Five takeaways from CMU Board of Trustees committee meetings
The Trustees-Faculty Liaison Committee play "Plagues, Poxes and Pustules" facilitated by Jonathan Truitt on Sept. 18.
Central Michigan University Board of Trustees met in committees Wednesday evening to prepare for its Thursday formal meeting.
Trustees attended five committee meetings Sept. 18 to discuss topics like enrollment, program updates and strategic planning.
The board will vote to approve the renovation of a Culinary Nutrition Center for the nutrition and dietetics department at its formal meeting, which is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 19 in the President's Conference Room in Bovee University Center.
Enterprise Risk Ad Hoc Committee
The committee was updated on the status of the Emergency Management and Operations Continuity Planning team.
Vice President for Information Technology Roger Rehm highlighted that the Operations Continuity Planning team is a "proactive planning designed to avoid or lessen the risks associated with the disruption of operations."
This management team is different than emergency management. Emergency management focuses on "immediately mobilizing campus resources to keep people and infrastructure safe."
Academic and Student Affairs Committee
The demographic for future students at CMU is expected to change as there has been a 15 percent decline in high school age students in Michigan. Executive Vice President and Provost Mary Schutten said a potential strategic pathway for 2030 is planned to be launched soon, securing $3 million.
In an attempt to increase enrollment and retention rates, Schutten has multiple ideas on ways to change the student college market. One of these ideas was offering a new program, environmental engineering. The hope is to bring new students to campus and to increase female representation in the STEM community.
Executive Director of Admissions Lee Furbeck also spoke about some ways the university is trying to increase enrollment rates now. Some things being implemented to increase enrollment include providing applicants the ability to use the Common Application, seeking outside assistance for marketing and focusing on territory management.
Finance and Facilities Committee
Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Jonathan Webb updated the committee on the status of university construction projects.
“The Center for Integrated Health Studies, the expansion to Health Professions, was supposed to be substantially complete this month; we are (a) couple (of) months delayed, we’ve had a lot of weather issues and some challenges,” Webb said. “We are working closely with our contractor and are now scheduled to be substantially complete next month and then we will move on to the next phases.”
Although the Center for Integrated Health Studies is behind, all of the summer campus projects were completed on time, before students moved back to campus.
Trustees-Faculty Liaison Committee
History faculty member Jonathan Truitt, director of the Center for Learning through Games and Simulations, presented and demonstrated his work with learning through games as the committee’s point of pride.
Truitt facilitated a miniature version of his game “Plagues, Poxes and Pustules” with the committee and members of the audience.
Each player was given a card with their persona – a priest, peasant or land owner. The game starts with two people being chosen as sick and a die is rolled to determine if they die. Everyone in the society has to determine what is causing them to die and quarantine everyone else that falls into the category. In order to win, players must have above 50 percent of the population alive at the end of the game.
The committee and audience members were unable to determine the cause of death and lost more than half of their population, resulting in them losing the game.
Trustees-Student Liaison Committee
The meeting featured multiple leaders from student groups like the Student Government Association, Program Board, Residence Housing Association and Central Michigan Life. These leaders discussed updates from their groups and the projects they’re working on.
Mary St. John, director of the Residence Housing Association, said her group is working on a program where students can donate their unused meal plans to students who are suffering from food insecurity or who have run out of meal plan swipes. This will give students access to healthy meals, she said.
Dylan Goetz, editor-in-chief of CM Life, spoke at length about the newspaper’s upcoming 100th Anniversary celebration and its role on campus. He said CM Life gives students a voice on campus.
“I do this for the little guys,” Goetz said. “I think of journalism as a public service. (CM Life) is giving information to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it.”
Staff reporters Andrew Mullin, Courtney Pedersen and Makayla Coffee contributed to this story.
