Dean’s report Oct. 31, 2014

Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,

Happy Halloween everyone!

As with my last biweekly report, I have another set of bittersweet commemorations to report this time around. Today is the last day at Ohio State for Michelle McLane, who has served our campus well for many years. We wish her the best of luck as she moves forward to take advantage of new opportunities. Fortunately, we recently welcomed her replacement, Rolanda Page, as our new Coordinator of Student Development and Access Services. The fact that we created an intentional overlap has given Rolanda the advantage of learning the ropes from Michelle prior to her departure. If you have not yet introduced yourself to Rolanda, please do so in the near future!

Another bittersweet moment occurred yesterday when I attended a reception and dinner following Anne Epperson’s last Alumni Council meeting on the Columbus campus. Anne has been our Alumni Council representative for the past six years, and has given much to our campus and university during this time period. We are fortunate to have had Dick Walters, a longtime supporter of our campus (including his having been a recent capital campaign committee member), accept our invitation to take on this important role for the Ohio State Mansfield campus. Many thanks to Anne for all of her service and to Dick for stepping forward at this time!

Meanwhile, here is a quick rundown on the past two weeks:

Human Resources

  • On Monday, Nick Orosan helped to host an Advancement forum that included Dana Booth, (Assistant Vice President for Constituency Fundraising), Jeff Hilpert (Senior Director of Development), Jacqui Aberegg (Assistant Vice President, Brand & Marketing), and Chad Warren (Assistant Vice President for Engagement Strategies). In many ways this meeting resembled the HR forum that was held last year, especially from the vantage point of hearing how the Mansfield and Columbus campuses work together as a team to accomplish various missions concerning development, communications, and alumni relations.

Curriculum

  • Last week, Dolan Evanovich, Vice President for Enrollment Planning, brought a number of his staff members to the Mansfield campus in order to discuss our five year admissions projections. There was a great deal of enthusiasm expressed for the recent addition of the off-campus housing through Buckeye Village, as well as the activities we are undertaking to refashion ourselves as a more residential campus. We have chosen a theme of “under promise and over perform” regarding enrollment projections, asking for an official target of around 1400 students in the next five years (up from approximately 1250 right now, or about a 12% increase in enrollment by 2019).
  • On Monday, Executive Dean of Arts and Sciences David Manderscheid visited our campus and met with faculty members over the common hour for an informal chat about current issues and opportunities within the college regarding regional campus faculty and students.

Diversity and inclusion issues

  • Renee Thompson continues to work with Ohio State Mansfield students to establish the “No More” campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault. An information campaign regarding the relevance of the No More campaign is slated to be shared by year’s end.
  • Bruce George, co-founder of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO, presented on our Mansfield campus last week. An estimated 40 students, faculty and community members were on hand to listen to Mr. George’s insight regarding entrepreneurialism, critical thinking and personal achievement. Afterwards, Mr. George met with students to give specific insight on the entertainment industries and the challenges of achieving musical success.
  • In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, Cherokee recording artist Michael Jacobs will be on hand to entertain our campus through a blend of Native American, folk and pop music, as well as discussing the triumphs and challenges of the Native American community. Mr. Jacobs will present on our campus on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 (4:00 pm-5:00 pm) and at OSU Columbus on Wednesday, November 5th.

Property and facilities

  • Last week, a small contingent of the Ohio State Mansfield and NCSC leadership teams were on hand for the dedication ceremony of the “Founder’s Rock” commemorating the work that Avery Hand and Jim Gorman undertook to raise funds for the purchase of the property on which our campus now resides. Jim Gorman was joined by several members of his family for this event. Avery Hand (who passed away several years ago) was honored by a number of his family members who wrote tributes that were read out loud at the ceremony in celebration of his life as a father, grandfather and community citizen.
  • The third meeting of the Conard second floor programming study met last week to hear some preliminary findings from Physical Planning and Real Estate (PPARE) staff members working with our campus on this project. Feedback from participants will now trigger a new round of fact finding, with the hope of a more rigorous set of recommendations forthcoming in the near future.
  • Senior members of the Ohio State Mansfield and NCSC leadership teams received a “sneak peek” regarding preliminary findings regarding the new entranceway work being conducted by MKSK Design group. The preliminary feedback generated through this meeting will be incorporated into the design plans that will be shared with the wider group of committee members before being vetted by our campus community.

 Town-gown relationships

  • On Monday, I attended the 100th anniversary celebration of Catholic Charities along with several members of our campus, including Nick Orosan and Renee Thompson. John and Mary Riedl also were in attendance, along with approximately 100 community guests. This event was hosted by one of the many local agencies and organizations we work with on a consistent basis in order to provide important services to community residents through the volunteer activities of our students, staff, and faculty.
  • I have been appointed to the International Town Gown Association (ITGA) Strategic Planning Group Committee.

From the flight deck

One proposal to hire a woodlands stewardship consultant and a second proposal to use strategic cash reserves to provide an immediate upgrade to the CRC workout facilities were approved by the Executive Committee yesterday. The woodlands stewardship plan will allow us to more firmly wrap our collective minds around the resources we have within the borders of our 640 acres, while the facility upgrade will provide a long overdue facelift to the CRC.

This past Wednesday I took part in the third annual meeting of Regional Campus Cluster deans and the Presidents of the co-located campuses. Among other things, this event represented a “passing of the torch” from Mike Boehm to Jennifer Cowley. There are so many reasons to praise Mike’s leadership over the past four and a half years, and just as much motivation for expecting much the same from Jennifer’s guidance and direction.

Finally, on a more personal note I wanted to share the joy I experienced two days ago when I returned to the undergraduate classroom. A former doctoral student of mine had adopted the textbook I had written on families with adolescents for her class, and asked if I would visit with her students. I provided a short lecture on the material of the day, facilitated small and larger group discussions, and then was grateful to receive feedback from students about the book I wrote. It was such a gratifying experience, and it prompts me to remind Ohio State Mansfield faculty members about how fortunate you all are to have the privilege of teaching our best and brightest on a regular basis!

All signs continue to point to friendly skies ahead. May your weekend be filled with maximum treats and a minimum of tricks. Go Bucks and Go Ohio State Mansfield!

Dean’s report Oct. 17, 2014

Each year we welcome new members into the Ohio State academy. Last week, President Drake hosted a new faculty member reception at the Ohio State Faculty Club, and I was delighted to take part in this celebration with both Ruth Lowery and Agus Munoz-Garcia. We were able to catch the attention of President Drake for a couple of moments, and he spoke warmly about the regional campuses due to his recent visit to Newark. In addition to noting his interest in visiting the Mansfield campus in the not-too-distant future, he also was quite animated about the special role he saw the regional campuses playing in the realm of P-16 education. This certainly left Ruth with a big smile on her face!

Meanwhile, here is a quick rundown on the past two weeks:

Human Resources

  • On Monday, NCSC President Dorey Diab and I hosted an Open Student Forum along with Ohio State Student Trustee Jaime Cruse and NCSC Student McKayla Cox. Special thanks to Andrew Kinney for offering extra credit to students who participated in the forum!
  • On Tuesday, I sent out a notice to the Mansfield campus regarding Norman Jones having accepted my offer to become the next Associate Dean. Norman will begin his new role on July 1, 2015.
  • NOTE: Following our ironing out of some last minute details in Executive Committee, we soon will begin the search process for our next Assistant Dean.

Curriculum

  • On Monday, Dave Tovey, Brian White and I met with Ozeas Costa and Carol Landry regarding both the BAIS (Integrated Studies with emphasis on environmental studies) and the SENR minor and major and how all of this curricular-based work would dovetail with our EcoLab initiative. Next steps include completing the BAIS curriculum outline and notifying the Columbus campus of our intention to begin offering students an Individualized Study Program (ISP) option while seeking official recognition of the new major from the Arts and Sciences faculty.
  • On Wednesday, Dave Tovey and I toured some of the Mechanical Engineering (ME) sites on the Columbus campus in order to gain a better idea about the facilities we would need to have to offer the second, third, and fourth years of an ME major.
  • On Thursday, several members of the College of Engineering (COE) – including Dean David Williams and Associate Dean David Tomasko – visited our campus. Special attention was given to the development of our four year engineering degree offerings, as well as connecting local employers with students and graduates from the COE.

Diversity and inclusion issues

  • As a result of last week’s Woman2Woman conversation with Katherine Ezawa of The DomesticViolence Shelter, Inc., participants unanimously agreed to begin efforts to champion the “NoMore” campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault. Renee Thompson is working withthis group to develop mission and vision statements and will meet again with Katherine onWednesday, October 22nd to begin crystallizing a campus-wide “No More” campaign.
  • NOTE: Bruce George, the co-founder of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO, will present atthe Mansfield campus on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 from 4:00 pm-5:30 pm., EisenhowerStudent Union.

Property and facilities

  • Last Thursday, President Diab, Brian White and I met with members of the Ontario Growth Association in order to discuss a range of issues, including most significantly a series of zoning issues that are being considered by the Ontario City Council regarding the Campus District. Much of this work is being done in order to create a uniform look to new businesses that will develop on Lex-Springmill Road.
  • On Thursday, I spent some time with Larry Stimpert on a tour of our physical facilities, as well astaking the opportunity to meet with his Physical Operations and Maintenance (POM) staff.

Town-gown relationships

  • Last week, I attended the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) conferencein Syracuse, New York. In addition to presenting a talk on the recent campus-community surveywe conducted, I spent quite a bit of time talking to CUMU members who are facing similarchallenges as our campus in terms of improving town-gown relationships. One of the mostgratifying pieces of good news I brought back was that the baseline data created by our surveywas the envy of the conference!

From the flight deck

This is Homecoming week, and later today we will be crowning a new Mansfield campus Homecoming Queen and King. The following individuals are representing our campus this year as part of the Mansfield Homecoming Court: Nella Blackford (Ashland, Early Childhood Education), Maris Bucci (Bellville, Communications), Jordan Morse (Ashland, Psychology), Joey Burley (Ashland, Psychology & English), Jordan Landis (Crestview, Middle Childhood Education), and Greg Palmerton (Norwalk, Biology & Pre-Medicine). In addition, these students will get to participate in the Homecoming Parade and Marching Band rehearsal on the Columbus campus today, and then will be on hand tomorrow for the pre-game skull session and ensuing football game against Rutgers. This is a great bunch of students, many of whom have already positioned themselves as student leaders on our campus. Many thanks to Elise Riggle for working with the other regional campuses to coordinate these events for our Homecoming Court. This is another great example of our students benefitting from our small campus advantages while still being able to participate in the big campus events!

If you have any of the Homecoming Court students in your classes, please let them know how proud we are of them. There is a lot to be delighted about these days, and our stellar students are the centerpiece of it all. Go Bucks and Go Ohio State Mansfield!

Dean’s Report Oct. 3, 2014

There was a bittersweet flavor to this week’s events. On Monday, we got the sweet treat, celebrating Carol Landry’s promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. Yeah Carol! The very next day, however, we had to bid farewell to Connie Stitzlein. While we all wish her the very best in her retirement years, it is always sad to see someone go who has been such a positive force on the campus. Fortunately, Tina Lillo has been able to learn all of Connie’s tricks (and I have been assured that Connie did in fact hand over her magic wand to Tina before departing as well). Meanwhile, here’s a quick update on how the main issues at hand for the campus were dealt with over the past two weeks or so.

Human Resources

  • The search for the new History position is underway through national advertisements and related recruitment efforts. The search for the new Education position will commence shortly.
  • Molly Driscoll made her first appearance on campus today to conduct interviews related to the “culture of coaching” work she will be conducting for us, and she will return again this coming Monday to complete those discussions.

Curriculum

  • Lots of attention is beginning to be paid to our environmental studies efforts. The Curriculum Committee has met already this semester to discuss this topic, and David Tovey and I have a meeting in two weeks with Ozeas Costa and Carol Landry in order to advance this conversation.

Diversity and inclusion issues

  • Perhaps the best news of all in this category is the fact that we have 203 students of color on our campus this year, with large increases in our Asian, African American, Hispanic, and Biracial student populations. According to my last communication with Donna Hight, students of color now represent 16% of our student body, a 4% increase from last year.
  • Over the past two weeks we have welcomed two guest speakers for Hispanic Heritage Month: John Alvarez-Turner and Frederick Luis Aldama.
  • Quench Your Thirst Thursdays (QYT) kicked off the semester with its first meeting last week (with the next one to follow on 10/9).
  • Renée Thompson was a guest presenter for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s “It’s All About Love Retreat” last week at Deer Creek Lodge. It is important to note that Renée was the first regional campus representative to have ever been asked to present at this retreat for women of color.

Property and facilities

  • University Development staff paid our campus a visit today. David Ripple, (VP of Development), Matt Meyer (senior director of corporate and foundation relations), and Dana Booth (assistant VP, constituency fundraising) were on site to discuss capital campaign strategies alongside fundraising efforts for our EcoLab initiative.
  • This past Wednesday, Physical Planning and Real Estate (PPARE) staff members were on hand to conduct a set of planning activities related to the second floor of Conard Hall. The results of this study will inform our next Capital Appropriations funding request, among other outlets.
  • Last Friday we witnessed the installation of new furniture for our dining facilities. Wow – what an improvement!

Town-gown relationships

  • The presentation made to the campus and community on our survey efforts yielded a number of positive news stories in local media at the beginning of last week, which have been posted to various social media sites in addition to our campus website.
  • On a more personal note, the first manuscript to utilize the data derived from our campus-community survey went live this week through Online First (gosh does it feel good to keep publishing scholarly articles in the midst of attending to my administrative responsibilities!). For anyone interested in the article the citation is:
    • Gavazzi, Stephen. M. and Michael Fox. 2014. A tale of three cities: Piloting a measure of effort and comfort levels within town-gown relationships. Innovative Higher Education. doi: 10.1007/s10755-014-9309-0

From the flight deck

As I explained in my first biweekly report of this academic year, the fact that the Ohio State Mansfield campus now seems poised for takeoff compelled me to adopt an aeronautical theme this year (after all, elevators can only get as high as the buildings they exist within!). From where I sit, the new semester seems to have gotten off the ground in fine fashion, and we are beginning to gain altitude at a smooth yet exciting rate. One sure sign of a comfortable flight ahead is the initial preparation efforts we are successfully undertaking to get ready for a new “co-pilot” to join the team in the cabin. Norman Jones facilitated an open forum today on his candidacy for the Associate Dean position, and I will be releasing a brief campus survey very soon that will allow faculty and staff colleagues to comment on his strengths and challenges coming into the position, as well as providing feedback about the job description and where he should be focusing the greatest amount of his attention come July 1, 2015. When this process is completed, we will next turn our attention to the next role to be filled in the cockpit: the Assistant Dean position. Stay tuned!

Go Bucks and Go Ohio State Mansfield!