Committee brings back guarantee

The university will be allowed to raise tuition again.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN --Youngstown State University President David C. Sweet said a state conference committee has reinstated a guarantee that means the university could not receive fewer "state share of instruction" dollars than it did in 2003.
In fiscal year 2003, YSU received about $41.5 million in SSI funds from the state. However, the amount promised at the end of June 2002 had been about $44 million.
The governor's and Senate versions of the 2004 budget would have left funding at or near 2003 levels. A House version would have given YSU less -- $38.3 million.
The YSU board of trustees' finance and facilities committee has passed a $116 million general fund budget, based on a $41.1 million SSI number. The committee meets again next week before a meeting where they will recommend a budget to the full board.
While Sweet said the amount that would come to YSU through the conference committee version represents more than the House committee had recommended, he said it's still less than the university has received in years past.
Showing decreased support
Armed with a bar graph showing how state support has dwindled over the years, Sweet and other YSU representatives have been visiting Columbus routinely over the past months in an effort to explain the consequences cuts have on the university and its students.
Besides the guarantee, Sweet said there are two other items in the conference committee budget version that could affect YSU.
First, tuition increases are limited to 6 percent per year, starting July 1. YSU trustees voted in December to increase tuition by 9.5 percent effective this summer. However, the universities would be permitted to average the previous three semesters and add the maximum 6-percent increase to that average. At YSU, the 9.5-percent summer term increase would be part of the average, Sweet said.
Sweet said the tuition increase was a crucial part of the university's balanced budget.
Also in YSU's favor is a conference committee decision to allow universities to increase tuition by an additional 3.9 percent if the increased revenue is earmarked for need-based scholarship programs and/or technology infrastructure, Sweet said.
Sweet said the conference committee has also added to Access Challenge and Success Challenge funds that universities receive for success in student degree completion and for programs that increase student retention and access to the university. YSU's current 2004 budget plan forecasts no change from the amount of these funds received in 2003.