The Ohio State Board of Trustees voted to approve a compensation resolution on Friday that will distribute a salary budget 1 percent above market. The 4.5 percent resolution was developed to close the gap between Ohio State’s faculty, staff and graduate assistant salaries.

Salary increases for faculty and staff at benchmark institutions are expected to average 3.5 percent for the upcoming budget cycle.

“This is the first year in our plan to provide salary budgets of up to 1 percent above comparable institutions,” said Ed Ray, executive vice president and provost. “We hope in the next several years, Ohio State will again be offering competitive salaries.”

These salary increases will take effect for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. In anticipation of the trustees’ approval, Ray distributed a guidance document on April 8 to vice presidents, deans and chairs to assist them with making salary decisions. Because last year’s pay raises were minimal, Ray’s guidelines encouraged administrators to take into account faculty and staff performance over a two-year period when determining pay increases in their units.

Budget cutbacks for the remainder of this fiscal year have affected departments differently, but some teaching assistants have been presented with problems just getting the essentials to teach their classes.

“They’ve cut the amount of (photocopies) allowed in certain departments,” said Melissa Horwitz, a third-year graduate student in sociology. “Teachers who have a good class are oftentimes having to pay for these out of pocket with a small salary to start with.”

TAs have also had to deal with larger class sizes, which can negatively affect undergraduate education.

“Some student teachers have caps of 50, even 60 students; so you have a TA grad student who’s teaching a class of 60 undergrads,” said James Sutton, a TA in sociology. “Class size does affect the effectiveness of the class. I can see how there’s an indirect effect on undergraduate education as we increase class sizes and, perhaps in some cases, reduce TA positions.”

Cutbacks have left some undergraduates with an uncertain future. Hector Gama, a graduating senior in industrial design, had planned on entering graduate school as a TA this fall but had to change his plans at the last minute. He was also planning to pay for school with a graduate teaching assistantship.

A faculty member told him one of the reasons he was not accepted into the program was because of the budget cuts, Gama said.

“I’m going to try next year,” he said. “In the meantime, I’m going to have to find a job and just hang on. Hopefully, next year it will be better.”

Gama lives in a residence hall, but he plans relocate to Chicago where his family lives as he waits to reapply for graduate school next year.

Also on Friday, James F. Patterson was named chair of the Board of Trustees. Patterson, a 1964 OSU graduate and fifth-generation family farmer from Chesterland, Ohio, succeeds David L. Brennan. Brennan’s one-year term as chair and nine-year term as trustee will end May 13.

The board approved a plan to replenish the university’s “Rainy Day” fund. A portion of the fund was used earlier this fiscal year to soften the impact of the state’s 6 percent budget cut. When the fund was used, the trustees stipulated that it must be replenished before the end of this fiscal year.

The Botany and Zoology Building will be renamed the Edward H. Jennings Hall. In order to do this, the board approved waiving the stipulation that university buildings and structures cannot be named for persons who have not been retired for at least three years.

President Emeritus Jennings served as OSU’s president from 1981 to 1990 and as professor of finance until his March 2002 retirement. The naming recognizes Jenning’s leadership as the university moved to selective admissions, restructuring and updating of undergraduate curriculum.

The board approved the awarding of insurance contracts for the Student Health Insurance Program to the Koster Insurance Agency, Delta Dental of Ohio, Vision Service Plan and American WholeHealth Networks Inc. for a one year period. The plan is fully funded by student premiums and will be available on an optional basis to eligible OSU students.