Ohio University administrators are reviewing hundreds of budget-cut suggestions after spending two months collecting submissions through a Web site.
Students, faculty, and anyone with an Oak ID and password could confidentially submit ideas to budget planning administrators between Dec. 1 and this past Friday.
It's the intention for the president
executive vice president and provost and interim senior vice president for finance and administration to carefully look over the suggestions we've received said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
Submissions will not receive personal responses. Instead, the university will publicly announce its budget-cut plans, Fidler said.
There is no set date for when the budget-cut plans will be finalized, but Fidler said she expects it will take about two weeks just to go through the Web site suggestions.
Some of the suggestions include changing the way Intercollegiate Athletics is funded and increasing energy efficiency on campus.
Ardy Gonyer, vice president for finance and outreach for Graduate Student Senate, agrees that ICA funding needs to be rethought.
I know one thing that I do not want to see is stipend cuts for grad students from the amount we receive per year said Gonyer, who is getting his masters in education in college student personnel. We have a hard time living off what we make already
and if they cut that across the board
we'd have an even harder time.
The Budget Planning Council created a list of priorities of budget cuts, and OU administrators should examine everything thoroughly and see what will be affected before making any decisions, Gonyer said.
Rebecca Vazquez Skillings, assistant vice president of budget planning and analysis, plans to help review the suggestions and summarize the final decisions.
I think [the Web site] was effective. We've gotten responses throughout the campus community
so from that perspective it's been good
Skillings said.
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Courtney Hessenauer
