By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
Faced with the fallout from the recent Wall Street financial crisis and the possibility of shrinking state support for higher education, Kent State University is watching and waiting for the other shoe to drop.
From Sept. 1 to Oct. 13, KSU's investment portfolio slipped from a worth of $314 million to $271 million, a 14 percent loss President Lester Lefton said this week.
In a presentation to KSU's Faculty Senate, Lefton blamed KSU's tight financial situation on volatile financial markets and tightening student loans, among other reasons. This still shouldn't cause panic, Lefton said, because KSU's portfolio performed better than the overall market.
The university's investment output helps it with its budget, even as the state may see yet a third budget cut this year. Gov. Ted Strickland already has pledged millions in cuts to state programs.
The coming year will "severely test Gov. Strickland's commitment to higher education," Lefton said, and could include tuition increases up to 5 percent after a two-year tuition freeze.
"We have no idea if we'll be allowed to increase our tuition," he said. "We have no idea if we'll have our budget cut."
Currently, support is determined using the student count on the 15th day of the fall semester. The state may move from what Lefton and faculty refer to as "butts in seats" counting to determine state support to outcome-based assessments.
This may change to incorporate a count of students receiving passing grades, A through D, at the close of each semester. Doctoral program funding may take into consideration external sources of funding, the quality of research and the kinds and numbers of degrees awarded.
Faculty senator Tom Sosnowski, a history professor at KSU's Stark Campus and 32-year veteran of higher education, said he was "taken aback by counting students" who get grades A to D, and that professors might be asked to "push failing students to a D."
He also said it reminded him of his teaching fellowship days when male students would come in and tell him "If you fail me, I'm going to Vietnam."
Lefton compared higher education funding in Ohio to the American automotive industry ignoring and not challenging its Japanese counterparts in the 1970s and 1980s. The industry didn't act aggressively, didn't challenge the Japanese, didn't build smart, quality, fuel-efficient vehicles and wasn't forward-thinking.
"We're not going to be able to cut our way to excellence, ladies and gentlemen," Lefton told faculty senators. "If we don't invest when times are difficult we are assigning ourselves to a low place on the totem pole," he said.