Interim Assistant Director, OSU Extension Community Development

From Greg Davis (6/23/15)

Dear colleagues-

I’m pleased to inform you that Dr. Brian Raison has agreed to serve as interim assistant director, OSU Extension-Community Development, on a part time basis beginning July 1, 2015. Brian currently serves as assistant professor, county Extension director, and Community Development educator in Miami County. He will be continuing this assignment during the interim period.

Brian’s work is widely respected for bringing together people, information, ideas and processes to positively affect outcomes. His efforts have focused on process facilitation, strategic planning, vision-to-action, evaluation, and new business and non-profit assistance. He has also been an integral part of Extension’s recent city-focused efforts in the areas of local food systems, individual and community health, and engaging older youth/emerging adults in community. He has presented papers and spoken at professional conferences on the state, national and international levels. Please share your support and enthusiasm for Brian as he assumes this interim role.

2015 Farm Science Review Lunches

Dear Friends of the College:

The annual Farm Science Review (FSR) is a signature event of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Each year, nearly 130,000 visitors attend the event to interact with vendors, attend educational sessions and to network with friends, business associates and colleagues.

A highlight of the three day event has been the Vice President’s lunch where our college representatives interact and build relationships with business and industry representatives; elected officials; producers and consumers; and alumni, supporters, faculty and staff. With the continued growth of this event and our desire to engage even more people, we have determined that we are not able to accomplish our goals with a single lunch – we simply have outgrown our space and ability to provide a quality experience for our guests.

As a result of this growth and the desire to enhance our program, I will be hosting two lunches to celebrate Ohio agriculture and our college at the 2015 Farm Science Review.

September 22, 2015 – Celebration of Ohio Agriculture

September 24, 2015 – Celebration of CFAES

In the coming weeks, individuals will be receiving information and save-the-date notices. Both events are by invitation and will highlight the important work our college does with our partners, across campus, the state and the nation.

At the September 24th lunch, we look forward to inducting our 2015 class of the Farm Science Review Hall of Fame and welcoming back previous years inductees. Additionally, we’ll celebrate the great success of our faculty, staff, alumni and donors that have outstanding individual or group contributions to the college, the agricultural industry, and youth and community development.

Again, please be watching your email for more information! We look forward to seeing you at the 2015 Farm Science Review!

Bruce A. McPheron
Vice President for Agricultural Administration & Dean

Accessing OSU Qualtrics License

The Ohio State University has contracted with Qualtrics, one of the leaders in online survey software products, for provisioning surveys for classes and research at the university. If you have a subscription to another online survey tool, you must provide a business case for continued use before renewing your subscription. The CFAES LimeSurvey service is open-source software and is not affected by the Qualtrics agreement.

Any faculty or staff member (or Ohio State student) may use the Qualtrics by setting up an account. Please read the knowledge base (KB) document published by the Office of the Chief Information Officer about how to log in for the first time: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04697 Pay special attention to the first-time log in instructions if you have an existing Qualtrics account. The URL is http://osu.qualtrics.com.

When you first log-in you will be given a “student-trial” account, which you will need to “upgrade” to a “standard” account to be able to use all the features available. Please read the KB document on how to use upgrade codes: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04699 You will need to email cfaes-ithelp@osu.edu to obtain the upgrade code.

Once you have set up your account and are logged in, make sure to check out the many “how-to” videos at Qualtrics University by clicking on the “Helps and Tutorials” button in the upper-right corner of your screen. A nice available feature will be the ability to collaborate on surveys across the university. Read the KB document on how to collaborate with colleagues: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04706.

OSU Extension Educational Technology Needs Infographic

In case you may have missed it, a great infographic created by Ed Tech Heather Gottke is now posted on the OSU Extension Ed Tech blog

As you can see from the results, video creation training and information is greatly needed/wanted across the organization this year. The Ed Tech unit has secured three dates for video workshops in the following regions: Dayton (September 10th), South Centers/Piketon (October 15th), and Marion OSU Campus (date TBD) for this coming Fall. Please save the dates! Registration and more information will be sent in the coming week

Supplemental Individual Disability Insurance

Eligible Ohio State faculty and staff have an opportunity beginning this week to enroll in the Supplemental Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) plan. Eligible employees include faculty and staff earning an annual base salary of at least $100,000 and working at least 20 hours (50% FTE) per week. This voluntary IDI program is being offered to faculty and staff who became eligible following February 2014 and currently exceed the $5,000 maximum monthly benefit under the university’s Group LTD plan. Faculty and staff earning less than $100,000 per year would not need this supplemental coverage, because they would be able to cover 60% of their annual base salary under the university’s Group LTD plan.

Eligible faculty and staff will receive print and email communications from OHR and Unum, Ohio State’s LTD provider, regarding this opportunity throughout the enrollment period.

What you need to do:
Read more information about this voluntary offering here.
Contact Dave Magee, director of Integrated Absence Management and Vocational Services, at magee.54@osu.edu or 292-7031 with questions related to this process or the communications being sent to employees.
Direct faculty and staff questions to Unum’s Ohio State IDI Benefits Center at 877-759-1951. Unum staff will be available via that telephone number Monday-Friday, 9 am to 4 pm ET.

Blood Drive – June 30

Donate blood at the College of Veterinary Medicine blood drive on Tuesday, June 30 and receive a Columbus Zoo BOGO coupon & enter to win Zoombezi Bay passes! Giving blood is an easy way to volunteer, and help save lives.

Blood Drive
Tuesday, June 30
College of Veterinary Medicine
Bloodmobile in front of the Veterinary Academic Building
11am to 5pm
If you donated on or before May 5 you may be eligible to donate at this drive.

Please schedule an appointment at: www.redcrossblood.org search sponsor code: buckeyes or call 1-800-RED CROSS or here.
Helpful Links:
Eligibility
Why donate blood?
Tips for a Successful Donation

Ohio State/Brazil Collaborative Proposals Due July 13

Researchers from all disciplines are invited to submit proposals involving the exchange of researchers between Ohio State and Higher Education Research Institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, to support research and innovation. Two funding opportunities are being offered. Mobility grants up to $20,000 will be awarded to build new collaborations. Regular research awards up to $100,000 will be awarded to support established collaborations. The submission deadline is Monday (7/13).
— > Contact: Rob McKenney at mckenney.1@osu.edu
— > Read more: go.osu.edu/Brazil_2015CFP

Extension Communique

A new issue of the Communiqué is now available online at http://extension.osu.edu/communique.

Topics include:
· State Budget Update – Late-Breaking News
· OARDC Director Steve Slack Announces Retirement
· Action Leadership Retreat – September 28-29
· Self-Disclosure of Criminal Convictions Policy
· What is Your Personality Color Spectrum? Workshop – June 17
· Strengths-Based Management and Supervision Workshop – June 23
· Mission Possible: Positive Leadership Online Workshop – June 24

Social Security Numbers & Restricted Data

Social security numbers and restricted data elements that reside on university-owned computers are a large security risk for the university. The financial and reputational costs associated with addressing data breaches around these types of data can be very expensive. Over the past few years, we’ve begun to reduce the number of these files across our college-wide environment, and it is imperative that we continue to do so. Historically, we have heavily relied on individual technicians to make time on top of their existing support duties to reduce these numbers, and help make our environment more secure.

In an effort to alleviate existing support roles across the college while making a larger impact to our overall college-wide risk, Steve Brenneman will be taking on the data loss prevention remediation duties for the entirety of CFAES for the next ten weeks.

If your system contains restricted or sensitive data, you can expect to receive an e-mail from CFAES-DLP@osu.edu indicating that actions need to be taken against files on your university-owned machine. Steve may also be in touch with you via telephone if he is unable to reach you via e-mail to help remove these files. If you are contacted, please make time to address these matters with Steve to help eliminate our risk across the college.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Alden K. Sewell