Four campus groups are co-hosting a forum on Ohio University's upcoming budget cuts today in an effort to get input from a wider range of faculty, staff and students.
Future OU, Student Senate, Faculty Senate and the OU chapter of the American Association of University Professors collaborated to organize the forum, which will focus on OU's role in the region and priorities for budget cuts.
One of the organizers, professor Steve Hays, said the goal of the forum is to start brainstorming solutions to OU's budget crisis and to help remind people of what they value in the university.
[Today's] meeting
we are hopeful will simply give people a chance to remember the general direction that we believe this university should go in he said. Once we get that in mind - having a destination or goal in mind - I think that that will elicit a broad consensus ... We're a lot of smart people here ... Let's all of us on our own come up with some ideas.
On the forum's Facebook page yesterday, about 150 people planned to attend, but Hays said he is not sure how many people to expect.
After a brief introduction, Hays said the moderators will take some comments about what people value about OU, and then he would like to see participants break into smaller groups to discuss possible specific budgeting steps.
We'd like to see some time spent with individual students and individual faculty talking to one another
Hays said, adding that he hopes this forum will be the first in a series.
Geoff Buckley, a geography professor, and Student Senate President Robert Leary will moderate the two-hour forum.
The discussion comes just days after OU's provost signed a Faculty Senate resolution calling for academics to be prioritized over other operations as the university works to fill an estimated $15.7 million hole in next year's budget.
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Emily Grannis
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