Meghan DeMars has been luckier than some students. With her parents helping to foot the bill for her undergraduate degree, the 22-year-old Oregon State University student hasn’t had to rack up the mountains of debt some students incur.

But even with their help, the Bend resident works three jobs – as a baby sitter, at a clothing store and at a bath products business – to pay for books, rent and other expenses.

”Without my parents, I’d be owing big bucks to the university system,” she said.

Many students agree that figuring out how to pay for school is one of the biggest challenges for future graduates today. They say that Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s efforts to make higher education affordable in Oregon are pretty much on target.

As tuition goes up, however, getting a degree becomes more elusive. Gaining access to higher education becomes harder.

Last fall, the governor asked for the resignations of several State Board of Higher Education members in a move he said signaled a new focus on higher education.

Access has been described by the governor as providing Oregonians the opportunity to go to the college or university of their choice and making sure students have a means to pay for it. Those programs must be of a high quality. To make that happen, the state needs to commit to investing in higher education.

A sampling of students, faculty and administrators across the state found that they share many of the governor’s concerns.

In his 22 years as a math professor at the University of Oregon, Peter Gilkey has seen the school get better and better, he said. At the same time, state funding has decreased dramatically.

According to the Oregon University System chancellor’s office, tuition and fees covered about 31 percent of funding for the system in 1980. That same year, state funding provided 69 percent of university system dollars.

By 2004, the funding relationship had essentially flip-flopped. As of this year, tuition and fees cover an estimated 62 percent of system dollars while the state provided about 38 percent of funding.

”That’s what’s wrong,” Gilkey said in reference to the decrease in state dollars. ”Something’s not wrong with higher ed.”

Schools are doing wonderful things on shrinking budgets, said Gilkey, president of the InterInstitutional Faculty Senate.

”This state gets a wonderful bargain – we do more with less than anyone I know of,” he said.

But some faculty say what’s inside institutions needs as much focus as getting the students into the classroom.

Though access and affordability to higher education are critical, said Wendy Endress, dean of students at Portland State University, the quality of institutions is critical, too. Money needs to be put into staff and infrastructure, she said.

Schools need more public support, she said. Without it, schools can end up choosing between the mission of the university and trying to figure out how to get the money to exist.

”So unless you can create a revenue stream that directly supports instruction then you’re always making choices about where resources are going,” she said.

Talk to students about their concerns about the higher education system and money is always part of the discussion. Some say money is out there, but it’s hard to take advantage of it.

”I think it’s kind of hard to find a scholarship as an in-state student,” said Kate Darnall, 20, a Bend resident. ”Financial aid is so hard to qualify for.”

An OSU student studying business administration, Darnall said she didn’t find it hard to get into school. What’s hard as a student is dealing with the high cost of housing and struggling with a weak public transportation system, she said.

Even figuring out who to contact and the steps in the process for obtaining financial aid is part of the problem, said Seth McCarthy, 23, a University of Oregon student in Bend.

But so is the rising price. In the several years he spent as a Central Oregon Community College student, he typically paid for tuition through his jobs around town such as one as a checkout clerk and a dishwasher.

”Now that’s not even close to possible with tuition at the University of Oregon,” he said. ”To be able to pay for it on my own, that’s out of the question.”

An undergraduate resident student taking 15 credits, a full-time load, at OSU-Cascades Campus this fall term paid $1,434 in tuition in fees.

As tuition has gone up, the responsibility of paying for higher education in the state is increasingly shifted to students, said Nancy Knowles, an assistant professor of English at Eastern Oregon University.

Making higher education unaffordable could drive students elsewhere, she said. Without money for faculty and programs, the state may lose students as tuition skyrockets.

”So I think for us here we’re going to lose qualified faculty to other states,” Knowles said. ”We’re going to lose great students and workers to other states.”

Julia Lyon can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at jlyon@bendbulletin.com.