Ohio Northern University Faculty
2015 - 2016
Minutes of the January 26 Meeting
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President DiBiasio called the meeting to order at 11:01 AM.
Invocation was offered by Jon Smalley.
Minutes from December 1, 2015 were approved.
Unfinished Business:
a. Faculty Constitution Amendment Results: The faculty voted to amend Appendix I
of the Faculty Handbook. In Article VI, Section 1B, the faculty voted to add the
Director of Student Involvement to the Student Activities Committee. (Vote
Results: 139 total votes; 124 yes; 11 no).
Report from University Council: Melissa Eddings-Mancuso noted that many
upcoming committee reports will discuss topics from the recent University Council
meeting. Julie Hurtig spent the time discussing some issues regarding general
education requirements. First, many students are not submitting their artifacts. In the
first cohort, Julie worked with ~35 students individually to ensure artifacts were
submitted prior to graduation. In the current cohort, ~70 students that are scheduled
to graduate this spring have not submitted all of their general education artifacts.
Without the artifacts, these students will not graduate. Julie proposed changing the
policy to include artifact submission on TaskStream as a required component of
tagged courses – if the artifact is not submitted, the student fails the course. Julie
plans to work with various committees in the coming weeks to explore this idea
further. Second, explaining the complexity of the general education requirements to
students has been challenging. Julie proposed removing the two additional artifacts
that are required because these artifacts are difficult for DegreeWorks to track and
require manual submissions, and the extra artifacts are not adding depth to the
requirements because many courses have multiple tags. Julie will be discussing these
ideas with various divisions across campus. Both changes would allow DegreeWorks
to become an effective tool to track student progress toward meeting the general
education requirements.
Reports from Constitutional Committees:
a. Budget and Appropriations: Jeff Christoff shared that the committee is meeting
soon and will be reviewing fall financials. There is a larger draw on the
endowment this year compared to last year; employee benefit changes effective
January 1st will reduce some expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year. The
Board of Trustees discussed an early draft proposal regarding how increasing
energy efficiency on campus can have a positive impact over the coming years
(e.g. LED lighting, building infrastructure, etc.).
b. Academic Affairs: Kelly Kobiela stated that they are working on the Program
Review portion of Appendix 5 in the Faculty Handbook. They have almost
completed a draft of Appendix 5 and will send a draft to the Provost. Wording
changes to the common syllabus were not approved. The next meeting is
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tomorrow and the committee will work on wording to the Student Grade Appeals
Procedure in the Faculty Handbook.
c. Student Affairs: Heath LeBlanc shared that the committee approved three new
student organizations: College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists
(CPNP), Ohio Northern Photographer’s Association and ONU Disc Golf.
d. Personnel: Melissa Eddings-Mancuso reported that the committee met on
December 7th and January 11th to work on sections 2.4A and 2.8 in the Faculty
Handbook. The next section for review is 2.9. Salary recommendations will be
submitted to the Budget & Appropriations Committee in mid-February.
Reports from Operational Committees:
a. Athletic Events: Tom Simmons announced that the first competition for both
men’s and women’s lacrosse is Saturday, February 27th. The men’s lacrosse team
will play at 1 PM, with the women’s team to follow at 4 PM.
b. Cultural Events: No report.
c. International Affairs: Lynda Nyce announced that the committee has not yet met
this year. There is a new Director of International Admissions – Rosie Edmond.
She brings of wealth of personal contacts from across the globe to our campus.
Information was sent out via the Deans for both the Hanyang International
Summer Program scholarship and the Shuhaibar Scholarship; please encourage
students to attend information sessions and apply.
d. Religious Affairs: No report.
e. Information Technology: Jeff Rieman reported that the committee has been
discussing information standards for security and these standards will be coming
out soon.
Questions for the President: President DiBiasio made a few comments before opening
the floor to questions.
a. First floor renovations are nearly complete in McIntosh. There has been a
positive response from the students. The old bowling alley will be renovated by
the end of February.
b. The renovation plans on the first floor of Heterick Library continue to develop.
c. The Provost search is proceeding as expected and is down to the final stages. The
search for a new Dean of the Dicke College of Business is also progressing – the
profile has been finalized and applications are being received.
d. The Board of Trustees meeting occurs this Friday and Saturday.
Recommendations for promotion, tenure, sabbatical and emeritus status will be
brought to the Board for a vote. We will also be showcasing faculty and students
involved in high impact practices and academic excellence as well as successful
faculty research programs with extramural funding.
e. The recent changes in enrollment approaches have been successful. To date, there
are 600 – 700 more applications compared to last year. The reintroduction of the
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common application is at least partially responsible for the increased number of
applicants, but we must approach with caution because deposits are often a lower
percentage when students use the common application. The new strategic
enrollment plan will look five years into the future.
f. We recently acquired the final piece of software to move to a multi-year
budgeting process in the near future.
g. On January 24th, the university community completed a large and very successful
service project on campus (Pack Away Hunger). Thanks to the over 150
volunteers (students, staff and faculty) that helped “pack away” 40,051 meals to
be sent to Haiti and Lima, Ohio. The nutritional supplement included in the meals
was developed at the Mathile Institute for Human Nutrition, founded by Clay
Mathile, an ONU alumnus.
h. Rob Waters raised concern about some of the Title IX signs on campus creating
an environment that is combative toward men, with the focus only on men
harassing women. He noted that other institutions have had problems with
overzealous implementation of the new Sexual Discrimination Policy under Title
IX. President DiBiasio said he would follow up with the Title IX Coordinator.
i. Firas Hassan commented that engineering faculty use the two racquetball courts
extensively, but had heard they are being repurposed. President DiBiasio
confirmed the repurposing to help men’s and women’s golf and women’s diving
and expressed his apologies that the racquetball courts would no longer be there.
There was some discussion about how space is currently being used in Clark Hall.
Questions for the Provost: Provost Crago made a few comments before opening the
floor to questions.
a. Information has been sent to Deans regarding summer research grants and grants
for online course development. There is a particular interest in the development
of online courses for the summer session.
b. External grant funding has been very successful over the past year and we will
provide information to the Board about how external grant funding works at the
upcoming Board of Trustees meeting. ONU has also partnered with McAllister &
Quinn to build on this success. This firm has experience obtaining grants at nonR1 institutions.
c. The plan for the Heterick Library renovation involved input from faculty and
students to enhance attractiveness and usefulness and increase desire for students
to be in the library. An architectural firm in Toledo helped with the plan that
includes an increased amount of collaborative space, more technology and a place
to get coffee and snacks. A donor from a prior campaign is interested in funding a
large amount of this project. Work should be completed by the first of August.
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President DiBiasio added that much of the funding for Heterick and McIntosh
renovations are from the last comprehensive campaign. A donor from that
campaign was also interested in the Heterick Library project.
Other Reports: None
New business: None
Announcements:
a. Please get nominations for Newman Civic Fellows to Rob Alexander. These are
students that are extraordinarily active in service projects. Our first ONU
Newman Civic Fellow was awarded last year to Amanda Liebrecht. There are a
lot of engaged students on campus that would be good candidates for this award.
For example, Derek Price, a freshman Political Science major, began a pay-itforward program here in the village of Ada as part of his departmental orientation
program. Northern on Main and Viva Maria’s are participating.
b. “Ballet with a Twist” is this weekend at the Freed Center. Shows are Saturday,
January 30th @ 7:30 PM and Sunday, January 31st @ 2 PM.
c. There are currently openings still available on the Habitat for Humanity spring
break trips. If slots are not filled, the three scheduled trips might be reduced to
two trips. If finances are of concern, please have the student contact the
Chaplain’s Office.
d. The Writing Center will host an Open House from 2 PM – 8 PM on Tuesday,
February 2nd. Encourage students to attend and feel free to bring an entire class.
There will be lots of homemade treats. The Writing Center is also now open on
Sunday evenings from 4 PM – 8 PM. Please encourage students to utilize the
Writing Center.
e. The College of Pharmacy will host the 50th Anniversary of Medicare Celebration
on February 5th. An ONU alumnus, Anthony J. Celebrezze served as Lyndon
Johnson’s Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and was involved in
signing Medicare into law.
f. Come join us for a Steel Drum Concert in Presser Hall on Saturday, February 6th
from 5 PM – 7 PM. Wear island wear and join the limbo contest!
g. The ONU Department of Music is hosting guest pianist Jeong-In Kim, from the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She will be performing on Monday, February
15th @ 8 PM in Presser Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.
h. The Habitat for Humanity trip to Jackson, Mississippi will be celebrating a 25th
anniversary this year. The DiBiasio’s will join the team for a few days this year.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 11:45 AM.
Submitted by,
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Leslie A. Riley
Ohio Northern University Faculty
Secretary
2015 - 2016