CSU president: Enrollment plan could triple school's size by 2017 JANUARY 17, 2007 (wcsu) - DAYTON Central State University is tired of being called "tiny."

With undergraduate enrollment at 1,800 this year, the school is inching toward a return to financial health, but it's not happening fast enough, President John W. Garland said Tuesday.

Its proposed Speed to Scale initiative, which goes under the scrutiny of the Ohio Board of Regents today, will more than triple enrollment to 6,000 by 2017.

Because of its small size, Garland argues, CSU doesn't have the operational efficiencies of larger state schools.

CSU's share of the state budget is about $5.4 million a year, or $15,482 per student. But its cost-per-student is $16,572, higher than the state average of $10,278.

"We spend every bit of that for our operating costs, and we can't raise enough revenue to break out of this cycle to grow," Garland said.

The state has cut CSU's allocation from the budget by 32 percent since 2000. Statewide, cuts averaged 11 percent.

State funding for Ohio's colleges and universities is allocated based on enrollment figures.

The state's only public historically black university currently receives an $11 million annual supplement to help it weather its high costs.

But the Speed to Scale initiative would eliminate the need for the bonus fund by 2017, Garland said.

"The supplement has long been a target by other universities and we don't want to depend on it," he said.

CSU will ask the legislature to give it $10 million in the next three years to expand programs and enrollment, but first it will ask for an additional $23 million to build a new student center to help attract students.

"We just don't have the revenue for capital projects," Garland said.

In December, the state set aside $8 million for CSU for capital improvements and to restore previous state funding cuts.

Once it boosts enrollment, CSU can pay for itself, Garland said.

To do that, Speed to Scale will target students who don't gain admittance to the state's other public universities.

It also plans to improve its freshmen retention rate. Right now, 51 percent of its freshmen don't go on to their sophomore year.

Speed to Scale has garnered support from other institutions Sinclair Community College, Cuyahoga Community College and Cincinnati State will all serve as feeder schools.

The University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University will offer other transfer programs for graduate education.

CSU, which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year, is one of the oldest state-funded universities in Ohio.

"But for some reason, we're the smallest," Garland said. "We need to get this university up to size. I'm confident this plan will do that."

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