As part of his budget plan for fiscal year 2008, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis wants to invest $1 million into a rainy day fund.
He ought to look outside. In terms of university financial problems, it's pouring right now.
The university will face an $8.55 million deficit after a $3.7 million increase in state funding, and that increase will come only if the university agrees to freeze tuition for next school year. Freezing tuition would cost the university a significant amount of money; a six percent tuition increase could generate $8.4 million.
But McDavis' budget plan, which was presented to the Budget Planning Council on Friday and will be presented to the Board of Trustees' Finance Committee on April 19, is not without its merits. Under the new budget, employees would pay 18 to 19 percent of those costs ' a 2 to 3 percent increase from what they currently pay but still significantly less than the 30 percent national average. This idea to make employees pay a larger portion of their own health care costs is a good one. McDavis also continues to support faculty raises, which should offset the increase in health care costs to employees.
McDavis' proposal to slash administrative units' budgets by 3.6 percent is also good, but it doesn't go far enough. According to institutional research data, OU employed 1,148 full-time administrators in 2006, up from 1,120 in 2005. That is far too many, and the number should be declining, not increasing.
In conjunction with the administrative cuts, McDavis is proposing cutting academic units' budgets by 1.6 percent to generate $4.8 million. Though that cut is fairly small, it is unacceptable considering some of the administrators earning six-figure salaries to fill positions whose necessity is questionable. As just one example, Bill Sams, the former chief information officer, now earns $133,588 to serve as the executive in residence to Charles Bird, the vice president for university outreach and regional campuses.
William Decatur, the vice president for finance and administration, said officials are not expecting any dramatic improvements in the budget landscape. They shouldn't be. State funding decreases nearly every year, and even Gov. Ted Strickland's new compact to provide more aid on the condition that universities don't raise tuition next year seems to create more of a financial burden than benefit. But instead of bemoaning the lack of state funding and chipping away at academic departments' budgets, administrators should work to improve the budget landscape themselves. That might start with re-evaluating their own salaries and assessing if what they do is essential to the functioning of OU. Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Post executive editors.
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