University seeks to control costs

Ohio State has taken steps to control costs by instituting a selective hiring freeze for the Columbus campus. The freeze went into effect on April 16 and is expected to last until the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

The selective freeze is in response to reductions in the current state budget for higher education.

"The state has cut its support to OSU by 1 percent in the current fiscal year, which means we will need to identify more than $5 million in expenditure reductions between now and June 30," said Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost. "This selective freeze will help us save money to cover those costs in the short run."

This is a "selective" freeze in that certain kinds of positions are exempted -- or not affected -- by the freeze, including:

• All instructional positions, including regular faculty, auxiliary faculty and GTAs who provide instruction.

• Health and safety personnel, including clinical faculty and staff involved in providing services to patients and their families at the Medical Center, Health Sciences clinics and the Wilce Student Health Center, as well as police officers, security personnel and environmental safety personnel.

• Persons funded on grants and contracts, including GRAs and postdoctoral researchers.

The freeze is selective for instructional and health care positions for several reasons.

"We are committed to Ohio State's students, and want to ensure that their academic experience is not compromised by the University's current budget difficulties, so eliminating instructional positions is not an option at this time," Ray said. "Similarly, we cannot allow the level of care Ohio State provides to its health care patients and their families to be diminished."

Positions funded by grants are exempted from the hiring freeze because the University is obligated to honor guidelines established when the grants are accepted. In addition, regional campus positions are not directly included because they are funded separately by the state. Therefore, regional campuses adopt their own staffing strategies.

Requests for exceptions for positions that do not fit into the above categories will be determined on a position-by-position basis. Potential exceptions may include positions that sustain critical student services, support activities required by law or regulations, or are necessary to generate revenue.

Student employees may still be hired, but students cannot be used to permanently fill staff positions. Similarly, temporary or contract employees cannot be hired for positions that are frozen.

Earnings units are not exempt from the hiring freeze because the funds they generate are considered part of the University's budget.

When the state budget is finalized, which may not be until June, Ohio State will evaluate whether the freeze needs to continue after July 1. Some possibility even exists that the state budget may not be finalized until after June 30.

"It is possible that the state budget allocation will be too low to support salary increases for next year, or that the funding will only support a very minimal increase," said Larry Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources.

Lewellen acknowledged that rising health care costs and parking fees will have an even heavier impact than previously anticipated on all employees if there is no increase in salaries.

"We do not want to see faculty and staff shoulder fee increases without at least some level of salary assistance, so a salary increase which covers those costs is a priority," Lewellen said.

In an effort to assist those hardest hit by the fee increases, the Office of Human Resources has already instituted a one-time policy which provides a credit for half of the PrimeCare plan premium increase to faculty and staff who earn $30,000 or less as of July 1, 2001. The credit will be applied in a lump sum to the Aug. 30 check for employees paid monthly and to the Sept. 7 check for those paid biweekly.

Additional information on the selective hiring freeze is available online at www.ohr.ohio-state.edu/freeze.htm. Any questions should be addressed to the Office of Human Resources Consulting Services at 292-2800.

Celebrate National Poetry Month: Ride a bus

In a world where life speeds by at a heady clip, poetry is an art form that slows time down -- celebrating and capturing a moment or emotion with language that demands we linger to gain understanding.

With time at a premium, reading poetry while sitting on a moving bus might just provide the perfect opportunity to absorb some art without actually stopping forward motion. At least that's part of the idea behind Poetry in Motion, a national Poetry Society of America (PSA) program that pairs poetic posters with public transportation.

The program came to Ohio State in January. Passengers on Campus Area Bus Service vehicles can glance up at the usual advertisements lined above their heads and spot a poster or two with the text of a poem, either written by an Ohio State student or a member of the Poetry Society of America.

"We think this is a great opportunity for the poets to express themselves. The majority are students on campus, so it's a chance to develop the creative writing program," said Susan Boiarski-Markle, coordinator for public relations for Transportation and Parking Services.

Jill Hamilton, who is the former public relations coordinator for Transportation and Parking Services, introduced the idea to Ohio State after she saw an item in Mirabella magazine about the use of Poetry in Motion in the New York City transit system.

A small committee, comprised of English Department and Theatre Department faculty and University Relations and University Honors and Scholars Center staffs, was formed to solicit and select poems.

Undergraduate students whose poems are currently touring the Columbus campus are Chad Chmielowicz, Molly Collord, Heidi J. Shapiro and Colleen Stenger. Kathryn Zack, a student and Transportation and Parking Services employee, designed the artwork for the posters. Also on view are poems by Nikki Giovanni, Kobayashi Issa, Gregory Corso and Galway Kinnell, selected from a poetry anthology produced by PSA and the New York City Transit.

Poems on display at Ohio State get a different kind of exposure than the more common venue of a literary journal. Campus buses provide an annual audience of more than 3 million passengers, riding 30 buses, several of which circulate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

PSA coordinates the program in 10 cities, but Ohio State is the first university to participate. The program began in 1992 in New York City, and is modeled after a similar initiative in the London Underground Subway System. PSA requires that some of the poems used in each location are taken from the PSA anthology of poetry, and the program reviews the design and content of posters before approving them for display.

Ohio State's Poetry in Motion committee is making plans for next fall, when a second round of poems will make their debut. Contact Boiarski-Markle at 292-9627 for more information.

So, go ahead, celebrate National Poetry Month in the waning days of April: Ride a bus, and take a moment to linger.