President E. Gordon Gee talks economy

CHRISTIAN LAUTENSCHLEGER/THE LANTERN Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee spoke to faculty Thursday about the state of the economy and change at OSU, saying he's 'an academic terrorist' because of his willingness to change old traditions.

"I'm a leading economic indicator, every time I change jobs we go into a serious recession," Gee joked.

Gee listed off a laundry list of states that are making serious cuts in their higher education budgets. "Our governor and chancellor have fiercely supported higher education," Gee said. "We are very blessed to live in a state where the governor's making a different choice."

Despite the praise for the governor's policies, he still had worries. "I think two years down the line it's going to be a very difficult budget," Gee said. He said that the state is using federal stimulus money to help fill the gaps, but in two years without that buffer, the shortages may be severe.

He then took time to praise how Ohio State managed its assets.

"The public institutions have taken the brunt of the economic troubles over the last 30 years," Gee said. Private schools had been able to live off of their endowments. "At Stanford, more than half of their budget comes from their endowment," Gee said.

At OSU, 3 percent of the budget comes from endowment funds and only 13 percent from the state. This allowed OSU to cut less severely than some other institutions. At Harvard, Gee said, administrators have frozen all activity, including hiring and construction.

After talking about the economy, Gee talked about change at OSU.

"I'm an academic terrorist," he said in reference to his willingness to blow up traditions when they have outlived their usefulness.

"We're an elephant now, we want to be a ballerina," Gee said.

Gee also spent a good deal of time talking about his plan to keep students on campus. "Parents don't understand that many of these kids are getting gouged," Gee said. "Many of these students are living in shotgun houses." He added that students who live on campus are much more successful than ones who live off campus.

To expose this "shotgun housing," he announced a plan to have an inspector certify off-campus houses. The inspector couldn't shut down private residences, but could refuse to certify buildings for livability.

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