Cleveland State University faculty leadership issued an urgent call for more faculty input on sweeping new state-mandated policies during the third faculty senate meeting of the fall semester on Oct. 29. 

The most pressing issue was the low number of public comments submitted on new policies required by Ohio’s Senate Bill 1, which will govern faculty workload, tenure, annual performance evaluation and retrenchment.

Faculty Senate President Carol Olszewski, Ph.D., said that only seven comments had so far been received and emphasized the critical nature of the moment.

“These policies really do affect our classrooms and our students and the way that we’ll carry out things probably for many years to come,” Dr. Olszewski said. “Public comment isn’t just a formality, it’s a record of who we are and what we stand for.”

CSU Provost Nigamanth Sridhar, Ph.D., provided details on the proposed workload policy, which would establish a new norm of a “3-3” teaching load (three courses per semester for tenured faculty) that the administration plans to implement in the 2026-2027 academic year.

He acknowledged the concern but framed it as a necessary shift for student success, pledging that any financial resources recovered from the change would be reinvested into hiring more full-time faculty. 

Administration defends Ideastream takeover of WCSB

CSU President Laura Bloomberg, Ph.D., provided a key update on the university’s new strategic partnership with Ideastream.

On Oct. 3, CSU shut down Cleveland State’s WCSB, a non-commercial, student and community radio station that offered diverse  programming including jazz, blues and experimental genres, and multilanguage programming. It handed control of content to Ideastream, which is now broadcasting JazzNEO on 89.3 FM.

Cleveland State and Ideastream are under fire in the community for the partnership, which handed the keys of the station to the public service corporation. Within Greater Cleveland pushback remains strong as former WCSB listeners, students, former and current DJs and staff, and local politicians voice their concern at the nature of the takeover. 

Supporters of WCSB have created a petition which so far has over 3,400 signatures and the station has gained support from the Cleveland City Council, which resolved that "Ideastream public media and CSU leadership engaged in a hostile takeover" of 89.3 FM and urged CSU to "to fully restore WCSB radio to its students."

Pushing back, the administration told faculty that CSU recently hosted its first “strategy mini-summit,” which bridged Ideastream program leaders with deans and directors from the College of Education, College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication.

“We went from talking about what we have now to what’s possible, and the scope of it was quite broad and pretty inspiring to me,” Bloomberg said. “It included the fact that Ideastream is the largest public media outlet in the state of Ohio and the proximity of Cleveland State to Ideastream is just down the street.”

The discussions included opportunities not only within Cleveland but also with Ideastream’s more than 30 employees in Columbus who cover state policy. 

Bloomberg said she stood by the university's decision while acknowledging after meeting students working at WCSB that they are not happy with the situation. WCSB supporters meanwhile have renamed the local cultural icon as XCSB, a play on WCSB canceled, while they wrestle with the implications of the university's unexpected and unasked for move.  

“Every student who is engaged in exercising their free speech and expressive activity rights has done what is appropriate and ethical and acceptable, and I’m sure that the students affiliated with XCSB may not love hearing me say this, but I’m impressed with the professionalism that they have brought to their dissent,” Bloomberg said. “But at the same time, I do stand by the decision that the board made and that I made.”

The Cleveland State steering committee has agreed to meet weekly to advance the partnership, which it says is aimed to create academic and internship opportunities in journalism, radio and TV production, marketing and graphic design for students.

AI-powered 'Workday' chosen for system overhaul

President Bloomberg confirmed the university has selected Workday, the AI-powered enterprise platform as its new partner for a comprehensive overhaul of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This multi-year transformation will impact all human resources, finance and student systems across campus.

“There is going to be change and transformation with completely pivoting our tech systems in HR, finance and student resources,” Bloomberg said. “We are working now to talk about a communication strategy so hopefully none of this takes anybody by surprise, I just want you to know that it is coming.” 

Bloomberg said the university chose Workday due to its reputation and use by other major Ohio institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic.

Academic misconduct proposal withdrawn

A proposal to revise the university’s academic misconduct procedures sparked a lengthy and spirited debate, leading the Admissions and Standards Committee to withdraw it for further revision.

The proposed changes included adding new sanction options to the formal policy, such as requiring students to complete an academic integrity tutorial or re-do assignment for partial or full credit. 

While administrators argued this would “infuse education into the process” and encourage more consistent reporting from faculty, several senators voiced strong skepticism.

“I will just predict that if faculty who are thinking about reporting academic misconduct think that they're going to be pushed into taking one of these two options, A or B, I think there's going to be less reporting of academic misconduct,” said law college co-interim dean Brian Ray, J.D.

Faced with these concerns over equity and consistency, the committee will rework the proposal.

Campus facilities and infrastructure updates 

President Bloomberg announced that for their recruitment communications plan the renovation of Fenn Tower is on track to be completed and reopened as a first-year residence hall by fall 2026.

“I'm hoping that there'll be opportunities for some regular cadence of tours so people can come in and see the building so that you know what that's like and can talk about it,” Bloomberg said. “You will still see a beautiful ballroom and a beautiful game room and really gorgeous ironwork in the building, and at the same time, you'll see more fresh green and you'll see CSU branding in the halls, I'm pretty excited about it.”

The board of trustees is scheduled to tour the building in November with plans for broader campus tours to follow.

Bloomberg also detailed the $32 million renovation of research and teaching labs in Fenn Hall and the Science and Research Building. 

She emphasized that a faculty advisory committee is actively working with architects on the design, but there won’t be any signs of active construction until May 2026 as the architects are working on other projects not related to CSU.

“I want to say that this is the single largest investment in research infrastructure this university has ever made,” Sridhar said. “The design process is grounded in the people that are going to be using this space.” 

The next CSU faculty senate meeting will be held Dec. 3 at 3:00 p.m.