The additional funds from a 1.5 percent tuition hike will go toward financial aid, debt and faculty and staff compensation.
Where the funds will be going: Financial aid, debt service — to pay for the capital construction program — and faculty and staff compensation, according to Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration.
The most recent 1.5 percent tuition increase for Ohio University undergraduate students will generate more than $1.9 million in net revenue for OU, a portion of which could end up back in some students’ pockets.
The extra funds will be applied toward financial aid, the university’s capital construction program and faculty and staff compensation, Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding said in an email.
Golding noted that the capital construction program includes projects at Lindley and Tupper halls and Schoonover Center, as well as improving energy infrastructure campuswide.
The exact amount of the tuition increase going toward each program will remain unclear as the university doesn’t “itemize specific additional revenues with specific additional expenses,” Chad Mitchell, OU’s budget director, said.
University officials said the tuition increase actually generated $2.5 million in revenue, but that amount was offset by a $604,000 increase to financial aid. The net tuition revenue increase will be $1.9 million, according to a projection from the budget office.
The university’s new fund, dubbed the “Signature Financial Aid” program designed to provide “more funding to students with demonstrated need and academic performance,” will receive funding from the tuition increase as well, Golding said.
He added that funds will go toward a faculty compensation plan adopted by Board of Trustees last year. The plan brings faculty salaries up to “more competitive levels,” Golding said. There is also an increase in health care for faculty and staff and a 2 percent across-the-board raise for all faculty and staff.
“The university was also making assumptions for additional revenue associated with enrollment growth,” Mitchell said. “Initial enrollment projections indicate our actual enrollment achieved this fall is very close to our assumption in developing the tuition budget.”
University officials most recently estimated there are 4,394 first-year students enrolled for the current academic year — the largest class in OU’s 210-year history. Budget reports estimated an additional $4.4 million to be generated by the enrollment increase.
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