University Plaza entrance to YSU Campus with Kilcawley House dormitory in the background.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s Board of Trustees has approved a $172.6 million operating budget for fiscal year 2022, which includes a modest tuition increase.

Also discussed during the board’s quarterly meeting Tuesday were incentives to attract more students to the university.

These are happening against the backdrop of a budget projection showing a 5 percent decrease in enrollment and an estimated $5.3 million decline in tuition dollars — largely because of a shrinking population in the Mahoning Valley and uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board also has embraced a series of recommendations to optimize the university’s academic programs, including more than a dozen that show potential for growth.

TUITION

Officials approved a tuition increase of about 0.9 percent annually over four years for the incoming freshmen in YSU’s Penguin Promise program, which will provide a fixed tuition rate for students during their four years at YSU. The increase also will mean about $1.6 million in additional annual revenue for the university, Neal P. McNally, vice president of finance and operations, explained.

“This budget allows us to maintain a tuition that ranks among the lowest in the state,” McNally said, adding that YSU’s tuition is the third lowest of Ohio universities.

In an effort to assist students who live a considerable distance from YSU with their tuition, trustees merged two nonresident surcharges for those who live out of state.

The extra charge was $15 per credit hour for students who live in Pennsylvania counties that border Ohio; those who lived farther away paid $250 per credit hour, but now all out-of-state students will pay the lower rate, McNally noted. He estimated that the move will affect about 650 students.

The university also received about $64 million in federal COVID-19 relief money, more than half of which is slated to go toward providing student financial aid, he continued. The one-time use of some of the money, combined with a $1 million transfer from YSU’s reserves, is also part of the plan to balance the budget.

PROGRAM REVIEW

Trustees also approved several recommendations regarding YSU’s first comprehensive review of its academic programs in more than 20 years.

The review, which took several months and is part of the university’s Plan for Strategic Actions to Take Charge of our Future initiative, identified programs that have the potential to grow, along with those that may need to be adjusted to determine their viability to continue.

Along those lines, the university hired a Cambridge, Mass.-based analytics and consulting firm to work with staff to assess each program based on student interest, competition, economics, available jobs and how they align with YSU’s mission for student success.

TRAINING CENTER

The board received updates regarding YSU’s Excellence Training Center, a $12 million, 54,000-square-foot research, workforce-education and innovation facility set to open July 26. The ETC, at Fifth Avenue and Commerce Street, has advanced manufacturing as its primary focus and will house $8 million to $10 million worth of such equipment, David Sipusic, executive director, told trustees.

“This area’s roots are in manufacturing, so we’re looking to the future,” said Sipusic, who recalled the demise of the area’s major steel mills in the 1970s and 1980s and hopes the facility will encourage more people to remain in the Valley after college for good-paying jobs and a stronger workforce.

To that end, the ETC, which also has partnered with Eastern Gateway Community College, the Youngstown Business Incubator, America Makes and the region’s career and technical centers, will host several youth camps this summer. The plan largely is to showcase for young people some of what this area has to offer, he continued.

About $7 million for the ETC project came from the state’s capital budget, and the remaining $5 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Sipusic noted.

FELLOWSHIP

Several trustees presented university President Jim Tressel with a $250,000 check to establish an endowed graduate fellowship in the new James P. Tressel Institute for Leadership and Teamwork.

The institute is set up to empower students as well as business and community leaders and to support opportunities via workshops, symposiums, credit courses and other means to prepare students to be strong leaders, with a high emphasis on teamwork.

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