All of us as higher education leaders are painfully aware that funding for higher education has decreased significantly over the last five years. And, during this same period, we have seen inflation levels rise by approximately 15 percent, while enrollments have increased by approximately 17 percent across the state. In spite of internal cuts, reallocations, productivity and efficiency efforts, and other efforts to control spending and raise revenue, it has become increasingly difficult to provide quality academic programs and services to our students.
As I noted above, over the last five years Ohio’s colleges and universities have increased their student enrollment by approximately 17 percent, and during this period state funding has decreased significantly. As a result of reductions in funding, we now have approximately 50,000 students who have been admitted to Ohio’s colleges and universities over the last five years with no corresponding state support. If we stop and think about this, the implications of these numbers are staggering: 50,000 unfunded students would be approximately the size of the student body at The Ohio State University. During the last five years, across the state of Ohio, these figures indicate that we have been providing academic programs and services—without funding—to the equivalent of the number of students enrolled at OSU.
