Extension, experiment stations at risk

‘Devastating’ cuts considered as OSU faces budget ax

Mitch Lies
Capital Press

April 2, 2009

SALEM - Oregon State University Extension Dean Scott Reed has worked through economic downturns and the property tax limitations that came with the 1990 passage of Measure 5. Never has he seen the extension service as at risk as it is today.

"(Measure 5) changed the face of public education in Oregon, but not in the devastating way we see today," Reed said.

Oregon legislators recently asked Reed, other Oregon University System leaders and state agency heads to provide budgets with 30 percent cuts.

Reed said the cuts could cost extension 45 of its 220 full-time faculty.

Lawmakers are using the cut lists to offset a state revenue shortfall that could reach $5 billion in the May revenue forecast.

Previously, agency heads and OSU leaders proposed budgets with up to 20 percent cuts in state funding.

The new directive puts whole degree programs at risk in the College of Forestry, according to Hal Salwasser, dean of the forestry college and director of the Oregon Forest Research Laboratory.

"We don't have any more places to cut without affecting faculty that are delivering degree programs," Salwasser said. "It means changing the organizational structure."

The Oregon Forest Research Laboratory received about $7 million in state funds for the 2007-09 biennium. Losing 30 percent would lop $2.1 million off its state support.

Bill Boggess, acting director of the OSU Experiment Station, said he is looking at shutting down two experiment stations under the 30 percent cut scenario.

"We're down 20 percent FTE (full-time equivalent) since 2000, so there is not a lot of fat there," Boggess said. "You take another 20 or 30 percent out in one bite, then something has got to go."

"We've taken a little bit off all the stations already - to the point where it's not financially viable to keep them open," he said.

In addition to losing state dollars, the statewide public services are in danger of losing federal dollars the state funds leverage, the statewide leaders said.

Boggess said the experiment station typically leverages $1.50 in matching federal and local funds for each $1 the state provides. Extension and Forest Research generate similar returns, according to Reed and Salwasser.

Reed said his primary focus at this point is keeping in place extension's core programs.

"We are focusing on maintaining our core faculty so that we have a foundation to rebuild from," he said.

Core programs in extension include agriculture, forestry, 4-H, families and communities and sea grants, he said.

Reed said extension also is looking to conduct more online and virtual education to cut costs.

"That will help us gain efficiencies over the face-to-face environment that has defined our past," he said.

Bill Braunworth, Oregon State University Extension agriculture program leader, said the cuts are adding insult to injury for some hard-hit county extension services, such as Polk County.

"We're going to do all we can to be as efficient as possible to bring in other funds," Braunworth said. "But there is a limit as to how far we can remedy a large reduction from the state."

Lawmakers are using the "cut lists" as guideposts in developing the state's 2009-11 budget.

Staff writer Mitch Lies is based in Salem. E-mail: mlies@capitalpress.com.