COLUMBUS Ohio State University officials updated the Board of Trustees on Friday (2/4) on revisions to the university's alcohol policy. Trustees also heard presentations on Residence Life, the College of Law and the Fulbright international experience.
Alcohol policy reviewed and revised
For the past 18 months, Ohio State's alcohol policy committee has collected and reviewed existing alcohol policies, consolidated them into a single document and drafted recommendations for future policies, Ted Grace, director of health services for the Student Health Center, told trustees Friday.
Ohio State has never before adopted a single alcohol policy with regulations and procedures unique to the university, Grace said. The committee included 18 students, staff and faculty members from across campus.
The policy consists of a philosophical statement; regulations that are unique to Ohio State, such as campus alcohol guidelines, how to plan and advertise university events involving alcohol, and disciplinary actions for policy violations; Ohio laws dealing with underage drinking, false identification, open containers, transportation, disorderly conduct and alcohol sales written in a way that students can understand; and information on prevention and assistance.
"The committee didn't change any current campus policies. We just consolidated them into a single draft proposal," Grace said. "The new alcohol policy is easier to understand, more concise and tailored to the unique needs of Ohio State, and it's also consistent with the recently revised Code of Student Conduct."
Ohio State's guidelines define when and where alcohol can be served and sold on campus, and assign responsibility for monitoring use of alcohol at university events. The revised policy requires trustees' approval.
"The committee also has devised a list of recommendations that are separate from the proposed alcohol policy," Grace said.
The recommendations are:
The university should not serve alcohol at student-focused events Alcohol should be prohibited at undergraduate group events that are sponsored by student organizations The renovated Ohio Stadium should remain alcohol-free The university should encourage television networks to schedule football games as early in the day as possible Package sales of alcohol and tobacco products should be prohibited in university-owned facilities A designated portion of the proceeds from alcohol sales at campus activities should go toward supplementing alcohol prevention activities and alcohol-free social programming The university should not adopt zero-tolerance alcohol policies Parental notification should be used only in those situations in which it appears to be in the best interest of the student.
Grace said that these recommendations are new to the campus, and may require more widespread discussion. If so, he requested they be considered separately so as not to delay approval of the alcohol policy.
College of Law highlights its interdisciplinary education
Trustees held their regular February meeting in Drinko Hall, which houses the College of Law. Dean Gregory Williams introduced a presentation to the board about the college's reputation as a leader in a movement toward more interdisciplinary legal education.
The foundation for the college's success is the strong interdisciplinary connections of its own faculty. More than one-quarter of the law faculty hold an M.A. or Ph.D. in a separate field. Faculty members are affiliated with numerous other departments, from history and anthropology to political science and the Mershon Center. In recent years, faculty have taught classes, presented papers or participated in conferences in more than 40 units across campus.
"Our faculty are doing cutting-edge empirical analysis and comparative law work," said James J. Brudney, professor of law. "I'm collaborating with scholars from other Ohio State departments as well as with other institutions. We are raising the College of Law's profile for diverse audiences across the country."
The primary institutional support for interdisciplinary research is the college's Center for Law, Policy, and Social Sciences. What started in the late 1980s as the Center for Sociolegal Studies was renamed in 1999 to reflect more clearly what it does: Interdisciplinary work that is scholarly, draws on a range of social science perspectives and has practical policy-related value. In addition to numerous law faculty and students, the center includes faculty and graduate fellows from seven other departments.
Since the mid-1990s, the College of Law has established four new clinics: The Justice for Children Project, providing direct legal representation of children and their interests in the local court system. The Mediation Clinic, enabling law students to mediate multiparty complex cases involving community disputes.
The Housing Clinic, which opened last summer and has already handled more than 200 landlord-tenant matters representing students across the university. The Legislation Clinic, which begins operation in the next academic year and will give law students a hands-on learning experience working with legislators, committee staff, and other key players in the legislative process. Steven Huefner has been hired to lead the clinic. Huefner, a Columbia Law School graduate, was head articles editor for the Columbia Law Review; clerked for a Washington, D.C., circuit judge; worked at a Washington law firm, and has spent the past four years as assistant legal counsel in the U.S. Senate.
"The new legislation clinic will enable law students to develop legislative analysis and lawyering skills, foster new scholarship on the challenges facing the state legislature, and offer important public policy service to Ohio legislators," Brudney said.
The center's Web site -- www.osu.edu/units/law/ -- is also proving its value. The site describes interdisciplinary research by fellows from all departments associated with the center, with links to Web pages maintained by those fellows as well as publications, conferences and other center activities. Hundreds of individuals, from as far away as Croatia and India, have visited the site since November, spreading awareness of the center's interdisciplinary work.
On-campus living yields higher retention rates
Students who live in residence halls have higher first- to second-year retention rates and graduation rates than students who live off campus, Steve Kremer, director of residence life, told trustees Friday.
"That difference can be quite dramatic, especially when looking at specific populations on campus," Kremer said. "Statistics from the 1997-98 academic year show that living in campus housing might be key to improving the graduation rates of African-American students at Ohio State. Of the 174 African-American freshmen from Franklin County enrolled at Ohio State, 90 lived in residence halls, and 85 percent of those students continued to their sophomore year. Only 53 percent of the students living off campus made it to their sophomore year."
Graduate students also benefit from on-campus housing. The university will undertake the first building program in over 30 years to meet graduate students' housing needs. A 500-unit graduate housing project on south campus is in the planning stages, Kremer said.
Kremer also told trustees about the success of Ohio State's more than 30 living-learning centers, which will expand to include the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy and a Ford Corp.-sponsored center next year.
Fulbright program promotes internationalizing of university
More than 100 faculty and professionals at Ohio State have played a role in internationalizing the university's collective intellectual life in the last 20 years by participating in the Fulbright Scholars program.
"Globalization, which used to be a buzz word, is now mainstream. The term and the concept are facts of life today," Michael Hogan, interim dean of the College of Humanities, said in a report to trustees. "Globalization is like a steamroller: If you aren't on the steamroller, you're destined to become part of the pavement."
Hogan cited the Fulbright program as a central resource for "staying on the globalization steamroller." The program, established in 1946 as the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, provides grants to teachers, scholars and students to study, teach, lecture and conduct research abroad. In addition, foreign nationals engage in similar activities at U.S. institutions.
Ohio State faculty have had a strong showing among participants in the Fulbright American Scholar Program. Between 1981 and 1996, 90 Ohio State faculty and professionals traveled to 40 countries ranging from Australia to Ecuador to Japan to the United Kingdom under the Fulbright program, according to a directory compiled by the Office of International Education. Ohio State also hosted 129 visiting scholars and lecturers during those years.
Christopher Reed, assistant professor of history and one of Ohio State's five Fulbright Scholars for the 1999-2000 award cycle, told trustees how the program has enhanced his teaching and research. Reed, a specialist in the history of modern China, traveled to Taiwan from July to September 1999 to pursue research at the Institute of Modern History at the Academia Sinica in Taipei.
"One of the things that makes an institution stand out is the kinds of internationally known awards its faculty receive. Fulbrights are such an award. The recognition they bring to OSU helps this institution get more money to support teaching and research," Reed said. "What's more, our Fulbright-supported residence in foreign countries enriches the classroom experience of our undergraduates and increases our potential to train our graduate students. This Fulbright experience can be applied in a wide variety of ways, from anecdotal illustrations that illuminate an issue of concern to students, to the rewriting of lectures and to the publication of articles and books," he said.
School of Music doctoral candidate Eleanor Pearson described a student Fulbright experience. Pearson studied flute with Liisa Ruoho at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, in 1998. Ruoho specializes in teaching the Alexander Technique of flute performance, which is a body awareness method that helps prevent injury and enhance performance.
"While in Finland, I was able to share some of the research I have done on African-American women composers while at Ohio State," Pearson told trustees. She also taught classes in a new approach to music education that trains music teachers to teach from a whole-body perspective. Pearson will return to Finland in the fall to teach at several music conservatories.
Hogan cited several statistics as evidence that Ohio State and other universities are "setting the pace for the global village," including the fact that more than a quarter of the state's almost 17,000 international students study at Ohio State and that international students make up almost 8 percent of the university's enrollment. He also noted Ohio State ranks ninth nationally in study-abroad numbers among the top 20 research institutions, and that international exchange of faculty with Ohio State both hosting visitors and sending scholars abroad is increasing.
Student recognition award presented
Trustees presented a student recognition award to Leslie Kerns, a third-year law student from DAYTON. Kerns received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Dayton in 1995, with minors in sociology, philosophy and women's studies. As a law student at Ohio State, Kerns has distinguished herself as a scholar with two forthcoming publications. She has served as a research assistant to Professor Ruth Colker, investigating the treatment of employment claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the regulatory authority of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over civil rights statutes. The recipient of The Ohio State University Scholarship in Law, she currently serves as the Ohio State Law Journal symposium editor and received the Outstanding Staff Award last year. Last summer, Kerns received a fellowship from the Public Interest Law Foundation to work in Washington, D.C., where she was a legal and public policy intern with the Center for Women Policy Studies. During her internship, Kerns represented the center in a civil rights coalition that was working to pass the Federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999. Kerns has accepted an associate position at the law firm of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan and Aronoff in Cleveland after her graduation in May.
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Contacts:
Ted Grace, Student Health Services, (614) 292-0110
Gregory Williams, College of Law, (614) 292-0574
Steven Kremer, Residence Life, (614) 292-3930
Michael Hogan, Humanities, (614) 292-1882