OHIO UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES APPROVE
BUDGET FOR 1997-98 FISCAL YEAR

6/27/97

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University Board of Trustees Friday (6/27/97) approved a $328 million budget for the 1997-98 fiscal year.

The budget, up from $307 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, includes a 5 percent tuition increase. The increase raises annual in-state undergraduate tuition from $3,885 this year to $4,080 in 1997-98.

In other action, trustees:

  • Approved university wide pay increases for non-bargaining unit employees, from clerical assistants to executive officers. Faculty and non-bargaining unit staff received pay increases from a compensation pool increased by 4 percent. Graduate student teaching and research stipends also were increased 4 percent.

  • Approved promotion and tenure awards for faculty at the Athens and regional campuses.

  • Recommended the creation of a master's program in communication technology and policy in the J. Warren McClure School of Communication Systems Management. The graduate program would be an extension of the school's undergraduate degree in communication technology and policy, the only one of its type in Ohio. The recommendation will be considered by the Ohio Board of Regents.

  • Approved a six-year capital improvements plan for submission to the Ohio Board of Regents that requires $43 million to $45 million in state capital funding in each of the next three biennial budgets, through 2004. Trustees also received a plan that reflects cash flow based on experience with a new capital funding formula that would extend projects to renovate academic and service facilities to 2014. High on both lists are completion of Grover Center renovations and rehabilitation or construction of classrooms for biological and social sciences.

  • Recommended the creation of a new degree to be offered by Ohio University's Lancaster campus. The associate in applied science degree in medical assisting technology would offer students education in both the clinical and business areas of medicine. The program now will go to the Ohio Board of Regents for consideration.

  • Approved the creation of the Institute for Democracy in Education, a program that began informally in 1985 in the College of Education to offer support to educators around the world.

  • Approved the creation of the Center for Consultative Sales in the College of Business, a center for sales education.

  • Appointed three new members to the Coordinating Council at the university's Zanesville campus to replace retiring members. Appointed were Jeffrey Rice, James McDonald and Carlotta Workman.

  • Approved the hiring of a consulting engineer to plan construction of a bridge from the university golf course over the Hocking River to relocate several golf course holes lost to Ping Center tennis court construction. The plan would allow the university to retain a nine-hole golf course and other green space.

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