After two years of flat tuition, OU to hike rates by 3.5 percent

When Ohio University's students start back to school Sept. 8, they will be enjoying their last quarter without a tuition increase. The university's Board of Trustees last month approved a 3.5 percent tuition hike for the winter and spring quarters of 2010, adding another $103 to students' quarterly bill.

The state of Ohio has been under a tuition freeze for the past two years. However, as of 2008-2009, the state remained ranked fourth nationally in average yearly tuition costs for public colleges and universities, according to a yearly survey conducted by the Washington (State) Higher Education Coordinating Board. The state average of $8,254 per year, as of last year, is nearly $2,400 over the national average of $5,867, according to the survey.

Ohio was scheduled to continue the tuition freeze this year, but when the final state budget failed to include all of the money Gov. Ted Strickland originally planned, lawmakers allowed for public universities to increase their tuitions by up to 3.5 percent.

The university's Budget Planning Council recommended the increase to the board July 31 in order to compensate for a $2.2 million decrease in the state share of instruction, Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings, OU's assistant vice president for budget planning and analysis said earlier this summer.

"We want to preserve the academic mission of the university," said Rebecca Watts, chief of staff for President Roderick McDavis. As opposed to making rushed judgments on cuts across the university, the board chose to raise tuition, Watts explained.

The 2010-2011 academic year will see an $11 million cut in state share of instruction for OU, so this year the university needs to carefully analyze where to make cuts rather than rushing into anything next year, Watts said.

"It's the board's desire, and the administration's desire as well, that a significant portion of the money be used for students negatively affected by the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG)," Watts said.

Students who qualified for OCOG were projected to receive anywhere between $2,496 and $5,000 in Gov. Strickland's budget, but the final version of the budget allotted $1,008 for every student who qualified for OCOG, regardless of their level of need. Therefore, many students saw cuts in their funding while others on the lower end of the scale saw their OCOG financial aid nearly double, Watts said.

While the increase will help some of the neediest students, other students may struggle to come up with the extra money each quarter.

"In these difficult economic times, any rise is going to hurt students and families," said Joe McLaughlin, a member of BPC who voted in favor of the increase (and chair of Faculty Senate), earlier this summer. "However, after years of budget cuts, we also need to ensure that the education students receive remains at a high quality. There wasn't a good choice."

The $103 increase per quarter may not make or break students, said Soni Williams, OU's director of financial aid.

"I don't want to minimize $103, because it could make a huge difference for some students," Williams said. "But I do not know that it's a deal breaker."

The university has no specific plans for helping students who might not be able to pay the extra money each quarter, Williams said. The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships is in a "wait and see" period right now until it sees how enrollment is affected, Williams said.

The administration has not yet decided how the 3.5 percent increase will be broken down between the instructional fee and the general fee, Watts said. The instructional fee goes toward supporting the basic functions of the university including faculty salaries and the Office of Budget Planning, while the general fee can be used for a variety of student services including Intercollegiate Athletics and Ping Center.

Practically speaking, the money raised from the tuition increase needs to go toward balancing the budget, McLaughlin said. Ideally, though, McLaughlin said, he would love to see the money go toward hiring more tenure-track faculty at OU while looking for savings and efficiencies elsewhere.

OU did not fare as well under a new funding formula that took effect this summer, adding to the need to raise tuition, McLaughlin said. The new formula takes into account graduation and retention rates, course completion, success in attracting, retaining and graduating at-risk students, degree-attainment success, and an increase in the number of students taking science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics courses (STEMM). "At-risk" students are those eligible for Ohio's need-based financial aid.

The SSI makes up approximately 30 percent of the university's funding, John Day, associate dean of academic affairs and associate provost for academic budgeting, said earlier this summer. For the 2010 fiscal year, the university will receive $124 million, an increase of 2.2 percent from the previous year. Gov. Strickland originally designated the university to receive a 4 percent increase, but by the time the budget made it through the Legislature, the funding had dropped, Day said.

"We did well statewide with degrees granted and courses completed," Day said. "The problem with us is our enrollment has stayed flat while others in the state grew, and that put us behind."

Also, the university will look at targeted enrollment growth in STEMM areas, Watts said.

Ohio's average tuition rates for "comprehensive" public colleges and universities in 2008-09 were behind only New Jersey ($10,749), Illinois ($9,165) and New Hamshire ($8,601), according to the survey by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board and released in March. Between 2004 and 2009, Ohio's tuition increased 15.6 percent. Nationally, tuition increased 29 percent. The Ohio tuition freeze was instated during the 2007-2008 school year.

"Gov. Strickland and the trustees have all been working hard at the issue of affordability," McLaughlin said. "The two years of tuition freezes have been a good thing, but you can't expect to fix in two years a problem that is 10 or 20 years old."