Trustees: Ohio State Officials Outline Spending Priorities for 1996-97

OHIO STATE OFFICIALS OUTLINE SPENDING PRIORITIES FOR 1996-97

     COLUMBUS -- Spending priorities for The Ohio State 
University in the 1996-97 fiscal year will include academic 
enrichment, faculty and staff compensation, computing and 
student services, officials announced Wednesday (4/3).  
Other priorities include more support for research; more 
diverse students, faculty and staff; and more improvements 
to aging buildings.  The priorities continue a spending 
theme begun a couple years ago.

     Overall spending will rise 3.6 percent this year, 
compared to a five-year average of 2.9 percent that equaled 
the average rate of inflation.  The proposals call for 
merit-based pay raises averaging nearly 4 percent at the 
college and administrative unit level with an additional 1 
percent for exceptional merit to be distributed centrally.

     University officials shared their recommendations with 
the Ohio State Board of Trustees on Wednesday (4/3).  
Richard Sisson, senior vice president for academic affairs 
and provost, and William J. Shkurti, vice president for 
finance, plan to submit budget guidelines for the board's 
approval on May 3, an interim spending plan in June and a 
final budget in July.

     Shkurti and Edward Ray, senior vice provost, noted that 
the fastest growing area of General Fund spending on the 
Columbus campus is financial aid to students.  Aid has 
increased 10.8 percent during the past five years while 
enrollment has dropped 10 percent.  However, actual weighted 
credit hours of enrollment have only declined 1.6 percent.

     Budgets for supplies and services fell 1.2 percent 
during the period, resulting in an overall spending increase 
of 2.9 percent, the same as the cost of living.  During this 
period, the number of faculty, staff and student workers 
declined 9.4 percent, a drop of 871 full-time-equivalent 
positions.

     Ohio State spent 2 percent more instructing students in 
fiscal 1994 than the overall average at 16 public 
comprehensive research universities that Ohio State 
officials consider to be their peer institutions.  On the 
other hand, spending per student for all other support and 
services was 29 percent less than the average.  This 
resulted in an overall spending level that was 18 percent 
below the average.

     "We're spending at a level of instructional support 
that is comparable to our competition," Ray said.  
"Everywhere else we're at a decided disadvantage.  We've 
really made an effort to find resources to maintain the 
quality of our instructional effort and to provide access to 
the university through growth in student financial aid, but 
we've really fallen below efforts at other universities in 
providing non-instructional support services.

     "If you're underfunded to the tune of 18 percent to 
your peer institutions, it shows up somewhere," Ray said.  
"There are a lot of unmet needs in advising, student 
recreational facilities, traffic and parking and other 
services.  We haven't been able to move as aggressively on 
them as we need to because we don't have enough resources to 
do it all."

     While officials expect an increase in state support of 
3.2 percent next year, the average annual increase in state 
subsidies over the past five years has been 0.3 percent.  
Meanwhile, student fees have risen an average of 6.2 percent 
during the same period.  Student tuition is 9.6 percent 
below the average of peer institutions and the fourth lowest 
of 13 public universities in Ohio.  Ohio State officials are 
recommending a 6 percent increase in in-state undergraduate 
tuition beginning autumn quarter.

     More specific recommendations for the coming year call 
for continuing enrichment support for excellence in 
instruction and research, providing a competitive increase 
in employee compensation and finishing the restructuring of 
the budget for health insurance premiums and benefits.

     According to Sisson and Linda Tom, vice president for 
human resources, during the past five years, faculty 
salaries have risen an average of 2.9 percent per year, 
which is what salaries of colleagues at peer institutions 
and Ohio public universities have received.

     Salaries for clerical and secretarial staff are, on 
average, 1.5 percent above the market.  However, most other 
staff salaries have remained below those of employees doing 
similar work elsewhere.

     For example, technical and paraprofessional staff 
members, on average, receive 10.9 percent less than their 
counterparts elsewhere, and salaries of professional staff 
members are averaging 7.8 percent below the market average.  
Managers and administrators are averaging 3.3 percent below 
the market.

     Employees who fall under classified or civil service 
make, on average, 15.6 percent less than colleagues working 
for the State of Ohio but are earning about 1 percent more 
than the rest of the local market.

     The proposed compensation plan calls for increasing 
payrolls July 1 by 4 percent to provide merit-based raises 
for 3,910 faculty and 7,510 staff.  The plan excludes 
another 3,290 employees, whose wages are determined under 
collective bargaining agreements.  An additional 1 percent 
will be held centrally for selective salary adjustments 
based on market and equity considerations and exceptional 
meritorious performance.

     Payroll budgets for students and part-time personnel 
will increase 5 percent.  In addition, the automatic 1.5 
percent increase that classified staff received each year is 
being recommended for elimination so that they, like faculty 
and other staff, receive pay raises based on merit.

     On the benefits side, Ohio State will eliminate the 
one-year waiting period before dental coverage becomes 
effective and will pay medical, dental, vision, and 
dependent group life insurance premiums while employees are 
on approved unpaid medical leaves of absence.

     The vice presidents also are recommending that the 
university:

     -- Continue funding for implementing recommendations of 
the Committee on the Undergraduate Experience, maintain 
purchasing power for student financial aid, and continue to 
set aside 1 percent of the proposed tuition increase for 
academic computing and other direct improvements in services 
to students.

     -- Continue to build up funding of financial aid to 
support the Young Scholars initiative and continue to fund 
incentives to hire faculty in under-represented areas.

     -- Increase support for research infrastructure and 
review how funds are distributed.

     -- Increase funding for renovating and maintaining 
buildings for the third consecutive year and continue to 
support the Campus Partners initiative.

     -- Increase funding for instructional computing for the 
third year and fund the fourth phase of the Administrative 
Resource Management System project to automate financial and 
human resource management systems.

     -- Maintain the university's financial equilibrium.

                             #

Contact:  Richard Sisson or Edward Ray, (614) 292-5881; 
William J. Shkurti, (614) 292-9232; Linda Tom, (614) 292-
4164.
Written by Tom Spring.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Wed, 3 Apr 1996 16:27:16 -0500]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.