Academic and Student Success Committee
Ohio University’s Academic and Student Success Committee discussed research updates within the College of Health Sciences and Professions, faculty retention numbers and projected enrollment numbers for Fall 2024.
To begin the meeting, Pankaj Karna was recognized for being chosen as the new student trustee.
Karna is a physicist and astronomy researcher, educator and US military veteran. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in physics at Ohio University.
“This is my first meeting, so I'm just looking forward to learning and observing. Going forward I guess I’ll have more input, thank you,” Karna said.
Provost Elizabeth Sayers reported on faculty retention.
Prefacing the presentation, Sayers said this was the first year the updated faculty retention rate wasn’t affected by OU’s Voluntary Separation and Retirement program.
“The vast majority of those who aren't retained are due to retirement,” Sayers said. “About 2% actually leave the university for other positions, whether it's an industry or at other institutions.”
The rate of professors who leave the university for other positions has decreased from years prior to the pandemic, which was as high as 3%, Sayers said.
Sayers said the ratio of faculty to students at OU has maintained since the decrease in enrollment during the pandemic.
“As enrollment has rebounded, we can see that we are now back to faculty-student ratios that are similar to where we were before the enrollment declined,” Sayers said.
Candace Boeninger, vice president of enrollment management, gave the last presentation about enrollment for fall 2024 and the recovery increase in enrollment following the pandemic.
Boeninger mentioned some concerns with federal financial aid limitations caused by the recurring changing of application deadlines.
“I have said this once, and I will say it again, this will be one of the most disruptive scenarios in American higher education history,” Boeninger said.
Part of the reason for this concern is the lack of high school seniors being able to fill out the forms on time to qualify for financial aid or are opting out of financial aid entirely.
“Nationally, externally, FAFSA submissions by high school seniors continue to be down, you can see that they are down 13.5% as of the end of May,” Boeninger said. “What that means is that there is a higher proportion of students and families who are opting out of the aid process for this year.”
Despite this fact, Boeninger said OU is still seeing strong interest for the upcoming academic year and stable admission numbers for the 2024 Fall Semester.
Resources, Facility and Affordability Committee
The Resources, Facility and Affordability Committee discussed the university’s operating budget and focused on ways to decrease the university’s debt.
John Day, interim vice president for finance and administration, recommended the Board of Trustees to increase fees across departments and campuses.
According to Day’s report, OU’s operating activity during the 2024 academic year is $2.5 million, after calculating revenue and cost. However, the 2025 academic year is projected to end with -$11.3 million.
Day introduced a resolution that would increase tuition and fees by 3% across all campuses and increase room and board rates by 4.6%.
Constructing new hangers for the Gordon K. Bush Ohio University Airport was seen as a priority over two other airport projects.
They shared the board’s adjusted priorities and deferred some projects to move other projects sooner, like updating Bentley Hall and Bentley Annex Hall HVAC and controls; and flat roof replacement on the Convocation center.
Audit and Risk Management Committee
Audit and Risk Management Committee introduced the annual fiscal year audit plan, which will evaluate internal management controls.
The proposed plan will help guide the work of the Internal Audit program that is inside the Office of Audit, Risk and Compliance. The work is done independently of any activities of the Compliance function of the office.
The Board of Trustees passed the plan during the meeting, and the plan will be completed from July through June 2025.
The Governance and Compensation Committee
The Governance and Compensation Committee shared three resolutions with the Board of Trustees.
Each resolution was sent to the full board with recommendations for approval moving forward.
The resolutions asked for an appointment of a regional trustee, election of a board treasurer and election of a board secretary. The Board of Trustees passed the resolutions.
The Executive Committee
The Executive Committee discussed OU’s dynamic strategy and updates President Lori Stewart Gonzalez led when coming into office last year.
“I just want to mention how important this process was and how many people participated during the year,” Gonzalez said. “We started in late October and we had a very aggressive timeline.”
Gonzalez said it took 70 people to work on the dynamic strategy project. Around 500 faculty, students, staff and alumni also participated in a comprehensive survey regarding the project.
Robin Oliver, vice president for university communications and marketing and co-chair of the mission and vision committee, introduced OHIO’s new mission statement.
The statement now strives to hold the door open to higher education so that all those eager to solve humanity's most urgent challenges might enter to learn, connecting them with experiences and discovery that will help them think critically, care deeply, lead boldly and ultimately depart to serve.
Gonzalez then introduced four pillars of the dynamic strategy project including to learn, discover, engage and work. Each pillar has a goal consisting of different strategies for success.
Gonzalez also shared OU’s updated values believing, “A University education can and should be both academically excellent and accessible to all who seek it.”
“I think it is a great roadmap to make OHIO even more important than we are right now,” Gonzalez said.
The Board of Trustees passed the motion for the new dynamic strategy.
Main Board Meeting
The new practice facility for the Marching 110 is in Phase A, which includes planning and fundraising, according to President Gonzalez.
According to an OU news release, March 110 alumni Shawn and Tracey Hurely gifted the university $1 million for the facility.
The new facility has a construction budget projected at 3 million dollars, said Gonzales.
“We had a transformational gift from the Hurleys–they met in the trumpet section–of one million dollars,” said Gonzales. “Today, we have raised 1.2 million dollars toward the project.”
Following this announcement, the Board concluded their meeting by recognizing the hard work of Ohio University Police Department’s Chief Andrew Powers, and Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Sayrs have put into bettering the university.
“As I sit here today, I represent 200 years worth of people who gave their time and talent to bring this department to where it is today. And of those people, I would like to thank the wonderful folks that I currently work with,” said Powers.
According to an OU news release, this is OUPD’s 200th year of operation.
The Board meets next on August 19 and 20.
sm792221@ohio.edu
