Issues concerning the University budget were addressed April 1 at the Graduate Student Senate’s general meeting.
The open forum welcomed President Carol Cartwright as its guest speaker. Cartwright explained how recent state budget cuts would affect graduate education.
“What do we know about the budget at this point?” she asked. “Let me take you back. We have had three mid-year reductions in the last three years. The state share has remained the same during this time.”
Roughly 70 percent of the University’s proposed budget is tuition-based with the state share being 30 percent. The state funds its share through taxes, but with 600,000 jobs lost in Ohio, the University has been planning accordingly, Cartwright said.
“The federal government stepped in with $9 trillion for higher education nationwide,” she said. “The state used stimulus funds of 16.5 percent or $6.2 billion. Our plan worst case scenario was a loss of 30 percent. But the governor’s plan has held to the best case scenario and the state stuck to its share of higher education.”
Ohio Rep. Randy Gardner spoke at a GSS Brown Bag Lunch in November. He said nearly $618 million will be deducted from the state budget for higher education.
“I want people to become familiar with the state budget and how difficult it is to balance,” he said. “As we make decisions based on priority, it is very challenging to see how there won’t be some reductions made in every department and agency.”
At the graduate level, University administrators recently announced plans to reduce funding by more than 25 percent. If the budget is approved in June, graduate education will be impacted drastically.
“In the next two years, funding for graduate education will be reduced $12 million out of a $25 million proposal,” said Steve Dinda, president of GSS. “That’s a major problem that needs to be addressed quickly.”
By July 1, restrictions on spending will reduce state funds, limiting several Ohio institutions. A potential tuition increase of roughly $291 per year, per student would help ease state funding, Cartwright said.
“There is a 3.5 (percent) cap on fees and tuition but we might not go that high,” she said. “As a university community, we believe that a cap is not a good thing and that the deans should have the right to set the pricing accordingly. But the state has not embraced this idea.”
However, 48 percent of the University’s proposed budget cuts would be absorbed by graduate education funds.
“There are roughly 3,000 full-time graduate students studying at the University,” Dinda said. “That represents 10 percent of the whole student body. In the end we’ll be cut back $9 million per year, that’s 30 percent of our budget. It really raises an eyebrow of what graduate education means to this university.”
The next GSS meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. in the McFall Center April 15 and is open to the public. Dinda and other members of GSS welcome anyone interested in discussing the future of graduate education at the University.