Trustees: Tuition, Pay, Budget

TRUSTEES ACT ON BUDGET, TUITION, PAY

     COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees
Friday (5/6) voted to raise the tuition of most students 5
percent, set computer laboratory fees, and adopted budget
guidelines for the 1994-95 academic year.  The board also
approved pay raises for faculty and staff.

Tuition

     The board approved increases in tuition of 5 percent for
undergraduate and graduate students and varying levels for
professional students.

     Full-time undergraduate students residing in Ohio will see
tuition rise on average by $147 per year from the current $2,940
to $3,087.  Tuition for out-of-state undergraduate students will
rise from the current $8,871 to $9,315.

     Graduate students enrolled in the colleges of Optometry and
Pharmacy will see instructional fees rise 5 percent and those in
the colleges of Dentistry, Law, Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine
will see larger increases.  (See table.)

     This will be the second straight year that undergraduate
tuition has gone up an average of 5 percent.

     "These are the lowest back-to-back tuition increases since
1986 and 1987," said William J. Shkurti, vice president for
finance.  Those years, tuition went up 3.8 percent and zero,
respectively, for in-state undergraduates.

     "OSU continues to be a best buy," Shkurti said, citing the
university's above-average reputation and below-average costs.
This year, Ohio State ranked 10th of the 13 public universities
in Ohio with in-state undergraduate tuition costs that are 9
percent below the state average and 15.3 percent below the
average among the Big Ten universities.

     "One of the highest priorities we have in our budget is to
maintain and enhance our support for students and student
programs," said Richard Sisson, senior vice president for
academic affairs and provost.

     "Let me give some examples: it will help provide students
with strong academic programs, more summer course offerings, and
maintain scholarships for 8,000 students.  It also will provide
pay raises for 11,000 student workers and protect key student
services, such as financial aid, from budget reductions."

     Sisson said the budget maintains Ohio State's commitment to
enhance the quality of its undergraduate and graduate student
body.

     "We have outstanding students here, in whom the people of
Ohio should take great pride."

Computer Lab Fees

     Trustees voted to assess a computer laboratory fee on all
full-time students in the Fisher College of Business, effective
autumn quarter 1994, and to extend a similar fee in the College
of Engineering to students majoring in computer and information
science in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

     The Business fee is intended to address an immediate need
for improving instructional computing services.

     The fee, $95 per quarter for undergraduate students and $120
for graduate students, will be prorated for part-time students at
$8 per credit hour for undergraduate majors enrolled for less
than 12 credit hours, and at $15 per credit hour for graduate
students enrolled for less than eight credit hours.

     In subsequent years, the full-time computing fee will be
limited to 10 percent of the resident undergraduate or graduate
tuition, respectively.

     A similar fee was instituted last spring for the College of
Engineering.  Trustees extended that fee for another year at $120
per quarter for full-time undergraduate and graduate students.
The fee is to be prorated at $10 per credit hour for
undergraduate majors enrolled for less than 12 credit hours and
at $15 per credit hour for graduate students enrolled for less
than eight credit hours.

     This fall, the fee will be extended to students in the
College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences who are majoring in
computer and information science.  However, the fee will be 2/3
of the amount assessed engineering majors.
     The fees are to be reviewed annually by the Office of
Academic Affairs and the Board of Trustees for possible
contiuation, elimination, or replacement by a university-wide
computing fee.

Budget Guidelines

     Trustees also approved guidelines for completing the
university's operating budget for the fiscal year that begins
July 1.

     Shkurti said the budget will keep the university on track to
achieve financial equilibrium by the end of the next fiscal year,
June 30, 1995.  Financial equilibrium would mean that university-
wide reductions in the General Fund budget would no longer have
to be made to fund current operation.

     The 1994-95 budget will require a reduction in the General
Fund budget accounts averaging about 3 percent, the smallest cuts
in four years.  In previous years, reductions have averaged 4 to
5 percent or more.

     "Although the fiscal year 1995 budget does not allow us to
do everything we would like, it is a significant improvement over
what we had to deal with over the last three years," Shkurti
said.

     The budget for 1995, to be adopted by the board at the June
3 meeting, will require current expenditures to be covered by
current resources and limits to be placed on multi-year spending
commitments.  In addition, the university will move away from
allocating funds based on expenditures to a system based on
income generation.

     "Right now our expenditures are based on the idea that the
more you spend, the more you get.  We want to go to the idea that
the more you bring into the university, the more you get.  Those
units which do the most to bring in revenue will benefit."

     Shkurti said that to reach financial equilibrium enrollment
on the Columbus campus must be stabilized at 50,000 students,
strict limits must continue on new spending initiatives, and
state instructional subsidies must be provided at a level at
least equal to the rate of inflation.

     "We'll have to keep an eye on state and federal mandates and
make sure we get no surprises," Shkurti said.

     "All of these are achievable goals, but we can't take any of
it for granted."

     Preliminary income projections for the General Fund on the
Columbus campus for fiscal year 1995 total $556.5 million, up 2.9
percent from the current year's $540.6 million.  Although general
tuition will rise 5 percent, Ohio State's Columbus campus will
only realize an increase of 3.7 percent in income from tuition
because enrollment next year is expected to be down slightly.
Overall income from tuition, state support and other earnings is
expected to rise 2.9 percent.

Faculty and Staff Pay Raises

     Trustees, as part of the budget guidelines, approved pay
raises for faculty and staff, who received little additional
compensation the past two years.

     The guidelines call for $600 as a base merit increase for
faculty and staff at pay levels up to $30,000.  Base merit
increases for faculty and staff earning $30,000 or more will
equal $300 plus 1 percent of their salary.

     The total pool of funds available is equal to about 4
percent of payroll.

     "We want to be able to reward exceptional performance," said
Linda Tom, vice president for human resources.  "Available funds
remaining from the 4 percent pool will be awarded based on
exceptional performance.  This will give departments and offices
greater flexibility to address the need to stay competitive with
other universities and employers."

     Tom noted that the pay raises are the most offered by Ohio
State in four years.  In 1992, faculty and administrative and
professional staff did not receive a pay raise.  Last year, they
received a 2 percent increase.  Classified staff received pay
raises of 1.5 percent a year.

     Many employees saw their raises eaten up by increases in
health care premiums.  For the coming fiscal year, health
insurance coverage for faculty and staff has been restructured to
save money and to allow that money to be redirected toward pay
raises.

     The pay raises apply to 4,400 faculty, 10,440 staff and
11,340 special and hourly wage employees.  They do not affect
about 3,400 staff whose wages are determined under collective
bargaining agreements.

                                #
                                
Contact:  William J. Shkurti,  (614) 292-9232.
Written by Tom Spring.


[Submitted by: GERSTNER  (gerstner@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 06 May 1994 16:01:21 -0500 (EST)]
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