Alternatives to Academic Cuts

Over the last several months, the United Academics Committee on the University Budget (UCUB) has worked to identify alternatives to academic cuts in response to UO’s projected budget deficit. As a follow-up to our previous recommendations, we are currently finalizing a report that provides a deeper dive and specific budget proposals.

In the interest of circulating these proposals while important conversations about the future of our university are happening across campus, we share with you today the Executive Summary. The full report is forthcoming.

Our initial proposals and their associated financial impacts are:

  • Redirect part of the Internal Bank and the Presidential Initiative Fund earnings to support the core academic mission;
    • up to $24.9M for FY27; potential for recurring funds;
  • Use part of E&G ending fund balance to smooth short-term budget shortfalls during this financial transition;
    • $16M one-time support;
  • Reduce the Education and General (E&G) fund support for centrally funded capital projects
    • up to $15M per year;
  • Redirect part of the UO Foundation “gift fee” on donations to support the core academic mission;
    • $1.5-2M per year;
  • Reduce UO’s spending on institutional support to a level comparable to peer institutions;
    • $18M per year.

The UO’s Mission Statement

“The University of Oregon is a comprehensive public research university committed to exceptional teaching, discovery, and service. We work at a human scale to generate big ideas. As a community of scholars, we help individuals question critically, think logically, reason effectively, communicate clearly, act creatively, and live ethically.”

QUICK ANSWERS

Who is United Academics? (The Owner of This Website!)

We are the representative of the faculty at the University of Oregon. We are a union affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers. We promote and defend quality public higher education by working together to uphold the University of Oregon’s academic and research priorities.

Where are you getting your numbers on UO’s finances?

UO is required to release certain financial data to the public on their Institutional Research website. This includes information for salaries, demographics, etc. Information about budgets and projections is found on the UO Business Affairs website. Some information about salaries of our comparators can be found in the annual Faculty Compensation Survey by the American Association of University Professors. Information about student enrollment is from UO Student Services and Enrollment Management.

We have done our best to provide accurate numbers and projections. However, UO purposefully makes it difficult to analyze the data they provide (for instance by using dashboards or providing data via pdf instead of in a spreadsheet), and so some numbers are necessarily estimates. As we get information to provide better estimates and projections we will update this page.