YOUNGSTOWN YSU to start letter drive to seek help

There will be no layoffs, but at least 15 vacant jobs will not be filled.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University alumni will soon be asked to join the fray in the budget battle for higher education.
YSU will mail letters to 60,000 graduates living in Ohio asking them to contact state legislators and speak out against further cuts in state funding to Ohio's public universities, said Shannon Tirone, alumni relations director.
YSU President David Sweet said other Ohio universities are following the same strategy. Sweet said 800,000 graduates of state universities still live in Ohio and must be mobilized to lobby for an end to deep cuts in higher education.
"We have not done a good job in terms of building a constituency out there," he said.
Sweet and Tirone outlined the letter campaign Tuesday before YSU trustees approved a series of steps to make up for a $3.1 million cut in state funding to YSU.
Trustees voted 7-1 to raise tuition $120, or 5.5 percent, for spring semester and cut university department budgets campuswide by $1.4 million.
While the plan does not include any layoffs, at least 15 vacant jobs will not be filled, Sweet said.
Reserve funds: The budget plan also boosts the university's reserve funds by $1 million.
Trustee Bill Knecht voted against the plan, objecting to building reserves while raising tuition. He proposed putting $500,000 into reserves rather than $1 million and cutting in half the proposed tuition increase to $60.
"I feel [the plan] is at the expense of students," he said.
Sweet acknowledged that a tuition increase could be avoided altogether if the $1 million the board agreed to put into reserves would instead go elsewhere in the budget.
But he said that would not be wise.
The $1 million in additional reserves boosts YSU's rainy-day fund to $5.3 million, which is about 5 percent of the general fund budget. The state recommends a 10-percent reserve level, Sweet said.
Also, Sweet said further state cuts could come even before the end of this fiscal year. If that happens, YSU would have the additional $1 million in reserves from which to draw, he said.
"I think we have to be prudent in these times," he added.
Agrees: Trustee John Pogue agreed, saying that he thinks more money woes are on the horizon. "I think we're going to face very, very substantial financial problems," he said.
YSU enters a new fiscal year in July with an additional $3 million cut in state funding, yet it has two union contracts in place that call for salary increases and soon will begin contract talks with its two largest unions, faculty and staff.
Trustee Joe Nohra said YSU "can't always look to gouging the students" to make up for the budget shortfalls.
"Others must be willing to share in these difficult times," he said, emphasizing that employees will be asked to make sacrifices.
"I, for one, am not going to be willing to give away the store," he said about the upcoming negotiations.