12-4-98
TRUSTEES WITNESS CAMPAIGN HISTORY, HEAR FINANCIAL REPORTS
COLUMBUS – The Ohio State University Board of Trustees on
Friday (12/4) were surprised with the announcement of a milestone
in the Campus Campaign portion of the university’s $1 billion
Affirm Thy Friendship development drive. Trustees also received
updates on capital funding and an early retirement incentive
program, heard reports and conducted other business.
Campus Campaign hits $50 million milestone
Trustees and President William E. Kirwan were surprised by a
group of development employees and volunteers bearing 50 balloons
to mark a historic milestone in the university’s internal
development campaign.
The 50 balloons represented $50 million in gifts from
faculty and staff to the Campus Campaign portion of the $1
billion Affirm Thy Friendship development drive. Since the
inception of the Campus Campaign in 1985, faculty and staff have
made 556,409 donations to 1,184 funds at the university. The
tally hit $50 million with end-of-the-month receipts for
November.
“This is a very generous campus,” said Jerry A. May, vice
president for development. “Among the many people who care about
Ohio State are those who work here. Gifts by faculty and staff
are an endorsement of what they’re doing here. Our employees
believe in Ohio State.”
The Campus Campaign is a year-round effort that increases in
intensity in early spring with a campuswide solicitation. A
peer-to–peer solicitation among faculty and staff takes place
within each college and administrative unit.
Trustees get status report on capital request
University officials are pleased with a state capital
funding bill for fiscal years 1999-2000 that is nearly identical
to the university’s original request and the recommendation of
the Ohio Board of Regents.
William J. Shkurti, senior vice president for finance,
business and administration, told trustees that the Ohio Senate
on Dec. 2 sent an approved House Bill 850 to Gov. George V.
Voinovich for his signature, which is expected within about two
weeks.
Within the $1.72 billion spending bill is nearly $550
million for construction projects at public universities and
colleges. On Ohio State’s Columbus campus, it means $97.4
million -- or 96 percent of what had been requested. For all the
Ohio State campuses, 90 percent of the university’s $115.8
million request was approved, Shkurti said.
“We’re pleased that renovation and replacement of key
buildings on campus can continue as planned,” Shkurti said.
“Passage of this capital bill also means that the university can
proceed with its construction planning for the fiscal 2001 and
2002 biennium.”
The state funding will allow the university to do $15.5
million in basic renovations to existing campus buildings,
Shkurti said. Other major projects for the biennium that were
fully funded in the capital bill are construction of the Physical
Sciences Research Building, for $20 million; renovation of
Hagerty Hall into an international language center, $18.5
million; completion of the Heart and Lung Institute, $5.4
million; replacement of the deteriorating Sisson Hall, $17.6
million; and construction of the Knowlton School of Architecture,
$9 million.
Some $3 million was appropriated to begin design work of the
$132 million addition and renovation of Larkins Hall, the student
recreation facility, Shkurti said. That project is expected to
be completed in 2003, and will be funded largely with user fees.
Other projects also received planning money, including
$700,000 for renovation work at Page Hall, $1.7 million to plan
renovation of the Botany and Zoology Building and $1 million to
plan the replacement of Robinson Laboratory. The only project on
the Columbus campus that was not fully funded was to replace
barns at Don Scott Field for the College of Food, Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences, said Colleen A. O’Brien, director of
state relations. That project received $860,000 of the $5
million that had been sought.
A $4 million allocation will fund the first stage of major
development for the Science and Technology Campus on the
university’s west campus. The project includes doubling the
current size of the 25,000-square-foot Business Technology Center
at 1275 Kinnear Road and constructing the first new building of
the project -- a Science Village at the southeast corner of North
Star and Kinnear roads.
The university hopes the Science and Technology Campus (STC)
will become a premier research park and a hub for research and
development and technology enterprise advancement in central
Ohio.
Ora E. Smith, president of the Science and Technology Campus
Corp., said the STC will attempt to create an environment where
new and rapidly growing companies can transform university and
community-based technology into products and services. The
campus also is intended to enhance students’ academic
experiences, foster high-profile faculty research, attract top
scholars to campus, and provide new economic development
opportunities in the Columbus area.
During the next decade, university officials estimate that
companies residing in the STC development will create at least
500 new, mostly high-salary jobs; develop or expand about 50 high
technology companies; and produce 250 cooperative research
relationships between the university and STC tenants.
The university had requested $6 million in funding for the
STC. The remaining $2 million for the first phase of
construction will be funded through the sale of bonds, O’Brien
said.
The $10 million Jack Nicklaus Museum, a private project that
will be located on two acres of university land north of the
Jerome Schottenstein Center and south of the Woody Hayes Athletic
Facility, received $1.5 million in state funding. The remainder
will come from private donations.
Other funding for projects that will positively impact the
university includes $500,000 to renovate a deteriorating former
residence hall at the university’s Gibraltar Island, $1.8 million
to expand the university’s book depository on Kenny Road, and
$14.25 million for infrastructure improvements at the Ohio
Supercomputer Center on Kinnear Road.
“We were very happy that our budget request moved through
the Legislature,” said OSC Director Charlie Bender. “Our
improvements to OARnet, the state’s Internet Service Provider,
and additions to our high performance computing infrastructure
will keep Ohio's colleges and universities pushing the forefront
in computing, networking and education.”
Approximately $11.5 million was appropriated primarily for
renovation projects at the Lima, Mansfield, Marion and Newark
campuses, as well as at the Ohio Agricultural Research and
Development Center and Agricultural Technical Institute in
Wooster.
Lawmakers also funded $505 million for new construction and
repairs for primary and secondary schools. University officials
had been concerned with the defeat last May of state Issue 1, a
1-cent sales tax, that money for public schools would come at the
expense of higher education. After the tax issue failed,
lawmakers decided to put the capital bill on hold until they
returned to session following the November election. Normally,
the capital bill would have been passed during the spring.
Trustees hear update on early retirement incentive
Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost,
reported to trustees about the Early Retirement Incentive program
for faculty, which was instituted in 1995. The program was
offered to help colleges meet budget reduction mandates, to match
faculty staffing with student instructional demands, and to
afford colleges the opportunity to redirect resources into new
academic areas.
Ray told trustees that the university expects annual rate
savings of $7.8 million and a positive cash result of more than
$18 million from the program, and a faculty downsizing of 1.6
percent.
Delayed hiring -- of 113 faculty compared with an original
estimate of 199 authorized replacement hires through fiscal year
1998 -- has helped free $29.47 million in net cash for
reinvestment into new academic areas. “Given the nature of the
specialized expertise of faculty by discipline and sub-areas of
interest and program efforts to hire faculty of the highest
possible quality, it is common for hires to lag behind hiring
authority,” Ray said.
In order to maintain the quality, integrity and variety of
course offerings, 55 of the 258 faculty who retired from the
Columbus campus were rehired on a part-time basis to teach
courses, down from 86 in fiscal year 1997. The rehired teachers
have an average compensation rate of $5,387 per course, compared
with a pre-retirement average rate of $14,300. Stated
differently, 17 percent of retirees on the Columbus campus were
hired to teach key courses at a compensation rate equal to about
38 percent of their pre-retirement salary.
“As expected, the rehiring of key faculty to maintain
program integrity is diminishing over time as new faculty join
the university,” Ray said.
The program also had as a goal to increase diversity among
faculty, and new hires have been more diverse than the retirees,
Ray said. On the Columbus campus, 76 men and 20.5 women faculty
retirees have been replaced by 69.5 men and 27 women who, in
turn, are more diverse than the men and women faculty they
replaced.
The immediate impact of the ERI was to raise the
student/faculty ratio from 18.76-to-1 to a high of 20.26-to-1.
The ratio declined to 19.67-to-1 this year and, assuming no
further decline in student enrollment, the rate should fall to
18.79-to-1 at the conclusion of the ERI program.
Board accepts nine named endowed funds
The board heard a report from Jerry A. May, vice president
for development, on fund-raising efforts, including the
establishment of the Billy A. Hill Scholarship Fund. Gifts of
$25,759 were received from friends, colleagues and family members
of Hill, who worked at Ohio State from 1971 until he died in
1995. Hill was head trainer in the Athletic Department and held
an adjunct teaching appointment in the School of Physical
Activity and Educational Services. The fund will provide book
scholarships and financial assistance to students in athletic
training.
May also reported the establishment of eight other named
endowed funds with gifts totaling more than $284,000.
-- The Hugh A. Lindsey and Robert C. Winzeler Scholarship
Endowment, $25,218, providing scholarships to graduates of high
schools in Williams County, Ohio.
-- Eleanor Shane Resler Cancer Research Endowment Fund,
supporting cancer research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center -
Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute (provided
by an anonymous estate gift).
-- The Lambert Family Athletic Scholarship, $100,000,
providing grant-in-aid soccer scholarships.
-- The F. Ernest and Maryann I. Barthel Scholarship Fund,
$48,438, providing scholarships in the Fisher College of
Business.
-- Ohio Home Builders Scholarship Fund, $30,500, providing
scholarships and support of construction technology at the
Agricultural Technical Institute.
-- The Madalyn Schlezinger Fund, $30,050, supporting cancer
research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James
Cancer Hospital and Research Institute.
-- Luther F. Lalendorf Memorial Scholarship Endowment,
$25,000, providing scholarships in the College of Humanities.
-- The George E. and Betty L. Merva Scholarship Endowment
Fund, $25,000, providing scholarships in the Department of Food,
Agricultural and Biological Engineering.
Miscellaneous business
In other business, trustees:
-- Heard a routine quarterly budget report from William J.
Shkurti, senior vice president for finance, business and
administration. Shkurti said enrollment for summer and autumn
quarters was 0.6 percent above projections, and retention of new
freshmen was up.
-- Received an update from Shkurti on internal debts owed by
units to the university, which have no bearing on the sound
financial shape of the university as a whole.
For units that identified deficits in fiscal year 1993, debt
has been reduced from $41.5 million to $2.3 million in fiscal
year 1998, Shkurti said. Eleven of 16 units have paid their
debts, with six resolving their deficits within the last year.
The remaining units are within their approved reduction plans and
are making substantial progress, he said.
For the $10.7 million in deficits identified in fiscal year
1997, reductions of $4.4 million have been made. For fiscal year
1998, deficits of $4.5 million have been identified, but the
specific causes of the deficits have been identified and efforts
are under way to eliminate it, Shkurti said.
-- Learned from Shkurti that Affirm Thy Friendship campaign
expenditures have been $7.3 million since its inception in 1995,
well within its budget of $7.6 million. Direct costs to support
Development activities, including space, in fiscal year 1998 were
7.1 cents per $1, and the cost of endowment administration was
0.4 cents, Shkurti said.
-- Approved 206 contracts totaling $17.6 million for
research projects funded in October.
-- Authorized the transfer of funds between current and
noncurrent accounts in accordance with state accounting
procedures.
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Contacts: Jerry A. May, vice president for development,
(614) 292-2970
William J. Shkurti, senior vice president for finance,
business, and administration, (614) 292-9232
Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost,
(614) 292-5881
Written by David Bhaerman, University Communications,
(614) 292-8422