May 3, 2012
Posted by gavazzi.1 in Dean's message
Created on May 3, 2012 at 3:28pm
And tagged with: Array
Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,
As you know from my biweekly reports throughout the 2011-2012 academic year to date, the attention of our campus has been centered on our “Big 3” tasks: 1) revising the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) document; 2) modifying the Pattern of Administration (POA) document; and constructing our Campus Implementation Plan (CIP). During these past two weeks, we are beginning to make some significant headway with all three documents.
The biggest news on the “Big 3” front is that on April 20th I sent our faculty approved APT document to the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA). That’s one document completed, and two more to go! Huge thanks once again go to Norman Jones, who spearheaded the work on this document in partnership with the program coordinators. Once accepted by OAA, this document will go into effect July 1st of this year.
Our campus also experienced significant progress on the other two “Big 3” documents. The main portion of the POA document already has been approved by the Executive Council, and a preliminary meeting on the workload flexibility and organization chart inserts to this document met with general approval by the full faculty in a meeting last week. Led by Faculty President Dawn Kitchen, Heather Tanner, and Carol Freytag, another round of smaller edits currently are being circulated amongst the faculty, and it is hoped that official acceptance of the entire POA document will come very soon.
The CIP committee also has been very busy. On April 20th, I released the draft templates of the CIP to our campus community. The CIP Committee members have worked long and hard on these documents, and it is now up to the campus to provide essential feedback at this critical juncture. Written feedback was due to the sub-committee chairs by today in anticipation of our campus wide meeting that will be held next Friday, May 11th during the common hour in Ovalwood 100. In this upcoming meeting, the sub-committee chairs – Ken Sigler (Teaching and Learning), Terri Fisher (Research and Innovation), Terri Winnick/Donna Hight (Outreach and Engagement), and Carol Freytag (Resource Stewardship) – will report out on the feedback they have received, and our main task will be to resolve any and all final issues before I submit the final version of the CIP to the Provost by May 15th.
This past Thursday, the Regional Campus Cluster Advisory Committee (RCCAC) held its biannual meeting on the Columbus campus. The RCCAC is comprised of the regional deans, board members representing each of the regional campuses (our board representative is John Shuler), as well as one representative of the student body, the staff, the faculty (our own Terri Fisher serves in this capacity), and a president of one of the co-located technical colleges. A great deal of this meeting’s discussion was centered on the outcome of a summit of regional campus board members held the previous week on the Marion campus. In that meeting, a list of future challenges and opportunities was developed by this group; interestingly, that list contained a variety of references to our evolving partnerships with the co-located technical colleges. As a result, the RCCAC decided to invite all of the technical college presidents to its next meeting in October, as well as faculty, staff, and student representatives of the technical colleges. The hope is to bring our partners into direct conversations about these challenges and opportunities that might generate some creative ideas that will augment our collaborative potential.
Last Friday, our campus experienced its first Regional Campus Framework Planning (RCFP) meeting, a process designed to develop an integrated plan that is responsive to the physical needs of our campus in light of our interrelationships with NCSC and the communities that surround us. The RCFP process will include representatives from both the Ohio State Mansfield and North Central State campuses, and will meet once a month over the course of the next six months with representatives of OSU’s Physical Planning and Real Estate (PPARE) office. The meetings will be used to engage in discussions and exercises that will identify campus issues and opportunities, review key data, prioritize needs, develop physical scenarios, and develop financial strategies.
The planning process will result in a set of principles and strategies that will guide future decision making regarding the big issues and opportunities our campus will face over the next 50 years. In related fashion, this process will prioritize a list of our physical needs that reflects our advantages and opportunities while creating financial strategies aimed at identifying the funding resources that can meet our capital needs. Please note that we are seeking to involve both an Ohio State faculty member and an NCSC faculty member in this process, so please let me know ASAP if you are interested!
Also last Friday, our campus was host to representatives of various social service agencies and organizations that serve youth and families throughout Richland County. United Way Director Bob Maxey, Mansfield School Superintendent Dan Freund, and Brady Groves and Becky Smith from the Richland County Foundation also were in attendance in order to help meet the three objectives of this meeting. First, we wanted to provide an update on the Leadership Certificate Program we will be launching this Autumn Semester in partnership with the OSU College of Social Work (thanks to Mary Jo Hawk for her hard work on this initiative!). Second, we wished to provide information about the soon-to-be hired Family Engagement Specialist who will be focused on increasing the college aspirations of youth throughout Richland County, with special attention paid to first generation students. Third and finally, we wanted to generate support for our upcoming three days of dialogue on May 22, 23, and 24 that will examine how our campus, the Mansfield School District, and the greater Mansfield community can create a lasting partnership that focuses on healthy youth development (you will be hearing more about this “Beginning Anew” dialogue in the days and weeks ahead). I am happy to report that there was great enthusiasm expressed for this sort of intiative, and all members present pledged their support for and participation in the May dialogue. In this last regard, please note that an invitation went out last week regarding the May 22nd lecture that Dr. David Blumenkrantz will be providing to the Ohio State Mansfield campus entitled “The Initiation of Scholars: A Rites of Passage Approach to Academic Performance.” A reception will follow for faculty and staff, to be held in Riedl Hall.
Last week was a busy one, but so was this week! On Monday, we were visited by Fred Fotis, Assistant Vice President for Student Life, and Zia Ahmed, Senior Director of Dining Services, in order to discuss possible partnerships that might increase food service options on our campus. This meeting represents the very beginning of a conversation about dining services that will be further expanded in the weeks and months ahead. Once we have a better idea about our options, we will be asking the campus community to weigh in on this matter.
On Tuesday, we hosted a meeting with David Williams, Dean of the Ohio State College of Engineering, and representatives of local manufacturors who have a vested interest in increased opportunities for students who are interested in engineering programs. I was particularly pleased to have watched as advisor Lyndsey Anderson and Dr. Wenfei Li called upon a number of our First Year Engineering Program students to introduce themselves and talk about their experiences in the program. The students who attended this function included: Forest Kunecke (Mansfield), Steven Zhang (Cleveland), Kaitlyn Mullins (Medina), Michael Jarrell (Medina), Evan Wurm (Bloomfield), Ryan Phelps (Perry) and Valerie Yoder (Ashland). Thanks so much for representing our campus in such fine fashion!
And finally, today I had the pleasure of hosting my quarterly meeting with the Ohio State Mansfield Student Advisory Group. This assembly of students, who have been meeting regularly with me since I first took this position last year, continues to bring much needed energy to the table with regard to how we as a campus can continue to “place students first” in all that we do. Currently, this group has agreed to advise me on some possibilities regarding the recognition and promotion of our student organizations. I am truly blessed to have such dedicated and enthusiastic students providing me with such guidance and direction from the viewpoint of our student body.