By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Faculty Senate at Bowling Green State University was not stuck in park when it met Tuesday.
Its agenda was jammed, but it kept moving, at least with as much speed as it could manage with presentations on faculty files related to merit and promotion, charter revisions, and a change in who is qualified to teach and supervise graduate students.
Then there was the discussion of parking. Aaron Kane, manager of Parking Services, explained the new system his office will be initiating. Now parking enforcement officers will cruise lots and scan license plate numbers to determine if cars are parked where they should be.
The system, he said, has many advantages. It should save time and energy. “Improved productivity is going to be a major benefit,” he said.
People will no longer have to stand in line to get their hanging passes. The registration process will be done all online. Each faculty member will be able to register two cars. Students will be able to register one car.
People with loaners or rental cars will be able to go online and change the registration so that car will be covered instead of one of the two originally registered.
When prospective students and their families come to campus they will be able to register their vehicles ahead of time.
At the ice arena, Kane said, people coming for open skate, now have to park, run inside, get a tag, and return to the vehicle to put it in. Now they’ll just give their license plate number at the desk.
The system will allow parking services to gather data on which lot are filling up, with the possibility of an app that will tell commuting students which lots have spaces and which are full.
The system Kane said may be extended to pay lots, allowing visitors to pay for parking without going to the kiosk.
The system, he said, has worked well at Ohio State and Cleveland State.
New graduate degree
The senate also approved a new Master of Arts in European Studies. The interdisciplinary major would prepare students for careers in business, journalism, government, research and education. The program builds on the university’s strengths including established study abroad programs.
The major, said Edgar Landgraf, a professor of German, also addresses a lack of expertise in European language and culture.
Europe is the second largest trading partner of the United States and Ohio.
Honorary degrees
The senate gave its approval to the granting of two honorary degrees.
One will be awarded to Bill Easterly, who grew up in Bowling Green and graduated from BGSU, before embarking on a career at the World Bank and as an author, whose most recent book is “The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor.” He now teaches at New York University.
Stefan Sanderling, the conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, who will be leaving the orchestra after 15 years at its helm.
Interim Dean Bill Mathis said that during Sanderling’s tenure ties between BGSU and the orchestra have grown stronger.
