Shortfall for YSU in 2010 unclear
By Harold Gwin
The university doesn’t know if it will get an increase or a decrease in state aid.
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University is looking at a 2010 general-fund shortfall between $800,000 and $3.8 million, depending on which funding scenario the state follows for next year.
The amount the university is seeking to cover with spending cuts varies because no one knows yet just how much money the state will provide to the university, said Thomas Maraffa, special assistant to the university president.
Maraffa outlined the latest budget issues for the Finance and Facilities Committee of the YSU Board of Trustees on Wednesday.
Overall, the university is looking at $5 million in increased expenditures next year, Maraffa said. YSU operated on a $148 million general- fund budget this year.
The university has been able to cover about $3.7 million of that additional spending by not filling some nonfaculty positions and delaying filling some others, reducing operating and other budgets and making budget adjustments and reallocations.
Just how much more needs to be cut depends on the level of state funding, Maraffa said, pointing out there are currently three possible scenarios coming out of Columbus.
One calls for a 1.3 percent increase in the $50 million the university got from the state this year. If that’s the final state budget version, YSU will still have to deal with an $800,000 funding gap that could be covered by a 7.5 percent reduction in nonpersonnel costs such as overtime, intermittent employee pay, supplemental contract pay and nonmandatory travel, Maraffa said.
The second scenario calls for a 0.45 percent decrease in state funding, leaving YSU with a $2.2 million funding gap, he said. Covering that could require a delay in filling non-faculty vacant positions to January 2010 and a 10 percent cut in non-personnel costs, he said.
The third scenario calls for a 1 percent cut in state funding that would result in a $3.8 million funding gap. A full nonfaculty hiring freeze and a 14 percent reduction in nonpersonnel costs could be the result, Maraffa said.
Cutting part-time faculty would be another way to reduce spending, but that would adversely affect course offerings and perhaps enrollment numbers, something the university has shied away from, along with student services and student-aid programs, Maraffa said.
There are other ways to change the budget picture, he said, suggesting an increase in graduate student tuition and fees as one possibility.
Although undergraduate tuition is to remain frozen next year under an agreement with the state, the freeze doesn’t affect graduate student rates, Maraffa said.
A 3 percent increase in the $4,364 per-semester tuition and fees would generate $195,000 in additional revenue from the nearly 1,500 graduate students on campus, he said. A 6 percent increase would mean $390,000 in new revenue, he said.
gwin@vindy.com