U Weekly. Serving The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio

Campus tuition freeze met with statewide expectations

By Kate Liebers

While some Ohio programs face severed budgets, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has proposed protecting higher education funding. Consequently, The Ohio State University Board of Trustees has agreed to keep resident undergraduate tuition frozen while other institutions are upping students' bills.

Yet this favor for students comes with a catch: to save the state from the economic crisis.

The funding for the land-grant university of OSU was scheduled to be determined today, July 1, as the state budget is finalized. Nevertheless, the University's Board of Trustees has already agreed to keep tuition at a zero-percent increase for a third year - a streak that OSU students haven't seen since 1955.

Not only breaking its own Bursar Office records, OSU is fighting the national trend of higher education institutions raising their tuitions. According to the College Board, the average published tuition and fees for in-state students increased 6.4 percent during the last fiscal year; out-of-state tuition increased 5.2 percent.

According to Shelly Hoffman, assistant vice president for media relations, OSU's last tuition increase (during the 2006-2007 academic year), was 7.2 percent.

"Tuition increases nationally because a lot of states have had to cut state aid to colleges and universities," said William Shkurti, senior vice president of business and finance at OSU. "Colleges and universities have had to turn around and get some of that money back in the form of tuition increase."

Instead, Strickland, counting on federal economic stimulus funds, has proposed a plan to keep higher education affordable.

"This is the first time in decades when higher education has been protected from budget cuts," said Michael Chaney, spokesperson for the Ohio Board of Regents.

Of course, as Chaney said, if more of the state's budget is going toward higher education, less money is available for other government-funded programs. Such programs facing considerable cuts included public libraries and mental health services.

The governor - in response to his objected proposal to cut library funding in half - said the budget outline requires "tough choices." Nevertheless, he also acknowledged libraries as "a haven for individuals to gather and utilize resources," and his goals to "build a stronger, better Ohio."

Such goals, Chaney said, are the basis for Strickland's support of higher education.

"Higher education is what's going to get us out of this down period in the economy," Chaney said. "And the best way for the state as a whole to rebound is to invest in higher education."

According to Hoffman, tuition dollars go towards the University's instructional budget. Tuition covers most of this budget - 59 percent - while the state covers 33 percent.

"The reason we've been able to do a tuition freeze is because the state money has been increased," said Shkurti, who presented the tuition and fees recommendations to the board June 5.

While a 2.5 percent surcharge will be added to non-resident undergraduates at the Columbus campus, all students can expect some fee increases for non-mandatory university facilities. The average room and board rate is to increase by $372 dollars; West Campus parking by $1.80. The mandatory Student Union fee is pending; beginning Spring of 2010, undergraduate students are to pay $27 per quarter.

Such facilities are self-sustaining and separate from the budget tuition money funds, said Hoffman.

Although these agreements were made prior to the finalization of the state budget, Shkurti said "it would be very unlikely" that the board would have to make any changes.

As for next year, Strickland's plan calls for 2011 tuition increases on main university campuses to be limited to 3.5 percent. Beyond that, said Shkurti, tuition and fee changes will be difficult to predict.

"There is some concern in 2012 when the federal stimulus money goes away, if the state will have enough money to continue to fund the tuition freeze or to keep tuition at low levels," Shkurti said.

Chaney is looking on the bright side, regarding higher education funds as a bipartisan issue.

"Everybody has made clear that higher education is a priority," Chaney said. "Despite all the bad news that we hear [about the economy], we have some good news in Ohio that people care about higher education."

Originally Published: July 1, 2009

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