Recordpub.com - NEOUCOM mindful of tough economy

By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
With Kent State University reeling from a $43 million loss in investment income, Portage County's other major state institution " the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy " is doing some belt-tightening of its own in anticipation of a drawn-out financial crisis.
The medical school already canceled a series of salary increases set for January and has put the brakes on hiring anyone whose job is not consistent with the school's mission.
"I'm unwilling to call it a "freeze,' but we are calling it a "big chill,'" said Lois Margaret Nora, president of NEOUCOM. "We're looking very, very careful at all of our hires, making sure that all are mission-consistent but also we're making sure they're mission- and time-critical before we do them."
The search for a chief information officer for NEOUCOM was suspended, for example, and employees will remain responsible for increases in healthcare costs, unlike steps recently taken by KSU and the University of Akron.
The medical school receives the majority of its revenue from two sources: Student tuition and state support. Nora said the school understands this and therefore has demonstrated "thoughtful stewardship" of its funds.
"We know that high tuition gets in the way of students attending medical school, particularly under-represented minority students and poor students. Now, when our students already have high tuition payments, there is uncertainty over state support. In this whole constellation of things going on, it has just made us even more determined to not do things we'd otherwise do," she said.
It also means paying closer attention to energy usage, limiting travel and meeting instead by phone or videoconference, canceling or reducing advertising and recycling materials whenever possible. Even with cuts to advertising, students conducting a phone-a-thon to raise alumni money for NEOUCOM this fall exceeded their $60,000 goal by 10 percent, spokesman Mark Bosko said.
"Right in the midst of the worst of the worst economic news, everyone was very enthusiastically surprised and pleased at the support that NEOUCOM continues to get from our donor base," he said.
"I think we're handling it in a typical NEOUCOM way: I identified things, we turned it over to the college community and many cost savings that were identified are coming out of (suggestions by) our faculty, staff and students," Nora said. "The state has ratios for financial health, from 0.0 to 5.0, and NEOUCOM had a perfect 5.0 last year and this year. We're very responsible how we manage our money."