EUGENE - Plans to give raises to Oregon's brightest professors to stop them from jumping to other campuses have been tabled, after legislative budget analysts said they were skeptical of the proposal.

The so-called "brain drain" has been a hot topic on campus at Oregon's seven public universities lately. The average salary and benefits package for a full professor at the University of Oregon works out to $95,327, far more than the average Oregonian makes in a year.

But it's still below the level of competing institutions: $106,518 at the University of Washington, for example, or $136,720 at the very well-funded University of California schools, according to the Boulder, Colo.-based Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

The Oregon University System had proposed setting aside $500,000 for counter-offers for top-flight professors being wooed away by other schools. The plan has Gov. Ted Kulongoski's stamp of approval but it would break Oregon's current public employee pay freeze.

In a report critical of that plan, the Legislative Budget Office noted a February survey showed that out of 1,841 tenured and tenure-track faculty, only 21 have recently left the state.

Nineteen others were believed to be in negotiation with another institution, and 26 others were identified as likely to be approached by other universities.

According to a report in Thursday's editions of The Register-Guard, legislative budget analyst Steve Bender Bender wrote: "Although the loss of highly regarded faculty is unfortunate and adversely affects the ability of OUS institutions to carry out their missions, we have not seen data to indicate that such turnover, which will always occur to some extent, has created an emergency to the institutions, or data even to show that the loss of faculty has increased as a result of the salary freeze."

Officials with the Oregon University System had planned to bring their plan before the Legislative Emergency Board this week, but will now wait until at least September. The legislative board meets between sessions to deal with emergency requests for state funding.

Because the university system has more independence than most state agencies, it has the legal authority to grant raises even though the Legislature imposed a pay freeze for the 2003-05 biennium to deal with a huge drop in state revenue.

But doing so could anger lawmakers, a risky move at a time when Kulongoski is trying to boost funding for state universities.

The Democratic governor has emerged as one of the strongest champions for the OUS in many years and is temporarily serving as the nonvoting chairman of the state Board of Higher Education.

At a recent OUS board meeting, Kulongoski said he supports the salary plan and would urge the Emergency Board to approve it. But that was before the Legislative Fiscal Office issued its report and before the secretary of state's office launched an audit of OUS to see if it has violated the salary freeze policy.

Kulongoski spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said the governor still backs the plan.

"He supports the fund because we're in the situation where we're trying to compete in the global economy, and making certain that we retain the talent that we have is extremely important," she told the Eugene newspaper.

The audit is not expected to be complete for more than a month and could have played a role in the decision to delay taking the salary plan to the Emergency Board until September. Copyright © 2004 Corvallis Gazette-Times

A plan to break the state's pay freeze and grant raises to selected professors was pulled from today's Legislative Emergency Board agenda at the governor's request, even though he previously voiced support for the plan.

The Oregon University System was prepared to go ahead with the initiative even though the Legislative Fiscal Office issued a report saying it isn't justified and violates the legislative budget plan for the biennium. OUS now plans to bring the matter to the Emergency Board in September, but it isn't clear whether it will proceed with the plan in the meantime.

OUS wants to use $500,000 from the savings it achieved by downsizing the chancellor's office to create a "fighting fund" to boost the salaries of top researchers and teachers who might otherwise leave to pursue more lucrative jobs. Faculty pay at the state's seven four-year universities lags well behind those at equivalent institutions across the country, putting them in danger of losing faculty who bring in big research grants and help boost local economies.

Because the university system has more independence than most state agencies, it has the legal authority to grant raises even though the Legislature imposed a pay freeze for the 2003-05 biennium to deal with a huge drop in state revenue. But doing so could hurt OUS down the road and further sour an already rocky relationship between legislators and higher education at a time when Gov. Ted Kulongoski is trying to mend fences and boost funding for state universities.

The Legislature's budget office has weighed in against the fighting fund. In a report on the OUS plan, budget analyst Steve Bender noted that out of 1,841 tenured and tenure-track faculty, only 21 have recently left the state, according to a survey conducted in February. Nineteen others were believed to be in negotiation with another institution, and 26 others were identified as likely to be approached by other universities.

"Although the loss of highly regarded faculty is unfortunate and adversely affects the ability of OUS institutions to carry out their missions, we have not seen data to indicate that such turnover, which will always occur to some extent, has created an emergency to the institutions, or data, even, to show that the loss of faculty has increased as a result of the salary freeze," Bender wrote in his report.

A legislative budget committee included a note in the 2003-05 OUS budget that said no money was being included for salary increases and that it "expects no such increases to be awarded."

Bender is recommending that the Emergency Board, which doles out state dollars when the legislature is not in session, find that the plan violates the instruction not to award salary increases. He also recommends that rather than grant raises, OUS should wait and report to the Joint Ways and Means Committee during the 2005 session on the effect of the salary freeze on state universities.

Bender said legislators were well aware of the faculty salary issue when they set the university system budget.

"It's not as if this is something that's come out of nowhere all of a sudden," Bender said. "The Legislature was asked during the session to exempt faculty from the salary freeze, and the (education) subcommittee said no. In such an environment, if they're going to come back and say, `We want to do this anyway,' LFO believes that they need to demonstrate that there's some kind of emergency situation, and we just didn't feel they presented evidence or data that was compelling."

But Lisa Zavala, the senior associate director of government relations for OUS, said she believes that members of the Emergency Board support the salary plan. She said outgoing OUS chief operating officer Jon Yunker has met with key members to explain the need for the fighting fund and enlist their support.

"The chief operating officer has been working with the Emergency Board and the subcommittee on the reasons for this request," she said. "I think the chief operating officer has done a very good job of working with the members so they understand the reasons behind it, so I don't think it's going to be a surprise to them by any means."

If the Emergency Board disapproves of the plan and OUS proceeds anyway, it could hurt the system when it goes before the Legislature next year to argue for its 2005-07 budget. Bender said state agencies typically do not go against the board's direction even if they have the legal authority to do so.

Also, Kulongoski has said improving relations between higher education and the Legislature is one of his top priorities. Kulongoski has emerged as one of the strongest champions for the OUS in many years and is temporarily serving as the nonvoting chairman of the state Board of Higher Education.

At a recent board meeting, Kulongoski said he supports the salary plan and would urge the Emergency Board to approve it. That was before the Legislative Fiscal Office issued its report and before the secretary of state's office launched an audit of OUS to see if it has violated the salary freeze policy, but Kulongoski spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said the governor still backs the plan.

"He supports the fund because we're in the situation where we're trying to compete in the global economy, and making certain that we retain the talent that we have is extremely important," she said.

The audit is not expected to be complete for more than a month and could have played a role in the decision to delay taking the salary plan to the Emergency Board until September.

Editorial, Pick the right fight: Higher education needs to rethink pay plan, The Register Guard, 6.27.04.

The Oregon University System is battling with both hands tied behind its back to keep elite researchers and teachers, who bring in big grants and boost local economies, from being lured away by the promise of bigger paychecks elsewhere. Look at what OUS is up against: Faculty pay at the state's seven four-year universities lags well behind scales at equivalent institutions across the country. Even worse, the state's budget crisis prompted the Legislature to order a statewide pay freeze for the 2003-05 biennium. To its credit, OUS refused to accept that nothing could be done to save its best and brightest faculty. It developed a plan to break the state's pay freeze and grant raises to selected professors by creating a $500,000 "fighting fund" from the savings it achieved through downsizing the chancellor's office. But the symbolic good the plan might do for a handful of deserving faculty will certainly be undone by the palpable ill will it will earn OUS in the Legislature and among thousands of equally deserving faculty and classified employees who'll get nothing. There are better ways to spend half a million dollars than by buying a bomb to blow up staff morale. The Legislative Fiscal Office is pointedly unconvinced that the OUS initiative is justified, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski had serious second thoughts about OUS bringing the matter to the Legislative Emergency Board this week. If unabashed higher education booster Kulongoski smells trouble on this idea, there is no shame in OUS backing away and biding its time. Right now, the Emergency Board is digesting legislative budget analyst Steve Bender's report that says OUS has overstated the problem. There's no emergency. In fact, Bender's report can't even document an increase in faculty losses following the Legislature's salary freeze. Out of 1,841 tenured and tenure-track faculty, only 21 have recently left the state, according to a survey conducted in February. Nineteen others were believed to be in negotiation with another institution, and 26 others were identified as likely to be approached by other universities. The pay raise plan flies in the face of specific guidance from the Legislature to OUS not to award salary increases in the 2003-05 budget. The education subcommittee denied a request to exempt higher education faculty from the pay freeze. If OUS decides to proceed with its plan absent Emergency Board approval, it will risk torching its bridges in Salem and driving a stake through the heart of Kulongoski's goal of improving relations between higher education and the Legislature. Without more compelling evidence than has been offered to date, the university system would be foolish to invite such antagonism for a one-time fiscal Band-Aid on an issue that has plagued Oregon higher education for decades. Add to that the plan's repugnant favoritism and systemwide morale corrosion and OUS has more than enough reason to shelve its fighting fund for now. The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon