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Waste: Ohio’s universities must take cuts seriously

Results of an evaluation by the Governor’s Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency show many of Ohio’s public universities are not committed to the directive to cut wasteful spending and find new funding resources. To be fair, the 14 public universities in the Buckeye State have submitted a potential $1.2 billion in savings over the next five years, but according to the report, that is just a nibbling around the edges.

Task force members say that $1.2 billion is an indicator of progress, but very few schools actually explained how those brand new savings or resources would improve college affordability or education quality.

“The core principle is that students must benefit,” said task force member Pamela Morris. “I can’t emphasize this point enough.”

Though tuition and fees at Ohio universities have gone from 49th highest in the country to 34th highest in just a decade, Bruce Johnson, president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, would still like students and parents to believe the spiraling cost of an education at a public institution in Ohio is a “myth.”

Those students and parents would likely be able to produce plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Administrations at Ohio’s universities are by-and-large refusing to do the heavy lifting required — the ruffling of tenured feathers, refusal to follow trend and technology for the sake of spending money, and admission that academia is swollen with very comfortable bureaucracy that has grown to treat young people like customers rather than students. The quality and usefulness of the education received is barely a consideration for some.

According to the task force, when one institution or a single professor comes up with a good idea that saves money and improves education, those ideas remain in isolation. It is a shame the task force has to ask universities to take note of ways to do a better job for students and taxpayers, and extend them across and among institutions.

With all that being said, reluctant progress is being made. Imagine what Ohio’s universities could do if they were taking this seriously.

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