Thomas A. Bartlett left Oregon's higher education system at a bend in the road when he quietly stepped down as chancellor Thursday.
During his final hours as leader, he described what he expects Oregon's eight state colleges and universities to find around that corner, though no one can be sure.
He was just back from a business trip to New York City. He had caught an early flight and had been up since 2:30 a.m. Yet at midafternoon the trim 63-year-old executive still looked fresh in his navy-blue blazer and seersucker slacks.
He pondered Oregon higher education's uncertain future, grew expansive and described a system bound for stormy change. Higher education is being jarred from its monastic traditions and forced to build bridges with business, government and other levels of education, he said.
But the scope of its new roles will be shaped by the will of Oregonians, he said. Demographics show the system will soon come to a fork in the road where the number of Oregon students seeking admission will exceed space. The state then must decide whether to expand or turn students away. That decision will be a measure of hope in Oregon, Bartlett said. "Higher education is a pure gamble on the future," he said. "That's all it is. That depends on a sense of hope." If Oregonians despair and fail to make higher education more of a priority, he said, state colleges will fill and become more exclusive. The state will import educated workers for its best jobs, he said, leaving low-paying jobs for Oregonian residents who were denied access to college. "For Oregon, that is a sad, sad direction," Bartlett said. "If it happens, it will happen almost without people knowing it." No matter which road it takes, however, the system must become far more fluid and responsive to a growing diversity of students, Bartlett said.
He sees students eventually entering the system at ages 14, 15, and 16; knowing more; and getting through in three instead of five years. He also sees a growing number of older adults going to college to upgrade or change careers. More and more students, both young and old, will learn off campus through computers and interactive television, he said. The 1995 Legislature would be wise to grant the wish of higher education leaders to convert the system into a public corporation, Bartlett said. This would free the system from expensive, time-consuming, bureaucratic procedures connected with state oversight, he said.
The system still would be accountable to the state, he feels, but it also would be more nimble and responsive. Whether the system grows or not, he said, it needs to become more financially stable. It has adjusted to declining state revenue under Measure 5 by raising tuition, attracting more research money and expanding its money-making enterprises.
But the financial burden on students is too heavy, said Bartlett. It is irrational and inefficient to make people pay for higher education at a stage in life when they are least able to pay, he said. "We have people graduating with more and more debt, taking longer and longer to get through school because they take time out to work," he said.
Instead, he believes students should be allowed to repay their debts during their earning years, possibly through an income tax structure. And the university system could expand its capacity by pushing students through faster. One way it intends to do this is through tougher admission standards, which already are being developed. Also under study: exit standards that students would have to meet. Helping Oregon's colleges and universities plan their future will be part of Bartlett's job as a half-time consultant to the chancellor's office through the remainder of the year. He also will try to establish a study program in China for Oregon higher education teachers and students using money from Chinese sources. A former president of American University in Cairo, Egypt, Bartlett has long been interested in international issues. He is chairman of the U.S.-Japan Foundation based in New York. "I have a sense I'm starting over again," he said. "I am a person who looks ahead."
For the immediate future, Bartlett planned to get back to the earth on his 480-acre farm east of Stayton. "I'm mowing hay tomorrow."