OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Minutes, April 30, 2013
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 Jon Sprague,
Dean James Fenton, Interim Dean Stephen Veltri, Chaplain David MacDonald, Dr. Alisa Agozzino, Dr. Jeffery Allison,
Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat, Dr. Rob Alexander, Mr. Eric Ambos, Dr. Joanne Brant, Dr. Bob Carrothers, Prof. Jennifer Donley,
Dr. Howard Fenton, Dr. Lou Lobenhofer, Dr. John Jay Mager, Dr. David Mikesell, Prof. Sue Montenery, Dr. Michelle
Musser, Dr. Brian Myers, Dr. Kristie Payment, Dr. Ronald Peterson, Dr. Susan Schertzer, Dr. Sandy Schroeder, Dr. Jenny
Walton, Dr. Dexter Woods
Rob Alexander, Chair of Council, called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. in Dicke Hall 230.
I.
Minutes of April 16, 2013 meeting approved with corrections to VI.b.v:
a. Original text: Law’s placement rate is 2nd in the state and 9th in the state for public interest placements.
b. Amended text: Law’s placement rate is 2 nd in the state for jobs requiring a law degree and 9 th in the country
for public interest job placement.
II.
Reports from Constitutional Committees
a.
Budget & Appropriations: No further report.
b.
Academic Affairs: No further report.
c.
Student Activities: Last meeting of the year was on Monday.
d.
Personnel: No further report. Old Business in Agenda.
III.
Reports from Operational Committees
a.
Athletics: It is currently playoff time. No further report.
b.
Information Technology: Looking into printer, toner, ink jet, etc. usage around campus and at possible
cost saving measures. There will be additional information forthcoming.
c.
Cultural & Special Events: No further report.
d.
International Affairs: No report.
e.
Religious Affairs: Five new students hired for Religious Life next year. Chris Jordan, a graduating
senior, will be speaking at Commencement Chapel on May 11 th. Tonight is Pack the Mac, and religious
organizations around campus will be showcasing what they have done this year.
f.
General Education: Please submit capstone courses for tagging towards the end of this school year or as
soon as possible afterwards for students who are on track to graduate and will be looking to earn tags
for those courses.
Other Reports
a.
Vice-Presidents
i.
Academic Affairs: Met with Higher Learning Commission (HLC) study group chairs after the
HLC conference. Pulling together lists of things to look at over the summer.
ii.
Financial Affairs: Budget time. Still working on the balancing and have made progress since
the financial forums last week. There was a meeting this morning with directors and deans.
Bill offered to answer any additional questions that may have arisen since the forums.
iii.
University Advancement: Communications and Marketing has been sending out sports wrapup emails and the 329 emails for men’s basketball had a 41% open rate, which is amazing.
More information to come on a Polar Bear Nation regional challenge that be launched by
email, to encourage email participation, and will occur this summer.
iv.
Admissions and Financial Aid: May 1st is the uniform candidate reply date, but it is becoming
less important because with most schools, there are no repercussions for a late reply. As of
3:30 p.m. today there are 499 freshman deposits, and there were 479 this day last year, so we
VI.
v.
b.
c.
d.
are currently ahead for fall. Last year there were 86 additional deposits in the following two
days.
Student Affairs: The President’s Leadership Dessert is tomorrow night. On August 24th (9 a.m.
to noon) ONU will hold the second Ada Civic Engagement Day for incoming students. Faculty
and staff are encouraged to participate, and please spread the word to colleagues and
encourage them to get involved as well. It will be held in the Village of Ada.
Deans
i.
Arts and Sciences: Earlier this month manufacturing technology students participated in the
National Robotic Challenge and took home two gold and one bronze awards. Polaris, the
student literary journal, came out today. The electronic publication Re:Media is also available
at www.remediadigital.net. The ONU Symphony has a special performance on Sunday night,
which will include the performance of a piece commissioned by ONU and written by English
composer Dr. Stephen Davismoon. They will also be performing Requiem on Saturday along
with the University Singers. The 2012 edition of The Northern yearbook won an honorable
mention in a yearbook review.
ii.
Engineering: Competition season: ONU’s Concrete Canoe team won 2nd place in the region,
which qualifies them for the national competition in June. ONU’s Baja SAE team had their
best results ever and won 2nd place at the national Baja SAE competition. The next competition
will be in Bellingham, WA this summer. The ONU team came in 5th at the Eastern region’s
ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge. The Micromouse team came in 3rd at the Region 2
IEEE conference.
iii.
Pharmacy: No report.
iv.
Business Administration: Dr. Hickman is directly involved with graduate program recruitment.
The objective is 30 students and today’s projection is 22-23 students for the next cohort
beginning in the fall.
v.
Law: All of the ONU Law graduates taking the February 2013 Ohio Bar Exam for the first
time passed. The Ohio Supreme Court is looking at repealing a law that requires completion of
a bachelor’s degree before beginning a law degree, which would make a 3-3 program possible.
Please contact Steve Veltri if you would be interested in helping to make a program like the 33 possible at ONU.
Student Senate: Two new organizations were approved last week.
Health Services Advisory Committee: Met last Friday and went over health trust balances, which are
coming back but still need to get better. Also discussed the retirement packages for current retirees.
VII.
Chair/Faculty Comments
a. Rob Alexander: Thanked the President and Bill Ballard for the financial forums. Feedback has been positive
and everyone reported having a better understanding of where we are financially after the meeting. Rob
thanked Council for their help and involvement this past year, and is honored to have served as their voice.
He also thanked Lou Lobenhofer, Jeff Allison, and Jenny Donley for their help.
b. Jeff Allison: Thanked Rob Alexander for his leadership and a year and a job well done.
VIII.
President Comments/Questions: Thanked Bill Ballard and his staff for the many hours of work that went into the
financial forums. A memo was sent recently requesting volunteers for working groups. Elections for certain
positions in these groups will be incorporated electronically. The final Board Meeting of the year is next week,
and the Strategic Plan will be on the agenda for approval. There will also be a luncheon program devoted to High
Impact Learning and how students have applied outside the classroom what they learned inside the classroom.
Robert Manning, chief engineer at JPL, will be speaking at Commencement. U.S. Congressman Tom Reed, ’96,
will be the speaker for Law Commencement.
IX.
Unfinished Business
a. Personnel Committee (Merit Pay System for Undergraduate Faculty) (Attachment A): Dexter Wood moved
to send the amendment back to the Personnel Committee and and Lou Lobenhofer seconded. Before voting
on the movement, Kay Zekany took the floor and spoke on behalf of the amendment. Brian Myers asked if
the Personnel Committee needed to be given additional feedback, and Dexter Woods said that the
Committee had a good idea from the meeting and debate during the last University Council meeting. The
movement to send the amendment back to the Committee passed. (Please see attached voting record.)
X.
New Business: None.
XI.
Announcements: None.
XII.
Adjournment at 6:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Donley, Secretary
04/30/13
Voting Issue:
per agenda
Att. A
yes
no
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 Jon Sprague
Dean James Fenton
Interim Dean Stephen Veltri
Rev. David MacDonald
abst
x
x
x
x
Dr. Alisa Agozzino
Dr. Robert Alexander
Dr. Jeffery Allison
Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat
Mr. Eric Ambos
Dr. Joanne Brant
Dr. Bob Carrothers
Prof. Jennifer Donley
Dr. Howard Fenton
Dr. Lou Lobenhofer
Dr. John Jay Mager
Dr. David Mikesell
Prof. Sue Montenery
Dr. Michelle Musser
Dr. Brian Myers
Dr. Kristie Payment
Dr. Ronald Peterson
Dr. Susan Schertzer
Dr. Sandy Schroeder
Dr. Jenny Walton
Dr. Dexter Woods
Academic Support Staff Rep
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Totals
17
2
2