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Newsbriefs, 9/24/09

September 23, 2009

National Science Board convenes at OSU
The federal panel charged with advising the president and Congress on national policy issues relating to science and engineering research and education has been meeting at Ohio State this week.

The National Science Board meets five times annually with four of those meetings in Washington, D.C., and a fifth at a host institution each year. The NSB responded to an invitation from Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee.

While many of the NSB’s sessions are closed, a public meeting will be held from 8-9:30 a.m. today at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, to discuss NSB priorities for the next fiscal year.

Whitacre inducted into NMSS’ Volunteer Hall of Fame
Caroline Whitacre, Ohio State’s vice president for research, was recently inducted into the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 2009 Volunteer Hall of Fame for Researchers. She was one of three researchers selected for this national honor in recognition of her outstanding volunteer support, for making a difference in the community and for advancing awareness of the society’s mission to create a world free of multiple sclerosis.

Whitacre also is a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics in the College of Medicine. For more than 30 years she has been on the forefront of multiple sclerosis research. Whitacre’s research projects have focused on the area of immunology, including new developments in oral tolerance as a treatment strategy. Other research projects have included an in-depth look at multiple sclerosis as it relates to gender differences and pregnancy.

New mobile site helps users navigate Ohio State
A new iteration of the Ohio State Web site home page has been created for mobile device users. Because of smart phones’ location technology, the m.osu.edu site can recommend amenities nearest to the users, such as dining, Wi-Fi spots, Buck ID shops, bus stops and more. Each recommendation comes with one-click walking, car and bus directions as well as parking options.

“We provide much of this same information on the main osu.edu site, but knowing where the user is allows us to refine recommendations — hopefully saving the user time and effort getting to a destination,” said James Burgoon, the head developer of the m.osu.edu site, which is tailored for the iPhone but useable with other smart phones at osu.edu/mobile.
Burgoon said the site will continually evolve because the campus never stops changing. “Also, smart phone technology advances quickly, so to leverage device sophistication, the site will have to evolve,” Burgoon said.

Some of the unique features include a real-time Campus Area Bus Service tracker so riders know exactly when a bus is due at a particular stop and an enhanced search function that allows one-click calling or e-mailing from anyone’s “Find People” profile.

M.osu.edu was developed with the help of numerous departments, including CABS, the Architect’s Office, Student Life, the Office of Information Technology and University Communications.

College of Social Work announces new interim dean
The College of Social Work named Tom Gregoire as its new interim dean, effective Sept. 1. Gregoire previously served for six years as the college’s associate dean and is beginning his 14th year at Ohio State. He earned his PhD in social work from the University of Kansas in 1994.

An associate professor, Gregoire’s research interests include access to substance abuse treatment and treatment among vulnerable populations. He currently serves as principal investigator for a study of an evidence-based community intervention for adolescent substance abusers. His teaching interests include substance abuse and human service administration.

Call for nominations for university wide awards
Academic Affairs is seeking nominations for the university wide faculty and staff awards. Awards include Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching; Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award; Distinguished Scholar Award; Distinguished Staff Award; Distinguished University Professor; Faculty Award for Distinguished University Service; University Distinguished Lecture; Distinguished Service Award; and Battelle Endowment grants. An overview of the awards, brief descriptions of each and deadlines and links to application forms are available at oaa.osu.edu/plans.php.

Kirwan Institute call for proposals: Transforming Race Conference
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity has announced a Call for Proposals for its second biannual conference, Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama, to be held March 11-13, 2010, in Columbus. Proposals are due Oct. 15 and should address any of three thematic tracks: Racial Dynamics and Systems Thinking; Race Talk; and Race, Recession and Recovery. Conference planners invite practitioners, community organizers, scholars, researchers and others to submit proposals for papers, entire panels, workshops, performances and more. For more information about the proposals, visit transforming-race.org/transformingrace_cfp.pdf, or about the conference, visit transforming-race.org.

Journal of Undergrad Research seeking submissions, reviewers
JUROS, the Journal of Undergraduate Research at OSU, is looking for undergraduate research papers as well as undergraduate student reviewers. There is no submission fee, authors retain all rights to their works and faculty/grad students are allowed to be co-authors on undergrad papers. Two undergraduate reviewers edit papers and, once all edits are made, the paper is published both online and in a hard-copy edition, Oculus. Students from all disciplines are welcome to apply. For more information contact borodulin.2@osu.edu or visit JUROSonline.com.

Your Plan for Health, Wellness Program join forces under YP4H umbrella

September 23, 2009

After serving the university community for more than a decade, the services and programming of the Faculty and Staff Wellness Program will be merging under Your Plan for Health.

All the popular programming and services, such as the Lunch and Learn workshop series, biometric health screenings, flu shots and the annual Rally for Wellness! Health Fair now will be offered under the YP4H name to improve recognition and reinforce how these resources support the university’s four-year-old initiative. The staff and administrative functions of wellness programming won’t be changing.

“We were hearing a disconnect between what Your Plan for Health offers and what the Wellness Program offers and confusion about how those services complemented each other,” said Pam Doseck, director of benefits in the Office of Human Resources.

For instance, the biometric health screening, which allows faculty and staff to obtain their health numbers to complete their Personal Health Assessment (PHA), is conducted through the wellness program, but the PHA was part of the YP4H tool palette. Likewise, flu shots and Lunch & Learn workshops — offered by the wellness program — earned points in the Incentive Program administered by YP4H.

“Our goal is for faculty and staff to be able to find all their favorite wellness activities in one place under the Your Plan for Health umbrella,” Doseck said.

Gone, however, is the purple “W” so many people identified with the Wellness Program. To celebrate the merger, a transitional logo to commemorate the role the Wellness Program played in building YP4H will be in place for the next few quarters.

YP4H began in 2006 as a collaboration of Human Resources, the Ohio State Health Plan (formerly Managed Health Care Systems) and the OSU Medical Center. “It was just a matter of time before the foundation laid by the Wellness Program would be folded back in,” said Marianne Robinson, Wellness Program manager who has been credited with growing the program into a state-recognized initiative.

In 2005, the program won the Governor’s Central Region Healthy Ohioans Business Council Award, and in 2007, Robinson was honored with the university’s Distinguished Staff Award as a tribute to her workplace wellness advocacy.

“The founding mission of our Wellness Program has launched both an industry and national revolution on workplace wellness,” said Scott Streator, CEO and executive director of the Ohio State Health Plan, which provides the wellness services to the university. “What started out as a benefit for Ohio State employees many years ago has evolved into an initiative that has direct, favorable impact on the university’s health care bottom line.”

The branding transition of the Wellness Web site and programming will occur over the next few months. Continue to visit osuhealthplan.com/wellness for event scheduling and registration.

‘Managed Health Care’ no more

September 23, 2009

The affiliate that administers the health coverage for OSU employees changes its name in an effort to better reflect what it does

Members of the Ohio State community have had their health plans and wellness services provided by Managed Health Care Systems Inc. for nearly 20 years.

Now the university affiliate has adopted a new name — The Ohio State University Health Plan Inc. — that officials say both better reflects its full breadth of service to the university and distances itself from an outdated idea of health care.

“‘Managed care’ is a carryover from the ’80s, when financial decisions often overruled what was best for the patient,” said Scott Streator, OSU Health Plan CEO and executive director.

“While we’ve never operated that way, it was important to move away from such an antiquated name. We spent many months identifying our brand essence and what we bring to the table in the health and wellness arena, and faculty and staff feedback suggested we use a name that was simple, to the point and built on the OSU brand.”

The Office of Human Resources contracts OSU Health Plan to provide the medical and pharmacy plans, but that’s just the beginning. The organization also manages the provider network, administers wellness and employee assistance services and consults with OHR on overall health benefits and plan design.

The OSU Health Plan expects to continue its high level of service and quality — no current services or programs will be changed or lost — while developing new offerings, including health coaching, lifestyle management and medication management programs and an expanded provider network.

“The services the OSU Health Plan provides through the Office of Human Resources — more specifically, through Your Plan for Health, will become stronger and more effective as the OSU Health Plan refines its existing offerings and develops new, innovative programs,” said Larry Lewellen, vice president for human resources.

OSU Health Plan also leads the Rx Ohio Collaborative, a pooled purchasing initiative for prescription drugs that saved the university $3.55 million in pharmacy plan expenses in 2008.
The Ohio State brand carries a lot of weight in the marketplace, Streator said, noting that its access to the significant knowledge base of OSU researchers, faculty and the Medical Center and its early adoption of wellness not only benefits faculty and staff but gives OSU Health Plan an advantage in the marketplace. OSU Health Plan is leveraging this expertise and interdisciplinary collaboration to develop cutting-edge health and wellness programming and generate revenue that eventually will help offset costs to the university. In 2009, OSU Health Plan began offering wellness services to two new clients: Columbus State Community College and The Dispatch Printing Company.

“We’ve built a very successful Wellness Program based on more than a decade of partnership with various offices around the university,” Streator said. “Four years ago, that program served as the foundation for Your Plan for Health. We’ve been practicing wellness for a long time, even though it’s just recently become the buzzword in the corporate world.”

Thompson Library gets down to business

September 23, 2009

By Julia Harris

What better way to kick off the grand opening of Ohio State’s grand academic library than with a lecture series devoted to the sharing and shaping of knowledge?

And who better to inaugurate the series than the university’s own president, E. Gordon Gee, who also is author of two books that address the role of academic libraries in higher education?

Well, according to Melanie Schlosser, chair of the Libraries’ Lecture Committee, no one. Continue reading ‘Thompson Library gets down to business’

Diesel exhaust linked to cancer via blood vessel growth

September 23, 2009

By Emily Caldwell, Research Communications

Scientists here are the first to demonstrate that the link between diesel fume exposure and cancer lies in the ability of diesel exhaust to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumors.

The researchers found that in both healthy and diseased animals, more new blood vessels sprouted in mice exposed to diesel exhaust than did in mice exposed to clean, filtered air.

This suggests that previous illness isn’t required to make humans susceptible to the damaging effects of the exhaust.

The tiny size of diesel particles, most less than 0.1 microns in diameter, potentially enables them to penetrate the circulatory system, organs and tissues, meaning they can do damage just about anywhere in the body.

Diesel exhaust levels in the study were designed to mimic the exposure people might experience while living in urban areas and commuting in heavy traffic. The levels were lower than or similar to those typically experienced by workers who use diesel-powered equipment, who tend to work in mines, on bridges and tunnels, along railroads, at loading docks, on farms and in vehicle maintenance garages, according to the US Department of Labor.

“The message from our study is that exposure to diesel exhaust for just a short time period of two months could give even normal tissue the potential to develop a tumor,” said Qinghua Sun, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Ohio State.

“We need to raise public awareness so people give more thought to how they drive and how they live so they can pursue ways to protect themselves and improve their health. And we still have a lot of work to do to improve diesel engines so they generate fewer particles and exhaust that can be released into the ambient air.”

The research appears online and is scheduled for later print publication in the journal Toxicology Letters.

The researchers experimented with mice that resembled two conditions that could be present in a human body. In one, the scientists implanted a small platform seeded with normal endothelial cells, the cells that line blood vessels, under the skin of the mice. This was designed to mimic relatively normal conditions in human bodies for cell growth.

In the other, the researchers created an environment that would follow a significant loss of blood flow to a section of a vessel, called ischemia, in the hind limbs of the mice. This generated severe hypoxia, an area with low or no oxygen, a condition that is present in certain diseases.

Both types of mice were then exposed to either whole diesel exhaust containing particles at a concentration of about 1 milligram per cubic meter, or to filtered outdoor air, for six hours per day five days a week. The rest of the time they breathed filtered air in their cages. Effects of the exposure were measured after two weeks, five weeks and eight weeks.

Some blood vessel growth and chemical changes could be seen in the mice after two weeks of exposure, but “generally, the longer the exposure, the more effects we could see,” said Sun, also an investigator in the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. “It’s difficult to translate outcomes from an animal study directly to the human experience, but the bottom line is, the shorter the exposure to diesel exhaust, the better.”

The exposure to diesel exhaust caused a six-fold increase in new blood vessel formation in the ischemic hind limbs after eight weeks and a four-fold increase in vessel sprouting in the normal hind limbs of the mice in the same amount of time, compared to mice breathing filtered air.

The researchers also saw significantly more blood vessel growth in the implanted cells and in rings of tissue taken from the aortas of mice exposed to the exhaust compared to the control mice exposed to clean air.

They also observed that diesel exhaust exposure activated a chemical signal that has long been associated with new blood vessel development. The exposure also increased levels of a protein that is essential to blood vessel development when oxygen levels are low. At the same time, the presence of the exhaust lowered the activity of an enzyme that has a role in producing substances that can suppress tumor growth.

John Gray, Fisher College of Business

September 23, 2009

What are outsourcing and offshoring?
Good question; the terms are often misused. Outsourcing refers to the act of turning over an activity (e.g., manufacturing, IT, call center) to a separate company, regardless of the location in which the activity is performed. Offshoring refers to the act of locating an activity in a separate (usually low-wage) country. Offshore outsourcing refers to doing both.

What are the trends in outsourcing, offshoring and offshore outsourcing?
Outsourcing and offshoring have been around for a long time and they are here to stay. Outsourcing has increased in the last two decades for various reasons, including companies being encouraged to focus on their “core competence,” the increasing technological complexity of products and service offerings (making it difficult for one firm to be the best at everything) and technological advances that have made the management across organizational boundaries easier. Offshoring has also been increasing for many years, due to liberalization of trade policies, ease and costlessness of information transmission due to the Internet as well as the improvement of capabilities and infrastructure in many low-cost countries. High shipping costs due to oil prices in 2008, a spate of quality recalls since 2007, issues with intellectual property, rising costs in China and other destinations as well as a feared loss of innovation capability have all caused some rethinking of offshoring. Even GE’s CEO has recently called for a reindustrialization of America. Overall, it seems that the growth in offshoring is slowing to some degree.

What are some of the downsides?
The benefits are fairly clear, at least with offshoring, which usually benefits firms through lower costs and/or learning about a potential new market. Outsourcing often is about cost, but is also about getting specialists to perform work better than can be performed in-house. The potential risks of both outsourcing and offshoring are numerous but often are harder to quantify and articulate than the benefits. For example, my research has shown that both offshoring and outsourcing can pose a quality risk, which is difficult to quantify. Both outsourcing and offshoring create distinct coordination challenges. Outsourcing involves dealing with a separate company with its own objectives. Providers have been known to sell their services below cost to win the business, especially in situations where the buyers will be locked in to a relationship due to the necessity of relationship-specific investments and/or the lack of a competitive provider market. Offshoring also poses numerous risks. With manufactured goods, there is increased risk of supply disruption due to the sheer length of the supply chain as well as possible port shutdowns, etc. And shipping costs are a larger percentage of costs and are subject to change due to fluctuations in oil prices.

Further, exchange rate fluctuations and local tax policy can have a significant impact on profitability. For example, the Chinese government (as of 2008) was phasing out the tax refunds it gave to many traditional manufacturing industries. These refunds were on the order of 10 percent of sales — a big change. And the rapidly evolving local labor market can cause problems. Wages have increased steadily in China in the last few years. Numerous firms who have offshored IT work to India have faced extensive employee turnover — quite detrimental in knowledge-intensive work. All in all, the risks and downsides are real but often underappreciated. Much of my research has been to rigorously identify and quantify these risks, as well as approaches to mitigate them. However, the presence of these risks does not mean that offshoring and outsourcing are not often the right thing to do — the savings and other benefits often far outweigh these risks.

New board takes shape to lead OSU health system

September 23, 2009

Battelle’s CEO will chair the 22-member panel, which also includes reps from all five OSU hospitals

As part of its institution-wide alignment initiative, Ohio State has created a new governance structure for the Medical Center and formed a new board to guide and oversee its health system.

Creation of the new board, which comprises 22 members —­ 13 with voting privileges — was approved earlier this year by the OSU Board of Trustees.

Jeffrey Wadsworth, president and chief executive officer of Battelle, will chair the board.

The new board enhances strategic alignment between the Medical Center’s five individual hospital boards and reports to The Ohio State University Board of Trustees through its medical affairs committee.

The five individual hospital boards, which include the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Ross Heart Hospital, University Hospital, University Hospital East and OSU Harding Hospital, report to the new Medical Center board and continue to be dedicated to the unique mission each program serves.

The new Medical Center board’s voting membership is predominantly public members with broad expertise in business and health care. The university president appoints six members and the remaining public members are the chairs of the five hospital boards. In addition, the president of the university and the senior vice president for Health Sciences are voting members.

Several other Ohio State staff, in addition to the chair of the medical affairs committee of the Board of Trustees, serve as non-voting members. The chair of the board will be added as a non-voting member to the medical affairs committee.

Medical Center board

Alan Brass was appointed as a member of the OSU board of trustees in 2006 and chairs the Medical Affairs Committee. His career spans four decades in healthcare and has predominantly been associated with large multi-hospital systems and with major academic centers. Brass is chief executive officer for ProMedica Health System in Toledo.

Yvette McGee Brown chairs the OSU Harding board and is the president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Formerly a domestic relations and juvenile court judge in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, she was the first African-American and the second woman to be elected to this court. She serves on several community and professional boards.

Jay Gerlach Jr. is chair of the Ross Heart Hospital board. He is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Lancaster Colony Corporation. Gerlach joined the Lancaster Colony companies in April of 1976.

Liza Kessler is partner-in-charge of the Columbus office of the Jones Day law firm. She is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and a Fellow of the Columbus Bar Foundation. She is actively involved in the community including serving on nonprofit boards.

Cheryl Krueger was the founder, president and CEO of Cheryl & Co., a multi-million dollar gourmet food and gift corporation, which she sold in 2005. She had served as president since the company’s incorporation in 1981 through March 2009. She recently founded KRUEGER+CO. Consulting, Inc.

David Lauer is chair of the University Hospital board. He retired as president and chief operating officer of Bank One, NA-Columbus. Prior to joining Bank One in 1999, he held the position of managing partner of the Columbus office of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Robert Massie is chair of The James board and has been president of Columbus-based Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society, since 1992. CAS is the global leader in chemical information, offering indispensable research tools to pharmaceutical, chemical and life science companies, as well as universities and patent offices around the world.

Corbett Price is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Kurron Shares of America, one of the nation’s leading health care restructuring and management companies. He has served in a variety of senior management positions with Hospital Corporation of America and was COO at a major affiliated hospital of The Johns Hopkins Medical School.

George Skestos is chair of the University Hospital East board. He founded the Homewood Corporation, serving as Homewood’s president and CEO until his retirement. He has served as a member or director for central Ohio organizations such as the Huntington National Bank, Midland Life Insurance Company and the Association for the Developmentally Disabled.

Jeffrey Wadsworth is president and chief executive officer of Battelle. He previously worked at Stanford University, Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before being named the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2003. He went on to lead Battelle’s Global Laboratory Operations business, where he oversaw the international nonprofit science and technology enterprise’s management, which now includes eight laboratories.

Abigail Wexner, a lawyer and community leader, is chair of the boards of directors of Nationwide Children’s Hospital Inc. and Nationwide Children’s Hospital; founder and chair of the boards of the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence, KidsOhio.org and the Center for Child and Family Advocacy; vice chair of the board of KIPP Journey Academy; and a trustee of The Wexner Center Foundation and the US Equestrian Team Foundation.

Also on the board as voting members are university President Gordon Gee and Steven Gabbe, senior vice president of health sciences.

Completing the board are Michael Caligiuri, CEO of the James; Christopher Ellison, board chair of OSU Physicians; William Farrar, director of medical affairs for The James; Peter Geier, CEO of the OSU Health System; Hagop Mekhjian, chief medical officer for the Medical Center; Mary Nash, chief nursing executive for the Medical Center; Chip Souba, dean of the college of medicine; and John Stone, the Medical Center’s chief financial officer.

Top 3 on 2, 9/24/09

September 23, 2009

Why did you choose to work at Ohio State?
I actually stumbled upon a posting for a job at the Medical Center; applied for it, took the Civil Service test and about a month later was called in for an interview and was offered the position. I transferred to the Periop Department about a year later. I stayed there only a short while before transferring to the College of Social Work, where I’ve been since October 1998.

What do you like about your job?

I love the atmosphere of working here, but mostly I love what I do for the College of Social Work. The people here treat me with respect and appreciate the work that I do. I’ve done faculty support for about 11 years. Next month I begin a new position within this college as the executive assistant to the dean, a job I’m very excited about. It’s a great opportunity for me.

Who is your hero?

My parents are my heroes.They taught me the important things in life.

If you weren’t working at Ohio State, what would you be doing?

If I weren’t working here I’d be retired. No place else I’d rather work. Well … maybe working for the university from home would be nice.

Of what honor or recognition are you most proud?

I received the Dianna Barret Staff Member of the Year award in 2004. I value this award because it came from my co-workers. Being recognized by the people I work with and for meant a lot to me.

What advice would you give a new employee?
Be thankful for your job, work hard and the possibilities are endless.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?

Spending time with friends. Entertaining friends in my home for dinner or cookouts is always fun. I also enjoy working in my yard and doing small remodeling work on my home.

What would you improve at Ohio State?

I think OSU is a wonderful place to work. The opportunities for advancement and training are great. I would like to be able to take more classes but most classes aren’t really very accessible for working staff. I believe that more online classes would be beneficial for staff.

What are you going to do when you retire?

Retire?? I have no idea. More relaxing I’m sure.

If you were the university president for a day, what would you do?

I’d work on making academic programs — courses — more accessible for staff … lowering parking rates sounds like a good idea too.

To nominate a staff member for an upcoming issue, e-mail oncampus@osu.edu.

The Ohio State Board of Trustees approved the naming of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in recognition of a $7 million gift from the Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation to support the renovation of Sullivant Hall. The project is estimated to cost $20.6 million and will be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and the Department of Dance.

“The Graves Foundation has made a critical investment to enhance the learning environment for students, faculty and visitors from around the world,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The revitalized Sullivant Hall will be a fitting home to two university treasures — the top-ranked Department of Dance and the world-renowned Cartoon Library and Museum.

Naming the latter in Billy Ireland’s honor is a fitting tribute to a remarkable Ohioan.”

The Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation is managed by Billy Ireland’s granddaughter, Sayre Graves, and is based out of Bremo Bluff, Va.

The Columbus Dispatch hired Ireland, a native of Chillicothe, shortly after his high school graduation in 1898. A self-taught cartoonist, he worked for the Dispatch until his death in 1935.

Preparations continue for potential pandemic

September 15, 2009

Text of an e-mail sent by Vice President for Human Resources Larry Lewellen to all faculty and staff:
(please click on http://flu.osu.edu for more Ohio State flu-related information).

To: All staff
Subject: Flu Pandemic Preparations
From: Larry Lewellen, Vice President, Human Resources

Autumn is a time of excitement on the Ohio State campus as students return to begin a new academic year, and anticipation builds as the kickoff of another Buckeyes’ football season approaches.

It’s also the beginning of flu season. This year we have to be prepared not only for seasonal flu but for the H1N1 flu as well. While health officials in the CDC and elsewhere have differing opinions on how the H1N1 flu will progress over the next 6 to 12 months, nearly all of them agree on the need to review and update plans for managing a possible pandemic. References to this flu also are changing. H1N1 mirrors the seasonal flu, and because health officials are no longer testing for this strain, we are now referring to it as Influenza-Like Illness (ILI).

Because the health and safety of faculty, staff, and students are the university’s highest priorities, we are putting a comprehensive plan in place to minimize the spread of disease and to care for the university community. A web site has been developed (http://flu.osu.edu) that will provide information about the plan and status updates, as well as up-to-date developments and detailed information, including prevention tips and guidance on when to seek medical care.

Meanwhile, you should know that health officials at Ohio State and the City of Columbus are closely monitoring the spread and mutations of the H1N1 flu. In all our planning, we will follow CDC guidelines and recommendations. In addition:

• Our biggest emphasis will be on prevention through education and vaccination.
• Ohio State will treat all cases of the flu as if they were H1N1.
• Students, faculty, and staff who are ill with influenza-like symptoms should stay home, self isolate and contact their primary health care provider if symptoms worsen.

Given the unique nature of our Medical Center’s work environment, additional information, specific to Medical Center faculty and staff, will be communicated on an ongoing basis from influenzaupdate@osumc.edu.

Staff play a crucial role in the day to day operations of the university, and some may be assigned individual tasks or responsibilities under the university’s comprehensive plan to minimize the spread of disease and to care for the university community. In addition, here are things every staff member should know:

• Child care will remain available to currently enrolled families unless the state/county department of health mandates closure. The Child Care Program may be able to accommodate children of essential personnel needing back-up care because of their own child care closures, however, if we are in a widespread health crisis authorities may advise against it. Families need to make several back-up plans, not count on just one.
• All faculty and staff should prepare themselves and their families by becoming familiar with Individuals and families planning page at Flu.gov and reviewingOhio State’s Work Life Guidance to Prepare for Pandemic Flu or Other Catastrophic Disaster.
• Be aware of your unit’s business continuity plans and the role you play in a recovery situation. Pay special attention to continuity strategies when a large number of staff are unavailable.
• Employees and supervisors should review the individual’s designation as essential, alternate, or standby, and what it means. Employees may have different designations for a pandemic, severe winter weather, significant power outage, etc.
• Employees and supervisors should make concrete plans to enable individuals to work from home in case of pandemic or other disaster and identify what specific work is appropriate if this becomes necessary.
• If the pandemic flu worsens and a university state of emergency is declared, university policies remain in force. Some key policies you should familiarize yourself with are:
  o Disaster Preparedness and University State of Emergency, Policy 6.17
  o Paid Leave Programs, Policy 6.27
  o Unpaid Leave, Policy 6.45
  o Family and Medical Leave, Policy 6.05

I sincerely appreciate your help in disseminating this crucial news.

Questions or concerns can be sent to emergencymanagement@dps.ohio-state.edu

USAC brings staff pep rally back as standalone event

September 4, 2009

By Adam King

The pageantry of Ohio State football returns to campus early with the revival of the University Staff Advisory Committee Pep Rally for all staff from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 11 on the Oval in front of Bricker Hall.

Last year the pep rally was folded into the Rally for Wellness at French Fieldhouse. But USAC was concerned it didn’t supply the punch needed to get staff excited for the upcoming season.

“The Rally for Wellness focus is on health and wellness, and it should stay that way,” said USAC Chair Amy Ehrlich. “The pep rally is outside, which gives it a whole other atmosphere. It should have its own energy and therefore remain its own entity.”

President Gordon Gee is scheduled to speak, and the band, cheerleaders and Brutus will be there to whip up the crowd’s enthusiasm for what could be another incredible year for the Buckeyes. Free popcorn and soda will be served too.

“It’s another way to show staff we appreciate what they do,” Ehrlich said. “I went to school at OSU, and remember just sitting on the Oval. It is an awesome place to hold the rally. And it’s a great excuse for people who maybe don’t always get to the central part of campus to come join us and experience a true bonding opportunity with their fellow employees.”

Staff are encouraged to wear their best OSU regalia, bond with Gee and shout O-H-I-O as loud as possible.

Of course, what would a rally be without some predictions. Ehrlich said the opener against Navy will be a win, “but we’ve got some growing pains to go through, so I think it will be 24-3.”

Overall she said it will be a one-loss season, but not to Southern Cal, which she predicts the Buckeyes will be beat at home. Winning on the road at Penn State is the tough assignment, Ehrlich said.

“I really hope the team can do it, though,” she said. “What kind of great year would we have then?”

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