OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Minutes, February 17, 2015
Roll: (Absentees Underlined) President Daniel DiBiasio, VP David Crago, VP William Ballard, VP Ken Block, VP
Larry Lesick, VP Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw, Dean Catherine Albrecht, Dean Eric Baumgartner, Dean Steve Martin,
Dean James Fenton, Dean Richard Bales, Rev. David MacDonald, Dr. Alisa Agozzino, Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat, Dr. Jeffery
Allison, Dr. Joanne Brant, Dr. Tevye Celius, Dr. Natalie DiPietro Mager, Prof. Jennifer Donley, Prof. Melissa Eddings,
Dr. Kami Fox, Ms. Gina Grandillo, Dr. Firas Hassan, Dr. Dong Hyun Kim, Prof. Kelly Kobiela, Dr. Kelly Reilly
Kroustos, Dr. Heath LeBlanc, Dr. Lou Lobenhofer, Dr. Michelle Musser, Dr. Ronald Peterson, Dr. Ed Potkanowicz, Dr.
Susan Schertzer, Dr. Jenny Walton
Jeff Allison, Chair of Council, called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. in Dicke Room 230.
I.
Minutes of January 20, 2015 meeting approved as distributed.
II.
Reports from Constitutional Committees
a.
Budget & Appropriations: Not meeting this week, but will meet next week after the Committee receives
the recommendation from the Personnel Committee. The numbers included in the Committee’s agenda
report were the numbers proposed to and approved by the Board for next year.
b.
Academic Affairs: Committee continues to discuss the Intellectual Property Policy. Researching issues
related to online courses before proceeding to ensure it is in line with policies at similar institutions.
c.
Student Activities: Committee will meet on February 25th.
d.
Personnel: Committee continues to meet weekly and is currently working on recommendations for
faculty compensation and handbook language for faculty expectations.
III.
Reports from Operational Committees
a.
Athletics: Committee has not met. Winter sports season is coming to a close and spring sports will be
starting soon.
b.
Information Technology: The 4 millionth piece of paper was printed at noon on Friday. Google
Analytics indicates that spam constitutes 80% of the emails coming into the institution.
c.
Cultural & Special Events: No report.
d.
International Affairs: Committee has been meeting but nothing to report at this time.
e.
Religious Affairs: Interviewed and planning to hire three new staff members for next year. Continuing
to work on plans for Baccalaureate and will have more details after Spring Break. Committee will meet
next week.
f.
General Education: The few remaining tags will be reviewed for approval soon. Students have been
sent the TaskStream reports from Fall 2014. There are only about 30 students that are not yet marked
complete in TaskStream, and most just need to submit an artifact.
IV.
Other Reports
a.
Vice-Presidents
i.
Academic Affairs: Has not met since the board meeting. Honorary degrees as well as
applications for emeritus, sabbaticals, tenure, and promotion were reviewed at the winter board
meeting, and this year four honorary degrees were approved and all applications (including
nine sabbaticals) were approved. Two new programs, the 3+3 and one entitled Philosophy,
Politics, and Economics, were approved through an Appendix 5 review and presented to the
board. They will both be available beginning next year. The task force assigned to work on a
proposal for ONU’s future involvement with the College Credit Plus Program has concluded
that there is no way for ONU to take advantage of it without cost, as it was designed for
community colleges. As a result, there will be fewer schools able to competitively participate
in the program going forward.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
b.
c.
d.
Deans
i.
Financial Affairs: Increases related to tuition, fees, room and board, etc. were presented to the
Board: there will be around a 2.7% increase on base tuition, around 1% for room and board,
and a rate increase for incoming students of about 2.2%. Continuing to accumulate data and
work on the budget for next year. Completed the analysis of spring enrollment and net tuition
from spring enrollment and working on closing a gap that has resulted.
University Advancement: There will be regional alumni events beginning this Friday in
Cincinnati. Club events have had good participation. 160over90 website templates have been
delivered and conversations will begin after Spring Break. The new boulevard banners have
also been delivered and will go up when it gets warmer. Working on new recruitment
brochures. The Engineering Capital Campaign continues, and planning continues for the 2021
Comprehensive Campaign.
Admissions and Financial Aid: Report submitted by Larry Lesick:
1. Nearly thirty-five prospective students made individual campus visits yesterday.
2. While applications and accepts continue to trail last year, the number of deposits is up
over 30.
3. We have witnessed a 16% overall decline in applications from women, most of it in A&S.
We have sent mailings and emails to try and boost applications in A&S. We are also
contracting with a firm to phone 5,000 women inquiries to 1) try to generate more
applications in A&S and 2) to find out why they are not applying.
4. Admissions has begun phone interviews with candidates to fill the three counselor
openings. The campus visit coordinator position has opened up and that should be posted
shortly.
5. President DiBiasio, Dave Crago, Bill Ballard, Mel Weaver and I had a conference call
yesterday with Kevin Crockett of Noel Levitz and Jim Scannell of Scannell & Kurz
regarding our declining trend in net tuition revenue. Dan has scheduled a visit to campus
in early April to have discussion about how we can better utilize financial aid, drive
market demand and improve retention.
Student Affairs: The Health Center has reported that the number of flu patients that they are
seeing is declining. The Debow Freed Awards will be awarded this spring, and they will be
accepting nomination letters through February 27th. Polar Careers has had a successful year of
career fairs so they have added an addition one on March 16th to allow students to look for
summer jobs. More information will follow about that career fair.
Arts and Sciences: Last week there were two accreditors on campus for Public Relations and
the exit interview was very positive. Janisse Ray, ONU’s first Woodrow Wilson Scholar, was
on campus last week and she engaged with students across campus. This Thursday a Cuban
play will be presented for the International Play Festival. Prior to the production, several
faculty and students were able to travel to Cuba and the playwright is currently on campus.
The Symphony Orchestra and Wind Orchestra will both perform in the next couple of weeks.
The University Singers will be going to Great Britain over Spring Break.
ii.
Engineering: No report.
iii.
Pharmacy: Last Friday Peggy Piascik was the guest speaker at the Sebok Lecture. Following
the lecture, three alumni were presented with Distinguished Alumni Awards. Currently
working on filling several positions. Natalie DiPietro Mager was awarded a grant to work on
early pharmacist interventions to reduce infant mortality.
iv.
Business Administration: No report.
v.
Law: The Kormendy Lecture, featuring speaker Joseph Singer, had to be postponed due to
weather on the east coast. More information will follow about the rescheduled time and date.
Student Senate: Gina Grandillo is the new Student Senate president. She plans to focus her term on
increasing student participation and decreasing student apathy on campus. She welcomes emails with
opinions on student affairs on campus at g-grandillo@onu.edu. Student Senate is working on educating
students about the HLC reaccreditation and visit to campus.
Health Services Advisory Committee: No report.
V.
Chair/Faculty Comments: Council Chair Jeff Allison thanked Joseph Railey for his service this past year as
Student Senate president.
VI.
President Comments/Questions: The board meeting focused on both financial and academic issues. Our tuition
increases were compared to overlap schools for each college and our competitive position will remain about the
same. The upcoming HLC visit was discussed at the board meeting (and eight board members will attend the
visit), as well as the engineering building and moving forward with building-related fundraising. The Student
Affairs committee discussed strategic and targeted improvements to McIntosh that can be completed prior to a
major renovation down the road. Steve Martin led the Board’s luncheon program with a discussion of planning
efforts going on in the Pharmacy College. Pamela Hershberger, the newest board member and a Dicke graduate,
will be on campus for the April meeting. Today the McAllister & Quinn firm met with senior leaders and faculty
members. They will assist the colleges with identifying federal research grants and funding in specific areas. The
firm typically specializes with institutions the size of ONU, as opposed to large research institutions. This
Sunday will be the last service held by the Ada First Methodist in the English Chapel. The Department of
Transportation will hopefully begin a street improvement project (sidewalks, lights, street width) this summer on
Klinger Road. Information related to the Anthem cyber-attacks will continue to be sent out to the campus.
Financial aid is looking at a more successful and sustainable strategy that will target international and transfer
students in addition to the freshman class. Last week’s accreditation visit for Public Relations went really well.
VII.
Unfinished Business: Student Activities Committee: Student Conduct Resolution (See Attachment A in the
Agenda): Chap Shepard explained that the Disciplinary Committee had been electing faculty to 2-year term
cycles, and if the terms were changed to 1-year they would align with similar committee term lengths. Lou
Lobenhofer moved that the policy be returned to the Student Activities Committee for the inclusion of language
about the required annual training. A question was raised about whether or not the Student Activities Committee
should be responsible for the amendment. A vote on the motion to send the policy back to the Student Activities
Committee passed. (See Attachment A.)
VIII.
New Business: None.
IX.
Announcements: The Spotts Lecture on cyber security will be this coming Monday. Gina Grandillo announced
that the Student Senate general assembly will now be at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, and everyone is invited to
participate.
X.
Adjournment at 6:17 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Donley, Secretary
Attachment A
University Council Attendance and Voting record 02/17/15 Attendance x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Council Member President Daniel DiBiasio Provost/VP David Crago VP William Ballard VP Ken Block VP Larry Lesick VP Adriane Thompson‐Bradshaw Dean Catherine Albrecht Dean Eric Baumgartner Dean Steve Martin Dean James Fenton Dean Richard Bales Rev. David MacDonald Dr. Alisa Agozzino Dr. Khalid Al‐Olimat Dr. Jeffery Allison Dr. Joanne Brant Dr. Tevye Celius Dr. Natalie DiPietro Mager Prof. Jennifer Donley Prof. Melissa Eddings Dr. Kami Fox Ms. Gina Grandillo Dr. Firas Hassan Dr. Dong Hyun Kim Prof. Kelly Kobiela Dr. Kelly Reilly Kroustos Dr. Heath LeBlanc Dr. Lou Lobenhofer Dr. Michelle Musser Dr. Ronald Peterson Dr. Ed Potkanowicz Dr. Susan Schertzer Dr. Jenny Walton Academic Support Staff Rep Voting Issue: per agenda Attachment A yes no x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Shading denotes non‐voting member Totals
18 3 abst 0