After Friday's Board of Trustees meeting, Ohio University's Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs remains a center, not a school.
Provost Kathy Krendl, who presented information about the center to the board, said the center would like to propose moving to school status at the board's April meeting.
Becoming a school will allow the center more formal opportunities to attract outside contracts, said Trustee Larry Schey.
The core mission of the Voinovich Center started out being external
Schey said, adding that as more people got involved, the mission evolved to encompass external work as well as internal work, such as education.
The Voinovich Center provides real-world and problem-solving experience and focuses on environmental studies, economic development and entrepreneurship, Krendl said.
In 2006, about 90 percent of the center's $5.9 million budget comes from external contract work from the region and state, Krendl said.
If the center becomes a school, its plan is to be 80 percent funded by outside sources, Schey said.
Trustee Gene Harris questioned why the school could not retain its 90 percent of external funding. She suggested that an agreement be made between the school and the university not to let external funding go below a certain percentage.
I think we've got to have the financial stability balance there too she said.
Trustee C. Robert Kidder also questioned the finances of the center.
I'm trying to understand there's not going to be another hole in our financial dike he said.
School status would help retain faculty by engaging them and demonstrating the sustainability of the center, Krendl said.
Becoming a school also will attract more quality students, Schey said.
How do we expand the greatness of what's going on at the Voinovich Center to more students? he asked. The more you look at it
the better the answer gets.
Deans support the idea of the center's becoming a school and see opportunities for coordinating programs between schools, Schey said.
President's report
OU President Roderick McDavis presented updates to the board on plagiarism cases in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, including the recommendation of revoking a degree.
The Academic Honesty Committee examined 21 cases of plagiarism in the College of Engineering. Of these cases, 14 require hearings, four must be rewritten and three have been dismissed.
Of the two hearings that have been conducted, one resulted in an opportunity for a rewrite of the thesis and the other resulted in the recommendation of revoking a degree. The alumnus is in the process of appealing this decision.
Former department chair Jay Gunasekera will be on a leave of absence next academic year and is meeting with Dean Dennis Irwin to discuss a resolution, which could involve an admittance of negligence and a public apology, said John Burns, OU's director of legal affairs.
In June, Professor Bhavin Mehta's contract will not be renewed for budgetary reasons, Burns said. Mehta has filed a civil rights complaint against the university.
Also in his report, McDavis said that OU's Information Technology department has eliminated approximately 470 of the 500 instances where Social Security numbers are used. He expects 20 to 25 more instances to be eliminated by June.
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Bethany Furkin
