Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Health and Science University will cut at least 500 jobs - and maybe as many as 1000.  Officials announced that Thursday, saying they estimate a budget hole of close to $35 million.

That's as a result of a shrinking endowment, and lower-than-expected hospital income.

Jim Newman is a spokesman for OHSU. He says the wide range of possible job cuts is because not all of the university’s various branches have implemented their budget cuts yet.

And Newman says some may find other ways to trim costs.

Jim Newman: “I’ll give you an example - the School of Medicine is facing approximately an $8 million shortfall. Of course, they could decide to do that entirely through positions, but that’s not what we’re hearing. What we’re hearing is they want to do it through a combination.”

OHSU is tapping $20 million in donations to help soften the budget blow. Officials say they want to avoid reduced services for patients, and higher tuition costs for students.