It’s a week after the October 6 Centennial Celebration day and I wanted to take the time to capture my thoughts as close to the moment as possible. I feel several things in relation to the centennial. First, I feel appreciation. I am grateful to the Centennial team that helped pull this day together. I am also thankful for this team because we had activities before October 6 and we will have activities after October 6. They all pitched in, put in extra time and rolled up their sleeves. I could not ask for a better team. I am grateful for those who were able to give of their time by participating in one or more of our activities. A celebration is nothing without the people to do the celebrating! Finally, I am grateful for the generosity of our early adopters of our Centennial Endowment campaign. On the evening of the October 6, we officially launched the campaign by announcing we had already received pledges and gifts up to $106,000. A week later, I can report that our number has increased even more. This endowment will allow faculty to invest in student success through programs, professional development, direct student support or other creative means. The endowment also has flexibility allowing us to invest in students in different ways over the next 100 years. Finally, I am proud of our students. They continue to be leaders in the department, across the college, throughout campus and even within and beyond the borders of Ohio. Related to the centennial, they took the leadership to build a float and represent us and our centennial at Homecoming, participated in the tree planting and assisted with implementation of the evening celebration.
I also feel pride. I shared the stage with the leaders before me who set the stage for our departmental greatness. I heard the stories of students and alumni and how they found or connected with our department. We left a living legacy with a red buckeye tree on the southwest corner of the Agricultural Administration Building. We took the time to serve others as faculty, staff, students and alumni – to walk the walk as a department who invests in people. We also talked about the future and about how we are setting the stage for another 100 years. I am proud to be a faculty member of this department and am an even prouder alum.
Lastly, I feel relief. I would be insincere if I didn’t acknowledge that this has been a major undertaking that had been a part of my work since Day 1 (and in many ways, on my mind 3 months before I started my position as chair). I embrace the relief not because it’s done (even though I am looking forward to getting back to the classroom as soon as I can), but I embrace the relief because it was done well. Again, I am fortunate to have a wonderful team around me and I could not have asked for a better day with people in the best of spirits!
I am excited to share our day with you – at least digitally. Soon, we will have the recording of the evening event, pictures from the entire day, and I may have even scored a recording of our tree planting! The official centennial video will be posted soon, too. The 5-minute video provides chapters based upon comments from our faculty, students and alumni regarding their experiences with our department. All of our information related to the centennial is at http://u.osu.edu/acel100. The beautiful 8-foot panels from the evening celebration, representing each of the 10 decades, are already digital uploaded to this website. Check it out when you get the chance!