Stadium expansion approved by OU Regents

The University of Oklahoma’s Board of Regents approved a policy which — at a later date — could allow OU to sponsor a charter school, endorsed a $15 million expansion of the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, and made major changes to its retirement policy during its December meeting.

The board met Wednesday at the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

With all seven regents attending, the group endorsed phase four of a multi-million dollar expansion project of the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

That project, athletic director Joe Castiglione said, would include renovation and improvements to the football team facilities; including the locker room, shower and restroom areas located in the Barry Switzer Center.

“This will allow us to address the need for additional space for sports medicine,” Castiglione said. “We also anticipate building a team room.”

Castiglione said the project includes refurbishing the west mezzanine of the stadium. An area, he said, “that’s been abandoned for a number of years.”

“With that we can expand offices, and add some to space to take care of our fans,” he said.

Total budget for the project, documents show, is $15 million; of that figure, $12.5 million is the “guaranteed maximum price” for construction.

University officials also took the first step toward sponsoring a charter school with the adoption of four-page policy, by a quick, 7-0 vote.

“The policy is required to allow the university, if we were to decide to, to enter into an agreement to sponsor a charter school,” OU president David Boren said. “But any such agreement would be brought back to the board.”

That policy, he said, would “open the door” to the possibility of a charter school sponsorship.

“This would give us an opportunity to help meet some special needs,” Boren said. “To go into areas of education where there are particular areas of specialty and implement new ideas in education. This would allow us to receive applications.”

State law allows charter schools in districts which have an “average daily membership” of 5,000 or more and which are located in counties having more than 500,000 in population.

Only Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, Boren said, are eligible for charter schools.

“Clearly, an application would have to come from Oklahoma City or Tulsa county,” he said. “And we would bring it to you at that time.”

Acknowledging the high cost of health care, the regents approved major changes to the university’s retirement policy.

Recommended by OU’s Contribution Strategy and Health Insurance Options Committee, the new policy is the first “in a series of recommendations” proposed by the group.

Under the proposal, new employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2008, would be responsible for 100 percent of the cost required to participate in OU medical and dental plans upon reaching retirement.

“The employees, upon meeting retirement eligibility, would continue to be eligible to participate in the university’s medical and dental plans at retirement,” the proposal states, “... but would be responsible for 100 percent of the cost, less any applicable Teacher’s Retirement System contribution.”

Those employees would “continue to be eligible for other retiree benefits currently listed in the Retirement Policy,” including free parking and library privileges.

The university picks up “a majority” of the cost of health benefits for its retired employees.

The new policy, Boren said, was necessary because of the rapidly escalating cost of health care. “This is no way changes our current responsibility to current employees or retirees,” he said.

Boren said the change was reflective of “what is happening in the private and public sector.”

“We are simply not able to guarantee new hires ... that when they retire, we will pay virtually the whole cost of their participation in their health insurance benefits. By taking this action today, we protect ourselves with new employees from undertaking obligations that we might not be able to meet.”

In other action, the regents approved:

• A resolution honoring Andrea DenHoed, who was named a 2008 American Rhodes Scholarship recipient, the university’s 27th Rhodes Scholar. DenHoed, Boren said, is a letters and international studies major from Aurora, Colo., and plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Oxford in England.

• Awarding a posthumous Doctor of Philosophy degree to Dr. Monty Menhusen.

• A professional service agreement with HCA Health Services of Oklahoma for $2,513,400 per year.

• A professional service agreement with Academic Physicians Insurance Company for $918,666.

• Spending $7,506,000 for renovation of the Basic Services Education Building for Medical Student Education Facilities.

• An $850,000 advertising contract with BVK Advertising Services of Westmont, Ill., for a collaborative advertising contract with the OU medical Center and the Health Sciences Center on behalf of OU Physicians.

• $134,630 contract with Midwest Towers, Inc., for cooling tower repair.

• $175,000 to Central Oklahoma Parking and Transportation Authority for the purchase of three buses.

• Choosing the architectural firm of McFarland, Davies Architects PLC to plan, design and oversee construction of OU’s North Tulsa Clinic project.

• Spending $296,800 to purchase a flow cytometer from BD Biosciences of California.

• Authorizing OU administrators to acquire property located at 1420 Lincoln to use for parking space “for the foreseeable future.”

• Spending $141,300 with the Segal Company of Chicago for benefits consulting.

• Hiring Oklahoma City’s Elliott+Associates Architects to provide professional services for the university’s Boat House project.

• Spending $126,643 with Lumenate, Inc., to provide Sun Microsystems hardware, software and maintenance services.

• Spending $190,000 for sports video production services with Oklahoma City-based Visual Image, Inc.

• Changes to the Regent’s Fund Statement of Investment Policy.

In Norman: Voting in the dark

Wrapped in blankets and huddled around a portable kerosene heater, Pat Collins, Laura Wilcox and Corene Siglin sat in the dark at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church’s Parish Center.

They arrived at 6 a.m.

They came prepared — coffee, snacks and things to work on if they got bored.

And they’ll be at St. Joseph’s for a while; at least 12 hours.

Still, for the trio — precinct workers for the Cleveland County Election Board — Tuesday was just another day; there was an elction to work and Collins, Wilcox and Siglin each had a job to do — that is, inspector, clerk and judge.

They welcomed voters, checked names against the precinct list, handed out ballots and answered questions.

Only this time they did their jobs in the dark and cold.

The weekend’s ice storm may have downed power lines and left more than 25,000 Norman residents without power, but it didn’t change the world for the employees of the Cleveland County Election Board. Tuesday was election day, and the vote went on.

“People are voting, the election is happening,” Collins said. “Even without power. It shows us we can survive.”

With about 80 pecent of the election board’s precincts without power, election board staffers did things “the old-fashioned way,” said Paula Roberts, Cleveland County’s election board secretary.

“People voted,” she said. “They voted in the dark, but they voted.”

Sure, the ballots are the same. And there’s a big blue voting machine in the lobby. But for this election, Roberts and her staff hand processed a majority of the ballots.

With flashlights.

And portable heaters.

A lots of coffee.

“We’ve stored the ballots in the voting machines at each precinct and then brought the ballots here, to the election board office, and counted them.”

Once at the election board office, the ballots were hand fed into three voting machines stationed at the lobby to tablulate results.

Those machines, Roberts said, were powered and working, thanks in part to a loaned electric generator.

Roberts said Cleveland County District 3 Commissioner Rusty Sullivan brought her office a gas-powered generator, which provided some heat, light and powered the voting machines, allowing workers to process Tuesday’s election results.

“We do have some power,” she said. “We’ll be able to count the ballots with three machines we’ve got set up in the lobby.”

But at the vast majority of the county’s 70 precincts, electricity was Tuesday a rare commodity Tuesday.

“We did things by hand,” Roberts said. “But each precinct had a cell phone. They all know the procedure. Things went pretty smoothly.”

Back at St. Joseph’s, Collins, Wilcox and Siglin took the storm and the problems it caused in stride.

“It’s not that bad,” Wilcox said. “We watched it rain and tried to stay warm.”

As she spoke, the precinct’s 10th voter walked through the door.

Using a flashlight, Siglin showed the woman where to sign her name in the precinct book; Wilcox handed her the ballot.

A few minutes later, another ballot was cast.

“We set up close to the door to take advantage of the light,” Collins said. “But there wasn’t much at 6 a.m. this moring.”

As the woman left, Collins handed her an “I voted” sticker.

“Here’s you a sticker,” she said. “You earned it today.”

So did the staff of Cleveland County’s Election Board.

“It’s been a weird day,” Roberts said. “But we’re going to make it.”

Collins agreed.

“The post office isn’t the only one who works in rain, sleet, snow and hail,” she said.