COLUMBUS - Campus Partners updated The Ohio State University Board of Trustees near the five-year anniversary of its creation with a status report on its signature project, the University Gateway Center, a mixed-use urban redevelopment project at 11th Avenue and High Street.

David Williams II, vice president for student and urban/community affairs, led a group of presenters including Terry Foegler, president of Campus Partners; Ron Druker, president of the Druker Company Ltd. of Boston; Matt Habash, president of Columbus City Council; and Rich Sensenbrenner, council member.

Foegler said the university has acquired 85 percent of the sites needed to break ground on the estimated $100 million project. Gateway funding is derived from several sources, including Ohio State, the Druker Co., the state of Ohio and the city of Columbus, he said.

Habash told trustees that Columbus has a long history of addressing issues in the University District.

"Both Ohio State and the city of Columbus are strongly committed to the revitalization of the campus neighborhood east of High Street," he said. "It's clearly a win-win situation for both parties."

Last December, city council authorized the execution of a comprehensive economic development agreement with the Gateway Area Revitalization Initiative (GARI), a Campus Partners affiliate. In the agreement, the city committed $5 million to be put toward the public infrastructure Gateway requires, approved the use of eminent domain to help assemble the project's redevelopment site, and laid out a broad partnership to ensure the project's success.

The council also established a Tax Increment Financing district to capture the new, non-school property-tax revenues generated by Gateway to help finance a parking structure. The city was instrumental in supporting Ohio State's $4.7 million capital budget request for the Gateway parking structure, Habash said.

The city also has improved the quality of public service in the surrounding neighborhoods since it entered into the partnership with Campus Partners, including increasing cooperation between the Columbus and university police and improving garbage collection and street sweeping services, he said.

Druker told trustees his company has been working to secure anchor tenants for the University Gateway Center, including a bookstore, theater, and a grocery store. Plans also include 70,000 square feet of university office space.

"We are currently in negotiations with Barnes & Noble for a 60,000-square-foot state-of-the-art bookstore. It will be one of the finest bookstores in the country with a café, computer stations, trade publications and textbooks," he said. Barnes & Noble operates many other college bookstores across the country.

Once anchor tenants are identified, Druker said, meetings will begin with local businesses. "Including local businesses in the project is an important part of our plan," he said.

Board hears update on Greek Life Task Force

Trustees also heard recommendations from the Greek Life Task Force, appointed last spring by David Williams II, vice president for student and urban/community affairs, to improve fraternity and sorority on campus.

Recommendations include implementing a minimum 2.25 grade-point average for chapter members; requiring two advisers for each house, one of whom must be an Ohio State faculty or staff member; and requiring students to have at least 12 credit hours before joining a sorority or fraternity. The suggestions were developed after the task force met with sorority and fraternity chapters, presidents and advisers, and Ohio State alumni. Two town meetings were held recently to discuss the task force's findings.

Paul Bohlman, task force member and past international president of Delta Chi fraternity, told trustees he felt the town meetings were informative for everyone involved.

"Many students who attended the town meetings don't want to believe that there is a problem with Ohio State's greek system," Bohlman said. "Much of this stems from the high turnover in leadership positions within the organizations. New leaders either aren't aware problems exist or they're in denial."

Recommendations made by the task force are not meant to attack the greek organizations, stressed Teniell Trolian, president of Ohio State's chapter of Delta Zeta sorority. "We're trying to raise the bar academically, socially and in caliber of community service undertaken by the chapters. We're trying to make the greek system better overall."

"We want the greek system to set an example to the university," Williams said. "Right now we have a good greek system. We want it to be great."

Student recognition award presented

Trustees also presented a student recognition award to Keith Bohman, an honors student majoring in biology. A 1997 Centerville High School graduate, Bohman is also president of Helix, the biological sciences undergraduate honor society. With Helix, he has served as co-chair for "Biological Sciences Day," which brings 300 high-ability high school seniors and their parents to campus to hear about the College of Biological Sciences majors. Bohman also is involved with Alpha Epsilon Delta, a pre-med honor society where he is fund-raising co-chair, and the Pre-Medical American Medical Student Association, serving last year as treasurer and this year as vice-president. He is working in the laboratory on a senior honors thesis with Brian Ahmer, assistant professor of microbiology, and does research with the sirA growth-regulator gene in salmonella and E.coli bacteria. Bohman also is an undergraduate teaching assistant for Honors Biology 116 and volunteers at the Rardin Family Practice Clinic and at OSU Hospials. Bohman plans to graduate next spring and continue on to medical school.