Tracy Turner: I’ve been at OSU for about five years now, and I was at the Columbus Dispatch for 11 years. Reporters typically don’t come in with a specialty… you go where the assignments are. The reporter can cover K-12 one day, and something completely different the next. They come to you as the experts.

Why work with the media? What is the advantage?

It can raise your status and make your department and college look really good.

One of the first things to understand is where the reporters are coming from. We maintain a faculty experts list at the college level. We would love to get you on there. What this is saying is that you are comfortable talking to the media and will respond to them when they call.

What does the media want?

It may be important to your sponsors or your organization, but that doesn’t make it newsworthy. If you want coverage or want to pitch a story, look at the significance of the story and what else is happening.

There have been more opportunities for posting things that aren’t necessarily true with the internet lately, so it is important that we provide people with accurate information.

The #1 goal of any journalist is accuracy.

Reporters have to have context for what they’re reporting. It’s about balance and getting different viewpoints.

Think about human interest… personal stories are more interesting. They ask why should I care? Who is this impacting?

Brevity … when you’re talking to a reporter, get to the point. Most news stories are short.

Before the internet, deadlines meant the end of the day. They had all day to research, report, talk to people, write. Now with the internet, you have one minute. As soon as something happens… reporters are concerned with getting it first not getting it right.

It’s always important to respond quickly, even if it’s just saying to them that you will call them back.

Working with the Media

Understand where the reporter is coming from so you know what to expect.

Ask them what they are looking for… you don’t have to respond immediately with an answer if you’re more comfortable waiting 15-20 minutes and gathering your answers.

Another question you can ask the reporter is to understand what kind of deadlines they’re under. You can also ask them what the format of the interview is, where will it take place, over the phone? Will it be recorded? Etc.

Know your key messages before the interview even starts.

Redirect questions when necessary to respond with your talking points.

Do not say yes or no or add an opinion, go on to your point that you want to understand.

Know your reporters and what their scope is.

Reporters don’t have your expertise.

NEVER say “no comment” … it makes it seem like there is a bigger story there.

You can say “I cant really address that, but you can talk to ….” etc. We have redirected reporters to the university level communications, keeping a separation from negative attention in the media. The university is luckily happy to handle that for us.

Don’t ask to review the story, most news organizations have policies that don’t allow this.

Be cautious… reporters can be friendly but they are not your friends. They are not out to get you, but they are out to do their job. Watch what you say, do not rely on “off the record” … if you don’t want it reported, don’t say it.

Don’t fall for the silent treatment. Reporters are allowing you to tell them what they don’t know. Stick with your key points. Don’t feel the need to bridge the silence with your thoughts.

Respond with grace to abrasive questions, its a reporters job to ask hard questions. They’re not talking to you as an individual, they’re talking to you as a representative of the research or the school, etc. they’re not coming after you as an individual, they’re looking at the bigger picture. You can change the tone with how you respond.

They may disarm you with kindness first, it’s not personal, but it’s a way to get you to open up a bit more.

The interview is not over until it’s over, especially when someone has a camera or recording on you.

Reiterate your main points at the end of the interview when they ask if there is anything else you’d like to add at the end.

Reporters have direct access to our researchers.

Resources for Marketing and Communications: communications.cfaes.ohio-state.edu

Crisis Communications

We have a plan here and how you react makes all the difference. Please come to us if you have a crisis so that we can craft a message with you. We want to be accurate.

It helps to look at the plan, which is on our website. Be responsive, be calm and protect our reputation.

Media Coaching

We can help you, give you sample questions, talking points, draft answers, and help build your comfort level talking to the media. We want to make sure that you are prepared. Know that you are not out there alone. We are there to support you and help you.

We do write news releases and do proactive media. If you are working on research, or have something new coming out, we can work with you to promote it. We can do news releases, pitch stories to reporters. We can look at the human interest side of what you are doing… the research you are doing does impact Ohioans so there are always opportunities to work with you to show impact or tell a story.

We’re getting ready to go into a budget year… the more positive press we can get about what we’re doing, it reinforces that.

You can subscribe to our news releases, we do social media campaigns… adding people to our faculty experts list, we don’t always know who everyone is and what their area of expertise is.

It doesn’t have to be a news release, we can send out social media, photos, etc. it doesn’t have to be a traditional “story.”

We have a few mechanisms to do work with us:

We have a project request form for a larger project or for news releases.

You can also reach out directly to our writers in different subject areas. We will be sharing that soon.

We can promote your research if you have something coming out in an academic journal, etc.

An advantage of working with us is that you do get to review the story that we write. We do not want to get you out of context or misquote you. If you are comfortable with the story and we get the right focus.

Question: I would like to be more proactive instead of being called out of the blue…

We have a person on our team that is focused on proactive media relations. To work with people in the college to pitch stories. She will help get the root of what it is, what are the best ways to get the information out, specialty publications, etc.

We serve the entire college, so we cant do everything for everyone. A lot of departments will do outreach to alumni, their department social media pages, they can let us know about different research that your department is doing.

We are such a large college, so we rely on our department and extension communicators to help educate us and keep us connected to what’s happening on the ground level.

Finding Research Funding

PowerPoint Presentation

Lori Kaser: I’d like to provide an overview of the GDSU. We are a first come first serve service. We provide proposal development resources and run the SEEDS program. To talk about SEEDS a little bit, it is an internal faculty competition. We have a SEEDS Early Career competition for people who have not reached tenure-stage yet or have less than six years experience.

We have a SEEDS Team competition, which is two or more faculty members working together and a SEEDS Team Partnership Grant, which is an option to work with a commodity group or industry partner who brings a match.

The Partnership Grant has two deadlines per year. The next deadline is March 8.

After this meeting, Melissa will send out the SEEDS RFP.

Overall, we get about $1 million a year. We fund about 10 Early Career Grants with $50k a piece, a few for Partnership and some for student competitions.

Pam Schlegel: A good resource for finding funding is Lori’s monthly research newsletter. It includes the newest competitions that are out there, but the number one is the Spin Database which links into grants.gov etc.

Lori: On the sponsor websites, all federal sponsors list their solicitations on grants.gov. Just because we work with USDA-NIFA so much, if you go to NIFA grants it will bring up a whole list of RFPs available through NIFA.

Pam: Unsolicited vs solicited solicitations.

Solicited: submitted in response to a certain thing that the sponsor is looking for.

Unsolicited: submit work / ask if what you’re doing works for a sponsor.

You found your solicitation… within that there will be an RFP or a PA with everything you will need to address or have ready to go. Primarily your research narrative and budget.

We have budget templates, but the approval doesn’t come from the GDSU, it comes from your Sponsored Program Officer (SPO). We can provide budget justification templates, conflict of interest templates, etc.

The SPO hits the submit button, but we can put all that information in there for you. Our whole goal is to provide you time to work on your narrative, because the research portion is the most important. If we have time, we can do some editing and proofreading as well…

We also work a lot with other universities to get sub-award documentation. That frees you up to work on the narrative.

Lori: Please reach out to us when you have questions. It may be a simple question, or you may need help with everything… We will talk you though it and we know that you are new. We are here to help! We want to help make the process not so intimidating.

Question: What is the sponsored program officer? Who is that?

Pam: That is the person you have to go to to let them know you are submitting a particular proposal, and they give you approval on the budget you come up with.  They work with us to get that budget approved. Typically you and I are not able to hit the submit button for the proposal.

Lori: It’s through the Office of Research at the University-level, and within that office is the Office of Sponsored Programs with Sponsored Program Officers. Each department has an assigned SPO.

The Office of Sponsored Programs does not provide editing. They are reviewers of budgets and can submit the proposal for you. They make sure all of the boxes are checked, etc. but they are not writers and editors.

Question: How long does the process take with the Office of Sponsored Programs?

Pam: Ultimately give yourself as much time as possible. Usually with in six weeks time that you are planning on submitting a proposal, then we can start pulling all the info together. We can do it quicker, but again, we only have as much time as we are allotted

Lori: SPO will want at least two days before you’re planning to submit, because in our college, several people may be submitting to the same grant at the same time.

Pam: We also do faculty development with D.C. Days and First Mondays.

D.C. days is a competitive program, and it’s an opportunity to meet with federal program officers face to face. We usually take people in April or May, this year it will be the third week of May.

Summer: It’s very helpful… We went to USDA, NSF and NIH… We talked with Program Officers and Directors. I was also on an NSF panel and learned a lot from that. Great networking opportunity.

Pam: The different agencies we go to depends on who applies. Typically we go to USDA. We usually fly in on a Sunday and leave on a Wednesday. It’s just a good time to get together with other FAES people.

Typically, D.C. Days will have an RFP in October and we have a letter out in December. So look for that next year.

We also provide faculty and staff training workshops and other opportunities.

Lori: We will have a 2017 training schedule coming out soon.

We also provide research compliance administrative approvals. We follow up on the financial conflict of interest forms that you need to file at least once a year. We also handle the responsible conduct of research training for the college.

ePA-005 approvals – our office approves those forms.

Terry Snoddy:

Federal Capacity Funds (USDA-NIFA)

Susan Dimit helps in the USDA REEport system.

Shawn Adams does financial reporting

Angie LeMaster helps out with Extension

Capacity funds.

What are these?

A competitive grant – you apply for the funds.
Capacity funds are legislative. We get the funds and we create the projects to spend the dollars.

Base funds and other sources: Hard and soft dollars

Hard dollars are funds we typically count on each year and soft dollars are more cyclical.

Base funds: how we fund salaries, benefits, etc.

Research has four programs: Hatch, Hatch Multi-State, McIntire Stennis (forestry research), Animal Health

Extension has three: Smith Lever, EFNEP, RREA

How are they used?

In research capacity funds: 100% allocated to faculty salary and benefits

Extension: Smith Lever 100% allocated to salary and benefits for faculty and staff across Extension

To spend these funds, we have to have an active research project in one of the categories above. You can have your own project or be a co-PI. For new faculty, we give you a grace period of one year, but if you have a research appointment you should have a Hatch project.

REEport is the USDA project administration. Once the project is active we can pay some of your salary with these funds. These are very general. Many faculty try to fit it in with their overall research focus.

Dr. Dave Benfield is the administrative lead. He reads all the reports that come in.

Extension is a little easier in that they don’t have project level requirements for Smith Lever. Likely, part of your appointment is paid in Smith Lever funds if you have a faculty appointment in Extension.

Lori: Any further questions?

Question: Are Post Docs allowed to apply to the SEEDS program?

Lori: If you have PI status at the university as a Post Doc. PI status is granted by the Office of Research. There is a procedure… The CV goes to the Department Chair, then that goes to the VP of Research and Grad Education for the college, and then goes to Office of Research.

Question: Is $50k the max you can get from SEEDS?

Lori: Yes. The whole idea for SEEDS is to get the initial research data so you can apply for bigger and better funding sources. It is meant to be one or two years of funding so you can collect data and move forward with bigger proposals.

Question: Can you have SEEDS Early Career collaborators that are not early career?

Lori: Yes, but they cannot be lead PI or co-PI and they will not get any of the budget money. But they can be collaborators.

Question: If we have an industry grant that we are writing, can we retroactively apply for the match for the grant?

Lori: Yes, but it has to be within the same fiscal year.

Question: ePA005, there are a lot of questions about invertebrate animals and IACUC?

Lori: Some of the protocol information, does it need to be in place before you submit the proposal? No. Office of Research understands that once you know you get funded you’ll initiate your protocol. It’s a lot to do upfront to not get funded.

Academic Publishing and the Responsible Conduct of Research Presentation

Responsible Conduct of Research Curriculum

OSU Research Data Policy

OSU Research Misconduct Policy

Responsible Conduct of Research Training for FAES

Academic Publishing and Academic Conduct of Research

Jen Yucel, Ph.D.:

Overview of the Office of Research:

There are over 500 people that belong to the Office of Research.

Key people/offices to make note: Office of Sponsored Programs: Christine Hamble, Interim Director.

Office of Responsible Research Practices for Human and Animal Protocols.

University Laboratory Animal Resources

Research Compliance Director – Jen Yucel

OSU Libraries Resources:

Two main places where you may interact with the library:

Subject Librarians: experts who can help in a particular area. This can be helpful for interdisciplinary research. (library.osu.edu/find/librarians)

There are subject librarians who work with the faculty in Wooster.

The Research Commons a physical space and a set of services and partnerships. It is located on the 3rd floor at the 18th Avenue Library in Columbus. It also includes an interface with IRB, a data management librarian, geographic information services, and more.

If you have a research related question, you can go to the Research Commons website for that information or if you don’t know where to start or who you go to.

Some workshops are live-streamed for folks on other campuses. If you’re interested in having a workshop or attending, please let us know if you need it streamed.

Melanie Schlosser, MLS:

Predatory Publishing

This is an area of concern and help is also often needed for graduate students.

Access Models for Publishing:

Subscription Journals: Content is behind a pay wall, but tends to be free for the author to publish. It’s been done this way for a while.

However, with the Internet, things are different now.

Open Access (OA) Journals: Content is freely available online, sometimes funded through author fees.

Hybrid Open Access Journals: publication itself is behind a pay wall unless the author pays an Open Access fee.

TIP: I would strongly discourage people to not pay for hybrid open access! It borders on unethical double dipping from the publisher.

There are good and bad journals in ALL of these categories.

The Problem with Lists:

White lists (“good” journals) vs. black lists (“bad” or predatory journals) / any lists… Don’t rely on these too heavily. Criteria for making it on the list might not be clear; people may have their own agendas for creating the lists, etc.

Advance Fee Scams:

Predatory publishing talks about two different things: First, an advance fee scam. It looks like a journal, calls itself a journal, but really is not. It takes your money.

Recognize these by:

• Little or no published scholarship
• Lack of a named editor or editorial board — or contact these people to make sure
• Promises full peer review with fast turnaround
• Journal website doesn’t make sense (in the about section, etc.)
• They may reach out to you offering to publish your work

Search Google and ask around!

Good journals vs. bad journals:

The other thing people talk about with predatory publishing is low quality journals. It’s not very cut and dry.

Pay attention to these things:

• Will it improve your work? For example, attentive editors who will polish your work and present it in a professional way. Look at what has been published. Is it polished, copy edited, etc.?
• Will it help your research find an audience?
• Will it add to your reputation as a scholar? This can look different based on where you’re at in your career. Have a sense of what you want to get out of publishing your work.

Risk: look at journal scope / subject matter.
Tip: what journals did you cite? — have at least one citation for a journal you’re looking to publish in.

Finally, ask for advice!

• Faculty in your department
• Colleagues at other institutions
• Librarians
• The editor of the journal (ask them, “Would you be interested in an article on…?”)

A little more about fees:

Predatory journals will ask you to submit, accept your work quickly and then send you a bill. It may or may not be listed on their website, but once you are sent a bill it can be tricky to get out of.

Author charges are not uncommon … Figure out ahead of time if there are fees.

In terms of invoicing, we’ve had faculty continue to get invoiced. If this happens, please contact Jen’s office or OSU Legal Affairs to help you.

We are also seeing this behavior in international conferences that are bogus. People get promised that they will be a keynote, etc.

Scams around being on editorial boards. It is hard to get out of so if you are approached about being on a board, do your homework! Talk to people in your field and make sure it is reputable. We have a hard time repairing that damage.

Resources:

Directory of Open Access Journals: doaj.org — reputable place to start

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association: oaspa.org

Jen Yucel: Research Misconduct and Plagiarism

Research misconduct is narrowly defined:

It doesn’t have to be published to be a problem! Even if it’s written in a notebook, any time you are creating data that is not valid it could be research misconduct.

Fabrication: the making up of data or results and recording or reporting them. Ex: fake Excel data

Falsification: manipulating research materials, equipment or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented. Ex: image manipulation

Plagiarism: appropriation of the ideas, processes, results or work of another person without giving appropriate credit. Ex: taking something off the web without credit

Not Considered Plagiarism:

Self-plagiarism (using something from your past text… But it’s something that is a gray area).

Information generated with former collaborators — handled as an authorship or credit dispute.

How much copying is too much? How many different ways can you describe something?

Plagiarism:

OSU licenses the software program iThenticate for use by any OSU faculty, staff or student.

It highlights text in your document that matches other published material to allow you to determine if text is appropriately cited.

There are many watchdog websites, as well as mainstream media who are involved in the scrutiny of research.

Many journals and funding sponsors are actively screening submissions for plagiarized text. This includes grants!

The rise of “academic warfare” and specific targeting of individuals to target competitors.

Question: If a Postdoc or grad student is guilty of plagiarism in a manuscript etc., how does that effect their faculty member?

Answer: The person responsible is the person who did the plagiarism. iThenticate isn’t there to punish wrong doers, it is to help people have high integrity. As a faculty member, tell your Postdocs and grad students to run it through iThenticate as a policy before anything gets to you.

If you have a process like that, use it as a training and teaching tool. Some cultures cite differently, so it’s a good way to teach how to do this. If you have a repeat offender, you can bring it to my office to talk about it. If a grad student publishes plagiarized text in their thesis there can be a serious consequence.

Question: How serious is it as a faculty member?

Answer: It depends. If it’s in a grant proposal and brought to our attention we have to let them know and they could bar you from submitting.

Federally-funded research can debar you if the plagiarism is on federal money.

If it’s a case where they just made a mistake in citation… We try to determine the intent. There are details that change every case.

Question: What percentage on iThenticate is considered plagiarism?

Answer: It requires you to look at what is matching. There’s no defined threshold. It doesn’t matter what percentages it is… Is it big sections of text or a few sentences, etc.? That’s why you need to look at it.

Plagiarism is all about attribution.

If you are using the same methods that you have published before, just make sure to cite your previous paper. It’s not okay when you give the appearance that this is brand new work of yours. Be transparent about where the work came from.

Responsible Conduct of Research Training (RCR):

The university has a research data policy that you should look at.

What is a research record? All of the various forms that research takes that embodies the results from scholarly inquiry.

Data Sharing:

NIH and other federal sponsors expect data generated be shared with the public.

Many sponsors require that you file a data management plan with your grant proposal. We use the online DMP tool with agency specific formats.

Data Ownership:

As new faculty, take a look at the university research data policy. It helps answer a lot of questions about data ownership.

Just because someone leaves doesn’t mean their data gets nullified. The Office of Research tries to stay out of publication issues, like author etc., but we will work on authorship disputes.

Expectations for Authorship:

Many societies and associations have published guidelines regarding the assignment of authorship or acknowledgment on manuscripts. It can be very discipline specific.

If you don’t believe someone should have authorship on the journal, raise that with the senior author and start a conversation.

Science is about what your peers say about you, so it can be tense to enforce a strong reading of these guidelines. The journal should enforce whether or not that person can be an author.

The University doesn’t really have any say on who should be an author.

Have the conversation with the journal because the journal can ask the person, what was this person’s contribution?

Conflict of Interest:

Conflicts can be real or perceived, and both are important. It doesn’t necessarily mean someone is acting unethically, but it needs to be disclosed.

Typically, people think of Conflict of Interest as financial interests… It can also include personal relationships, professional relationships, academic and corporate rivalries, philosophical or intellectual differences.

Your immediate family’s are also your potential conflicts.

Promotion and Tenure Review — Presentation from Kay Wolf

Kay Wolf, OSU Office of Academic Affairs: Promotion and tenure is a quality improvement program. We want you to show your major accomplishments while you’re at Ohio State University. What are your goals and strategies each year and where are you with them?

The idea is to grow and take ownership of your growth.

Teaching is important. What are you learning and how are you growing with it?

What are the outcomes of your service and engagement? We don’t ask as much for younger faculty, but some it’s very intertwined in who you are.

You are an Assistant Professor. Ask for assistance. We want you to succeed and are very proud that you are at Ohio State.

For the six year P&T review, the review begins with the tenure initiating unit (TIU) P&T review. The Chair then writes a letter. You have a 10 day period to respond to the letter, but this is not a chance to rewrite everything.

Take the opportunity to read the letters closely and write a response if you feel you need to. It then goes to the university committee. I read every dossier.

If the TIU was positive and the Chair was positive, but not the Dean or college-level committee, I will also take it forward to the University committee for one final look. The University follows through for you to ensure that the process and criteria was followed by everyone. The appointment will be approved by the Provost and Board of Trustees.

During your fourth year review, the TIU and the Dean will make the final decision. It does not come forward to OAA.

Your mandatory review is the sixth year review.

Clinical faculty reviews are the same as fourth year reviews and end at the level of the Dean. The Dean then decides promotion vs. non promotion and reappointment vs. non reappointment.

Mandatory reviews must go forward. Start working on Vita as soon as it goes up. Reviews must go forward even if you have missing data. Non-mandatory reviews do not have to go forward if you’re missing data.

Working with teams: what is your responsibility?

What is the unique piece that you contribute consistently to your team? Your unique niche is extremely important to the team… You really need to show what this means in your narrative.

STEP mentoring can count as Extension or teaching in your portfolio, but it can’t be both.

Appointments across the campus–with an MOU or in two departments etc.–be sure you’re contributing to other departments correctly and work with your Chair.

Mark Sulc, Horticulture & Crop Science: In documenting team contributions, hopefully your department is seeing the change in science, but it’s very important to describe your unique piece in that. Under every publication, be VERY specific about what you wrote, your research, etc. and hopefully your external letter writers will know what you are doing. They will hopefully say you are a team player, can describe your contribution to the team and say that without you it cannot happen. Another option is to get a letter from a collaborator.

Kay: It helps if you ask the Chair to write a request for the letter to your collaborator so it appears very neutral. When it gets to the
University committee, it’s important for them to understand as well. Think of everyone reading this… Some TIUs or someone at the University-level might not know your work, so describe things clearly and specifically.

Question: Can external letters come from collaborators?

Mark: External reviewers need to come from non-collaborators. They can know you and your work, but cannot have worked with you on a project.

No more than half of the external reviewers can be suggested by the candidate. The P&T committee usually suggests most of them.

In regards to your dossier:

Vita.osu.edu will be launching in April 2017. Research in view is closing on December 31, 2016. You don’t have to fear your data has been lost. Assistance will be provided for those faculty going forward in any manner.

Question: Is this a tool that can be used for annual reviews?

Kay: I would not recommend it. I think you should print everything in December. If someone is new, I would allow them to use a Word document or something else.

Dossier tips:

• Do not repeat
• Think about what you’re trying to convey–what are your strengths? Think that through!
• Recognize your college and unit. This is important! They set the criteria for you and if you don’t understand the criteria, you need to talk with people on the P&T committee and the Chair of your department.

You have two choices when you go up for P&T: to use the document from when you were hired or the document for the current year you are going up.

Narratives — why bother?

It is YOUR STORY. The one place that you can demonstrate the growth of your career. Show outcomes and tell your story through growth.

Jeff Sharp: It’s a lot of work to take on those five external review letters. You don’t want to start that process and then back out if you’re not ready. Just make sure you think about it.

Mark: Your trajectory and works in progress are important at the fourth year review. Most people are making good progress. The committee wants to know if there is momentum.

Jeff: Regarding the idea of narratives: you need to study what your unit’s criteria are. If your narrative addresses them, it would be useful.

Terry Niblack: Avoid overly technical language in the narratives, especially in narratives about research. It’s impossible to interpret some. Make sure you’re communicating to  people who don’t know about your field.

Jeff: Good point. Even when you’re listing journals, let us know this if is a top publication in your field.

Question: What time of year is the dossier due?

Terry: Your department will determine that. That should be communicated to you by your departmental P&T committee. It will probably be in spring to late-spring.

Mark: Every department is different so talk to your Chair and the P&T committee.

Once it is sent to the college, the dossier is sent to the Dean, then the Dean makes a committee of nine different people. The job of the college committee is to determine if your unit review occurred in a proper way. That the right criteria were applied, the right procedures were followed, etc. We look at all the dossiers. There’s usually three sub-committees and we divide each of the dossiers to really, really look at them and then come back with a recommendation to the main committee. At the college-level we read all of them, but at a finer level we look at them again in our sub-committees. If there are concerns, the whole committee looks into it.

The college committee does a very good job of being very objective and sticking to their role to determine that the review was conducted in the proper way. There have been times where flags were raised and the committee went in a different direction from the department, but if everything was done right at the department level, then it should go right through to the university.

If there are issues a the unit level, it has to go back and be reconducted at the unit level.

The committee will then take a vote and writes a letter to the Dean. The Dean then writes their own report.

Terry: Search OAA governance and it will show you the governance documents for every unit.

Question: Is there ever a case that the peer expert might be outside of the department, but within the university or does it always have to come from outside of OSU?

Kay: The rule says external, so it has to be outside of OSU.

Mentoring East Asian Women Scientists and Engineers — Presentation from Karen Mancl

Enrico Bonnello: I’m a Professor in Plant Pathology and have been here for 16 years now. I’ve mentored several of my colleagues through the years.

Hazel Morrow Jones: I did not have a lot of experience being mentored, but as a faculty member I mentored a lot of students and some of my junior colleagues. As Director of the Women’s Place, I saw a lot of faculty who were in crisis mode.

Please don’t assume that you do or do not know all kinds of things. Sometimes you may think “I ought to know that, everyone else does!” But that’s probably not true. It’s okay to ask! That could be anything from how P&T works, to how to teach a lecture class, to anything.

Mentoring is not a one way thing. It’s a back and forth between two people. You should show the mentor what they will gain from you. I ask people, “Would you be a mentor?” and people say “Oh I couldn’t, I don’t know enough,” but you’ve gotten this far by knowing what you do and that is helpful to people!

Most importantly: everyone says you should have a mentor. Sit and think clearly about what you want from a mentor. It’s not a silver bullet. It doesn’t automatically make you successful. Think about who you know and what you want from that. It’s okay to have a lot of mentors. You may have one for teaching, one for support, one who can critique grants. Think about what you want from it and don’t limit yourself. They don’t have to be from your own unit or even your own college.

Set boundaries and talk about expectations from both sides so you both know what you’re getting into to.

The word mentor sound daunting, like you need to be perfect and it will take a lot of your time. But it’s okay to meet up just a few times to talk about teaching, or ask them if they would look over a grant.

Karen Mancl: I was the first woman hired in our department. A project I came up with was to explore mid-carrier low productivity. People in the department are tenured, mid-career, and you don’t do much. So I decided to study that. I learned that a lot of this low productivity was set up with the way they were mentored. So I’ve been involved in developing new mentoring models that keep people productive.

The minority group I have been working with are East Asian women. Mentoring is not an Asian concept. It’s not a part of their career development. It’s very western. So if you bring someone in your program and they come from a culture that doesn’t have experience mentoring then they are at a disadvantage.

The challenges in mentoring are two fold: one is cross gender because not only are East Asian women a minority, women are a minority in science and engineering. And also cross race mentoring…

We gathered data through oral histories and interviewed six women from different colleges. We asked them if the programs developed for mentoring women and minorities are effective.

Transition to minority status: these East Asian women were not minorities at home, but they had essentially no mentoring while in Asia. Because of this, these women are very independent and rely heavily on advice from friends.

In most of these departments, they were told by their department chair that they needed to have mentors.

Women mentors can be role models and can provide psycho-social mentoring about handling issues outside of work.

Five out of six of the interviewees found women mentors, but three had to find them outside of their department.

The most important thing we found within mentoring was goal setting. Setting long-term goals and personal missions. A goal is not getting tenure, it is just a step along the way.

Recommendations:

1. Assign mentors
2. If you set up a mentoring team, let at least one mentor be a woman
3. Include work/life balance
4. Strategic planning and goal setting

Enrico B.: In my department we’re now moving towards a more structured process. We expect the committee to meet with a mentee formally.

Question: What do units and departments do to help build the skills needed to be a mentor?

Karen M.: How I start out, for the first six months we develop their long term planning by meeting once a month. Then it backs off to once or twice a quarter or so.

One of my mentees said that I gave them a lot of energy after we met. Other mentors make me feel like I have a lot of stuff I need to do.

Hazel M.J.: It’s so easy for a mentor to fall into the trap of giving very general advice… Ex: “you need to publish more,” so it’s helpful to have someone who helps sort out the specifics of your plan.

Enrico B.: I have informal discussions with mentees all the time. We get lunch together to discuss issues. From my perspective I’m concerned about mentees burning out. They are focused on the fear of failing at tenure. So sometimes I have to tell them to do a little less.

Karen M.: I started mentoring when I was an untenured assistant professor. I’ve also mentored people who are older than me or who have more experience. It’s more typical, but that’s not necessarily a requirement.

Hazel M.J.: There are informal mentoring opportunities like peer to peer, etc.

Question: There are a lot of ramifications for new graduate students coming from Asia who don’t have mentoring. Do you have any advice?

Karen M.: Once they have the opportunity to have a mentor and learn how powerful it can be they really take off. You just need to be more transparent about it. When I inform people that they are my mentor, they look surprised. You need to be formal at the beginning

There were two big worries when the protege was East Asian: one is that they’re going to bother the mentor because the mentor is so busy, but no. I tell them that they need to come to me and set up a lunch to let me know what they need.

Another fear is that they will be taken advantage of by the mentor. They think of it as being an assistant and they will be doing all their work.

I have to open thing up so that people know they can talk to me about their personal life, etc.

Enrico B.: Ultimately your ability to mentor is tied to just being on your job and your life experience.

In our program we’re establishing annual retreats for our graduate students that have professionals regarding stress and mental health. Basically put yourself in the person’s shoes.

Karen M.: We asked our interviewees who helped them make their decisions to go to school, etc., but it was always their friends or they figured it out on their own. It wasn’t their teachers, etc. because of the culture in East Asia.

Question: What is the difference between advising and mentoring?

Hazel M.J.: A post doc should have additional mentors besides just the advisor. Figure out what kinds of things you want to talk to people about and hear thoughts from … Advisors may be good contacts to help set you up with people. 

Karen M.: In order to be productive in reaching your personal goals you need a balanced core. There are four components to this and only one is your career, the other three fall into psycho-social mentoring. One is family, what are your goals and objectives for your family? The second is your part in a community, what is your vision of yourself in your community (a.k.a. your social life)? What strategies do you need to develop? The third is yourself. This is the part that is most neglected. In terms of health and well being, appearance, exercise, etc. in terms of being the kind of person you want to appear and the kind of person you want to be yourself.

I talk to my proteges to see if these areas are balanced.

Enrico B.: There’s a tendency to put enormous pressure on your career, so I do try to present them with a strong sense of balance. It’s critical. But young faculty feel like they cannot take any time off this extreme focus on productivity and “making it” as a faculty member. It’s difficult to convince them that they won’t be losing anything.

Karen M.: When you have that balanced core you’re much more productive. A good test is if you go home and complain about work something is out of balance.

Hazel M.J.: Some of our senior faculty may not believe in this work-life balance and thus that is why seniority doesn’t always make the best mentors.

Question: If there is already a culture of that, how do we begin t o let people know that it is okay to have a balance? How do you shift the culture so that it can be work life balance?

Karen M.: Whether or not you get tenure is not important to me. As long as you make progress on your goals and mission in life. If you’re not doing that, then that is a failure. Seem of my protégées have left Ohio State because they have found that they aren’t in the right job.

Hazel M.J.: Having a good culture as a whole, working on policies and procedures, getting people to understand that everyone is a human being and they have a life and will work best when there is a balance.

So when a full professor has to go home because their child is sick, not giving them a problem about it because that is what you should do and that is okay.

The university’s policy is taking time off the tenure clock for birth of a child. In some departments that’s okay, in other departments some people are afraid to use it because they are worried about what others will think.

Question: Do you have a lot of information or fact sheet about mentoring?

Karen M.: I did start writing a series of fact sheets.

Question: What should the mentee be doing?

Karen M.: When I first started this research, the predominant mentoring model was climbing the model to success. That particular mentoring model came out of the 1950s industrial movement, finding the rising stars and helping them get to the top as fast as possible.

Then in the 1980s, it was the balancing work and family model for women and men who should DO IT ALL.

My mentoring model: instead of it being a climb or having a big plate you have to balance, mine is when you’re young, strong and talented you’re not at the bottom of the mountain you’re at the top! You have so many opportunities! I ask, where do you want to leave your legacy? Then we write a mission and look at those four core values looking at your vision for each area. You’re not burdened by a climb, you’re accumulating things, relationships, contacts, projects etc.

Sometimes you get bumped off track and you’re not rolling in the right direction, but we meet and get back on track. Even when you’re not accumulating or things are getting slower, you’re still rolling.

Most people don’t know their mission because no one asked them.

Hazel M.J.: Has any one refused to do this or come up with a mission for their life?

Karen M.: Yes, this person disappeared for awhile and wasn’t ready, but they did come back… Some people just want you to tell them what to do: How do I get tenure, etc?

Enrico B.: It’s important to choose your mentor as someone you can talk to and have an actual conversation with rather than just getting instructions from. I have a general idea of what it takes to be “successful.”

Karen M.: A lot of people are pushed into their jobs by well-meaning adults at a young age… “You need to do this or that, you can’t do this because you’re a girl,” etc. So when preparing our five year plan, it becomes clear that they are on the wrong path. Our focus becomes preparing them to make a move.

Enrico B.: The informal conversations are the spark for formal, deeper conversations.

Hazel M.J.: I don’t think there are short cuts with human relationships. Why are we in such a hurry?

Enrico B.: Even if I tell some of my mentees to have a balance and take it easy, I don’t know if they will listen to me. All we can do is keep saying it. Many young professionals feel guilty if they don’t fill every minute of every day working

Hazel M.J.: And, at the same time, are carrying guilt for the things they are not doing at home or spending time with their family.

Working with the Private Sector – Presentation from Shauna Brummet (Please use the attached presentation to follow along in the notes).

Shauna Brummet: Some of you are aware of BioHio Research Park. We’re a non-profit separate from OSU. We have directors from the university on the board as well as from industry.

We have an incubator facility where we have start up companies. The focus areas for BioHio are the same as those of the college.

The purpose of today’s meeting is working with the private sector, so in my mind, the goal of public-private partnership is to bring together technology, talent and resources.

Ohio Soybean Council, etc. are examples of producer organizations AND part of the private sector. One of the biggest things we look for is funding. It’s harder to get federal grants now. Very often we look to companies to support our R&D.

There are a lot of things a business partner can bring that we might not have here, new equipment, etc. and they can help you increase your reach.

What makes a good academic partner to the private sector?

One of the first ways a company will engage with our University is through our students and student jobs and internships or post docs.

More and more academics all over the world are reaching out to companies for sources of revenue. You need to treat the company or non-profit as a customer. If you think of yourself as a vendor, what does that company want? They want someone who understands their business, who understands product development and understands there is more that goes on after you do the basic research. They also appreciate people who understand market needs.

One of the biggest mistakes we make as a University is not valuing our people, assets, etc enough. You need to play up what you do. Our brand as a University is very strong.

We’ve got to successfully hand over the developments we make to some entity that will take it to the marketplace. It doesn’t mean making a product and selling it. Taking it to the marketplace could be our Extension, helping farmers and producers. Not everything is a product that gets sold.

Building a culture of innovation fits with our University discovery themes. We should provide processes and resources that support the activities of moving your technologies into use from very early stages. These are things that Annette and Hilary can help with. They are resources. We provide processes and help so you don’t have to do it all! But if you are intentional from the start, you will be much more ready to partner.

Innovation and invention are not the same thing.

Invention uses money and resources to create knowledge.
Innovation uses knowledge to create money and resources.

Know How is something the University can license. How you do something that may not be suitable for a patent or something you don’t want to patent because it gets into the public sector, but the knowledge of how to do something can be licensed and generate revenue.

The key assets that we bring to our partners are all of the staff and the students. These are the most of the things we have developed.

Annette Ratcliff: Who knows what TCO does?

Comment: Helping with the legal aspects of commercialization.

Annette: We handle all the intellectual property for the University. Patents, inventions, trade secrets, know hows, etc. things that aren’t patents but still valuable information.

Our office is also responsible for marketing the know hows and patents to industry partners. We help you match up with industry partners

Our primary function is to translate the research through licensing arrangements. We also support relationships with industry partners.

We also handle confidentiality agreements and material transfer agreements.

Whatever is contained in a patent becomes public knowledge. Protecting trade secrets allows this information to stay secret. At a University, we don’t typically keep things as trade secrets, but a company may have a trade secret they need to disclose to someone at the University in order for them to do research.

Patents: What is eligible for patent protection? It has to be novel, useful and non-obvious.

Non-obvious means that for someone skilled in the art, it cannot be obvious to that person. You have to overcome information that is widely known.

Public disclosure: Anything that’s in the public space can preclude you from being able to file your patents.

University routes to commercialization: We help start companies for faculty and develop companies around technology developed.

Licensing: Exclusive and non-exclusive.

TCO handles inventions so if you create something you can disclose that to us. We can tell you if it’s patentable and what commercial partners might be interested.

Confidentiality Disclosure Agreements are important when you want to talk to a colleague about your research. Under this agreement, both parties are agreeing to confidentiality, a legal way to protect the information and who has access to it. Under a CDA it is not considered publicly disclosed like a patent.

Material Transfer Agreements are important … It dictates what the ownership is and what you can do with that material, and how the value is shared.

Hilary Price: I am primarily a Development Officer, and my main goal is to bring in philanthropic support for the college. I’ve been in this role for about two years. I help the college think about our engagements with the private sector. I work mainly in the philanthropic area, but not solely. Corporations don’t just view us through the lens of philanthropy they view us as a big picture.

How I work with faculty: this takes on two primary ways…. A corporation will come to me and say they’re interested in funding research, hiring students, etc.

The other way is for faculty to come to me and let me know that they’re looking for funding, and I help them find the best way to do it. I tend to work with a wide range of private sector partners.

Ohio Soybean Council is our largest contributor to the college. They are engaged in all different levels with us.

We tend to have a good problem, in that there are endless opportunities.

I can help you think through how to raise money through private industry. I can make introductions with private industry or help float ideas, I also help with thinking about strategy. We are a good place to start. We can help provide a picture of what an organizations involvement with the college and university are.

I would encourage you to think through a philanthropic route. I view myself as a facilitator and a bridge, you are all the experts.

Question: What are the potential pitfalls of public-private partnerships?

Shauna: Not being clear in expectations and responsibilities of what OSU is expected to do.

Hilary: We’ve been accused of times at not always following through. When we’re engaging we need to set up expectations, missions, deadlines, reporting processes in place. That is incredibly important. Academia moves a little bit slower.

Annette: Communicating often and frequently helps. If you’re running behind, be upfront about the challenges you are facing. It creates trust in a partnership when you do this.

There are two other main offices on campus at the University-level that help engage: The Office of Sponsored Programs are your primary contacts.

The second office is the Industry Liaison Office. Who is the University currently engaging with and do those needs align with what you’re working with? All of our offices work closely together with one another.

Question: Regarding preparing students with an entrepreneurial skill set… Do you have recommendations on guiding students to get some of those resources?

Shauna: There is the iCORPS program, there is a commercialization class, e-innovation seminar series is great for graduate students, but undergraduates are welcome to that as well. The department of Ag Engineering is doing a hackathon this fall — TCO is working with us on that. It’s a terrific opportunity for students to work through a potential problem, develop an idea and pitch the idea to a panel of judges.

Annette: Through the  TCO office there is a student coordinator who will work with students.

Leadership & Team Development: Implications of your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Jeff King: Our behaviors are just the tip of the iceberg. We don’t always think about what’s below the surface, what’s driving those behaviors. We sometimes just react, but we need to take a step back. We need to become more conscious about what’s below the surface. Then, we can be more intentional rather than just acting on preference.

You’ve been gifted with your personality. It’s how you use it, it’s not good or bad. The MBTI is not a competency test, it’s letting you know your preferences. Your behavior is under your own free will.

We explore our source of energy, gathering facts and information, making decisions, and how we function in the outside world.

It’s not about competence it’s about clarity. If your assessment is closer to the middle it just means you are more balanced in those traits.

Your personality is said to be determined at birth and which becomes more defined in our teen years. However, sometimes you will test differently than in the past.

You should take the test as your “shoes off self,” but sometimes what’s going on in our lives can influence that.

You may have developed and refined your non-preferred traits as well.

When we’re in stressful situations, we don’t think about our go-to type. How do I approach things from a different perspective?

I’ll go through each of the pairs and discuss the implications of them to you as a leader and what it means when working in teams.

We all use BOTH preferences.

What are the implications in groups for the different preferences of introvert and extrovert?

Knowledge about ourselves is power to give more attention to these things. So that we’re not reacting based on only emotion.

Extroverts are going to have a tendency to answer more quickly. Extroverts come up with the answer through talking and thinking out loud. Introverts like to think through their idea before they say it outloud.

A strategy can be letting everyone have a chance to talk. You can also ask someone, “tell me what you’re thinking.” This can help encourage an introvert speak out.

Framing your comments is helpful for introverts too. Saying “I haven’t completely thought through this, but this is what’s going through my mind…” helps the person you’re talking with know where you are coming from. It helps people hear how I frame and understand my comment. It’s a little safety net; here’s how I want you to hear my comments.

As you ask for comments in class or meetings, wait a few seconds. Pause, be silent and allow someone to think and share. Introverts are thinking through things, but you have to become comfortable with silence.

Question: As an introvert, are there strategies to jump into conversations more quickly?

Jeff K.: What can help is if you know what topics are going to be discussed. Send out agendas ahead of time so that introverts have time to think through things. Make sure the group knows you would like to think things over. Over time you will become more comfortable in sharing.

The “E” and the “I” differences will show up the quickest. As you get to know someone or a team, when you’ve been around that group for awhile you notice less difference. But the differences are more pronounced when you are working with a new group or a new class.

If you see someone not contributing don’t assume that they aren’t interested. They may still be thinking through it. Make sure you call on people.

Comment: I’m learning to work with extroverts as an introvert and I know that they talk to think, but sometimes that amount of information is overwhelming for me. How do I better manage that?

Jeff K.: You are getting your energy taken away. This is where we need to better appreciate the differences. Ask them, “I’ve heard this before, but can you help me better understand X, Y or Z?” We prefer to operate from our own level of comfort, but as a leader we need to operate where others are at.

The overall population is 50/50 E/I split. We need to be careful about putting good and bad labels on either.

Comment: The idea of encouraging people to participate, I find that hard to do over video linking. It’s harder to speak up and interrupt the conversation that way.

Jeff K.: Yes I’ve tried to get more intentional about directly addressing people at the other site, and knowing their names. When you’re on a conference phone call it’s even harder, so you need to ask them who would like to share their perspective. Sometimes they don’t answer right away, but if it’s silent, let it be a little longer, don’t immediately jump to the next topic. Become comfortable with the silence.

The next pair is the perceiving function, sensing vs intuition. You have a preference, but you do use both!

Comment: As an N, I can get a little impatient with an S in meetings because they want to go over every little detail.

Comment: In research, S-types will be good at processing the data.

Jeff K.: You have to do both, you can’t pick and choose one or the other. Sometimes the details I know today as an S, limit what I can know or think about in the future. I know to seek out someone with an N-type to get new information and think a little differently.

When you truly trust something you come across more boldly and don’t see the other side, so you have to consider both

How will giving directions look different if you are an S vs an N?

S-types will like detailed directions. If you’re leading a meeting, share what you’re trying to accomplish today and then go into agenda items. That way you introduce it to both sides.

People can look at the same facts and figures, but be interpreting them differently.

If you’re leading a group you may need to do a time out to bring the future and what we know today together. There’s not a wrong answer, they’re just different perspectives.

75% sensing, 25% intuitive in the overall population.

Next is the judging function – how we make decisions. Both are rational ways to make decisions.

It’s not that T-types don’t care, but sometimes they come across that way because they are thinking more about logic-based items.

Question: Is this generational? Because I have found that millennials want more appreciation?

Jeff K.: Everyone likes to be appreciated! It is how we like to be appreciated, regardless of generations. It Is your starting point…

Comment: Sometimes if you show emotion or a passion it can be put into a good or bad box.

Jeff K.: T-types will think more about the impact on the organization or process, F-types will think more about the impact on people. This an create conflict, so how do we think about both?

The general population is 50/50 on T and F, but 60% of females are F and the opposite for males. This is one where there is a gendered difference.

This is one of the most critical differences when dealing with conflict.

If you’re an F-type working with a group of T-types, they’re going to look at relationships differently, but it’s not always bad. It’s just a different approach.

Judging vs proving. How do we organize things around us?

We’ve gone from a time where we all do our own work and combine it at the end. We now need to collaborate more and more to create new ideas, but you have a conflicting deadline stress. So the best thing to do is to agree to a deadline. We can’t use our personality type as an excuse for why we didn’t do something, so that is why we need to talk and negotiate deadlines.

There are different types of organization!

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

Developing Impact Statements for OARDC Programs

Glossary of Impact Terms

Communicating Research, Extension & Teaching Outcomes

Dave Benfield, OARDC: No matter what kind of publication you have to write, most of us are trained researchers or Extension personnel and we write in a scientific language. But now, we have to think about how we get our message out to a different audience.

Lori Kaser is not here today, but provides more information about impact statements in the handout. What she wanted to indicate is that we do use impact statements for your departmental reviews. One is related to discipline, one is related to mission and one is interdisciplinary.

Impact statements are a critical reporting medium. They’re utilized more and more by programs to justify spending to legislators. It’s a good elevator speech as well.

Ken Martin, OSU Extension: Just as OARDC asks for impact statements, Extension asks for nine impact statements over four areas. Advancing employment and income, enhancing agriculture and the environment, preparing youth for success, and strengthening families and communities.

Often times you see these impact statements in the OARDC and Extension quad-folds.

Jerry Bigham, OARDC: I think it was in 2005 when the college first started requiring impact statements. It forced our faculty, across a broad range of interests, to write something in a way that as a Director I could understand and use for information requested by the college, and to create one-pagers for people who visit the college or department. It may be a potential donor.

The first thing that comes up when you introduce yourself to a group is telling people what you do… Can you relate what you do at a lay level so that legislators can understand what you do?

One of the biggest concerns I had working with faculty on these is, this is research and is in progress and I’m not sure what the impacts are. You can say “potential impacts” and that gives an outcome and suggests what potential impacts may come of that.

Mark Erbaugh: The RFPs that we are responding to are increasingly requesting impact statements as part of the proposal. It’s good to have an impact in mind as you go into this and implement the project. You’ll have a much more robust form of impact. Lay the groundwork and build that into what you’re doing.

Dave B.: The other part of this relates to federal reporting. Early on, you were introduced to Hatch Act, which funds our experiment station and the Smith Lever Act, which funds Extension. I’ll let Terry talk about how we utilize those. Every year most of you will have some kind of project under one of these acts. The Hatch Act doesn’t fund individual projects, but it does fund your salary. You may not get project money from Hatch, but you are getting your salary money. So that’s why we require you have to have those projects and why we require reporting on those projects.

Terry Snoddy, Fiscal Office: We’ve been talking broadly about impact statements, and I want to reiterate that we are on a two year budget cycle with the state. About 70% of our funding  comes from the state on the research and Extension line items. They are very important to us because they make up a big portion of our funding. During our budget cycle, we meet with state reps and talk about what we do. It’s an educational process and these impact statements are very important for that.

With our federal reporting, we have research capacity funds. We get about $8 million from the federal government. There are few strings attached, but we have to tell them how we’re spending it. We spend this more on faculty salaries, so in order to do that we need to set up a Hatch project. This is different than stuff that goes through OSP because they are administered out of our college directly.

What’s required of a faculty? You need to have a Hatch project if you are paid by OARDC. We give new faculty about a one year grace period to get this up and running. This is where you get into a system called REEport. Susan Dimit in Wooster helps with this.

We try to set this up 10/1 through 9/30. These are five year projects and at the end of five years you get a new project. You set the project related to the research you’re already doing. At the end of the five years, you’re required to do a final report. Another way to meet this requirement is being a co-PI on someone else’s Hatch.

There’s a lot of reporting we do back to USDA. We do financial reporting, there’s also a Plan of Work process which is a rolling five year view of what we’re going to do. When you’re doing your Hatch project, you identify knowledge areas.

If you’re joining a multi-state project, every institution needs to have their own project at their institution to report their results. You need to create a project in REEport that goes along with that so you can report your piece. Typically, if you want to travel to multi-state meetings, there are dollars n the system to do that.

Question: How does Central State impact this?

Terry S.: In the McIntire Stennis program, they got a piece of the funding that we typically get. It’s not a huge amount. For the bigger piece of the funding, which is the Hatch funds, the 1890s get their own funding.

In a few years, only one Plan of Work will be submitted including Central State and OSU.

Ken M.: We have to report Extension multi-state as well. They’re also interested in integrated projects–meaning research and Extension combined. They are putting an emphasis on this in Washington as well.

Terry S.: We’re required to spend 25% of our funds on integrated activities. So if you’re research and Extension appointment, your salary is integrated.

Dave B.: You don’t have to write a 20 page proposal for a Hatch project, but it should be in enough detail so that a program officer has an idea of what you’re going to be doing and how you’re going to get your results.

Terry S.: If you’re a new faculty member with a research appointment, get in touch with your department or with Susan who is knowledgeable about REEport and how to get set up in the system.

Dave B.: More and more federal agencies are required to show accountability for the dollars you receive and what you’re doing with the tax payer dollars.

Hatch projects and reports shouldn’t take an inordinate amount of your time if you plan ahead and have the information available.

PowerPoint Presentation from Martha Filipic and Tracy Turner

CFAES Communications Resources: Ready When You Are

Martha Filipic: We wanted to start with a video to show you what happens when an interview goes badly [link within PowerPoint presentation]. It’s kind of dated, but it illustrates a few things about what can go wrong if you let them go wrong.

Tracy Turner: You never want to be in a position where you feel attacked or feel defensive and make the situation worse, so we’re here to give you some tactics.

Martha F.: Why work with the media at all? It’s still important even in this day and age. Media is not dead–it is struggling financially–but an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Columbus Dispatch reaches hundreds of thousands of people, and even more in their online sources. That’s a lot more than you could reach on your own on social media or otherwise.

If you’re not used to working with the media, it’s important to know where they are coming from and what they want.

Tracy T.: They want information and they want to report it accurately, not take a stand on anything. Not all media is that way.

Martha F.: The most important thing to a reporter is to be accurate. If they get something wrong, it ruins their credibility as a professional.

Tracy T.: Reporters try to get viewpoints in the story and strive for balance, and that’s why you get opposing views in coverage. When someone in an interview says no comment, then only “point A” gets across. It puts them in a bad position. Your name will still appear in the paper, but it will say you said no comment and it looks like you have something to hide. Even if you don’t like the questions that you’re getting, the journalist is trying to get both viewpoints in the story — that’s why they’re asking.

Martha F.: There is no truth out there. All there is are people’s perspectives and that’s what you can do as a reporter. It’s not their job to determine who’s telling the truth, it’s their job to report what the people are saying.

Reporters will ask for human interest or human interest questions, they may ask a poultry scientist “do you personally buy cage free eggs?” but you can respond to questions in ways that the reporter isn’t getting at.

Tracy T.: I was at the Columbus Dispatch for 12 years. They look for a “real person” voice… They want a real person who is impacted by whatever is happening in the story.

We also have to talk about brevity. Most stories are short, so during the interview get to the point. Time and space are money and most people don’t read the whole story, they read the headlines and first paragraph.

Come up with key points you want to get across in the interview and hone in on those points. Keep repeating them so that what you want to get across comes across.

Martha F.: Be brief and concise and make sure that you know what the reporter is looking for. And please understand the media’s deadlines. They need to get things out as quickly as possible. Especially with things online, things just move quicker. It’s a constant news cycle. Try to respond as soon as you can.

Tips for working with the media: 

Respond quickly to a reporter’s contact. Imagine your computer isn’t working… You contact IT and then you wait because you can’t work. That is what a reporters whole day is like. Just contact them and let them know what time you can talk. If you’re the first person to talk to them for a story, you set the tone for the story which helps your case.

Tracy T.: If someone calls you, it’s okay to ask them what the story is about and what the questions are. You can let them know that you will call them back. You can ask for a few minutes to gather your thoughts and set a time to call them back.

Martha F.: Make sure you use that time to figure out what your key messages are. If you don’t know what your key messages are, the reporter isn’t going to know what your key messages are. Then, you can always revert to your key messages no matter what the questions are.

Tracy T.: You can redirect questions. Journalists will have leading questions. Most of the time, the reporter is going in with an idea of what the story already is. Even if you don’t answer the question directly, it’s okay. Just stick to your key talking points.

Martha F.: There are times when you’re very comfortable with the story, you can answer questions directly. Absolutely. This is about if you’re uncomfortable with a question or if you know there are specific things you want out there. There are ways to do this diplomatically. We’re not politicians, we’re scientists and academics.

Tracy T.: Know your reporters. You can Google them, find out what they write about, what are their key issues, what’s their writing style. You can find out if this is something you want to be a part of.

Martha F.: You should expect “stupid” questions. Reporters don’t have your expertise. You’re the expert. They’re relying on you. Reporters are taught to ask for a way for readers to understand, at a sixth grade level. One way to get you to respond in a basic way is to ask a very basic question.

Tracy T.: Remember, their ultimate goal is to make sure that they get things right.

NEVER say no comment. It gets in the paper and makes you look like you have something to hide.

Martha F.: Instead you can say “I think you’re talking to the wrong person” or “I’m not sure that I’m the person to address that.”

No comment is a red flag to reporters and to readers.

Do not ask to review the story. Most news organizations will not allow this. If you’re nervous about an interview, you can say “I’m not sure if I was articulate today, could you send me the quotes you’re going to use from me? I just want to make sure that I got it right.” It’s worth a shot especially if you’re worried about it.

Tracy T.: If they are unable to do that, you can send them an email and say “just to reiterate, this is what I meant…”

Be cautious, reporters can be friendly, but they are not your friends. There is no “off the record.”

Martha F.: Don’t fall for the “silent treatment” when they are sent during pauses in conversation. Be comfortable with the silence and wait for the reporter to ask the next question. It’s a technique that some reporters use.

Tracy T.: Abrasive questions… Unless you’re a politician or something, the story isn’t about you as an individual. Some stories have hard questions that need to be answered. Be grateful and remember that they’re not attacking you as an individual, they want your perspective as an expert.

Watch out for Jekyll and Hyde and be professional no matter what. They’re going to be friendly and make people comfortable and then ask the hard questions.

Martha F.: If you respond by getting angry or losing it, maybe you’re under stress or there is tension. Don’t do it because it just makes you look bad. Rarely does it make the reporter look bad. This will sit with you.

Tracy T.: The interview isn’t over until it’s over. The banter, the small talk, just because you don’t see them writing things down, just because the camera isn’t pointing at you doesn’t mean the camera isn’t on. Most reporters aren’t trying to trap you.

Martha F.: If you feel like you’re on the spot, take a deep breath before answering the next question. Keep your response short and talk slowly.

Don’t dwell too much on the question. Your goal is NOT to answer all the questions, but to address the question and respond with your perspective. Never portray anger or defensiveness it just makes you look bad.

Tracy T.: When the interviewer asks if there’s anything else you’d like to add, reiterate your main points. Even if they don’t ask that question, you can tell them towards the end, “I just want to reiterate my main points.”

Martha F.: If you have an interview live on the radio, we can help or coach you, we can go over your key messages, etc.

Tracy T.: If you have something you are working on, we can do an interview with you and write the story. We will send the story back to you and then we will send it out to the media. We’re in-house media so our goal is to make you comfortable with what we send out.

We also have a faculty experts list that goes out to the media, so you can be added to this list if you’re comfortable talking about your field.

Steve Slack: I get called fairly frequently and the first thing I want to know is who is calling me and what the topic is. If I don’t know who the person is, I will go online and check that out. I will usually also call communications to ask them what they know about the person or who they’re representing. If I know what the topic is, I write out my points and have it on a note in front of me and I try to stay to that. If you start talking at length they have to summarize that. Is better to have a short, pointed statement because then its harder to be misquoted.

The point about getting back quickly… It is important to our organization. It reflects on the whole organization. I never say anything to them that I wouldn’t want to appear in print because no matter how much you trust them you just never know.

The most difficult thing is when you meet the reporter and meet them in a different venue. What you think is casual conversation, might be a story.

Question: What are best practices to get our own research publicized a bit more?

Martha F.: Something that might be important to you might not be newsworthy to the media world. But if you have something of larger interest, give us a call. We can write up a news release. That’s our job … to figure out what’s newsworthy and put it into language that the media will respond with.

Tracy T.: Something unusual is good for us. Chat with us about your rearech. We will flesh it out. If you want to be on that experts list, we’ll respond with a news release that says we have these experts in X, Y or Z so if you’re working on a story, call our expert in this field.

Martha F.: What is the problem we’re addressing and what is the solution you’re proposing? We have to make sure that what we put out is of interest to the media. We don’t want to look too internally focused.

Tracy T.: Reporters are looking for interesting or unusual tidbits even if it’s not huge or ground breaking research.

PowerPoint Presentation from Kay Wolf

Kay Wolf: First, I want to talk about the process and key points to consider in your dossier, and then we can open it up to questions. This is the process for going up for your six year review… I’ll go back to the fourth year next. This is for most people in the room on the tenure track.

There will be a letter or email from the Chair of your department that states that your document has gone through your department level, the P&T committee and your Chair, and the materials are ready for your review. You can choose to review this or not. You have ten calendar days to make a response. Perhaps you see something that was missed, so you can make a response back. Then the P&T and Chair have a right to make a response back from that. The Dean will then review and you have the right to review and respond to those materials again, and the same process occurs. Then the college committee and the Dean may respond to you.

Then it goes to the University committee. It automatically goes to the committee if there is a mixed vote, if the Chair says yes and the college says no, etc. if it’s a negative review clear across, the University committee also reviews. Part of this is making sure the criteria was held.

Every single dossier is read at the University level, I read them. I take that very seriously as part of my job. If it’s positive clear across, I’m the next person to read. If there’s anything that looks odd, I can send it to the University committee. I also randomly pull things for that committee so that they’re looking at colleges across the board. This is more to look at processes and procedures to see how colleges are doing things. However, for the most part, I’m the last person to review. It doesn’t become final until after that, then it is sent to the Board of Trustees and they make the final decision. Your designation is changed the day they make the vote.

An Associate Professor may go up several times, but an Assistant Professor goes up once. Therefore, if you select to go up early and it is negative then that will be the end.

The fourth year review sort of follows the same procedures, so if you are first reviewed by TIU and the P&T committee and then it goes to the college and the Dean and then that is the end.

If for some reason during your probationary period someone did not want to review your contract, this is the same procedure that goes through during that time.

Dossiers: we are still using Research in View. In October 2017 a new system will be available. If you are going up next year, you will still use research in view.

In your dossier, do not repeat yourself. If something could be in teaching or service, then choose one and go with it. You don’t put it in both places. Constantly think about what you’re trying to convey to the reader.

Recognize the criteria of your college and your unit. You should probably know that pretty well, even if you’re only in your second month. What will success look like under this criteria? Our goal here is to be fair to you!

Narratives: This is where you really deliver the growth of yourself. What did you do? Say who your graduate students are, what are they doing now, what have they done? You can bullet this very succinctly.

Curriculum Development: What did you do? Did you add something? Did you look at something more contemporary? What made it new? How did this process occur?

Teaching Narratives: Your approach to teaching and your goals in teaching; major accomplishments; and your plans for the future. Don’t just say that you teach three courses and teach 150 students, so what? Highlight your niche to teaching. Think about more substance than length — I think you could probably get it done in about a page or so. Show the growth and flow over a period of time.

I think we’re really good at describing the focus of our research and where were heading, you should be able to do that for teaching and service too — think about it like your research.

If you had a weakness, what did you do to change that? It’s not necessary that everyone has fives on all teaching evaluations, but you should show you’re dedicated and have thought about it and tried to improve over a period of time. I chose things that helped me in the area where I was weaker. Did it work? Maybe or maybe not, but you can tell why and what you did next.

For research narratives, there a lot of quality indicators for research. Did it allow you to assist in growing something, moving something forward? Are you publishing in a major professional journal? There are lots of things to think about.

Service narratives are one that sometimes people forget. Show your service is quality…. If you served on three committees but you never showed up, your colleagues know that.

The narrative is your one moment to show your quality, outcome or change. You can list all of your service or research, but you can admit that you decided to change your focus and go into more depth.

Question: How do you document service activities and adequately document the impact of what was done?

Kay Wolf: So if I serve on two department committees and one college committee and I’m not a lead on anything, but I consistently contributed then I think you can work that into your narrative. Show you were active. As you move from an Associate to Full Professor I would expect that you were the lead on things or worked at a national level.

Anne Dorrance: List the Chair of the committee you worked on so that they can be a contact.

Question: What is expected of the mentoring committee?

Ron Hendrick: It’s highly variable in colleges and across the college. If you have a mentoring committee, you should meet with them after your review with your Department Chair. Regular meetings with the committee are essential, so more than once a year. They can give you advice about where to invest your time, how to craft your narrative, etc. they can provide advice and feedback.

Anne Dorrance: You need someone to say no for you. Your mentoring committee can do this for you.

Kay Wolf: The wrong mentoring committee can be inappropriate for you, so have them push you and ask them what your weaknesses are. Make sure they know the goals of your department. The mentoring committee won’t make the final decision.

Ron Hendrick: I thought I would talk a bit about what happens in the College. Someone asked about going up early, at Ohio State we don’t go up early. In the mandatory year, you have to go through from start to finish. If you get a bare majority of what you need at the department level, you may be recommended to not go to the college level. There is no second chance. Other than getting a raise a little sooner, I am cautious to advising people to go up before their mandatory year. The risk can be huge. You can pull back at any time from that non-mandatory review. Take your cues from your peers. A marginal positive vote is about as good as a negative one.

In the college, the dossier — make sure it’s complete, not repetitive, and everything is up to date. You should spend a lot of time on this. Put that together from day one. Use your annual reviews to update that — keep it up to date. It’s fine to have your department P&T Committee do an informal review. Most are willing to do that.

Once it reaches the college, we have nine or ten people on the committee. We make sure there are no conflicts of interest. The sub-committees draft a letter, then we meet as a full committee. Everyone gets discussed. The college makes sure the process was properly followed, and makes sure the department evaluated you thoroughly and fairly. There are times we see that procedure was not followed. At that time, we will send a letter to the Dean; however generally the college is on the same page as the department.

If we get a department recommendation that’s different from the Chair’s, anything that comes through as negative, we spend a lot of time on this. The college committee evaluates the process. The committee in the college is advisory to the Dean and he may agree or disagree with this. I typically draft these to the Dean, cabinet typically reviews this as well, then it moves to Kay’s office.

If you have a positive fourth year review coming out of the department the college does not review it. The Dean reviews it from there.

Anne Dorrance: I’m going to take a little different approach and tell you how to not get a no vote. You were hired as the best person for your job so we do not want you to fail. We want you to be successful. You’re the best and we want you to keep at it.

So with that process, you have to behave in your department like it is not a competition. We aren’t in a competition — you have to embrace and get along with your colleagues. If you’re on an Extension or research team you do not want to battle with them. It’s just a no-win situation for the next 20 years.

Don’t expect rewards… You didn’t get into this for money. Do it because you love doing it.

Do what you were hired to do and embrace your appointment. It hurts your unit and makes it difficult to go through this process if you don’t embrace one of your appointments.

Learn to listen.

Don’t be a baby– a lot of this stuff is a pain, you just have to do it.

Participate in the committees you choose, make it worth your while. If you don’t have an Extension appointment, local service counts.

Speak your mind but choose your timing and use diplomacy. Wait your turn and make what you say count.

Take part in discussions and find the right balance that works for you. Take care of yourself. Family and personal time is critical. You don’t have to do everything your first five years. Take your time, you’ll be here for 30 to 40 years. Enjoy your time here.

Figure out who you want to be and work to be that person. What are your goals? You took this job, what do you want to see when you put your dossier together? Set goals for yourself.

You should learn more in your research, you should contribute something, we keep growing.

Question: How do we know how much we have to accomplish in those five years?

Anne Dorrance: There is no magic number. In one field, one paper may count as ten for another field. If you are coming to be recognized as an expert in your area, what more can we ask for? It is just all about how you document it. It depends on your appointment, your area of science and how well you’re doing. If you’re publishing, not sitting on things… Etc.

Ron Hendrick: You use feedback from your Chairs and your peers. Some departments on campus are very quantitative, but that could create problems as well because what if I only do what is required? That may not make a good experience for students, your colleagues, etc. promotion and tenure standards need to be somewhat specific but fairly broad. Get consistent feedback from your Chair and from your P&T committee. Send them your dossier for review.

Kay Wolf: You want it to be a growth of trajectory. You want to know the person will get lifelong employment and continue to grow. You won’t stop at the summit. You may only have one paper, but if it gave you a number of grants, made you a consultant or at the top of your field, etc. you’ve got to listen to your department. You have to listen.

Comment: You can have one grad student that is really bad, but if you can show you helped them improve I think it is a success story. Look more at quality and impact of whatever area, including grad students more than numbers.

Ron Hendrick: If you feel like you need some more information about what is incumbent upon you, you can come to the College, to me, to Dr. Slack, Dr. Benfield, Dr. Martin and Dr. Davis who can sit down with you.

Steve Slack: You have to be your own advocate. If you sit back and expect someone else to be your advocate, it’s your career and your life. Yes you have a mentoring committee and Department Chair, but the reality is you shouldn’t be sitting back waiting for someone else to tell you to do this or that. I think Anne’s comment to keeping an updated dossier is important. If you’re not sure if it’s reading right, go talk to someone you value.

Greg Davis: The essence of the document and what it represents… The dossier is a blank canvas and you’re creating a picture over time, situations change and opportunities come and go. It should react to your environment, but be infused with your interests and your contributions. You can’t tell yourself that you just have to do this to get it done.

Ron Hendrick: You’ve got to create a niche and what you do that contributes to your success and also the department, your students, the college, the University.

Kay Wolf: You’ve got to create a niche and what you do that contributes to your success and also the department, your students, the college, the University.

Question: Do we have input in who writes a letter for us?

Ron Hendrick: 50% can come from you. It’s important to think about that early on… It may be from someone in a professional society. Create a network and connections. Don’t necessarily just go for big names though, they should understand what you do and why what you do is important. Avoid someone who you are currently collaborating with. If that person has vested interest in your success then that is a conflict of interest.

If you get to your fourth year review and you’ve never submitted a grant you’re not on trajectory. But if you’ve submitted one and it is still in review, it shows your active and doing the kind of things that show success. You need to land some sure things and invest your time in things that have measurable payback.