State support for YSU falls below average, report says

YSU's tuition is lower than the average cost at university main campuses.
By HAROLD GWIN
Vindicator education writer
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University gets less state support per full-time student than the average main university campus in Ohio.
A report by the Ohio Board of Regents on the annual performance of Ohio higher education shows that YSU got $4,389 for each full-time student in fiscal 2004, a drop of 17 percent from fiscal 2000.
A full-time student takes at least 15 credit hours per semester.
That's significantly below the average for main university campuses in the state at $4,804 per full-time student in fiscal 2004, down 11 percent from 2000.
Steady decline
The numbers support YSU's contention that state support for higher education has been steadily declining.
While the amount of state support has been dropping, YSU's cost of instruction per full-time student has been growing.
The report shows the university paid out $9,345 per full-time student in fiscal year 2004, up 11 percent from fiscal 2000.
The state average for the cost of instruction was $10,278 in fiscal 2004, up 4 percent.
YSU officials also repeatedly have said the cost of an education at the university is less than at other schools, and the regents' report bears that out as well.
It shows that YSU tuition and fees charged to full-time, in-state students for fiscal 2006 totaled $6,237, up 6 percent from the previous year, compared with the state average of $7,941, an increase of 5.8 percent from the previous year, for university main campus students.
More got aid
More YSU first-year, full-time students received educational financial assistance than the average student at university main campuses.
The report shows that 87 percent of YSU students got aid compared with the state average of 79 percent.
The levels of federal and state grants and loans received by YSU students were about average, but the level of support from YSU was significantly lower, averaging $2,874 per student recipient in fiscal 2004 compared with the university main campus average of $3,811.
Ohio is retaining a high percentage of its graduates -- 78 percent -- according to the report.
YSU scored above that level, with 80 percent of its 3,920 spring term graduates earning bachelor's degrees between 1999 and 2004 finding employment or attending college in Ohio a half-year after graduation. For the 601 who earned master's degrees in that time frame, the rate was 84 percent.
Other findings include:
UEleven percent of YSU's 11,810 undergraduate students in the fall of 2004 were black, and 2 percent were Hispanic. Seventy-six percent were white/non-Hispanic. The state average for university main campuses was 12 percent black, 2 percent Hispanic and 79 percent white/non-Hispanic.
UTwenty-nine percent of those 11,810 students were over the age of 24 at YSU. The state average was 32 percent over that age mark.
UTwenty-six percent of the 2,137 first-year students at YSU in the fall of 2004 were taking remedial math and English classes. The state average was 13 percent.
gwin@vindy.com