The Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a new cyber-criminology major Wednesday, which will start in the fall 2024 semester.
Cyber-criminology is the study of how crimes are accomplished through the use of computers as well as how to investigate and prevent them, as defined by Florida State University, which has a cyber-criminology program.
The major will be overseen by the School of Multidisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Both the Department of Sociology and Criminology and Information Technology (IT) Program from the College of Applied and Technical Studies will also be involved.
Courses for the major will be mostly online throughout the nine-campus system. The major awaits approval from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
A projected 100,000 job openings will appear in the field by 2030, according to Kent State Today.
The Board of Trustees also approved a six-year capital plan totaling $92.1 million that includes maintenance and renovation projects over the next two years.
These projects include renovations of White Hall, the library tower, campus elevators and accessibility, IT network, HVAC roofing, classrooms and other improvements across the campuses.
Vice Chair Ann Womer Benjamin announced that the Finance and Administration committee found a new stop-loss insurer for the university with Medical Mutual of Ohio. Womer Benjamin claims the company offered Kent State the best value. One year of the contract will cost $2.8 million with a $400,000 deductible.
“That’s savings of 4.3% from the prior year, and a 16.5% reduction from the proposed rate under the current deductible of $350,000,” she said.
Another action that was approved was the naming of the Cheryl Swinehart Dariushnia Auditorium in Henderson Hall.
Dariushnia graduated from the College of Nursing in 1977, serving as a pediatric nurse for 30 years before she died in 2020, according to a press release from Kent State Today. Her son Ali graduated from Kent State in 2019 and donated $250,000 to the College of Nursing.
The Audit and Compliance Committee reviewed the Fiscal Year 2023 Efficiency Report for Board ratification. Trustee Donald Mason reported that the committee had no unusual items to report.
“The university remains committed to effectively managing the operating budget by aligning expenses to projected revenues along with careful and thoughtful spending of one-time funds,” he said.
The Board also recognized 1,097 degrees earned during the summer of 2023, according to a press release.
Other actions approved by the committee included renovations to the Devine Diamond at Dix Stadium, repairs to water piping in the Centennial Court dorms and renovations to Henderson Hall.
The next Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for March 6.
Michael Neenan is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
