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I know there is a lot of duplication, and there needs to be coordination between the in state universities. I just cant see how consolodating entire universities is going to open up more opportunities for Ohioans seeking higher education. It will be harder to get into these new universities, and if they are all going to pursue being research universities, it is going to be more expensive. This will close out the option of a university education for many Ohioans.It is kind of ironic that a Republican governor populated the state with accredited universities and now a Democratic governor is trying to close down several of them. For what? Higher rankings on the US News & World Report rankings?
SUMMARY OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETINGSeptember 20, 2007Actions taken: 1. Approved a five percent merit salary increase, retroactive to July 1, 2007, for President Michael Schwartz, recognizing his successful leadership and satisfactory progress made with respect to the University’s Master Plan as referenced in his employment contract. 2. Approved the appointment of Treasurer Pro-Tem Robert H. Rawson, Jr. to the Board Officer position of Treasurer for one-year, replacing Ernest L. Wilkerson, Jr.3. Amended and approved changes to the Bylaws of the Board of Trustees pertaining to the committee structure and responsibilities or functions of the committees of the Board.4. Ratified the President’s appointment of Peter K. Anagnostos as Vice President for University Advancement, effective October 1, 2007.5. Approved the establishment of a Master of Arts in Global Interactions degree program comprised of interdisciplinary courses in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Law and Business.6. Adopted revisions to the Faculty Personnel Policies and Bylaws to conform to current practice, improve the functioning of committees, and enable retiring College of Law Clinical Professors and Legal Writing Professors to become eligible for emeritus faculty status.7. Awarded Emeritus/Emerita status as appropriate to the following seventeen retired faculty members: David W. Adams, David Barnhizer, Edward Bartlett, Richard D. Bingham, Robert B. Charlick, Tim R. V. Davis, Joseph P. DeMarco, Valerie D. George, Paul Jalics, Arthur R. Landever, Vincent J. Melograno, Donald Ramos, S. Ramagopala Rao, Douglas O. Stewart, Allan Taub, Lee F. Werth, and Philippa Brown Yin.8. Awarded Associate of the University status to Dr. Diane Dillard, Alice Khol, Nancy Leahy, Victoria Plata, and Carol Stolarski; and Librarian Emeritus status to George Lupone.9. Accepted, with thanks, the Gifts totaling $1,320,063 and the Sponsored Programs funds totaling $8,207,435 received during the period April 1, 2007 through June 30, 2007 (FY 2007, 4th Quarter), and directed the President to use those Gifts and Sponsored Programs funds subject to their terms and conditions.10. Approved a Joint Use Agreement between Cleveland State University and Kenston Local School District, for $300,000 of pass through funds designated to be used by Kenston for the study, purchase, construction, and installation of a wind turbine unit on its campus.11. Approved the extension of the Keith Building lease for 12 months from September 1, 2007 to August 21, 2008 for space on the 21st Floor to facilitate the College of Education grant program that has been extended for one year.12. Increased the Viking Hall room rates for FY 2008-2009 by 2% for current residents renewing before February 29, 2008, and 3% for new and returning students who do not renew by the deadline. Law resident students are charged an additional $150 room fee for the additional week in residence.13. Approved the proposed meal plan rates for FY 2008-2009 with new offerings and rates to enable a reduced cost per meal and provide additional DiningDollars value.14. Adopted a policy on the duplication of keys as part of the University’s Access Control Regulation in order to comply with the Ohio Revised Code Section 3345.13.15. Authorized the University Administration to enter into a contract with Pepsi Americas initially for five years with three two-year renewal periods and the final terms of agreement subject to the review and approval of the Officers of the Board.16. Authorized the University Administration to enter into negotiations with Heartland Developers LLC, or another owner at a suitable location to lease retail space for a CSU Dining Production Kitchen with the final terms subject to the review and approval of the Board Officers.17. Passed a resolution of commendation, acknowledging with appreciation the campuswide efforts of everyone involved with the “2007 Undergraduate Enrollment Management Challenge Team,” championed by President Schwartz and Provost Saunders and comprised of Mike Droney, John Walsh, Elizabeth Lehfeldt, Bill Wilson, Tom Collins, Janet Stimple, Rachel Schmidt, Michele Mackey, Abbey Shiban, David Crumb, Barbara Fortin, David Bowditch, Sandra Emerick, Dean Greg Sadlek, and Dean Bette Bonder, resulting in successfully meeting the aggressive goal of a 15 percent increase in new undergraduate students for Fall 2007.
Northern Ohio Live AwardsPresident Wins Top Award for Civic LeadershipCleveland State University President Michael Schwartz received the top award for civic leadership at Northern Ohio Live’s 27th annual Awards of Achievement. Surrounded by family, the president was honored at a gala event at the State Theatre at Playhouse Square. It was his first public appearance since undergoing surgery earlier this month. The president and other winners will be featured in the magazine’s October issue. NOL said Dr. Schwartz’s “visionary leadership, combined with a down-to-earth personality and sense of humor, have endeared him far beyond the campus community and to all of Northeast Ohio.”Calling Cleveland State “one of Cleveland’s major downtown focal points,” the magazine said the campus “has been revitalized under Dr. Schwartz’s leadership.” It also praised him for showing “an unfaltering commitment to the education of tomorrow’s leaders.” The magazine cited the numerous accomplishments of his presidency, including: academic enrichment with a focus on faculty research and outstanding teaching; Building Blocks for the Future, the $200-plus million master plan that is changing the face of campus and downtown Cleveland; extended campuses in Westlake and Solon that make education more convenient to students; establishment of an honors program; heightened admissions criteria for incoming students; and enhanced student service and technology initiatives.
New Facility gets awards from local, national organizationsThe one-year-old, $30 million Recreation Center has already received numerous awards from such prestigious groups as the American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Institute of Architects Cleveland and the National Intramural and Recreation Sports Association.The award for innovative design and functionality stands out as the most prestigious, according to Recreation Center Director Greg Ross.It’s prestigious not because it is a plaque to hang on the wall, but because it recognizes the plethora of recreational options available to students at the new facility.“The versatile design of our facility allows us to better serve the students by offering a wider variety of intramural and recreational activities such as racquetball, floor hockey, and indoor soccer,” said Ross. CSU’s new Recreation Center was chosen for the national awards through an application process, according to Ross. CSU sent several photos and some literature about the new facility to the national associations.However, the local groups that recognized CSU’s facility did send their site committees out to see the center. The new facility is certainly a giant step up from the former center in the basement of Woodling Gym. At the old facility, students had to schedule their workouts around inconvenient hours of operation. Besides, the workout equipment and machines were outdated. However, times have definitely changed with the new facility that offers an array of fitness and recreation opportunities. Currently, the center treats its guests to weight training, cardio machines, two hardwood basketball courts, racquetball courts, and a multi-purpose gym. Not to mention a modern heating and cooling system, which keeps the building at a comfortable temperature year-round. Even more than the accolades, Ross said the only feedback he needs is from students who take advantage of all the facility has to offer.“The true achievement is realized when I walk through the building and see students in the weight room, on the machines, and participating in intramurals,” said Ross.The students seem to be in agreement with Ross on the 110,000-square foot, three-floor building.“I love the new Rec Center because of all it has to offer and the convenience of just walking across campus instead of going out of my way to drive to another gym,” said CSU senior Jonathon Polacek.
BON VOYAGE, CHAS SMITHThis morning, Oct. 16, our friend Chas Smith peacefully vacated Earth Plane One for greener pastures.Chas was hospitalized a month ago with double pneumonia, and had a severe stroke while in the hospital. He had also been fighting Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer which he had beaten in his youth but which killed his brother several years ago, and for which he had recently started getting radiation treatments. Chas was a really tough old soldier but nobody could fight this so many illnesses and traumas forever.Chas had just turned 50.As a music professor at Cleveland State University, Chas taught the most popular course at the whole school, a class in the history of rock and roll and its roots. Chas put much more into his class than just the history, however. He was beloved by students as much for his spontaneous rants on life and society in general, or on space and science, or whatever had grabbed his interest that week, as for his musical subject matter.He also taught regular and very popular workshops in music and consciousness at Starwood, Winterstar, and Sirius Rising. He taught basic musical composition to little kids through a program with the Cleveland Opera. He authored three textbooks on the history of rock and roots music: "From Woodstock to the Moon: The Cultural Evolution of Rock Music," "The Soul of Sunrise: Grassroots Music in America," and another which was only recently finished.The focal point of his life, however, was playing music. He was in The Clocks, a popular Cleveland punk band in the late '70s and early '80s. During the 1990s and early 2000s he fronted Einstein's Secret Orchestra or ESO (with Dave DeLuca, Bob Mozick and Michele George (to whom he was married for several years). Two excellent studio albums and many good live recordings exist. In recent years ESO became more of a blues, classic C&W and jam band with many different members.  Chas also toured with Cobra Verde as keyboardist.Cleveland radio listeners heard Chas's weekly show on WCSB, Swamp Radio, every Thursday night for over 20 years. This eclectic show included not only whatever music Chas was into at the time, but live performances, jams, and also improv comedy and plays -- first with Brain Rot Theater (radio comedy sketches by Dave DeLuca, Dan Didonato, and Chas) and later with DeLuca, myself and my wife "Princess Wei." Chas also took calls from listeners -- and he got some pretty wild listeners. The bits recorded on Swamp Radio were a mainstay of the syndicated SubGenius show "Hour of Slack" for almost a decade.Almost all SubGenius events in the Cleveland and Northern Ohio area featured ESO (or sometimes just Chas, solo) as the musical headliner from 1992 to 2002.Chas was an outdoorsman -- not a hunter, but a hiker and camper. His seasonal camp at Brushwood Folklore Center in western rural New York grew into a sort of giant art gallery and performance area where some of the coolest events at Brushwood took place -- and if you're familiar with Brushwood, that's saying quite a bit. Variously called Tranquility Base and Club Tiki Banzai, Chas's parties (including the annual Rumble in the Jungle) are legendary. When Chas wasn't playing, he was DJing.The camp -- and his performance costumes or "rock star duds" -- were outlets for Chas's considerable graphic arts talents. He had some of the most psychedelic outfits I've ever seen in rock shows, decorated by hand in his inimitable style. His home and especially the recording studio in the basement benefited from his handiwork and seemingly boundless energy.Chas will be remembered by thousands -- his almost countless former students, his many fellow musicians and performers, his camping buddies and the many communities to which he was such a big contributor -- Brushwood, A.C.E. in Cleveland, The Church of the SubGenius, WCSB, Cleveland State, and probably many more of which I have yet to learn.Chas wasn't the only reason I left Dallas for Cleveland, but he was definitely one of the main ones. He is already greatly missed.A deep and heartfelt thanks to Bob Mozick for being such a rock for Chas and his family and friends through this whole hard time.The funeral will be held at Brickman Funeral Home in Willoughby, Ohio; we'll announce the exact date and place here as soon as possible.HOUR OF SLACK #1122 will be a Chas tribute show. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *FROM PRINCESS WEI'S LETTER TO THE CHAMELEON CLUB/ A.C.E.I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings, and they don't come much sadder than this one.Bob Mozik called me at 7:30 this morning to tell me Chas had left this mortal plane.He said Chas had a small army of visitors over the weekend - we think he was waiting to see as many friends as he could see before he left (or hear them as it was more toward the end).A Beachland Ballroom benefit concert is in the works. His memorial will most likely take place at Brickman Funeral Home in Willoughby, OH. I will post any more info as soon as I know it.Chas was overcome by multiple medical problems. While at the Clinic, he bravely fought 4 separate infections, double pneumonia, his Hodgkin's disease, which had come out of remission, and massive stroke damage. The thing to remember is that to the end, Chas kept a bright outlook. Always the thumbs up - while he was able.Also, the doctors at the clinic used all of their knowledge and expertise to do everything they could for him. I visited him every other day, and witnessed very compassionate care each time I saw him.Thanks to Bob Mozik, he had music in his ears the last week or so of his life. Bob bought a CD player and brought in many mix disks of Chas' favorite music. One of the nurses said she thought a CD player should be standard equipment for every hospice room - what could be better than soothing music to allow you to be far away while still physically there?Chas' family had no idea how many friends Chas had. They were bowled over by the number of cards, gifts, flowers and visitors he received. I pray that that bowling over can continue when many contributions toward the Medical Fund his father set up begin coming in. Again, donations for Chas can be sent directly to: Donation for Charles V. SmithU.S. Bank 26410 LakeshoreEuclid, Ohio 44132Please make checks payable to Donation of Charles V. Smith
CONVOCATION ADDRESSPRESIDENT MICHAEL SCHWARTZOCTOBER 25, 2007Thank you for coming to this convocation today. I regret that it comes a little later in the semester than usual, but I was fortunately detained at the Cleveland Clinic, and it has taken a little while to recover. And I do thank those of you who sent cards and other messages of encouragement. Those things do matter a great deal. Let me begin by introducing you to those members of our Board of Trustees who are here today.I would also like to introduce you to our new Vice President for University Advancement, Peter Anagnostos. You will be hearing a great deal from him in the months and years ahead.This is supposed to be an annual address depicting “the state of the university,” and I believe that this will be the fifteenth of these that I have delivered. You might imagine that by now I’d know how to craft such a speech rather easily. That is simply not the case, and I have come to call this “my annual agony.” This year is not different. There is a very long list of substantial achievements by both professors and students since last year. It is sufficient to say at this point that ours is a very engaged and engaging, intellectually lively institution that has become a critical component of the life of Northeastern Ohio. We are no longer a mystery to the people of the region. We have put up enough signs to tell them that we are here, and we are able to answer the long- asked question: “What do you do there?” What people mean when they ask that is, “What are you known for?” In this region, people associate the University of Akron, for example, with polymers, in spite of the fact that they do many things well. They associate Kent State University with liquid crystals, in spite of the fact that they, too, do many things well. It is in that sense that they ask the question, “What do you do there?” It is not a frivolous question, either. People do understand the power of universities to contribute to the economic development of a region, and they have come to think of those contributions in terms of either new product development or old product improvement. That is, of course, a very narrow view of our contributions to economic development. My friend and colleague, Vice President (and now also Interim Dean) Ned Hill, has pointed out to me that the failure of economic development is very rarely on the technology and innovation side of things. Rather, the failure of economic development is virtually always in the failure of organization, leadership, and especially management. The failure is, in short, a failure to educate people who are the necessary ingredients for making businesses, industries and other institutions run well. What do we do here? Well, try this: We transform the people who, in turn, transform the economic and civic life of this region and beyond. That’s what we do here, and quite frankly, we are very, very good at it. As universities go, we are a very youthful one at the age of forty three. We do not have the advantages of one hundred years of experience, and we do not have all of the advantages that inevitably go with great maturity. We don’t yet have great institutional sagas and the mythologies that go with them. We don’t yet have the wealth that some institutions have been able to amass over many years. And only now are the people of our region beginning to adopt us, to embrace us as “theirs.” It takes a long time to make that happen, and we have achieved it rather quickly. In part, that is because we and our fellow citizens have come to understand that the most pressing need of our region is the attainment of global competitiveness, and universities—great universities—are the mechanism that can make that happen. And how do we at Cleveland State University contribute to that? Consider the following. We have the largest graduate school in Northeast Ohio with the greatest proportion of graduate and professional students in the entire state. Annually, we award more than half of our degrees to post-baccalaureate students, and we are well known as a top producer of African American students with Masters Degrees. This university’s emphasis on education for the professions is integral to the economic vitality of the region. Over eighty-five percent of our roughly 100,000 graduates have remained in Ohio as leaders in business, finance, government, communications, science and engineering, education, information technology, law and health—the core businesses and industries of Northeast Ohio. And, as Cleveland’s only public university we also shape the fabric of civic life in the community. One would be very hard pressed to find charitable, non-profit, artistic, or governmental organizations not touched in one way or another by the work of the Levin College of Urban Affairs and the faculties, alumni, and students of virtually every other department, school, and college. The fact is that we supply both the infrastructure and leadership for business, government, and non-profit organizations. Agile responsiveness to the so-called “brain-drain” has led us to establish the largest portfolio of graduate business degrees in Ohio, unparalleled leadership in on-site corporate graduate business education, executive leadership training in both K-12 education and community agencies, and the number two ranked program in the nation in city management. Successful entrepreneurship, and with it the revitalization of the regional economy, requires the coupling of transformational technology with translational business talent. It is this synergy that defines our university today. To put it even more directly, we educate and train the people who make things run. Without those skills, the most innovative, disruptive technologies in the world will, by themselves, do nothing for our global competitiveness.The Cleveland State promise is an education for leadership. And that leadership comes from people who are educated broadly in the traditional liberal arts and sciences as well as those who are more specifically trained in the professions. They lead, they manage, they create and invent. Currently underway, there is an effort to develop a program in leadership studies and practice that will draw its curriculum from every one of our colleges and will, in one way or another, touch every student who enrolls at this university. It is quite clear that the largest and fastest growing industry in our region is health care with its supporting biomedical research community. That sector of the economy is very well served by professional programs in virtually every college: from nursing, physical therapy, biomedical engineering and medical physics to healthcare management, bioethics, health law, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teacher education. We receive with great regularity large grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Education which support bench molecular medical research (often in collaboration with the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic), STEM scholarships and graduate assistantships. It is now time that Cleveland State University joins the collaborative known as NEOUCOM, the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine. We have the infrastructure to be party to a medical school, and some of our entering students will be very well served by the opportunity to receive both a BS and an MD degree in six years, returning to our community as primary care physicians in an area greatly in need of their professional practice expertise. We shall petition for inclusion in that collaborative, and I shall keep you informed as to the deliberations that then take place. Cleveland State University enables “The American Dream” in our region. We are the public university in the major metropolitan area of Northeast Ohio, and our emphasis is on inclusiveness, access, hands-on education, real world experiences, and seamless transitions from undergraduate to professional programs. Student success and excellence in everything that we do are our central concerns. Our students are transformed from the “labor pool” to the “talent pool.” And that is who we are and that is what we do.None of this is to suggest in even the slightest way that research, scholarship, and advancements in the arts at Cleveland State are not critical efforts. Those things become more important to our well-being every day. As I have said to you before, it is one thing to prepare our students well for their entry into a regional economy. It is equally imperative that there be a regional economy for them to enter, as well as a rich cultural environment in which to live.The research that is carried on here is very often applied and very meaningfully connected to our region. From Professor Mark Tebeau’s research on the sounds and stories of Cleveland and the Underground Railroad to the grant funded research of Dean Bette Bonder on access to health care in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, the undergraduate and graduate students who work on these projects are not simply exposed to methods of inquiry in the disciplines. They gain a real connection to the region, and to the people and their problems. And that is what we seek in our faculty—people who are profoundly committed to our students and to the community in which we find ourselves.Some of our scientists are making real progress in understanding disease and disease processes, especially with regard to various cancers and blood diseases. Some of our engineers are making enormous strides in understanding alternative energies, especially with regard to wind, solar, and laser energy. With regard to wind, for example, Professor Rashidi’s new wind power device will soon be built on top of our physical plant building for demonstration purposes. It is very different from the more common “prop-on-pole” device that you often see such as the one at the Great Lakes Science Center. It promises great efficiency in both urban and rural environments.There is vibrant scholarship in every one of our departments. It would take a very long time to list all of the work that goes on in our laboratories, libraries, and studios. There are, however, some common measures of the size and scope of our effort that are worth examining. Let me give you a few comparative numbers to put our effort in perspective. The National Science Foundation publishes a list of universities ranked by their R&D expenditures of federal funds only. These numbers do not include things such as the Reading First grant from the No Child Left Behind program. We hold those funds on behalf of Ohio and they total more than $28 million. Nor are state funds included, such as our $24 million dollar Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering. These rankings are exclusively for research and development funds from federal sources. The latest rankings are for the year 2006 and 640 universities and colleges are ranked. In Northeast Ohio, of the public universities—the University Of Akron, Kent State University, Youngstown State University, NEOUCOM, and Cleveland State University—The University of Akron does lead the group, ranked at 209 of the 640. Cleveland State University was ranked second in Northeast Ohio at number 246, and Kent State University was ranked at number 268. Additionally, The Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown was ranked at 323 while Youngstown State University was ranked at 464. If all of these efforts had been combined, the aggregate would have been ranked at 193rd, or in the upper third of all of those ranked. This is not to put any ideas in anyone’s head. It is only to say that the aggregated public research effort in the region is not to be demeaned, and that our role in all of that is not a small thing. These efforts in our region are even more interesting when put into another perspective. You will find that CSU’s full time faculty size is reported at 559 while the University of Akron’s is reported at 810 and Kent State’s is reported as 1186 for fiscal year 2006. If one divides the expenditure numbers through by reported full-time faculty size, the relative positions of the universities do not change, but one sees immediately that we maintain our position with the smallest of the faculties of the three universities. And just as much to the point, if one looks at the array of doctoral programs at the three institutions, CSU’s limited effort in doctoral study at six programs compared to the substantial numbers of those programs at the other universities makes our ranking even more remarkable. Doctoral education does, after all, require a substantial research effort to sustain it. The Ph.D. is a research degree. A fuller array of doctoral programs, especially in the STEM and related disciplines would no doubt improve our position in the research rankings. We can do better on the research front, and we shall. We are in the process of finding a new Vice President for Research, having divided that position from the Dean of Graduate Studies. The first challenge for that new vice president shall be to improve our effort in research grant writing and our success rate in receiving those grants.Let me be clear: I have absolutely no interest in matters using rankings to define who we are. It is not particularly important to me that our university be seen as a Research One or a Research Two, as the old Carnegie Classification system used to call us, or as Research Intensive or Research Extensive in more contemporary terms. It isn’t a matter of what we are called, it is a matter of what we do. I do care very much that our university is known as a substantial contributor to the growth of our competitiveness in the global economy. I do care very much that we are contributing to the best of our ability in providing an economy that can employ our graduates and all other citizens at a high level. I do care very much that those same graduates become the leaders of civic life in this region in all respects. And I do care very much that it be understood that Cleveland State University has a duty to provide the world with citizens who value peace, prosperity, health, and above all, personal freedom and liberty. Quite frankly, we do these things well. And quite frankly, we can do all of them much better than we do. This is not a matter of marketing and advertising. This is a matter of values, beliefs, and a sense that our adherence to those values and beliefs is morally compelled. We behave this way because it is the right thing to do.And is all of this effort to define what we do and how we do it beginning to have some results? We are making a substantial effort to improve the success rates of our students. The Provost, Dr. Saunders, has this uppermost in her mind, and Professor Govea, our Presidential Assistant for Student Success, and Professor Lehfeldt, Director of General Education, have worked diligently on this issue. We have instituted a program of Learning Communities for our newer students, the Provost has funded a research experience opportunity for students across the campus, and if you were to look at the student involvement in faculty research at our university it would surprise you. Nearly every project has some student involvement. All of this is in an effort to be sure that students are connected to their faculty mentors and to other students as well. Vice President Droney is developing an opportunity for a “virtual campus community” with IS&T, again with the purpose of getting and keeping our students involved with one another and with their professors. And by the way, a year ago, I transferred responsibility for enrollment management to Vice President Droney. He set a rather lofty goal of an increase of 15% in new undergraduate students for this year. And he and his associates reached it. We saw a 22% increase in new freshmen and an 8% increase in transfer students this year. Members of the faculty and staff from across the campus came forward under his leadership to work on this effort. I thought that the goal was a bit of a stretch, and it was. But it was achieved. In celebration of the achievement, I am announcing today that the university will be closed for two additional days during the holiday season. Those days are Monday, December 24 and Monday, December 31 – Christmas Eve and News Year’s Eve..And, by the way, fully half of the students living in our residence halls are freshmen, and Vice President Boyle is now in the early planning stages of a third residence hall for students. Soon the work for our new Student Union building will be underway. We are going to be greatly inconvenienced for about two years while that work goes forward, but I am absolutely certain that it will be worth the inconvenience. The work of recapturing the space under the Main Classroom Building is nearly completed and that proved inconvenient for a time as well. I am sure that there has been some inconvenience at the College of Law as that renovation work goes forward. Still, all of it has the same purpose. Our students deserve the best opportunities to be with each other and with their professors for the purposes of learning. Whether that learning is formal or informal, it is about learning nevertheless, and we must have it go on under the best circumstances that we can provide. And, speaking of facilities, some of you may have seen some drawings for a new building for the College of Education and Human Services. Construction on that may begin in late winter or early spring. We also have in mind a new center for the visual arts, also sited on Euclid Avenue, and we are working on a plan with the Playhouse Square Foundation, through Mr. Art Falco’s good offices, to move our theater program into a theater at that location. In addition, the Collegetown Project as a private effort represents the building of our new community and our joint effort with the Cleveland Institute of Art to bring the District of Design to Euclid Avenue furthers the effort to build that new community.None of this is cheap. And even with a freeze on tuitions for our students, going to this public university is still a reach for many of them. We have real needs for new facilities, including science buildings; we have real needs for scholarship dollars to endow the Honors Program and to bring other students to us as well; and we have real needs to bring professors who are able to provide leadership to the disciplines we choose to develop. We need endowed chairs. And I am absolutely certain that we are not going to see those resources from the state’s treasury. We will have to develop those resources on our own through the solicitation of private gifts from friends, corporations, foundations, and ourselves. We can do that. Much of the planning has already taken place. You will hear more about this as the program develops, but I did want you to know that the Cleveland State University Foundation Board has been very hard at work on this project for some time. The key element to the campaign must be student aid. Our students will receive more than $100,000,000 in state, federal and our own financial aid, most of it in loans. Those students make enormous sacrifices and put their confidence and trust in our ability to change them from “labor” to “talent.” Many of them work full time and many work part time. Some of them take care of their own children and other family members. They are serious about their efforts, and we approach that with great respect and even some real reverence. This society is not blessed with so much talent that it has some to waste. All of our efforts, including our financial efforts, must be centered on student success.Well, there is a great deal more to tell you about the state of our university, but there is also a limit to the time that I can keep you here. Let me take up one last matter that I know has been of some concern to you (and to me). It has to do with the talk of the merger of institutions in our region. The Plain Dealer has predicted that I would weigh in on this matter today, and here it is.That discussion originated from our Chancellor, Eric Fingerhut, who believes that Northeast Ohio deserves a public research university and the economic development opportunities that such an institution might well provide. The goal is noble. It is an incredibly complex notion, and it is also one that carries with it some risk. As you know, I have always argued that timidity is a bad thing in higher education; the risk involved here doesn’t trouble me. I have heard arguments on both sides of this issue, and in fact, I have heard at least one alternate proposal that I have found interesting—even compelling.Economies are regional phenomena. Massing regional strengths in pursuit of the improving of our life chances in a global economy is, it seems to me, an obvious strategy. The question is what is the best way to achieve the goal using a regional strategy while keeping in mind that universities have their own histories and thus their own identities, their own cultures, and their own values and beliefs.I believe that Cleveland State University has an enormous contribution to make to a regional higher education strategy and that we do not need to redefine ourselves or ask any other institution to redefine itself in the process of developing that regional strategy. I do believe that institutions with sharply differentiated missions, with clearly delineated and non-competitive aspirations for centers of excellence which can be built collaboratively can be brought together in some combination to improve our regional global competitiveness. This may call for some reform of the current governance structure of higher education. It may require the recognition that the University System of Ohio, which was more an announcement at the time than an administrative plan, will be, in actuality, a group of regionally defined university systems, each designed to serve a regional economy. I would consider that kind of thinking a substantial step forward to regionalism at its best across all of Ohio. And above all, understand that change is coming; it always does. In short, I believe that there are many ways to organize our “system” for the good of all the people. And my advice to you is to keep open minds, entertain ideas as they come, ask good questions, and accept only thoughtfully crafted answers. That is, I think, what intelligent and well educated citizens were called upon to do by Mr. Jefferson. Michael SchwartzPresident
So the Rootstown campus would close?
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Topic: Cleveland: Cleveland State University News & Info (Read 48291 times)
