The Ohio University Board of Trustees met Monday, Aug. 19, to discuss new college deans, classroom AI usage and enrollment updates.
Resources, Facilities, and Affordability Committee
Ohio University’s Resources, Facilities and Affordability Committee presented its discussion topics at 11:30 a.m. The committee briefed the trustees on updates from capital projects.
Jonathan Cozad, the associate vice president of design and construction, discussed various projects OU has underway. There are 144 active projects costing $540 million, with approximately $420 million for the design and construction phases.
Cozad said he hoped to garner support for three specific projects.
One of the projects requesting additional funding is the old heating plant switchgear replacement project, which was approved in April 2021.
According to Cozad, the project's main purpose is to replace some of the medium voltage switchgear housed in the old heating plant. Due to the condition of the facility, a portion of the plant has already been demolished, and a pre-engineered metal building is being constructed.
However, Cozad said they encountered unforeseen conditions during deconstruction, such as unmapped tunnels and unsuitable soils, which had to be remediated.
Cozad requested an additional $500,000 to deal with the conditions on-site, with funding coming from the fiscal year, 25-centered bond funding, which the board approved.
Under the second project, Bentley Hall is set to receive updated cooling starting in May.
“This goes along with (Bentley Hall classroom refresh) to create a comfortable and usable space for our academic program,” Cozad said.
Lastly, the annual campus steam repairs were due for approval.
“As we’ve talked before, this is a project that we don’t anticipate will ever really end,” Cozad said.
The main objective of the campus steam repairs project is to assess the entire campus steam distribution center. With the assessment, OU Design and Construction would look for deficiencies or areas needing improvement.
It is the 10th year the project will be completed. Cozad said the plans for when the project will occur remain the same; however, an additional $200,000 was added for the project this year to rerack electrical cables throughout campus.
“For the 10th year in a row, we’ve had our steam outage in May between the end of the spring semester and the start of the first summer session,” Cozad said. “Our plan is to keep that schedule. It seems to work well for the campus, minimizing impact to the campus, while also giving us the opportunity to perform the maintenance on the system.”
The board approved all three projects presented.
Academic and Student Success Committee
The Academic and Student Success Committee began its meeting with OU Provost Donald Leo introducing new deans within various colleges.
Leo introduced four new deans, including Kristina Bross, dean of the Honors Tutorial College, Lisa Harrison, dean of The Gladys W. and Davis H. Patton College of Education, Jody Lamb, Interim dean of the College of Fine Arts and Rob Ross as dean of university libraries.
After these introductions, the Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, or CTLA, gave a presentation on embracing the integration of artificial intelligence in higher education.
Meldina Rhodes-DiSalvo, executive director of the CTLA, and Paul Shovlin, an associate professor in the English department, gave the presentation.
DiSalvo said she first heard of AI and its implications in the late Fall 2020. Soon after, she said the CTLA gathered faculty with expertise in AI to put together a faculty panel to use as a foundation in teaching others about AI and its uses.
“We hosted three faculty learning communities, all of which filled to capacity and involved faculty, from assistant profs to profs, instructional faculty, academic support, staff and libraries,” DiSalvo said. “We had a number of informal coffees and conversations where people could come together … They could talk about generative AI and teaching and learning.”
The CTLA has a position statement to show its support for the implementation and integration of Generative AI in higher education as long as it promotes student achievement, effectiveness and efficiency, community and human connection and the facilitation of personalized learning.
“These are the skill sets students currently need in order to be successful at the university and in their professions beyond it,” Shovlin said.
The CTLA began applying these principles through its AI-enhanced course Redesign Institute, a pilot program to help professors integrate AI into their courses for the fall semester, DiSalvo said.
Several professors in various disciplines have already been able to redesign their courses to incorporate AI, such as History of Rock, Introduction to Information Graphics and Introduction to Retailing.
“From my perspective, the most exciting element of the AI faculty development that we've been doing since 2023 is how we've seen it proliferate and influence the work faculty and staff do across the university,” Shovlin said.
Following the presentation from the CTLA, Candace Boeninger, vice president for enrollment management, gave an enrollment update presentation.
Boeninger first said to the board that giving an accurate enrollment update at this time is difficult because students are actively being counted as they arrive on campus and in classrooms.
“The information I'll share this morning will be preliminary,” Boeninger said. “We will share a formal census update after Sept. 9, which is the fifteenth-day census date for us. In general, enrollment looks strong.”
Last year’s enrollment brought just over 28,000 new students to all of OU’s campuses, and the 2024 year's enrollment is expected to be similar.
Boeninger also mentioned the challenges students have faced in receiving the financial aid they need to enroll due to the changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form. With these challenges, Boeninger said there has been a decrease in national FAFSA submissions by 11.6%.
“I think the challenge that we continue to have is that there are pieces of the process that are still not delivered, and so there are pockets of students still for whom we are unable to package federal aid,” Boeninger said. “We are unable to get them the loans that they need.”
Shortly after the presentation, two resolutions were read and approved to be sent to the board for a vote during its main board meeting.
One resolution called to rename the College of Fine Arts to the Jeffrey D. Chadwick and Mark A. Morrow College of Fine Arts. The other resolution involved naming the new residence hall on South Green to the Roderick J. McDavis residence hall after OU’s 20th president.
Sarah Wyatt, faculty senate president, then gave a faculty senate update presentation. Wyatt shared highlights from last year’s faculty senate, including the transition to Canvas.
“We had several print presentations on the transition to Canvas,” Wyatt said. “I will tell you now that for the faculty, the transition to Canvas has been somewhat of a daunting…It may go a little smoother. My transition is not super bumpy, but it does actually require a rethink sometimes.”
The Faculty Senate continues to work on the faculty retirement plan, faculty grievance procedures and workload issues for faculty.
A list of consent agenda resolutions was then read and approved to be sent to the main board meeting.
Governance and Compensation Committee
The Governance and Compensation Committee heard from Jenn Bennett, chair of the Administrative Senate, who suggested amendments be made to the Administrative Senate’s constitution.
The change would amend resolution 2023-4975, which previously stated a majority vote within the administrative senate would have to be approved by the president of OU and the Board of Trustees.
The committee meeting adjourned after approving this resolution to be sent to the main board meeting.
Audit and Risk Management Committee
The Board of Trustees received updates from the Audit and Risk Management Committee on the Compliance Project Plan.
Laura Myers, interim executive director of the Office of Audit, Risk and Compliance, gave all updates.
The OHIO Compliance Network includes cataloging compliance functions at OU, developing processes for responding to compliance issues, coordinating training and outreach and developing a prioritized compliance review schedule.
This year, the committee created the compliance matrix and the seven elements framework.
The committee also heard from Ashlee Bevan, interim audit director, who presented an update on the FY25 Annual Audit Plan Update status.
Completed audits are for the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the College of Fine Arts and were released Aug. 15. Cost transfers and cash handling are still in the planning phase.
Presidential Update
OU President Lori Stewart Gonzalez gave an update on the dynamic strategy. OU is now in the implementation phase of the project.
Leo and Robin Oliver, vice president for University Communications and Marketing, are partnering to roll out the implementation.
Gonzalez said OU is currently looking for a vice president for finance and administration and a vice president for advancement.
The Board approved a resolution to rename the College of Fine Arts, as well as a resolution to amend the Administrative Senate’s Constitution.
Mary Kate McNamee, Paige Fisher and Maggie Amacher contributed to this report.
