QuickTake:

University of Oregon officials said they will work with stakeholders over the next six months to decide how to balance its budget, UO President Karl Scholz announced Monday.

The University of Oregon will need to cut roughly $65 million from its budget, UO President Karl Scholz announced Thursday, May 14.

Scholz wrote in a university-wide email that UO will need to make cuts over an unspecified amount of time to “avoid an ongoing annual budget deficit in the coming years” due in part to “significantly lower” out-of-state first-year enrollment and tuition revenue. The university is freezing hiring and “pay action” and limiting nonessential travel effective immediately, he said.

Instead of taking “smaller steps matching short-run expenses with revenues,” which could result in another round of cuts next year, UO should take a “different path” by identifying “clear, long-term solutions to address root causes,” Scholz wrote. 

“We need to take this opportunity to refocus the UO on how to deliver on our mission differently and put us on a path to be a stronger, more competitive, and more resilient university,” Scholz wrote. 

The university laid off 60 employees last fall, including career faculty members, as part of a  $29.2 million budget reduction for fiscal year 2025-26, which ends June 30. Three of those layoffs were rescinded in March following union arbitration. The new budget gap is more than twice as large.

Tuition revenue accounts for about 80% of UO’s education and general fund — the university’s main operating budget — which, last fiscal year, was about $119.7 million.

Out-of-state students, who pay roughly three times more in tuition than in-state students, accounted for about 44% of undergraduates this academic year. That number has remained relatively steady over the last several years. Next academic year’s enrollment data is not yet available online, but admitted students had to submit deposits by May 1.

In September, Vice President for Enrollment Management Derek Kindle predicted that this recruitment cycle would be “one of the toughest” in his more than 20 years in the field.

UO faces an imbalance between admittance and enrollment that is worsened by regional competition, like California’s public university system, for students on the West Coast, Kindle said at the time.

Scholz said officials will work with the University Senate, along with other “key university partners,” over the next six months, to explore “academic and administrative approaches” that allow UO to be “nimble, disciplined, and focused on strengths.”

The following two principles will guide its decision-making, Scholz said.

  • “We will elevate and invest in research strengths that can meet the needs of our communities and industry, attract the best talent, and differentiate this university. We will hire strategically, with a view to make the UO known for leadership and excellence in specific areas of research.”
  • “We will invest in the quality of the student experience and make the University of Oregon a destination of choice for more students.”

The university may also seek philanthropic and donor support in its upcoming capital campaign, Scholz said.

Scholz said no final decisions will be made over the summer. During last year’s budget season, some faculty and staff felt the university’s financial decision-making lacked transparency, in part because budget conversations took shape over the summer, when many employees weren’t present on campus.

Faculty and staff who were promised pay raises in September will still receive them, Scholz wrote. He said he plans to update the community about the budgeting process in midsummer, midfall and “toward the end of” the fall term.

“The work ahead will not be easy, but it is the work to which I am committed,” Scholz said. “I am confident in the creativity, resolve, and resourcefulness of this community and how we will meet this moment.”

Last year’s budget cuts were widely seen as less severe than anticipated. UO’s faculty union previously thought layoffs could include the elimination of entire programs, like religious studies; Russian, East European and Eurasian studies; German and Scandinavian; and classics.

Scholz’s budget update on Thursday suggests that more sweeping measures, like program eliminations, could be back on the table.

“This is extremely disturbing news,” Jeff Schroeder, an associate professor of religious studies, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield in a Thursday email. “I am afraid this is going to lead to many more devastating layoffs.”

He said he was surprised by the budget announcement; faculty had heard enrollment numbers were “not looking good,” but didn’t know the “extent of the problem.”

Cutting academic programs, faculty and support staff was university officials’ “first instinct” during last summer’s budget shortfall, he said. Scholz and trustees should instead take a “hard look” at “administrative bloat,” Schroeder added.

“We keep adding more and more administrators while failing to invest in the academic mission of our university,” Schroeder said.

The university didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment and additional information surrounding the timeline and nature of cuts.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as metro editor, senior news editor and editor in chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.