The Center for Higher Education Enterprise, a unit of the Office of Academic Affairs at Ohio State University has closed amid concerns about its effectiveness.
The center, also known as CHEE was established in 2013 aimed at developing “multidisciplinary research programs and policy recommendations focused on finding creative and enterprising ways to improve student success outcomes for public higher education.”
However, Dr. Joshua Hawley, who led CHEE said the center should be closed as it wasn’t needed, Columbia Business First reported. The university agreed with Hawley’s recommendation.
“There is no pressing reason to keep it open from a university perspective. There are many other university centers that can carry out its functions,” Hawley wrote in a study conducted by the center, adding that it overlaps with several other university centers and institutes that complete the mission of CHEE in a more effective manner.
The center was supported through one gift of $1.5 million and the university provided additional funding in the same amount. CHEE’s operating budget was about $150,000 during the 2018 fiscal year, down from the $730,000 budget during the prior year.