Board of Trustees to Vote on Tuition Increase Friday

Days after a charged mob of students occupied the fourth floor Baker Center atrium and tried to storm Cutler Hall in protest of tuition hikes, the Ohio University Board of Trustees will vote on the proposed tuition increase of 1.6 percent on Friday.The Budget Planning Council recommended the increase to the Board of Trustees, which would supplement approximately $2.5 million more in state share of instruction than was provided last year. This pot of money, approximately $5.2 million, according to the Budget Planning Council minutes, would be used to pay for the recommended 2013-2014 incremental costs, which add up to about $7.8 million.That leaves a difference of about $2.6 million, which would have to be “absorbed within the budget,” according to a Budget Planning Council presentation.“Even with the tuition increase, we basically have to force units to go back and either get other sources of revenue or basically repurpose other funding in order to get to a balanced budget because [the incremental costs] are exceeding the revenue that we would get from a tuition increase and from the state subsidy increases,” said Chad Mitchell, the budget director.Included in the incremental costs are about $3.7 million in capital investments and utilities spending.“We have a pretty substantial need in terms of investing funding back into renovating our [academic] buildings so that’s really what [capital investments] refers to,” Mitchell said.Next year the university plans to renovate Lindley and Tupper, execute the second phase of the Scripps College of Communication construction, and initiate the design phase of the McCracken renovation, according to Mitchell. Continued investments into replacing the Lausche Heating Plant are also necessary.Another $3.7 million adding to the bulk of the incremental costs is employee compensation, specifically a two percent raise pool that “keeps pace with inflation.”“I would say faculty who are here now are more than willing to absorb [losses] in times of crisis. We’ve had zero percent raises recently,” said Elizabeth Sayrs, the Faculty Senate Chair.However, insufficient employee compensation has worn some faculty down, raising concerns about Ohio University’s ability to recruit and retain quality faculty.“We are third ranked in the state in terms of academic quality … Our salaries are ranked seventh. Eventually that’s where our quality is going to go,” she said.“In terms of cost cutting, it’s a significant challenge because the largest cost at the university is people,” Mitchell said.Among those people are administrators, who earlier this year received criticism for accepting raises to their six figure salaries. According to a previous The New Political article, McDavis received a pay raise of about $25,000 and a bonus of about $58,500.The other two incremental costs listed in the Budget Planning Council minutes are $93,311 for “student financial aid increases for full-ride scholarships, such as student athletes” and $275,978 in healthcare spending, an increase of 0.9 percent.By ignoring a third party recommendation of increasing healthcare spending by six percent, the Budget Planning Council went the more “aggressive” route with 0.9 percent and decided to use the approximately $6.7 million in healthcare reserves as a cushion.In a prepared statement, McDavis underscored the importance of maintaining the university’s academic quality and expressed support for the “modest increase” of 1.6 percent, which he will bring before the Board of Trustees tomorrow.“We look forward to broader discussion with the Board of Trustees about our recommendation,” he said.The Board of Trustees will convene in an open meeting on Friday, April 19 at 10 a.m. in Walter Hall.