Two of Oregon's largest public universities are considering double-digit tuition increases this fall, moves with the potential to affect more than 24,000 in-state students.

The University of Oregon's governing board on Thursday approved a plan to raise in-state tuition for undergraduate students by 10.6 percent this fall, the largest increase since the 2010 academic year. Portland State University may be looking at a comparable increase.

The moves would translate into hundreds of dollars for each full-time student. A full-time student at PSU would have to shell out an additional estimated $700 a year for tuition, to $7,722. At UO, the annual tuition would climb by $945, to $9,855.

Neither proposal includes potentially costly increases to student fees or the cost of food or housing.

Michael Schill, UO's president, said he regretted the size of the increase. But he and other presidents said the blame rests squarely with Salem. "The state should provide additional resources to enable [students] to go to college -- and not to have to tap their parents and not to have to work 35-hours a week."

Gov. Kate Brown's recommended budget calls for flat-funding for the universities, the same $667 million allocated in the 2015-17 biennium. The universities have pushed for and additional $100 million to keep tuition increases in the single digits.

PSU's president, Wim Wiewel, said the schools are in a bind. "We, again, hope if we get that $100 million that we're asking for collectively, that we could keep it below 5 percent," he said of the school's tuition proposals.

"But we will also be close to 10 percent. There's no other way to deal with the cost increases."

Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission would need to approve any tuition increases over five percent. The volunteer board will discuss the matter in May.

Two years after legislators approved a 22 percent increase in operating cash for the state's seven public universities, the afterglow from what had been the largest increase in 20 years is long gone.

In Eugene, students testifying before the Board of Trustees described the everyday financial hardships a $945 tuition hike would bring. Students would work more hours, take fewer courses and, if it's even an option, lean more on their parents to help pay the tuition.

Maria Slade, a freshman from the Portland area, said her educational future was "teetering on a precipice" and that her father would now have to put off retirement until his 70s to help pay her education. "You're making it incredibly hard to keep the faith," she told the trustees.

But the real target of ire for many was an hour up the road in Salem.

With lawmakers facing an estimated $1.6 billion revenue shortfall, universities are back in a familiar position of pleading for more money.

Natalie Fisher, a UO student government representative, said she'd hit her debt limit. She said more than 1,000 students signed a letter to the state's top budget writers urging them to do more.

"They cannot continuously, every year, use our tuition to be a catalyst to not have to fund higher education," Fisher said, "because we cannot afford it anymore."

Oregon continues to pull its way out of the basement in terms of support to public universities. On Saturday, Higher Education Coordinating Commission Executive Director Ben Cannon said the state received an early look at the latest rankings set to be released this spring and Oregon ranks 37th. For years, Oregon ranked in the bottom five.

But the universities say the various budget plans floated by Gov. Kate Brown and the Joint Ways and Means Committee co-chairs don't go far enough to offset the cost of inflation, faculty and staff salary increases and pension and medical plan obligations.

Next year alone, UO estimates its obligations to pay retired employees through the Public Employees Retirement System to be $7.1 million.

The UO plan levies a 3 percent increase on out-of-state residents, which amounts to the same $975 tuition bump for a full-time in-state student. UO kept the out-of-state rate increase lower because it didn't want the $32,535 annual price tag for out-of-staters - already in the middle of the pack when compared with peer institutions - to go much higher.

Out of state students account for 62 percent of the UO's tuition revenue.

In addition to the tuition increases, UO will shave nearly $9 million from programs and salaries on campus. Earlier this week, a faculty union said more than 70 non-tenured faculty positions would not be renewed. The university hasn't made those decisions yet.

In a memo Feb. 28 to school deans, Schill said the moves would for some departments "mean reducing labor costs, reexamining workloads, reducing some course offerings, and even cancelling programs or putting programs on hiatus."

UO is leaving the door open to raising tuition as little as 5 percent, if the state elects to chip the additional $100 million.

Other schools are leaving some wiggle room in case the Legislature goes above and beyond the budget proposals.

In Corvallis, the state's largest university is ordering cuts of 2 to 4 percent across all departments to try and meet a $20 million shortfall. While UO saw its enrollment decline this year, OSU continues to grow. The school has more than 25,784 students on its Bend and Corvallis campuses, plus thousands more studying online.

Steve Clark, OSU's spokesman, said the administration will present its board with tuition options this month; they range from 4 to 8 percent for in-state students.

"We're finding ways to make it work for Oregon students," Clark said, citing the school's diverse revenue stream of online, on-campus and hybrid models -- in which students take some courses online and in person.

But some schools are saying it's too soon to know how much tuition will increase, given the uncertainty in Salem.

Chris Broderick, Portland State University's associate vice president for communications, said the school is waiting for more information. "Even by April 11, we likely won't know, but we'll know more than we do now," he said.

Oregon Institute of Technology is still analyzing its budget but is considering a double-digit increase. In January, Western Oregon University's board tentatively recommended a plan to raise tuition rates between 5 and 10 percent.

Southern Oregon University in Ashland is projecting anywhere from a 10 to 12 percent increase.

Eastern Oregon University, the state's smallest, is looking at just a 5 to 7 percent bump.

The state university system has more than 102,000 full and part-time students. Community colleges are also looking at tuition increases.

UPDATE: This story was updated to reflect the fact Oregon no longer ranks in the bottom five for state support to higher education. According to new rankings set to be released later this year, Oregon ranks 37th.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen