In a meeting disrupted by raucous student protests, Portland State University trustees voted Thursday to increase tuition and fees for resident undergraduates to more than $8,000 a year.
Two dozen protesters, some with bullhorns and signs, shut down the trustees' meeting for more than 20 minutes after several students had presented testimony to the board. The protesters marched around the trustees in a circle, chanting and clapping. Board Chairman Pete Nickerson called a recess until the protest was finished.
PSU President Wim Wiewel told trustees that the 4.23 percent increase, coupled with $4.7 million in cuts, was necessary to balance the budget -- unless the Legislature boosts funding this summer, as Oregon's seven public universities have asked.
"To have to raise tuition is very difficult," trustee Christine Vernier said. "We absolutely need more state funding."
Public university presidents say that each university faces a similar budget crunch unless the Legislature comes through with $755 million, an amount that would restore funding per student for the 2015-2017 biennium to 2007 levels for all seven institutions. Students oppose tuition hikes in an era of unprecedented debt, high textbook prices and rising living expenses.
"If the state were to give us what we're collectively asking, we could definitely lower the requested tuition increase," Wiewel said during an interview Thursday with The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com.
But Wiewel (pronounced VEE-vell) said PSU would have to raise tuition by 9 percent, assuming no cuts, if the universities instead received the $670 million included in the Ways and Means co-chairs' current budget proposal.
About 200 Portland State University students and supporters held a rally at noon Thursday in front of PSU's library, where trustees had scheduled their quarterly meeting at 1 p.m.
Speaking through a bullhorn, freshman Deanna Baldwin, of Boise, Idaho, said, "I feel like my dream is being taken away from me for reasons I don't even see."
Freshman Robyn Belmont held a sign saying, "I am not an ATM." Belmont, 19, an international studies major from Scranton, Penn., has scholarship money to help pay out-of-state tuition, which is $23,319 this year.
"I wouldn't be able to go here if I didn't have scholarships," Belmont said.
PSU tuition
Tuition and fees for full-time resident undergraduates
2010-11: $7,130
2011-12: $7,764
2012-13: $7,653
2013-14: $7,794
2015-16: $8,124
Source: PSU
Out-of-state and graduate tuition will rise 3 percent under the plan approved Thursday by the board. Tuition and fees for fulltime resident undergraduates will rise from $7,794 to $8,124 for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Seattle native Sasha Krotova, a master's degree candidate in social work, held a bright yellow sign at the protest saying: "According to my calculations, I will have my student loans paid off five years after I die."
Krotova's classmate, Bianetth Valdez, from Austin, Texas, came up with the sign's wording. She said that a social worker's average expected annual income is $50,000. Her debt will amount to $100,000 once she graduates.
"So my debt will be double my expected income," Valdez said.
The students waved signed and chanted, "Education is our mission; stop increasing our tuition." Some faculty and staff joined the demonstration in support of the students.
During the interview before the rally, Wiewel defended the need for a tuition increase.
"I'm very sympathetic about the student concerns about this," Wiewel said. "In the end it's the responsibility of the board, and my responsibility as president, to make sure the institution has a balanced budget and long-term viability, and that requires increasing tuition as well as continued cuts."
Wiewel said that PSU's resident undergraduate tuition increased 9.3 percent from 2011 to 2015. During the same period, university salaries and wages increased 15 percent, and PERS benefits costs jumped 65 percent, he said.
"As salaries and benefits continue to go up, we have to raise tuition a similar amount unless the state comes in with significantly more money," Wiewel said. "Revenues and expenditures have to be in balance, otherwise you go broke."
Students are also flocking to the state's seven public universities, increasing both tuition revenue and costs. Since 2007, enrollment has grown by 25 percent, from 82,214 to 103,074, adding enough students to populate another large university.
Average tuition and fees at Oregon's public universities have increased 41 percent between 2007 and 2014, from $5,928 to $8,391.
At the University of Oregon, students also protested recently when the Board of Trustees approved a tuition hike. That increase will boost tuition next year to about $8,500 for in-state students and $30,240 for out-of-state students.
At PSU, the 4.23 percent increase will necessitate $4.7 million in cuts from the university's budget, Wiewel said. A process for determining what will be cut has yet to occur, he said.
The trustees' vote approving the increase was 10-2. Voting no were trustees Sho Dozono and Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats, the student representative on the board. Trustee Fariborz Maseeh was absent.
rread@oregonian.com
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