After the failure by state-level politicians in Salem during the short legislative session to disconnect from two-thirds of the devastating impacts of HR1, about $600M a year will be removed from state revenue for the next six years. This will directly exacerbate the state-wide funding crisis in public higher ed, leading to additional layoffs and a worsening of learning and teaching conditions. This led the PSU-AAUP Legislative and Political Action Committee to recommend and the Executive Council to endorse the following challengers for the May 19th primary races: Tammy Carpenter, David Osborn, Evelyn Kocher, Myrna Muñoz, and John Wasliewski. These pro-worker, pro-revenue endorsements mirror PCCFFAP’s endorsements and point to a growing sense in academic labor that crisis levels of funding are no longer acceptable.

A decade of austerity, the underwhelming short legislative session, and the invocation of retrenchment have left PSU-AAUP members looking for political champions to help Oregon rise from the bottom of the U.S. in public university funding. Because PSU’s President is unwilling to seek new funding, members are taking on the political work of improving learning conditions in Oregon. As up to 216 layoffs impact 19 departments at Oregon’s leading access institution, a new, pro-worker politics is needed to end Oregon’s long emergency of higher ed funding.

Following legislators’ enactment of regressive policy like Measures 5 and 50, Oregon fell to 46th on investment per student in its public universities. Legislative leaders should be bold and treat higher education as a public good for Oregonians, alleviating tuition pressures on students by raising the revenue required to implement high-quality postsecondary education. Because of failed state investment, students have disproportionately borne the burden of higher ed funding through 12 straight years of tuition increases.

You can help us elect political champions of a well-funded PSU through voting for our political champions and signing up for a canvass shift below before the May 19th primary.

Myrna Muñoz – Senate District 15