{"id":37943,"date":"2019-04-10T09:59:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=37943"},"modified":"2019-04-10T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T13:59:08","slug":"benjamin-gettler-and-the-university-of-cincinnati-board-of-trustees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2019\/04\/benjamin-gettler-and-the-university-of-cincinnati-board-of-trustees\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Gettler and the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Alex Temple, Benjamin Gettler Papers Project Archivist<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before that Benjamin Gettler served on the Board of Trustees for the University of Cincinnati, but I haven\u2019t really talked about how he got there or what that means.\u00a0 In short, the Board of Trustees is the governing body of the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 There are 11 members total, who are recommended by the Ohio State Senate and appointed by the Governor of Ohio.\u00a0 Among other responsibilities, they select and appoint the university president, set the university budget, and grant all degrees from the university.\u00a0 The trustees set the framework for students\u2019 experience at the University of Cincinnati, as they also are responsible for setting the tuition and approving university rules, curricula, and programs.\u00a0 Gettler himself was key to the creation of the Judaic Studies Department.<\/p>\n

Gettler was first recommended as a trustee to Governor George Voinovich by legislator Stanley Aronoff in October of 1992.\u00a0 Aronoff lauded Gettler\u2019s commitment to the Republican Party (Voinovich was a Republican governor) and business prowess, but it wasn\u2019t until November of 1993 after a second recommendation from Bob Taft, that Voinovich would finally appoint Gettler.\u00a0 Taft\u2019s recommendation better highlighted Gettler\u2019s qualifications as both a University of Cincinnati alumnus and significant donor.\u00a0 Taft also praised his experience in law, finance, community service, and business in addition to his supportive activities with the Republican Party in local, state, and national issues.\u00a0 He also put his own reputation on the line by making the recommendation out of personal familiarity with Gettler.<\/p>\n

The following January, Voinovich contacted Gettler with a letter, asking him what services he \u00a0previously performed for the University of Cincinnati, his motivation for serving as trustee, the existing problems he saw at UC and in higher education and how he would solve them, and how he felt a trustee should relate to the president of the university, who at that time was Joseph Steger.\u00a0 He also told Gettler what his expectations were for a trustee, including time commitments, accountability, and legal compliance.<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

Gettler replied very shortly after, carefully answering each of Voinovich\u2019s questions.\u00a0 Gettler stated that his two main concerns with the university were financial in nature, including an organized faculty represented by a collective bargaining agreement.\u00a0 He believed the financial issues could be improved with his experience as Chairman of the Board of American Controlled Industries and at Vulcan, and that as a legal representative for the Board of Trustees when the American Association of University Professors first established the faculty union, he had a deep understanding of the relationship between the board and the faculty. \u00a0It should be noted that at the conclusion of this project, the use of Gettler\u2019s papers by scholars, students, faculty, and the general public will now facilitate an objective assessment of his relationship with the University of Cincinnati faculty.<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Last<\/a><\/p>\n

So on January 19, 1994, Gettler was notified by letter from Voinovich of his appointment to the Board of Trustees at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 He served his full term until 2003, only missing a single meeting in all those years.\u00a0 He served as the chair of the board from 2000-2002.\u00a0 During his service, he continued correspondence with Bob Taft, who later would become Governor of Ohio, and George Voinovich, who went on to serve on the United States Senate. This correspondence can also be found in the Benjamin Gettler Papers Collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Alex Temple, Benjamin Gettler Papers Project Archivist I\u2019ve mentioned before that Benjamin Gettler served on the Board of Trustees for the University of Cincinnati, but I haven\u2019t really talked about how he got there or what that means.\u00a0 In … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,83,31,13],"tags":[1482,52,66],"class_list":["post-37943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-langsam-library","category-uc","category-uclibraries","tag-benjamin-gettler-papers-project","tag-uc-history","tag-university-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}