Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee reaffirmed the importance of higher education and Ohio State’s dedication to community service in his semi-annual address to the faculty on Wednesday.
“The public has questioned the value of higher education,” Gee said to about 150 faculty members in the U.S. Bank Conference Theater in the Ohio Union at 4:30 p.m. “Are we … worth the cost to families paying tuition and to states helping to finance public colleges and universities?”
According to the recent College Board study, “College Pays 2010,” the answer is “yes,” Gee said.
“Since the onset of the current financial turmoil, the benefits of having a college degree have increased dramatically,” Gee said. “The College Board found that for young adults, ages 20 to 24, unemployment in the fourth quarter of 2009 was 2.6 times higher for high school graduates than for college graduates.”
The difference in earning power between the two groups is also increasing, he said, and the intangible benefits of higher education are incalculable.
Gee said he anticipates that the financial challenges facing colleges and universities will cause many institutions to become more outcome-oriented and disregard scholarly pursuits and community service. But OSU, he said, will not.
OSU fulfills its obligation to secure Ohio’s social and economic vitality through its faculty’s direct engagements, including research, he said.
“Those activities must and will continue because they are very much at the core of our responsibilities as a land-grant institution,” Gee said.
The university must address both external and internal barriers to continue operating at its current level, he said. External obstacles include the state’s regulations on construction.
OSU received permission for ProjectONE, the $1 billion renovation and expansion of the medical center, to be granted freedom from such regulations, Gee said.
“Because of this, we stand to save at the very least 15 percent in total expenditures and will be able to complete the project much more quickly,” he said.
Gee said these benefits demonstrate the increased capability of institutions when free from external control.
Robert Perry, professor of physics and former chair of the Faculty Council, who attended Gee’s address, said external barriers also make it difficult to get money for research and travel.
“Both state and federal regulations that are intended to prevent people from misusing public funds … create unnecessary paperwork,” he said. “They’ve taken a $10 million problem and turned it into a billion-dollar solution.”
Other barriers to university advancement are the university’s inefficient internal operations, Gee said.
“Ohio State has more than 35,000 vendor relationships during this past year,” he said. “Negotiating, tracking and managing so many relationships is a significant burden.”
Gee compared that number with Ford Motor Co., which has 850 vendor relationships. That would not be feasible for OSU, he said, but the university should aim for fewer than 10,000 such relationships.
“We are diverting our human and financial resources away from teaching and learning and like-minded activities that contribute to the future of the university,” Gee said.
Despite that, Gee said the university’s From Excellence to Eminence plan is improving the quality of OSU.
Other milestones, Gee said, include efforts to internationalize OSU’s curriculum with the recent opening of the Global Gateway Office in Shanghai, as well as the medical center faculty and staff’s “unmatched” dedication to find a cure for cancer.
Some faculty members who attended the speech expressed confidence in Gee’s ability to continue the university’s advancement.
Dick Gunther, professor of political science and chair of the University Senate Steering Committee, said Gee communicates openly with faculty members when considering new policies.
“President Gee and Provost (Joseph) Alutto meet regularly with faculty members,” he said. “Collaboration and dialogue between faculty and administration is the solution to these problems.”
Gunther said the university will face many challenges, but “if I could choose one person to lead the university through them, it would be President Gee.”
