Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity participated in an Arbor Day Foundation planting of 50 trees on KSU's campus with approximately 25 planted near the stadium. This activity was sponsored in part by Toyota. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky President, Wil James, was present. KSU was very pleased to be a part of this initiative with 6 other HBCU's across the USA.
President Sias provided an overview of her written board report, Nudging, Switching and Gaining Momentum: Changing What We've Always Done. President Sias stated that it is critical for KSU to change its view of "doing what we've always done." U.S. President Barack Obama has encouraged higher degree attainment for all Americans. President Sias stated that KSU will need to change its way of thinking if the university is to increase its degree production and develop "a culture of completion and success for all of our students."
Regents Guarnieri and Whitehead asked President Sias about the impact of the new financial aid rules might have upon our students. President Sias explained that students taking 12 credit hours per semester would not graduate within a four year period and that the university is reviewing ways to integrate developmental education into credit bearing classes.
Lori Davis, KSU General Counsel, distributed the current patent policy and asked regents to review. Ms. Davis expects that the regents will be presented with a recommendation regarding the percentage of interest that the university and the inventors (employees, students and other collaborators) would have in a patent developed using university resources.
Regent Guarnieri asked whether an invention developed at KSU automatically belongs to the inventor. Ms. Davis responded that the general rule is that the university would own the invention and the inventors would be provided with an interest in any financial distribution.
Regent Conner presented the Academic Affairs Committee report. The Committee reviewed the written report of Dr. Mac A. Stewart, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. From the report, Regent Conner stated that the colleges, Whitney M. Young School of Honors and the Office of Global Education are busy with scholarly and service on behalf of the university.
Motion was made to approve the recommendation made from the Committee to grant faculty tenure and/or promotion to the individuals listed below by Regent Conner. A second was not necessary for a Committee recommendation. The motion passed, 10-0.