Kent State Bracing for Big Cut in State Support
University trustees approve $100,394 bonus for Kent State President Lefton
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While Ohio lawmakers wrangle over the state budget, Kent State University officials are bracing for a big cut in state support for Ohio's second-largest university.
Kent State University President Lester Lefton told the university's trustees on Wednesday administrators have been preparing since 2009 for a "deep" cut in state dollars for higher education.
Lefton said they're hearing the state budget, once finalized, could cut 13 percent out of the state dollars given to Kent State, or as much as $13 million. He emphasized the fact they won't know how big the cut will be until the state budget is passed — a move expected this month.
"We have had funding cuts every year that I have been here," Lefton said. "But we’ve always thought of a deep budget cut as $2 million. This time we’re talking $10 million to $13 million. We don’t know actually what it’s going to be."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich's budget, when first proposed in March, called for a 10.5 percent overall drop in higher education spending throughout the state. Kasich's budget also recommends a cap on tuition increases for public universities of 3.5 percent per semester.
When asked about possible tuition and fee increases for the coming school year, Lefton refused to speculate.
"There’s conversation in the (Ohio) Senate that varies very differently than Gov. Kasich’s recommendation, which was endorsed by the (Ohio) House," Lefton said. "The reality is, we’re waiting on the Ohio legislature to determine what our budget will be, let alone if there are caps on tuition."
Lefton said no Ohio university has set tuition or fees for the coming year because they are all waiting to see what happens in Columbus with the state budget.
Jacqueline Woods, chair of the Kent State trustee board, said the trustees' goal is to hold a meeting in late June or early July — once the state budget is finalized — and determine whether students will see any tuition or fee hikes in the fall.
"We want people to know what they’re going to be facing coming back," Woods said.
The board voted Wednesday to approve a continuing budget for the university until the state budget is passed.
2 years of preparing
Since 2009, administration started several efforts to cut spending and increase efficiency at Kent State.
The university streamlined its admissions, financial aid and billing departments, started an early retirement program, initiated a hiring freeze for "non-mission critical" positions, and officials are planning internal budget cuts at the different colleges and schools.
Deans of the different colleges have created their own savings in recent years, as the university has done, to try and counter anticipated state cuts.
In addition, course sections have been reduced, employees' overall contribution rate to group medical premiums rose by 2 percent for 2011 to 13.74 percent, and an independent internal audit created almost $900,000 in savings.
In one specific example, Lefton pointed to an increase in responsibility among Kent State's maintenance workers.
As janitors and maintenance crew members retire, the university has not replaced them. As a result, about 30 fewer staff members are taking care of the 7.5 million square feet of phsyical plant space across all eight campuses. A single custodian is now responsible for about 42,000 square feet of space at Kent State compared with the industry average of about 31,000 square feet.
"I’m really not proud of it, that we are pushing our staff to take care of an extra 10,000 square feet over the national average," Lefton said. "But it’s what we have to do to take care of the budget cut.”
But it's not just janitors whose workload has increased.
Since 2006, enrollment has risen dramatically across all eight campuses by a total of 7,735 students — an increase of 23 percent in five years. Yet faculty numbers have remained flat in that same time period.
In 2010, Kent's growth in full-time equivalent students rose 10.2 percent. Ohio's other public universities averaged a 3.4 percent increase in full-time students in 2010. Last year, Kent State became Ohio's second-largest public university — behind only Ohio State University.
Lefton said he recognizes skyrocketing enrollment and flat staffing levels are not sustainable in the long run.
"You just can’t keep growing and not increasing your staff," he said. "But we are going to continue exhibiting financial constraint, being very conservative in our hiring policies until we know the budget has stabilized. I would like the economy in Ohio to improve, and as the economy in Ohio improves I would feel more comfortable that we have a stable budget situation going into the future."
Lefton said they are hiring people, but it's not a simple matter of replacing someone who retires.
"We are hiring people, but we are hiring people at mission-critical positions," he said. "And we will continue to do that for the foreseeable future. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do. This has created pools of money that we’re not spending in anticipation of the budget cuts."
Lefton gets contract bonus
Despite all the talk about cuts Wednesday, trustees approved giving Lefton an annual performance bonus as dictated in his contract.
The bonus is 25 percent of his base salary of $401,576 and amounts to $100,394.
Woods pointed to the increases in enrollment and $39.8 million in fundraising last year as some of the reasons why the board felt Lefton should get his contractual bonus.
"We did a thorough process of reviewing his performance," she said. "We felt that everything he has done and his staff has done clearly justified going forward with the contractual agreements that we have."
Darci Kracht
7:13 am on Friday, June 3, 2011
The president of the university gets a whopping 25% bonus, bringing his compensation (not counting benefits) to over half a million dollars this year! Meanwhile custodial staff, teaching staff see their work loads increase dramatically while their compensation remains flat or nearly so. For example, part-time faculty in the math dept, who have never been well-compensated, have not seen a raise in 10 years! The pay scale is precisely the same as it was in 2001. These are the people bearing the brunt of increased class sizes. (Some of our classes have more than doubled in size over the past 2 or 3 years.) During hiring freezes, the administration continues to create entirely new upper administrative positions, renovate their offices, etc. And the governor of the state would like us to believe that it is the public employee unions that are making higher education so expensive.
Robin Anderson
9:41 am on Friday, June 3, 2011
Quite a conundrum, eh, DLK? Especially as the ratio of non-tenured folk vs tenured folk employed by the University is one of the reasons that KSU has historically been ranked "4th tier, alphabetically" in the "best colleges in America" special editions of such national publications as US News & World Reports & Forbes.
Does anyone happen to know whether or not the good maintenance/service folk(custodians, etc) at KSU are still the lowest paid when compared to their counterparts at other of Ohio's public universities? Seems to me that their "reduction in force" has been going on for a long time now, despite a constant flow of monies to the Univeristy through the State Share of Instruction for Physical Plant Operation & Maintenance.
Jon Ridinger
9:46 am on Friday, June 3, 2011
Robin, KSU hasn't been ranked 4th tier in US News for years. The last few years it was 3rd tier and then US News revamped their rankings, so now it is first tier, rank 183.
Robin Anderson
10:39 am on Friday, June 3, 2011
Jon, KSU was ranked "4th tier, alphabetically" as recently as 2007 & eked out a "3rd tier, alphabetically" rank in 2008, I believe it was, along with the U of A, not to quibble about your perceptions of time. In any case, the new "ranking" system was brought about due to complaints by those universities not receiving either a first or second tier(numbered) ranking. While I'm not up to date as to whether or not the statistical data used for said rankings was significantly altered in the new system, a ranking of "183" is consistent with the old "4th tier, alphabetically(150-200)", the assuaged feelings of certain folk being what they are and all.
Things that make one go hmmm...Doc Lefton's disdain for such "rankings" as those by US News was reported in the Kent Stater way back then yet the University uses the likes of the NorthCoast 99 or the Chronicle of Higher Education when it sees fit, pr departments being what they are and all.
Darci Kracht
11:41 am on Friday, June 3, 2011
While this might not contain the answers to the specific questions raised in the comments here, the following web site has a lot of interesting data about the changes in the last decade or so in numbers of faculty, administrators, etc.
http://www.kent.edu/rpie/data/index.cfm
Jon Ridinger
12:18 pm on Friday, June 3, 2011
Thanks for the link!
Jon Ridinger
12:15 pm on Friday, June 3, 2011
Anyone who monitors KSU or any other public university often has cause to go "hmmmm" when you look at what the university deems as important enough to spend money on. The best example of university waste can be seen at the East Main Street entrance to Terrace Drive. Two brick columns with medal KSU seals were built recently as part of a recent project. Who knows how many thousands of dollars it cost to build them and for what? While I'm all for honoring contracts and attracting good people, I also expect some accountability and flexibility from those at the top. The university is facing a funding loss, so rather than reduce unnecessary expenses and some in the admin maybe delaying a raise, the president gets a %25 raise? For what?
As for the rankings, my point is that "historic" is definitely a matter of perspective, since the US News rankings have only been around since the 1980s, have evolved quite a bit over the years, plus they did away with the 4-tier system anyway (which also evolved over time including how many schools were ranked in each tier). And no, KSU is no different than any other organization that uses positive rankings for good PR and criticizes negative rankings, though it should be pointed out KSU was hardly alone in their criticisms of the US News rankings in 2007. It's also no different than another person or organization using a low ranking as a reason to criticize the ranked organization.
Robin Anderson
9:57 pm on Saturday, June 4, 2011
Doc Lefton also got a bonus for his very first year at the University. You know, the year that the University kept Doc Cartwright around as a consultant for an extra year after she retired, just so's she could "show him the ropes"? Speaking of "unnecessary", I've read that some universities around the country are even eliminating some long-established sports teams. Who'd have thunk it?
Robin Anderson
12:24 pm on Friday, June 3, 2011
Ah, DLK, but the realization of the personal commitment such hard-working folk as the KSU Custodians or the "contract instructors" possess is most easily gained by an interpersonal communication with same, something most statistics cannot capture. For instance: as overworked & underpaid as they are, whenever push-came-to-shove, the first words I'd usually hear from the mouths of so many of the Custodial Cru, in almost any situation was, "Gotta take care of my kids!". I'm sorry to say I never knew enough of the instructor-type folk to gain a handle as to what their primary motivations or attitudes were aside from the universal need for a job; perhaps an innate urge to spread the joy of a field of study they'd found so fulfilling?
Laurel Myers Hurst
3:58 pm on Friday, June 3, 2011
As a "contract instructor" I can personally state that it is for the joy of teaching and spreading interesting in my field of study that I seek part-time work. In the humanities at KSU, the enrollment/instruction gap is being filled by eliminating/suspending graduate programs and reassigning tenured faculty to teaching mega-sections of undergraduate Kent Core courses (formerly known as LERs).
Pat
9:57 am on Saturday, June 4, 2011
Who does Lefton think he is???? A 25% increase when families are struggling to send their kids to KSU. He should have declined the increase.
Laurel Myers Hurst
10:31 am on Saturday, June 4, 2011
Dr. Lefton thinks he is the president of the second largest university in Ohio. If I had to guess, I would bet that a large portion of Dr. Lefton's bonus will be reinvested in KSU or in the arts community. He's not building a stockpile of classic cars or villas in Tuscany. The man works round the clock. His contract awards him bonuses for performance, and his performance has been outstanding.
Robin Anderson
9:45 pm on Saturday, June 4, 2011
Well, I'd guess that matter of perspective depends more on quantity vs quality and what one's spending priorities are. US News' "Best Colleges in America" has consistently rated such Ohio public universities as Ohio University, the University of Miami(Oh), & THE Ohio State University in the Top 100 based on criteria weighted toward freshmen retention/graduation rates. Under the same criteria, even private universities such as CWRU, the University of Dayton & Xavier University have ranked in the Top 100, way ahead of the likes of KSU.
Kate Bigam
9:59 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Are people regretting voting for Kasich yet...?
Laurel Myers Hurst
11:41 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Kate: We, the people of the state of Ohio, have two options from which we must choose immediately: stop spending more money than we (as a state government) make and repay our debts or declare bankruptcy. Cuts now will result in solvency later. Deficit spending now will result in default later. Solvency = Sovereignty. I hope the great state of Ohio is never slave to a federal or international monetary fund. We are already in indentured servitude.
Kate Bigam
11:55 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Hi, Laurel: One of the great things about this country is that we're free to disagree on how to best handle sensitive & important topics. It seems this will be one of them.
Laurel Myers Hurst
11:57 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Absolutely. We can disagree, but the numbers don't lie in the state economy any more than they do in the household budget.
Laurel Myers Hurst
11:58 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
The borrower is the slave of the lender. If you've ever had to skip a date night because your car payment was due, you know what I mean.
Darci Kracht
12:07 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Well, good thing Lefton is getting an extra $100 grand, so he won't have to experience that.
Kate Bigam
12:14 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
DLK, I can definitely agree to that one. A TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT bonus amounting to a half-a-million dollar paycheck yearly? Sure, $100,000 doesn't amount to much when we're talking $13 million in cuts, but if Lefton is "not proud of" the hits the university has had to take, perhaps he should put his money where his mouth is & take a bit of a hit himself. Surely that $100,000 bonus could pay the annual salary of at least two new janitors.
*
1:08 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Living in indentured servitude?
Darci Kracht
3:01 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
As it is, the university pays for Lefton's house, a new car every two years, his housecleaning service, his vacations,...
Robin Anderson
1:06 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Kate...regret voting for Kasich as opposed to whom, Strickland? http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0202/Does-everyone-need-a-college-degree-Maybe-not-says-Harvard-study
Kate Bigam
1:58 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Yes.
Thank you for the link to an interesting article.
Robin Anderson
4:45 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Too bad...a mind set on the two-party system is a terrible thing to waste. You might also be interested in a book entitled Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, by Doc Richard Vedder. He was recently a professor of economics at Ohio University; I don't know whether or not he still holds that position. In any case, he had a hand in creating one of the "Best Colleges in America" special edition publications, for Forbes Magazine, I think it was, akin to the one published by US News & World Reports. Sadly, it seems that those appointees to our area's University Board of Trustees have never studied same, local politics being what they are and all.
Ed Kent
11:53 am on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Students can still get higher education, but for many it is less expensive to simply go to school in another country. Many are now doing that and the cost including room and board is less than many universities in the U.S. I'm glad that our public K -18 public schools will not have the state cuts like many were thinking we would have. That was very good news we just received.
Laurel Myers Hurst
1:16 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Right! Tuition, room and board at University of Ghana is $5000/yr.
*
8:42 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B. ~"Fats" Domino
Carol Wells
1:08 pm on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
As the grandmother of a Kent student struggling to pay tuition and trying to graduate in 4 years, let me tell you what I see from my view outside the university's inner circle. I see the School of Music getting a crumb compared to the athletic program and other programs in the university. Lufton is not out and about with the students as some other university presidents and seems only to show up when there's a photo op. If he's not spending his money on villas and sports cars, he must have one whopping cowboy hat collection! And....as a retired state employee I can tell you the problem is not the public servant, but the top-heavy administration.
Laurel Myers Hurst
1:22 pm on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I have to respond because I am a part time KSU music professor whose teaching load has been de-funded :(
1. The Music School is doing exactly what Dr. Lefton and the COTA Dean has asked it to do: immediately cut expenses and seek outside funding. Dr. Seachrist, along with other members of higher administration, are tireless workers and cheerleaders for the assets of Kent State University and you WILL see those efforts paying off. Good things take time.
2. Dr. Lefton interacts with students on a level heretofore unseen. He regularly walks the campus, rides the campus loop and engages with students in the lobby level of the library (his office is on the second floor). On one occasion, I was in the library computer lab and notice two students confronting the lab attendant. It so happened that I was leaving the lab just as the quarrelling pair also made their way out. It was obvious that they were frustrated and annoyed. As they reached the entry doors, they notice Dr. Lefton entering the building. They converged on him and told their tale of woe. Just moments into the conversation, Dr. Lefton changed course and said to the two, "Let's go back to the lab and see what we can do to sort this out." He accompanied the students to the lab and I went on my way EXTREMELY impressed that the president of Kent State University had any concern for what was, in my opinion, a fairly trivial misunderstanding.
Robin Anderson
2:20 am on Thursday, June 9, 2011
LM, (1) didn't the School of Music just complete a multi-million dollar addition; didn't the University just announce a project to totally rebuild the parking lot across from same? If the workload of the professors/instructors is that light that the University needs to wring more productivity out of them, akin to the Custodial Services situation, that's understandable. However, some situations don't get better with time, they just fester. Back in 2005, after 13 or 14 years of "guidance" by Doc Cartwright and in order to come to an agreement in their contract talks with the University, the AAUP folk had to agree to (1) destroy a petition of no confidence they had been circulating and (2) destroy the unpublished results of a strike vote taken by the membership just prior to the agreement being reached. Perhaps a bonus should be granted after "the good things" are realized?
(2) Is this the same Doc Lefton who's administration unilaterally announced, his first year in office, that the students didn't need two graduation ceremonies per year so they were going to eliminate the December shin-dig? Is this the same Doc Lefton who's administration tried, back in 2007, to effect an illadvised "taking" of the vacation/comp-time(personal earnings) of the University's non-exempt hourly employees(non-represented) in order to achieve the current shut-down of Campus during Christmas break? Well, at least he's learning, eh?
Laurel Myers Hurst
8:02 am on Thursday, June 9, 2011
1.) The Roe Green Center is an addition for the School of Theatre and Dance.
1b.) The parking lot rebuild is a mission-critical project. Currently, all students from Centennial Court are walking through the main drive of the Music & Speech C parking lot to get to classes because there are no sidewalks and the parking lot abutts a steep grade to the West. The current situation is a HIGHLY dangerous pedestrian hazard the university must correct immediately.
1c.) It takes time to put outside funding together, and the capital campaign for an addition to the School of Music is not yet underway. The School of Music is currently completing its Steinway School campaign. The situation is not festering, it is building momentum.
2a.) Dr. Lefton raised almost $40 million in outside funds last year. For his part, the "good things" have been realized in 2010-11. ("Back in 2005" has not much to do with Dr. Lefton's 2010-2011 performance bonus.)
2b.) The rationale for combining graduation ceremonies was to combine the budget for speaker honorariums and to provide an outstanding and notable speaker for the "big event" annually. This was actually a good idea that tradition dictated against. If you have read the news about commencement, even on a strict budget Dr. Lefton has invited MUCH MORE notable and engaging commencement speakers than have been the past standard fare.
2c.) The shutdown? I agree it wasn't popular. Neither was the once-annual all-staff retirement party :P
Laurel Myers Hurst
1:43 pm on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
...and, the other thing you won't hear Dr. Lefton doing is bashing the government, even when its rulings don't favor the University. The tone of his messages to students and staff are realistic--things are going to get tough so let's put on the big boy/big girl pants and deal with it; we'll find a way!
Who among us would turn down a 25% performance written into our contracts? Are we saying that Dr. Lefton is not allowed to take/enjoy his performance bonus because he makes more than us? That's reverse-elitism. Dr. Lefton's 6-figure income enables him to be charitable in a "big" way. If I make a pittance (not far from true!) and receive a bonus turkey at Thanksgiving, should I return it or deny it because someone else has no job? No, I take the turkey and give it to someone who has none--someone I choose!
Criticizing and belittling the competence and performance of this fellow is counter-productive. Again, the numbers don't lie.