$173M proposal includes 15 layoffs

June 3, 2014 at 8:14p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown State University trustees committee

approved a $173 million operating budget for fiscal 2015 that includes permanent layoffs of 15 people in what’s expected to be only the first round of cuts.

The plan also includes permanently eliminating 43 position vacancies.

Each of the university’s divisions was assigned a reduction target, and half haven’t met it.

Academic Affairs got the highest target — $7.5 million — and has achieved 13 percent of that goal. Hitting the target is going to be arduous.

“To hit our target, that’s 65 faculty positions — which means eliminating a college,” said Teresa Riley, interim provost. “That’s how drastic it will have to be.”

The budget plan is 2.3 percent less than the 2014 oper-

ating budget, a reduction

attributed to lower enrollment — a trend that began in 2011 — and its effect on both tuition and state funding.

The budget was approved Tuesday by the Finance and Facilities Committee with only Trustee Harry Meshel

opposed. It still must be

approved by the full board of trustees, expected to vote on the resolution June 18.

The reductions included in the plan cut YSU’s general-fund deficit to $7.1 million, down from $10.8 million at the start of the budget planning process.

The university’s budget development council, a group that includes members of the administration, made a series of recommendations to reduce YSU’s budget. Neal McNally, interim vice president of finance and administration, said the most significant of those recommendations was to require each division of the university — president’s office, finance and administration, advancement, academic affairs, student affairs and intercollegiate athletics — to permanently reduce expenses.