Trustees: Kirwan Report, Student-Related Initiatives

TRUSTEES HEAR PRESIDENT KIRWAN'S INAUGURAL REPORT AND REPORTS ON 
STUDENT-RELATED INITIATIVES, CONDUCT OTHER BUSINESS

COLUMBUS -- Ohio State University President William E. 
Kirwan made his inaugural report at the Friday (7/10) meeting of 
the university's Board of Trustees.  Kirwan presented an initial 
outline of the four priority areas that will guide his 
administration as he leads Ohio State's move into the top ranks 
of the nation's public universities.  He highlighted four areas: 
elevating the quality and status of undergraduate programs, 
academic enrichment through selective investment in graduate and 
research programs, commitment to a diverse community, and 
expanding the university's engagement with the larger society.  
The full text of Kirwan's speech to the trustees is available at 
http://www.president.admin.ohio-state.edu.

The board heard reports on the student tuition set-aside, 
upgrades to technological services for students and preliminary 
results from a graduate student survey.  Trustees also approved a 
funding mechanism for University Development and conducted other 
business.

Board hears recommendations for tuition set-aside

      Trustees heard a report on recommendations for the 
undergraduate tuition set-aside for student services.  The 
recommendations were based on input from student representatives 
of the President's Council, Undergraduate Student Government, the 
Board of Trustees and the university's academic planning process.  
The following allocations, totaling $770,000 in continuing funds 
and $500,000 in one-time funds, were recommended:

-- $500,000 in one-time funds for the completion of the 
ResNet residence hall wiring project that will allow student 
computer access to the university computer system in every 
residence hall.

-- $250,000 for improving Web-based student services and 
upgrading, enhancing and expanding student computing labs. 

     -- $150,000 for campus activities and student programming.

     -- $80,000 for leadership and community service programming 
to help students develop leadership skills and become more active 
in community service.

     -- $68,000 for development support in the Office of Student 
Affairs to help generate development funds for student benefit.

     -- $50,000 for KBUX, the student-run radio station.

     -- $40,000 for Ohio Union security.

     -- $14,000 for town meetings.

     -- $30,000 for an 800 number for Fees and Deposits.

     -- $25,000 for student publications of teacher evaluations, 
a student safety guide and a landlord library.

     -- $63,000 to be allocated to enhance and improve student 
safety.

CUE report focuses on technological advances for students

Student access to the Internet and the availability of 
electronic resources for a variety of university student services 
continue to improve as Ohio State maintains its emphasis on 
enhancing the quality of the undergraduate experience.

Martha Garland, vice provost for undergraduate studies, and 
Eric Busch, assistant vice president for student affairs, updated 
trustees on the university's response to recommendations by the 
Committee on the Undergraduate Experience (CUE), with a focus on 
technological improvements.  Garland and Busch were co-chairs of 
CUE.

ResNet, a major technology initiative in progress, is a 
project giving every student in every residence hall room access 
to high-speed Internet service.  The university expects to 
complete the wiring of all residence hall rooms during autumn 
quarter, supporting approximately 8,600 students.  

Off-campus access includes Road Runner, a high-speed direct 
connection between Time-Warner's cable network and the 
university's network, and HomeNet, a service providing limited 
dial-in modem access primarily for e-mail.  The university also 
has reached a tentative agreement with IBM to offer its 
international dial-in Internet service by autumn quarter, 
featuring unlimited sessions, maximum modem speeds and local 
phone rates in 1,100 cities worldwide -- among them, 17 Ohio 
cities.

Ohio State offers a variety of student-based electronic 
services, including approximately 70 distance-education courses, 
access to World Wide Web-based course materials for an estimated 
25,000 students, and dozens of Web-based student administrative 
services that include course registration, loan status 
verification, mechanisms to check grades, change addresses and 
download forms, and opportunities to review course bulletins, 
descriptions and syllabi.

"The increasing availability of these services and the high-
speed Internet access in residence halls will combine to enhance 
the experience for students while they're with us and to foster 
their growth as able users of this technology in the future," 
Garland said.

"Many people talk about distance learning.  A number of 
these initiatives constitute distance serving," Busch added.  "We 
are creating ways to make it easier to negotiate the large 
Columbus campus by providing electronic resources that can be 
used at a student's convenience."

The CUE report, issued in the spring of 1995, recommended a 
range of initiatives.  Among those were requests that the 
university improve and integrate student databases to provide 
quicker, more accurate information, and build on information 
technology for direct student services such as registration, 
mailing of grades, and financial information to provide even more 
responsive service.

G-QUE reports preliminary survey results

Trustees heard a report from Susan Huntington, dean of the 
Graduate School, on the preliminary findings of a year-long 
survey of graduate students as part of the Graduate Quality of 
University Experience (G-QUE) initiative at Ohio State.

Huntington said the G-QUE report examined issues such as the 
overall experience for Ohio State graduate students, satisfaction 
with departments and programs, professional development, 
evaluation of university services and the climate on campus 
toward minorities.

Huntington reported that 26 percent, or 2,300, students 
participated in the study.  She reported that 75 percent of 
respondents indicated they had a positive experience as a 
graduate student at Ohio State, with only 10 percent reporting 
dissatisfaction with their department or program.  Less than one-
third of respondents reported satisfaction with professional 
development and guidance, and 5 percent indicated they believe a 
negative climate exists on campus for minorities.

"We've got a lot of good things going on at Ohio State," 
Huntington said. "What this survey has done is to identify and 
help us focus on any problem areas.  Using this survey, we can 
get a sense of what is working and where we need to go to make 
any improvements."

She said future analysis will continue to focus on these 
concerns as well as incorporate others, such as special 
population needs, health insurance, conflict resolution and 
graduate associate issues.  Updates and a complete report will be 
presented before the board at a later date, Huntington said.

Lawton receives student recognition award

Trustees awarded a student recognition award to John Lawton 
of COLUMBUS (43202).  A doctoral student in the Department of 
Theatre, Lawton was honored for his work to increase student 
participation in state and federal government through lobbying 
and voting.  He also served in University Senate as one of the 
only students to chair a committee.  He worked on projects 
related to the policy and standards committee, including the 
graduate school restructuring and graduate admissions.  A second-
place winner in the 1997 Graduate Research Forum, Lawton also 
serves as the legislative concerns coordinator for the National 
Association of Graduate-Professional Students and as the 
legislative affairs director for the Council of Graduate Students 
at Ohio State.


Trustees approve method to fund support for development

Trustees authorized the university to increase its charge 
against interest earnings from the endowment to 0.5 percent to 
fund a new computer system for development efforts and alumni 
relations.

Trustees had asked the university earlier this year to find 
a mechanism to fund replacing the 20-year-old computer system and 
database that is used by the Office of University Development and 
the Alumni Association.  The current database is used for all 
communications with donors and alumni, but as the system has 
aged, it has become more and more difficult to maintain the more 
than 600,000 records that make up the database.

New computer hardware and software will bring the system in 
line with modern technology and will help the alumni and 
development offices better integrate with other computer systems 
across campus.  Cost for replacing the system with a database 
program to handle the specific needs of development and alumni is 
expected to be $3 million to $4 million.  The project is expected 
to take two years.

Other business

In other business, trustees:

-- Approved a University Senate Financial Conflicts of 
Interest Policy for Faculty.  The policy calls for faculty who 
engage in externally funded research, perform consulting, or have 
other business interests that may create conflicts of interest to 
report and manage the activity in a way that will avoid any 
conflict.  The policy states a conflict of interest may exist if 
financial interests or other opportunities for tangible personal 
benefits exert a substantial and improper influence upon a 
faculty member or administrator's professional judgment in 
exercising any university duty or responsibility.

-- Approved a proposal to change the Ohio State Biochemistry 
Program to accommodate a merger of the Ph.D. degree programs in 
biochemistry, medical biochemistry and the Ohio State 
Biochemistry Program (OSBP).  The revision is in response to a 
Board of Regents review of all Ph.D. programs in biological and 
biomedical sciences which mandated the development of a "single, 
coordinated program" in biochemistry at the university.

-- Approved amendments to faculty rules so that they no 
longer state that the director of athletics must be a member of 
the faculty and have the duties of the chair of the department. 
The change reflects the current intercollegiate athletics 
environment, in which individuals qualified for the position of 
director of athletics rarely have the qualifications needed for 
faculty status.  Another rule was amended to allow students to 
count coursework taken to meet entrance conditions toward general 
education or major program requirements.  The rule previously 
counted entrance deficiencies as additional graduation 
requirements.  The entrance condition had the unintended effect 
of penalizing students for the deficiencies of their high schools 
rather than improving the quality of admitted or matriculated 
students.

-- Authorized the continuation of academic computing fees in 
the Fisher College of Business, the College of Engineering and 
the School of Public Policy and Management.  The rates for Fisher 
College will be $85 per quarter for full-time undergraduate 
majors and $120 for full-time graduate students.  Engineering 
will assess undergraduate majors $110 per quarter and graduate 
students $120.  Public Policy and Management will assess graduate 
students $120 per quarter.  All rates represent no change from 
fiscal year 1998.

-- Adopted a resolution in memoriam for Novice G. Fawcett, 
president emeritus of the university, who died June 19.  Fawcett 
was the eighth president of Ohio State, serving from 1956 until 
his retirement in 1972.

-- Amended trustee committee appointments for the 1998-99 
year.  Robert Duncan will serve in place of James Patterson on 
the University Managed Care Health Care System Inc. Board of 
Directors, and will serve on the Affiliated Entities Committee in 
place of Zuheir Sofia.

                              #

Contact:  William J. Shkurti, (614) 292-9232
David Williams II, (614) 292-9334
Martha Garland, (614) 292-5881
Eric Busch, (614) 292-9334
Susan Huntington, (614) 292-6031