Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC)

Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) Website

Role of the HECC

• Regional commissioners representing at large, faculty, staff and students

• Areas of oversight

  • Setting statewide higher education policies

    • Strategic Roadmap for the Future of ​Oregon Postsecondary Education and Training (details are below)

  • Funding allocation model (publics)

  • Program and degree approval (publics)

  • Mission approval (universities)

  • Tuition approval if over 5%

  • Data reporting

  • Capital projects review

  • Coordination

Strategic Roadmap for the Future of ​Oregon Postsecondary Education and Training - Webpage

Roadmap (published in August 2021)

The Roadmap sets the following five categories for strategic action as major areas of focus for the HECC, the Legislature, and other partners, with specific examples described in the document.

1. Transform and innovate to serve students and learners best—Support education and training institutions in continuing to transform, expand, and redesign their outreach and delivery models to engage today’s learners.

2. Center higher education and workforce training capacity on current and future state needs—Focus postsecondary education and training resources to serve Oregonians where they are and who they are, with a priority on communities and populations that have been historically underserved.

3. Ensure that postsecondary learners can afford to meet their basic needs—Improve college affordability for Oregonians and ensure that fewer students struggle with homelessness, housing insecurity, and food insecurity.

4. Create and support a continuum of pathways from education and training to career—Ensure that all learners have access to a full range of education and training options beyond high school, including apprenticeships, career certificates, and college degrees.

5. Increase public investment to meet Oregon’s postsecondary goals—Through adequate and sustained levels of public investments, minimize tuition increases and build programs and services to equitably serve learners.

State Educational Attainment Goals and Equity Lens

HECC Commissioners

• Ben Cannon - Executive Director

• Larry Roper - Chair, Commissioner

• Lee Ayers-Preboski - Commissioner, university faculty non-voting member

• Vanessa Becker - Commissioner, voting member, also voting member of the Funding and Achievement

• Terry Cross - Commissioner

• Enrique Farrera - Commissioner, college/university staff non-voting member

• Arnel Fajardo - Commissioner, voting member, also member of Funding and Achievement Subcommittee

• Greg Hamann - Commissioner, voting member, also member of Funding and Achievement Subcommittee

• Sandy Rowe - Vice Chair, Commissioner, voting member

• Helen Edwards - Commissioner, voting member

• Duncan Wyse - Commissioner, voting member, also Chair, Funding and Achievement Subcommittee

• Ricardo Lujan-Valerio - Commissioner, voting member

• Shelby Pick - Commission, non voting member, university student

• Rossy Valdovinos Torres - Commission, non voting member, community college student