Maybe Ohio State should drop the state

I read the March 14 dispatch.com article, “Ohio may prohibit employees at public universities, colleges from striking,” with great interest as a retired professor from Ohio State University and one who follows developments in the university sometimes with delight and pride, and other times with dismay and foreboding.

I doubt most Ohioans know that none of the universities in the state system are “supported” by state funds, they are “assisted.” Only a portion of the funding of any of the 63 state “assisted” institutions of higher education comes from the state of Ohio.

When I joined the university in 1973, the portion of their $2 billion budget provided by the state was 22% of the total. It has gradually diminished in proportion over the years.

In the 1990s, OSU negotiated to have certain specific state controls lifted in return for a lesser percentage of state funding. By the turn of the century, the percentage of state assistance was single digits.

Today, the operating budget is $8 billion and the amount of state funding has become proportionately less.

This history of reduction of state assistance is critical to the potential passage of legislation that will increase state control of university operations, affiliations, teaching and research.

Such a heavy-handed political powerplay obviates the potential for divestiture from state affiliation to institute private non-profit status for Ohio State University.

There is a tipping point just ahead where acceptance of state assistance will not be worth the bother. Seven to 9% of budget is a fair chunk of change but endowments and program restructuring could make state assistance superfluous; especially if that assistance is even less than what is was a decade ago.

The university administration would likely wince at giving up “state” as part of their identity.

That will be a small price to pay for preservation of academic excellence without interference from politicians with an anti-intellectual agenda.

Joseph A. Koncelik, Lewis Center