[Uosenate] HB 4124 - Do not be Hasty, HECC is unlikely to save us

[Jerry Rosiek]

Hello everyone,

Jerry Rosiek, Faculty Senator from the College of Education.

I want to reply to Dr. McVay's argument, which is similar to an argument made by Dr. Garcia-Caro at last night's Senate meeting.

I believe we should oppose HB4124.

The primary reason being offered for endorsing HB4124 seems to be dissatisfaction with the Board of Trustees' fiscal oversight of the university.  This is a valid dissatisfaction.

However, the premise seems to be that where faculty governance is concerned, the Board of Trustees system is hopeless and anything would be better.  Proponents of HB4124 seem to presume HECC would be more responsive to UO faculty concerns about the budget.  I see no evidence or reason to believe that this would be so.

There are, however, reasons to believe it would not be so.  1) This would be a reversion to a centralized form of board oversight that did not respond well to the needs of UO and UO faculty in the past.  2) HECC is responsible for serving a much larger group of institutions and therefore in their deliberations UO faculty needs would be competing with the needs of WOU, EOU, SOU, PSU, and OIT faculty and programs.  HECC has historically had a very egalitarian approach to supporting Oregon's higher education institutions, treating them all as the same, not recognizing UO's distinctive status as a leading research institution.  3) There is reason to believe this bill was motivated by a desire to find a way to protect institutions like SOU, EOU, and WOU from fiscal exigency—this could come at UO's expense, or the expense of some UO programs.  4) If the Bill passes what we are most likely to see is a muddle of Board and HECC oversight that would be more difficult for faculty to navigate and influence, not a clear and transparent system responsive to our voice.

The real questions is not just whether we are frustrated with our current Board of Trustees, but whether we feel we have a better chance to influence UO's board of Trustees or HECC.  Since UO's Trustees are charged with serving the interests of UO alone, this seems like the better option for those interested in enhancing the influence of UO faculty on our fiscal governance , however recalcitrant they are.  It is not a great option, but it is better than putting that fiscal management even further away from our institution.

Our Board of Trustees is still very young.  And the efforts of our Union and our Senate to influence the composition of that board are also very young—arguably it has only recently gotten underway.  Letting our frustration with the current board cause us to rush to embrace HECC and HB4124 seems short sighted in my opinion. It is the "hasty" option.  In the effort to ensure some reasonable faculty input into UO's fiscal management, I believe we should be playing the long game--which would be sticking with current local governance processes and trying to make them work for us.

Jerry Rosiek
Senator, College of Education

________________________________
From: uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> on behalf of Annie McVay <amcvay at uoregon.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 11:00 AM
To: uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: [Uosenate] HB 4124 - Do not be Hasty, We Need Financial Oversight

Good Morning All,

I urge everyone to not make a hasty decision.

HB 4124 is essentially adopting the oversight of the OUS system<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_University_System__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSDacidPt$>, which was how Oregon public universities operated before the Board of Trustees.

My SEIU 085 President works on the HECC, and the call for faculty to quickly rule this as a negative HB seems very hasty. I'm also concerned that this "no vote" is being pushed at the behest of the powers that be, hidden behind the concerns of "faculty governance."

We haven't seen shared governance actually solve many of the problems that are addressed in HB 4124. We already know that the Board of Trustees controls all financial aspects of UO; Resolutions and motions made about finances are merely suggestions with no real weight.

I support this HB 4124, as it's not concrete, and we do need financial oversight. We've already seen how BOT and leadership do not allocate funds appropriately, refuse to take accountability for our budget crisis or broken budget model, and instead uses layoffs and elimination of direct student support roles instead of reducing the administrative bloat or implementing fair top-down pay cuts.

Food for thought.

Sincerely,
Annie McVay<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-mcvay/__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSCPKbMTE$>, Graduate Programs Coordinator (she/hers)
School of Journalism & Communication<https://journalism.uoregon.edu/academics/graduate-programs> | 219 Allen Hall<https://map.uoregon.edu/012f2c618>
amcvay at uoregon.edu | 541.346.3394
CAT<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://local085.org/contract-action-team/__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSIuBvmAp$> | Newsletter Editor<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://local085.org/executive-board/__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSFGgaF-H$> | SEIU Local 085<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://local085.org/__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSHjm_245$>

Graduate Student Resources: SOJC Forms<https://sojcstudent.uoregon.edu/graduate/forms/> | SOJC Handbook<https://sojcstudent.uoregon.edu/graduate/student-handbook/> <https://sojcstudent.uoregon.edu/graduate/student-handbook/> | OneStop<https://graduatestudies.uoregon.edu/onestop> | Academic Calendar<https://registrar.uoregon.edu/dates-deadlines/academic> | Link Directory<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/1/16583/files/2025/11/Graduate-Student-Link-Directory-25-26.pdf__;!!C5qS4YX3!H4uFVC6p3EluBBOq5cT5byH2y6AP3RDyXdDRt0i5qTJ4H1b_BJPAvDOSOZY0EhfhpNM-ZszdNtFQSLAuXpke$>
________________________________
From: uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> on behalf of Jesus Ramos-Kittrell <jramoski at uoregon.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 4, 2026 6:57 PM
To: Dyana Mason <dmason at uoregon.edu>; uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>; uosenateexec at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenateexec at lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: Re: [Uosenate] Follow up from Meeting

Thank you so much for this email, Dyana! At this point I have my bookmarks folder looking like an encyclopedic scroll.

Jesús

Get Outlook for iOS<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aka.ms/o0ukef__;!!C5qS4YX3!BoY7nEABg27g_sqUq0Ay3-t4UJyl_Tmh7O8m1vE0ZsrqV-92eWGOT9mkQo91NJGCoHtsrsG3VnBjhhZbssvBHg$>
________________________________
From: uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> on behalf of Dyana Mason <dmason at uoregon.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 4, 2026 5:22:07 PM
To: uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>; uosenateexec at lists.uoregon.edu <uosenateexec at lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: [Uosenate] Follow up from Meeting

Colleagues,
I mentioned a couple of times during this evening's meeting that I was going to send along some information.


  1.
The flyer (attached) for the Forum next week on Immigration Issues, hosted by International Students and Scholars Services.
  2.
Here is information on the Oregon legislation, HB 4124, that we discussed.
     *
Legislation<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2026R1/Measures/Overview/HB4124__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyYxSJo52V$> (HB4124)
     *
HECC Report<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oregon.gov/highered/strategy-research/Documents/Reports/Report-Spending-and-Efficiency-in-Oregon-Public-Universities.pdf__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyY9FYbiVb$> that spurred the legislation
     *
My written testimony and other testimony<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2026R1/Committees/HED/2026-02-04-08-00/HB4124/PUB/Details__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyY2MHSaV8$>
     *
The recording of the hearing<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/mediaplayer/?clientID=4879615486&eventID=2026021023__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyY5CCWxiq$> from this morning (this bill starts about 1hr 04min in)
     *
How you can submit testimony<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2026R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB4124/Introduced__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyY2YVfLwh$> by Friday, February 6 at 8am. Select the 2/4 8am session, and select HB 4124. You can write a couple of sentences, or a full letter.
     *
Join UO Advocates<https://gcr.uoregon.edu/advocacy> for updates and opportunities to get involved.


Thank you a good discussion today.  Please feel free to share this information with anyone you think might be interested.


Dyana


Dyana Mason, MBA PhD

Director, Master’s in Nonprofit Management
Director, Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management
School of Planning, Public Policy and Management
University of Oregon

541-346-2324  |  dmason at uoregon.edu<mailto:dmason at uoregon.edu>  |www.dyanamason.com<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.dyanamason.com__;!!C5qS4YX3!EK3j5DOU_SWU1vsbRUF_pYJZEy53A--j42sqMQfX1S0nlIncxbHWJ76hNgPT6jbj2wQ9y6yur3SyY0ntCypL$>

Book an appointment: https://calendly.com/dyanamason/officehours<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/calendly.com/dyanamason/officehours__;!!C5qS4YX3!C91lBVCo2lnPk6l3tQeiYXesdtBbn3ObrB5gkQw0lxwQTDayLrDGKAYh6mOio9eL_nsRgzzzfg7gY6OrItGH$>



President of University of Oregon Senate (2025-2026)


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