Tag: tuition

A big step forward on affordability

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One of the things I have always liked best about Portland State is our commitment to providing a college education to students who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to pursue a degree. This access mission keeps us real. We focus on what universities, at their core, are supposed to do: offer opportunities to students to enrich their lives so they can go out and make a better world.

We do all we can to keep costs down for students and their families, knowing that a bump in tuition here or there can be a breaking point. In fact, we’re now the second most affordable public university in Oregon, and a full $2,000 less per year than the other two big research universities.

I’m proud to announce that we’re taking yet another step to help engaged students with limited means pay for college. Today we’re rolling out Four Years Free, a program that covers tuition and fees for students who meet these criteria:

  • Resident of Oregon
  • Entering PSU as a first-year freshman in fall 2017
  • 3.4 or better high school GPA
  • Receive a federal Pell grant
  • Enrolled full-time

Students who qualify must apply for and accept federal and state grants. For these students, any remaining cost of tuition and fees won’t be an issue at Portland State.

There’s a lot of talk nationally and in Oregon about college affordability. We are not just joining that conversation. We’re doing something about it.

Oregon’s public universities are at a tipping point

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It’s my favorite time of year. The trees are just starting to turn color on the Park Blocks, the mornings are crisp, and thousands of students are getting ready to start classes at Portland State University. As I begin my ninth and final academic year as PSU president, I would like to take stock of what this ritual parade of books, backpacks and brainpower really means for our state and our city.

First, and most obvious, is the incalculable opportunity that comes with a college degree. Rising tuition costs, prompted by steep drops in state support, have left the misimpression that a college education has become restricted to the privileged class. Not so.

At PSU, 39 percent of our 29,000 students come from low-income families. Roughly one out of every three entering freshmen is the first in their family ever to attend college. Nearly 40 percent of our incoming freshmen are students of color. They come with help from PELL grants, state financial aid, family members and other sources, including student loans. These students and their families, many of whom are making tremendous sacrifices, know better than anyone that college is their ladder to a successful career.

They and their classmates represent the economic, cultural and civic future of Portland and Oregon. The vast majority, 80 percent, will remain in the area after graduation to join the workforce, start new companies, teach our school children, raise families and become part of the social fabric of this wonderful place. Local companies and organizations, from Intel to OHSU, hire more graduates from PSU than from any other college.

Oregon’s universities are not isolated bubbles of learning and academia. At PSU, we require all students to spend time in the community working on projects or working as interns in businesses, schools, nonprofits or government organizations. They gain invaluable experience, and we as a region benefit from their sweat equity. On a yearly basis, our students put in an estimated 1.1 million volunteer hours, which translates to $26.8 million in value to the community. That’s truly how, as our motto says, we “let knowledge serve the city.”

As PSU has grown on Portland’s south Park Blocks, we have established ourselves as an essential partner in the region’s economy. Not only are we educating future leaders, we also are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars annually into local coffers. Our faculty brings in more than $66 million a year in federal research dollars. And while 78 percent of our students are Oregonians, we educate thousands of out-of-state and international students, who spend an estimated $241.5 million a year locally.

All told, economists peg PSU’s impact at around $1.4 billion a year. Add in the contributions made by the University of Oregon, Oregon State and the four regional universities and it’s impossible to deny the positive difference we are making in Oregon.

In my time here, we have done all we can to shore up PSU’s financial strength: We tripled private fund-raising; we struck a $25 million development deal with the city to modernize our campus; we forged a coalition with local businesses to raise local revenue for scholarships and student support. We also have worked hard to keep costs down to the point where PSU now charges the second lowest tuition and fees among all the public universities in the state.

I believe, however, that Oregon has come to a tipping point. If we return to our historic pattern of cutting state higher education funding, we will have to raise tuition to the point where we will price out the very students who need us most. They will suffer, our universities will suffer and, ultimately, Oregon will suffer from this loss of human potential.

Other states have concluded, wisely, that healthy funding of their universities is not a subsidy but an investment in a better future. It is my deepest hope, as I prepare to leave the president’s office at PSU, that Oregon makes the same decision.

My wife, Alice, and I have grown to love this state, this city and especially this university. After taking a sabbatical in 2017, I will return as a member of the PSU faculty in the College of Urban and Public Affairs. There, I will work to ensure that Portland State and Oregon’s public universities attain even higher levels of excellence.

 

Note: This first appeared in The Oregonian, Sunday, Sept. 11

A response to The Oregonian’s editorial board

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Note: This is an op-ed I wrote with PSU Foundation Board Chair Mark Rosenbaum in response to a particularly harsh editorial in The Oregonian.

By Wim Wiewel and Mark Rosenbaum

We at Portland State University are puzzled by today’s editorial in The Oregonian that describes the pledge by local business leaders to help raise millions for PSU students as a “disaster.”

Really? Our current and future students and their families across the metro area use words like “enthusiastic” and “excited” to describe the prospect of more than $25 million a year going toward scholarships and student support such as advising and hiring faculty.

Strangely, the Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board dismisses such student benefits as “incidental.” With 70 percent of our 28,000 students dependent on financial aid to attend college, the benefits of this new college affordability coalition between PSU and business leaders should be obvious.

Many are unaware that students at PSU have greater need than their counterparts at University of Oregon and Oregon State not only because of their finances but also because PSU receives about $5,000 less per student. The disparity is driven primarily by PSU’s lower undergraduate tuition and our urban campus that draws far more metro students than out-of-state students who pay higher tuition.

Let’s be clear: We proposed a metro business tax because chronic underfunding of higher education by the state has resulted in increases in tuition, student debt and the number of students who can’t afford PSU or drop out for financial reasons. We need a long-term solution to reverse this trend.

The Portland Business Alliance recognizes our need but opposed the tax. Rather than wage an expensive and confrontational campaign, we have come together to develop an alternative that not only will support PSU but help forge deeper connections between us and the PBA’s 1,850 big and small companies in Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Clark counties.

That’s an unprecedented breakthrough that ought to be applauded by The Oregonian, as it is by political and community leaders. This is how metro Portland moves forward, in contrast to gridlock in Washington, D.C., and a campaign year already characterized by cynical attack ads and hostile rhetoric.

We recognize that this is just the beginning of what will be a long process to determine how the money will be raised. Business leaders have identified potential sources as philanthropy, a new state funding allocation based on need and an alternative regional tax. Raising $25 million a year is an ambitious goal, and it will take an ambitious partnership to get there.

Greg Ness, president and CEO of The Standard and chair of the Oregon Business Council, who will co-chair the affordability coalition, summed up the significance of the agreement: “The collective human and financial resources of all of us are better put to use solving this problem rather than engaging in a damaging and divisive political campaign.”

That makes sense. Metro business leaders depend on us to produce skilled graduates for their success. PSU generated $1.44 billion into the local economy last year. More than 100,000 PSU alumni live and work in the metro area. They are scientists and engineers at Intel, designers at Nike, physicians and nurses at OHSU, teachers in metro schools, tech startup innovators and small business owners.

From a personal standpoint, both of us have worked for years to build public support and increase private giving for PSU. We welcome the challenge of working for another year or two with business to make this commitment a reality. Our students and our community depend on it.

New coalition to raise millions for PSU

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I am pleased to announce that Portland State University and regional business leaders have joined ranks to raise millions of dollars annually for PSU scholarships and student success measures.

We have formed the College Affordability and Success Coalition, which I will co-chair along with Greg Ness, chairman, president and CEO of The Standard. Working together, Greg, I and other Coalition members will develop a plan to raise a minimum of $25 million a year dedicated to need-based scholarships and other forms of student support.

This agreement is an important breakthrough for the university and the region. A citizens group had begun gathering signatures for a metro area business tax that would have raised money for the same purpose. Because of this agreement, the committee is suspending the campaign to focus on this new initiative.

Chronic underfunding of higher education by the state has resulted in tuition increases, more student debt and a growing number of students who either can’t afford to attend PSU or drop out for financial reasons. We need a long-term solution, and today is a step toward that goal.

The Coalition is made up of prominent business leaders from the Portland region and University supporters. Please join me in supporting the Coalition and this effort to make college affordable to more local students.

Tough but necessary decision on tuition hike

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The PSU Board of Trustees last week approved a tuition and fee increase for next year. While it troubles me as much as anyone that the cost of higher education continues to rise, it’s helpful to put this latest increase in perspective.

The increase, 3.77 percent for resident undergraduates, is necessary to balance PSU’s budget in the face of rising costs, including additional staff and operating costs, salaries and benefits – traditional cost drivers at any university. Without an increase, we would be looking at budget cuts of nearly $6 million. Cuts of that size obviously would be painful and hurt our goal of increasing student success.

PSU has worked hard to keep tuition hikes reasonable. Since 2011, resident undergraduate tuition has increased by an average of 2.2 percent annually. The cost of attending most other public universities in Oregon has been going up more. With our new tuition rates, only Eastern Oregon University is lower.

Nonetheless, the continued escalation is bound to have an impact on the ability of Oregonians to go to college and get a degree. That is why our new strategic plan calls on us to find innovative and strategic new ways to contain costs and raise revenue.

Measures include the streamlining of processes developed as part of reTHINK PSU; the comprehensive fundraising campaign; and our continued advocacy with the Legislature and Higher Education Coordinating Committee.

We will keep you informed on all these efforts and welcome other suggestions.