OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MINUTES

Minutes, April 19, 2011

Roll: (Absentees Underlined) President Kendall Baker, Dr. David Crago, Dr. Robert Ruble, Mr. Ken Block,

Dean Karen Condeni, Ms. Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw, Dean Catherine Albrecht, Dean Eric

Baumgartner, Dean Jon Sprague, Dean James Fenton, Rev. Vernon LaSala, Dr. Jeffery Allison, Dr. Khalid

Al-Olimat, Dr. Nathaniel Bird, Dr. Bob Carrothers, Dr. Keith Durkin, Dr. Kevin Hill, Dr. Brian Keas (in lab),

Prof. Laurie Laird, Ms. Marsha McMunn, Dr. Michael Milks, Prof. Sue Montenery, Prof. Traci Moritz, Mr.

Clyde Pickett, Dr. Harold Putt, Dr. Lisa Robeson, Dr. Sandra Schroeder, Dr. David Smith, Dr. Amy Stockert

(ill), Dr. Bryan Ward, Dr. Rob Waters, Dr. Dexter Woods, Dr. Kay Zekany

Dr. Lisa Robeson, Chair of Council, called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

I. Minutes of the March 29, 2011 meeting were approved as distributed (Motion by Harold

Putt, second by Nathaniel Bird, motion carried.)

II. Reports from Constitutional Committees:

a. Budget & Appropriations: will meet tomorrow, April 20.

b. Academic Affairs: has unfinished and new business on the agenda.

c. Student Activities: No report.

d. Personnel: No further report.

III. Reports from Operational Committees:

a. Athletics: No report.

b. Information Technology: No report.

c. Cultural & Special Events: No report.

d. International Affairs: No report.

e. Religious Affairs: approved the prayer garden. The garden was also approved by Dr.

Baker provided donors are informed that the garden may have to be relocated or

removed if the new student center is built in the current proposed location.

Approximately $2500 is required for the garden and most of the funds have been raised

already.

f. General Education: asks that faculty continue to submit courses for tagging. The

deadline for having a course tagged for incoming freshmen is June 1, 2011.

IV. Planning Council: No report.

V. Other Reports:

a. David Crago highlighted the updated faculty handbook administrative changes (required

by the move to semesters) that were provided in Attachment A of the agenda.

i. Michael Milks asked if there needed to be consistency in the use of the terms

“semester” and “term” in the handbook. Julie Hurtig responded that “term” has

been used where ever possible however in some instances it was not

appropriate (i.e. when referring to credit hours – “semester hours” is used

instead of “term hours”).

b. Ken Block reported that the university has reached a milestone in the Campaign for

ONU’s Tomorrow by raising $90 million.

c. Karen Condeni reported that the university hosted a junior visit day on Saturday, April

16 with 109 students and their parents visiting campus. Over 332 prospective students

have come to campus this spring during visit days.

d. Catherine Albrecht reported that the university signed an articulation agreement with

the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) in the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia last week. It will allow TVTC students the opportunity to earn Bachelor of Science

degrees from ONU in manufacturing technology and construction management. She

also noted that the Gamma Upsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the Honor Society for

International Scholars, has received the Outstanding Midwest Chapter Award for 2010-

2011. Michael Loughlin is the campus coordinator of the group.

e. Eric Baumgartner reported that this is competition season for many groups in the

college of engineering. The concrete canoe team took 2nd place in the ASCE regional

concrete canoe conference at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. The success

qualifies ONU to compete in the national competition in Evansville, IN on June 16-18.

The ONU Baja SAE team finished 5th in the Baja SAE Birmingham competition out of 58

teams that competed. This is an all-time high finish for ONU. ONU beat teams from such

schools as Virginia Tech, Cornell University, Bucknell University and Michigan State. The

ONU Baja team will participate in all three regional competitions this year. ONU seniors

Mary Jo Guthrie, Ross Stienecker, Mohammad Alsuraihi and Andrew Swick won the best

student paper award at the 2010 North Central Section ASEE Conference at Central

Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. An ONU senior engineering capstone design

team participated in the 3rd annual robotic football competition at the University of

Notre Dame on April 15. Students created three robotic football players – quarterback,

center and receiver and joined in on the “Blue” team which lost to the “Gold” team by a

score of 41-13.

f. Jim Fenton reported that an Idea Polar Pitch and Poster Competition is taking place this

evening in the college of business with about 169 participants from all undergraduate

colleges participating. The event was made possible by the generous support of The

Kern Family Foundation's KEEN program and the NCIIA.

g. Jon Sprague noted that three student members of the Ohio Northern University

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) took first place in the Ohio

Pharmacists Association’s Innovative Pharmacy Business Plan Competition (IPBPC). The

group received support from Jill Christopher in the college of business. He offered

thanks to the college of business for their help. Additionally, pharmacy alumni received

three of the six awards presented at the conference which was the 133rd Ohio

Pharmacists Association (OPA) Annual Conference & Trade Show held April 8-10 in

Columbus, Ohio.

h. Student Senate: Marsha McMunn reported that senate will host a Student Leadership

Conference on Sunday, May 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in McIntosh Center. Senate is

also finalizing plans for recycling bins to be placed in all rooms in the freshmen

residence halls next fall and is in the final stages of choosing a Student Organization of

the Year award winner.

i. Health Services Advisory Committee: Bob Ruble reported that the committee is

considering possible changes to the university health care plan.

j. Student Center Task Force: Michael Milks noted that while the board of trustees has

announced a suspension of any further development of the student center project

beyond the initial conceptualization phase, the university has authorized a campus

website be developed that can serve as a “clearinghouse” for information regarding the

project. Such items as a FAQ compilation, architects drawings, needs assessments,

opinion surveys, and university community comments are envisioned to be included in

the website. Milks feels this approach to any continuing development and discussion of

the project should greatly assist in reaching greater consensus among all constituents on

the overall needs and priorities of a new student center when the project is revived.

VI. Announcements: Lisa Robeson announced that the Executive Leadership of the Board of

Trustees met yesterday. Representatives from several other constituencies were also invited

to the meeting including student, faculty and university alumni relations representatives.

The board is committed to better communication with the campus community and is

interested in hearing our concerns and comments. Several items were discussed. The board

noted that they understand the need for a carefully considered response to the university’s

current financial situation. The new student center is still a priority for the board even

though they have currently placed it on hold. The board stressed that they believe in ONU

and that we have great students, faculty, staff and graduates.

VII. Questions for the President: Dr. Baker commented on the Moody’s rating. He stated that it may take several years to improve our rating since it will be important to show a pattern of improvement (i.e. increased enrollment over several years not just one year). Regarding the budget, Dr. Baker commented that he feels we will be able to balance the budget for 2011-12 but following years will be less certain. Difficult questions will have to be answered regarding the size of the institution, programs being offered, etc. The board and administration are examining all areas within the university including benefits package (i.e. retirement contribution), vacant and unfilled positions, temporary line items (i.e. adjunct, visitor, and temporary employees), use of temporary funds (i.e. possible use of non-tuition, one-time funds for financial aid), etc. We will try to improve the university budget margin (i.e. size of our margin is currently very small and a key concern of Moody’s) but it is something that likely cannot be done in one year. Dr. Baker reported that his impression from the board meeting is that the board is strongly committed to reversing the Moody evaluation of ONU. He plans to present a preliminary budget to the board at their May 21 & 22 meeting and it will be shared with the faculty as well. a. Michael Milks asked about the strategic financial aid packages that went out to

incoming students this year – are we seeing any payoff in that area? Dr. Baker stated that the mathematical model looks good and uses ONU historical data but we don’t know if the model is entirely correct. It is really too early to tell. Deposits are continuing to lag as families wait until the last minute to make decisions on which college their student will attend. An appeals process is in place and approximately 100 families (out of about 1600 offers) have appealed their aid package. It appears the freshman class will be strong but we also need to work on keeping our current students. Additionally, transfer students, articulation agreements and special programs such as the Saudi Prison Program are all important to the university.

VIII. Unfinished Business:

a. One item from the Academic Affairs Committee (agenda attachment B), proposed

changes to the final exam policy in the faculty handbook and on the registrar’s website,

was brought to a vote. It was approved unanimously and without further discussion. The

voting record is attached.

IX. New Business:

a. John Lomax introduced agenda attachment C from the Academic Affairs Committee

which proposed eliminating the common theme requirement for the extra disciplinary

seminars in the new General Education Program. A lengthy discussion occurred with

highlights following.

i. Catherine Albrecht spoke against the motion. She suggested that a committee

of faculty interested in teaching extra disciplinary seminars be formed and that

they be allowed to determine the theme.

ii. Kay Zekany suggested that since these seminars were meant to be taken by

sophomores and juniors, a choice for a theme could be put off for up to a year.

She and others in her college feel that the common theme is a program strength

and if we don’t have it now, we should wait and roll out the theme in fall 2012-

13.

iii. Nathaniel Bird noted that the college of engineering had discussed this at their

recent college meeting and was opposed to eliminating the common theme.

There seems to be no point in having extra disciplinary seminars if there is no

common theme.

iv. Bob Carrothers agreed with Nate that there didn’t seem to be a point to the

seminars without the theme. He spoke against the motion as well.

v. John Lomax responded that the recommendation came after a joint meeting of

the Academic Affairs and General Education committees. The idea for the

seminars is to take students out of their comfort zone and out of their major

field of study. Both committees felt the theme had to be meaningful and

determined that the goal of taking students out of their major field of study

could still be accomplished without a common theme.

vi. Eric Baumgartner stated that by taking the theme out of the new program we

would be reverting back to the current general education program (i.e. picking a

set of courses from a list) without even trying out the new one. Engineering

students already take many courses outside of their major (i.e. math, physics,

chemistry, writing, business courses) but these seminars have the ability to

stretch a student’s mind. Without these themed seminars, the colleges are left

with a writing seminar and some capstone courses for students to complete –

and those courses/activities do not make a general education “program”.

vii. Catherine Albrecht endorsed John’s comments about taking students outside of

their comfort zone and their major however she feels it is important to have a

common theme to help faculty in creating the extra disciplinary seminars. She

feels there are faculty members who have ideas for and are excited about

teaching these courses and they should be given the opportunity to help choose

the theme.

viii. John Lomax stated that neither his committee nor the General Education

committee has received any meaningful ideas from faculty and they would

welcome them.

ix. Lisa Robeson tried to summarize the discussion: 1) a group of faculty interested

in teaching the extra disciplinary seminars should be allowed to generate the

theme; 2) announcement of the theme could possibly be delayed by one year;

3) overall consensus is that the unifying nature of a theme would differentiate

these courses from other distributional courses.

x. Lisa Robeson asked John Lomax to take the council’s thoughts back to his

committee for further discussion and the committee should then decide

whether they wanted to continue to pursue the motion or withdraw it.

b. John Lomax introduced agenda attachment D containing proposed changes to section

3.40 of the faculty handbook regarding standards for satisfactory academic progress. He

noted the changes are required to bring our policy into compliance with federal and

state financial aid requirements. There was no discussion.

X. Adjournment: Lisa Robeson adjourned the meeting at 6:20 p.m. Council will next meet on

May 3, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Laurie K. Laird, Secretary

University Council

Attendance and Voting record April 19, 2011

Voting Issue:

Attendance Council Member per agenda Att. B

yes no abst

x Dr. Kendall Baker

x VP David Crago x

x VP Robert Ruble

x VP Ken Block

x VP Karen Condeni

x VP Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw

x Dean Catherine Albrecht x

x Dean Eric Baumgartner x

x Dean Jon Sprague x

x Dean James Fenton x

x Rev. Vernon LaSala

x Dr. Jeffery Allison x

Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat

x Dr. Nathaniel Bird x

x Dr. Bob Carrothers x

Dr. Keith Durkin

Dr. Kevin Hill

Dr. Brian Keas

x Prof. Laurie Laird x

x Dr. Michael Milks x

x Miss Marsha McMunn x

x Prof. Sue Montenery x

x Prof. Traci Moritz x

x Mr. Clyde Pickett

x Dr. Harold Putt x

x Dr. Lisa Robeson

x Dr. Sandra Schroeder x

x Dr. David Smith x

Dr. Amy Stockert

Dr. Bryan Ward

x Dr. Rob Waters x

x Dr. Dexter Woods x

x Dr. Kay Zekany x

Totals 19 0 0