Higher Education Notes

YSU contemplates mid-year increase

Universities across Ohio are scrambling for solutions to what Gov. Bob Taft called "the most significant budget crisis Ohio has faced in more than a decade."

Although most universities are considering tuition hikes for the next school year, Youngstown State University may be the only school considering a mid-year tuition increase.

YSU President David Sweet said this is only one method being considered to help cope with the 6 percent budget cuts and tuition would only be raised as a last resort.

Terry Ondreyka, vice president for financial affairs, said Sweet and the administration are currently in a process of review and discussion that is expected to take three to four weeks.

The Youngstown student newspaper reports Sweet and the rest of the administration are expected to make a decision about the mid-year tuition increase in December, weeks after registration for spring semester has ended. This leaves YSU students registering for spring classes uncertain of how much the semester is going to cost.

Ondreyka said tuition would have to be increased by approximately 20 percent to make up for the $3 million loss suffered by the university, if that were the only measure taken by the administration. He said he would not allow tuition to be raised by that amount. Ondreyka said he would rather take an integrated approach that would take away much of the burden from students.

University charged in civil rights lawsuit

The Oregon Attorney General's office is working to settle a discrimination lawsuit against the University of Oregon and Provost John Moseley.

Joseph Wade, who served as director of academic advising and student services for nearly 30 years, filed a civil rights suit in June after he was fired. Moseley terminated Wade because he was not satisfied with Wade's supervision of special academic support for the student athletes unit.

Wade sued the university in 1995 because he felt he had been passed over for promotions and pay raises because he is black.

The suit was settled in 1998, with the provisions that the university would further its efforts to diversify its workforce and complete a salary review for Wade. However, Wade now says he was subjected to differential treatment after the suit was settled, and the university failed to live up to the terms of the settlement.

Wade is asking for lost wages (at the rate of $70,000 a year), compensatory and punitive damages in an amount not to exceed $3 million and reinstatement to his former position.

U of M possible site of MTV program

The University of Michigan may be one of eight colleges included in the new reality program being launched by the MTV network.

The four-hour program, "MTV University," is currently in the pilot stages and partly consists of a documentary about college life filmed at selected universities across the country. The show will examine issues facing college students ranging from binge drinking to rape.

According to the Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper, the network has already shot footage at the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, Montclair State University and Pennsylvania State University. It hopes to film at the University of California at San Diego, the University of Georgia, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Michigan soon.

-Compiled by Kimberly Brauning