Citing financial hardship, Oregon’s thinly supported public universities are laying off professors, terminating academic departments, and telling union-represented support staff that there’s no money for raises.
Declining enrollment is one factor contributing to the budget crunch. But leaders of SEIU Local 503 say there are other factors that university top brass don’t want to talk about — an increasing share of state university budgets is going to maintain a swelling army of administrative staff and award university executives with excessive compensation.
On Aug. 12, Local 503 released a 21-page paper entitled, “The Cost of Administrative Bloat: How Administrative Excess Deepens Financial Instability in Oregon’s Public Universities.”
Authored by Local 503 bargaining director Devin Edwards and organizer Andrei Reinoso, the paper lays out evidence that inflation-adjusted administrative spending has grown dramatically across every public university since Oregon dissolved the centralized Oregon University System in 2015 and granted each of the seven state-funded universities greater autonomy.
Adjusted for inflation, administrative spending across Oregon’s seven public universities grew 155% in 10 years, from $238 million in 2014 to $398 million in 2025.
“Unfortunately, the people that have the authority to make the changes in administrative bloat are the administrators who are not choosing to address that,” said Jo Hickerson, a scientific instrument technician at Eastern Oregon University, in a press call announcing the report.
“Oregon needs to look at what kind of university system they want,” added Local 503 executive director Melissa Unger. “Do they want one where the campuses are competing and hiring more administrators? Or do they want one with seven vibrant campuses across the system with a regional infrastructure?”
Local 503 is engaged in tough bargaining with state universities over a new contract covering 4,400 university support workers like custodians and cafeteria workers, The union declared impasse Aug. 7 after the universities’ latest wage offer — annual raises of 0.5% and 1%. The two sides are now in a cooling off period after which Local 503 members could strike and/or the universities can impose their terms.
MORE Read the full report at https://bit.ly/4zu5cB4
