Greetings! With the higher education landscape seeming to grow more complex every day, I appreciated the in-depth discussion HECC Commissioners had earlier this month about our agency’s history and how we can best leverage our role to meet the unprecedented challenges facing postsecondary education and training. 

Commissioners shared their hopes, concerns, and insights on how our strategic priorities can help steer Oregon higher education and workforce development successfully through an era of tightening public resources, significant federal changes, polarized politics, changing demographics, and rapid technological change. While the convergence of these issues is daunting, I left feeling motivated by the possibility that postsecondary education can not only respond to today’s needs, but also be a driving force in Oregon's future. 

One of the immediate and serious challenges we face is the expected impact on Oregon's state budget from the recent federal reconciliation bill, H.R.1.  

Higher education is bracing for the potential of budget reductions during the 2026 legislative session, and this comes at a time when many institutions are already wrestling with deficits. In early October, the Legislative Fiscal Office asked the HECC and other state agencies to submit an approach to making a five percent reduction to our 2025-27 budget. The Legislature is months away from making any decisions, and our assignment at the HECC is simply to model and present the impacts of such a cut, in the event it is considered. However, it is important to be clear that about 98 percent of HECC's General Fund budget goes to public universities, community colleges, workforce/employment programs, and student grant aid programs, and there is no way to reduce our $4.2 billion budget by five percent without impacting our institutions and their learners.

While we are clear-sighted about these impacts, the HECC is simultaneously focusing on strategic action in order to rise to today’s complex challenges and support equitable opportunity for Oregonians. Our agency is diving into numerous new activities arising from our five-year strategic plan, and we aim to deepen partnerships and collaborations in this effort. We will need to work with partners to accelerate work that strengthens the responsiveness and flexibility of the postsecondary system to meet pressing community and workforce needs. It is important to remember in this challenging time that postsecondary education needs to both respond strategically to the now and invest in tomorrow – tomorrow’s economy, democracy, and culture. Oregon's public and private campuses and workforce programs are vibrant engines of opportunity that serve hundreds of thousands of learners every year, and awarded more than 40,000 degrees and credentials in 2023-24 alone. The talents, research, and innovative skills of today's learners will shape not only their own lives, but also our local, state and wider communities for years to come. 

Thank you for your engagement, as always. 

Legislative Presentation Begins Discussion on the Future of Oregon’s Postsecondary Attainment Goals 

Recognizing that postsecondary education and training are critical pathways to economic prosperity and thriving communities, the State of Oregon has two quantitative educational attainment goals that are used to guide and drive policy and funding decisions. For more than a decade, Oregon has been working toward 1) the ambitious statewide 40-40-20 goal for young adults, established in 2011 and focused on educational attainment through 2025, and 2) the more recently adopted adult educational attainment goal, established in 2018 and focused on credential attainment through 2030. In addition, there are numerous other goals in Oregon statute for the HECC related to economic, workforce, cultural, civic, and community goals. 

On October 1, HECC Executive Director Ben Cannon presented to the House Interim Committee on Education on Oregon’s progress toward achieving the current goals, and proposed a potential process for exploring an update to the goals for postsecondary attainment. Director Cannon was joined by Skip Newberry, President and CEO of the Technology Association of Oregon, and Ariana Jacob, President of the American Federation of Teachers - Oregon.   

In his presentation, Ben Cannon discussed the fact that postsecondary attainment goals can serve as a north star to guide education policies and investments and help the state measure progress over time. The process of updating them can also build momentum and foster inclusivity. In the process of launching activities to achieve the HECC’s most recent five-year strategic plan, the HECC identified the need to explore updating attainment goals to help achieve its vision.     

And finally, one concrete reason for an update process is that the initial target year for the current 40-40-20 goal of 2025 has arrived. Changes would likely need to be considered by the Governor and Legislature in 2027.  The HECC is currently in conversation with partners to identify next steps in this process, and we will share more on this process in upcoming communications.

HECC Embarks on Review of Funding Distribution Models for Community College and Public University Operating Funds

Collaborative workgroups will review the institution funding models for 2026

At its October public meetings, the HECC Commission previewed a proposed process for review of the state funding distribution models for Oregon community colleges and public universities. The detailed plans were presented by Jim Pinkard, director of the HECC Office of Postsecondary Finance and Capital. 

If you are new to funding models, here are some basics. After the Oregon Legislature and Governor make the state's biennial investment in Oregon's postsecondary institutions, HECC distributes these funds to the seven universities and 17 community colleges according to formulas, specifically the Community College Distribution Model (CCDM) and the Public University Student Success and Completion Model (SSCM). The HECC has statutory authority to manage the student success-focused formulas that guide this distribution. The design and regular review of these funding allocation models is a collaborative process with institutions and state partners. In addition, the Engineering Technology Sustaining Fund (ETSF), a fund intended to help engineering and computer science talent thrive in Oregon, has not been reviewed since 2018. 

Community College Funding Model Review Plan: HECC staff are proposing a collaborative review of the Community College Distribution Model (CCDM) for the Community College Support Fund (CCSF). A commitment was made during the previous formula revision process to conduct a narrowly-scoped technical review during the implementation phase to identify any unintended consequences and validate data. At the same time, work has been underway recently to reconsider policies related to developmental writing and math courses. The HECC will convene a workgroup charged with this review in the first half of calendar year 2026. In addition to the technical review, the group will review current funding policies related to the reimbursement of developmental education courses. Learn more in the detailed CCSF review process and timeline document. 

University Funding Model Review Plan: For the public university formulas, HECC staff have developed a work plan to convene a collaborative workgroup to review both the Public University Student Success and Completion Model (SSCM) and Engineering Technology Sustaining Fund (ETSF) distribution formulas in calendar year 2026. The workgroup will consider workforce needs, policy alignment, and how the two formulas work together to support Oregon’s strategic priorities and postsecondary goals. The workgroup will also consider transfer alignment and other technical aspects of the SSCM. In addition to those themes, the workgroup will be tasked with providing perspective and advice on state funding adequacy. Learn more in the detailed SSCM review process and timeline document.

Oregon institutions welcome many thousands of Latine/Hispanic students every year across their diverse campuses. Oregon has a fast-growing Latine/Hispanic population, and the percentage of Oregon high school graduates who identify as Hispanic is projected to grow. We are pleased to report that through a new inter-institution consortium, representatives from Oregon’s colleges and universities are working collaboratively to better serve Latine/Hispanic students and foster their talent.

Since 2023, an informal group of institution partners have been working together on Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) related goals to serve their diverse student bodies; this work has grown into the OR HSI Consortium, now facilitated by staff of the HECC. The OR HSI Consortium is intended to be a hub for resources and best practices where higher education professionals can learn from one another, share evidence-based strategies, and collectively support student success.  

HSIs are defined in the federal Higher Education Act by the percentage of their undergraduate Latine/Hispanic enrollment, among other requirements. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities website reports that there are more than 600 HSIs across the country. Oregon currently has six institutions that meet the HSI enrollment criteria and many more that are emerging or aspiring HSIs. While recent federal HSI grant cuts by the U.S. Department of Education for 2025 mean that Oregon HSIs will not have the opportunity to apply for federal HSI grant funds this year, the OR HSI Consortium is continuing the longstanding collaborative work to better serve institutions’ diverse student bodies.  

Oregon institutions can designate representatives to the Consortium, and the OR HSI Consortium welcomes public and private institutions at various stages of serving Latine/Hispanic students—from established to emerging and aspiring HSIs. For more information, contact Osvaldo.Avila@hecc.oregon.gov.