Balancing act seen for future of colleges

0 Comments | Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), September, 2003

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Higher education emerged from a bruising legislative session with a budget that not only is $75 million less than its previous allocation but also leaves universities delicately balanced on the backs of students.

The $686 million budget for 2003-05 is almost 10 percent less than what universities received in 2001-03. And students will provide 62 cents of every dollar campuses spend on education, compared to 50 cents in the previous biennium, thanks to tuition increases of up to 32 percent.

That means that universities are more dependent than ever on tuition, leaving them open to a budgetary death spiral should enrollment fail to reach expectations. If the sharp tuition hikes used to backfill the budget send...