Six divisions outside academics operate on a $27.4 million budget, most of which goes to employee salaries and benefits.
Whether you’re an in-state or out-of-state student, an undergrad, graduate or medical student: if you’re studying at Ohio University, you’re paying the general fee.
With a total budget of $27.4 million this year, the general fee supplies various university entities that lie outside academics. The general fee, which is a $27.4 million budget this year.
An increased student population this year put an additional $2 million into Ohio University’s general fee, with most of the increases going toward paying employees.
“The largest components of (divisions’) increases was primarily associated with compensation,” said OU Budget Director Chad Mitchell. “That was really true for all areas of campus.”
Of the $10,536 full-time, in-state students paid this year in tuition and fees, $1,256 of that bill — or about 12 percent — goes to six divisions at OU.
The six divisions are: Student Affairs, Athletics, Campus Recreation, the Marching 110, the Graduate College and a central fund for miscellaneous items. Most of those funds go toward employee pay and benefits, according to OU budget data.
In the coming weeks, The Post will look into the complete budgets of these individual divisions, as well as some of the academic colleges.
Student Affairs and Athletics have the biggest budgets, combined they make up about 69 percent of the general fee.
When an organization falls below budget, the general fee can sometimes cushion the blow.
Athletics received an extra $50,000 to make up for its travel budget, which has not been adjusted for inflation, Mitchell said.
Money needed for the Student Activities Commission and furniture replacement or repair in Baker Center also comes from the general fee.
This year, the Student Affairs division hired three new staff members for the Career and Leadership Development Center with $60,000 from the general fee. The remainder of their salaries was covered by other colleges, said Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs.
“What we’re most concerned about is that what we’re providing here at OU translates for students into getting jobs, life skills, leadership skills that are going to help them in their first job and in their 10th job,” Lombardi said. “We’re hopeful, and we’re continuing to have conversations with colleges about doing more of these.”
If there’s additional money in the budget, Lombardi said he wants to hire a staff member in the Campus Involvement Center to focus on sexual assault education.
Between the previous and this fiscal years, the budgets for Event Services and Baker Center were placed within the Student Affairs’ general fee budget, and Campus Recreation’s general fee budget became separate from Student Affairs.
When Walter Fieldhouse opened in 2014, OU hired a new staff member and about 30 student employees, all paid for with $120,000 of the general fee, according to budget data.
The general fee is crucial to Campus Recreation’s ability to operate, but to offset expenses the division has to look for other sources of money, said Mark Ferguson, executive director of Campus Recreation.
The division raised about $1.2 million in addition to the $4.8 million it had through the general fee last year, but despite fundraising and general fee money, the division still fell short, Ferguson said.
“Quite frankly, the combo of those two things isn’t quite enough to keep up with what we currently have,” Ferguson said.
Campus Recreation is in the middle of evaluating its operations to see where it can be more efficient in its spending, such as minding costs when ordering concessions or training student workers so they could be transferred to other jobs within Campus Recreation.
“We’ve got a lot of different entities, and we’re trying to evaluate our operations as Campus Recreation overall and try to see where we can become more efficient,” Ferguson said.
The OHIO Guarantee, the four-year flat rate tuition next year’s freshmen will pay, should not have a major impact on funding to these divisions, Mitchell said.
Once the OU Board of Trustees decides the overall tuition and fee costs each upcoming class will pay, that amount will not change. However, the portions of what students pay can be shifted between instructional fees and the general fee.
And if OU has a hard time balancing its overall budget, Mitchell said the university can adjust tuition rates for incoming freshmen to offset some financial difficulties.
“It’s a variable that can be addressed by taking a bit more of a long term perspective,” Mitchell said.
@DanielleRose84
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