Report issued for improved college affordability

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s public college and university students should see their out-of-pocket expenses decrease as those campuses find ways to cut costs, according to a new report issued Thursday by a panel appointed by Gov. John Kasich.

The Ohio Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency outlined numerous ways for schools to lower their costs, including taking advantage of joint contracting with other campuses, streamlining administration, negotiating textbook purchases and providing incentives for students to earn their two- or four-year degrees on time.

Many of the ideas are recommendations and not necessarily mandates, with leeway given to schools to take different approaches. But the bottom line, task force members said Thursday, should be lower expenses for students.

“Students must benefit from whatever we recommend,” said Geoff Chatas, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Ohio State University, who headed the task force. “These were not savings for savings sake but rather steps for lowering the students’ costs.”

At both Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College, some of those efforts already are underway.

One recommendation suggests that each institution require employees to use existing contracts to buy goods and services.

“We’re already doing that through state purchasing,” said Neal McNally, YSU vice president of finance and business operations.

Another recommendation is asset review. Each institution must conduct an assessment of its noncore assets to determine their market value if sold, leased or otherwise repurposed.

“We’ve done some of that with the student housing development, leasing that land,” McNally said. “We’re looking at some other operations to see if it would make sense to monetize.” Those include property and operations, he said.

Another recommends affinity partnerships and sponsorships.

McNally said YSU has recently moved to PNC Bank to provide on- campus banking for students. The bank provides internships for YSU business students.

Both YSU and Eastern Gateway have worked to address the time to degrees.

“We’ve gotten all of our degrees to 60 credit hours” except those that require more by accrediting agencies, said Jimmie Bruce, EGCC president.

Jim McGrail, EGCC’s vice president for business services, said the college has been working to address textbook affordability.

McGrail and McNally are their respective institution’s representative on the task force’s advisory council.

McGrail said there’s a move toward digital textbooks to address affordability. Some of those may be developed in-house or collaboratively among institutions.

McGrail looks forward to the recommendation to address health-care costs. “A regional consortium to try to pool our employee health-care costs is something that’s going to be a tough project, but I’m looking forward to working on it,” he said.

Thursday’s report capped a months-long process announced by Kasich in February to study ways to reduce costs at the state’s public colleges and universities.

It was a continuation of a process the governor initiated in his last term, when he asked the schools to work together to identify capital budget needs rather than fighting for limited state dollars.

The administration and the schools also worked to revamp state funding to place increased emphasis on graduation rates instead of enrollment.

The new report acknowledges that Ohio’s tuition rates are among the highest in the nation.

The average annual tuition at four-year universities, at $10,100, was 14 percent higher than the rest of the country, or the 16th highest nationally. The average tuition and two-year colleges, at $4,484, was 17 percent higher, ranking Ohio the 12th-highest in the country.