In a December 2004 letter to the OCR, Garland contended the state “has failed to comply with important pledges it made” to the OCR, citing evidence he says proved the state “failed to enhance Central State University to make it as attractive as and comparable to other public universities in Ohio.”

The school’s facilities are not on par with other state schools, its programs and resources are lacking and its faculty salaries at all ranks are “substantially lower” than those at other state-supported universities, Garland says.

In March, CSU received a disappointing response from James F. Manning, who at the time was serving as the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights. While promising to continue to monitor the state’s compliance with the agreement to close the Title VI case, Manning said the OCR “will not reopen its investigation.”
Central State officials were somewhat encouraged two months later when the OCR, in a May 12 letter to the Ohio Board of Regents, requested extensive data and reports on how CSU was being treated. But the request appeared to have no impact on state legislators who hammered out Ohio’s budget for the next two years: The budget reduces the state’s core funding for Central State by more than $800,000 in 2006, or 4.75 percent — the largest percentage cut among Ohio’s 13 public universities. The state also eliminated $125,000 in support for the school’s water resources program, and in the second year of the two-year budget, cuts an additional $463,000 from CSU’s funding. The university has a $35 million budget and an enrollment of 1,820 last fall.

The state’s board of regents say Central State receives far more money per student than other Ohio public universities and received an infusion of rebuilding money in the mid-1990s, when a financial and political crisis nearly closed the school.

“It’s hard to describe what the state’s side of the bargain is now compared to what it was six or seven years ago,” says Ohio Board of Regents associate vice chancellor Dr. Jane Fullerton. At that time, the state provided funds for CSU to pay off accumulated debts and to renovate residence halls that had been condemned.