Budget is tight, but progress continues

Set-aside for students is outlined; plans are in development to improve compensation in coming years

Almost $5 million in Ohio State's tightest budget in years will directly support the undergraduate experience through initiatives ranging from strategically added classes and computer lab upgrades to development of new living-learning programs and support for a student union renovation.

The University Board of Trustees on Aug. 29 gave final approval to the Fiscal Year 2002 budget that authorizes spending through June 2002. The budget includes detailed recommendations for the use of $4.6 million in revenue set aside for students, which represents 3.3 percent of the 9.3 percent resident undergraduate fee increase on the Columbus campus for the coming year.

That student support will increase despite a disappointing turn in state support for higher education, said Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost.

"We intend to continue to make progress with respect to services for students despite this unfortunate budget year," Ray said. "As a consequence of the budget outcome, faculty and staff received a minimal pay increase this year, which is simply not acceptable. We are developing plans immediately to increase faculty and staff salaries to competitive positions with respect to our peer institutions over the next several years as our highest priority."

It turns out that the FY 2002 budget represents a historic moment in both University and Ohio history: For the first time since OSU's founding in 1870, the amount of tuition income from students will surpass state funding that supports students on the Columbus campus. State student support amounts to $342 million this year, compared to $351 million in student fee income. As recently as 1987, the state provided almost $2 for every dollar of student tuition, noted William J. Shkurti, senior vice president for business and finance.

"Because of the decisions the state has made, it is shifting a greater share of the burden of funding education to students and their families, and to our colleges and universities who must provide additional financial aid," Shkurti said. "That creates more financial barriers to students trying to access higher education, which affects the competitiveness of the state's work force and, consequently, the generation of taxes and other revenues that would benefit the state overall. It's a symptom of the long-term decline in Ohio's relative economic position, because Ohio is not investing enough in higher education for its citizens."

In preparing the most difficult Ohio State budget in seven years, University administrators have projected spending a total of $792.9 million in continuing general funds on the Columbus campus, an increase of 4.7 percent over last year. However, the increase in the University's budget is only 3.2 percent, exclusive of student financial aid. The figure includes instructional subsidy from the state of $322.9 million, or 1.6 percent more than last year -- the smallest increase in the State Share of Instruction in nine years. The total University budget, which includes general funds, earnings operations and restricted funding, exceeds $2.3 billion, up from $2.1 billion last year.

Much of the anticipated budget increases were absorbed by a variety of expenditures, including a 30 percent increase in health care costs, the largest in a decade, as well as the largest increase in energy costs in two decades. When the University began pursuing a tuition increase above the traditional 6 percent cap almost a year ago, officials promised to use that funding to benefit undergraduates. The spending plan approved by trustees lives up to that pledge. Of the $4.6 million set aside from the tuition increase, $2 million is committed to financial aid to ensure that no qualified students are prevented from enrolling at Ohio State because of the additional financial need associated with the tuition increase. And officials noted that even with the 9.3 percent increase, Ohio State remains a good value, ranking sixth in resident undergraduate tuition among Big Ten public institutions.

As in previous years, recommendations for allocation of funds were developed in consultation with student government leaders. Ray advanced a list of recommendations to trustees for the remaining $2.6 million, as follows:

• $870,000 for course program and access. Selection of course sections to be added has been determined by a special committee that analyzed historic registration data in order to predict demand for classes in the future. Four categories of courses will receive attention under this strategy: those taken by first-year students; official prerequisites to major programs; advanced courses in especially large or restricted majors; and advanced courses used by students in a variety of majors and curricula. If all proposed plans are implemented, approximately 100 new sections could be added, providing seats for as many as 6,000 students. Improvements also are planned to the wait-list system to give students more immediate access to courses critical to their programs of study.

• $50,000 for instructional improvement. Additional resources will go to Faculty and TA Development, which will provide enhanced workshops for teaching associates and international TAs during autumn quarter; winter quarter training will be available to TAs who begin teaching then. Staffing also will be supported under this initiative.

• $250,000 for technology. Software, desktop computers and networks in seven student computing facilities will be upgraded.

• $130,000 for academic and career advising. The entire undergraduate academic advising structure has been redesigned as more entering students enroll directly into their degree-granting colleges. By next fiscal year, additional advising support will result in a net increase of nine full-time professional advisers and a closer alignment between graduate-student advisers and the disciplines in which they work. Specifically, $15,000 each is targeted to architecture, arts, nursing and pharmacy, and $30,000 to engineering, for advising, plus $30,000 to biological sciences to support a new Scholars program and $10,000 to Career Connection, housed in the Younkin Success Center.

• $250,000 for living/learning. Of this, $100,000 is recommended to support Honors and Scholars -- specifically, a new Scholars program in international studies and another not yet identified -- as well as living/learning programs offered through the Office of Residence Life. The other $150,000 of tuition cap relief is requested for staffing to complete implementation of several newly established programs and to build the foundation for planned additions next academic year. With the addition of programs this year in arts and sciences, architecture and Mundo (emphasizing volunteerism and special engagement with diversity issues) and three new Scholars programs, the total number of living/learning programs has reached 39.

• $150,000 for diversity in a global environment. This funding would support the development of the new Multicultural Center, an initiative encouraged in the Diversity Action Plan released last year.

• $300,000 for planning for renovation of Ohio Union. Several offices are working together to develop requirements for this project.

• $600,000 in additional undergraduate programming.

Ray emphasized that evaluation of these strategies will be conducted routinely to ensure that the University is living up to its agreements and to assess student satisfaction. Data will be used to support any program changes.

Other strategic investments planned in the FY 2002 budget with earmarked general funds include meeting previously determined obligations to support Academic Enrichment and Selective Investment programs and a one-time $10.4 million investment to address Universitywide technology support needs. This technology funding will include a major upgrade to the human resources system that will enhance its Web-based features.

In addition, the President's Strategic Reserve, established in 2001 to provide seed money supporting Academic Plan initiatives, is to be allocated as follows: $1.25 million in support of development of a medical informatics program; $713,000 in one-time funds for library acquisitions; $360,000 for graduate student diversity recruiting; $200,000 in support of the P-12 initiative; $150,000 for outreach and engagement; and a $25,000 share in support of Universitywide initiatives designed to attract new outstanding faculty.

"The bottom line is that Ohio State will still be able to continue to make some progress in meeting its academic goals," Shkurti said, "but we won't make nearly as much progress as our competitors in other states as we would if we were in better shape budget-wise. And we must make real progress with respect to compensation increases over the next several years."

Incoming freshman class is best-ever academically -- again

It's that time of year again -- time to report that Ohio State is going to welcome its most academically prepared freshman class ever. The profile of the incoming class, based on preliminary measures of a number of performance indicators, marks the sixth straight year of improvement in the collective academic standing of new first-quarter freshmen.

Statistical highlights include expectations that the class will report the highest average ACT score ever, will include a record number of high school valedictorians, and will feature a 10-percent increase in the number of superior high school achievers among its ranks.

"The profile has improved significantly in the past several years," said James Mager, associate vice president for enrollment services. "The University launched its serious investment in enhancing undergraduate student life in 1995, and the combination of a comprehensive recruitment effort and emphasis on the undergraduate experience has clearly paid off."

Even more evidence of student success is indicated in the retention of first-year students who return for their sophomore year. That measure of student satisfaction and performance also has experienced a steady increase, and is expected to exceed 85 percent this year. Last year, retention stood at 84.1 percent. Since 1994, the retention rate has steadily improved from a rate of 77.7 percent.

"I feel confident in saying that based on what we're seeing with this incoming class, we can expect to see retention of close to 86 percent next year, continuing this upward trend," Mager said.

Mager and Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and the First Year Experience, attribute the increased retention to a variety of undergraduate academic and outside-the-classroom services that enhance student life, ranging from a redesign of the academic advising structure to increased availability of the highest-demand courses.

"We have better students, and we're taking better care of them," Freeman said. Freeman is leading the First Year Experience initiative, under which numerous campus offices have cooperated to provide special programming to new students. In addition, Freeman noted that almost 40 living-learning communities offered by the Honors and Scholars Programs and Residence Life allow students with similar academic interests to live and study in close proximity, creating a more comfortable and collaborative educational environment for them.

Highlights of the freshman class profile, based on preliminary registration data, are:

• An expected average ACT score of 25.2, up from 24.9 last year. "This is quite remarkable," Freeman said. Ohio State has seen the average ACT score increase by about 2 1/2 points in just six years, while the national average remains at 21 and the Ohio average stands at 21.4.

It should be noted that an applicant's ACT score is only part of the package -- the Ohio State admissions process looks at a number of high school performance measures, and in fact gives more weight to applicants' high school work and the quality of their high school curriculum, Mager noted.

• In that vein, approximately a third of new freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and more than two-thirds were in the top 25 percent of their high school class. Mager said this figure, too, has increased dramatically among Ohio State students. As of 1995, the figures stood at 21 percent for the top 10 percent of the high school class and below half for the freshmen from the top 25 percent of their high school class.

• The number of University Scholars is likely to see a 10 percent increase, from 708 last year to as many as 760 this year; these scholars are students who typically rank in the top 3 percent of their high school class and have ACT scores of at least 29 (out of a possible 36) or SAT scores of at least 1300 (out of a possible 1600).

• A new all-time high of high school valedictorians is expected, reaching 250 this year, compared to 239 last year.

• The numbers of National Merit, Achievement and Hispanic Scholars are expected to increase slightly.

• In every category of minority populations, numbers have increased since last year, making this Ohio State's most diverse freshman class ever as well as the most academically prepared.

The quality of the class is improving even as more students are expected to attend. Current estimates project a freshman class of approximately 5,900, up from 5,774 last year. Enrollment administrators involved in the delicate science of predicting how many admitted students will accept the invitation to attend Ohio State target the class size at 5,800 each year.

The freshmen will be joined by about 2,100 transfer students, and will be among the projected 35,500 undergraduates on the Columbus campus. Total Columbus campus enrollment is expected to be close to 48,000 students, including roughly 9,500 graduate students and more than 2,800 graduate professional students.