Announcements
Statement by Eric D. Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, on the Report of the Conference Committee
July 13, 2009
The final agreement on the state budget for the 2010-11 fiscal years marks an important moment in the implementation of Ohio's Strategic Plan for Higher Education. This budget provides the financing of higher education in Ohio for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years.
We have known from the beginning of the budget process that state support for the next two years would be extremely tight. In response, we did what all good organizations should do in tough times – we set clear priorities. Our top priority was to make the University System of Ohio as affordable as possible for Ohioans. We cut dozens of important programs in order to maintain the one essential program – the State Share of Instruction (SSI) – at the highest possible level.
Protecting SSI became even more important as enrollments began to rise dramatically this spring. These enrollment increases are due both to the progress of the Strategic Plan and to the economic downturn, which has motivated people to go back to school. Even at the levels originally proposed by Governor Strickland and the General Assembly, schools will be stretching their dollars to cover more students.
Despite making deep cuts in other higher education programs to protect SSI, the final budget agreement still cuts SSI by a total of $190 million below the version of the budget that passed the Senate. With this cut the tuition freeze must come to an end, and so the final budget agreement permits tuition to rise at all University System of Ohio institutions by up to 3.5 percent per year for the next two years. While disappointing, this rate of increase is low by recent standards. With the tuition freeze over the last two years, Ohio's university main campuses have had the lowest rate of tuition increase since before 1970 and the University System of Ohio will likely have the lowest rate of increase since 1990.
Despite our disappointment, the final budget agreement takes important steps to mitigate the impact of the cuts. Importantly, schools will get the full funding they have been expecting from the state for the 2009-10 school year, even though some payments may be delayed into the second year. This will give them a year of increased tuition and planning time to prepare for the cuts that will come in the 2010-11 school year. At the Board of Regents, we will use this time to seek system-wide efficiencies that will help schools make cuts without sacrificing quality.
The budget agreement implements Ohio's new performance based funding formula. This formula makes sure we are paying for completed courses and degrees, not wasted effort.
The budget agreement also allows us to target our limited financial aid dollars to the most at-risk students, to use financial aid to encourage students to persist in school, and to encourage schools to match the state's commitment of financial aid with funds they have raised on their own. And it protects financial aid for students in Ohio's independent colleges and universities.
Finally, the budget agreement gives the Chancellor the authority to work with the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority on new strategies to help parents save for college and lock in today's lower tuition costs for the future.
Ohioans should know that we will seize on all the opportunities included in the budget agreement to advance the goals of the Strategic Plan during this severe economic downturn.
But the most important thing for Ohioans to know is this: Whatever happens in a single state budget, the faculty, staff and administrators in the University System of Ohio will provide Ohioans with the education they need to compete in today's job market, will make sure Ohio's businesses have the world-class talent and research they need to create new jobs, and will serve as a powerful magnet to attract educated workers and capital investment to Ohio from around the world.
Already, the University System of Ohio has created more low-cost pathways to a degree. New partnerships between community colleges, branch campuses, and university main campuses are giving students the ability start at a lower-cost campus and complete their degrees for less. The network of adult education providers joined the University System, providing Ohio a system of higher education that can comprehensively serve adult educational needs.
The University System of Ohio found savings of over $250 million in the last two years, resulting in more resources that can be rededicated towards students. We will be working as a system to find even more efficiencies in the next fiscal year, so that we can maintain the quality education provided by the University System of Ohio while addressing the budget challenges we face.
The University System of Ohio is committed to being the best university system in the world at driving the economic prosperity of a state or nation. We are a system that solves tough problems and finds innovative solutions.
The people who make up the University System of Ohio will accomplish these goals because they believe in the power of education to change lives and create opportunity for all.
Every time Ohio has faced challenging times, its leaders have turned to higher education for answers. From the creation of Ohio University out of the Northwest Territory, to the establishment of what is now Ohio State University just after the Civil War, to the building of regional campuses to accommodate the GIs returning from WWII, to answering Governor Rhodes' call for the establishment of community and technical colleges to train Ohioans for the modern manufacturing economy, our predecessors have led Ohio's response to an ever changing economy.
Now it is our turn. I urge Ohioans to take a look at your University System of Ohio. You will be proud of what you see, today more than ever.
