“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” (John Allen Paulos)

Hello everyone,

As many of you know, I am dealing with a fairly lengthy commute each day to our campus. Apart from the wear and tear on my vehicle, this is usually not such a terrible burden. Not terrible, that is, unless the weather changes drastically and dramatically, as it did this past Monday evening. What was supposed to happen – light flurries starting around five o’clock in the afternoon – and what actually occurred – heavy snow beginning at noon – ended up creating an unexpected and very hazardous situation on the sidewalks, roads, and bridges at the end of the day. As with all such challenges, however, we were forced to deal with the situation in the very best ways that were at our disposal. We slowed down, we took our time, and we drove that much more defensively. Well, most of us anyway. Inevitably, there was the occasional vehicle that was being driven much faster than conditions allowed. And as I made my way down I-71, the sides of that road were littered with the results of that kind of driving.

The next day, the sun came out, the roadways were cleared, and life went on. On my calendar was a luncheon in downtown Mansfield featuring Lt. Governor Mary Taylor, who spoke about economic development in a climate of budget uncertainties. Following her speech, she held a question and answer session, and many thoughtful people spoke about the economic situations they found themselves in with their businesses. There was one attendee, however, who broadsided the speaker with a bit of a tirade about a personal issue that was completely disconnected from the contents of her speech. Ms. Taylor handled this individual in the best way she possibly could. She slowed down, she took her time in responding, and she tried to validate the individual’s concerns as much as she could while emphasizing the importance of paying attention to the bigger picture.

As our own university budget picture begins to emerge in the coming weeks and months, there is going to be a lot of uncertainty about how everything will fall into place. For sure, there will be individuals who will be focused mostly on their own personal needs and desires, rather than the campus as a whole. Please know that I will be providing information in a timely and transparent manner. At the same time, however, I anticipate having to help others understand the importance of slowing down, taking our time, and otherwise making sure that we are keeping the whole campus community in mind as we make decisions about how to move forward. In essence, I want to make sure that we keep all of our wheels on the road at all times.

On a related if somewhat more expected note, we have lots of snow coming down this morning In Mansfield. As a result, I closed our campus earlier today after consulting with our own facilities personnel and our North Central colleagues. Please be careful out there today, and of course please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.” (William Shakespeare)

Hello everyone,

This was a week that had many acts, and at least two stage appearances for me. The first time I took the stage was Wednesday evening as part of the reception thrown in my honor as the new Dean and Director of our great campus. For the full story please see:

Gee Welcomes New OSU-Mansfield Dean

And what an honor it was, kicked off by our own President Gordon Gee, who was his usual brilliant and entertaining self! And it didn’t hurt that Dr. Gee was fresh out of a morning meeting that included a $100 million philanthropic gift from the family of Les Wexner, founder of the Limited Brands and Chair of the OSU Board of Trustees. Imagine what our campus could do if we had one benefactor that gave just 1% of that amount! Hopefully, the sentiment that Abigail Wexner expressed about this historic gift – “Ohio State is our most important asset. It touches the entire community, not just students and alumni” – can become a rallying cry for our own benefactors in the area.

Introductory remarks also were made by Don Plotts, President of North Central State College, who discussed the growing and mutually beneficial partnership between our respective co-located institutions of higher learning. And then I took the stage, sharing a bit of my vision for where the campus was headed and how we were going to get there. I also spent some time in the telling of a few stories, including the recent walking tour of downtown Mansfield that I took with President Plotts. This included my discovery of the Buckeye Bakery, a place where I had assumed saying “O-H” would certainly render an “I-O.” In actuality, one customer did respond that way when I first walked into the bakery, but I believe I need to keep going back until I have the counter staff ready and willing to sing Carmen Ohio… after all, they are the Buckeye Bakery!

My second stage appearance happened on Thursday, when I participated in a post-production panel discussion of A Number, the Caryl Churchill play currently being put on by our Theater Department. The play itself follows a very intriguing storyline, with a central focus on the relationship between a father and his sons. That’s where my family research scientist expertise comes into the picture, and as such was the main reason why I was asked to participate in the panel discussion. Oh yes, and the sons are the products of cloning, which is where the intrigue comes into play. With solid performances by OSU Mansfield students Jeremy Barr and Rob McCready, direction by Professor Joseph Fahey, and set design by Richard Keith, this is not a show to miss! More information about these and other performances can be found at:

2010-2011 Theatre Season

So catch a little bit more of the Ohio State spirit sometime soon. Visit the Buckeye Bakery and give an “O-H” shout out, think about a gift to our campus that would be an investment in our future, go see the new play in our theatre (performances run through this Sunday), and of course please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” (John Hope Franklin)

Hello everyone,

An extremely important meeting took place on campus this week that may well become a harbinger of many good things to come in the not-too-distant future. The reason for my excitement about this meeting stems from the convergence of certain elements of my “old life” as a family research scientist on the OSU Columbus campus with some of the specific responsibilities I have in my “new life” as Dean and Director of OSU Mansfield. The elements of my “old life” were represented by the out-of-town guests who were present at this meeting. The visiting group included several people I knew from my data collection efforts regarding the “Governor’s Closing the Achievement Gap Initiative” that took place in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. This impact of this initiative has been nothing less than dramatic, so much so that more than 80% of the program participants are on track to graduate from high school (that’s compared to the 40% graduation rate in many of the high schools within the Cleveland system). Most importantly, these Closing the Achievement Gap students are graduating this year, which means they are looking for colleges to attend next year!

That’s of course where the responsibilities of my “new life” kick in. The OSU Mansfield strategic plan calls for our enrollment growth to be fueled in large part by recruitment efforts in Northeast Ohio. And because I knew that these students were going to be ready to attend college this fall, I thought it might be important to let school district leaders know more about all of the great things that our campus has to offer.

Therefore, as you might expect our Director of Admissions and Financial Aid – Ken Sigler – was in this meeting in order to create a plan for making formal presentations to school district leaders about our campus. In turn, Ken also is readying himself and his staff to make similar presentations to parents and students that will kick off and then sustain our targeted recruitment efforts in Cuyahoga County.

Dametraus Jaggers, our Coordinator for Multicultural Affairs and Student Success, also was present in the meeting in order to plan for the enhancement of the recruitment process by connecting these students to our Office of Multicultural Affairs. Dametraus also will lay the groundwork for retention efforts by focusing on the creation of programs and services for these students that build early and sustained opportunities for success in the classroom and beyond.

As well, Nick Orosan, our Director of Development, was on hand in order to initiate opportunities for the external funding of these recruitment and retention efforts. These new sources of support will be aimed at a variety of activities, including the creation of scholarship funds and the funding of mentoring-related activities. As our plans take more solid shape, we expect to take advantage of several promising individual, corporate, and foundation support mechanisms within the Greater Cleveland area as well as grant opportunities at both the state and federal level.

Together, Ken, Dametraus, and Nick are helping to build the foundation of a pipeline that will allow the best and brightest of Cleveland and other school districts in Cuyahoga County to come to the OSU Mansfield campus as a first choice destination. And this preparatory work may well be an ideal time for other members of our campus to explore the merits of their own involvement. Therefore, if you have ideas about how this new initiative may connect to your research interests, your classroom activities, and/or your service efforts, please know that this group would like to hear from you!

Other similar opportunities may soon arise with other school systems, and so of course I will be keeping you all informed along the way. In the meantime, please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” (Robert Frost)

Hello everyone,

To say that this was an interesting week for me would be something of an understatement. On Monday, I gave what might well be considered my inaugural address to the faculty. A portion of my time was spent discussing what I entitled a “glimpse of a vision” regarding my aspirations for the OSU Mansfield campus. I covered five main points, including:

1) Paying attention to our shared identity as an academic community, with an emphasis on increasing the interdisciplinary work that we engage in as scholars.

2) Identifying each individual faculty member’s talents and skills, so that different levels of expertise in teaching, research and service/practice could be developed in synergistic fashion.

3) Enhancing our campus climate, including especially a focus on the development of mentoring relationships.

4) Extending our resources, with particular consideration given to the further development of partnerships with our North Central State College colleagues.

5) Augmenting our ability to function as a team, with a concentration on how faculty and staff can combine efforts in ways that more efficiently serve our students.

A smaller amount of time was used to discuss concerns about semester conversion, including most pointedly issues surrounding faculty workload. Because all of the regional campuses inevitably will need to present a unified vision to the Provost on this matter, there will be a number of additional meetings that I will be holding with faculty members. So stay tuned!

I also had to face my first weather-related difficulties this week due to the significant ice accumulations we faced. We closed the OSU Mansfield campus beginning on Tuesday evening, and then extended our shut down throughout the day on Wednesday. Happily, Brian White and his crew went into overdrive and had our campus in great shape for the remainder of the week. And they kept on working to help our North Central campus partners get their Kehoe Center up and running as well. That’s the “ice” I was thinking about in the Robert Frost poem that starts this communication, by the way.

As for the “fire” portion of that verse, my family and I had to deal with a small but significant fire event in our home on Tuesday evening. As best as the firemen and electricians can tell us right now, a circuit breaker overloaded when our emergency generator kicked in that night (oh yes, another part of that “ice” reference has to do with the fact that my neighborhood lost power for a day and a half). Rather than shutting down the system as it was designed to do, the breaker ignited in flames. Very fortunately, both my fourteen year old and I smelled the burning almost as soon as the generator kicked in. The fire department responded within three minutes of our 911 call, and the situation was well in hand within a half hour. And even more amazing was the fact that the company that installed the generator came out and had us fully operational two hours after that!

Because everybody and everything ended up in good shape, I rather obviously have lots of blessings to count this week. Among other things, I have a fully engaged faculty that is ready to get to work on taking the OSU Mansfield campus to an even greater level of success, I have an amazing facilities crew that works tirelessly on behalf of the campus, and I have enough personal good fortune to get through a set of hazardous circumstances in relatively fine fashion. So I invite you now to take a moment to be thankful for all of the things that – perhaps – you take for granted. And on a parallel note, please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi