“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” (Socrates)

Hello everyone,

Yesterday evening, I had the privilege of providing introductory remarks for the 2010-2011 Academic Year Honors Convocation held in Riedl Hall, meant to honor the best and finest scholarly efforts here on the campus of The Ohio State University at Mansfield. The students that we heard about throughout the awards ceremony clearly had been spending their time and energy doing great and wonderful things. In one sense, it was clear that the activities these budding scholars had been engaged in over the past year significantly increased their academic abilities and their knowledge base. At the same time, however, the testimonies given by their nominating sponsors just as clearly indicated that these activities were instrumental in strengthening the essential character of these students as well.

Although many students won awards, I must mention Marissa Baker, Derek Bryan, Lyndsee Cooper, and Sarah Galat, who were this year’s Presidential Salute to Undergraduate Achievement Award winners (all of these students also won additional individual awards). Further, Marissa, Derek, and Lyndsee all had participated in the Forum on Student Research and Scholarly Activity that had immediately preceded the award ceremony. Approximately 20 students had participated in this forum, a number that I expect will grow exponentially in the coming years. I was impressed both with the high level of preparedness of the students and the sophistication of their projects. Please join me in thanking Professor Ozeas Costa for the tremendous amount of time and effort he expended in making the Forum such as success for the students and their faculty mentors!

I started this Dean’s List with a quote from Socrates, the Greek philosopher who of course is most well-known for his methods of teaching. I mention this because yesterday’s presentation also recognized two professors – Noah Comet and Ed Wachtel – who were recognized for their outstanding teaching abilities. These teaching awards are especially significant because they reflect the will (and the votes!) of our students. And we should all bask in the honorific glow of these colleagues. After all, where would any of us be without the great teachers in our lives? Outstanding teachers light the match that starts the fire, the burning desire, to learn.

So remember to congratulate our student and faculty award winners next time you see them. And in the meantime, as always please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.” (Vince Lombardi)

Hello everyone,

This past Tuesday evening I had the distinct pleasure and honor of kicking off the Sports Banquet on our campus that marked the end of another great season of competitive play for the Mavericks. Of course I was aware that a significant portion of what was celebrated that night surrounded the achievements of the individuals and teams that competed this year. However, I must also highlight a concurrent point of pride. The very fact that these Mavericks teams are comprised of students from both the North Central and Ohio State campuses should be seen as another shining example of how our co-located universities have been working to become true partners in all aspects of the higher education experience.

Most if not all of these athletes are involved in our athletics program for the pure love of the sport, be it soccer, volleyball, basketball, or baseball (and cheerleaders you also get your proper due here as well!). This kind of sentiment is echoed in the words of Mike Singletary, the great Chicago Bears linebacker, who said:  “Do you know what my favorite part of the game is?” “The opportunity to play.” Yes, it’s the pure experience of playing itself that compels most athletes to remain involved in sports throughout their college years.

We might pause to consider why else we bother to support sports programs on our campus. As a partial answer, I believe that most of us would find some agreement with the words of Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, whose quote begins this communication. Using such words – spirit, will, excel – as a springboard, this implies that sports are meant to be a well-rounded part of the educational process. In essence, they help to educate us about life’s ups and downs, life’s wins and losses, plain and simple.

So please support our student athletes by attending games, or even more simply by congratulating them for another season of play. And in the meantime, as always please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.” (George Bernard Shaw)

Hello everyone,

This month marked the launch of a number of important efforts regarding our strategic plan. Perhaps most significantly for this week, I had tasked a number of faculty and staff with the completion of “scorecards” regarding each of the strategic plan’s five main goals, broken down into thirty-one specific objectives. To refresh your memory of these goals and objectives, please visit:

http://mansfield.osu.edu/DOCUMENTS/StrategicPlan_081222.pdf

The scorecards are designed to visually display our progress to date, and include three main components: metrics, milestones, and resources. The metrics section refers to the very specific kinds of things that can be counted. For instance, what was our retention rate (as related to the objective that specifically identifies work to be done with academically at-risk, first generation, and minority students) over the past year? The milestones section places specific dates on the completion of our objectives. Using the same example, our strategic plan demands that our campus achieve a 71% retention by this past Autumn quarter (as based on University enrollment reporting during that period of 2010). And finally, the resources section involves the naming of all sources of support that were supposed to be made available in order to accomplish the objective. Using the example above one more time, our campus was supposed to hire one additional academic advisor as a retention officer.

Great importance is placed on this process within the administrative structure of our university. Strategic plans are used to evaluate how well a given unit or campus is operating within the OSU system, as well as how resources will be distributed in the coming years. Following the completion of our scorecards, we next are going to be asked to update our strategic plan to better reflect the current realities that we are facing. This will demand that we critically examine our scorecards, of course, as well as creating and sustaining conversations about those goals and objectives that require some degree of modification.

What will become particularly interesting is the new twist that we will witness as a regional campus. Because the Mansfield, Marion, Lima, and Newark campuses are now treated as a cluster, we will be asked to develop a strategic plan that speaks directly to our combined goals and objectives. This synthesizing process should prove to be both challenging and rewarding, and will be further enhanced by conversations currently underway regarding the creation of “destination programs” that will mark the uniqueness of each regional campus.

There are both committees and informal groups of faculty and staff members working on various portions of these tasks, and in the weeks and months ahead there will be plenty of opportunities for dialogue about our continued efforts to move from good to great. So please, keep reading my own communications vis-à-vis the “Dean’s List” and “The Week that Was” emails, as well as looking out for correspondence coming from your colleagues. And in the meantime, as always please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” (Carl Sagan)

Hello everyone,

This week marks the inaugural assembly of our campus’ first-ever research committee. My sincere thanks are extended to Professor Del Lindsey for taking a leadership role as chair of this committee. In my Dean’s List communication of March 4th, I had also expressed appreciation to faculty members Dan Amsterdam, Noelle Chao, Ozeas Costa, Dawn Kitchen, Bill Putikka, Tena Katsaounis, and Dennis Shaffer for agreeing to serve as members. I can now thank Heather Tanner, Associate Professor of History, for joining this group in order to better round out the representation of the humanities perspective on research.

There are a number of items on the agenda to be covered by this group, including some rather commonplace issues that cover the use of course release time and grant application budgets and deadlines.  At the same time, however, there is a much more substantial and potentially culture-changing item on the research committee’s agenda as well: increasing the student body’s involvement in research on the OSU Mansfield campus. For this reason, I have asked three of our student leaders to serve on this committee, and I am grateful that Lyndsee Cooper, Faith Dickinson, and Keon Willis have agreed to represent the undergraduate perspective.

It is important to note that select students already are gaining invaluable research experiences on the OSU Mansfield campus. As evidence, we need look no farther than the upcoming Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, in which no fewer than seven of our current students are participants. Taking place on the Columbus campus this coming Wednesday (5/11), these students and their faculty advisors will be showcasing the breadth and depth of research opportunities available at OSU Mansfield. The Denman entries and student presenters include the following:

1. From Service to Cells: A Look at America's Incarcerated Veterans. Presented by Timothy Grix, Amber McClain, & Joshua Tatro ( Advisor:  Terri Winnick).

2. How the Media Affects Attitudes Towards Muslims. Presented by Bilal Ahmed (Advisor:  Terri Winnick).

3. Proving Frances Burney as a Gothic Novelist. Presented by Lauren Gerhart (Advisor:  Noelle Chao).

4. Unmanned Heroes: 18th Century Female Writers and Male Sentimentality. Presented by Marissa Baker (Advisor:  Noelle Chao).

5. Nutrient Geochemistry of Lakes in Northern Ohio: Physical and Anthropogenic Controls. Presented by Corinne Aebersold (Advisor:  Ozeas Costa).

My vision for the OSU Mansfield campus includes the notion that ALL students wishing to have research experiences on our campus will be able to do so, and that our current crop of students participating in the Denman Forum will grow seven times seven in the years ahead. If you know any of the current crop of Denman participants, please take a moment to congratulate them on their outstanding efforts. And in the meantime, as always please take the time to enjoy the weekend with family and friends!

Steve Gavazzi