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YSU’s fiscal year 2017 operating budget is deficit free
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
For the first time since 2012, Youngstown State University’s budget includes no deficit.
YSU trustees Finance and Facilities Committee Thursday approved a $169.8 million fiscal year 2017 operating budget.
It requires approval of the full trustees board.
“The key takeaway from this is this budget is balanced,” Neal McNally, vice president for finance and business operations, told trustees.
Last year’s budget carried a $3 million deficit.
It was accomplished by managing the budget and reducing expenses, McNally said.
The university’s FY 2016 budget was $174 million.
It’s a difference of 2.5 percent or nearly $4.4 million.
Nearly $2 million of that decrease is in personnel, most of it through attrition, he said.
“We balanced the budget not making any unrealistic or lofty revenue projections,” McNally said.
The projections are conservative, the vice president said.
“It’s based on the assumption of a 0 percent change in enrollment,” he said.
It also assumes a reduction in investment earnings based on market volatility.
There’s a reduction of about $5 million through YSU outsourcing its bookstore to Barnes and Noble.
The bookstore was one of YSU’s auxiliary services. Others include intercollegiate athletics, housing services, Kilcawley Center the Labor and Industry Steel Museum and Andrews Recreation and Wellness Center.
Most of those services’ budgets also were reduced except for parking services, which increased by $20,440 and intercollegiate athletics which increased by $293,472.
McNally said state funding is expected to increase by about $900,000.
“State, after all, is our middle name and we’re grateful for the money that we get from the state,” he said.
In-state undergraduate tuition stays the same as do many fees charged to students. A law passed last year prohibited state-supported universities from increasing tuition for those students for two years.
Full-time tuition will remain at $8,087 per year for Ohio students, about $1,600 less than the state-wide average and the lowest of public universities in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Wright State University is the second-lowest at $8,730.
Fees for on-campus housing also are frozen as well as lab and materials fees, parking permits and other fees.
The new budget also expands YSU’s bulk tuition rate. Undergraduate students can take between 12 and 18 credits under the bulk rate. Previously, that rate was between 12 and 16 credits. The change allows students to take more credit hours without additional charge.
While in-state undergraduate students’ tuition is frozen, tuition for graduate students will increase next year by 2.5 percent to $5,781 per semester.
McNally said the tuition freeze, College Credit Plus and expansion of the bulk rate do reduce revenue for YSU. College Credit Plus allows high school and some middle school students to earn college credit taking classes for dual credit in their high schools or on campus.
“It hinders our ability to get revenue, but it does demonstrate our commitment to affordability,” McNally said.
YSU President Jim Tressel said when people talk about how expensive higher education is, trustees can say, “‘It might be the average, but it’s not at YSU.’”