In an article in Inside Higher Ed on August 9, 2011, the Ohio Plan is discussed. Ironically, much of the reform levels the playing field with for-profit universities that are thriving as traditional non-profits struggle:

While details of the Ohio plan will not be final until Thursday’s presentation, released July 18 calls for immediately freeing all universities from certain regulatory restrictions, such as state health and safety codes, and eliminating enrollment caps. The draft also calls for giving the universities complete control of the management of their employees and exempting them from the purview of the state personnel board of review.

The universities would then be measured annually on a set of metrics that include student outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates; degree production in science, technology, engineering, and math fields; and the percentage of students participating in internship programs, as well as financial measures such as endowment size, affordability measured as a percentage of the consumer price index, and the unallocated cash balance as a percentage of total operating expenses. None of the proposed metrics in the draft plan deals with faculty or research productivity or service to the state.

Ohio Plan