Hospital, BGSU close to health center deal
9/29/2012BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University is getting closer to forming a public-private partnership with Wood County Hospital to build and operate a new student health center.
Trustees on Friday authorized university administrators to negotiate a land lease with the hospital on BGSU-owned land at West Wooster Street and South College Avenue — the site of the recently demolished Popular Culture building.
Sheri Stoll, chief financial officer and vice president for finance and administration, said that for more than a decade the university has looked at options for replacing or improving the health center, which now is inside the College of Health and Human Services building.
Trustees also approved spending more than $3 million to upgrade the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems in the Moore Musical Art building. Ms. Stoll said the current systems have exceeded their life expectancy, and the new dean of the College of Musical Arts is interested in having BGSU become an All-Steinway School.
Worldwide, there are more than 140 All-Steinway Schools, which have only Steinway pianos. In northwest Ohio, only Bluffton University is an All-Steinway School.
Also Friday, trustees appointed BGSU alumnus James Bailey to a three-year term as the board’s first-ever national trustee. Mr. Bailey, who had a career in banking and was named one of BGSU’s 100 most prominent alumni, will be a nonvoting member of the board.
Prior to the trustees’ meeting, members of the BGSU Faculty Association staged a “grade-in” outside the Bowen-Thompson Student Union to bring attention to the fact that it has been nearly two years since the union organized and yet it still has no contract.
David Jackson, president of the faculty union, said the idea was to demonstrate to the public and to university trustees what kind of work faculty members do.
“We know at the end of the day the board has to approve the contract, and they need to know we’re out there,” Mr. Jackson said. “We’re not just a handful of disgruntled faculty. We are the faculty.”
About 100 faculty members, some holding signs calling for a fair contract, attended the trustees’ meeting as a group and quietly walked out before the meeting ended.
BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey said this month the two sides were “75 percent in agreement” but still had to negotiate wages and benefits.
Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-724-6129.