The Ohio University Board of Trustees Academics and Resources committees met for a rare joint meeting Thursday morning.
Conversation was sparked by Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding who talked to trustees about faculty compensation, university debt, scholarships and enrollment, among other topics.
However, the impending 1.6 percent tuition increase and the possibility of implementing a guaranteed tuition model in the future led to the largest discussion.
“We came to realize that the 1.6 (percent) number is probably about the best place for us for 2013-14 fiscal year,” Golding said. “(That will generate) $2.7 million added to about $2.5 million worth of state share of instruction, which is what our current projection is for 2013-2014.”
We have $8.6 million worth of identified need, Golding added.
National trustee Henry Heilbrunn told Golding that OU needs to find a balance to grow academic instruction but support faculty at the same time.
Student Trustee Allison Arnold voiced her concern to the board in regard to the possible tuition increase.
“The way we are telling these students, is, if you don’t like the way we do things, vote with your feet, which essentially means to just go elsewhere,” she said. “I wont stand by this. I am concerned with how these students view this board and administration right now.”
Executive Vice President and Provost Benoit, who sat at Golding’s side for the duration of the meeting explained to Arnold and the trustees as to why the increase is needed.
“We chose not to do a 0 percent increase as some of our peers have done, because we believe with our expanding student population with some of the challenges we have talked about today, we need to make some investments in the institution and try to find a balance between continued affordably and accessibility, at the same time, making sure we aren’t pushing problems down the road to (earning) a degree,” she said.
OU President Roderick McDavis said the 1.6 percent increase was proposed because of Gov. John Kasich’s 2 percent cap on tuition.
“We then will move to a guaranteed tuition model, so it will be under our peers and under the cap and we hope to incentivize this campus to move toward a four year graduation rate.”
Benoit said the new tuition model could be in effect for Fall 2015-16.
“Our challenge is to set our fixed rates underneath other institutions variable rates over time so we can be on the competitive edge with those other universities.”
Trustee Heilbrunn’s mind wasn’t completely set on the new model.
“One problem in the longer term is the sustainability of the business model. It is the most grave one in my opinion,” he said. “It commits us to an expenditure and we may be, in essence, establishing a future over the next 30 or 50 years of funding that we may want to defer.”
