University Senate: Notes from 5/2/98 meeting

Saturday, May 2, 1998, in Room 103, Kottman Hall, 2021 Coffey Road
(1) University Senate meeting, 5/2/98: Highlights
A. Vice President for Finance Shkurti gave a Budget Update.  Things look
pretty good, if Issue 2 passes.  Shkurti gave a more nuanced version of the
consequences of failure of Issue 2 than what we have heard from most Issue 2
supporters.  "A 15% cut in the higher education budget is a possibility if
the economy goes sour in the year 2000."  A senator asked Shkurti to
explain where the 15% figure came from.  Shkurti explained that a 15% cut
is one possible scenario.

{There is no chance that the legislature will make any budget changes this
summer if Issue 2 fails Tuesday, so we should see the announced (average)
salary increases.}

Shkurti said that the university will be much better off if Issue 2 passes.

{It does seem unlikely that Issue 2 will pass, but in case the margin is
closer than the polls suggest, each person in Human Ecology might encourage
everyone to vote Tuesday.}

B. A report from the Diversity Committee has some interesting information.

The College of Human Ecology is not too different from the university
average on student diversity.
Below are numbers for Human Ecology (HE), Food & Ag (Ag.), Business (Bus)
and the university (OSU)

Student enrollment, Autumn 1997
               HE    Ag    Bus    OSU
African
Am.         7.1%  2.7% 3.8%  6.6%
Hispanic   0.9     0.8     1.1    1.6
Asian Am 4.3     0.6     5.8    4.6
White       85.1   93.9    77.1  78.2
Unknown
or not
reported    2.3    1.7     11.9   8.7

Some colleges are making slow progress in increasing the proportion of
female faculty over the past 10 years (although Social Work went from
minority female to majority female) whereas the College of Human Ecology
has gone from under 20% male faculty to over 35% male faculty.  Human
Ecology is similar to some other colleges in making uneven progress in
racial diversity over the past 10 years.

The Diversity Committee also focused attention on the Office of Disability
Services, which has seen an increase from 1000 to 1500 clients in the past
year.  The Office is considering adding evening and Saturday hours.

C. Joyce Smith gave an excellent report for the Faculty Compensation and
Benefits Committee on benefits.  The report of the committee would be of
general interest to faculty and staff.  (Her e-mail is
josmith@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu )


Sherman Hanna, (click to email: HANNA.1@OSU.EDU)