About 30 Ohio University employees and students gathered in the Walter Hall Rotunda yesterday to discuss last Friday’s budget proposal and share their questions with university administrators.
A main concern of those in attendance was just how academic departments will increase efficiency when those departments are receiving a greater percentage cut than non-academic units.
Increasing class sizes, restructuring within individual colleges and merging programs will all help increase efficiency and potentially generate revenue, said Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit.
“There are wide variety of options in terms of efficiency,” Benoit said. “We want to invest in the places where we can get new money out, and there are some really interesting options that have come out of (those discussions).”
Other questions regarded early retirement buyouts, faculty health care, parking fees and administrative reconstruction.
OU originally projected it would lose more than $11 million in state funding, but under Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal, the Athens’ campus will only have to cut $5.3 million.
OU released its budget reduction targets this past Friday.
Yesterday, Benoit went through the same budget targets that will be presented at next week’s Board of Trustees meeting. At the meeting, the trustees will discuss OU’s proposed budget plan and a possible tuition increase.
“The question that they may ask is that we still have some degree of flexibility that we described in this budget,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration. “The justification for the tuition increase may be more difficult to sway ... (the board hopes a) tuition increase will be used to advance institutional priorities. I think that’s still the challenge we have in preparing for the board.”
The reception was generally tame, however, because OU’s original estimates of the overall cut were more than double the actual cut in state funding.
“I think they have done a good job considering the unknowns,” said Brent Patterson, Leadership and Staff Development Consultant for Human Resources. “I think, overall, the fact that the cut is going to be less than anticipated makes it easier.”
Even if the state has not approved its biennium budget, the OU Board of Trustees will pass next fiscal year’s budget at its meeting next Friday, according to a previous Post story.
“One thing the board has made very clear is they want to see what we are doing with handling our cuts,” Benoit said.
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