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FACULTY SENATE

Meeting Minutes

July 13, 2026

Senators Present:  Ann Abraham, Loretta Aller, Omid Bagheri, Tina Bhargava, Casey Boyd-Swan, Matt Butler, Jennifer Cunningham, Mark Dalman, Ed Dauterich, Omar De La Cruz Cabrera, Vanessa Earp, Julie Evey, Michael Fisch, Tianyuan Guan, Sean Kennedy, Velvet Landingham, Aaron Maguire, Mahli Mechenbier, Taraneh Meshkani, Ashley Nickels, Vic Perera, Linda Piccirillo-Smith, Helen Piontkivska, Lydia Rose, Susan Roxburgh, Athena Salaba, Jim Seelye, Deborah Smith, Gregory Smith, Jennifer Taber, Eric Taylor, Francisco Torres, Lauren Vachon, Laurie Wagner, Theresa Walton-Fisette, Christopher Was, Kyle Winkler

Senators Not Present: David Dees, Michele Ewing, Michelle Foster, David Kaplan, Terri ����ֱ��, Janice Kroeger, Katie Strand, Brett Tippey

 Ex-Officio Members Present: President Todd Diacon; Executive Vice President and Provost Melody Tankersley; Senior Vice President Eboni Pringle; Senior Vice President Jeannie Reifsnyder*; Vice Presidents: Sean Broghammer, Doug Delahanty, Amoaba Gooden, Leigh Greenfelder*, Doug Kubinski, James Raber, Charlene Reed, Angela Spalsbury*, Stephen Ward; Deans: Sonia Alemagno, Brad Bielski*, Christina Bloebaum, Kelly Cichy, Jennifer Walton Fisette for Alicia Crowe*, Paul Haridakis for Marcello Fantoni, Mark Hardy,  Tracy Motter*, Mark Mistur, Mandy Munro-Stasiuk, Amy Reynolds, Jillian Sokso*, Deborah Spake       

*Interim 

Ex-Officio Members Not Present: Vice Presidents: Randale Richmond; Deans: Ken Burhanna  

*Interim 

Observers Present: Emeritus Professor Laux

Observers Not Present: 

Guests Present: Bill Ayres, Jake Ball, Michael Beam, Tisha Bogovich, Autum Boone, Brenda Burke, Shelby Burkhart, Rachele Burkholder, Heather Caldwell, Nick Ciofani, Vanessa Courie, Jennifer Cunningham-Minnick, Chris Dorsten, Shannon Driscoll, Beate Gersch, Larry Gibson, Carla Goar, Sarah Gray, James Hannon, Jennifer Hebebrand, Ann Heiss, John Jewell, Eric Johnson, Lynette Johnson, Michael Kavulic, Jennifer Kellogg, Kelsen LaBerge, Dana Lawless-Andric, Thomas Lee, Charles Liang, Joanna Liedel, Jennifer Marcinkiewicz, Miriam Matteson, Julie Mazzei, Jennifer McDonough, Eric Mintz, Anthony Molina, Kristen Mytko-Traynor, Amy Neusch, Jennifer Newberger, Susan Perry, Amy Petrinec, Amy Quillen, Debbie Rho, Susan Rossi, Deanna Schmuck, Scott Sheridan,  Megan Smeznik, Sarah Smiley, Diane Sommers, Rob Sturr, Lashonda Taylor, Jacquelyn Tura, Adil Wadia, Deirdre Warren, Kevin West, Sonya Williams, Virginia Wright, Kathy Zarges

1.          Call to Order  

Chair Boyd-Swan called the meeting to order at 3:20 p.m. in the Governance Chambers, ����ֱ�� Student Center. 

2.       Roll Call 

    Secretary Dauterich called the roll.  

3.         Approval of the Agenda 

A motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda (Cunningham/Piccirillo-Smith). 

The motion passed unanimously. 

 4.       Approval of the Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes of May 11, 2026

Chair Boyd-Swan asked for a motion to approve the minutes of the May 11, 2026, Faculty Senate meeting. A motion was made and seconded (Maguire/Piccirillo-Smith).                         

            The minutes were approved unanimously as written.

 5.      Chair’s Remarks

Chair Boyd-Swan welcomed the Megan Smeznik (Staff Council Chair) as a guest on behalf of the Faculty Senate and then turned the microphone over to President Diacon.

6.       President’s Remarks

President Diacon greeted the attendees and thanked everyone for their work. He also mentioned that former Faculty Senate Chair Dave Kaplan had been ill last year, and that he had been unaware of it at the last meeting; he wished Senator Kaplan the best as he continues with his treatment and service to the university.

He then said he wished to address three things in his remarks. The first was to present some information in a slide from the Inter-University Council of Ohio (IUC). He explained that the IUC is the voluntary association of the 14 public universities in the state of Ohio. He said that his second goal was to follow up on an issue raised at the May Faculty Senate Meeting, and that the third goal was to finish a general update on enrollment and budgeting for FY 27, which began on July 1^st.

He began with the information about the IUC. He remarked that we often hear from Columbus that tuition prices are out of control, but he showed a slide that compared tuition prices to other cost of living prices from 2004-2025. The numbers had been adjusted for 2023 inflation. The first slide indicated that over that time, medical expenses had gone up 77%, housing expenses had gone up 73%, and new cars had gone up 31%. Tuition and fees had gone down 13%.

He then said that he also often hears in Columbus that enrollment is declining, and therefore, state support should also decline. He showed, in a second slide, that enrollment from 2025 was approximately equal to that of 2005 across the state, but inflation-adjusted per FTE funding was down 27%, and real state support for higher education was down $700 million in comparison with 2005. He added that due to the performance funding model used by the state, in which state support is earned based on the number of courses passed and degrees given, nearly 50% of state support goes to two of the 14 public universities (Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati).

The third slide in the presentation was not from the IUC; its numbers from the state of Ohio showed projected job growth from 2022-2032. Jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher were projected to increase by 85,091. Those requiring non-degree, postsecondary education were expected to increase by 10,067. Those requiring an associate degree were expected to increase by 5,925. On the other hand, jobs requiring only a high school diploma were projected to decrease by 40,300. President Diacon indicated that this shows that there will be stronger job growth for students who earn degrees.

The fourth slide showed that the median college graduate earns 70% more than a high school counterpart. He added that he would have the Executive Director of Government Relations (Nick Ciofani) and the Vice President for University Communications and Marketing (Stephen Ward) share the information with elected officials and the public.

He then moved to the concern from the previous Faculty Senate meeting. He said that he had been asked about whether current students interested in majoring in the B.A. in Philosophy were being prematurely discouraged or prevented from declaring the major. He said that after looking into it, he found no evidence that any students were prevented from declaring a philosophy major. He said that within the university’s systems, the Manage My Program process has continued to allow students to declare the philosophy major. That option will remain available until August 1, which is the date after which new declarations in this program will no longer be permitted under the state's SB1-related requirements. He added that at Faculty Senate, it was indicated that several students may have been interested in declaring the philosophy major. He said he was ultimately provided with one student's name. He said that he reviewed that student's record and discussed the situation with the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Based on that review, they found no evidence that the student's advisor told the student they could not declare the major, as well as no evidence that current students could not declare the philosophy major through the Manage My Program application.

He said it was possible that there was confusion if the student was told the major would be inactivated in response to SB1 and interpreted that to mean that they could no longer declare it; however, they did not find evidence that current students were being directed away from the major. The student in question is now a declared philosophy major. He added that students may continue to declare SB1 affected majors through August 1, and that he found no indication that advisors were instructed to prevent interested students from declaring those majors before the state deadline. 

Senator Deborah Smith said that she could not speak to what Associate Provost Sheridan found when he looked into the matter, but she said that the chair of philosophy and the undergraduate coordinator of philosophy were informed that the program could not enroll majors at the time she brought the issue to Faculty Senate. She added that de facto, none of the students were permitted to enroll at the time, but because of Associate Provost’s Sheridan’s determination that nothing could prevent students from enrolling, 3-5 students declared the major between the last meeting and the present one.

President Diacon said that this was a positive development and encouraged attendees to bring any similar matters to his attention.

President Diacon then moved to the third part of his remarks. He addressed the budget, saying that we do not run a deficit and that we do not spend more than we bring in during a fiscal year. He said that our enrollment numbers look soft and that numbers are still being tracked and are not finalized. He remarked that enrollment numbers at ����ֱ�� State and Bowling Green are similar, but that ����ֱ�� State has more graduate programs. Graduate enrollment at ����ֱ�� State in June 2024 was 4,210 and in June 2026 was 3,103 (a 27% decline). In Fall 2024, ����ֱ�� State enrolled 180 full-time international freshmen, and in Fall 2025, that number was 130. He added that he expects that number to be between 0 and 50 for Fall 2026. These declining numbers exceed what was projected. He noted that additional contracts will be eliminated to attempt to create a balanced budget.

He then invited comments or questions.

Senator Roxburgh said that her program usually gets six funded graduate slots and has zero this year. She said that the problem was having instructional duties tied to funded graduate tuition. She said that we do not have graduate programs solely for instructional programs and listed some of the things her program’s graduates did. She argued that we must distinguish between graduate programs that depend on stipends for graduate students to enroll and those that do not. 

President Diacon agreed with Senator Roxburgh’s points. He said it is one of the complexities that occur with the budget. 

Senator Seelye asked whether regional campus students who had been accepted at regionals but not at ����ֱ�� were now being welcomed to ����ֱ�� campus; he wanted to know whether this was happening and why. He also wanted to know whether students knew the tuition would be higher. 

President Diacon said that this was largely true. He explained that there are many students every year who are very close to being admitted to the ����ֱ�� campus and end up enrolling on a regional campus or going to Akron, Youngstown State, or Cleveland State. He said that the students who received a retroactive letter admitting them to the ����ֱ�� campus were students who likely would not have gone to a regional campus and would have gone to a different university. 

Senator Deborah asked why Faculty Senate was not brought in for consultation.

President Diacon said he was not sure that Faculty Senate needed to be informed, but he said this was implemented after the last Faculty Senate meeting. He also added that he can look back at the rules for how we build a freshman class and what Faculty Senate needs to be consulted on. He further explained that universities like Cincinnati are changing their enrollment management and accepting over 60% of applicants, and that ����ֱ�� State needs to consider enrollment management and a changing market too. 

Senator Torres asked whether we knew how many international students were applying vs. how many come to campus. He also asked whether we are still seeking to keep R1 status in this climate.

President Diacon responded that the definition of an R1 university used to be driven only by research expenditures; the definition got changed to be driven by the number of Ph.Ds. awarded, which is why we are now R1 (70 per year are required, and ����ֱ�� State had 165 last year). As for graduate student numbers, he said that we track the number of visa requests, and it has a lot more to do with the visa numbers. He said that we have seen a 67% decline in the number of visas approved.

Senator Torres said that many students decline to continue the process for visa applications after they find out funding is not available and suggested that it would be good if they knew about the lack of funding before the process began.

President Diacon said these were good points.

There were no further comments or questions

7.     Budget Report (presented by Interim Senior Vice President Jeannie Reifsnyder)

 Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder presented a PowerPoint explaining the budget as approved by the Board of Trustees in May []. 

She then provided an opportunity for comments or questions.

Emeritus Professor Laux said that one tremendous expenditure for a long time has been the discount rate. He said that a brief description of the process for how the university sets the discount rate would be valuable.

Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder asked Vice President Broghammer to explain.

Vice President Broghammer said that we budget about $73 million is committed, meaning that those are financial aid merit dollars that students have been promised for four years. To make a change to the discount rate, it would have to be done for the entering class. ����ֱ�� State spends, on average, about $25 million a year on the freshman class to receive about $62 million in revenue. 40-42% is the discount rate. He said that we can reduce the discount rate, and there will be consequences for that. Our competitors continue to offer very aggressive scholarships that are at or above where we are for a similar price point. If we change it too much, we could lose net revenue. He added that ����ֱ�� State has historically communicated merit offers as soon as students are admitted. It is done a year in advance, and then that commitment is for four years. Years ago, the university would offer one-year scholarships, but that process has gone away so that students and families can more accurately assess what the price points might be. 

 Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder added that because state support (SSI) is based on performance, a reduction in students will result in a reduction of state support.

Senator Bhargava asked how much the university has saved from implementing T28. 

 Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder replied that about $3.5 million were factored into next year’s budget based on what happened in 2026. Projections for the fully implemented plan are about $7 million.

 Senator Bhargava asked what the impact on enrollment might be because of the T28 reductions in faculty and staff.

Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder replied that there could be rippling effects.

Senator Dalman asked whether the budget included the College of Podiatric Medicine.

Interim Senior Vice President Reifsnyder replied that it did.

There were no further comments or questions.

8.     EPC Action Item (American Civic Literacy Requirement Policy Revision)

Joanna Liedel explained the . 

There was a motion and a second to approve the policy revision (Abraham).

There was then time for comments or questions.                                                

There were no comments or questions.

The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

9.      New Business

a. Faculty Senate Budget Presentation and Approval (presented by Chair Casey Boyd-Swan)

Chair Boyd-Swan presented a PowerPoint on the budget of the Faculty Senate [].

There was a motion and a second to approve the budget as described (Bhargava/Vachon).

Chair Boyd-Swan then invited comments or questions.

Emeritus Professor Laux asked whether the entertainment line was official. 

Chair Boyd-Swan said that she would like to reallocate the money from that line.

Senator Deborah Smith asked when the budget changed. She said there used to be a line for encumbrances. She wanted to know whether the budget being mentioned was the discretionary portion.

Chair Boyd-Swan agreed that the discretionary portion was the $4 thousand plus mentioned in the presentation.

Senator Piccirillo-Smith advocated for fancy cookies once or twice a year. She also supported the no-cost open house and some refreshments at the open house.

There were no further comments or questions.

The motion to approve the budget passed unanimously by voice vote.

b. Committee on Committees (COC) Updates (presented by Vice Chair Ann Abraham)

Vice Chair Abraham explained that over the summer, while she was seating the Committee on Committees, it was noticed that the verbiage in some of the documents had not been updated since the 1990s. She said that she and Secretary Dauterich had gone over the committees that were under the control of Faculty Senate and worked together to come up with revisions for the wording connected to those committees. She added that in the fall, Chair Boyd-Swan will be directing other committees to revise their documentation or at least look at it. Even if changes are not made, the committee description, charge, membership, etc. can be listed as having been reviewed for the historic record.

c. QR Code Voting Demonstration (presented by Chair Casey Boyd-Swan)

After some technical difficulties, Chair Boyd-Swan said we will test QR code voting at a future meeting.

Senator Deborah Smith pointed out that historically, we have often voted by voice, and many of the votes were unanimous. If the voice vote was unclear in the past, we defaulted to a show of hands. She supported the idea that the QR code vote could play the role of the show of hands, and it could be more definitive regarding accurate counting of votes. She added that when there is a call for a roll call vote, that puts people on record in the minutes based on their votes. This might be intentional when someone motions for a roll call vote. She said that in those cases, the QR code vote might not be ideal.

Chair Boyd-Swan said that the QR code vote could have the voter’s name and vote recorded and downloaded if Faculty Senate agreed.

Secretary Dauterich added that if voice votes are uncertain, the procedure would normally move to a show of hands or rising vote (which QR code voting could replace). If a senator then still wished for a roll call vote, they could motion to have one. He said that he brought this up because we had recently been going directly from voice votes to roll call votes on contested issues when accuracy of the vote count may have been more important than having names on the record.

d. Staff Council Update (presented by Chair Casey Boyd-Swan)

Chair Boyd-Swan presented the possibility of giving a representative of Staff Council observation status similar to other official Faculty Senate observers.

A motion and a second was made to do so (Dauterich/Walton-Fisette).

Senator Deborah Smith said that caution needed to be exercised when changing the charter and bylaws to add the member to observer status, and changes in the charter and bylaws require a supermajority of votes. 

Secretary Dauterich explained that the vote was not to currently change the charter and bylaws, which will have to be updated for other reasons this year. The vote was to allow the Staff Council representative the same privileges as other observers until such time as the bylaws and charter came for a vote. 

Chair Boyd-Swan clarified that the motion could be amended to say that “we are voting for our staff council to have the same status as student government representatives at this time until the charter and bylaws can be reviewed to make additional changes.” 

A motion and a second was made to amend the language of the original motion as indicated above (Torres/Salaba).

The amendment passed.

Senator Mechenbier said that the individual from Staff Council could also be given a nametag reflecting observer status while we wait to complete the procedure for altering the bylaws and charter.

There were no further comments or questions.

The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

10.    Additional Items

a. December Grading Deadline

Chair Boyd-Swan announced that grades will be due one day earlier than usual at the end of the Fall 2026 Semester.

b. Classroom Recording

Chair Boyd-Swan said that there has been an issue with students recording in the classroom. The Provost’s Office has made some changes to the student code of conduct, whereby unless students have explicit permission from the instructor, they cannot record in the classroom. Even if they have explicit permission from the instructor to record in the classroom, they cannot share it with anyone else unless they also have explicit permission from the instructor in the classroom. 

c. Simple Syllabus

Chair Boyd-Swan mentioned that emails will be going out about the upcoming required implementation of Simple Syllabus.

11.     Announcements/ Statements for the Record

Senator Piccirillo-Smith asked when the recording policy in the code of conduct take effect.

Chair Boyd-Swan answered that it would take place for the Fall 2027 semester.

Senator Torres asked whether a statement to that effect will be automatically generated in Simple Syllabus.

Associate Provost West said Associate Provost Sheridan will put together a statement to share with faculty.

He also announced a recent phishing uptick and encouraged faculty to send those emails to IT.

Emeritus Professor Laux asked how the phishing emails are sometimes deleted from his inbox before he reported them.

Vice President Raber answered that when IT receives notification of a phish, and they determine it to be fraudulent, they have a search and destroy mechanism on the background to remove it. He said that if you see a suspicious item in one mailbox, and then you come back and it is gone, this is why. Within Outlook, there is a “Report as Phish” button. Those concerned can also forward suspected emails to phishing@kent.edu. That gets to the same spot, and IT keeps very close tabs on that. He added that bad actors are very cognizant of academic schedules and changes in organizations, so there are likely to be uptakes in this malicious behavior at the beginning and end of the semester. He concluded that they are currently trying to track and mitigate the problem. 

There were no further announcements or statements for the record.

12.    Adjournment                                                   

Chair Boyd-Swan adjourned the meeting at 5:24 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Edward Dauterich

Secretary, Faculty Senate