Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the proposed budget for higher education that is before you.

On behalf of all of the presidents of Ohio’s four-year public universities, I want to publicly thank Governor Strickland and the members of the Ohio General Assembly for their unprecedented support of higher education in the last two years. We know how difficult it is to achieve this level of support in very tough budget times. Indeed, state higher education budgets throughout the country are experiencing drastic reductions, making Ohio’s commitment to investing in our future even more significant.

If this level of investment continues, we all should be optimistic about the future. We are providing opportunities for our students to succeed, and for our faculty researchers to make discoveries that can lead to commercialization – and that means jobs for Ohioans.

We want you to know that we are committed to continuing our strong partnership with state leaders as we all work to move Ohio’s economy forward. We do so while we are making difficult decisions and tough choices on our individual campuses. Your strong support has helped to minimize the pain, but every university in the state has experienced increased costs and losses in investment income often resulting in cutbacks and layoffs.

We know that you are facing difficult decisions in this budget process. As the Senate finalizes its version of the budget, we strongly urge your support of the state subsidy line and – at a minimum – fund it at the level proposed by the Governor and the House of Representatives. Additionally, we embrace the proposed outcome based formula that emphasizes course completion and graduation rates and are hopeful that you will include the formula language in the budget bill.

We commit to you that we will do the hard work necessary on our individual campuses to utilize our resources wisely, to improve our efficiency, and, most importantly, to educate our students and prepare them for the jobs of the future. We know that we are shaping the next generation of leaders, of entrepreneurs, and of researchers who will complete Ohio’s transition from the rust belt to the knowledge economy.

We do this in partnership with Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, who has put in motion an aggressive 10-year strategic plan aimed at increasing educational attainment and improving Ohio’s economic leadership.

At Ohio University, we have aligned “Vision Ohio” – our institution’s strategic plan – with the chancellor’s goals. I would like to provide you with a few examples from the 2008-09 academic year in which the chancellor’s vision and the legislature’s unprecedented level of funding are moving us forward:

• In one year, we have increased our retention rate one and a half percentage points to 80 percent and increased the A.C.T. composite score one-tenth of a point to 23.7.
• Now, more than half of first-year students on the Athens campus are engaged in a learning community – a strategy that we know provides students with a valuable support mechanism early in their college careers.
• The multicultural diversity of our incoming students has increased and the international diversity of our undergraduate student body nearly doubled from the previous year.
• In fiscal year 2008, we reported our highest royalty income to date – $5.9 million.
• Forbes magazine recently ranked Ohio University fourth in the country for the amount of license revenue generated in relation to our research funding.
• The Technology Transfer Office at Ohio University more than doubled its number of patent applications, from 15 in fiscal year 2007 to 32 in fiscal year 2008.
• According to a new study by the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, our small business incubator – the Innovation Center – contributed $15 million in labor income and 386 jobs to the region in 2007.
• This represents the biggest economic impact to date.
• And half of the start-ups stemmed from Ohio University research.
• Finally Mr. Chairman, the number of Ohio University students receiving nationally competitive awards soared from 50 in 2007-08 to 75 in 2008-09 – a record for our university. Those awards included the only Marshall Scholar in the state of Ohio, 13 Fulbright awards, and three Goldwater Scholarships.

Similar initiatives are underway at campuses throughout our state. And student success can be reported by each and every one of my colleagues. This continued success will surely lead to a brighter future for our state and its citizens.

We understand that what faculty, students, and staff have been able to achieve together is possible because of the unprecedented state support we have received. But we also know that this support comes at a time when public sector agencies and private businesses throughout our state are struggling.

As public higher education institutions, we must be accountable to the public trust; doing so means that we must make similar, difficult decisions as those of our colleagues in the private and public sectors all with an eye toward ensuring quality, access and affordability in higher education.

We have taken seriously the mandate of House Bill 119 to achieve efficiencies of one percent and three percent in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, and we will again rise to the challenge proposed in this budget to achieve a three percent efficiency mark each year.