Students fund more than half of Ohio University’s budget, but some of them feel they have no concrete role in deciding how their cash is spent.
Since the 2002–03 school year, OU’s revenue from students has gone up 45.06 percent. During the same period, state, federal and local support has gone down a combined 4.43 percent.
Both of those numbers have been adjusted for inflation.
With student tuition, fees, and room and board combined, OU took in $229.499 million during the 2002-03 school year, or 46.95 percent of OU’s revenue that year, according to budget records.
During the 2012-13 school year, the university brought in $420.083 million from students, or 59.37 percent of its total revenue.
“Ohio University — as has been the case with most public universities — has become more tuition dependent, and we have shared that information with the campus community over the last several months,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration, in an email.
Since 2001, OU’s total revenue per student — combining state subsidy and tuition per student — has increased only $2, according to the Board of Trustees agenda from February.
“The combined growth in State Share of Instruction and tuition has not kept pace with inflation, and so over time, the university … has been forced to reallocate resources to higher priorities, make budget cuts and identify alternative ways of delivering services in more cost effective ways,” Golding said.
Though OU has changed its budgets to meet those changes, students still do not have an authoritative say over where money is spent.
“As I stated at the Student Senate meeting in the fall, I think students are one voice — out of many — that need to be heard when making budget decisions,” Golding said. “Ohio University is a community of many different constituency groups, and each group should have a voice, which is why we have the Budget Planning Council.”
Students currently running for the top student leadership position do not believe viewing the student voice equally to all others is fair.
“We deserve more of a say in the Budget Planning Council. We should have some more chairs in the General Fee Committee,” said Nick Southall, VOICE’s candidate for Student Senate president.
“Ideally I would love to get students (voting power over budget decisions) — this is what should happen — but I don’t know if there’s any tangible plan to get that.”
Matt Farmer, FUSS’s candidate for Student Senate president, said he believes the advisory role does not go far enough.
“When major decisions come up, and I think guaranteed tuition is a perfect example of this, this kind of stuff needs to be put to a vote,” Farmer said. “Unfortunately, we only have ‘suggestion-box governance’ right now.”
Zach George, the senate’s current president, serves on both the General Fee Committee and the Budget Planning Council, two of OU’s main advisory mechanisms, and said he believes students are well represented in the budget planning process.
“I do believe the student trustee, myself, and the Graduate Student Senate president do represent students well on that board,” George said. “While it’s not proportional, I think it is a strong voice that (is heard).”
dd195710@ohiou.edu
