Realigning priorities, resources and budgets to support OSU’s mission and strategic plan

Jan. 21, 2025

Dear OSU Colleagues:

A year ago, we launched a new strategic plan that seeks to advance our mission boldly and distinctively while simultaneously building OSU’s financial strength in a challenging higher education landscape. We are now one year into implementing the plan and much is underway in support of its vision, including improvements in research infrastructure, administrative systems, academic program development, and student success. We’re also making excellent progress on our $1.75 billion fundraising and engagement campaign.

Undergirding this work and more are the university’s financial resources. We are fortunate to be operating from a position of strength in comparison to many of our peers, as the university has seen robust enrollment growth and associated tuition earnings. However, funding from the state is not meeting OSU’s continuing service levels and our overall costs are outpacing revenues. This is neither unexpected nor unusual, given the national higher education landscape, inflationary trends, funding and demographic trends in Oregon, affordability pressures on students, and a need to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive research environment.

To address this situation and beginning with the development of the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, we are asking all colleges and administrative units to develop budget plans that span a period of three years and consider alternative budget reduction and realignment scenarios. This scenario planning will inform an overall university budget that builds financial resilience, creates better capacity to handle unexpected contingencies without disrupting unit allocations in any given year, and fund strategic investments that advance research, student success and public engagement goals.

The process and decisions that result will be guided by the following principles:

  • Students first, prioritizing the needs of students and their academic success, and providing an equitable environment that ensures well-being, learning and timely graduation.
  • Valuing employees, striving to minimize impacts to existing employees and supporting strategic workforce planning.
  • Strategic goals and financial resiliency, aligning resources with OSU’s strategic goals while building financial strength and maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
  • University engagement, harnessing expertise across the OSU community to make well-informed decisions and providing transparent and timely communications.
  • Shared commitments, ensuring that decisions at all levels are made collaboratively and reflect the collective priorities of our community.

Ultimately our goal is to ensure we’re doing everything possible for every student to graduate, making impactful discoveries and fueling a thriving economy and world.

Information about what to expect in the budget setting process is available on this webpage. More detailed information regarding the timing and process for budget scenario planning will be shared with units by the Office of Budget and Resource Planning this week.

Sincerely,

Edward Feser

Provost and Executive Vice President

Carla Ho’ā
Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer