Dear Ohio State Mansfield Colleagues,

This has been a whirlwind couple of weeks on our campus, with a large majority of events surrounding our Capital Campaign. As has been widely discussed over the past several months, our Capital Campaign is one of the most important components of our Campus Implementation Plan. This community-wide effort clearly addresses the pursuit of alternative sources of revenue (4.1.b) that is part of the resource stewardship efforts we are undertaking to improve the sustainability of our financial and physical resources.

One very noticable set of activities taking place over the last two weeks was President Gee’s visit to our campus and community this past Wednesday. His day started at Bio 100, a new commerical venture located on West Fourth Street in Mansfield that has strong Ohio State research roots (click here to be linked to WMFD’s story on this event). He then traveled to our campus in order to have pizza on the Ovalwood plaza with our students, followed by his attendance and remarks for the Engineering Lunch we held for local business and industry leaders in Riedl Hall. Two of our STEMpowerment students (the “E” in STEM is Engineering, remember!) gave short but significant speeches during that lunch as well, and were warmly and enthusiastically received by the audience, I might add! Dr. Gee then traveled downtown to North Central State College’s Urban Center in order to give remarks to an Economic Forum meeting, and subsequently ended his day at the 179th Airlift Base, where he spoke to servicemen and servicewomen newly returned from Afganistan (click here to be linked to the Mansfield News Journal coverage of this portion of his visit).

A central focus of President Gee’s remarks throughout the day – and the design of his agenda as well – concerned the many and varied partnerships we have been developing as part of the Capital Campaign. Closest to home, we have a newly developing partnership with our colleagues at North Central State College regarding student internships. You will recall that the Business and Industry Internship Program already existed within our Capital Campaign goals, coincident with our ability to use the newly acquired Huntington Bank gift as current use funds for these internships while the endowment is built. However, a new RFP issued from the Ohio Board of Regents has offered dollar for dollar match money for these kinds of internships, with a particular emphasis on collaboration efforts among different institutions of higher learning.

We will be vigorously pursuing this grant money over the next several weeks with our NCSC partners as we line up company offers to give our students a meaningful internship experience in the upcoming calendar year. As you might imagine, the contacts made both at the Engineering Lunch and the Economic Forum meeting were specifically designed to foster those sorts of internship opportunties, and the initial feedback we have received has been quite positive from those business and industry leaders who were in attendance at one or both of those events.

All in all, the President’s visit was and is a great lead in to the launch of our Capital Campaign efforts. On that note, please remember that the official Mansfield campus kickoff of the Capital Campaign will be held next Tuesday, October 9 (click here to be linked to this past Wednesday’s Mansfield News Journal article on our campaign). We will begin at 5:00 p.m. with our dedication of the new greenhouse building. Peter Curtis, Chair of the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology (EEOB) will join us for the dedication. The EEOB department contributed a significant portion of the greenhouse construction costs, which can be seen as continued evidence of the One University concept in action. The dedication will be followed by a reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Bromfield Information Commons and remarks at 6:00 p.m. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Another component of our resource stewardship efforts involves the development of processes that align our resources with the Regional Campus Cluster’s strategic plan (4.1.A), and includes our investment of strategic cash reserves in important areas such as distance learning. In this regard, I was pleased to learn from Susan Delagrange, our Interim Director of Instructional Technology, that the first three applications from Ohio State Mansfield faculty members regarding the development of online courses are now being processed. These applications include:

• Dennis Shaffer, Psychology 1100: Introduction to Psychology
• Glenn Hartz, Philosophy 1300: Introduction to Ethics
• Joe Fahey, Theatre 2100: Introduction to Theatre

Each of these professors will be eligible to receive a $1,000 Incentive Grant from our strategic cash reserves that have been set aside for the development of distance learning courses. It is our hope to hand out up to 17 additional awards in the near future as more Ohio State Mansfield faculty members become involved in online offerings. I encourage you to contact Professor Delagrange if you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.

The final topic to be covered in the present biweekly report that pertains to our Campus Implementation Plan – and perhaps most exciting of all – is our second annual Regional Campus Homecoming activities, scheduled to occur today on the Columbus campus. In case you are wondering, the increased involvement in Homecoming activities by our campus is specifically addressed as one of our tactics to create experiences outside of the classroom that enhance the in-class experience (1.2.B).

This year’s Ohio State Mansfield Homecoming Court consists of the following students:

• Nicole Boggs (Mansfield)
• Rebecca Hile (Lexington)
• Julie Mikalacki (Medina)
• Terrahl Del Taylor (Galion)
• Kurtis Donnersbach (Plymouth)
• Dustin White (Chardon)

Please congratulate these students in terms of the great honor that they have in representing Ohio State Mansfield throughout the Homecoming Weekend activities. Also, please join me in thanking our own Shari Petersen, who took over the coordination responsibilities for the entire Regional Campus Cluster this year. And finally, let’s all pull for the Buckeyes to prevail over Nebraska this coming Saturday evening and in order to make the Homecoming experience a complete success… GO BUCKS!