VOL. CXXXVIII ISSUE XVIV • FREE-ADDITIONAL COPIES $1
THE NEWS RECORD THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI’S INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-RUN NEWS ORGANIZATION / MONDAY, DEC. 2, 2013
‘DALLAS PAPADOSIO BUYERS’
CCM PERFORMANCE OFFERS AUDIBLE FRENCH JOURNEY
FRENCH REVOLUTION
JAM BAND BRINGS SHOW, FOLLOWING TO BOGART’S
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BEARCAT BLOWOUT
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Ohio State parking facilities lease proving to be profitable Money from lease agreement fund additional faculty, improved services; UC could consider lease in future ALEXIS O’BRIEN NEWS EDITOR
As more colleges and universities look for ways to generate revenue and combat the rising cost of education, one Ohio university significantly increased its revenue by cashing in on a valuable asset — its parking facilities. Ohio State University leased its university parking system, which encompasses approximately 37,000 parking spaces including surface lots and garages, to parking company CampusParc for a $483 million up-front payment in exchange for the responsibility and revenue associated with managing and maintaining the parking system for 50 years, according to Lindsay Komlanc, director of marketing and communications at OSU. “We prepared the contract in such a way that it would bring the greatest overall benefit to the university while addressing key points that we knew were important to the university community, such as parking rate increases and service levels,” Komlanc said in an email. OSU was the first university to privatize its parking and officially did so Sept. 21, 2012, according to a CampusParc. The University of Cincinnati has considered doing the same thing. “We understand OSU entered into a very long, complicated document which provided for OSU to sell its parking rights,” said Fran Barrett, chairman of the UC Board of Trustees.
Search for UC chief diversity officer narrows to four candidates RYAN HOFFMAN NEWS EDITOR
The University of Cincinnati moved one step closer to finding a new chief diversity officer Wednesday. Louis Bilionis, chair of the search committee and dean of the College of Law, announced the search was narrowed to four candidates. Out of the four, only one — current interim chief diversity officer Bluezette Marshall — currently works at UC. The other candidates are Sabrina Gentlewarrior of Bridgewater State University, Cheryl Nunez of Xavier University and Keith Borders formerly of Luxottica Retail. According to the position description, the chief diversity officer will provide strategic, integrated program direction and consultation to colleges, units and departments; develop and manage an annual budget for diversity efforts; partner with the provost, deans and associate provost for diversity and inclusion and the chief human resources officer to improve the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty and staff. The officer will design and manage a university-wide reporting mechanism for measuring progress on diversity initiatives; generate promotional materials that will reflect and advance the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion; and chair the University’s Diversity Council. The position opened after former vice president of student affairs and chief diversity officer Mitchel Livingston retired at the end of 2012 after a 19-year career at UC. After Livingston’s retirement, UC President Santa Ono decided to make the office have two separate positions. He appointed Debra Merchant as the vice president of student affairs and Marshall as the interim chief diversity officer. Now Ono wants to officially fill the position. “The president wanted us to do our best to put him in this position to make the decision by the end of the calendar year,” Bilionis said. “But we haven’t felt rushed. We haven’t cut corners.” Bilionis and the rest of the search committee are hosting open forums for each candidate Dec. 6 to 12 — days that fall during students’ Fall semester exam week. “We sure hope we’ll have strong participation,” Bilionis said.“We worked as well as we could to meet the charge from the president and make it so the UC community can be engaged as best as possible.”
“There’s some concerns and there’s some benefits.” Any lease of the university’s parking assets would require approval from the board of trustees. Leasing public parking assets has become a controversial issue in the City of Cincinnati. The outgoing city administration presented a proposed 30-year lease early in the summer when city council was in the midst of heated budget debates. The contentious issue spurred lawsuits, petitions and court orders to halt the deal. Recently sworn-in mayor John Cranley said, ultimately, the lease would not be approved. But OSU is already reaping the financial benefits of its lease after one year. The university invested its initial $483 million payment into an endowment fund that will provide $3.1 billion in investment earnings — money the university has already begun to use. “In its first year alone, our $483 million infusion to Ohio State’s endowment yielded more than $50 million,” Komlanc said.“The long-term investment pool earned an 11.6 percent rate of return in fiscal year 2013. Approximately $20 million was distributed to directly support core university priorities including teaching, learning, research and transportation.” Some of the remaining capital was used to fund academic initiatives such as “hiring more faculty, offering more student scholarships and supporting the arts and humanities, as well as increasing the long-term investment pool by $4.9 billion.” And while very lucrative for OSU, the lease wasn’t finalized until everyone involved fully understood the arrangement and what it would mean for the university.
“The university moved forward with a request for qualifications for potential vendors only after more than 12 months researching the potential for a parking lease before,” Komlanc said.“This time was spent understanding every aspect of our parking system and how it might work under a potential leasing arrangement. In addition, we also engaged experienced advisers… who have each worked on a variety of similar transactions.” Barrett understands UC would receive substantial funds for capital improvements and amendment programs if the university chose to follow OSU’s example. “But that revenue would have to be replaced, and that’s something I for one, and other trustees who are very conscientious, would feel the same way [about],” Barrett said. “We have to look into this long and hard to see if this is in the best interest of the university.” UC Parking Services currently operates 12 garages and 24 parking lots, and sells more than 14,000 parking decals for 11,954 parking spaces per year. Online decal sales continue to increase through the online parking management system UC uses to streamline parking services and in-office processes by managing citations, permits, decals, asset management, appeals and finances. The board hasn’t taken any steps to move forward and future lease agreements won’t be considered until UC administration instructs the board to further look in to the process. “It is not on any agenda at the present time,” Barrett said. “It’s something that we’re aware of and expect to receive more information on.”
A NEW ERA BEGINS New mayor, city council sworn in; look to hit the ground running BRYAN SHUPE CHIEF REPORTER
Although the recently elected city council and mayor were sworn in Sunday, the new administration and council is eager to get the ball rolling, and fast. Despite the diverse makeup of the new city council, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said he is confident it will work in a bipartisan fashion to accomplish what’s in the city’s best interest. “I think we’re going to work together great and I expect us to govern in a collaborative manner,” Cranley said. Along with Cranley — the second modern-day mayor independently elected by voters — Cincinnatians also elected three new members to city council. One of those members, Amy Murray, will join Charlie Winburn as the only two Republicans on council. Voters also elected charterite member Kevin Flynn. Flynn, who works as a real estate attorney and teaches law at the University of Cincinnati, said council’s new make-up will foster collaboration between members. “I’m looking forward to it because I really think we’re going to find a lot of opportunities for 9-0 votes because we’re going to take the best ideas that each person on council has and we’re going to listen to them,” Flynn said. Flynn, who ran for council in 2009 and 2011, said his long-term plans center around creating more job opportunities for UC students. “One of the things we do great in Cincinnati is higher education,” Flynn said. “One of my loves is health care. We’re going to work with [UC Health] to find that synergy that’ll help our people and our city’s overall health improve.” While most of the council members said they look forward to working together, there are several notable issues dividing council and the city: primarily the streetcar project. After years of debate involving two referendums, a multitude of city council votes and public demonstrations both in favor and against the project, council will meet Monday to determine whether or not they will ultimately pull the plug. Flynn, Winburn, Murray and recently elected councilman David Mann join Cranley in opposing the streetcar. Cranley and four councilmembers said their plan is to halt the streetcar’s progress and further examine the initiative from a financial standpoint before continuing with its construction. However, federal officials have said
MADISON SCHMIDT CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Newly-elected mayor John Cranley swears his oath into office with son Joseph and wife Dena by his side at city hall Sunday morning.
that this hiatus would be the same as cancelling the project and would result in an immediate mandate for the return of $45 million in federal funds. Supporters argue the project will further development in the resurging Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and that canceling the project at this stage would be too costly.
Flynn — a UC alumnus — said there is no straightforward conclusion to this issue that will appease everyone in Cincinnati. “I’ve been spending the past few weeks looking at the numbers and they’re even worse than I thought,” Flynn said. “Any decision made on that is going to be SEE COUNCIL PG 2
College of Nursing, UC Health collaboration to create ‘workspace of future’ College continues technological transformation with help of $1.2 million endowment from UC Health BRYAN SHUPE CHIEF REPORTER
The University of Cincinnati College of Nursing is collaborating with UC Health to create a multipurpose workspace in Procter Hall on UC’s medical campus. Construction on the 7,200-square-feet workspace is scheduled to begin in Fall 2014 in hopes of increasing cooperation among the college’s students, faculty and staff. “The UC College of Nursing is on the cutting edge of technology and innovation and UC Health is committed to being a part of the future collaborative nursing education and research in Cincinnati,” said James Kingsbury, president and CEO of UC Health, in a statement. The space is located on the second floor of Procter Hall, which has been traditionally used for individual offices. During construction, the sectioned-off areas will
be opened up to eventually foster collaborations among members of the college. Greer Glazer, College of Nursing dean, said the innovative workspace would also include various forms of new technology. “It’s very nontraditional,” Glazer said. “We are a
“The UC College of Nursing is on the cutting edge of technology and innovation and UC Health is committed to being a part of the future collaborative nursing education and research in Cincinnati.” James Kingsbury, president and CEO of UC Health
leader in the use of technology so we’ve changed a lot of our classrooms and spaces to have more ways of interaction. We’ve totally transformed a number of classrooms already and this space is an extension of that.” College of Nursing students are now required to CHIEF.NEWSRECORD@GMAIL.COM / 513.556.5908
use tablets in class, and consequently, classrooms in the college have been fitted with projectors that allow students to show their work to the rest of the classroom to create increased interaction. Aside from the extended use of technology, the space will offer multiple meeting areas and will house more than 50 UC faculty and staff members. The College of Nursing currently enrolls more than 2,700 students in multiple nursing programs. “One of the benefits of the space is that it facilitates collaboration and free thinking,” Glazer said. “So we’ve agreed to the college and UC Health working together to figure out how we want to transform healthcare.” UC Health is UC’s affiliated health system that includes UC Medical Center — a hospital ranked as one of the regions best by U.S. News and World Report. UC Health is helping to fund the project through a $1.2 million endowment and the search for the project’s architect is currently underway. For more UC Health info visit newsrecord.org and follow us on Twitter @NewsRecord_UC.