according to school officials.
Budget cuts and rising costs have worn the College of Osteopathic Medicine down to the bone according to school officials.
Over the past six months, the college sustained two state funding cuts totaling $577,000. The cuts affected clinical teaching, a national medical outreach program, and the geriatrics, family practice and primary care programs. All are supported by state line-item appropriations.
Line-item appropriations are state funds that are not exempt from budget cuts.
The college is offsetting most of the cuts by leaving vacant positions unfilled.
Fifteen faculty and administrative jobs remain unfilled, saving about $900,000 this year, said Kathy Brooks, the chief financial officer for the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In addition, the college has limited traveling to conferences and is cutting back on memberships in professional organizations, said Jack Brose, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
We are pretty much down to the bone now he said.
State funding accounts for about 56 percent of the college's estimated $39 million budget. The remaining revenue comes from tuition and other sources such as grants and OU endowments returns.
The college received about $4.7 million from Ohio University's endowment last year, a decrease of 2.5 percent from the previous year.
Although state subsidies have increased over the past two years, state funding has decreased 14 percent overall since 2001, while costs have increased by 9 percent, Brooks said.
Along with increasing costs, the school's tuition has risen about 91 percent since 2001, from $12,630 to $24,111 for in-state students. Brooks described the steady rise as normal, adding that tuition was not increased specifically to offset the decrease in state funding.
Among the six public colleges of osteopathic medicine in the U.S., OU ranked fourth highest in tuition costs last year, a position it has held since 2002.
So far, the college has dealt with the lag in state funding by cutting jobs in recent years and by privatizing University Medical Associates, a practice run by college physicians in Parks Hall, she said.
OU is not the only college of medicine feeling a budget crunch.
Wright State University's medical school, which currently admits 100 students a year and maintains a budget of about $33 million, received about $475,000 in cuts this year, said Cindy Young, director of Marketing and Communications.
We have been able to sustain those cuts and anything beyond that
of course
would be difficult
Young said.
Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to announce the state budget in the coming weeks and the college is anticipating further cuts, Brooks said.
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Caitlin Bowling
