Low enrollment is forcing the University of Oregon to slash $65 million from its budget and shutter two dorms.
“Based on our new numbers, we will need to cut around $65 million from our budget to avoid an ongoing annual budget deficit in the coming years,” President Karl Scholz recently announced to the campus community.
He primarily blamed lower out-of-state first-year enrollment, which means lower tuition revenue, and instituted a hiring and pay freeze.
Other factors cited at a June 1 Board of Trustees meeting include increased costs and a loss in grant funding.
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Could it be they finally hit the cost where parents/OOS students said “That’s too much!”?
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I’m not sure that it’s just cost. Anecdotally speaking from a school that historically had Oregon and Boulder as 2 of the most popular OOS destinations, Boulder is as popular as ever if not more so, while Oregon has seen quite a dramatic drop-off in both applicants and students enrolling compared to D19’s year, though Boulder is somewhat more expensive. (Probably not quite the same applicants, but we’ve also seen a notable increase in students going to UDub, Wisconsin and Michigan recently, none of which are cheaper or much cheaper afaik). I think it’s something UO-specific, though quite what I couldn’t say. I do know of a couple of people in prior years who went and transferred out after their first year, both having hated Eugene, but that’s a very small sample. (That said, it’s a small town with one high school and people talk…)
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That is interesting…
In my circles, I know many kids who apply and go to CU Boulder, Wisconsin, UMich, U Dub. Nobody applies to Oregon….the reputation (of various kinds - academic, social, etc) isn’t there in my circles…but the potential is probably there, but would take some time to get there… Though obviously competing with Michigan engineering or UDub CS (and engineering) is a hard path…
University of Oregon does not have engineering majors, so students interested in engineering majors will apply elsewhere.
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UO doesn’t have engineering. But if you were thinking of Oregon State, engineering there is pretty great, especially if you like car teams. They were historically the winningest team in Formula SAE for many years, and they just won Formula SAE electric for the 2nd year in a row, beating out all those other teams… 
I just had to fit that happy news in somewhere. Although we don’t have a kid at Oregon State, we always cheer it on! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
I am not sure what’s going on with UO. We do always have kids going there from our HS (Bay area CA), and this year is no exception.
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Got it.
You get the idea overall though- Michigan is world class in engineering, UDub in CS.
That is known worldwide.
U of Oregon??? Living on the other side of the country, I have no idea… blank slate beside school colors and running? Or is that Oregon State?
Need some marketing and branding. I could tell you a lot about Wisconsin and CU Boulder, though.
Anyway, I don’t think it is just tuition, is also my point. I know plenty of people who pay OOS tuition for state schools VERY normal in New England in fact. Lots of CT kids go to Umass and MA kids go to UVM or URI etc.
Football for the last few years. Nike. Environmental studies.
It’s just a nice place, but agree that some students may find it isolated and hard to get to (compared to CU or Washington) from the east coast.