Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,

I trust that everyone enjoyed their extra-long weekend as we commemorated Martin Luther King’s birthday this past Monday. This is always an important harbinger of our upcoming celebration of Black History Month, and this year’s program holds a number of important and interesting events that I urge all of you to attend. Thanks in advance to the members of the BHM Committee for stretching very tight budget dollars in the process of putting together a solid program!

The past two weeks have been filled with a number of events that can serve both as points of pride and forecasts of future distinction. Our most recent Community Engagement Lunch was hosted two Mondays ago, focusing on our many connections to human and social services in the community. With our largest yet group of community members in attendance, the spotlight was trained on Mary Jo Hawk as she presented information about our current MSW program and our emerging Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. In addition, with Director Bob Maxey in attendance, NCSC President Don Plotts and I were able to present a check to United Way for the over $14,000 that was collected from Mansfield campus faculty and staff.

Along with several Mansfield staff members, I was able to take part in the First Year Experience Conference that was held two Wednesdays ago on the Columbus campus. There were two important takeaways from that meeting for me. First, Shari Petersen and her staff are generating widespread accolades for all of the great work they are doing with our incoming freshmen. Second, the needs of our campus change students likewise are gaining increased attention from Columbus campus representatives. Check out the brand-new website that was established as a response to regional campus brainstorming efforts at last year’s FYE Conference: http://fye.osu.edu/transfer/treventlist.html.

This past Wednesday, all of the Regional Campus Cluster Advancement Teams met with Michael Eicher, Ohio State’s new Senior Vice President for Development. A very spirited discussion ensued, with great emphasis on the special nature of the smaller campuses.  Following that group conversation, Mike Eicher then met with the RCC Deans and Mike Boehm (Vice Provost for Academic and Strategic Planning) in order to further elaborate on certain themes that had emerged in the larger group. Particular attention was paid to the historically competitive nature that exists between the Columbus campus and the regional campuses for the same donors. As many of you know, there are a great many misconceptions surrounding our financial situation, with large segments of the population of the (erroneous) belief that we receive lots of fiscal support from the Columbus campus (when in fact we ship over $800,000 a year to them). Unfortunately, a great many donors believe that when they give an amount of money to their favorite college or unit on the Columbus campus, some portion of those funds comes back to the regional campuses. Regrettably, nothing could be farther from the truth. And worse, if a Development Officer on the Columbus campus already has been working with a donor in our area, that previous relationship often as not makes them “off limits” to us and any future request for the support of a regional campus activity. I am very pleased to say that Mike Eicher believes this is a very misguided way of conducting the business of University Development, and he will be working with the Regional Deans to correct this and related issues and concerns.

In closing, I wish to say a big thank you to the members of the Ohio State Mansfield Board, who met with me last week for a retreat at the Gorman Rupp plant (and a big thank you to Jeff and Jim Gorman for the use of their spectacular facilities, who also will soon be getting our public thanks for a very generous gift to the Capital Campaign!). The appreciation that I wish to express to the OSU-M Board members is not just for a very productive meeting, but also for two years of solid support in service to our campus. Quite simply, we could not have accomplished anywhere near what we have without their guidance and feedback.

Last but not least, please sign up for our Mardi Gras celebration dinner (commemorating Ground Hog Day and Super Bowl Weekend as well) in downtown Mansfield next Saturday evening. We have planned for a great buffet dinner and amusing ourselves afterward with some karaoke performances, including (at least) one of my own! So plan on attending, tune up your vocal cords, stay warm and dry this weekend and GO BUCKS!

Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,

Happy New Year! I hope that 2013 is off to a great start for all of you as we move into our first ever Spring Semester at Ohio State. And although we have witnessed more snow this season so far than what we received all last winter, the forecast for this weekend’s weather includes temperatures predicted to be in the mid 60’s. That will have at least some of us thinking Spring-like thoughts (and this sure feels a lot like April showers today)!

The arrival of the new year has coincided with news about lots of change on our campus and beyond. We will soon be welcoming Dr. Dorey Diab, the new President of North Central State College, who takes over for Don Plotts. Don has been a great friend to Ohio State Mansfield throughout his presidency, and we hope to benefit from his continued support as he begins to enjoy his retirement years. I already have had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Diab on two occasions, who most recently held the position of Provost at Stark State College, and I am confident that he is fully committed to further advancing our partnership efforts. Happily, I have gained great assurances from a significant number of NCSC Board of Trustees that Dorey will have the full and complete backing of the board to continue on this path toward increasingly shared services, more fully articulated programs, and ever greater cooperation between our co-located institutions of higher learning.

On the Columbus campus, within six months we will be welcoming our new Provost, Joe Steinmetz, who many of you know as our current Executive Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He will take over in July when Provost Joe Alutto steps back into the faculty and begins to serve as a Special Advisor to President Gee on a number of initiatives he has been overseeing, including perhaps most significantly our Advancement and Distance Education efforts. Through words and deeds over the past three years, Dr. Steinmetz has made it very clear that the regional campuses are significant contributors to the Arts and Sciences mission. We have every reason to believe that his very positive viewpoint about our work will grow to appreciate how other programs – especially those in the College of Education and Human Ecology and the College of Social Work – likewise are part of the fabric that weaves the regional campuses to the One University mission and objectives.

Something else that many of you are aware of is my having been asked to serve on the Search Committee for a new Executive Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. The official word regarding the formation of the Search Committee was announced earlier this week, and we will be meeting with Provost Alutto next Tuesday in order to receive our charge and begin to formulate a position description. Undoubtedly, this will be a rapid process in order to accomplish the task of securing a highly qualified individual for this enormously important position. I am both thrilled and honored to be representing the interests of the regional campuses, and of course will keep our community apprised of all developments.

Other newsworthy items from the past two weeks include the Grand Opening Ceremony for the UNITY Center. Formerly known as the Multi-Cultural Center and located in Bromfield Hall, the UNITY Center has been relocated to Eisenhower Hall in order to become a more centralized component of our Student Union. The renaming was designed to reflect campus efforts to enjoy the educational benefits of diversity in all of its forms. A variety of student groups will be included in the UNITY Center, including the Multicultural Student Association, Intergroup Dialogue, Brotherhood of Collegiate Learners, Sisterhood of Scholars, and Out Loud. By combining these student groups in one centralized location, the UNITY Center will promote a greater understanding and depth of diversity within our student population. This last news item provides an important segue back to the main intent of these Biweekly Reports, which is to facilitate ongoing communication and dialogue about progress being made on our Campus Implementation Plan (CIP). The evolution of the UNITY Center is a solid representation of our work to meet the Teaching and Learning goal of improving student outcomes by “creating experiences outside the classroom to enhance in-class experience” (1.2.B), as well as expanding the RCC student population by “fostering programs that welcome and support a diverse student body” (1.3.B).

In the next couple of weeks, I will be reporting on a number of gatherings and efforts that will shed further light on our CIP-related work. This will include my attending the First Year Experience Conference on the Columbus Campus next Wednesday, hosting a Board Retreat at Gorman Rupp the following day, and participating the following week in a meeting for all regional campus Advancement Teams with Michael Eicher, Ohio State’s new Senior VIP for Development. Stay tuned and GO BUCKS!