Wednesday September 18, 2013 year: 133 No. 69
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern ? ? ? ? Presidential Search
sports
It has been 61 days since the search began.
OSU signs $200K contract with search firm OSU signs contract for presidential search
LIZ YOUNG Campus editor young.1693@osu.edu
2B
A coach who cares
OSU women’s volleyball coach Geoff Carlston’s players describe him as ‘eccentric’ and ‘inspired.’
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1B
Improv incites laughter
Comedy duo Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood performed a show for students Monday night.
campus
With the look at specific presidential candidates set to begin in the coming weeks, Ohio State has begun tying up loose ends. OSU finalized its contract with Dallas-based search firm R. William Funk & Associates Tuesday, about one month after it was announced the firm had been selected Aug. 16. OSU will be paying the firm a fixed fee of $200,000 for assistance with recruiting a new university president. OSU officials signed the contract, which was issued Aug. 16 and signed by firm President R. William Funk Sept. 6, Tuesday. Although typically the firm charges 33 and one-third percent of the total first year’s cash compensation plus bonus for the position it seeks to fill, it agreed to a fixed fee in this instance, according to the contract. All requests for comment from R. William Funk & Associates were referred to OSU. When asked why the firm decided to charge a fixed fee instead of using its usual price protocol, OSU assistant vice president of media and public relations Gayle Saunders said those were “the terms of the negotiated contract” that had been agreed upon. Saunders was unable to immediately provide information about where the funds for the fee are coming from Tuesday night. The firm will also be reimbursed for expenses related to the search in addition to the $200,000, including the cost of direct, out-of-pocket expenses, like candidate and consultant travel and lodging, which will be billed monthly, and a will receive a $20,000 charge to cover the cost of administrative and support expenses, according to the contract. Funk will be the consultant conducting the search, which includes meeting with the OSU Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee, as well as contacting and interacting with the candidates. Should the president selected leave the position within two years for any reason, R. William Funk & Associates will redo the search for no additional charge besides out-of-pocket and allocated expenses. The contract states the services R. William Funk & Associates will provide are to be kept confidential — there will be no news items or public statements released, among other stipulations. OSU officials have also said the candidates, including the finalists, will be kept secret. “As the work of the Presidential Search Committee continues, it is important to establish a process that allows candidates to maintain some privacy, and it is with that consideration that the names of final candidates will remain confidential,” read a university statement emailed to The Lantern Sunday by Saunders. Some OSU students said they do not agree with OSU’s decision to keep contenders confidential. “I don’t understand why it’s (the presidential search) private because so many kids go here,” said Emily Lenke, a first-year who has not declared a major. “It definitely should be open because it’s a huge campus and we’re all a part of it.”
$200K fixed fee
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$20K administrative and support expenses
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$? monthly costs of direct, out-of-pocket expenses
Source: Reporting
Jenny Kuzmic, a fourth-year in exercise science, said she thinks it “seems sketchy that they (OSU) want to hide” finalists. Other students, though, said they didn’t expect it to go any other way. “It (the presidential search) does affect us, but we are not at the higher tier so it’s not our job to select the president,” said Pam Dreiss, a third-year in art and technology. Other details of the contract prevent R. William Funk & Associates from later attempting to recruit whoever is chosen for the presidency for the duration of that person’s contract with OSU, but exceptions of the rule include situations where university executives are seeking other employment opportunities with OSU’s knowledge or where officials were being recruited prior to Tuesday. According to the contract, R. William Funk & Associates uses a search process that includes “potential candidate identification, recruitment and research, candidate contact, evaluation and presentation, interviews, referencing, background checks and assistance in the offer, negotiation, closure and transition management.” It has been more than three months since OSU President Emeritus E. Gordon Gee announced his retirement June 4. Gee retired July 1, the same day interim President Joseph Alutto assumed the position. The announcement of Gee’s retirement came days after controversial remarks Gee made at a Dec. 5 OSU Athletic Conference became public. Comments about Notre Dame and the Southeastern Conference in particular, brought national attention. OSU Presidential Search Committee Chair Jeffrey Wadsworth said July 19 the process is expected to take about 300 days based on how long searches take at other universities that are considering outside candidates.
DANIEL BENDTSEN Lantern reporter bendtsen.1@osu.edu With the search for Ohio State’s next president under way, there is disagreement between some university officials on what qualities OSU’s leader should embody. Experience with NCAA Division I athletics, a reputation for solid fundraising and experience overseeing a medical center were all traits under question during a Tuesday Presidential Search Committee meeting. The advisory subcommitee presented an eight-page presidential profile, which describes the qualities of the ideal candidate, that OSU plans to send to potential candidates. The profile, drafted over the past month, is the first introduction candidates will have in determining whether they are an appropriate and realistic candidate for OSU’s presidency. While he praised OSU law professor and advisory subcommittee convener Deborah Jones Merritt for the profile’s quality, chairman of the Board of Trustees Robert Schottenstein took issue with what he said he perceived as a restrictive profile few candidates would be able to fit. With agreement from other trustees on the selection committee, Schottenstein asked the advisory subcommittee to soften the language of the profile. Schottenstein rebuked the conventional notion that a president plays a pivotal role in fundraising, calling the presidency “irrelevant” in this regard and citing evidence that large donations at OSU are usually earmarked for athletics and the Medical Center, meaning the leadership in those areas plays a much larger role in securing donations. Advisory subcommittee member Michael Eicher, president of the OSU Foundation and senior vice president for Advancement, disagreed with Schottenstein and asked that the clause remain. “There are presidents who are good at this, and there are those that aren’t. And we want one that’s good,” he said. Merritt also defended the inclusion about fundraising capability, saying it was a concern that came up frequently at the search forums. Merritt sympathized with many of the changes during the full committee meeting, but said in the advisory subcommittee meeting afterward, she was surprised at the trustees’ desire to soften some of the language of the document. Merritt said she will make the requested changes, however, and recirculate the profile to the selection subcommittee.
Logan Hickman contributed to this story.
Will Braxton Miller play Saturday?
2A
KAYLA ZAMARY / Design editor
Presidential profile prompts discussion
Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer gave no indication Tuesday if junior quarterback Braxton Miller will play against Florida A&M.
continued as Profile on 3A
Google Glass allows students to see surgery from doctor’s perspective
Read the story on 2B.
OSU rises 4 spots to No. 52
Ohio State was ranked No. 52 in the ‘U.S. News and World Report’ annual list of the best colleges in the country.
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Courtesy of YouTube
Dr. Christopher Kaeding, an orthopedic physician and professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, performs an ACL surgery wearing Google Glass Aug. 21 at the Wexner Medical Center.
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ALEXA CARSON Lantern reporter carson.239@osu.edu
top: RITIKA SHAH / Asst. photo editor
bottom: SHELBY LUM / Photo editor
Imagine watching a doctor perform a surgery in real-time while in class. Now picture viewing the surgery from the doctor’s perspective. An ACL surgery at the Wexner Medical Center was streamed using Google Glass to a class of medical students and a colleague Aug. 21. “The idea of having this head-mounted gateway to a network, with both auditory and visual two-way communication that’s
hands-free, it’s pretty neat stuff,” said Dr. Christopher Kaeding, an orthopedic physician and professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, who performed the surgery. Google Glass is a hands-free wearable computer that is voice-activated and has similar capabilities to a smartphone, such as a camera, talk and Internet access. It uses an optical head-mounted display with a small display screen that can reflect images but can also be transparent, which is placed in front of one eye. It is built like a pair of glasses without the lenses. In a Google Hangout, a video chat
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