Kirwan report to Trustees

   COLUMBUS -- Ohio’s public colleges and universities had hoped for a desperately needed double-digit increase in state funding to lift the state out of 40th place in the nation in state support for higher education. Now, with the economic downturn, higher education in Ohio is facing a potentially disastrous decrease in funding.

In remarks to The Ohio State University’s Board of Trustees, meeting at the university’s Marion Campus on Friday (4/6), university President William E. Kirwan acknowledged that the General Assembly is faced with some thorny issues – the need to resolve the DeRolph school-funding case, the shortfall in Medicaid and plummeting tax revenues.

“Taking all this into account, the governor put forth a bare-bones budget for higher education, which included just a 1.2 percent increase for Ohio State in state support of instruction in fiscal year 2002. This was a great disappointment to us,” Kirwan said.

“But now, even this very modest increase is in grave jeopardy,” Kirwan continued. “The price tag for addressing DeRolph is likely to increase by at least $600 million over the governor’s original proposal, and state revenue estimates have dropped by about $700 million. Unless the state decides to increase revenue by some means, the rest of the state budget will have to absorb a reduction of some $1.3 billion – a staggering number.”

Compounding the problem, Kirwan said, is the recent announcement by Gov. Bob Taft of a 1 percent cut in all state agency budgets, which will result in Ohio State losing some $3.2 million in state support of instruction alone for the remaining fiscal year.

“That’s the equivalent of 735 scholarships for needy students or 24,000 seats in closed courses or 90 additional academic advisers or 4,000 new computers for our public labs,” said Kirwan.

“As a result of these cuts, we’re now redoubling our efforts and meeting daily with members of the General Assembly to reverse as best we can this difficult situation,” he said.

Kirwan said Ohio’s General Assembly must ensure quality education from kindergarten through college as it considers budget proposals. The state must “adequately fund higher education and create a total K-16 education system that will be our number one tool for building a brighter future for Ohio. Or, he warned, “We can keep underfunding higher education at the risk of losing many outstanding high school graduates and world-class faculty to universities in other states.

“If that happens, Ohio’s prospects for success in the Information Age will be dim indeed,” he said.

Kirwan assured trustees that the university is moving ahead with implementing its Academic Plan, although it may have to focus on selected priorities. “We must not let what is surely a temporal funding problem divert us from our aspirations. We will continue to implement the Academic Plan as best we can to continue Ohio State’s progress into the top rank of America’s universities,” he said.

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(LO)