Firm hired to lead OSU’S president search
Trustees, students, faculty also involved
Almost three months after outgoing Ohio State University President Kristina M. Johnson announced she would resign at the end of this academic year, the university’s trustees shared their plan Friday for how it will select OSU’S next leader.
The university has hired Education Executives, a Santa Barbara, Califorinabased external search firm, to lead the search.
Ohio State’s Board of Trustees will also form a Presidential Search Committee,
which will include two subcommittees: the Presidential Selection Subcommittee — which will be solely comprised of trustees — and the University Advisory Subcommittee, made up of faculty, staff and students. The subcommittees will work together to identify a candidate who the Presidential Search Committee will ultimately recommend to the board.
The Presidential Selection Subcommittee will also manage the work of Education Executives in the search.
Who will be a part of the search committees for Ohio State’s next president?
Hiroyuki Fujita, chair of the board of trustees, will head the Presidential Search Committee.
“The strength and momentum of Ohio State and its collective leadership team, which will help guide the university during this transition, make us highly confident that we will be able to attract a truly outstanding next president,” Fujita said.
Trustees joining Fujita on the Presidential Selection Subcommittee are Jeff M.S. Kaplan, Elizabeth Kessler, Tom B. Mitevski, Lewis Von Thaer, Reginald A. Wilkinson and John Zeiger.
The University Advisory Subcommittee will be co-chaired by Jan Boxsteffensmeier, Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science and a professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Phillip Popovich, Ray W. Poppleton Research Designated Chair in
problem, he said.
Officials said they wanted to make Olentangy Trail, a popular 14-mile trail between Worthington and downtown Columbus with more than 1,000 bicycle and pedestrian trips a day on several sections, more safe.
The existing trail connection between Clinton-como and Northmoor parks crosses West North Broadway at Milton Avenue, and takes bicyclists, runners and walkers one a one-mile stretch down five streets in Clintonville: Riverside Drive, Delhi Avenue, Milton Avenue, West Kenworth Road and Olentangy Boulevard. The crossing at Milton Avenue and West North Broadway is dangerous, trail users and residents say.
“What we’re going to provide here is a substantial upgrade for the one at Milton,” Westall said of the intersection improvements at the Ohiohealth campus on the planned reroute.
Judy Minister, a resident and former Clintonville Area Commissioner who worried about safety at the West North Broadway crossing when the city laid out reroute plans in 2021, said the traffic signal and median improvements there should make that crossing safer.
The daily vehicle traffic count just west of that intersection on West North Broadway was 24,765 in 2016, according to the Mid-ohio Regional Planning Commission. The daily vehicle traffic
count just west of the Ohiohealth campus on West North Broadway was 22,502 in 2016.
“Anything they can do to make it safer,” Minister said. “Bikers run that light all the time. If there’s a break in traffic, they take their opportunity.”
According to the city, the Olentangy Trail, which runs between Worthington and downtown Columbus, is estimated to have had more than 1.1 million users in 2022, with 386,000 counted at the Northmoor trail head last year.
In addition to the traffic signal and median, the planned 0.6-mile trail reroute
connector will also involve constructing bridges and 800 feet of boardwalk,and is expected to cost a total $8.75 million. Work on the project is scheduled to begin in February 2024, and be completed a year later, he said.
David Vottero, who leads the Clintonville Area Commission, said he believes the improvements at the intersection will be welcome, although he said people who are concerned about safety there will remain concerned.
Vottero believes that the city has done everything it can to make it as safe as it can be.
Josh Lapp, the former chairman of Transit Columbus, an advocacy group, said bicyclists had been concerned about crossing near Ohiohealth and Route 315.
“It makes sense to have that sequence set up that way to give cyclists the full right-of-way, Lapp said.
He said he’d like to see that duplicated in other areas of the city, singling out where the Olentangy Trail crosses West Long Street west of Downtown near Route 315.
“There are conflicts like this all over the city,” Lapp said.
The city does plan this year to change the timing of traffic lights at seven Downtown intersections, where lights will remain red in all four directions for up to seven seconds. Those intersections are: High at Rich; Broad at Cleveland;, Mound at 3rd; Gay Street at 4th; Front Street at Mound; Grant at Town; and High at Mound.
Some residents wanted a bridge over West North Broadway to take the trail across. But Westall said that would have needed to be 900 feet long and cost $10 million.
Some wanted to continue the trail beneath the West North Broadway bridge over the Olentangy. But that wasn’t possible because there was not enough clearance, Westall said
City officials two years ago were considering five routes: https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/trails/ Olentangy-trail/. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik