The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

The Ohio State University: Ohio State’s economic engine

February 16, 2011

By E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University President

Universities are large and complex — ours more so than any other. Trying to describe all that we do in one sentence seems a daunting task. But having had the great good fortune to twice lead this university and having had the opportunity to see the impact of Ohio State in every county across Ohio, I have come to understand the simple truth of this university. When you take the sum of what happens in Ohio State classrooms, in Ohio State laboratories, in Ohio State collaborations with public and private partners, in Ohio State extension efforts and everything else we do, it becomes perfectly plain to see: Ohio State is in the progress business. Continue reading ‘The Ohio State University: Ohio State’s economic engine’

Ohio State program hard at work keeping Ohio at work

February 16, 2011

By Julia Harris

Since 1986, an initiative of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has been quietly helping small businesses survive — and thrive — in communities across the state of Ohio.

The Ohio Business Retention and Expansion program, run as part of OSU Extension, has worked in 79 of Ohio’s 88 counties to help community leaders prioritize, plan and implement economic development initiatives. Former director Gregory Davis, now assistant director of community development, says the program is first and foremost about fostering collaboration and involvement across broad sections of a community.

“Since the very beginning, the key objective of this initiative has been to help community leaders better understand their regional economy,” he said. “This is a tool that can work to expand local business, but ideally it involves many people. It’s very much an applied research approach.”

That approach includes multiple on-site workshops, tools, training and other resources to develop the capacity of communities to analyze and monitor their regional and local economies. Working with local chambers of commerce, economic development officials — even officials from banks, local real estate associations and clergy groups — Davis and fellow Extension educators stress that everyone in the community has a role and responsibility to maintain and grow local business.

“What we often see is, people look for a scapegoat when there aren’t jobs or when the community isn’t working,” Davis said. “We say everyone plays a role in making a difference.”

To facilitate that change, the BR&E trains community leaders in survey methodology as a means of developing rapport with their local businesses. They learn to conduct questionnaires of all types — in person, mailed or online — to gather research on what businesses need to succeed in their communities.

The most important step in the learning curve, of course, is to apply what has been learned through the research.

“If you find out that Company X needs a fire hydrant out front to lower their insurance costs or they’re going to have to move, well then you better figure out how to get a fire hydrant out there,” Davis said.

The last three decades demonstrate that Ohio State’s BR&E practices work and make a difference in those communities. Data indicate the program has helped more than 2,140 existing businesses create an estimated 1,429 new jobs and retain another 1,985 since 2005. Using income data on Ohio’s private sector, provided by the Department of Development, Davis estimates that these combined jobs contributed approximately $130 million to the state’s economy.

“When you look at the real-life impact this program can make, it’s pretty impressive,” Davis said.

No one feels that impact more than Tim Drummond, a silkscreen T-shirt artist who had thought seriously about moving his small shop to Florida. Instead, he was persuaded through efforts of Ohio State’s BR&E to open for business in downtown Warren, where he was born and raised.

“It was an opportunity to help with the downtown revitalization efforts,” Drummond said.

Ohio State BR&E makes good

The website for OSU Extension’s Ohio Business Retention and Expansion program features a number of success stories of how the initiative has made an impact on Ohio communities. Here are just a few – to read more, go to the website at localecon.osu.edu/BRnE.

Jefferson County
When its largest customer was lost, a Jefferson County business needed to diversify its lines and find new markets. The business was awarded a grant from the Ohio Department of Development’s Ohio Industrial Training Program to cover some of the retraining costs. Probable layoffs among the existing 35 employees were avoided and nine new jobs were created.

Fayette County
BR&E involvement laid the groundwork for attracting over $80 million in investment and savings and creating 764 jobs, resulting in a 31.1 percent increase in manufacturing employment in the county.

Putnam County
Philips Display Components, the county’s largest manufacturing employer with 2,041 employees, was offered an enterprise zone and incentive package on its $24 million expansion project. As a result, the business made a 10-year commitment to stay in the community. The BR&E survey identified expansion of 13 manufacturing businesses and the creation of about 300 new jobs.

Special onCampus section on Ohio State’s economic impact on the state of Ohio

Coming to America

Building boom

In business for business

The Ohio State University: Ohio’s economic engine

Coming to America

February 16, 2011

Thanks to Ohio State, Venturi Automobiles brings its operation, and jobs, to Columbus

by Adam King

There are untold risks running a car company that solely builds electric vehicles in a still-budding market. But Gildo Pastor, the CEO of Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles, has a history of gumption.

He loves a challenge, hence his company’s financial and technological support of Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in its quest to set electric vehicle land speed records with the Buckeye Bullet. He’s now bringing that company-embedded spirit to the United States with the formation of a North American research and development operation based in Columbus.

It’s a small step now — only about 70 jobs will be created with this venture — but it could mean big things down the line should the electric vehicle market take off. Continue reading ‘Coming to America’

In business for business

February 16, 2011

In Piketon, OSU’s Endeavor Center has incubated, guided and helped growing companies survive

By Jeff McCallister

Butch Stall had five job offers waiting for him on the day he retired in 2005.

Stall had worked 31 years at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, one of only a few facilities in the nation that produced enriched uranium — first for use in nuclear weapons and later for atomic energy. He had been in procurement, in charge of buying everything from radioactive containment suits to coal to toilet paper, and there weren’t many people nationwide who knew the business side of atomic power the way he did. Continue reading ‘In business for business’

Building boom

February 16, 2011

Ohio State’s Medical Center expansion improves both healthcare and the local economy

By Adam King

Investing $1 billion in infrastructure is how most people first see Ohio State University’s Medical Center expansion endeavor. A new cancer hospital, a new Critical Care Center — facilities raised to provide improved health care in a nation that needs it as the Baby Boomer generation retires.

But what people might not visualize about the project is many of those capital improvement dollars will end up in the hands of Ohioans who provide the services that will create the Medical Center’s future.

More than 5,000 construction workers will have steady jobs during the project, which is slated to wrap up in 2014 — and this comes at a time when construction in the public and private sector has been dwindling because of the Great Recession. Continue reading ‘Building boom’

Heartbreak, humor & hope take center stage

February 16, 2011

The Wexner Center and Medical Center present Anna Deavere Smith’s acclaimed one-woman show

By Julia Harris

Anna Deavere Smith has inhabited many roles in her life: Actor, playwright, producer, professor, artist in residence. As Michele Norris said on the Feb. 1 broadcast of NPR’s All Things Considered, Smith’s a “theatrical shape-shifter.”

She brings all of those roles — and 20 more — to the Wexner Center this month for seven performances of her dynamic one-woman play Let Me Down Easy, an exploration of living with loss, surviving the ravage of illness and navigating the labyrinth of modern health care. Running Feb. 22-27, plus an evening of conversation on Feb. 28, the production marks the only Midwest appearance of the play on its national tour.  Continue reading ‘Heartbreak, humor & hope take center stage’

Peace Corps at 50: OSU plans commemoration

February 16, 2011

By Adam King

Jack Campbell was not your typical Peace Corps volunteer. He signed up in 1989 at age 58, a year after his retirement and a recent divorce. His fascination with travel and other cultures led him to believe there was more he could do with his business skills, especially helping those less fortunate. Continue reading ‘Peace Corps at 50: OSU plans commemoration’

Alutto: Accountability in higher ed not a new concept

February 16, 2011

His State of Academic Affairs speech once again looks to the future instead of highlighting successes from the past

By Jeff McCallister

For centuries, institutions of higher education have relied on an accountability model that says, basically, “Trust us — 20 years after you graduate, you will see that we provided what you needed.”

Ohio State Provost Joe Alutto, in his annual State of Academic Affairs address to University Senate Feb. 11, said that model really never did work, and now that budgeting processes are becoming ever more transparent, universities can and must devise their own system of accountability in order to avoid having accountability thrust upon them by outside forces.

“Blind trust of that sort is not as common as it used to be, and resistance to accountability is not a viable long-term strategy,” Alutto said. “We will need to move toward some form of outcome matrix for all three dimensions of discovery, learning and engagement.”

He said there is a widespread belief among institutions that what is taught and the effectiveness of what is taught cannot be measured.

“This may be simply a wish, hope or myth,” he said, “But this may also be the cause of the distress we are currently hearing from many individuals and institutions when accountability is discussed.”

He said, however, that “accountability has been with us as long as the academy has existed.”

“Institutional greatness has been achieved only at those universities where leadership has posed bold goals, identified and implemented clear strategies to generate resources, and then held achievement up for all to see,” he said. “At least in the United States, in all but a few places with unique circumstances, any sense of distinction or ‘greatness’ has not been achieved where universities have simply gone their own way with little accountability to an ‘outside world.’”

Alutto knows the thought of accountability can cause discomfort (at least) among colleagues in what he called “low return areas.” But he said as long as decisions to subsidize certain programs are made strategically, then the standard of accountability has been met.

“An organization may continue to produce existing products, change products or invest in low-return activities — all with the assumption that discipline and accountability for decision-making are necessary for long-term success,” he said.

“If a university believes it is critical to invest in teaching or research in areas with no apparent external market demand or other basis for support, or if it chooses to offer programs totally unconnected to the employment interests of students, it can and should do so, even in a world of market accountability,” he said.

“It should be clear that there is nothing in a market-based accountability model that forces a university to abandon or fail to support any given area of investment, and that would include all aspects of discovery, learning or engagement.”

The benefit, then, is that an institution will make its investments knowingly, weighing the costs as well as benefits. The investments then would be guided by the institution’s own assessments of what is important.

He suggested several considerations that need to be made in considering changes to the method of accountability, including the need to be more transparent what is being attempted; the reality that the performance measures always will be imprecise; that it is crucial to be “center-focused and driven,” conceiving of the university and its missions in a holistic sense.

He said university and academic leadership must not be seen as being driven by issues other than the larger collective good, and instead must “forego the age-old ‘winners/losers’ defensive response,” because there will be discussion about organizational restructuring and increased efficiency in the delivery of discovery, learning and engagement activities.

“Providing support and opportunities for innovative programs and scholarship is essential in our mix of activities, just as it is critical for us to remember our obligations to discover and convey knowledge across generations,” Alutto said.

He stressed that academic leaders maintain a level of civility in discourse and debate that has sometimes been missing as universities have adjusted to change.

“Will accomplishing all of this be easy? Of course not. Is it possible? I think so. But more than that, I believe that at Ohio State we are uniquely positioned to succeed in the face of such pressures.

In other action from the meeting, senators:

• Heard an update from Larry Lewellen on proposed changes the State Teachers Retirement System.

The STRS board’s plan is projected to save about $10.9 billion in accrued liabilities and does not include any increase in employer contributions.

The plan includes increased employee contributions; increased age and service requirements for retirement; calculation of pensions based on a lower, fixed formula; a longer period to determine final average salary; and reduction of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for current and future retirees (as well as a five-year deferral of the COLA for future retirees).

Some of the changes would go into effect for employees who retire as soon as Aug. 1, 2012, and would be fully in effect by 2015.

• Heard information from Vice Provost Wayne Carlson about proposals included in Ohio’s GI Promise.

The program, enacted through an executive order, would allow college credit to be awarded for military service, and would standardize the policy for awarding college credit through the College-Level Examination Program.

It is considered one of the key steps in the chancellor’s strategic plan for higher education.

• Approved rules changes to hold faculty senator elections earlier in the academic year and for committees to elect chairs and vice-chairs — and report those elections — earlier in the spring.

Kenneth Yeager, clinical psychiatry and social work

February 16, 2011

What is crisis intervention, and when and for whom is it necessary?
Crisis intervention is a process designed to assist anyone who is unable to function after  a life event that overwhelms their natural coping abilities. A crisis is an acute disruption of psychological homeostasis in which one’s usual coping mechanisms fail and there exists evidence of distress and functional impairment. Crisis intervention care is necessary for all of us. However, our ability to cope with stress, crisis and trauma varies greatly by person and is determined by individual character, temperament, protective factors, adaptability, past experience, support system and the stressors themselves.

What are the sources of crisis and how does a “crisis situation” affect the primary person’s family and friends?
Crisis-inducing events occur routinely and can originate from a number of sources, such as health issues, financial problems, grief, loss, victimization and exposure to natural disasters. Other events, such as emotional, physical and sexual abuse, may consist of multiple exposures over a long time period. The long-term impact of these stressors can cause psychological problems that are difficult to resolve and detrimental to the individual and their loved ones. Family and friends of the victim are often at a loss as to what action is most helpful and appropriate. These feelings of helplessness can leave family and friends feeling shaken and vulnerable. This concept is called vicarious traumatization. It is important for the victim’s supporters to be aware of the impact of vicarious traumatization, take steps to recognize it in themselves and seek help, if necessary.

What should someone do in a crisis situation?
There are three steps that anyone can do to assist a person experiencing a crisis-inducing event: Recognize, respond and rescue.

Recognize: While some crises may be obvious to others, events like financial or marital problems are much more difficult to see. When we ask, “How are you?” more often than not the answer is “fine.” If something causes you to think that the person is not “fine,” then the best intervention is to ask,  “Are you sure?” Follow this question with a statement about why you are concerned.

Respond: Once you have established a caring rapport, be prepared to listen to the story. Take note of what the person needs and where they are in their attempts to resolve the situation. You will almost always hear statements such as, “I just don’t know what to do“ or “I am at my wits’ end.” Talk about past coping strategies and consider different approaches. Finally, find out what supports are available to the person and if they have accessed this support.

Rescue: In crisis, life savers are around us but frequently are not readily identifiable or accessible. First consider the level of individual risk — a trip to a crisis center or emergency department may be in order. More frequently, offering to help the person to access local services may be all that is needed. Good resources include employee assistance programs, outpatient therapists or a primary care physician. These providers can help the victim establish an individualized approach to resolve the crisis.

What are the goals/outcomes of an intervention?
The goal of crisis intervention is to return the individual to a state of psychological equilibrium by providing the support and strategies necessary for stabilization and enhanced coping skills. While it is never easy to have to go through a crisis, many victims who have successfully worked through a crisis event eventually report that their experience has left them feeling psychologically stronger than they were before the event occurred.

Faculty not inclined to ‘friend’ students on Facebook

February 16, 2011

By Emily Caldwell, Research Communications

In a recent survey of pharmacy professors, 100 percent of the respondents who had Facebook profiles said they would not send friend requests to their current students.

Just fewer than half of the responding faculty members had a Facebook profile, and of those, most said they also ignored friend requests from students — especially current students. Continue reading ‘Faculty not inclined to ‘friend’ students on Facebook’

keep looking »