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Reno urges better aid for SOU Proposed per-student budgeting would add dependence on tuition By PETER WONG SALEM -- If Southern Oregon University is to compete for students and their tuition, its president says the Oregon Legislature will have to reverse a decade-long trend of reducing state support. SOU President Stephen Reno said Tuesday that the university system's proposed shift to per-student budgeting will make each of the seven campuses more dependent on student enrollment and income from tuition. "As a result of this new model, we will be acting much like private colleges do," he testified at a legislative budget hearing. "Admissions will no longer be solely the function of the admissions office. Recruitment and retention will be everybody's business, because they will have direct relationships to the nature and funding of our institutions." The Legislature's joint budget subcommittee on education is considering the higher education budget through April 22. State aid from the tax-supported general fund has declined, and tuition has soared to offset those cuts during the past decade. But Gov. John Kitzhaber has proposed to boost state support by $75 million more than is needed to maintain programs in the next two years. Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, wants to add $25 million to Kitzhaber's request. Much of that money is for the system's transition from traditional lump-sum budgeting, under which the state Board of Higher Education pooled tuition and state aid and set a budget for each campus. Under per-student budgeting, each campus will get to keep the money it generates in tuition, and its state aid will be linked to the numbers and types of students it enrolls. If the Legislature approves Kitzhaber's recommended budget, SOU's budget would increase by 4.3 percent. For each student it enrolls, combined tuition and state aid would be $6,742. The system average is $7,879. Figures for other campuses are higher because they offer more science and technical programs. The most prominent feature in both budget proposals is the inclusion of $15.3 million to continue a freeze on undergraduate tuition for Oregon residents. SOU's tuition has risen from $608 per term in 1990-91 to $1,015 per term in 1996-97; it has been frozen there two years. Without the continuation, SOU's tuition would increase by 5.25 percent to $1,068 per term next year, and again to $1,124 per term in 2000-01. Reno said prospective students and their parents are smart shoppers, looking carefully at academic programs, campus buildings and technology. "When prospective students are looking at our campuses, average is not good enough," he said. "Average is not competitive." Dave Frohnmayer, a Medford native and president of the University of Oregon, said he thinks the political tide has turned toward support of higher education. "For a time this decade, I thought Oregon was breaking its promise," he said. "But more than any other Legislature in recent memory, I believe that you are aware of this promise -- and I hope you possess the fortitude to care." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA