43
Hike in tuition OK’d by 9-1 vote
YSU students to pay 3.5% more this fall
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University students contacted after the school’s board of trustees approved a 3.5 percent tuition increase for this fall weren’t overly critical of the move, but they do want to know where the money will be spent.
Tahir Rfarif of Dublin, Ohio, a pre-med major, said that if the additional money will go for computers, he has no objection. But if it will be used to renovate Kilcawley Center, he objects to the increase, he said.
“My dad is already paying $10,000 now a semester for me to live in the dorms and go to school,” said Progga Das of Ada, Ohio, also a pre-med student. No one is looking forward to a tuition increase, she said.
The trustees voted 9-1 Friday to approve the increase, which will amount to $243 a year for undergraduate students and $324 a year for graduate students. The new annual tuition costs for those groups will be $7,199 and $9,575, respectively.
The vote also included a $200 room-and-board increase.
Trustee Harry Meshel cast the dissenting vote, a protest, he said, against all of the programs presented by the administration to the trustees for approval without any real trustee involvement in the planning or development of those programs. The board too frequently has been asked to be a rubber stamp for administrative proposals, he said.
Trustees Carole Weimer, Sudershan Garg, Millicent Counts, John Pogue, Scott Schulick, Larry DeJane, John Jakubek, Leonard Schiavone and Lyndsie Hall voted for the increase.
The university also increased tuition 3.5 percent this year after two years of tuition freeze.
The latest tuition and fee increases are expected to generate an additional $4.2 million in revenue that will go into the university’s general fund, which can be used for a multitude of purposes.
Schulick, chairman of the board, had said previously that declining state support and rising costs are the key factors in the need to raise tuition.
I would predict continued tuition increases,” he said.
People come to YSU for the programs it offers, not for the buildings, said Walter Hartsock of Boardman, a communications studies major. He said the university is trying to build everything new rather than maintaining what it’s got. Some buildings are deteriorating, he said.
“I want to know where the money is going,” he said.
The university has been buying a lot of surrounding property in recent years, he pointed out, asking how that is benefiting the university’s educational offerings.
Joe Rolla of Canfield, an education major, said he’s not sure the tuition increase is necessary, based on recent enrollment growth, which automatically boosts revenue.
He also said he is curious about how the money will be spent.
The trustees also unanimously passed a $178.1 million total operating budget for 2010-11 Friday.
That’s up $4.3 million over this year and includes a general fund of $158.8 million, up $4 million over this year.
Despite the increase, YSU said it still has the third-lowest tuition among Ohio’s 13 state universities.