Ohio University’s Board of Trustees passed a 3.5 percent tuition increase during one of its recent visits to Athens, but this time around, the focus is on building a sustainable budget.
With an expected transition to a Responsibility Centered Management model by 2016, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding spoke to the trustees about alternative tuition concepts — including differential and guaranteed tuition.
“Differential tuition is variable tuition based on major, program, college or class standing,” Benoit said. “Guaranteed tuition is a rate for undergraduate students for four years that remains the same.”
Benefits of differential tuition model includes the ability to provide new services and support new majors and programs; a guaranteed tuition model is more predictable, allowing families and students to plan ahead, Benoit said.
“We absolutely understand that tuition cannot support the underlying costs of operating this university, so we need to think about tuition and understand that a tuition model has certain challenges,” Golding said. “We need to think differently about tuition and think about the future.”
The Academics and Resources committees discussed tuition and the “fiscal cliff” — cuts that colleges and universities could face if Congress doesn’t settle on a long-term deficit reduction plan by the end of the year. Trustees emphasized looking at national trends and alternative tuition concepts.
“We know that college prices are increasing, but that is in part because of the economy and lowered state funding,” Benoit said. “If you look nationally, the decline from state support has led to increased tuition.”
Trustees also highlighted the goal of improving enrollment and retention rates.
OU plans to target students’ transition from their first to second year in hopes of increasing the current first-year retention rate of 79.2 percent by one percent each year, to reach a rate of 84 percent by 2016.
Benoit and Craig Cornell, vice provost for Enrollment Management, offered several suggestions including improving student involvement within learning communities and increasing the number of enrolled students by facilitating community college transfers, re-evaluating the Gateway automatic scholarship and targeting admissions to specific programs.
Trustees also discussed seven resolutions up for vote during Friday’s full board meeting ranging from increasing regional instruction fees by 3.5 percent to approving more than $20 million in construction projects.
af324909@ohiou.edu
