BGSU approves 3-year contract extension for President Mary Ellen Mazey

6/19/2014
BLADE STAFF
The Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved today a three-year extension of University President Mary Ellen Mazey's contract and gave her a 1 percent pay raise.
The Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved today a three-year extension of University President Mary Ellen Mazey's contract and gave her a 1 percent pay raise.

BOWLING GREEN -- The Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved today a three-year extension of University President Mary Ellen Mazey's contract and gave her a 1 percent pay raise.

Ms. Mazey has served as BGSU's president since 2011. The Board of Trustees approved her contract extension and salary raise after meeting during an executive session, according to BGSU spokesman Dave Kielmeyer.

The trustees also approved today a $274 million budget for the university's main campus in the upcoming fiscal year, a roughly $6 million decrease from the 2014 fiscal year.

Sheri Stoll, BGSU's vice president for finance and administration, cited a decreasing level of funding from the state of Ohio as a reason for the smaller budget. State support for the Bowling Green campus will amount to roughly $60.4 million in the 2015 fiscal year, compared to $90 million in 2010, Ms. Stoll told trustees at their meeting today.

Ms. Stoll attributed this decline in funding to recent changes in Ohio's formula for awarding funding to state universities. That funding formula, as of the 2014 fiscal year, is based on course and degree completion rather than enrollment numbers. Ms. Stoll said that BGSU has seen a decline in enrollment and retention, but some peer institutions have increased both.

Still, despite the smaller budget, tuition costs will not increase for in-state undergraduates. Annual tuition, general fees, and room and board costs for each full-time, in-state undergraduate will not change from last year under the approved budget. Those costs will total $18,834.

Tuition will go up 2.39 percent at the University of Toledo, but general fees will remain unchanged. The annual cost for in-state undergraduate students per year for tuition and general fees would increase from $9,054 to $9,242.

In addition to approving the budget and Ms. Mazey's contract extension, the trustees authorized today the demolition of existing Greek housing on the university's Bowling Green campus. The houses will be demolished this summer and replaced with new facilities, which are slated to open in the fall of 2016.