University of Oregon trustees approve land swap for football practice facility

The University of Oregon is one step closer to building a new practice facility for the football team, and finding a new president.

Throughout two full days of meetings, the UO Board of Trustees voted on a potential land swap with Eugene where it would build the practice facility, among several other issues. The board also listened to input from university voices — staff and students — on a variety of issues.

Carol Cartwright, a senior fellow from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, gave suggestions to the board members on how to perform their duties. This evaluation is being done for all Oregon universities, overseen by the Senate Education Committee.

She advised them to get involved with the community and make appearances in university spaces. She recommended proper back-and-forth conversations with public commenters. Cartwright also suggested more thorough board member orientation and continued education and training.

"Your job as a fiduciary is to make decisions that are in the best interest of the institution over the long term, not just for the present, but thinking about long-term vitality and sustainability," Cartwright said. "It does involve balancing interests and priorities."

Land swap passes unanimously

During Thursday's finances and facilities committee session, the trustees listened to a presentation on the proposed land swap agreement with Eugene to construct a new indoor football practice facility.

About eight acres of the university’s riverfront property between the Willamette River and the railroad would be swapped with the city for about four acres that include a parking lot across the street from the Autzen Stadium complex. The new indoor practice facility will be built on those four acres.

This land near Autzen was owned by the university until the 1980s, according to UO. The administration determined the land was not needed, so it was given to Lane County and then later to Eugene.

According to the presenters, the land that is being swapped northwest of the railroad would likely not be useful for an academic classroom building. Michael Harwood, university architect, said he does not know exactly what the city plans to do with the land once acquired.It is currently designated for parkland underUO's conditional use permit.

"Frankly, there's been very little opposition that I'm aware of," Harwood said. "We had an open house out at the Science Center about two weeks ago. I had a handful of neighbors show up. It was not the normal turnout for something that's controversial — very pleasant, polite conversations, a lot of good questions that were asked... I think it's just complicated. It's not necessarily controversial, would be the way I would describe it."

The practice facility, once approved by the city, would be funded privately. The only contributions by the university are the land swap deal and staff time that goes into coordinating the project.

The FFC voted unanimously in favor of the land swap agreement. The full board gave approval on Friday.

"We think we've got a good plan," Harwood said. "It's just complicated in working with the city and getting the steps aligned. The next step would be for us to get in front of City Council, get their approval. And then there's a lot of fine-grained detail, nitty-gritty that we need to work out."

Enrollment is going up, what does it mean?

Despite enrollment numbers being down nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UO's overall enrollment saw a 2.2% increase from 2020 to 2021, leading to higher tuition revenue than the university anticipated.

Tuition and fees revenue was up $3.8 million from the expected $440.5 million to $444.3 million.

Fall 2021 saw UO's largest freshman class ever, with 4,617 students — a 17% increase from fall 2020's freshman class. The revenue was largely due to an uptick in spring enrollment and study abroad programs.

Overall, revenue was up and expenses were down.

Jamie Moffitt, senior vice president for Finance and Administration and UO chief financial officer, said staff vacancies and limited travel expenses were two big contributors to the expense decrease. However, with staffing levels increasing and more travel opportunities, expenses are projected to increase in 2022.

Despite the financial benefits of higher enrollment, Luda Isakharov, president of Associated Students of UO, highlighted some of the adverse effects from a student perspective.

Isakharov said several students have reached out to ASUO regarding their housing situations.

"The units they toured were supposed to be doubles, but then when they were registering for housing, without any warning, a lot of them ended up being triples," Isakharov said. "Now they don't know what those rooms are going to look like. Are they going to be bunk beds? How cramped are they going to be?"

Isakharov said this has caused stress for incoming students, and ASUO is trying to help them figure out their housing situations before move-in days on Sept. 22 and 23. Classes start the following week, on Sept. 27.

"We know that it's because there's a lot more students enrolled than was expected originally and there's a new dorm that's not completed," Isakharov said. "That's amazing for the university, but we just hope that in the future we can communicate this better with students in advance and also manage our enrollment in a way that we're not blindsiding students with the kind of housing they're going to be in."

A promise of continued growth

The discussion of the presidential search was brief. The board unanimously approved Board Chair Ginerva Ralph to begin the process of developing a presidential search committee. The committee, originally intended to be 19 members, has been expanded to 22.

In the meantime, interim president Patrick Phillips said he is looking forward to the next year and continuing the trajectory of the university.

He mentioned several items that he hopes to focus on this year, including finding solutions for student and staff burnout and making improvements to the state's economic development.

"This is great for me to take this year to help us achieve whatever we can in partnership, and really at the behest of the board, that is our joint role together," Phillips said during Friday's meeting. "I'm committed to advancing the strategic vision of the university."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.