CFAES VP Visiting Expert Program Features Dr. Francisco Meza

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in symposia and reception for Dr. Francisco Meza, Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. The events are:

Tuesday, Aug. 9 – Wooster
1 – 5 p.m.  Symposium, Fisher Auditorium Conference Room
5 – 7 p.m.  Reception, Barnhardt Rice House (Stone House)

Thursday, Aug. 11 – Columbus
1 – 5 p.m.  Symposium, 4-H Center, International Room
5 – 7 p.m.  Reception, 4-H Center, 5th Floor Terrace

If you plan to attend either event, RSVP to fischnich.1@osu.edu.

Dr Meza Invitation

Dr Meza Agenda

 

USAC School Supply Drive

USAC is sponsoring the school supply drive benefiting Columbus City Schools Aug. 8 – 11, 2016.

Faculty and staff also can enter to win two OSU versus BGSU football tickets at the drop-off locations. No donation is required to enter.

Items that are in high demand include: #2 pencils, Crayons (24 pack of colors), colored pencils, markers, wide ruled notebook or loose-leaf paper, small safety scissors, rulers, glue sticks, pocket folders, erasers, calculators, backpacks, tissues, and hand sanitizer. We will also be accepting donations for items children need throughout the school year such as new hats, scarves, mittens and gloves, new socks and underwear, new or gently used books for younger students, or backpacks.

See the attached flyer for drop-off locations.

USAC School Supply Drive 2016

Pre-Convocation and Welcome to Columbus Events

It is an exciting time as the College prepares for an incoming group of students who begin their academic experience at Ohio State. Connecting new students to College faculty, staff and fellow students is an important step for their successful transition to Ohio State. The College will host two events to create opportunities for students to meet you and learn about your Department. The first event, Pre-Convocation, is for New First Year Students (Freshmen) who are entering college for the first time and the second event, Welcome to Columbus, is for students transitioning from other Ohio State campuses or transferring from another institution.

At both events, members of your Department will be introduced to new students. You will be able to direct them to key people and important departmental resources. For the detailed agendas click the following links: Pre-Convocation Agenda and Welcome to Columbus Agenda.

Please RSVP by August 15, 2016 at Pre-Convocation and Welcome to Columbus Events Attendance.

New Required Training for Principal Investigators

A new training requirement will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2016, that will impact your continued access to information in the PI Portal.

The Office of the CIO recently revised the Institutional Data Policy that classifies all university records and data as public, internal, private or restricted. Some data related to research grants falls into the restricted category — specifically voucher/invoice images displayed in the PI Portal and in the Subaward Invoice Approval (SIA) application. Additional controls will be required for access to restricted data, including completion of the university’s Institutional Data Policy Training.

What does this mean for you?

  • As of October 1, 2016, in accordance with university data security policy, access to voucher/invoice images will be removed in the PI Portal and SIA for all users pending completion of the required Institutional Data Policy Training.
  • In order to retain access to this information, all principal investigators must complete the online training by September 30, 2016. Instructions for enrolling in the training are available on the CIO’s website. The course and assessment will take about 40 minutes to complete.

More details can be found at:  http://osp.osu.edu/2016/08/02/new-required-training-for-pis/.

NCR-SARE Announces 2017 Call for Research and Education Preproposals

The 2017 North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (NCR-SARE) Research and Education Grant Program Call for Preproposals is now available online at http://www.northcentralsare.org/Grants/Our-Grant-Programs/Research-and-Education.

NCR-SARE’s Research and Education (R&E) program supports sustainable agriculture innovators with competitive research and education grants. Individual grants range from $50,000 to $200,000. NCR-SARE expects to fund 10 to 11 projects in the 12-state North Central Region.

NCR-SARE will be accepting online submissions for the Research and Education Grant Program using its online submission system. More information about the online submission system can be found in the call for preproposals.  The deadline for Research and Education Program preproposals is October 20, 2016, at 4 pm CDT.

NCR-SARE administers each of its grant programs with specific goals, audiences, and timelines. Funding considerations are based on how well the applicant presents the problem being addressed, it’s relevance to sustainable agriculture in the 12-state North Central region, and how well it aligns with NCR-SARE’s goals.

Funding decisions are made by a regional Administrative Council (AC), with review from a Technical Committee. The Administrative Council is a collection of producers, university representatives, nonprofit group interests, Extension and NRCS people, other government employees, and agribusiness representatives. This group sets research priorities and recommends projects for funding.

Questions can be referred to Ohio SARE coordinators Alan Sundermeier (Sundermeier.5) and Mike Hogan (hogan.1).

Dairy Milk and Cardiovascular Health Clinical Study

Researchers at the OSU Department of Human Sciences are seeking volunteers to take part in a study that may help discover how dairy milk can regulate blood glucose responses and improve cardiovascular health.

You may be eligible for this study if you are:

  • A man or woman between the ages of 18-50 years old;
  • At least 20 pounds overweight (BMI >25);
  • A non-smoker.

You are not eligible for this study if you:

  • Have allergies or aversions to dairy milk;
  • Are pregnant or breastfeeding;
  • Consume more than 3 alcoholic drinks per day;
  • Exercise aerobically more than 7 hours per week;
  • Take any medications to manage high cholesterol, inflammation, or metabolism;
  • Have a history of cardiovascular disease or gastrointestinal disorders.

There is no cost for taking part in the study and participants will be compensated up to $300 for completing the study. Cost of parking also will be provided. If you are interested in participating, please contact Allison Labyk at osudairy2015@gmail.com or 614-292-1698.

Minimum Stipend Increase for Graduate Students

The minimum stipend for students on appointment as graduate associates has been increased beginning fall semester 2016. In addition, the Graduate School will be developing guiding principles for graduate student compensation and benefits. This work will help determine how stipends are set and how minimum stipend levels are more routinely adjusted. Graduate students will be among the participants in this effort.

What you need to do:

  • Read the Graduate School’s announcement on this change;
  • Look for further communication from the Graduate School to be shared once the process has been finalized.

Update on University Transition to Workday

I am writing to provide you an update of the latest progress on the transition of OSU’s financial system from PeopleSoft/eRequest/eTravel to Workday.  The Workday implementation is entering the 2nd phase of 5 phases, the Architect phase.  This is the phase of the project where Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have been nominated by colleges and units and selected by the OSU project leadership team to participate in the project teams. I considered it a priority to have CFAES staff participate, to help develop in-house expertise, and better position CFAES for a successful transition before, during, and after the switch to Workday.  I nominated eight people from CFAES to apply to become a SME in various areas and four were selected.

Throughout the Architect Phase, business process leads, with the help of SMEs, will work to define business processes and design the processes in Workday.  The SMEs have a significant role in the implementation.

Jessi Favret (CFAES central units) was selected for Business Assets.  Business assets consist of any asset, either capitalized or required to be tracked and maintained over a period of time greater than 1 year.  Business processes include: asset identification, registration, tracking/audits, ownership assignment/transfers, accounting, asset retirement, disposal, and related reporting.

Carol Allen (CFAES business service center) was selected for Expenses, which is very travel oriented.  Expenses will cover travel (including travel requests, travel booking, group travel, conference travel, project travel, etc.), p-cards, reimbursements (including expense reports,  reimbursement payments for both employees and non-employees/guests, receipt capture, credit card transactions) , and related reporting.

Eric Maul (Food Science and Technology) was selected for Financial Accounting.  Financial Accounting will cover general ledger activities including financial statements, accruals and allocations, consolidation and reconciliation, budgets, and related reporting.

Angie LeMaster (CFAES finance – grants) was selected for Grants.  Grants will cover the lifecycle of an award at the University, from award creation through award closeout. Business Processes will include: sponsor maintenance, budget creation, award set up, award management, award closeout, sponsor billing and related reporting.

Congratulations for being selected and for committing to meet the expectations below.  We know that you will represent CFAES very well.

The overall CFAES lead for Workday implementation is Brain McClain.  As the college advocate for the project, he will be meeting every week with project leadership and representatives of other colleges to receive updates and provide input. Also, he will be helping coordinate anything that needs completed and then eventually working to implement.

From the OSU Workday implementation leadership, we understand there will be additional opportunities for participation before the Workday software is live.  They have communicated to me the following:

  • We are planning on college specific touchbases throughout the fall and winter. Since CFAES is large and diverse, I would assume that we will need more than a few meetings to understand your needs.
  • We are continuing to work through resource needs for planning and budgeting and reporting, depending on your specific college needs that could be significant time especially between April and July 2017.
  • Additional outreach will be needed for testing. There will be various requests through the period of April 2017-June 2018.
  • With the target go live of June 2018, we plan to release training and other materials in late April/early May 2018.

We will continue to communicate as we learn more about the project and the progress of the project.

Eric Bode
Finance Director