OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Minutes, April 19, 2011
Roll: (Absentees Underlined) President Kendall Baker, Dr. David Crago, Dr. Robert Ruble, Mr. Ken Block,
Dean Karen Condeni, Ms. Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw, Dean Catherine Albrecht, Dean Eric
Baumgartner, Dean Jon Sprague, Dean James Fenton, Rev. Vernon LaSala, Dr. Jeffery Allison, Dr. Khalid
Al-Olimat, Dr. Nathaniel Bird, Dr. Bob Carrothers, Dr. Keith Durkin, Dr. Kevin Hill, Dr. Brian Keas (in lab),
Prof. Laurie Laird, Ms. Marsha McMunn, Dr. Michael Milks, Prof. Sue Montenery, Prof. Traci Moritz, Mr.
Clyde Pickett, Dr. Harold Putt, Dr. Lisa Robeson, Dr. Sandra Schroeder, Dr. David Smith, Dr. Amy Stockert
(ill), Dr. Bryan Ward, Dr. Rob Waters, Dr. Dexter Woods, Dr. Kay Zekany
Dr. Lisa Robeson, Chair of Council, called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Minutes of the March 29, 2011 meeting were approved as distributed (Motion by Harold
Putt, second by Nathaniel Bird, motion carried.)
Reports from Constitutional Committees:
a. Budget & Appropriations: will meet tomorrow, April 20.
b. Academic Affairs: has unfinished and new business on the agenda.
c. Student Activities: No report.
d. Personnel: No further report.
Reports from Operational Committees:
a. Athletics: No report.
b. Information Technology: No report.
c. Cultural & Special Events: No report.
d. International Affairs: No report.
e. Religious Affairs: approved the prayer garden. The garden was also approved by Dr.
Baker provided donors are informed that the garden may have to be relocated or
removed if the new student center is built in the current proposed location.
Approximately $2500 is required for the garden and most of the funds have been raised
already.
f. General Education: asks that faculty continue to submit courses for tagging. The
deadline for having a course tagged for incoming freshmen is June 1, 2011.
Planning Council: No report.
Other Reports:
a. David Crago highlighted the updated faculty handbook administrative changes (required
by the move to semesters) that were provided in Attachment A of the agenda.
i. Michael Milks asked if there needed to be consistency in the use of the terms
“semester” and “term” in the handbook. Julie Hurtig responded that “term” has
been used where ever possible however in some instances it was not
appropriate (i.e. when referring to credit hours – “semester hours” is used
instead of “term hours”).
b. Ken Block reported that the university has reached a milestone in the Campaign for
ONU’s Tomorrow by raising $90 million.
c. Karen Condeni reported that the university hosted a junior visit day on Saturday, April
16 with 109 students and their parents visiting campus. Over 332 prospective students
have come to campus this spring during visit days.
d. Catherine Albrecht reported that the university signed an articulation agreement with
the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia last week. It will allow TVTC students the opportunity to earn Bachelor of Science
degrees from ONU in manufacturing technology and construction management. She
also noted that the Gamma Upsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the Honor Society for
International Scholars, has received the Outstanding Midwest Chapter Award for 20102011. Michael Loughlin is the campus coordinator of the group.
e. Eric Baumgartner reported that this is competition season for many groups in the
college of engineering. The concrete canoe team took 2nd place in the ASCE regional
concrete canoe conference at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. The success
qualifies ONU to compete in the national competition in Evansville, IN on June 16-18.
The ONU Baja SAE team finished 5th in the Baja SAE Birmingham competition out of 58
teams that competed. This is an all-time high finish for ONU. ONU beat teams from such
schools as Virginia Tech, Cornell University, Bucknell University and Michigan State. The
ONU Baja team will participate in all three regional competitions this year. ONU seniors
Mary Jo Guthrie, Ross Stienecker, Mohammad Alsuraihi and Andrew Swick won the best
student paper award at the 2010 North Central Section ASEE Conference at Central
Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. An ONU senior engineering capstone design
team participated in the 3rd annual robotic football competition at the University of
Notre Dame on April 15. Students created three robotic football players – quarterback,
center and receiver and joined in on the “Blue” team which lost to the “Gold” team by a
score of 41-13.
f. Jim Fenton reported that an Idea Polar Pitch and Poster Competition is taking place this
evening in the college of business with about 169 participants from all undergraduate
colleges participating. The event was made possible by the generous support of The
Kern Family Foundation's KEEN program and the NCIIA.
g. Jon Sprague noted that three student members of the Ohio Northern University
National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) took first place in the Ohio
Pharmacists Association’s Innovative Pharmacy Business Plan Competition (IPBPC). The
group received support from Jill Christopher in the college of business. He offered
thanks to the college of business for their help. Additionally, pharmacy alumni received
three of the six awards presented at the conference which was the 133rd Ohio
Pharmacists Association (OPA) Annual Conference & Trade Show held April 8-10 in
Columbus, Ohio.
h. Student Senate: Marsha McMunn reported that senate will host a Student Leadership
Conference on Sunday, May 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in McIntosh Center. Senate is
also finalizing plans for recycling bins to be placed in all rooms in the freshmen
residence halls next fall and is in the final stages of choosing a Student Organization of
the Year award winner.
i.
VI.
VII.
Health Services Advisory Committee: Bob Ruble reported that the committee is
considering possible changes to the university health care plan.
j. Student Center Task Force: Michael Milks noted that while the board of trustees has
announced a suspension of any further development of the student center project
beyond the initial conceptualization phase, the university has authorized a campus
website be developed that can serve as a “clearinghouse” for information regarding the
project. Such items as a FAQ compilation, architects drawings, needs assessments,
opinion surveys, and university community comments are envisioned to be included in
the website. Milks feels this approach to any continuing development and discussion of
the project should greatly assist in reaching greater consensus among all constituents on
the overall needs and priorities of a new student center when the project is revived.
Announcements: Lisa Robeson announced that the Executive Leadership of the Board of
Trustees met yesterday. Representatives from several other constituencies were also invited
to the meeting including student, faculty and university alumni relations representatives.
The board is committed to better communication with the campus community and is
interested in hearing our concerns and comments. Several items were discussed. The board
noted that they understand the need for a carefully considered response to the university’s
current financial situation. The new student center is still a priority for the board even
though they have currently placed it on hold. The board stressed that they believe in ONU
and that we have great students, faculty, staff and graduates.
Questions for the President: Dr. Baker commented on the Moody’s rating. He stated that it
may take several years to improve our rating since it will be important to show a pattern of
improvement (i.e. increased enrollment over several years not just one year). Regarding the
budget, Dr. Baker commented that he feels we will be able to balance the budget for 201112 but following years will be less certain. Difficult questions will have to be answered
regarding the size of the institution, programs being offered, etc. The board and
administration are examining all areas within the university including benefits package (i.e.
retirement contribution), vacant and unfilled positions, temporary line items (i.e. adjunct,
visitor, and temporary employees), use of temporary funds (i.e. possible use of non-tuition,
one-time funds for financial aid), etc. We will try to improve the university budget margin
(i.e. size of our margin is currently very small and a key concern of Moody’s) but it is
something that likely cannot be done in one year. Dr. Baker reported that his impression
from the board meeting is that the board is strongly committed to reversing the Moody
evaluation of ONU. He plans to present a preliminary budget to the board at their May 21 &
22 meeting and it will be shared with the faculty as well.
a. Michael Milks asked about the strategic financial aid packages that went out to
incoming students this year – are we seeing any payoff in that area? Dr. Baker stated
that the mathematical model looks good and uses ONU historical data but we don’t
know if the model is entirely correct. It is really too early to tell. Deposits are continuing
to lag as families wait until the last minute to make decisions on which college their
student will attend. An appeals process is in place and approximately 100 families (out
of about 1600 offers) have appealed their aid package. It appears the freshman class will
be strong but we also need to work on keeping our current students. Additionally,
transfer students, articulation agreements and special programs such as the Saudi
Prison Program are all important to the university.
VIII.
IX.
Unfinished Business:
a. One item from the Academic Affairs Committee (agenda attachment B), proposed
changes to the final exam policy in the faculty handbook and on the registrar’s website,
was brought to a vote. It was approved unanimously and without further discussion. The
voting record is attached.
New Business:
a. John Lomax introduced agenda attachment C from the Academic Affairs Committee
which proposed eliminating the common theme requirement for the extra disciplinary
seminars in the new General Education Program. A lengthy discussion occurred with
highlights following.
i. Catherine Albrecht spoke against the motion. She suggested that a committee
of faculty interested in teaching extra disciplinary seminars be formed and that
they be allowed to determine the theme.
ii. Kay Zekany suggested that since these seminars were meant to be taken by
sophomores and juniors, a choice for a theme could be put off for up to a year.
She and others in her college feel that the common theme is a program strength
and if we don’t have it now, we should wait and roll out the theme in fall 201213.
iii. Nathaniel Bird noted that the college of engineering had discussed this at their
recent college meeting and was opposed to eliminating the common theme.
There seems to be no point in having extra disciplinary seminars if there is no
common theme.
iv. Bob Carrothers agreed with Nate that there didn’t seem to be a point to the
seminars without the theme. He spoke against the motion as well.
v. John Lomax responded that the recommendation came after a joint meeting of
the Academic Affairs and General Education committees. The idea for the
seminars is to take students out of their comfort zone and out of their major
field of study. Both committees felt the theme had to be meaningful and
determined that the goal of taking students out of their major field of study
could still be accomplished without a common theme.
vi. Eric Baumgartner stated that by taking the theme out of the new program we
would be reverting back to the current general education program (i.e. picking a
set of courses from a list) without even trying out the new one. Engineering
students already take many courses outside of their major (i.e. math, physics,
chemistry, writing, business courses) but these seminars have the ability to
stretch a student’s mind. Without these themed seminars, the colleges are left
with a writing seminar and some capstone courses for students to complete –
and those courses/activities do not make a general education “program”.
vii. Catherine Albrecht endorsed John’s comments about taking students outside of
their comfort zone and their major however she feels it is important to have a
common theme to help faculty in creating the extra disciplinary seminars. She
feels there are faculty members who have ideas for and are excited about
teaching these courses and they should be given the opportunity to help choose
the theme.
X.
viii. John Lomax stated that neither his committee nor the General Education
committee has received any meaningful ideas from faculty and they would
welcome them.
ix. Lisa Robeson tried to summarize the discussion: 1) a group of faculty interested
in teaching the extra disciplinary seminars should be allowed to generate the
theme; 2) announcement of the theme could possibly be delayed by one year;
3) overall consensus is that the unifying nature of a theme would differentiate
these courses from other distributional courses.
x. Lisa Robeson asked John Lomax to take the council’s thoughts back to his
committee for further discussion and the committee should then decide
whether they wanted to continue to pursue the motion or withdraw it.
b. John Lomax introduced agenda attachment D containing proposed changes to section
3.40 of the faculty handbook regarding standards for satisfactory academic progress. He
noted the changes are required to bring our policy into compliance with federal and
state financial aid requirements. There was no discussion.
Adjournment: Lisa Robeson adjourned the meeting at 6:20 p.m. Council will next meet on
May 3, 2011.
Respectfully submitted,
Laurie K. Laird, Secretary
University Council
Attendance and Voting record
Attendance
April 19, 2011
Voting Issue:
per agenda
Att. B
yes
no
Council Member
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Dr. Kendall Baker
VP David Crago
VP Robert Ruble
VP Ken Block
VP Karen Condeni
VP Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw
Dean Catherine Albrecht
Dean Eric Baumgartner
Dean Jon Sprague
Dean James Fenton
Rev. Vernon LaSala
x
Dr. Jeffery Allison
Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat
Dr. Nathaniel Bird
Dr. Bob Carrothers
Dr. Keith Durkin
Dr. Kevin Hill
Dr. Brian Keas
Prof. Laurie Laird
Dr. Michael Milks
Miss Marsha McMunn
Prof. Sue Montenery
Prof. Traci Moritz
Mr. Clyde Pickett
Dr. Harold Putt
Dr. Lisa Robeson
Dr. Sandra Schroeder
Dr. David Smith
Dr. Amy Stockert
Dr. Bryan Ward
Dr. Rob Waters
Dr. Dexter Woods
Dr. Kay Zekany
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
abst
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Totals
19
0
0