Report on 21 June Meeting of the Board
Senators,

I'm appending my report on last Friday's board meeting for your information.  You might want to look at the summaries of the letter from the presidents to the strategic planning committee and of President Risser's presentation as these will give you some idea of what's being proposed in the way of "decentralization" - something we discussed at our June meeting.  If you have comments on these, let me know.  I'm not yet sure whether I'll be able to attend the July 18th retreat on strategic planning but will try; these ideas will be discussed more fully there and I'd be happy to present any faculty perspectives on decentralization if you have any.  Since IFS won't meet before then, I can't make a presentation on IFS's behalf but I can mention things I've heard from individual faculty.

I'm headed north for some sailing in Canada this coming weekend.  Have a pleasant summer.

Elaine

Report on Board Meeting 21 June 2002

The Board met at Portland State for what was to be a half-hour meeting but which ended up being an hour and half. Previous to the actual board meeting, both the System Strategic Planning and Budget/Finance Committees held meetings. I attended the very brief strategic planning committee meeting where an update on the planning process was given and a July 18 date for an all-day planning retreat was set. The budget and finance committee meeting accepted a staff-recommended rewritten policy on FCC licenses within the system, okayed the 2002-03 nonresident and graduate tuition rate adjustments and heard a report on the state of the budget at OSU which is apparently in good shape at this time.

As is the usual order of these meetings, the two committees then met as the Joint Budget & Finance and System Strategic Planning Committee. During this meeting, President Frohnmayer presented a letter from all the institution presidents to the System Strategic Planning Committee. The presidents asked the Board to consider several specific actions and recommendations (and I quote from the letter):

To achieve these, the presidents requested that changes be made in governance, financing and regulation of the system, which they listed as: The letter concludes by saying that details must be worked out and that these suggested changes should be discretionary as not all institutions may want to embrace all changes.

President Risser also made a presentation on the relationships among university interests, state government interests and market interests and the role the system plays in balancing these interests. He offered a set of system design changes to achieve the best balance that includes university-governing boards that would oversee each institution and delineates the role of the Board and the ChancellorÕs office.

The main item of business at the joint meeting was to approve a set of budget priorities for 2003-05 so that staff in the ChancellorÕs office can build that budget within the guidelines set by the Board. Interestingly, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) requires preparation of a budget and also preparation of budgets showing 10%, 20% and 30% cuts from that budget. He noted that the institutions also had a set of priorities for this biennium which he broke into two categories: funding priorities and organizational priorities. Conditions that challenge OUS and at the same time provide some opportunities, according to Anderes, involve: Finally, Vice Chancellor Anderes proposed a set of priorities for 2003-05, broken broadly into 4 categories: He expanded briefly on each. These would be the needs addressed by the dollar figures submitted to DAS in September. Costs attaching to these priorities could run up to $200 M which, I think, no one believes OUS could expect. More careful funding estimates will be developed before the July Board meeting when the budget will be finalized. A fair amount of discussion followed among the Board members. Bill Williams sought an explicit entry showing ÒnegativeÓ funding for expense management efforts in support of the Òcost-effective operationsÓ priority as there is no easy way to see where that priority is being addressed. John Moseley (UO provost) commented that there are no more expense management efforts to be made at UO that wonÕt cut programs theyÕve made all the Òaround-the-edgesÓ cuts they can. Director Wustenberg reiterated what sheÕs said before: budget priorities should be focussed on studentsÕ education; if funding is tight, then things like meeting state economic development efforts and funding public services should be curtailed. Finally, the Board agreed to the proposed priorities with the caveat that they could change them when they saw actual figures suggested for each at the July meeting. Informational presentations on the effects of tuition increases and financial aid in Oregon and on the capital construction budget followed. The Board wanted the information on tuition and financial aid to help in determining what tuition increases will be sought; most institutions have set proposed tuitions for 2002-03 which will be ratified at the July meeting. Because some of the increases exceed the 3% maximum set by the legislature, requests will have to go to the E-Board. The capital construction budget a request separate from the instruction/other priorities request falls into four categories: projects to support education, auxiliary projects, student-fee projects and systemwide projects. The request for 2003-05 is about $1,100,000 of which just over 50% would come from the state and the remainder from the individual institutions, through bonds and other sources. The OUS is also seeking legislative authority to ask voters to approve $500 million in bonds to cover deferred maintenance. The regular Board meeting got underway nearly an hour and a half late (and ended a few minutes early because of a fire alarm in the building). The board accepted the nominating committeeÕs slate of officers for 2002-03: Jim Lussier will be the president and Leslie Lehman will be the vice-president. Roger Bassett will chair the System Strategic Planning committee and Don VanLuvanee and Bill Williams, the Budget and Finance Committee. It was announced the Geri Richmond has been reappointed to the Board and that Ian Ruder, a student at PSU, will replace Tim Young as a student member. The Board ratified the actions of the earlier Joint Committees meeting and the actions taken by the Executive Committee in May pro forma for the Board. Two people offered input during the public input portion of the meeting the first time since IÕve been attending Board meetings. Both urged the Board not to delay the implementation of the PASS (Proficiency Based Admissions) or to make these standards merely added support for admissions. At its February meeting, the Board decided to delay making PASS a requirement for admission in 2003-04; meeting those standards would just be an enhancement to a studentÕs application. The speakers indicated that such standards are needed to bolster high schoolsÕ demands for higher performance from students. Moreover, a great deal of time and effort have been invested in developing the standards and training teachers to assess students against those standards; that effort shouldnÕt be wasted, the speakers said.
Web page spun on 23 June 2002 by Peter B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:peter.gilkey.cc.67@aya.yale.edu of Deady Spider Enterprises