On today’s front page, you’ll find a story detailing Ohio University’s capital improvement plan, a project worth more than $2.5 billion in spending during the next 20 years.
This plan has a worthy cause — fixing things on campus that need to be fixed: heating plants, run-down dormitories, science buildings and more. But the plan admits that state funding won’t cover all the changes and does not specify where the money will come from. Administrators have said it could come from students and academic departments.
This isn’t the university’s only recent commitment to spending. Freshmen coming to OU for the first time this fall have been barraged with a series of developments that don’t bode well for their four years of tuition.
At 4:15 p.m. Thursday, the Ohio University trustees approved an approximately $25,000 raise for President Roderick McDavis, bringing his salary to $415,000.
Less than two months prior to that, OU head basketball and football coaches Jim Christian and Frank Solich, respectively, signed new contracts guaranteeing them more than $400,000 a year each.
The $400,000 Club gained another member in July when OU-HCOM dean Kenneth Johnson inked his new deal. Last year, not one OU employee made $400,000.
The university capped off its busy summer by finalizing the funding for its new $13.5 million multipurpose center.
This building is the best example of why the $2.5 billion capital improvement plan is so worrying. Originally, the multipurpose center was to be paid for by Ohio Athletics’ fund-raising efforts, but an indoor track was added to the design late in the planning stage — a track that will be paid for by students’ General Fee reserve dollars.
The multipurpose center, a project that was advertised as totally paid for and ready to be built, ran into a funding hole because of late-stage changes. Who’s to say the capital improvement plan — which does not have a pre-defined source of funding — won’t develop similar holes that need to be plugged the same way?
OU’s Associate Vice President for Finance Mike Angelini has already said that tuition and fee increases are being considered to pay for the plan, and faculty members are rightfully worried that some of the funds could come from academic departments.
It’s troubling that the university would commit to spending $2.5 billion without knowing where that money will come from. OU’s administrators continue to max out the credit card and ignore their balance until the bill comes in.
And considering the university’s solid track record of steady annual tuition increases, this year’s freshmen might end up paying for it.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors.
