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!

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