Another change in how state funds are allocated may leave OU with less dollars.
Preliminary estimates show Ohio University could receive more than 6 percent less in state dollars after the Ohio Board of Regents changed the way the money is awarded.
That decrease would amount to nearly $9 million fewer dollars to OU, based on how much the university received in state funding last year. That would leave OU with about $137 million for fiscal year 2016, if the estimates are correct.
A loss of state funding could trickle down to affect students, faculty and others at OU; the university’s Board of Trustees will discuss the projected loss in state funding at their meeting in mid-October.
The regents project state contributions to each public university based on enrollment, graduation rate and other data from the previous academic year. That is why the state is looking at data from fiscal and academic year 2013-14, said John Day, associate provost for Academic Budget and Planning.
“The only way (the Board of Regents) can have a set of data that is finalized is to go back two years to the data everyone sent in at that time,” Day said.
Though the estimate is preliminary, it would be the biggest percentage drop of any public university in the state. It would also be a shift from last year, when OU saw a nearly 6.5 percent increase in state funding from the year before — the second largest jump amongst Ohio’s public universities.
The new changes in state funding would take effect in the 2016 fiscal year, which begins next summer.
OU is projected to receive fewer state dollars because the Board of Regents is changing the variables it considers for the money.
Next year regents will:
Give partial funding for degrees completed by students who transferred into a university or who already have an associates degree.
Not award additional money for students who have completed 30 credit hours and are considered “at-risk,” which includes minorities, students with low estimated financial contributions, older students and students with very low ACT or SAT scores.
The regents applied the new funding model to the 2014 data to see how funding would be affected. Day said the Budget Planning Council did factor in the change when planning the university’s budget.
“The challenge has been they’ve made so many changes to the model that it’s been really sort of hard, it’s been almost impossible, for institutions to pinpoint how they’ve fared in all of these changes,” said Chad Mitchell, OU’s budget director.
University officials say OU has two main sources of revenue: student tuition dollars and state subsidy.
OU President Roderick McDavis said the “most critical area” to stabilize university dollars is through state funding.
The make-up of OU students show why the university would suffer under the regents’ proposed model.
In Fall Semester 2014, nearly 13 percent of new OU students came from community colleges, said Linda Lockhart, director of communication, regional campuses and outreach.
“It makes it easy for them to transition and transfer (credits),” she said.
Now, as a result of the change in the state funding model, many of those transfer students won’t bring OU the same state funding as a student who spends his or her entire time at OU.
The university’s RN-to-BSN program, which is a program for students with an associate degree, brought in $20 million in “at-risk” subsidies last year. Most of those completing the online program are older, placing them in the “at-risk” category and netting OU extra funds.
Under the changes, that $20 million is projected to drop.
“The amount of money you get in tuition is higher than what you get in subsidy,” Day said.
OU’s Board of Trustees will be given an update about state funding. Additionally, the board will discuss guaranteed tuition, pay compensation for 2014, the Ridges Master Plan and the century bond.
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