YSU offers options for reducing degree cost

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University students will be able to earn a degree for more than 9 percent less.

A new law requires all state universities to adopt and implement a plan to provide in-state, undergraduate students the opportunity to reduce by 5 percent the cost of earning a degree.

YSU trustees approved the changes Thursday at their regular quarterly meeting.

“We’re in excess of the state requirement of 5 percent,” Neal McNally, vice president for finance and business operations, told trustees.

Full-time undergraduate tuition at YSU is $8,087 and increases to $22,029 with room and board, books, transportation and other expenses.

By reducing from 124 to 120 the number of credit hours required to earn a bachelor’s degree, YSU knocks about 1.5 percent off the cost of attending for four years.

An additional 1.2 percent is reduced for students who participate in Penguin Jump Start, a new program begun this summer allowing entering freshmen to take up to six hours for $500 per course.

By expanding the lesser-cost tuition bulk rate by two credit hours – from between 12 and 16 credit hours to between 12 and 18 credit hours – the cost of four-year attendance reduces another 4.6 percent.

Further reduction is possible through YSU’s freezing most fees. The specific savings, though, will vary depending on a student’s major.

This semester, YSU also increased the number of College Credit Plus courses offered, leading to a 122 percent participation increase compared with last fall. That garners a potential 2 percent cost reduction for four-year attendance.

College Credit Plus allows high-school students to earn college credit.

Trustees also approved conferral of an honorary doctor of laws degree to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. The degree will be presented at the Dec. 13 commencement where Portman is the speaker.

In an Academic Quality and Student Success Committee meeting Thursday before the full board meeting, Trustee Ted Roberts voted against the resolution, and Harry Meshel and student Trustee Melissa Anderson abstained.

Meshel and Roberts and some of the other trustees expressed concerns about the honorary degree appearing to be an endorsement of Portman, who is seeking re-election. Portman, a Republican, is opposed by Democrat Ted Strickland. As Ohio governor from 2006 to 2010, Strickland appointed Meshel and trustees Carole Weimer, Leonard Schiavone and Delores Crawford. Dr. John Jakubek was appointed by Strickland in 2009 to fill an unexpired term as a YSU trustee. He was appointed last year to a full term by Gov. John Kasich.

Neither Meshel nor Roberts was at the full board meeting, and student trustees vote only in committee meetings, not at the full board sessions.