Three Ohio University administrators presented about budgetary models at Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting.
Responsibility Centered Management, a model created to combat recent state budget cuts to public universities, will bring OU’s provost and college deans together to create a budget that focuses on academic excellence and incentives for “smart growth,” said John Day, associate provost for academic budget and planning.
“RCM simply reveals the underlying economics associated with academic activity,” Day said.
Since state support has declined approximately $1,000 per student over the last few years, OU has become a tuition-driven university, which has created several concerns for administrators, said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration.
“A model that focuses on student debt is unsustainable over time,” he said.
Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit has been meeting with college deans to develop a model by the end of the 2012 fiscal year that will be implemented in 2016.
“A model should not drive a university; the deans and the provost should drive the university,” she said.
Student Senate President Zach George said he believes RCM is a positive budgetary plan.
“It gives deans who know their business the best ability to enact changes they think are necessary,” he said.
Benoit’s presentation included alternative budget plans that she said are not being voted on but are worth discussion.
“Long-term, we need to be looking at different ways of approaching tuition,” she said.
One example, differential tuition, charges by the college depending on a student’s major, taking into consideration the average graduate’s starting salary and student loan debt. This would keep the students majoring in subjects that cost less to teach from absorbing the costs of the more expensive majors, Benoit said.
Concerns with this model include higher prices for certain colleges, which Benoit said she believes could lead to some students feeling obliged to study in one field because of affordability.
Another option is guaranteed tuition, which sets a single tuition rate for undergraduate students for four years. The option gives an incentive for students to graduate on time and allows them to know exactly what their education will cost, Benoit said.
However, guaranteed tuition has failed at other universities because of an underestimation in expenses, she said.
“There is a finite amount of time to figure out how to fund higher education in the future,” Golding said.
bl171210@ohiou.edu
