Recapping last week’s board of trustees meetings

Josie Stewart, Meghan Beery, Kate Shields, Brett Price, Arianna Smith
Tue, 22 Aug 2023 00:18:50 +0000
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The Board of Trustees met the week of Aug. 14 in a series of sessions. Credit: Lantern Photo File

Wexner Medical Center Board: Tuesday

John J. Warner, CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president of the university, was introduced to the board in the opening minutes and expressed his gratitude toward the university and Ohio State community.?

For the 31st consecutive year, the Wexner Medical Center was recognized among the best U.S. hospitals via the U.S. News Best Hospitals report and was named the second-best hospital in the state of Ohio.?

David E Cohn, interim CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, then introduced new leaders in The James Cancer Program and reviewed The James nursing accomplishments, including 26 ongoing and two new nursing studies.?

The Wexner Center Medical Board then reviewed its statement of operations for the 2023 fiscal year.?

Talent, Compensation and Governance Committee: Wednesday

At the Talent, Compensation and Governance Committee meeting, Joshua Kerner was officially appointed as the undergraduate student trustee and Taylor Schwein was officially appointed as the graduate student trustee.

Amendments were made to the Wexner Medical Center Board bylaws including a resolution on “Ohio State’s philosophy on statements” regarding statements by the university as an institution, John Zeiger, chair of the Talent, Compensation and Governance Committee, said. The resolution passed unanimously by a voice vote.

Legal, Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee: Wednesday

Chris Glaros, associate vice president for compliance operations and investigations in the Office of University Compliance and Integrity, discussed the top issues reported to hotlines in the 2023 fiscal year. The largest amount of these concerns — 37 percent — were with discrimination, followed by sexual misconduct at 28 percent, according to their reports.?

From the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, the university saw a 32 percent increase in employee matters. Across the same period, there was a decrease in HIPAA concerns and in anonymous complaints.

The Office of Government Affairs, which acts as a liaison between the university and the government in both Ohio and Washington, D.C., discussed its priorities with the board from the past year along with potential upcoming concerns.

At the federal level, much of the work the team shared with the board concerned funding; name, image, and likeness; and the Farm Bill, which deals with a variety of food and agricultural programs and is up for reauthorization this year.?

At the state level, funding is also a focus in addition to legislation like Senate Bill 83 and House Bill 153, the Enact Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act in both chambers and Senate Bill 117, which would establish the Salmon P. Chase Center within the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.?

Academic Affairs & Student Life Committee: Wednesday

The Academic Affairs & Student Life Committee spoke about receiving an ADVANCE Grant from the National Science Foundation in conjunction with Michigan State and Wayne State, which is aimed toward increasing the representation of women in academic science and engineering careers, according to the slides shared at the meeting. The university’s work will focus on “leadership, culture, and developing faculty across the lifecycle.”

Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, the Office of Academic Affairs and Office of Legal Affairs created a group to prepare the university for changes, Executive Vice President and Provost Melissa Gilliam, said.

The university removed race/ethnicity from documents seen by those reading applications and will hold training over the next academic year.

Additionally, Gilliam said they are using a multi-modal approach to help with student wellness, focusing on peer-to-peer support, referrals, resources, counseling and workshops.?

Master Planning & Facilities Committee: Thursday

In the project status report, Mark Conselyea, vice president of Facilities Operations and Development, said the James Outpatient Care, Arts District, Jane E. Heminger Hall and Newton Renovation are all completed, while the next project on the agenda is the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center, which is expected to be completed by October.?

Aparna Dial, senior director of Facilities Management and Sustainability, gave a resource stewardship update in which she explained that in 2022, Ohio State was 30 percent lower in emissions than FY 2015, the year in which these initiatives were implemented.?

“Our most ambitious goal is our carbon neutrality goal. As you’re aware, as you just mentioned, we track and report those emissions on an annual basis,” Dial said.

Ohio State’s water usage has also decreased, as the university was 35 percent lower, per campus user, in 2022 than it was in 2015, Dial said.

Other environmental goals that were presented include an increased ecosystem services index score, a reduced carbon footprint of the university fleet per thousand miles traveled and conversion to compressed natural gas, a type of gas that produces fewer emissions.?

Finance & Investment Committee: Thursday?

According to presented documents, operating revenues increased by $808 million in FY 2023 compared to FY 2022 due to healthcare revenue growth, increased tuition and fees, increases in major auxiliary enterprises, as well as higher grant and contract revenues.

Healthcare revenues accounted for a $533 million increase, while grants and contracts accounted for $93 million. An increase in tuition and fees yielded $57 million, and $48 million came from increased auxiliary revenues, according to presented documents.?

“The university’s overall financial position is [strongly] driven by a variety of factors, including our diversity of operations and our continued focus on operating and capital efficiencies,” Michael Papadakis, senior vice president of business and finance and chief financial officer, said.

Research, Innovation & Strategic Partnerships Committee: Thursday

Peter Mohler, head of the committee, said $12 million will be awarded to the study of therapies for gestational diabetes and $22 million will be awarded to accelerate gene editing for treating Huntington’s Disease and ALS.

Mohler said the engineering spinoff received Food and Drug Administration approval for heart surgery software and the arts and sciences spinoff startup exited stealth mode and raised $90 million for clean hydrogen technology.

At the full board meeting, Gilliam announced the Distinguished University Professors including, Stanley Lemeshow of the College of Public Health, Stuart Cooper of the College of Engineering and Elena Irwin of the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

The committee meeting ended with the approval of FY 2024.