Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting ended with a debate and passing of a resolution telling Ohio University’s administration to be “very cautious” about dividing students with the proposed Sook Academic Center.
Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting ended with a debate and passing of a resolution telling Ohio University’s administration to be “very cautious” about dividing students with the proposed Sook Academic Center.
The center, which will provide academic support to OU student-athletes, was announced in September after the university received a $2.25 million donation from OU alumni, Perry and Sandy Sook. It would only be open to academic employees of Ohio Athletics, whose officials argue they need the center because the current academic space in Peden Stadium is inadequate.
At last month’s senate meeting, several faculty members expressed frustration with a lack of communication from administrators about the center — a point that was added to the resolution.
The resolution also said the university should integrate other OU students as a part of academic endeavors that are currently intended solely for student-athletes.
“What this is saying is, as we go forward, we would really like the university to be very cautious about not dividing the student body,” said Kevin Mattson, a history professor, in regards to the center lacking inclusivity.
The resolution ultimately passed with a majority of faculty in favor, with about five opposed and one abstaining.
OU President Roderick McDavis and Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Planning Howard Dewald — who spoke on Provost and Executive Vice President Pam Benoit’s behalf — opened the meeting with several updates.
McDavis spoke about OU’s state share of instruction, the hundreds of millions of dollars OU receives from the state each year that is commonly referred to as SSI. The university currently receives state funding based largely on graduation rates.
McDavis expressed contentment with the current SSI formula, saying “it’s working the way it’s supposed to work.”
Administrators continue to look at how to improve the formula, however, specifically in regards to at-risk students.
“One of the big issues we’re debating is ‘What does at-risk mean?’ and ‘How long does that last?’” McDavis said of the administration’s work regarding SSI.
Greg Fialko, senior human resource director, gave a presentation on the Benefits Advisory Committee, which is working to analyze univeristy benefit plans and provide recommendations.
In the presentation, Fialko said that the university is projected to pay the Affordable Care Act Cadillac Plan Tax in 2018 — a tax of $2.8 million for all current plans and enrollment. The tax could approach $9.6 million by 2025.
“We do not simply want to turn over funds to the federal government,” he said.
Benefits costs are expected to increase six to eight percent annually, but the committee is also looking to see how much the university can absorb so employees don’t have to incur the entire increase.
Dewald said OU’s enrollment has shown improvements this semester. While enrollment of Ohio public universities increased by 0.18 percent on average, OU’s increased by 1.7 percent.
Dewald said the university’s total student population increased to just over 39,000, which he called “a significant increase and a good increase.”
Martha Compton, director of community standards and student responsibility, gave anupdate on changes being made to the Student Code of Conduct.
The code is “pretty much fundamentally unchanged since 1971,” which warranted many of the ongoing updates, Compton said.
One such update is to the academic misconduct portion of the code focusing on cases of plagiarism, cheating and other forms of misconduct.
A resolution for a revised version of the section on academic misconduct was presented for first reading and was met with little opposition.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Elizabeth Sayrs also spoke about the university’s effort to improve student advising, especially in regard to at-risk students.
“The goal is to reach students and help them before they have failed,” she said.
The current freshman class was given a survey about their social integration a few weeks into Fall Semester, the results of which were used to help advisors target students who exhibited signs of becoming at-risk.
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