Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The Wright State University president can now act on urgent matters that affect the health and safety of the school without prior board approval.
The board of trustees approved giving President Susan Edwards the additional authorities during a virtual meeting Saturday.
“It times like these things can and do change quickly and it’s really important Dr. Edwards has the authority she needs to act quickly and in her best judgment,” Chairman Sean Fitzpatrick said. “While in more normal times, we have communication protocols and approval processes in place, with things happening so rapidly, we don’t have time to follow our normal protocols.”
Saturday’s resolution goes into effect retroactively to March 9. The resolution does call on the president to first contact the board chair if, “during this crisis the president encounters an extraordinary circumstance as determined by the president, which requires official action.”
Edwards traced the university’s steps since the coronavirus outbreak first came to the public’s attention. The campus first began emergency planning on Jan. 28 when two students at Miami University were the first two suspected Ohio cases of COVID-19. Those students were tested and their results came back negative.
“The last 18 days have been unprecedented to say the least,” Edwards said. “I want to thank the Wright State community for rapidly mobilizing to make the sweeping changes that were necessary in order to navigate the constantly evolving COVID-19 situation.”
Like many other campuses across the state, students were forced to quickly figure out housing arrangements after they were told they needed to leave dorms earlier this month.
“Now what the board may not know, and what the community may not know, is that we actually had some of the student body that call Wright State their home,” Edwards said. “We are their only home and the chancellor asked us in a communication that we allow housing to continue in the case of extenuating circumstances.”
