EDUCATION INITIATIVE DRAWS TOP GUNS TO TOLEDO

Former Ohio State president in area to develop Kasich plan

Former Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee, left, and John Carey, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, speak to The Blade’s editorial board about the governor’s initiative for education.

THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
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Former Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee, left, and John Carey, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, speak to The Blade’s editorial board about the governor’s initiative for education.

Former Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee.

E. Gordon Gee may be heading to West Virginia, but he’s still heavily invested in Ohio.

The president emeritus of Ohio State University was in Toledo on Monday as part of Gov. John Kasich’s new education initiative called Quality and Value in Higher Education. Mr. Gee has spearheaded two other initiatives for Mr. Kasich; those gave recommendations for changes to state capital funding of public colleges and universities and an overhaul of the state funding formula for higher education institutions.

Mr. Gee was joined Monday by, among others, John Carey, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, in a visit to Owens Community College as part of a series of campus visits to help develop ideas for the initiative.

Representatives from higher education institutions throughout the area — including Owens, the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and others — were there.

The group later met with members of The Blade’s editorial board.

“How do we increase quality while decreasing costs?” Mr. Gee said he’s been tasked to ask.

Mr. Gee is expected to deliver a report with recommendations by next summer. Those recommendations may include ideas such as ways to reduce duplication of services, reductions in bureaucracy in the higher education system, or ways to build stronger partnerships between community colleges and four-year institutions.

Mr. Gee will become interim president of West Virginia University in January. He was twice the president of Ohio State, from 1990-1997 and again from 2007 until July.

In between, he served as president of Vanderbilt University from 2000 to 2007, was Brown University’s leader from 1998 to 2000, and was the University of Colorado’s president from 1985 to 1990. His first presidential post was at WVU between 1981 and 1985.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.