Analysis of spending and staff levels underway to identify efficiencies while protecting OHIO’s student experience

Ohio University has partnered with leading consultants to evaluate spending patterns, administrative workforce composition and academic program offerings and delivery across all campuses. Together, these engagements aim to identify opportunities to strengthen the University’s long-term financial sustainability while protecting the student experience, preserving employee engagement and ensuring OHIO’s ability to deliver on its mission.

While the analyses are ongoing, Ohio University will temporarily pause all hiring of administrative and classified staff, with the exception of gift or grant-funded positions, at least through March 31, 2027. Faculty hiring will continue to ensure appropriate instructional capacity.

The University will conduct a review that will include a Financial Resilience Assessment, which will take a data-informed look at resource allocation within OHIO’s operational spending. This will include evaluating expenditures in comparison to institutions with similar size and mission, and identifying areas where resources may not be optimally aligned to support OHIO’s mission. Simultaneously, the University will conduct a Workforce Alignment and Organizational Assessment to determine whether current staff structures, workforce composition and talent strategies support institutional priorities today and into the future.

Over the summer, the University convened a series of summer retreats involving academic deans and vice presidents to identify opportunities for long-term institutional sustainability. These consulting engagements are the next phase of the work.

In addition to the operational areas noted previously, consultants will assist academic leadership in examining the relationship between our comprehensive academic portfolio work and faculty workload patterns across disciplines, dependencies between graduate and undergraduate enrollments, course delivery and scheduling practices and opportunities for reallocation to support program innovation and growth.

“While the scope of each of these engagements demands unique focus and expertise, they are also interdependent, and resulting recommendations will need to be integrated,” said Interim Executive Vice President and Provost John McCarthy. “Ultimately, we are taking a hard look at our academic offerings as well as our administrative structures that support our academic portfolio and our total student experience to determine how we can best leverage our resources to ensure sustainability for generations to come.”