Second, and very important, our state legislature decisively reversed the state's early-1990s policy of disinvestment in its public universities. Over the current biennium we will see the first significant increase in public funding in a decade. This means only that we can balance our internal budgets rather than cut them, but that knowledge itself is very welcome. I greatly appreciate what the legislative leadership has done. Although the final funding fell several million dollars short of what the Oregon University System requested, the increase still marks an absolutely critical change.
Higher education is again a clear priority in Salem, thanks to political leadership decisions.
This widely praised and innovative model will allow each Oregon public university to retain the tuition moneys generated on its campus. The model will reward those institutions that are most genuinely innovative and successful in attracting and retaining students. As you know, this is a change advocated by those who labored before me and which I have urged since I have been privileged to be president. With so much spoken for, we will not see a flood of new money washing over our campus. However, in addition to contracted wage increases for classified staff, we plan to wring from other budgetary savings as much as possible for increases for faculty salaries.