YSU brass gives up pay raises to aid students

By Harold Gwin

The campus community will be asked to voluntarily contribute to the fund.

YOUNGSTOWN — The president of Youngstown State University and his Cabinet are giving up their 3 percent raises next year to create a new student financial aid fund.

David C. Sweet, YSU president, made the announcement during a university board of trustees meeting Friday, saying that, during the next week, he will invite all members of the campus community to join the effort.

The administrative give-back will amount to about $50,000, said Thomas Maraffa, special assistant to the president and a member of the C abinet.

The biggest chunk will come from the president, whose fiscal 2009 salary is $230,152.

Fiscal year 2010 begins July 1.

The Cabinet consists of four vice presidents, the university’s general counsel, the athletic director, the director of equal opportunity and diversity and the special assistant to the president.

Trustees praised the action. Chairman Scott Schulick publicly thanked the administrators for deciding to give back to the university.

Sweet said fiscal 2010 will be a difficult budget year.

“We will not be able to meet our commitments within a balanced budget without significant reductions in expenses,” he warned.

The university was able to save $1.4 million in personnel costs by freezing vacant nonfaculty positions and cutting summer course offerings by 10 percent in this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

More personnel deductions will be required next fiscal year, and the action of the Cabinet is the first step, he said.

This isn’t the first time the university’s administrators have taken the lead in this type of action, Sweet said, pointing out that the Cabinet voluntarily began paying a portion of its health-care costs in 2002 in a cost-cutting move.

Overall, higher education will get a 6.54 percent increase as proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland in his biennial budget. State universities will be expected to freeze tuition again for a third year.

However, under the new version of the higher education funding formula proposed by Strickland, state aid to YSU will actually drop by $221,000, Sweet said.

The university is expected to see a slight increase in fiscal 2011, he said.

State funding makes up roughly one-third of YSU’s $148 million general fund budget.

gwin@vindy.com