Amid concerns about process and strategy, YSU trustees approve slimmed-down budget
YOUNGSTOWN — During its quarterly meeting Thursday, the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees approved a $157.9 million operating budget that includes a controversial academic restructuring plan.
The budget is $26.1 million less than last fiscal year, according to the university. Major parts of the plan include:
• A projected 15 percent decline in full-time equivalent student enrollment, largely due to uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The projection would result in $15.1 million in lost tuition and fee revenue.
• A 20 percent or $8.8 million decrease in state appropriations, based on estimates from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
• A 12 percent or $652,000 decrease in other revenue sources, largely due to losses in investment earnings.
• Undergraduate tuition increases amounting to $82 per semester (2 percent) for continuing students and $189 per semester (4 percent) for incoming students.
• Spending reductions totaling $24.6 million:
• Salary reductions for management staff ranging from 2 to 15 percent.
• Furloughs for all classified and professional administrative union staff, resulting in a 10 percent reduction in salaries.
• The layoff of approximately 40 to 60 employees; and an additional 22 positions in athletics.
• Elimination of the administrative division of External Affairs, Government Relations and Economic Development.
“We are confident that these extraordinary steps will help stabilize our budget and place us on a path back to more traditional revenue and expenditure scenarios moving forward,” said Neal McNally, vice president for Finance and Business Operations.
“This budget reflects the significant impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on our university, the economy and our students,” President Jim Tressel said in a university news release. “While difficult, this plan also presents the opportunity for YSU to continue to offer a quality, affordable higher education that focuses on the success of our students and our community.”
The restructuring plan, announced by Provost Brien Smith on May 28, merges that College of Arts and Sciences with the Beeghly College of Education and would save the university $1 million annually, helping offset the projected decline in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It would cut 18 departmental chair positions, rolling their departments into other departments and demoting them to faculty — a move associated with a pay cut of about $18,000 per position.
Trustee Capri Cafaro provided the lone dissenting vote Thursday morning against adoption of the plan, calling it “not particularly thought through.”
“I think there may have been a more sound way to dissolve the College of Arts and Sciences and to realize those cost savings in a manner that would have put departments and majors in colleges that may be more like with like,” she said.
For example, Cafaro said, the psychology department could have been shifted to the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services. And Pre-law, political science could have gone to the Williamson College of Business Administration rather than communications.
“The situation is basically done,” said Cafaro. “I hope going forward there will be further discussion and collaboration with faculty and educators as they try to figure out how they are implementing this.”
Ahead of the meeting, YSU-OEA President Steven Reale penned a letter to trustees, requesting the board pause before approving the "recklessly hasty" plan. In four hours, 121 faculty members signed the letter
On May 28, Smith admitted, “The plan was rolled out quickly ... There was not the ability to fully vet ideas like I had hoped," he told Mahoning Matters. "My hope is we'll still come out of this with a little latitude to work out some of the kinks.”
The academic restructuring is part of a $26.1 million spending reduction planned to offset projected declines in enrollment and state appropriations for next school year.
On May 27, The university announced $2 million in operational budget cuts and the elimination of 22 coaching and administrative positions.
In addition, the university and two of its employee unions have agreed to a plan that calls for furloughs, resulting in a 10 percent pay cut and a lack-of-work layoff of 69 workers, a savings of at least $2.8 million, the university said in a news release.
Earlier in May, Tressel announced he was taking a 15 percent salary reduction and that more than 100 other employees excluded from union membership will have their pay cut temporarily by as much as 10 percent, a projected savings of nearly $700,000.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 5:28 AM with the headline "Amid concerns about process and strategy, YSU trustees approve slimmed-down budget."