With each passing year, we hear more and more about the budget crisis facing Ohio State as well as other public universities in Ohio and across the United States. These budget problems have led to tuition increases at many schools. However, it can sometimes be a mystery who is really to blame when the increase comes.
Many students may hold the belief that OSU is the most expensive public school around. However, this is not quite the case, and there are several universities that surpass OSU in cost. Two such schools are University of Cincinnati and Penn State. Schools like Georgia Tech also have comparable rates to OSU.
The in-state rates at many of these universities are comparable to OSU, but the rate that differs the most is typically the universities’ out-of-state rates. Granted, most of the students who attend any university are in-state residents, but there is a good deal of money to be made off the non-resident students who travel to other states for better educational programs.
While most students complain about the increased costs of tuition, non-resident fees have not been affected much, if at all, by the rate increases, and again, OSU’s rates are not the worst. Tuition for non-residents each quarter is $3,141 at Ohio State. Tuition rates at UC are $5,366 per quarter. When you look at the total amount of money, that is a difference of $6,675 per student per three-quarter academic year.
Assume that of the 12,461 non-resident students at OSU, even just 10,000 are undergraduate students. The difference in non-resident tuition between Ohio State and Cincinnati figures a potential loss of $66.75 million. This is money that could be used to help handle the deficit that exists in the university’s budget. While this fee would discourage many out-of-state students from continuing education here, there are still many students who would possibly pay a higher fee.
Not all the blame for educational budget problems can be put on the shoulders of the universities, however. In many cases, state budget problems have led to a drop in the funding some colleges receive through state taxes. Most states have often deemed that publicly-funded education, from grade schools to colleges, are somewhat expendable when it comes to budgeting money.
These budget cuts on education can and have come quite frequently. However, they do not mean the end of the universities. Even with a sagging economy, there are schools that seem to be doing fine in the financial department, despite the many economical factors working against them.
For example, the University of Kentucky is not only running in the black, but also managed to lower its expenses while increasing its revenues. In 2002, Kentucky reported that it made $92 million. If you take OSU’s estimated numbers from the 2002-2003 budget, Kentucky didn’t make a twentieth of that, with only $2 million in the black.
OSU’s budget lists two items on both its revenue and expenses on the estimated budget for 2002-2003. Both hospitals and auxiliaries (housing, athletics, etc.) appear to be running in the red, losing $3 million and $9 million respectively. Instead of forcing the brunt of the university’s costs on students, perhaps OSU should try to get these groups back in the black to help increase the university’s revenues.
In the end, no amount of complaining or fact-finding will do us much good. So long as the university still believes that the students are “privileged” to be here, the administration will continue to make us pay more for the “honor” of coming to OSU. In our society it is almost essential to get a college degree to succeed in this world. Yet, despite it being such an essential part of our future, both state governments and the universities still see fit to make it harder and harder for people to attend school.
Joey Maresca is a junior in electrical and computer engineering. He can be reached fot comment at [email protected].
