Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,
One of the more notable events occurring over the past two weeks was Provost Joe Alutto’s visit to our campus yesterday, joined by Mike Boehm, OSU’s Vice Provost for Academic and Strategic Planning. The visit in and of itself was a strong statement about the high value that Ohio State’s central administration places on the role of the regional campuses, of course. In addition, the Provost’s and Vice Provost’s responses to questions during the open forum in Riedl Hall consistently and emphatically emphasized this significant level of support. For faculty, there was strong reinforcement of the central concept that the primary mission of the regional campuses – teaching and learning – can and should be accomplished by faculty who are actively engaged in scholarly pursuits. For staff, there was a firm commitment to provide all of the tools and resources that are necessary for strategic planning and execution. Following this open forum, the Provost took a brief tour of our campus, including a stop in Bromfield to hear more about the initial plans to develop our Information Commons, a stop in Eisenhower to meet with our students, and a final stop in Ovalwood to tour our Engineering and Art Labs. Special thanks go out to Mike Collura, Dametraus Jaggers, Keon Willis, Jamall Marsh, Sid Hall, Kate Shannon, and John Thrasher for making themselves available to meet with the Provost and Vice Provost during this tour!
The first of my scheduled informal lunches with the campus community was held this past Monday. The lunch was very well attended, a fact for which I am most grateful. For the most part, the conversation during this first lunch focused on the percentages that are assigned to faculty teaching, research, and service. On a related note, we heard from the Provost and Vice Provost that the expectation is that there should be individual conversations between each regional campus faculty member, their TIU chair, and the regional campus dean in order to articulate and agree upon how that faculty member will make contributions in each of their three primary areas of responsibility. Clearly, percentages can and should be a topic for further discussion in the weeks and months ahead. However, I also welcome other topics of interest during our upcoming informal lunchtimes, the next of which is scheduled for Tuesday, October 25th. I hope to see you then!
The first meeting of the program coordinators this academic year took place this week, and much of the discussion revolved around the need for faculty members to be working directly with Associate Dean Dave Tovey in order to specify the classes that will need to be taught during the first year under semesters. This meeting also provided me with an opportunity to charge this group as the new members of the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) document committee. During this meeting, Norman Jones agreed to chair the APT document committee. I am most grateful to Norman for providing leadership and organizational capacity for this effort!
In other news, membership of the Pattern of Administration (POA) document committee has been finalized to now include the following individuals: Stavros Constantinou, Carol Freytag, Donna Hight, Joe Holomuzki, Andrew Kinney, Dawn Kitchen, Elizabeth Kolkovich (to be replaced by Carolyn Skinner in Winter Quarter), Barbara Lehman Kris Maloney, Cathy Stimpert, and Heather Tanner. Our first POA document meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (11/21) at 2:30 p.m. I want to extend a big thank you to the members agreeing to serve on this committee and special kudos to Dawn Kitchen for providing leadership to this group!
We are still at work finalizing membership of the Campus Implementation Plan (CIP) committee. As you know from previous correspondence, the Regional Deans will be meeting on Thursday October 27th in order to solidify plans for further refinement of the Regional Campus Cluster Strategic Plan (RCCSP) that will drive our CIP efforts. The goals of this meeting include the setting of parameters and deadlines for the CIP work to be completed. Our first CIP committee meeting will follow on November 3rd at 3:30 p.m. During that meeting, I will request that one faculty member and one staff member volunteer to co-chair this important committee.
Finally, I note that the first Ohio State Mansfield Board meeting of the new academic year will take place tomorrow. I am pleased to report that our newly adopted strategy of including faculty and staff representation in each of the subcommittee meetings that precede the full Board meeting seems to be working quite well. I will have more news to report to the campus about this first Board meeting in my next bi-weekly report. Thank you all for your efforts on behalf of and commitment to our campus!
