This article originally appeared in The Post on November 12, 2013.

By Olivia Hitchcock

State officials were in Athens on Saturday to discuss how university funding works — and how it’s changing under the state’s new emphasis on rewarding universities for degrees granted.

Forty-eight states have decreased funding for higher education, and in Ohio the average student debt is $28,863 — thousands above the national average.

Six Ohio University students attended the “Making Cents: The Financials of Higher Education” event.

David Cannon, vice chancellor for finance at the Board of Regents; state representative Debbie Phillips, D-Albany; and representatives from Young Invincibles, a youth advocacy group based in Washington, led the discussion.

Beginning a conversation with local representatives, writing letters and looking at universities’ budgets are ways to better involve students in the financing process, said David Bransfield, state outreach coordinator for Young Invincibles.

“When you start a conversation, you show that you care,” Bransfield said.

The State Share of Instruction — the formula to decide how much state money is given to Ohio public universities and colleges — will put more weight on student performance and graduation completion than enrollment, with the performances of other colleges and universities also being considered, Cannon said.

“There just aren’t as much state dollars coming into the university as there used to be. … If Ohio University does well and they improve their graduation (rates) and can generate more money, somebody may lose,” Cannon said.

In the discussion of state funding, it sometimes takes a humanistic touch of a student’s story to make legislation seem like more than just paper, Phillips said.

“When citizens come in and speak about their personal experience, not paid lobbyists … legislators, for the most part, listen,” she said.

Some student opinions were heard during the discussion, which was the goal of the event, said Andrew Meyer, a senior studying organizational psychology and organizer of the event.

“While the numbers were small, the relationships we started with Vice Chancellor (Cannon) and Representative (Phillips) were strong,” Meyer said.