YSU Sweet proposes 5.5% tuition increase

YSU has $2 million more revenue in tuition this year thanks to a 3.9 percent enrollment increase.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Sharley Greene was thrilled last week when her boss at her part-time waitress job told her she was going to get a $150 Christmas bonus this year.
"I started thinking about all of the things I could do with it -- pay off some of my credit card bill, buy some Christmas presents, maybe a new pair of shoes," said Greene, 21, a Boardman resident and student at Youngstown State University.
Hold on, Sharley.
YSU trustees are expected to vote on a package of budget actions today in reaction to cuts in state funding, including a $120 increase in tuition for spring semester.
So much for Greene's bonus.
"Well, maybe I can still do dinner and a movie with my boyfriend," she said.
If approved by trustees, students will have to dig deeper into their wallets, and departments across campus will have to slice their budgets under a plan being recommended by President David Sweet.
Sweet also is recommending putting $1 million more into the university's reserve funds in anticipation of even more cuts in the months ahead as the state muddles through an economic downturn.
Recommendations: Sweet's recommendations can be divided in two parts:
* Gov. Bob Taft has cut state allocations for public universities statewide by 6 percent. State subsides make up about half of YSU's $105 million annual general fund budget. In all, YSU's loss will be $3.1 million.
But Sweet said the state also has notified YSU that it will receive $345,000 more than anticipated in a budget line item called Success Challenge. That essentially reduces the amount of lost state appropriations to $2.75 million.
To make up the loss, Sweet recommends raising tuition for spring semester by 5.5 percent or $120, from $2,174 to $2,294 for full-time students who are residents of Ohio.
The increase for the spring term, which begins Jan. 14, is believed to be the first midyear tuition increase ever at YSU, and would raise about $1.2 million.
YSU would be the fifth Ohio public university to raise tuition in the middle of the academic year, joining the University of Akron, University of Cincinnati and Cleveland and Kent state universities.
Sweet also recommends cutting $1.4 million in university spending, or about 1.3 percent across all department budgets.
He also recommends transferring $162,000 from the university's auxiliary funds, which includes the bookstore and dormitories, to the general fund.
* Because of a 3.9 percent increase in enrollment this academic year, YSU has $2 million more in revenue from tuition and fees than expected, Sweet says in his recommendations.
About $1 million of that will go to pay for increased expenses, such as instructional costs, resulting from the increased number of students on campus, and for new campus initiatives, including YSU's new image campaign.
Sweet recommends putting the other $1 million into the university's reserves, boosting those funds to $5.3 million.
University administrators say additional state budget cuts could be on the horizon, maybe before the end of this fiscal year on June 30. So, they say it's prudent to build up reserves for any future budget shortfalls.
Expected: Sweet warned students two weeks ago that a midyear tuition increase was needed, so reaction on campus to the specifics of the plan was muted.
"We knew it was coming," Brendan McIntyre, a sophomore, said Monday while walking across campus.
"I don't like it, but I'm so used to tuition going up these days that it doesn't even faze me anymore."