The following message is forwarded on behalf of Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean -

October 7, 2009

Colleagues:

Welcome back. I am sure you have noticed in your classes that the students did, indeed, show up! It is wonderful to have the campus alive again.

We have just returned from the State Board of Higher Education meeting in Klamath Falls. The system allocated UO $64M for this year. That is down from $80M last year before the rescissions. But it is $2M more than had been predicted a couple of weeks ago. All in all, while we received the largest percentage cut in the system, we were not treated unfairly.

From the beginning we have stressed the importance of protecting our people. You are our most important asset. There have been no institutional layoffs due to the economic crisis and none are planned at this time.

The Deans and Vice Presidents received their final budgets for FY10 today. The state cuts have meant that we can only fund approximately one half of the appropriate increment for student growth. We understand that this means larger classes and a bit more difficulty getting classes the students want. We did very well last year in accommodating the surge thanks to the incredible efforts of faculty and staff, and hope that there is a bit more capacity out there. We also announced a 2.5% across the board cut to all units. We had predicted a cut of this magnitude since last spring and many units have planned efficiencies to prepare for it.

Our current challenges are: first, we have very low reserves due to the rescissions last year. We are currently below board policy guidelines. That means we need to build up those reserves before any further investments. We have a plan for that. Second, in late January there will be a statewide election to overturn the tax increases on business and the wealthy passed by the legislature. If they are overturned, it will result in another significant rescission to the OUS system. At least this time we will have 18 months left in the biennium to figure it out. Last year's rescissions were done with only weeks left in the biennium. This caused the reserve problem noted above.

I hope the year is starting off well. Let me know if you questions or concerns.

Regards, Jim