The Real Cost of Bloat: $1.75 for Administrators, $1 for Classified Staff Who Keep Campuses Running

New report finds administrative spending at Oregon’s public universities has grown 155% since 2004 while essential workers face wages that don’t meet the cost of living, rising workloads and growing economic insecurity

Salem, OR – A new white paper released today by SEIU Local 503 finds that Oregon’s public university leaders chose to grow administrative spending and executive pay, worsening the financial crisis they blame only on underinvestment and demographics.

The report, “The Cost of Administrative Bloat: How Administrative Excess Deepens Financial Instability in Oregon’s Public Universities,” finds Oregon’s university leaders protected or expanded administrative spending, staffing and compensation even as the sector faced real structural pressures, declining enrollment and dire financial strain.

Oregon’s universities do face real pressure: years of state underinvestment, shifting demographics, and uncertain federal funding. The report, however, finds these pressures alone don’t explain the problem. Since the Oregon University System was dissolved in 2015 (which once coordinated shared administrative services across all seven campuses), administrative spending has surged, regional universities have weakened and enrollment has concentrated at the state’s largest institutions.

Key findings of the white paper include:

• Inflation-adjusted administrative spending across Oregon’s seven public universities grew 155% over two decades, from $156 million in 2004 to $398 million in new spending by 2025.
• Administrators raked in $510 million in total salary last year, compared to $292 million for classified staff – the workers who keep campuses clean, safe, and running. That’s $1.75 spent on administrators for every $1 spent on classified workers.
• University presidents each received total compensation packages up to $948,000, including guaranteed raises, retention bonuses, housing, and vehicle stipends. Meanwhile, classified staff who are the lowest paid workers on campus, were offered only a 1.5% cost of living.
• SEIU 503 members were surveyed about their wages: 54% of them said they worry about running out of money before their next paycheck, while 28% are going into debt just to cover basic living expenses.
• Smaller universities were hardest hit: Southern Oregon’s Workday IT contract, projected to save $700,000 a year, instead added $1.6 million in new annual debt service and $3 million in cost overruns. Because university leadership failed to negotiate standard payment flexibility across its contracts, the university will also owe $21.5 million to nine vendors next year.

This report comes as SEIU 503 workers are in the middle of a challenging bargaining campaign with Oregon’s universities. At the table, university leaders have told workers there is no money for raises, yet the report shows where it went instead: into administrative payroll, executive compensation and leadership decisions that have nothing to do with student enrollment or state funding levels.

Bargaining has since reached impasse. Management’s offer to higher education workers: a meager cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) well below the actual rate of inflation. Meanwhile, according to the white paper, university presidents received guaranteed raises, retention bonuses, housing and vehicle stipends in addition to their salaries, making their total compensation packages up to $948,000. As bargaining has stalled, momentum is building behind the strike pledge workers launched in late July.

“Now that we have a much lower student population, the management bloat is unjustified, wasting money and taking more power away from staff workers,” said Todd Hutchison, Portland State University worker.”

“University leadership tells us there is no money for raises – they are offering less than 2% over four years. Yet, this report shows exactly where that money went: $1.75 for them, $1 for us,” said Jo Hickerson, a classified staff member from Eastern Oregon University, and chair of the higher education bargaining team. “We keep these campuses running and they’ve made the choice to prioritize administration and presidents’ compensation while workers struggle to make ends meet, and that is why momentum is building behind our strike pledge. Workers have had enough.”

The report concludes that Oregon can and should invest more in public higher education, with new funding that must be paired with stronger public oversight, real accountability for university leadership and a renewed focus on the core educational mission these institutions were built to serve.

Recommendations include giving the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) real oversight of administrative spending, requiring legislative or HECC approval of presidential contracts and bonuses, requiring Senate confirmation of university presidents and freezing executive pay before any worker jobs or wages are cut.

The full version of the white paper can be found here.