A year ago, Ohio University administrators told Faculty Senate that OU was fiscally sound – but after university officials recently projected a potential $11 million budget deficit, senators are wondering where all the money went.

“Last fall, we hear everything is fine, we’ve taken care of all the problems, and now we hear that isn’t the case,” journalism professor Bernhard Debatin said at tonight’s meeting. “This is a disaster, an absolute disaster.”

“There is a real credibility problem here,” chemistry professor Ken Brown added.

Officials attributed the shortfall to lower-than-expected state funding, retention rates and number of transfer students, but Debatin questioned why OU didn’t see the problems earlier.

“Everyone seems to be surprised, but don’t we have planning data?” he asked. “I’m pretty disgusted. There is a level of mixed messages that are being sent that is damaging to the university, damaging to the students and damaging to recruitment efforts.”

William Decatur, vice president for finance and administration, said the university’s budget was balanced until it fell short of enrollment targets and that OU “has some very tough decisions to make.”

OU’s retention rate, which is at about 80 percent but has been steadily declining since 2000, is “a great figure for a large university, but what hurts us is that it used to be so much bigger,” said OU Provost Kathy Krendl.

Competition for transfer students is tough among all four-year universities, Krendl added.

“Getting transfer students is not ‘push a button and it happens,’ and we’ve learned that the hard way,” she said.

12-hour limit

The last sentence of a resolution proposing faculty workload definitions had faculty members concerned about the quality versus quantity of instruction.

The proposal provides a base for individual colleges to eventually develop a more detailed workload policy that incorporates teaching, research and service. It also would allow faculty members to negotiate an appropriate workload with their school or department.

The last sentence of the resolution proposed limiting teaching to 12 credit hours per quarter for a faculty member who does not engage in research or service.

“Something has got to give somewhere,” said Duane McDiarmid, an art professor. “It’s brutal, the workload at some parts of the university.”

Debatin said setting a university wide maximum would be difficult.

“Twelve credit hours mean nothing if you don’t know what the size of the class is, what department,” he said.