Trustees Approve New School, Police Contract

Trustees Approve New School, Police Contract

The University of Toledo Board of Trustees approved a new School of Interdisciplinary Data Science and a collective bargaining agreement with campus police at its December meeting.

The new School of Interdisciplinary Data Science in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics will create a hub for the discipline at UToledo housing the current Bachelor of Science program and the future online Master of Science program currently under development. The school will bring together an interdisciplinary group of faculty from across the University to educate students across the entire spectrum of data science methods from data collection through interrogation and analysis, visualization and communication.

In addition, the Department of Biological Sciences will change to the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. The decision to rename the department was made to better reflect the department's established research strength and to distinguish the UToledo program from other biology programs.

Trustees also approved a new collective bargaining agreement with The University of Toledo Police Patrolman's Association (UTPPA) that was ratified by its membership on Oct. 18, 2024. The new agreement runs from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2027, and includes a market adjustment and 2% increases effective at the start of each year of the contract. There are 22 current members of the bargaining unit.

A network service agreement with Juniper Networks also was approved. The five-year agreement with an annual payment of $1.1 million replaces the physical infrastructure for a stronger and more flexible hard-wired data network for UToledo campuses.