You should care about the OU General Fee.
The Post has compiled a comprehensive breakdown of how your general fee money — $1,256 this academic year — is spent.
What is the general fee, you ask? It’s a pool of money composed of student fees that finances Ohio University programming in non-academic departments — Student Affairs, athletics and campus recreation, among others. As you’ll see on our front page, a sizable portion of the $27.4 million budget is used to finance employee salaries and benefits.
This year, we decided to break down the 2014-15 general fee budget piece by piece throughout the remainder of the semester, as opposed to all at once like we have in years past.
That means you can keep your eye out, over the coming months, for stories that break down the budgets of individual university departments.
It’s also worth noting that The Post has received a one-time general fee disbursement, totaling about $28,000, that has financed the purchase of new newsroom equipment. Our business manager’s salary is also included in Student Affairs’ budget.
As a student at this university, it’s in your best interest to understand how your money is being spent, so we’re here to help provide context. It’s as simple as that.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: editor-in-chief Jim Ryan, managing editor Sara Jerde, opinion editor Xander Zellner and projects editor Allan Smith. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
