Ribeau praised by board but declines raise
Trustees accept University house as gift

At its Dec. 17 meeting, the Board of Trustees accepted as a gift from the BGSU Foundation Inc. a house and the approximately five acres it occupies at 700 S. Wintergarden Road.

The foundation had purchased the home and adjacent property last spring to become a residence for University presidents and a site for University-related events and entertaining. The foundation board had originally planned to lease the property to BGSU, but, according to Board Chair Edward Ferkany, the logistics of the leasing process proved so complicated that a decision was made to instead simply make a gift of it.

The trustees voted May 7 to sell the residence formerly designated for the University president at 625 Hillcrest Drive, as the cost of renovating it sufficiently to meet the University’s needs turned out to be prohibitive.

Following an executive session, the board also expressed its support for President Ribeau and agreed to maintain his current compensation level. Ferkany read a statement saying:

“In his 10th year as president of Bowling Green State University, Sidney Ribeau continues to be a strong leader and visionary. Under his leadership the University remains well positioned to face the challenges that confront higher education today and into the future.

“President Ribeau has expressed his desire to direct University resources toward accomplishing the rigorous agenda he has set forth.

“To that end, while President Ribeau’s exceptional performance merits additional reward, the board has agreed to honor his wishes and focus on moving the University forward. We agree that this is the right decision for our University at this time.”

He added that the board supports President Ribeau’s agenda for:
• increasing University collaboration with business and community leaders to fuel economic development throughout the state;

• promoting his internal “Organizing for Engagement” initiative to align faculty reward and recognition with the outreach goals of the University. The board formally endorsed the initiative.

• increasing external grants and contracts to support innovative and successful student learning programs, and

• making the case for supporting higher education and the role it plays in producing the world-class workforce needed by the state.

Speaking up for higher education
The board heard from Larry Weiss, associate vice president for University relations and governmental affairs, about the pressing need to communicate to legislators the importance of funding for higher education.

Weiss said trustees, parents and alumni have an important role to play in overcoming legislators’ perception that “there is no constituency” advocating for higher education, as one member of the House of Representatives' Finance and Appropriations Committee told him. During the last budget cycle discussions, Weiss said, an Ohio senator told him, “No one ever failed to get re-elected because he or she cut funding for higher education.”

“Ohio is an undereducated state,” Weiss told the board. It needs 250,000 more citizens with bachelor’s degrees just to meet the national average, and about 350,000 with any kind of college experience to meet that average. Unfortunately, he added, the figures mirror the relative decline in Ohio per capita incomes.

Sue Recknagel, assistant director of alumni affairs, demonstrated a new tool called “Advocate for BGSU” on the alumni Web site that offers a convenient means of identifying and contacting legislators, as well as “action alerts” about important pending legislation or issues.

President Ribeau commented, “Given the local nature of politics, we need to start communicating with all the groups in the region—from the smallest to the largest organizations—to have this kind of discussion. We’ve already targeted a group of business leaders, from the young newcomers to the more established, to get this message across.”

Warehouse spaces to be consolidated
In other action, the trustees voted to buy a warehouse property in the industrial park off Dunbridge Road using proceeds from the 2004 bond issue. The purchase will allow the consolidation of multiple warehouse spaces for which the University currently pays rent. It will also help replace some of the storage space lost when the Pike Street Warehouse was demolished to make room for the new parking lot 4A, according to Christopher Dalton, senior vice president for finance and administration.

Part of the plan entails moving the warehouse and receiving operation now in the Park Avenue Warehouse to the new property, freeing up Park Avenue for use by the College of Technology.

New graduate degree in statistics
At the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs meeting earlier in the day, the committee affirmed a recommendation to create a separate Ph.D. in statistics. Although there are both mathematics and statistics tracks in the mathematics Ph.D. program, all the doctoral degrees previously said “mathematics.”

“Students in the statistics track find themselves at a disadvantage” in the job market with that designation, Provost John Folkins told the committee. In addition, having the statistics track will enable BGSU to attract top graduate students. No changes in costs or overall administrative duties will result from the change, he said.