TRUSTEES: Actions of The Ohio State University Board of Trustees

ACTIONS OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees 
on Friday (7/12) merged three doctoral programs in 
nutrition, created a committee on diversity, renamed a 
department, and heard a report on accreditation.  In 
addition, the board approved research contracts, established 
three named endowed funds, and conducted other business.

Doctoral programs in nutrition combined

Trustees consolidated doctoral programs in nutrition 
that were offered in three colleges.  The new single, multi-
disciplinary Doctor of Philosophy degree is the only 
doctoral program in nutrition at an Ohio public university.

The College of Human Ecology will serve as lead college 
for the program. Faculty from Human Ecology and the colleges 
of Medicine and Food, Agricultural, and Environmental 
Sciences will teach and supervise research by the doctoral 
candidates.

"We have a long history of working together and jointly 
teaching Ph.D. level courses in nutrition, and of serving on 
graduate committees together," said Jean Snook, who chaired 
the committee to draft a charter for the program.  She is a 
professor of human nutrition and food management.

Advocates said the consolidation will expose students 
to specialties in nutrition. It will give the program 
national visibility, which will help graduates find jobs.  
It also will eliminate competition between the three 
colleges for graduate teaching fellowship training grants 
and end duplication of admission and recruiting efforts.  No 
new funding is required.

Diversity committees merged

A new Diversity Committee will take on all aspects of 
equity at Ohio State.  The group combines the University 
Senate Committee on Women and Minorities with the 
President's Committee on Diversity.  The new committee 
reports to the University Senate, the governance body for 
faculty.

Trustees created the Diversity Committee to eliminate 
overlapping functions and to bring the Senate a wider range 
of diversity issues, which were beyond the scope of the 
Women and Minorities committee.

Membership of the new committee will include 16 staff, 
faculty, students and administrators.  They will monitor 
implementation of the university's non-discrimination policy 
and recommend ways to foster civility, tolerance and mutual 
respect.  The committee will look at external pressures that 
affect diversity and advise the president and other top 
administrators on climate issues, policies and priorities.
The group also will communicate with the campus about 
diversity and administer Ohio State's annual affirmative 
action awards and grants.

Members of Women and Minorities said spring quarter 
that they did not want to dissolve their group.  They said 
the university could lose its focus on women and minorities, 
which would be diffused by the Diversity Committee's broader 
areas of concern.

University Senate leaders last month suggested the new 
Diversity Committee form sub-committees, one of which would 
continue to study issues concerning women and minorities.

Teaching assessment part of accreditation plan  

The trustees heard a status report on the university-
wide accreditation review, which is required every 10 years 
by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Vice Provost Alayne Parson and Provost Faculty Fellow 
Randy Smith told trustees a 12-member steering committee 
gathered and analyzed data during the last year.  Included 
is data on academic programs, enrollments, research and 
service activities, as well as infrastructure issues such as 
space, equipment and facilities.

The steering committee's draft report will be 
distributed this summer to the university community for 
comment and revisions.

Smith said the report documents many important 
initiatives made to improve Ohio State over the last decade.  
The draft will give faculty and staff an opportunity to 
comment on selective admissions, development of the General 
Education Curriculum, a report from the Committee on the 
Undergraduate Experience on how to improve student services, 
and development of a strategic plan for research -- all 
within the context of the university's mission.

A final report is due to North Central by early 
November.  A 14-member external review team will visit 
campus Dec. 9-11.

Another requirement is a plan to assess how well Ohio 
State serves undergraduates.  Parson noted it already has 
resulted in proposals to streamline the General Education 
Curriculum for the five Colleges of the Arts and Sciences.  
GEC courses are required of all undergraduates.

The plan has led to a detailed inventory of the extent 
and nature of assessments already being done by 
undergraduate major programs.  It also calls for greater 
attention to collecting data on student placement in jobs 
and graduate schools.

New name better reflects design programs

The trustees renamed a department in the College of the 
Arts to better reflect the course work it offers.  The 
Department of Industrial Design is now the Department of 
Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication Design.

Department Chair James C. Kaufman said the new name 
will show prospective students, employers and colleagues at 
other universities that Ohio State offers three 
undergraduate majors in the department.

Faculty have wanted to change the name since the 
department was created in 1973 because it only reflected 
one-third of what they do, he said.

Research contracts approved

Trustees accepted 164 research contracts totaling 
$8,792,702.  Singled out for special mention were:

-- The second phase of Project Reinvent, in which the 
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences 
will implement its vision to ensure quality development of 
food systems professionals and innovative ideas to support 
food system evolution for the next quarter century.  
Objectives include reforming the reward system for faculty 
and staff, continually refining the college structure and 
operating procedures, developing a more open decision-making 
process, reallocating resources to achieve the vision, and 
developing a program to disseminate the vision.  The W. K. 
Kellogg Foundation is providing $1.5 million over five 
years.  Bobby D. Moser and Lawrence H. Newcomb of the 
college are leading the project.

-- A project to design road stripes for radar frequency 
and information tagging and develop a prototype highway 
guidance system for motor vehicles.  The work includes 
setting up test vehicles and studying how information such 
as curve radius and exit lanes can be used for steering and 
speed control.  Stripe behavior will be tested under 
coatings of ice, snow and rain, and samples of the stripe 
will be tested outdoors.  Researchers will define what  
information to code into the stripes, the logistics of 
having stripes, and techniques for introducing the data.  
Umit A. Ozguner and Jonathan D. Young of the Department of 
Electrical Engineering are leading the project, funded with 
$484,900 from Carnegie-Mellon University.

-- Projects related to the global context of foreign 
language study.  Activities include research and advance-
skill development, networked programs and advanced-level 
materials development, teacher training, and program 
evaluation and assessment.  Ohio State's National Foreign 
Language Resource Center will disseminate project and 
research results.  Diane W. Birckbichler of the Foreign 
Language Center and Galal L. Walker of the Department of 
East Asian Languages and Literatures are leading the 
project.  The U.S. Department of Education is providing 
$930,000 over three years.

-- A cooperative ice core paleoclimate study of Windy 
Dome Ice Camp on Graham Bell Island, with an emphasis on sea 
ice history.  The island is part of Franz Josef Land in the 
Russian Arctic.  Lonnie G. Thompson and Ellen M. Thompson of 
the Byrd Polar Research Center are conducting the study, 
funded with $299,525 from the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration.

-- A study of the break-up of the Gondwanaland 
supercontinent during the Mesozoic, looking at the 
geochronology of Antarctic tholeiites, a type of basalt lava 
that erupts in the initial stages of the continental break-
up process.  The project is concerned with the timing of 
events in the break-up, including the age of eruption of the 
tholeiites and the timing of secondary alteration.  David H. 
Elliot and Kenneth A. Foland of the Byrd Polar Research 
Center are heading the project, funded with $247,000 from 
the National Science Foundation.


Board creates three named endowed funds

Trustees accepted three new named endowed funds with 
gifts totaling $141,172: 

-- The G. Preston Hoff Graduate Fellowship in 
Chemistry, $100,000.

-- The David S. Hunt Scholarship Fund, $26,172, for 
students from Tuscarawas County.

-- The Bloom Family Scholarship Endowment Fund, 
$15,000, for current or former 4-H members from Ashtabula 
County.


Miscellaneous matters

In other business, trustees:

-- Granted a 5 percent increase in pay to President E. 
Gordon Gee, raising his salary from $220,008 to $231,012.  
The pay raise is in line with salary increases budgeted for 
faculty and staff this year. 

-- Established computer laboratory fees in the Max M. 
Fisher College of Business and the College of Engineering.  
Beginning autumn quarter, full-time undergraduate business 
students will be assessed $85 and full-time graduate 
students will be charged $120 per quarter.  Engineering 
undergraduates will pay $110 and graduate students will pay 
$120 per quarter.  The fees will be prorated for part-time 
students in each college.  Students in the College of 
Mathematical and Physical Sciences who are majoring in 
computer and information science will be assessed a 
computing fee by the College of Engineering at a rate two-
thirds of the amount charged to engineering majors.

-- Appointed Mary Grose, associate director of clinical 
labs, to the board of trustees of Labnet of Ohio, a non-
profit corporation offering lab services of its member 
organizations to managed health care companies.  University 
Hospitals is a member of Labnet and recommended that Grose 
be appointed as its trustee.

-- Presented a student recognition award to Jennifer 
Ann Grimes of DECATUR, OHIO.  A senior majoring in family 
resource management, Grimes was honored for recruiting 
students to Ohio State as a University Ambassador and for 
her work with Ohio Staters.  Grimes will graduate Aug. 29.

-- Voted to confer degrees and certificates at summer 
quarter commencement Aug. 29 to those persons who have 
completed the requirements for them.

-- Authorized a master lease agreement as of July 15 
with Bank One Leasing Corp. to lease equipment with a total 
cost of about $10 million for use by various university 
departments.  The move was made as a cost-effective option 
for tax-exempt leasing of equipment.  A committee of 
university business officials recommended the proposal from 
Bank One Leasing Corp., from a group of nine proposals 
submitted, as best fitting the needs of the university and 
offering the lowest financing costs.

-- Authorized the treasurer, James L. Nichols, and vice 
president for finance, William J. Shkurti, to buy, sell, 
assign, and transfer stocks, bonds, and other securities;  
designate various financial institutions as depositories; 
open and maintain accounts; sign agreements for banking 
services; sign and endorse checks; and conduct other 
financial transactions on behalf of the university.

-- Heard reports on the endowment fund and comparisons 
of equity portfolios by Nichols.  As of June 21, the market 
value of the endowment was $639.1 million.
                             #

Contacts: Jean Snook, (614) 292-1680; James C. Kaufman, 
(614) 292-6746; Alayne Parson, (614) 292-5881; Edward Hayes, 
vice president for research, (614) 292-1582; Jerry May, vice 
president for development, (614) 292-2970.

Written by Gemma McLuckie, (614) 292-8419; Tom Spring, (614) 
292-8309; and Tracy Turner, (614) 688-3682.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 12 Jul 1996 16:04:07 -0400]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.