Bowling Green State University President Mary Ellen Mazey is planning to stay around campus for while.

The university’s Board of Trustees on Thursday gave Mazey a 1-percent pay increase and extended her
contract another three years beyond the two years she already has on her existing contract.
She said she’s planning to retire at the end of those five years. “I’m going to 70,” she said.
The 1-percent increase is in line with what staff is receiving, and less than the 4-percent increase
included in the contract with the faculty union.
“I feel it’s more than fair,” Mazey said. The pay hike will bring her salary to just shy of $394,000
annually.
The trustees also approved a $274,264,201 educational and general budget for fiscal year 2015, which
starts July 1. That’s 2.2 percent less than this year’s budget.
Sheri Stoll, vice president for finance and administration, reminded the trustees that the university had
projected a $7 million deficit. The budget presented was balanced.
Stoll said later that the red ink was erased in part by $1.8 million in administrative fee increases
passed by trustees in May. “The remainder came from expense reductions,” she said.
Those savings were derived from all areas of the university.
The elimination of a number of non-tenure track positions last fall, however, did not contribute to
reducing the deficit. That money, Stoll said, went to faculty salaries.
The university is not raising tuition and room and board for a second year.
The university’s fiscal problems have been exacerbated by reduced state funding. As recently as 2010,
state supported instruction monies represented 31.6 percent of BGSU’s revenues. The 2015 budgets calls
for 22 percent of revenues to come from state support.
Student tuition and fees accounted for 63.7 percent of revenues in 2010, and 71.7 percent in 2015.
Changes in state law mean universities receive funding based on the number of students who graduate, not
just how many attend, and this comes at a time when BGSU enrollment is dropping.
Provost Rodney Rogers reported that BGSU expects to enroll about 3,200 freshmen out of the almost 10,500
accepted for admission.
That’s down by about 160 from last year and continues a trend of declining numbers of freshmen enrolling
dating back to 2010.
But of the freshmen who arrived on campus in fall, 2013, 75 percent intend to be back, up by 5 percent
from 2012, and the university projects an even higher retention rate for the incoming class with a goal
of eventually retaining 80 percent freshmen, Rogers said.
These students are expected to have even better academic records than last year’s class which was touted
as the best academically in the university’s history.
Rogers also said the number of transfer students is expected to increase, and about 25 students who
started through the Pathway program will be enrolled.
The Pathway program brings in students through BGSU Firelands who wouldn’t ordinarily gain admittance.
They are housed in Bowling Green and follow a strict curriculum aimed at improving their academic
readiness.
Also at the meeting, the trustees approved spending $2 million to tear down the existing fraternity and
sorority houses on campus. The plan is to replace them with townhouses. That project is expected to be
completed by fall, 2016 and will cost $30 million.
Stoll said that project will be presented to trustees at either their October or December meeting.
The demolition project will begin the week of July 7, said Steven Krakoff, vice president of capital
planning and campus operations. Razing the buildings will occur after all utilities are disconnected.

Trustee William Primrose asked whether all the debris will be removed by the time students arrive back on
campus.
Krakoff said it would not be but that the site would be secured. Buildings are easy to tear down, but
removing debris takes longer.
Primrose expressed concern that students would try to retrieve bricks or other remnants of the buildings.