The Board of Trustees meeting began Thursday morning, where Trustees plan to discuss the financial and physical future of the university.
Ohio University Board of Trustee members convened Thursday in Walter Hall for their second meeting of the year.
In addition to discussing aspects of the university’s campus and budget, trustees also met with members of the OU Student Union to consider a petition against tuition hikes the group circulated among students.
Joint Resources and Academics Committee: Campus mobility issues
The difference between the highest and lowest point on Ohio University’s campus is comparable to the height of a 200-foot roller coaster at Cedar Point, according to OU officials.
Shawna Bolin, director of University Planning and Management, focused mainly on physical aspects of the Athens campus while she encouraged trustees to give their opinions on matters such as mobility, availability of green spaces and the future of OU’s campus.
“We’re thinking about strategies and how we meet them,” Bolin said. “Mostly I want to hear from you. This is your university.”
Many of these physical aspects are components being considered in the university’s Comprehensive Master Plan.
By bringing in Ayers Saint Gross, the consulting company for the plan, OU officials hope to improve the physical coherence of the campus, Bolin said.
Integrated with the Comprehensive Master Plan, the Ridges Master Plan looks to plan the future of The Ridges property that lays across the Hocking River.
According to a January Post article, definitive future plans for The Ridges are still unknown. Bolin did not provide any updates related to the area at the meeting.
OU President Roderick McDavis, who originally directed the committee, was to create a plan for the property by spring 2015, but that goal has since been pushed back to the summer.
Bolin also discussed features on OU’s campus, saying steep inclines such as Jeff Hill create mobility problems for pedestrians.
Parking options on campus can be sparse, often forcing drivers to become pedestrians.
“You love our parking system when you can park next to a building, you hate our system for other reasons,” Bolin said.
Officials expressed desire to improve mobility on campus, but the way OU is set can make it
“We’re really landlocked,” McDavis said. “We own a lot of property in Athens, but the property is not all connected to the central area where the university is located.”
OU’s two student trustees, Keith Wilbur and Sharmaine Wilcox, were vocal about student issues.
Sharmaine also suggested installing racks for longboards and other modes of transportation so students would not have to carry them into lectures.
Overall, officials were optimistic about the future of the Athens’ campus.
“The university in the future is all over the state of Ohio and for good reason,” said Trustee Sandra Anderson.
Academics Committee: Updates on enrollment and student loan default rate
Compared to spring semester 2014, enrollment in the 2015 increased 1.5 percent for undergraduate students, 6.1 percent for graduate students and 13.3 percent for medical students, according to Craig Cornell, Vice Provost for enrollment management.
He also spoke about recent efforts to increase enrollment in certain areas, including the OHIO Signature Awards program and efforts to connect with sophomores and juniors in more locations across the state and country.
“We’ve gone from a ‘let’s recruit what we can’ conversation ... to now targeting students in very specific ways,” Cornell said.
Cornell presented new, but unofficial data for student loan default rates from the U.S. Department of Education. According to the data, OU’s three-year loan default rate decreased by nearly 4 percent from the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year.
OU was previously ranked second nationally for three-year loan default rates among large public universities, according to a previous Post report.
Shari Clarke, vice provost for for Diversity and Inclusion gave a presentation about the office’s efforts to encourage diversity on campus and provide help for students. The office includes the Women’s Center, Multicultural Center, LGBT Center and Survivor Advocacy Program, among others.
These efforts include several mentorship programs and plans for a new multicultural faculty residence program which officials said will bring in diverse faculty to teach for one academic year. As of 2013, 24 percent of Group I faculty were of a racial or ethnic minority, which is higher than OU’s regional campuses.
While the main campus has seen a slight increase in faculty diversity, the regional campuses saw a decrease in the percent of faculty who were of ethnic or racial minority groups between 2010-2013.
Imants Jaunarajs, Assistant Dean of Students for the Career and Leadership Development Center, talked about the CLDC’s strategies to ensure that students are employed after college.
The CLDC created new “split positions” that work in both the center and in academic colleges to help with career-building and employment efforts.
“I think this is a huge step from the academic side and for making opportunities available to students,” Board Chair David Brightbill said. “I think this is a huge thing.”
Resources Committee: Money troubles in the face of student affordability
Bryan Benchoff, vice president for University Advancement, spoke about OU’s plan for furthering and diversifying OU’s finances, called the “Smart Growth” plan.
The broad initiative seeks to add to OU’s revenue through fundraising and expanding alternative programs like online learning.
This diversification is necessary to sustain OU, officials said, since credit rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have called higher education a risky market sector in their most recent announcements.
Knowing this, OU officials are looking to improve and diversify their finances.
Trustee David Wolfort went back and forth during the meeting with Golding about different strategies for diversifying their investments.
Wolfort questioned Golding and his team on their plans for diversification. The discussion ended when Golding showed the board the results of the most recent National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers study.
In the NACUBO study, OU’s endowment was shown to outperform the average from over 800 of its peers by about 1 percent over the past five years.
For the first year in its history, OU joined a group of 168 other universities in the study with an endowment over $500 million.
Money was the main topic of discussion, but the underlying theme was student affordability. During talks about building two new storage facilities for auxiliary services, Trustee Peggy Viehweger brought up concerns about how the $16.7 million project would impact the university’s ability to renovate student spaces currently in disrepair.
Keith Wilbur, senior student trustee, contrasted Trustee Viehweger’s skeptical view with comments on recent meetings he had with Ohio state legislatures.
“I think we are doing a great job as a university in terms of cost control,” said Wilbur.
Trustee Anderson, chair of the resource committee, added to Wilbur’s comment by calling the university’s use of money “efficient.”
Governance Committee: New trustee appointments
Trustee members unanimously voted to present the nomination of a new chair and vice chair for the governing body at Friday’s meeting.
Trustee Anderson was suggested to replace David Brightbill as chair and Trustee David A. Wolfort was recommended to continue his position as vice chair for 2015.
“This year we’ve got some really great talent,” Trustee Dave Scholl said. “We were very fortunate to have Dave and David, and we would be very fortunate to have Sandy and David.”
The board also discussed plans to appoint a new national trustee to replace J. Patrick Campbell.
Campbell, who was appointed to the board in 2012, died in early February, according to a previous Post article.
“There is a conversation around some potential candidates, and one particular candidate has risen to the top,” Scholl said, though the candidate was not named.
Trustees also went over plans for the 2015 retreat, which is scheduled for August 27 and 28.
While holding the retreat in Athens was discussed as an option, the location still needs to be determined.
Trustees also discussed options for the upcoming new trustee orientation.
The March meeting will be Keith Wilbur’s last as a student trustee after serving on the board for two years.
“What we need is almost opposite to typical trustees, and I personally would have loved more financial training,” Wilbur said. “I want to leave this position better than I found it, in order for future students to succeed.”
Audit Committee: Updates on external audits, university risk management
In front of a crowd of roughly 20, the Board of Trustees’ audit committee heard about the university’s external audit process, key risks the university faces and the cash collecting points found on campus.
Golding discussed how OU is working to create a culture of managing risks, especially those that are uninsured.
The University Risk Management Initiative sent out a survey in 2014 to senior leadership, vice presidents and deans asking which major, non-insured risks OU faces. The key identified risks included maintenance and repairs, tax compliance and data security.
A similar process was used for a 2012 survey, which identified student safety, human resources management, information technology breach and OU’s party school reputation, as the top risks for the university. The President’s University Risk Management Council met with officials who manage those areas. The same will be done with the results of the 2014 survey.
The university has also been monitoring areas where cash is collected, such as cafes, Campus Recreation facilities and the Bobcat Depot.
“We have had our share of issues during my time here,” said Jeff Davis, chief audit executive.
In 2008, 214 distinct cash collection points were identified on OU’s campuses. Now, Davis said there are slightly more than 100, though he is not sure of the exact number.
Davis also presented on construction audits, including one of Walter Fieldhouse. About $16,000 were spent on the audit, averaging about $125 to $150 per hour, Davis said.
Trustee Kevin B. Lake called it “a very reasonable price.”
The committee also received an update from the external audit team, which is working on the 2015 audit of the university, among other entities. The audit is scheduled to be finished by October 2015.
Trustees meet with student leaders
The OU Student Union presented a petition with more than 580 signatures to some board members during a closed meeting Thursday evening.
The petition listed tuition hikes, funding for the Survivor Advocacy Program and the construction of a natural gas pipeline as their top concerns.
Improving general communication was also a topic of discussion.
Brightbill, Wolfort and Mathers, who attended the meeting, were “pretty responsive” to the conversation, said Caitlyn McDaniel, a student union member and vice president of Student Senate.
She noted that the board is still “committed to raising tuition.”
— Dina Berliner, Megan Henry, Alex Meyer, Seth Archer, Kaitlin Coward and Olivia Hitchcock contributed to this report.
