Report from IFS President Peter Gilkey to the State Board of Higher Education 20 February 200

I believe that higher educationcan transform people's lives. I teach vector calculus at the UO. Last year I took my family out for Pizza one Saturday night. One of my students was behind the counter. I then understood why he was always a bit tired at 0800 on Monday mornings in class having worked all weekend. He believed in the transformative benefit of higher education -- we had several long talks about why he was at the UO subsequently. An increase of `only $200 in tuitionÕ means an additional 30 hours he has to work.

My maternal grandfather was Clarence B Randall. He was the son of a poor farmer in upper state New York. When he was 18, his father sold the family farm and moved the entire family to Cambridge to became a storekeeper there so his son could go to Harvard. My grandfather ended up as CEO of Inland Steel -- in retirement, he worked as a foreign policy advisor for our government and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Kennedy. Not bad for the son of a poor uneducated farmer.

We as a faculty believe in public education. We find it a scandal that the state provides less money now to fund higher education than it did in 1988/9 - despite a growing enrollment and inflationary increases in costs. The State of Oregon is no longer paying $2 for every $1 paid in tuition; the ratio is pretty much the reverse now.

We believe public education is a public not a private good. Public education is essential -- not only to the economic development of our state but also to the intellectual development of our citizens. Access opens the door. But if there is nothing on the other side of the door, there is no point in going through that door. Access and excellence are two sides to the same job - and that job is transforming the lives of our fellow citizens.

We, the faculty of the OUS institutions, know that the members of the State Board of Higher Education share these beliefs - that is, after all, why you are giving so generously of your time and energy. We thank you for serving on the board and for sharing our dreams.