University Autonomy Issue in Oregon

The current budget crisis seems to be pushing university system and campuses to press for more autonomy. Earlier posts on this blog have noted developments at the University of Wisconsin. Below is an excerpt of a report from the U of Oregon:

From Inside Higher Ed today:

…Governor John Kitzhaber and the president of the University of Oregon, Richard Lariviere, agreed Tuesday that the university would postpone for a year its push for legislation that would give it a new financing stream and an independent governing board separate and apart from the existing State Board of Higher Education. Under the agreement, which was memorialized in an exchange of letters, Lariviere said the university would throw its support behind the governor’s plan to create a single statewide board to oversee pre-K to postsecondary education.

While Kitzhaber did not openly state in return that he would fully back the university’s autonomy plan, Lariviere said in an interview Thursday that he was heartened by what university officials had heard in their discussions with the governor and his staff. “What we have received is as strong and as clear an endorsement of our ideas as we could reasonably expect at this stage,” he said…

Full article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/01/oregon_governance_debate_delayed_but_not_forestalled