Kaylee Jones
Staff Writer
One of Cameron University’s own, Vice President for Business and Finance Glen Pinkston, will serve as the Elected Chair of the Council of Business Officers for the 2012-2013 year.
COBO is an advisory council that deals in matters pertaining to the financial and business related aspects of higher educational institutions in Oklahoma. The election to Chair is determined from a pool of 25 Oklahoma universities, and each member serves a term of one academic year.
The appointment begins in August and is completed in July of the following year. An officer is not able to serve more than two consecutive terms.
COBO includes five institutional representatives. Vice President Pinkston will serve as one of two that must come from a Regional University.
Vice President Pinkston said that he was honored to be another member of the Cameron team to accept such a position.
“Cameron has been lucky,” Vice President Pinkston said. “Our Provost, John (McArthur), served as Chair the Council of Instruction, and Vice President Glover has served as Chair on the Communicator’s Council.”
Vice President Pinkston’s duties as the Chairperson will include preparing for and presiding at all COBO meetings. He will also be responsible for helping to appoint his successor and the Chairperson-elect who is responsible for acting in the stead of an absent chair.
On the docket for business officers this year are matters of facility utilization, collections, refunds and various financial services.
The Council of Business Officers stated purpose includes considering business related issues affecting Oklahoma higher education, conducting studies and issuing reports in the review of business affairs, proposing business related policies and procedures and acting as an advisory council to the Chancellor, Council of Presidents and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Vice President Pinkston simplified, explaining: “Cameron University is in higher education, so is Oklahoma State University. But we’re in different businesses. It’s a little big of apples and oranges.
The Council, Vice President Pinkston said, has to do with making sure policies are created that will help all types of institutions; policies beneficial to research institutions may not adapt well to regional universities.
“Something that someone has an idea to do at the state level or legislative level, might work really well for the regionals, but might not be a good idea for other types of institutions,” Vice President Pinkston said. “The Council gives them a venue to ask those questions.”
He continued: “The Council of Business Officers is a group where all of us may not work on student refunds, but it’s a venue where five or six of us can say, ‘Is anyone having issues with financial aid refunds?’ It’s networking. It’s where we can share common issues and resources.”
The Council of Business Officers meets at 10 a.m. the first Thursday of every month in the OSRHE Conference Room.