Tuition will drop $12 for full-time residents

For out-of-state students, tuition will go up more than had been expected.
& lt;a href=mailto:viviano@vindy.com & gt;By JoANNE VIVIANO & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University students will see their tuition go down by $12 per semester this fall after YSU trustees approved a new fee schedule based on a proposed state budget.
Full-time Ohio students will pay $2,724 per term, down from the current $2,736. Part-time students will pay $180 per credit hour vs. the current $181.
Trustees made the change Wednesday, in response to a state budget approved by the state Legislature and awaiting the approval of Gov. Bob Taft.
The budget limits universities to 6 percent-per-year increases in tuition rates, effective July 1.
YSU trustees had voted in December to increase tuition by 9.5 percent, effective during the current, summer term. The tuition-cap legislation means trustees cannot implement the same increase this fall.
However, a legislative conference committee allowed universities to average the tuition and fee costs of the past three terms, and base the 6 percent increase on that average. For YSU this means the 9.5 percent increase in tuition doesn't fall to a 6 percent increase, but becomes a 9.05 percent increase.
The cap does not apply to out-of-state students, whose increases will rise more than expected. Tuition paid by regional, nonresident, full-time students rises from $1,151 to $1,164 per semester. Nonregional, nonresident, full-time students will pay $2,604 over the current $2,590.
Background
Tuition has been rising steadily at YSU as state funding has decreased. Rates went up by 8 percent in fall 2002, 5.5 percent in spring 2002 and 5.1 percent in fall 2001.
University President David C. Sweet said YSU remains the most affordable, efficient and cost-effective public university in Ohio.
The proposed state budget also allows universities to increase tuition by up to 3.9 percent more, if the extra funds generated are earmarked for technology or scholarships. Sweet said he will not ask trustees for the additional increase at this time but will likely do so in December.
University officials have long lamented that decreases in state funding have meant that the burden of funding higher education has been shifted from the shoulders of the state to that of the students. Though YSU received about $46 million in "state share of instruction" dollars in 2001, it will likely receive $41.5 million this year.
"I think it's unwise public policy. I think it's short-sighted. I think it's a travesty," Sweet said. " ... But it's the reality of what we're dealing with."
YSU's $116 million fiscal year 2004 general fund budget approved by the board on Wednesday had anticipated the tuition percent increase as well as a 1 percent decrease in SSI funding. The state budget, though, has reinstated a "guarantee" that a university cannot receive fewer SSI dollars than it did in fiscal year 2003.
No layoffs
It also increases funding for "Access Challenge" and "Success Challenge" programs that are aimed at tuition restraint and student retention.
As such, the university will have $900,000 more than the budget had expected, said Terry Ondreyka, YSU's vice president for financial affairs.
"The thing that is important is that we will not have to start the new year with budget cuts that would have forced layoffs," said Sweet. An earlier version of the budget, proposed by the House, would have meant severe cuts to YSU's funding.
The additional funds will go toward areas where "major reductions" had been made in 2003 and proposed for 2004 due to reductions in state funding throughout the 2003 year, Sweet said. At the start of 2003, YSU was promised $3.8 million more SSI dollars than the $41.5 million it received.
& lt;a href=mailto:viviano@vindy.com & gt;viviano@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;