Report from May 4 Board of Trustees meeting

David L. Brennan	James F. Patterson

Brennan, Patterson assume board leadership

David L. Brennan, an Akron businessman and Republican leader, was named chair of the University Board of Trustees on May 4. He succeeds George Skestos, whose one-year term as chair and nine-year term as trustee ends on May 13.

Brennan, who joined the board in 1993, is a 1953 graduate of Ohio State and received a law degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1957. He is chair of Brennan Industrial Group Inc., and the Brenlin Group Inc., both of which are private holding companies of industrial and manufacturing entities headquartered in Akron. He is a founder of the Amer Cunningham Brennan law firm.

Active in state and national Republican politics, he is a member of the National Republican Party's Team 100, and was an Ohio delegate to the 1988 and 1992 Republican National Conventions.

Brennan is a trustee at both his alma maters, Ohio State and Case Western Reserve, and has established law chairs at Case Western Reserve and the University of Akron. He also serves as a trustee on the Akron Bar Scholarship Foundation. He is a member of the Ohio Business Roundtable and past chair of the Western Reserve Economic Development Council board.

Brennan is an advocate for educational choice and, in 1998, formed White Hat Management Inc., which manages 12 scholarship and community schools in northern Ohio. He was named by former Gov. George Voinovich to head the Governor's Commission on Educational Choice. His community awards include the Governor's Award for work in education, specifically the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program.

James F. Patterson, a trustee since 1994, was elected vice chair. Patterson, owner of Patterson Fruit Farm in Chesterland, is a fifth-generation farmer and a 1964 graduate of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. He is a former Geauga County commissioner and a past president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.

The trustees re-elected William J. Napier as secretary and James L. Nichols as treasurer.

Board acts on numerous projects

The University Board of Trustees on May 4 authorized the employment of architects/engineers and the request for construction bids for:

• An approximate 1,000-space parking garage with some 16,000 square feet of retail space on the east side of Perry Street and north of 9th Avenue to serve the Heart Hospital. The estimated project cost is $20 million, and the total estimated construction cost is $16 million, with funding provided by bond proceeds with debt service paid by Transportation and Parking Services.

• Phase II of University Hospitals East, including two ambulatory operating suites, relocation of the Physical Therapy department and endoscopy services, and construction of a centralized waiting area and public elevator tower in the north building. The estimated total project cost is $5.5 million, and estimated construction cost is $4.6 million, with funding provided by University Hospitals East.

• Remodeling of Ohio Supercomputer Center space at 1224 Kinnear Road to create a conference facility to disseminate information to current statewide users of the Blueprint for Advanced Learning Environment (BALE) Program. The estimated total project cost is $1.34 million and estimated construction cost is $795,334, with funding provided by the Board of Regents and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

• Renovation of space in the Parker Food Science and Technology Building to house a pulsed electrical field research and development pilot plant facility. The total estimated project cost is $500,000 and estimated construction cost is $432,000, with funding provided by the Board of Regents Action Fund, OARDC, Department of Defense, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, and gifts.

• Construction of an additional parking lot east of the Fawcett Center. The total estimated project cost is $650,000 and estimated construction cost is $500,000, with funding provided by Transportation and Parking Services, the Alumni Association, University Development, and Housing, Food Services and Event Centers.

• Upgrade of the McCracken Power Plant, including final design and installation of new boilers, upgrades of the electrical distribution system and construction of an addition to the plant. The total estimated project cost is $73 million and estimated construction cost is $51 million, with funding provided by University bond proceeds, with debt service paid from central University funds. The board also authorized employment of a construction manager for the project.

Facilities, spaces named by board

The board approved the following actions:

The track and soccer stadium will be named the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in honor of the Olympic champion. Owens was an alumnus of Ohio State and began his track career at the University. He won four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, in 1936, becoming a national hero in the United States.

A number of internal spaces within University facilities will be named for donors to the projects, including:

Shisler Center for Education and Economic Development at the Agricultural Technical Institute

• Rubbermaid Home Products Courtyard

• Seaman Corporation Group Room (Room 148)

• Wayne County National Bank Foyer

• Will Burt, Dennis B. Donahue Group Room (Room 150)

• Continental Office Environments Group Room (Room 120)

• Wayne County National Bank, Trustee of Laura B. Frick Charitable Trust Seminar
• Room (Room 110)

Mathematics Tower

• N. Wayne Rhodus Alcove (East Alcove, Room 274)

Fawcett Center

• Novice G. Fawcett Library (Room 103)

Veterinary Teaching Hospital

• Jane's Lobby (Patient Waiting Area, Room 1000), in honor of the care given a dog with a gift from Donald and Thekla Shackelford of Gahanna.

Dean appointment actions taken

Several appointments relating to deans were approved by trustees. They are:

• Michael J. Hogan has been named to a concurrent appointment as executive dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, effective July 1 through June 30, 2004. He currently serves as dean of the College of Humanities.

• Susan L. Huntington has been reappointed dean of the Graduate School, effective July 1 through June 30, 2006. Huntington is vice provost for graduate studies and
• Distinguished University Professor of the History of Art.

• Robert Gold has received an extension of his term as dean of the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, effective July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2003. Gold is a professor of mathematics.

Student counseling issues explored

In a presentation to the board, Louise Douce, director of Ohio State's Counseling and Consultation Service, told trustees that many students leave college because of personal rather than academic difficulties. Studies have shown that students who have received counseling have higher retention rates than noncounseled students, she added.

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers and severity of mental illnesses and disorders, Douce said. Some of the major issues college students face include: depression, eating disorders, traumatic stress, harassment, and alcohol and substance abuse, she said.

Ohio State's Counseling and Consultation Service provides students outpatient mental health care, including individual psychotherapy/psychiatric care; group therapy; and specialty services in drug/alcohol abuse, eating disorders and stress management, Douce said.

Distance learning, dentistry discussed

In other business, the board heard an update from Bobby Moser, vice president for outreach and agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, on the University's distance learning and continuing education efforts. Following a mandate from the president and provost, focus groups are assessing the existing distance learning initiatives and investigating those in place at Ohio State's benchmark institutions.

Dean Henry Fields of the College of Dentistry asked trustees to accept amendments to the Intramural Dental Practice Plan. The changes clarify that dental faculty will practice at only University facilities and that an employer-employee relationship will exist between the University and the dental faculty.

Scholars program offers first-year seminars

Eric Lowe, a freshman history major and a Humanities Scholar, says he was hesitant about taking a new research seminar at Ohio State until he discovered the topic, "Fifties Film and Literature." A student who has taken an interest in the post-World War II era, Lowe says he was excited about the chance to become involved in the class.

"It has been a really beneficial experience for me," Lowe told the Board of Trustees on May 4. In the seminar, he said, he is learning the fundamentals of how to be a student researcher at Ohio State, and his experience is motivating him to pursue more research projects in the future.

Other Scholars students and Dan Farrell, associate provost for Honors and Scholars Programming and director of the Honors & Scholars Center, highlighted aspects of the new seminar programs for the trustees.

Farrell, who designed the seminars, said they are intended to give Scholar students the opportunity to work closely with top research faculty, who serve as discussion leaders, in a small-group environment. The purpose of this program is to expose the students to both the idea and the practice of original research.

"The seminars are much more aimed at the learning than the teaching," Farrell said.

The seminar program was initiated this spring with two sections, including "Fifties Film and Literature," and is scheduled to grow to 12 sections next academic year.

"This new program is designed to attract our Scholar students into these kinds of opportunities by giving them a choice of different first-year research seminars to consider," Farrell said.

More than 450 Ohio State students participate in one of the four existing Scholars programs -- Health Sciences, Humanities, Arts Interdisciplinary and the Mount Leadership Society. The Mount society is in its second year, while the other three programs began this past fall. During the 2001-02 academic year, four new Scholars programs will be added -- Biological Sciences, Communication Technology, Undecided Liberal Arts and Tomorrow's Teachers.

Aside from living with fellow Scholars, each student receives mentoring and faculty support, enhanced career planning and graduate school preparation, guaranteed enrollment into selected first-year classes with other Scholars and enriched study approaches, such as study abroad and independent research opportunities.

According to Danielle Oldham, an undecided freshman and Humanities Scholar, the seminar she is taking, "Digital Culture," has been beneficial for several reasons. She lives off campus, but she has been able to get to know other Humanities Scholars through the seminar. "I really feel like I am part of the program now."

Oldham said her seminar deals with computers and how they shape the world. She said she is already working on a research project for the seminar and is becoming more comfortable with the process. "I'm very glad I took this class," Oldham said. "I've never done research before, but our professor wanted us to know how to do it."