Ohio University’s Board of Trustees will meet Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 to hear about and discuss the decrease in misconduct cases from the Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility and new accreditation criteria.
OU President Duane Nellis will discuss Phase 2, the university’s COVID-19 testing partnership with CVS, plans for celebrating the spring 2020 graduates and more in his presidential report.
Board members will hear a presentation on new criteria for accreditation that went into effect Sept. 1. Accreditation is the process in which universities are held accountable for institutional effectiveness, according to the board’s agenda.
Vice President of Student Affairs Jason Pina will discuss and answer questions about conduct offenses in the community standards update.
Notable findings include that overall conduct cases are down because of COVID-19, alcohol and marijuana cases continue to decline and organizational misconduct cases are significantly increasing.
There were 1,192 total cases referred to the Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility between 2019 and 2020. Between 2016 and 2017, there were 2,004 total cases referred.
Of the cases between 2019 and 2020, over 52% of people were put on probation, and over 33% were not in violation. There were no expulsions and 12 suspensions.
Between 2016 and 2017, over 54% of people were put on probation, and 30% were found not in violation. Seven people were expelled, and 40 people were suspended.
In 2019 and 2020, there were 14 total student organizations' cases resolved. Nine were from Greek Life organizations, four were from student organizations and one was from an academic organization.
The board will also vote on approving $28,659,529 for Phase 3 of the Clippinger renovation. This will finalize the renovation and modernization of the STEM facility.
There are 134 facility projects in several ongoing phases, including conceptual, predesign, design, construction and closeout. The total budget for all ongoing projects is $316,408,418. There are $162,747,121 in expenditures, according to the board’s agenda.
The board will also discuss the Clery Act report from the past year.
There were 24 rape reports on campus and one off campus in 2019. This is a decrease from 2018, which saw 34 rape reports on campus.
There were nine liquor law violations that resulted in arrests on campus in 2019. In 2018, there were 14 on campus and three on public property. There were another 234 liquor law violations that resulted in disciplinary referrals.
There were 61 drug law violations on campus in 2019 that resulted in arrests, compared to 256 in 2018 and 324 in 2017.
