With a 3.5-percent tuition increase looming, two top Ohio University administrators paid a visit to Student Senate on Wednesday to discuss the potential hike.
The discussion was fueled by a presentation from Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding.
“Their presentation is one of the most important ones we will have all year,” Senate President Kyle Triplett said.
OU’s Budget Planning Council is recommending a 3.5-percent tuition increase for Athens campus students for the upcoming academic year.
How the additional funds will be divided between the General Fee and General Fund has not yet been determined, Golding said.
The General Fee provides funding for non-instructional student services such as networks, technology, and Intercollegiate Athletics.
The proposed tuition hike would, in part, provide an increase in Internet bandwidth, more technology in classrooms, and an increase in instructional capacity, Benoit said.
“If we are to maintain quality of education programs on the Athens campus, then we need resources to pay for faculty salaries to ensure that we have the appropriate number of courses available to students so they can move expediently towards graduation,” Golding said.
Benoit said it is important that we compensate our faculty.
“If we don’t have good salaries for faculty, other universities will get our faculty to come there, and we can’t afford to let our faculty go to other institutions,” Benoit said.
Triplett said that raising the cost of tuition seems like “something we have to do,” though it’s not an “ideal situation.”
“No student wants to pay more than what they already do,” he said.
The current tuition rate for a full-time Athens campus undergraduate is $9,870 per year. With a 3.5-percent increase, that rate would jump $345 to $10,215.
Though Golding and Benoit reiterated that the increase would help keep education a priority, students raised concerns that the new Ohio men’s basketball coach, Jim Christian, will make more per year than OU President Roderick McDavis at $425,000.
“His increase in wages will be supported by the General Fee and is anticipated in the operating budget,” Golding said.
Good quality education is at stake and without a tuition increase, OU will have to cut budgets, Benoit said, adding that the university budget is already cut “deep.”
Even with the 3.5-percent tuition increase, the university is over-budgeted by $5 million, Benoit said.
“Asking (the university) to cut (the budget) again would have a detrimental effect on quality,” Benoit said. “I think we’re at a breaking point.”
bc822010@ohiou.edu
