Bill Graves’ article "State university leaders get raises" in the 7/12/08 Oregonian reports that the Board of Higher Education approved salary increases of 4% to 6.5% for six of the Oregon University System presidents (OIT’s president was not listed). The combined salaries of these six presidents will be $1,788,120. And all get additional forms of other compensation. This, along with what we pay for the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is what we pay for our public educational leadership in Oregon.
Each of these presidents has a difficult job. Trying to run Oregon’s higher educational system with inadequate resources is not easy. So all these educational leaders deserve our respect for their efforts. But these are Oregon’s highest paid educational leaders and we must look to them for leadership, not only for higher education but for our K-12 system as well. They set the tone and articulate the priorities. Yet, they are all overlooking one of our most important educational priorities and failing us on a vital national security issue: preparing our next generations for the opportunities, threats and challenges that a rising China poses. That the Board of Higher Education does not hold them accountable on this issue is disturbing.
The three major Oregon public universities testified before the Oregon House Education Subcommittee on Higher Education on 2/14/07 on their involvement in China. And, while the universities have many faculty engaged in China related activities, research and teaching, what was missing were undergraduates studying Mandarin and studying abroad in China. Less than 1.5% of the undergraduates at U of O, OSU, and PSU were studying Mandarin. (In Oregon’s K-12 system less than 1% of the public school students study Mandarin.) Only a combined 36 students at those three universities were studying abroad in China. I am not aware of any efforts since this House Education Subcommittee hearing by any of the public universities to increase substantially the numbers of their students studying Mandarin or studying abroad in China. This is where our educational leaders are failing us and our future.
Understanding the historical global shift now taking place and its importance, I have suggested that the Oregon University System should have the vision to set as a goal for 2015 that 10% or more of the students graduating from Oregon public universities have studied Mandarin for at least two academic years.
China is rising. A recent Carnegie Endowment reportestimates that China’s economy will be as large as the US economy in the year 2035, and then twice the size of the US economy in 2050. And China’s military will inevitably modernize and keep pace with its economy. The world will be very different for our next generations. Our educational leaders know this. To justify those large salaries, they should act on what they know and prepare our next generations to engage China. That is their job. That means talking about the importance of China relations for our future, getting more of their students to study Mandarin and study abroad in China, and telling the Oregon K-12 educational system that more Mandarin proficient students should graduate from their system. Otherwise, and I say this as respectfully as I can, they are just paid too much.