Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,
I continued the celebration of our esteemed faculty last week by attending the reception for Sergei Chmutov regarding his Honors Faculty Service Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. His department chair and several fellow Math Department faculty members from the Columbus campus were on hand for the Faculty Club gathering, with many accolades being made about his outstanding contributions to student learning. There was a clear sense of pride on display by his colleagues and chair!
Decision-making about faculty and staff positions
At long last, an official offer has been made to our top candidate for the T&L position at the rank of full professor. We hope to celebrate an acceptance soon.
Just yesterday, the EEOB department confirmed the search committee’s recommendations regarding the open position. I will open negotiations with the top candidate immediately.
Development of majors, destination programs, and other academic offerings and issues
Last Friday, I met with Bruce McPheron, the Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, in order to discuss potential partnerships stemming from the EcoLab plans and our desire to have an environmental studies program on our campus. Dean McPheron was very interested in collaborating with us on a number of fronts, and suggested that the next step would involve a meeting with Jeff Sharp, the Director of the School of Environmental and Natural Resources.
Diversity and inclusion issues
There is nothing new to report at this time.
Land use
Many thanks to Ozeas Costa and Brian White for donning rain gear with me and showing off our wetlands and vernal pools to a potential donor this past Monday. The donor was soaked and enthusiastic at the end of our outdoor meeting, with many ideas that I will be taking back to MKSK for inclusion in a first sketch about our EcoLab efforts.
Planning in support of a more residential campus
Last week we hosted a meeting on our campus with representatives of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Avita Health Care Systems. There are clear indications of interest in bringing health care to our campus in the very near future.
Renovation and repair
Last Thursday we had a reception and a soft opening of the Bromfield Library and Information Commons (BLIC), which also was used as an opportunity to thank donors and campaign volunteers for their efforts to bring the first $3M phase of our capital campaign to a successful conclusion. We also used this time to officially rename Bromfield Hall as Conard Hall in celebration of the significant amount of financial support we have received to date from the Conard Family Foundation.
Town-Gown relationships
Yesterday we finally received an IRB response regarding our proposal to conduct a survey on campus-community relationships (conditionally approved pending our supplying a small amount of additional information regarding our recruitment strategy). Residents, employees, and employers in Mansfield, Ontario, and Shelby will be invited to participate in this information-gathering process in mid-May, and then faculty, staff, students, and board members of both Ohio State Mansfield and NCSC will be asked to participate in the survey process in early Fall Semester.
Mood elevator
While Spring Semester is beginning to wind down, there are many activities that will keep us busy through the end of this month. Taken together, they have enormous influence on our ability to “push the up button” on the campus mood elevator. One great example is the student appreciation lunch that was held yesterday in the Conard Learning Center. This event was designed to thank the student tutors who gave generously of their time and efforts in order to help fellow students survive and thrive some of the more difficult courses offered on our campus. This has become one of my new favorite activities to attend, as I get the chance to rub elbows and break bread with some of our best and brightest students. Many thanks to Andrew Mueller and Darla Myers for hosting this event! And thanks in advance as well to all of the faculty and staff members who are involved in planning and executing the rest of the upcoming celebratory activities on our campus. Go Bucks… Going Up!