Faculty Senate President Carol Olszewski, Ph.D., on Jan. 21 opened the first Cleveland State University Faculty Senate meeting of the spring semester by thanking instructors for their work implementing Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 and Title II/ADA compliance requirements, while encouraging them not to feel overwhelmed by the changes.

“Please take a second, take a breather, focus on your classes, focus on the students,” Dr. Olszewski said. “Some examples of low-hanging fruit would be utilizing the PowerPoint tools to assist with image descriptions, converting files into accessible formats and then adding closed captioning where appropriate.”

CSU President Laura Bloomberg, Ph.D., provided updates on several recent university initiatives, including the launch of the Bachelor of General Studies program, new integrated degrees and the upcoming Talent Industry Hub. 

Bloomberg highlighted the growth of the university’s endowment, which has nearly doubled since 2018.

“As of today, it stands at $170 million. That is a huge point of pride,” Bloomberg said.

She also announced TEDxCleveland’s return to campus on Oct. 3 under the theme “Untangling Wonder,” which will feature CSU faculty as speakers.

President Bloomberg closed her remarks with a philosophical reflection on teaching, citing Plato and emphasizing the responsibility faculty have in the classroom.

“Where you are teaching, you are instilling knowledge, but you’re also challenging students,” Bloomberg said. “You have the opportunity to challenge people to think deeper or more or differently.”

WCSB

On the ongoing controversy over WCSB, Kristin Broka, senior director of marketing, told the CSU Senate that a university survey of media stories since Oct. 3, 2025 -- when CSU handed control of the student and community radio station to Ideastream -- found that 80% of media coverage of CSU has been positive or neutral, and that only 20% of the press has been negative.

“Would we like to see that lower? Absolutely,” Broka said. “But we wanted to share the fact that we are putting positive news out there and the media is covering our positive news.”

Figures Broka presented showed that since the Oct. 3 board of trustees meeting and the WCSB Ideastream partnership announcement, 53% of the press about CSU has been neutral, 27% positive and 20% negative.

To rephrase Broka's explanation, her figures show that since CSU handed WCSB to Ideastream -- a day that she acknowledged "lives in infamy" for some of the community -- 73% of the media coverage of CSU has been negative or neutral.

The deal triggered backlash from WCSB supporters, and the dispute has now moved into litigation as the station's future is decided.

Provost's report, feedback surveys

CSU Provost Nigamanth Sridhar, Ph.D., announced that Greater Cleveland has been selected as one of 15 finalists for the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program, which could bring up to $160 million in funding to support regional innovation in manufacturing and materials research.

“If we’re awarded that, that would be a significant shot in the arm for this region,” Sridhar said.

Dr. Sridhar also confirmed that the required civics course has been renamed, from The American Regime to The American Republic following faculty feedback. The course is being offered this semester, with expanded sections planned for the fall.

“The new name takes into account the comments that you as a body gave,” Provost Sridhar said.

Faculty were also updated on the long-delayed online faculty profiles, which are expected to launch in the coming weeks despite ongoing technical issues.

“Rather than having no faculty profiles, we’ll get this out there and then we’ll keep at it and keep working on fixing it,” Sridhar said.

The Senate approved new guidelines for interpreting course feedback surveys, which will now account for 25% of annual faculty evaluations under SB1. The recommendations prioritize written comments over numerical scores.

“As much as possible, we recommend looking at what went well in the course versus where there is room for improvement, and focusing on written comments rather than numerical scores,” Dr. Olszewski said.

Marketing CSU

Enrollment and marketing strategies were also discussed, including efforts to strengthen transfer pathways, expand recruitment of nontraditional students and launch a new branding campaign highlighting integrated degrees.

“Retention is enrollment,” emphasized Vice President for Enrollment Management Randall Deike.

Shared faculty governance

Administrators said faculty involvement will remain central as the university works to respond to state policy changes and ongoing enrollment challenges.

“This is the first year we have been brought inside the budget planning and build process,” Budget and Finance Committee Judy Ausherman said.

The next CSU faculty senate meeting will be held Feb. 18 at 3:00 p.m. in the SC Ballroom.