96-07-12 TRUSTEES: Actions of The Ohio State University Board of Trustees ACTIONS OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees on Friday (7/12) merged three doctoral programs in nutrition, created a committee on diversity, renamed a department, and heard a report on accreditation. In addition, the board approved research contracts, established three named endowed funds, and conducted other business. Doctoral programs in nutrition combined Trustees consolidated doctoral programs in nutrition that were offered in three colleges. The new single, multi- disciplinary Doctor of Philosophy degree is the only doctoral program in nutrition at an Ohio public university. The College of Human Ecology will serve as lead college for the program. Faculty from Human Ecology and the colleges of Medicine and Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences will teach and supervise research by the doctoral candidates. "We have a long history of working together and jointly teaching Ph.D. level courses in nutrition, and of serving on graduate committees together," said Jean Snook, who chaired the committee to draft a charter for the program. She is a professor of human nutrition and food management. Advocates said the consolidation will expose students to specialties in nutrition. It will give the program national visibility, which will help graduates find jobs. It also will eliminate competition between the three colleges for graduate teaching fellowship training grants and end duplication of admission and recruiting efforts. No new funding is required. Diversity committees merged A new Diversity Committee will take on all aspects of equity at Ohio State. The group combines the University Senate Committee on Women and Minorities with the President's Committee on Diversity. The new committee reports to the University Senate, the governance body for faculty. Trustees created the Diversity Committee to eliminate overlapping functions and to bring the Senate a wider range of diversity issues, which were beyond the scope of the Women and Minorities committee. Membership of the new committee will include 16 staff, faculty, students and administrators. They will monitor implementation of the university's non-discrimination policy and recommend ways to foster civility, tolerance and mutual respect. The committee will look at external pressures that affect diversity and advise the president and other top administrators on climate issues, policies and priorities. The group also will communicate with the campus about diversity and administer Ohio State's annual affirmative action awards and grants. Members of Women and Minorities said spring quarter that they did not want to dissolve their group. They said the university could lose its focus on women and minorities, which would be diffused by the Diversity Committee's broader areas of concern. University Senate leaders last month suggested the new Diversity Committee form sub-committees, one of which would continue to study issues concerning women and minorities. Teaching assessment part of accreditation plan The trustees heard a status report on the university- wide accreditation review, which is required every 10 years by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Vice Provost Alayne Parson and Provost Faculty Fellow Randy Smith told trustees a 12-member steering committee gathered and analyzed data during the last year. Included is data on academic programs, enrollments, research and service activities, as well as infrastructure issues such as space, equipment and facilities. The steering committee's draft report will be distributed this summer to the university community for comment and revisions. Smith said the report documents many important initiatives made to improve Ohio State over the last decade. The draft will give faculty and staff an opportunity to comment on selective admissions, development of the General Education Curriculum, a report from the Committee on the Undergraduate Experience on how to improve student services, and development of a strategic plan for research -- all within the context of the university's mission. A final report is due to North Central by early November. A 14-member external review team will visit campus Dec. 9-11. Another requirement is a plan to assess how well Ohio State serves undergraduates. Parson noted it already has resulted in proposals to streamline the General Education Curriculum for the five Colleges of the Arts and Sciences. GEC courses are required of all undergraduates. The plan has led to a detailed inventory of the extent and nature of assessments already being done by undergraduate major programs. It also calls for greater attention to collecting data on student placement in jobs and graduate schools. New name better reflects design programs The trustees renamed a department in the College of the Arts to better reflect the course work it offers. The Department of Industrial Design is now the Department of Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication Design. Department Chair James C. Kaufman said the new name will show prospective students, employers and colleagues at other universities that Ohio State offers three undergraduate majors in the department. Faculty have wanted to change the name since the department was created in 1973 because it only reflected one-third of what they do, he said. Research contracts approved Trustees accepted 164 research contracts totaling $8,792,702. Singled out for special mention were: -- The second phase of Project Reinvent, in which the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences will implement its vision to ensure quality development of food systems professionals and innovative ideas to support food system evolution for the next quarter century. Objectives include reforming the reward system for faculty and staff, continually refining the college structure and operating procedures, developing a more open decision-making process, reallocating resources to achieve the vision, and developing a program to disseminate the vision. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation is providing $1.5 million over five years. Bobby D. Moser and Lawrence H. Newcomb of the college are leading the project. -- A project to design road stripes for radar frequency and information tagging and develop a prototype highway guidance system for motor vehicles. The work includes setting up test vehicles and studying how information such as curve radius and exit lanes can be used for steering and speed control. Stripe behavior will be tested under coatings of ice, snow and rain, and samples of the stripe will be tested outdoors. Researchers will define what information to code into the stripes, the logistics of having stripes, and techniques for introducing the data. Umit A. Ozguner and Jonathan D. Young of the Department of Electrical Engineering are leading the project, funded with $484,900 from Carnegie-Mellon University. -- Projects related to the global context of foreign language study. Activities include research and advance- skill development, networked programs and advanced-level materials development, teacher training, and program evaluation and assessment. Ohio State's National Foreign Language Resource Center will disseminate project and research results. Diane W. Birckbichler of the Foreign Language Center and Galal L. Walker of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures are leading the project. The U.S. Department of Education is providing $930,000 over three years. -- A cooperative ice core paleoclimate study of Windy Dome Ice Camp on Graham Bell Island, with an emphasis on sea ice history. The island is part of Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic. Lonnie G. Thompson and Ellen M. Thompson of the Byrd Polar Research Center are conducting the study, funded with $299,525 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. -- A study of the break-up of the Gondwanaland supercontinent during the Mesozoic, looking at the geochronology of Antarctic tholeiites, a type of basalt lava that erupts in the initial stages of the continental break- up process. The project is concerned with the timing of events in the break-up, including the age of eruption of the tholeiites and the timing of secondary alteration. David H. Elliot and Kenneth A. Foland of the Byrd Polar Research Center are heading the project, funded with $247,000 from the National Science Foundation. Board creates three named endowed funds Trustees accepted three new named endowed funds with gifts totaling $141,172: -- The G. Preston Hoff Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry, $100,000. -- The David S. Hunt Scholarship Fund, $26,172, for students from Tuscarawas County. -- The Bloom Family Scholarship Endowment Fund, $15,000, for current or former 4-H members from Ashtabula County. Miscellaneous matters In other business, trustees: -- Granted a 5 percent increase in pay to President E. Gordon Gee, raising his salary from $220,008 to $231,012. The pay raise is in line with salary increases budgeted for faculty and staff this year. -- Established computer laboratory fees in the Max M. Fisher College of Business and the College of Engineering. Beginning autumn quarter, full-time undergraduate business students will be assessed $85 and full-time graduate students will be charged $120 per quarter. Engineering undergraduates will pay $110 and graduate students will pay $120 per quarter. The fees will be prorated for part-time students in each college. Students in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences who are majoring in computer and information science will be assessed a computing fee by the College of Engineering at a rate two- thirds of the amount charged to engineering majors. -- Appointed Mary Grose, associate director of clinical labs, to the board of trustees of Labnet of Ohio, a non- profit corporation offering lab services of its member organizations to managed health care companies. University Hospitals is a member of Labnet and recommended that Grose be appointed as its trustee. -- Presented a student recognition award to Jennifer Ann Grimes of DECATUR, OHIO. A senior majoring in family resource management, Grimes was honored for recruiting students to Ohio State as a University Ambassador and for her work with Ohio Staters. Grimes will graduate Aug. 29. -- Voted to confer degrees and certificates at summer quarter commencement Aug. 29 to those persons who have completed the requirements for them. -- Authorized a master lease agreement as of July 15 with Bank One Leasing Corp. to lease equipment with a total cost of about $10 million for use by various university departments. The move was made as a cost-effective option for tax-exempt leasing of equipment. A committee of university business officials recommended the proposal from Bank One Leasing Corp., from a group of nine proposals submitted, as best fitting the needs of the university and offering the lowest financing costs. -- Authorized the treasurer, James L. Nichols, and vice president for finance, William J. Shkurti, to buy, sell, assign, and transfer stocks, bonds, and other securities; designate various financial institutions as depositories; open and maintain accounts; sign agreements for banking services; sign and endorse checks; and conduct other financial transactions on behalf of the university. -- Heard reports on the endowment fund and comparisons of equity portfolios by Nichols. As of June 21, the market value of the endowment was $639.1 million. # Contacts: Jean Snook, (614) 292-1680; James C. Kaufman, (614) 292-6746; Alayne Parson, (614) 292-5881; Edward Hayes, vice president for research, (614) 292-1582; Jerry May, vice president for development, (614) 292-2970. Written by Gemma McLuckie, (614) 292-8419; Tom Spring, (614) 292-8309; and Tracy Turner, (614) 688-3682. [Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) Fri, 12 Jul 1996 16:04:07 -0400] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.