Message from Executive Director Ben Cannon
As we enter the new year and a busy 2025 legislative session, I am thankful to our staff and partners as we protect and strengthen the transformative opportunities that higher education and training offer to Oregon and Oregonians.
This issue of the newsletter focuses predominantly on state legislative action, current and past, which guides us and drives the momentum of our work for Oregonians. The HECC’s role is to advise the Oregon Legislature and the Governor on higher education policy and funding, and to present budget recommendations for public postsecondary education and workforce training in Oregon. Thematically, this session we are focusing on improving equitable access and success for Oregonians; driving economic mobility and addressing critical workforce needs; prioritizing affordability; and investing in the colleges, universities, and workforce providers that strengthen the state’s future.
I encourage you to stay engaged and informed on our legislative activity and priorities, and to voice your input too. When we have our dates for budget presentations, we will inform our partners. There are always public testimony days that follow our budget presentations, and anyone impacted by the HECC budget will have opportunity to provide comment.
Finally, I want to acknowledge that many of our partners are receiving questions related to actions by the new federal administration. Working with Governor Kotek as well as state and institutional partners, the HECC is assessing the impact of recent directives on Oregonians served by the higher education and training system. While we assess these issues and await further guidance, we carry on with our mission to advance equitable opportunity for all Oregonians in postsecondary education and training. We are energized by HECC's recently adopted five-year strategic plan that guides us as we move forward to foster a thriving future for Oregon.
Kicking Off the 2025 Legislative Session
The HECC is actively involved in the legislative session, which officially began on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. You can keep informed about the HECC’s legislative engagement, including agency testimony and presentations, on our legislative resources web page here. The HECC is responsible for providing factual, up-to-date information to help legislators make well-informed decisions about higher education and workforce development policy and funding.
One key role of the HECC is to present on the comprehensive funding needs for the postsecondary education and workforce system and the impact of the Governor’s Recommended Budget (GRB) for this system. These presentations are made to the Joint Ways & Means Education Subcommittee to inform the development of the final 2025-2027 Legislatively Approved Budget (LAB). This set of presentations is expected to span approximately 12 days, with six days of presentations by HECC, and other days focused on invited testimony from institution partners and public testimony opportunities. You can read our fact sheet on the GRB below.
In addition to presenting on funding for 2025-2027, HECC employees also track and analyze hundreds of bills that pertain to the postsecondary education and workforce system so that we can serve as a resource to inform decisions. The HECC’s legislative focus this session will primarily be on sustaining key ongoing activities. The HECC is sponsoring six bills this session.
The HECC also submits numerous statutorily required reports to the Legislature, available on our website here. HECC representatives are regularly invited to present to legislative committees on numerous topics. In Oregon, legislative hearings are available to watch by video, and recordings are also made available afterward. Key links:
Future Ready Oregon Annual Report Shows Positive Impacts
The HECC Office of Research and Data has prepared the third annual report on Future Ready Oregon. This report provides a comprehensive evaluation of the ongoing implementation and impact of all eight Future Ready Oregon programs. The report includes findings on participation, workforce program completion, and participants’ employment outcomes; compares participation and outcomes to statewide economic and education trends; and makes recommendations for the coming years.
Overall, the findings are positive. In its first two years, Future Ready Oregon has served 14,251 participants and offered more than 45,000 services, which include workforce education and training programs and support services that reduce barriers to participation. Virtually all participants are low-income, and 92 percent also identified as a member of one or more additional priority populations identified in Senate Bill 1545 (2022) (among those who reported their identities). The diversity of Future Ready Oregon participants is greater than that of Oregon’s labor force, a necessary step in diversifying Oregon’s workforce. In addition, most participants experienced employment and wage gains, among those for whom employment outcomes could be calculated. Sixty-five percent of participants who were not employed when they began services were employed afterwards. Those who were employed before beginning services experienced a median quarterly wage increase of $720.61. Finally, 46 percent of employed participants were working in the focus industries of healthcare and manufacturing after participation.
The report concludes with key findings and recommendations to continue community engagement, improve outreach to Oregonians 40 years and older, improve participant data collection, and ensure engagement of Oregonians not in the labor force.
Collaborative Effort Underway to Design a Statewide Direct Admissions Program
The HECC is working with K-12, community college and university partners on direct admissions, a recent state initiative to make the college admissions process more accessible for students. In 2024, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 1552 requiring HECC to establish a direct admissions program with all Oregon public higher education institutions.
When direct admissions is implemented statewide, we anticipate that a letter will be sent to every public high school student in Oregon to inform them based on a few key academic criteria, which Oregon community colleges and public universities are available to them for further study. The goals of direct admission are to:
- Increase the enrollment of Oregon high school students who demonstrate potential to be successful in college but are not currently applying,
- Reduce the burden of the college application process for Oregon students; and
- Remove financial barriers for Oregon students seeking postsecondary education.
The HECC direct admissions web page provides collaborating partners in Oregon’s K-12 school districts and education service districts, community colleges, and universities information on the status of this initiative. Direct admissions is being piloted regionally by some universities and community colleges in Oregon, and planning is underway for statewide implementation. The HECC is designing a statewide program and a plan for collecting and sharing the data needed to scale up the regional programs into a statewide initiative.
Legislative Report Details Considerable Progress on Collaborative Work to Streamline Student Transfer
We are pleased to share highlights from HECC’s 2024 report to the Oregon Legislature on transfer policy work led by the Oregon Transfer Council. The report outlines progress made toward the implementation of a more streamlined transfer system in Oregon. The progress reported in this report is the result of tremendous collaboration and countless hours poured into this work by community college and public university staff, faculty, and administrators, in partnership with the HECC.
The statewide alignment work necessary for transfer agreements requires numerous detailed steps, including: course or major selection for Common Course Numbering (CCN) or Major Transfer Map (MTM) alignment; course or agreement development; adoption by the Transfer Council; implementation and communication of offerings; and continued review for compliance and consistency. Highlights from 2024 include the following.
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A total of 19 new courses were fully aligned between community colleges and public universities via Common Course Numbering (CCN) in Biology, Business administration, Chemistry, Economics, Math, and Sociology, bringing the state to a total of 37 fully aligned courses.
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A total of six Major Transfer Maps (MTMs) have been approved to date in numerous disciplines including Biology, Business, Computer Science, Elementary Education, and English Literature. The 2024 report details the degree to which these MTM agreements have been adopted in full compliance across the public institutions. Oregon public universities report that students utilizing these MTMs can complete their bachelor's degrees with fewer than 90 credits post-transfer.
The report acknowledges progress but notes areas where full implementation and alignment remain inconsistent, particularly in uniform implementation of CCN and MTM offerings. As the work continues, insights into future areas of focus and data collection will be used to inform next steps. Oregon’s statewide work aims to save students time and money, reduce barriers to completion, and improve equitable pathways for underserved student groups.
National Report on Collaborative Solutions for Student Mental Health includes Oregon's Efforts
Oregon is one of numerous states featured in a new report released this month by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) on ways that state higher education agencies are responding to the student mental health crisis. The SHEEO-JED Mental Health and Wellness Learning Community, launched by SHEEO and The Jed Foundation (JED) in the fall of 2023, brought together state higher education leaders, institutional leaders, practitioners, and other stakeholders to address the growing student mental health needs. Oregon is one of five state teams that received a $25,000 planning grant to participate in this learning community.
SHEEO’s new report, Building Momentum: Collaborative Solutions for State-Level Student Mental Health, provides an overview of the initiatives and insights from states participating in the inaugural learning community – including Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The HECC has worked with the University of Oregon to implement the grant, working with multiple other partners across the state—including colleges and universities, Oregon Campuses United for Suicide Prevention, Oregon Health Authority, and the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide. The Oregon team’s focus is to improve campus supports for student mental health with a key focus on underserved students. The new report highlights how these collaborative efforts are shaping the future of mental health policy in higher education.
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