Correction Appended: The latest version of this article lists the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation President as Terri Donlin Huesman and corrects information about OU’s R1 status.
Thursday, January 16
Academics and Student Success Committee
The Academic and Student Success Committee discussed Ohio University’s Research 1 status and university enrollment.
The university was identified as a R1 school in January 2022. The requirements for an R1 school is to spend at least $50 million on total research and a minimum of 70 doctorates awarded. $70 million of sponsored events about research were done over the year by OU.
The university will create a separate vice president for research and creative activities, 15 tenure track positions in support of the Dynamic Strategy, enhancements of the doctorate student tracking to predict the minimum needed to maintain the status and reinvestments to grow in research and scholarships.
In addition, the current undergraduate enrollment rate according to the Spring 2024 Census is 27,308. Currently, the university is predicting enrollment will continue to grow by 4.5%. The returning students, nursing students and graduate student enrollment rates are also increasing.
This committee’s report will be updated as more information is released.
Audit and Risk Management Committee
OU Board of Trustees reconvened from a 10-minute recess to hear from the Audit and Risk Management Committee.
Mary Ann Boyle, chief audit executive and executive director of the Office of Audit, Risk and Compliance spoke first, addressing matters of internal auditing.
First on the agenda were announcements on staffing updates. The position of internal auditor was filled, and the search for a new senior auditor is ongoing but likely to be filled in February, according to Boyle.
The 2025 Audit Plan has been revised. Boyle said four audits have been removed from the agenda, those being the College of Business, Swipe Card Access, Document Management System - OnBase and ADA Website Accessibility.
The amended Audit Plan consists of NCAA Agreed Upon Procedures, Graduate College, Office of Sustainability: Reporting, Vice President of Research and Minors on Campus, according to Boyle.
Alumni Association Trustee Joseph Becherer asked for clarification on the subject of Minors on Campus, which Boyle described as a collective series of programs that involve minors on campus, such as camps and clubs.
The Board of Trustees voted to approve the FY25 Annual Audit Plan, concluding the internal audit presentation.
Matters of external auditing were presented by Christine Torres, an engagement partner from Crowe LLP, a public accounting and consulting firm.
Torres first provided the Board with a brief overview of the Crowe firm’s auditing procedures before revealing the results it came up with for the 2024 audit.
OU was involved in three federal major programs in the past year, including Medicaid and Student Financial Aid clusters and the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a presentation shown during the meeting.
The university had no compliance issues with the program agreements. Crowe found no items that were in need of significant improvement.
“Really an excellent job by all involved at the university to come to this point where no issues involved compliance, as well as financial reporting, so an excellent audit,” Torres said.
It was noted that an audit as clean as this is a feat in the post-Covid era. The audit was thorough and the auditors found no issues.
Friday, January 17
Resources, Facilities and Affordability Committee
The Resources, Facilities, and Affordability Committee discussed the university’s future plans for building and renovations to physical and technological infrastructures and the budget for the projects.
John Day, associate dean and associate provost for Academic Budget Planning began by discussing the FY25 Finance Forecast created in November 2024. The forecast presented macro projections of cost at OU.
Day said there was a positive variation in tuition and fees and room and board than what was budgeted from slightly higher enrollment than expected. The increase causes the operations impact for tuition and fees to be up by $500,000 and room and board to be up by $1.2 million.
The regional campuses are also up in enrollment, causing their operations impact to be up by $3.7 million.
The university also currently has a total of $16.6 million in variance from grants and contracts which are predicted to change.
Day said the variance for administrative and faculty salaries is currently running high but is expected to balance by the end of the year because of additional revenues put towards these operating costs.
In addition, Day reported job vacancies on campus are shrinking with more applications being received and supply services being up.
“In total, our total budget is still, if we were to project it now, we had a negative 11.3 on results of operations,” Day said. “We're projecting at this point that we'd be around that number by the time we ended the year. So at any of where we expected to be.”
Next, Jonathon Cozad, associate vice president of design and construction in facilities, discussed the capital projects taking place at the university.
Cozad said as of December 2024, 112 active projects with a total budget of $464 million and $120 million already spent were in production. These projects are tracking to be inside 1% of the estimated budget from the university. However, there are a couple of outstanding bid packages on projects.
A request was made for approval of the Marching 110 facility. The goal is to create a practice facility for the Marching 110 with restrooms, a covered pavilion, a director's tower, field lighting and fencing. The projected end date of construction is fall 2026. The project has an estimated budget of $3.5 million.
Cozad said the current plan is to ask for authorization to begin the preconstruction phase. This phase will include the selection and design process. Then the team will come back and ask for approval to start construction. After construction is done, there will be phase two of the project which will include storage facilities.
Vice Chair of the Board Matthew Evans said this facility is a real need for the 110, especially highlighting the need for a storage facility.
“They look like nomadic herders around campus moving from practice field to practice field depending on what athletics is using. You'll see, these students carrying the drums, tubas, everything around and never complaining about it,” Evans said. “It's getting to the point now where the benefit of athletics and to the man to have an individual facility.”
The fixing of the Bird Ice Arena’s floor was another topic of conversation after a failing floor was discovered during the replacement of the chiller. This discovery delayed the reopening of the arena this academic year to January. The floor was last updated in the 1990s.
The project will start as soon as possible and has an estimated budget of $3.15 million. In addition, with the floor being replaced, new curbs and dasher boards will be added and the rink will possibly be expanded by 10 feet to make it regulation size.
Facilities management and safety is also looking to add three rooftop solar arrays on campus. These arrays will produce about 1 megawatt per year, which is 1% of OU’s overall energy usage on the Athens campus.
“One of the exciting things about this is that we're proposing to own and operate this array, not bring in a third party and procure it as a power purchase agreement,” Cozad said. “This will actually be owned and operated by the university.”
Creating the solar array will allow the university to take advantage of the new investment tax credit that includes a direct pay provision for state entities and nonprofits. This will allow the university to receive a 40% of the investment into the project.
To build the array, the university will need to borrow $2 million from its internal bank. However, after 15 years of operation, this project will save the university operating dollars, earning $120,000 a year. In addition, these solar arrays will present staff and students with educational opportunities.
The solar array will be built on Walter Field House, Ping Recreation Center and the Ohio Coal Research Center.
Another project, originally slated for 2020 and 2021, was renovations to Grosvenor Hall. The first phase will be replacing electrical switchgear, fire alarm panel, fire dampers, HVAC controls to all of the air handlers and the controls on the terminal devices. Phase two is looking to add more controls to the HVAC system.
The budget for the first phase is currently $2 million, and the renovations will not fix all of the current issues at the hall.
Pruitt Field needs a turf replacement: the playing field and the shock absorbing. The project will also add an irrigation system to the field, so hoses do not have to be used to water the field. The field is currently used for field hockey and practice for other sports teams.
The budget of this project is just under $2 million and will be done by August 2025.
The university is also currently looking to replace the basketball arena flooring in The Convo. Yearly, the floor is sanded and refinished; however, a point has been reached where this no longer can be done. The budget for the project is $600,000 and will be done by August 2025.
Currently, it is being looked into if some of the flooring can be salvaged and reused in other parts of The Convo. In addition, it is being considered to sell off the old pieces of flooring for fundraising.
The last project talked about was replacing the indoor tennis court’s roof. The structure was built in 1999 and recently failed after sustaining damage in a windstorm. Cozad said they want to replace it right away so they can reopen the courts. The budget of the project is $565,000.
Day announced a new resolution to increase the cost of housing for incoming students’ guests at Bobcat Student Orientation. Currently, guests pay $30-$60 for a room; the resolution is to increase this to $60-$120. The motion was passed.
Chris Ament, chief information officer for the Office of Information Technology, spoke about replacing OU’s Enterprise Resource Planning. The current ERP system is outdated, limited in scalability, not adaptable and increases costs and risks, Ament said.
According to Ament, adding a new system will enable the university to change quickly, free staff, deliver more timely and trusted data, and simplify and standardize processes.
2025 will be used to begin project readiness by filling some essential leadership roles on the implementation team, selecting a technology platform and implementation partner and putting together a comprehensive data strategy.
The following two years will be used to implement the new system. The team will then begin data migration and validation in 2028 and launch halfway through the year. The following year will be used to optimize the ERP system.
Over the projected years, it is estimated the project will require a $46 million budget.
Finally, it was announced that John Day will be retiring. Day has worked at OU for 42 years, starting in 1983. During his time, Day served as associate provost for academic budget and planning, associate dean for the College of Business, professor for management information systems, interim director of budget, interim chief financial officer and interim vice president for finance.
“Whereas Day has proven himself to be a valuable asset with a vast knowledge of financial and administrative operations,” OU President Lori Stewart Gonzalez said. “Whereas this proclamation is presented to John Day to serve as a reminder that although he is retiring he will always be remembered as a valued employee dedicated to his position and Ohio University.”
Governance and Compensation Committee
The Governance and Compensation Committee discussed the approval of the resolutions to elect positions at the university.
The first resolution voted on approving David Moore, OU’s vice president for finance and administration, as treasurer for the Board of Trustees. This resolution passed unanimously and will expire on June 30.
William Kent was then appointed to fill the open national trustee position. The motion for this was approved unanimously.
Main Board Meeting
President Gonzalez spoke on how the university plans to focus on suicide prevention and mental health. Along with putting the suicide and crisis lifeline, 988, on student IDs and portals, OU has received a grant to become a JED campus.
The JED Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to giving teens proper mental health resources, plans to do an assessment and review of how ready the university is to provide students with mental health services. Following the assessment, a 4-year initiative will begin to increase preventative care.
The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine received a $70 million grant from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation on Thursday.
This grant comes after a transformative $105 million grant to HCOM in 2011 from the OHC. The original grant allowed OU’s medical school to become one of the largest in the state with multiple campuses and facilitated more research to increase overall grant funding.
Terri Donlin Huesman, the executive director of OHC, and Ken Johnson, the executive dean of HCOM spoke, to the board about how this new grant will affect students.
“We had about $4.5 million worth of scholarship endowment (in 2011),” Johnson said. “We’re at approximately $30 million right now as a result of the investment that the Heritage Foundation has made for us.”
Johnson anticipates that number to grow to $80 million by the end of this investment.
Going forward, HCOM wants to use this funding to reduce the overall cost of medical school for students, especially those who are first-generation college students, as well as new institutes, professors, fellows and equipment for further research.
Andersen Beck, Drew Hoffmaster and Zoe Weyand contributed to this report.
