A new administrator at Ohio University will be in charge of making sure the university has more than good insurance in the face of unpleasant surprises.

David Hopka has been hired as OU’s assistant vice president for safety and risk management. Hopka begins in his position on Nov. 13 and will make an annual salary of $100,000. His hiring ends a search that began in August with more than 50 applicants.

Hopka, who had a similar position at the University of Toledo since 2003, will oversee the insurance, worker’s compensation, and environmental health and safety departments at the university. Those separate departments previously were jointly supervised by Dale Tampke as associate vice president for finance and administration, who is now current associate provost for undergraduate student retention, and Larry Corrigan, finance and administration’s former interim vice president and a current associate vice president.

“The job involves identifying the risks that the university faces, and by risks, I mean things that could cause the university to lose money through damage to its property, injury to its employees, students or other kinds of financial or asset loss,” Hopka said. “What I have been asked to do is to find the right mix of insurance ... and risk control.”

Terry Conry, an associate vice president for finance and administration, said the push for an administrator in charge of those risk-related areas at the university came from the administrator to whom Hopka will report: William Decatur, vice president for finance and administration.

“(The decision) had to do with (Decatur) realizing a trend in higher education is to consolidate these areas so there’s an integrated look at risk, managing risk and transferring risk through insurance,” Conry said. “It’s a more modern structure.”

Hopka also will be responsible for bolstering the university’s preparedness for disasters, such as floods or extensive power outages, Conry said.

“We’ve had ample examples in recent years of what a natural disaster can do as far as putting a university out of business,” he said.

Some of Hopka’s central duties at the university will be supervising large event management and residence hall safety, but Hopka said his first priority will be taking a good look at the campus itself.

“My first 30 days here will be to absorb as much information I can, looking at facilities and talking to people,” he said.