At YSU, joy is tempered with reality

While supporters of Youngstown State University football have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, thanks to the $7.5 million man, members of the Association of Classified Employees will be getting lumps of coal this Christmas, courtesy of the board of trustees and Robert G. Stein, the fact finder in contract talks.

Such was the contrast last week between two headline-grabbing stories that offer a great deal of insight into the future of the fiscally challenged urban institution.

Without a doubt, the announcement that nationally known Division I football coach Bo Pelini, a native of Youngstown, will be taking over the tepid YSU program was as exciting to many Valley residents as the appointment of Jim Tressel, former national football championship winning coach at both Youngstown State and Ohio State, as YSU president.

Guaranteed payment

Pelini, who was fired by the University of Nebraska after seven seasons, is guaranteed $7.5 million because he was under contract until February 2019. However, the annual payment will be reduced by his yearly salary at Youngstown State. Although Pelini was introduced to the local media last week, the terms of his contract are still being negotiated.

His predecessor, Eric Wolford, who was fired after five seasons, earned just under $260,000 in his final year.

While Pelini, whose football roots run deep in the Valley, obviously didn’t take the coaching job for the money — his and his wife’s families are from the area — the question of how much the university can afford to pay him looms large.

Several weeks ago, it was suggested in this space that the 32 movers and shakers in the Valley instrumental in getting Tressel hired as president should put up the dough for the new coach’s salary and, perhaps, even supplement the compensation of the assistants.

Why? Because their pal, Tress, is staring into a fiscal abyss. The administration and trustees must tackle an anticipated $10 million budget deficit, which means cutting costs and increasing revenue. Work has already begun on the first, but the second will be more challenging given that the state has reduced funding for Ohio’s public universities and colleges, and YSU’s enrollment has been on the decline for the past several semesters.

The reality of the university’s fiscal condition was driven home by fact finder Stein, who recommended wage and step freezes for classified employees. They are members of ACE.

Stein also wrote that YSU should be permitted to implement a plan for mandatory furloughs “to achieve reductions necessitated by institutional budget deficits.”

The maximum number of furlough days allowed under the fact finder’s recommendation is 10 unpaid days per fiscal year in 2015 and 2016. YSU would have to provide 30 days’ advance notice of a mandatory furlough plan.

And, Stein recommended changes in the sick-leave payout language for ACE members.

“If the university is to remain competitive, its benefits architecture and costs must eventually come into line with its prime competitors,” he wrote in his report. He did note that “other YSU bargaining units are even more out of line than the ACE bargaining unit.”

‘Me Too’ clause

But the trustees rejected the report because Stein included a “Me Too” clause, which means the classified employees would receive whatever pay increases and benefits were secured by the other bargaining units.

The university is currently in contract talks with the faculty union, whose bargaining team failed to sell a tentative agreement to the membership. The trustees had accepted the pact, which called for bonuses and pay raises for the faculty and also some major concessions. With the faculty rejecting the agreement, the two sides have resumed negotiations.

Given the tension that is building between the administration and trustees on one side and the labor unions on the other, the hiring of Coach Bo Pelini could be viewed as a godsend, or a fiscal cross for the troubled institution to bear.

Football fans see him as leading the team to the promised land of another Division IA national championship.

But others, who worry about the future of YSU in the larger context of higher education in Ohio, believe there must be a reassessment of spending priorities.