championship game, it would be easy to miss another important event for the university: Jan. 12 also marks the official start of the 2015 legislative session in Salem.
Lawmakers and the governor will spend the next six months debating a wide variety of policy issues and crafting a new state budget for the next two years.
This will be the first full legislative session since the state established the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon in 2013. The university, faculty, students, staff and alumni will spend the next several months working with legislators to increase funding for universities and community colleges across Oregon.
The goal is to restore funding to 2007 pre-recession levels. For more than a decade, Oregon has systematically disinvested from its universities and community colleges, leaving the state 47th in the nation for per-student funding.
Between 2007 and 2014, state funding for undergraduate education has been cut 38.2 percent. These cuts shifted costs to students and their families; between 2007 and 2014 average tuition and fees at Oregon’s seven public universities increased 41 percent.
Today’s events were largely ceremonial in nature, with Gov. Kitzhaber and legislators taking their oaths of office. And many of those in attendance took the opportunity to show their Duck pride.
UO is working with other universities and community colleges in the hope that the 2015 legislative session can be remembered as the moment when Oregon turned the tide on funding for higher education.
―By Hans Bernard, State and Community Affairs