Trustees cancel Friday meeting for memorial

The IU board of trustees decided to cancel its monthly meeting Friday in order to honor the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who died Saturday from a stroke.\nThe trustees will use the day to attend an interfaith service for the governor at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis. The services will begin at noon on the west steps of the Statehouse where the late governor was inaugurated in 1997.\nTrustee Peter Obremskey, who knew O'Bannon as an undergraduate at IU, said canceling the meeting was the only proper thing to do.\n"Frank was an education governor," he said. "He loved IU. He was an IU alumnus. He helped the University whenever he could and it's only fitting that we have this tribute to him."\nThe trustees will still meet Wednesday and Thursday of this week for their annual retreat and monthly meeting.\nTrustee Sue Talbot said the major topic of the meeting will be the economic importance of major research institutions, such as IU, to the state of Indiana. \n"(IU) can make an economic contribution," Talbot said. "There's an IU graduate everywhere you go."\nObremskey said it is very important to keep IU moving when it comes to research.\n"We've simply got to maintain our excellence," he said. "It's actually very fitting, but Gov. O'Bannon spearheaded this campaign with the Life Sciences initiative this year and we are really seeing progress."\nTalbot said this will be the first trustees meeting of the 2003-04 academic year in which recently appointed IU President Dr. Adam Herbert will be present. Herbert will speak during the business meeting Thursday.\nAlso Thursday, Don Weaver, director of the IU Office of State Relations, will provide his assessment of the past 20 years in terms of IU's relations with state officials. Weaver has been working with state relations for more than 40 years.\nOne of the topics the Facilities Committee will discuss includes space in the IU Cyclotron facility, which has been leased to Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, LLC. \nAlso listed on the agenda is a discussion about the future of Camp Brosius, the IU Alumni Association's "family camp" located on Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin.\nA previously scheduled conversation with Stan Jones, commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, has been canceled. \nAll meetings will take place in the Indiana Memorial Union and are open to the public.\n-- Campus editor Adam Aasen contributed to this report. Contact staff writer James E. Klaunig Jr. at jklaunig@indiana.edu.