Has reality dawned at YSU?

Let's see now (yes, it's the start of a grouchy column), the president of Youngstown State University rakes in $203,520 a year, receives a housing allowance of $50,000 a year, and pockets a car allowance of $7,200, but Walt Ulbricht, YSU's executive director of marketing and communication, feels bad for Dr. David Sweet.
Even with the increased compensation package, Ulbricht emoted recently, Sweet is the second-lowest paid president among the state's universities.
So what? Sweet is head of a university that is ranked almost as low. In other words, it's all relative.
For Ulbricht to even suggest a comparison between Sweet's $325,520 in salary and allowances -- the value of his benefit package is a separate matter -- goes to show just how out of touch the Youngstown State University community has been with reality.
What is even more disconcerting is that Sweet, Ulbricht and other members of the brain trust keep pounding away at the fact that student tuition ranks among the lowest in the state. The message that comes across loud and clear is that the customers -- and in many instances their parents -- should be willing to pay more for the honor of attending YSU.
Indeed, Sweet has suggested that a 10 percent tuition increase, over the 8.9 percent hike for the current semester, the 5.5 percent increase last spring and the 5.1 percent hike last fall, is quite appropriate.
No money
And why is there such a scramble for more money? Because YSU is broke. It doesn't have the funds to meet the $2.78 million in pay raises granted to Sweet, nonunion administrators, faculty, classified employees, police and the professional staff by the board of trustees.
Yes, dear reader, in "university world" you first give exorbitant increases to everyone from the president on down and then you talk about how you're going to pay for this largess. You don't ask the question that is common in the private sector: Can we afford this?
The trustees, who are appointed by the governor, certainly didn't ask that question loudly enough so the students, the parents and the taxpayers could hear.
Give the faculty a three-year contract that includes a 3.5 percent raise each year and $1,000 per year salary increase, the president told the trustees. Anything you say, replied the trustees.
Give the classified employees a three-year contract that includes a 3 percent a year hike and a $600 bonus if enrollment hits a target number, Sweet recommended. You're the man, they replied.
Give the professional staff and the police raises similar to the classified employees and also agree to increase the salaries of my administrators, the president urged. No problem, said the policy makers.
So what if John Habat, vice president for administration, received a whopping 7.8 percent increase -- he's now making $129,500 -- he's still earning less than his peers in other universities, Sweet argued.
We hear you, said the trustees.
And every time someone, especially some pesky journalist, wondered where YSU was going to come up with the $2.78 million annual outlay for the compensation package, the answer seemed to be, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Well, Sweet and the trustees came to the bridge -- and found that it had collapsed.
Youngstown State University is facing an $8.1 million budget deficit for the 2003-04 fiscal year and suddenly the trustees aren't so sure about giving the president carte blanche.
Cost-cutting plan
Last week, they refused to embrace the 10 percent tuition increase he wanted and instead told him to come up with a cost-cutting plan. Why this newfound fiscal responsibility? Because even with a 10 percent tuition increase, YSU will still be confronting a $2.4 million deficit.
The trustees, many of whom are active in their communities, are hearing a lot of chatter out there, and it's not pleasant.
And when Gov. Bob Taft and legislative leaders hear Sweet complain about the decrease in state funding for higher education, they undoubtedly make reference to his hefty pay raise and the increase in his housing allowance.
It's time for truth or consequences on the campus of Youngstown State. The trustees should rollback Sweet's compensation package -- there is no danger of his fleeing his job -- and then should publicly call on the employee unions to give back their raises. Then and only then will they have any credibility with the public in seeking a tuition increase.