Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed five new trustees to the boards of public colleges, adding leaders that will help shape life on Ohio’s campuses well into his successor’s tenure.
Some newly appointed members are serving six-year terms, while others have shorter tenures because they are filling the remaining time on vacated seats.
DeWine’s office announced the appointments to the unpaid positions late last week. Nominating people to various state and public boards is a regular gubernatorial responsibility.
The latest appointments will likely be among his final higher education ones. Prevented by term limits from seeking re-election this year, he will leave office in January. Future appointments will fall to Democrat Gov.-elect Amy Acton.
The roles are technically nonpartisan positions – but at least one new appointee has strong ties to the Republican Party.
Federal campaign records show Jerad Barnett, a Dayton-area real estate developer tapped to join the Wright State University board, has given thousands to GOP candidates and committees, including $10,000 over the past year to support Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s latest campaign (Husted lost his Senate seat to Democrat Sherrod Brown) and $15,000 towards DeWine’s 2022 reelection efforts.
Other new trustees appointed recently by DeWine include Robin Burrow, mother of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. She takes a seat on the board of Hocking College, a community college in Southeast Ohio. She now works for her son’s foundation after spending years as a K-12 educator.
Jonathan Bridges, a managing director with JobsOhio, now joins the board of Owens Community College in Northwest Ohio. Healthcare executive Myron Lewis also got tapped for the Owens board.
And Marion Technical College’s board is adding Angela Powell, former executive director of the Morrow County Chamber of Commerce and a current science teacher.
College trustees have more power under Senate Bill 1
College trustees have always had influence over a public campus, including by overseeing the hiring and firing of an institution’s president. Their powers in Ohio expanded under Senate Bill 1, the state higher education overhaul law passed last year.
That includes having more oversight over an institution’s faculty members. Now, boards must create and approve new policies regarding educators’ workloads and performance evaluations.
Trustees also must adopt several new institutional public stances under the law, including those requiring institutions to say they’ll offer “intellectual diversity” and end most diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) work.
Senate Bill 1’s other trustee-related changes cut term lengths from nine years down to six for new university trustees and required training for most members.
