The Ohio State University

onCampus

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

  Search Ohio State Go

Ensuring success

October 19, 2011

Executive coaches keep OSU’s leaders on top of their game

by Adam King

On his first day on the job after becoming dean and director of Ohio State Mansfield nine months ago, Steve Gavazzi was handed a book titled The First 90 Days, a not-so-subtle hint that leaders at Ohio State are expected to the hit the ground running.

Every new OSU senior leader - deans, vice presidents, senior vice presidents, vice provosts and other people in key roles at the university - receives the same book written by Michael Watkins.

But the book is merely a tool to give senior leaders the opportunity to succeed - a highly desirable outcome given the time, money and resources Ohio State has spent on national searches for these leaders or on training them from within the university. Continue reading ‘Ensuring success’

Instructors use familiar tools to meet new challenges

October 19, 2011

by Elizabeth Ramos, Office of the CIO

Whether they’re developing an engaging introduction to an online class, reshaping a course from quarters to semesters or simply doing more with less, Ohio State instructors are finding new ways to capitalize on existing learning technology to serve their students in changing times.

In preparing for the semester switch, professors are looking for effective ways to restructure their courses not only to fit new timelines but to make the most of face-to-face instruction. In semesters, students will be taking around five classes at once, rather than three. With the space limitations semesters create from the higher demand for classrooms, some courses are going hybrid, introducing distance-learning elements.

“We’ve looked at ways to take elements of the course that took a lot of time in-class and put them online instead,” said Ola Ahlqvist, associate professor of Geography and course coordinator for Geography 200.

Ahlqvist and a team of instructors used Carmen as a primary element in redesigning the Geography 200 course. Watching videos, reading articles and taking weekly map quizzes used to take place in the classroom. By moving these activities to Carmen, they can make the most of their face time with students for reflection and interaction.

As more classes are going hybrid or fully online, instructors are working to make sure their students stay informed and engaged. Psychology lecturer Jacqueline von Spiegel tackled both course and Carmen orientation in her online class with one innovative solution: A treasure hunt.

“A part of the treasure hunt is a student characteristics survey,” von Spiegel said. “In this survey, 42 percent of the students responded that they learn best by actively participating, as compared to 28 percent and 29 percent preferring watching a video or reading, respectively.”

For this interactive exercise, von Spiegel offers clues which direct students to different parts of the Carmen site, and several areas of the General Psychology course material as well.

The clues are hidden so that the students need to complete activities such as reading the syllabus, watching an orientation video and navigating the Carmen course site in order to get to the next step. Each step gave access to more of the course content students would need, such as practice questions, lecture videos and quizzes.

“It is a big time investment up front to set it up, but since most of it is automated by Carmen, the time spent on it while the students are going through it is minimal,” von Spiegel said. “The great thing about that is that while I don’t have to spend a lot of time checking students’ progress, each student gets a sense of individual accomplishment and connection with the course on a personal level.”

By improving her process for online assessment, Chemistry lecturer Ruth Kinder presents another learning technology success story. Kinder has explored Carmen’s Desire2Learn quiz function and capitalized on its utility to automate the grading process, and not just for multiple-choice. This saves hours of manual grading and can still allow for flexibility with open-ended answers such as misspelling and partial credit.

With regular expressions she writes codes for flexible automatic scoring including short answers and fill-in-the-blanks. She also uses pre-placed general feedback which appears automatically and immediately upon submission. This general feedback enables the learner to correct misassumptions and to reinforce accurate information. This process recreates the assessment experience into an additional learning opportunity for all students.

“Effective feedback is much more than ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’” Kinder said. “An instructor can use their experience base and familiarity with the course content to pre-explain concepts and applications in feedback.”

Instructors looking to utilize Carmen and other Desire2Learn tools - whether it’s to improve an element of their course or consider a whole redesign - have plenty of resources.

To support the university’s Quarter-to-Semester project, the Office of the Chief information Officer’s Carmen team will be creating Semester Development course shells for each course in the new curricula. These course shells can be used by instructional staff to develop resources in Carmen before the actual Carmen course sites are available.

The Digital Union offers a myriad of workshops, many of which are targeted to help instructors synchronize their courses and the eLearning tools available. For more, visit ocio.osu.edu/elearning.

Newsbriefs, 10/20/11

October 19, 2011

Ohio State recognized for revolutionizing campus bicycling culture

The League of American Bicyclists has named Ohio State as a Bicycle Friendly University, one of just 26 nationwide and the only one in Ohio. The Bicycle Friendly University designation recognizes institutions of higher education for promoting and providing a more bicycle-friendly campus for students and visitors.

The organization noted that Ohio State invested more than $2 million over the last three years to connect the campus to the city’s bicycle infrastructure system, construct new bike facilities and parking and for launching Yay Bikes, a new bicycle education and safety program.

The organization recognized Columbus as a Bicycle Friendly Community in 2009.

Ohio State collaboration launches
Center for Applied Plant Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are partnering to create the Center for Applied Plant Sciences. The development of new bioproducts and enhanced crop performance are among its priorities.

The new center will facilitate the translation, or connection, between basic research and applications in areas such as photosynthesis and carbon fixation, biomass and bioproducts, crop production enhancement and plant-microbe interactions.

CAPS will support the work of interdisciplinary scientific teams with members from across the university. These teams will have access to research facilities, PhD students and graduate fellowships through the university’s new Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Translational Plant Sciences, postdoctoral fellowships and research seed grants.

Kirwan Institute receives HUD grant
for work on equitable development

A collaboration including the Kirwan Institute Opportunity Communities program and two other partner organizations was recently awarded a $900,000 grant to serve as one of the primary technical assistance providers for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on equitable development for the national sustainable communities program. The Kirwan Institute will train regional planners on social equity issues and also assist with regional planning, opportunity mapping and civic engagement in a number of regions working on regional sustainability plans.

Learning Collaboration Studio
available for winter classes

The Learning Collaboration Studio is actively seeking faculty and instructors to reserve the room for classes and events to fill out the winter schedule. The LCS is a reconfigurable learning space complete with dual-boot laptops, SMART Podium and on-site staff. There is no charge, and the Office of the Chief Information Officer sponsors instructor orientation sessions to provide insight on how to best make use of the space.

Submit requests by Oct. 28 to lcstudio@osu.edu or visit ocio.osu.edu/lcs.1.

College of Law seeking mock trial jurors

The Clinical Programs at the Moritz College of Law is seeking faculty, staff, students and friends to serve as jurors at mock trials to be held on Nov. 10, 15, 17 and 22. Choose any combination of the four trials, which last two to three hours starting at 4 p.m. in the Moot Court Room, 249 Drinko Hall. A light dinner will be provided. For more information, contact Lynda Seelie at seelie.2@osu.edu.

Alumni Grants for Graduate Research
applications being accepted

The Graduate School’s Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship Program provides up to $2,000 to support the research and scholarship of doctoral or MFA candidates in a terminal degree program for their dissertations or theses. The deadline for the autumn quarter competition is Oct. 24.

For more information, call 247-7300 or visit gradsch.ohio-state.edu/alumni-grants-for-graduate-research-and-scholarship.html.

Graduate Associate Teaching Award
nomination deadline Dec. 1

Some of the best teaching at Ohio State happens in classrooms and labs led by Graduate Teaching Associates. This award, sponsored by the Graduate School, is Ohio State’s highest recognition of this exceptional teaching. Award winners receive $1,500 and are recognized at the annual Graduate School awards reception. Nomination deadline is Dec. 1.

For more information, contact 247-7300, e-mail mayer.113@osu.edu or visit gradsch.osu.edu/graduate-associate-teaching-award.html.

Employee Assistance Program: A helping
hand anytime, day or night

The Ohio State Employee Assistance Program is here to help employees and their family with challenges that affect their health, family or job. The program provides many complimentary services, including live phone support 24/7/365; five counseling sessions per person, per occurrence; and new services, including legal and financial counseling and identity theft recovery assistance. The EAP is offered to benefits-eligible faculty, staff and their families. For more information, call (800) 678-6265 or visit osuhealthplan.com/OhioStateEAP.

Green Buckeyes — officially

October 19, 2011

New certification program helps offices let everyone know they’re doing their part for the environment

by Jeff McCallister

Wandering through the Digital Union’s offices on the third floor of the Science and Engineering Library, it’s theoretically possible to miss the fact that it’s quite the environmentally friendly outfit.

Until, that is, you start looking for a trash can. Continue reading ‘Green Buckeyes — officially’

Decades of discovery

October 19, 2011

The shutdown of the Tevatron accelerator marks a turning point in physics — and two OSU scientists have been along for the ride

by Pam Frost Gorder

The world’s second-largest particle accelerator may have shut down permanently on Sept. 30, but for Brian Winer and Richard Hughes, the science goes on.

The Ohio State physicists are helping to close a chapter on 20th century physics and open a new chapter to whatever lay beyond.

Winer and Hughes worked at the particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., for more than 25 years. They arrived as undergraduate research assistants in the 1980s and returned as doctoral students. Now as professors, they lead their own experiments.

Their goal: To find evidence of exotic particles that were predicted to exist since the 1960s.

For decades, this particle accelerator - called the Tevatron - smashed protons and antiprotons together at high speed to break them apart and release rarely seen sub-atomic particles such as quarks. Millions of collisions per second created billions of fragments of every imaginable size and type of particle. Scientists are still carefully sifting through it all.

Over their careers, Winer and Hughes developed unique computing strategies for analyzing the deluge of data that the collisions produced. Another year will likely pass before they can work through the information backlog.

There have already been victories along the way.

“Definitely, the high point was when we knew we found the top quark,” Winer said.

Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons. Physics theory predicted the existence of six different types of quarks, and the top quark was the last one to be verified.

To isolate the tiny quark from all the other particles, the physicists employed neural networks - computer algorithms that mimic the learning process of the human brain. The two led a series of experiments that hinted of the particle’s existence for years before they officially announced its discovery in 1995.

Another theoretical particle remains to be seen, and it’s of a completely different sort: The Higgs boson, which scientists believe gives mass to all other particles.

Winer and Hughes were the first to apply their neural network technique to search for the Higgs, and now all researchers worldwide who are in a race for the discovery are using similar methods.

A year’s worth of Tevatron data remains to be analyzed, and Hughes hopes that evidence of the Higgs is hiding in it.

“I feel like we’re in the same place we were about six months before we found the top quark,” he said. “We’re seeing hints that we’re close.”

“Our goal is to make our final results public by March 2012,” Winer agreed.

While the two Ohio State physicists continue to look for the Higgs at the Tevatron, their specialized skill set is in demand. They were recruited to join a competing experiment at the world’s biggest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland.

Winer and Hughes can’t share information from the Tevatron team with the LHC team, and vice versa. They must remain entirely impartial.

Well, almost entirely impartial.

“The Tevatron is winding down, while the LHC is just getting started,” Hughes explained. “It has a long and glorious time ahead of it, with untold discoveries beyond the Higgs that could emerge over the next 20 years. We would love for the Tevatron to come in first, and the LHC just barely second.”

Courts likely will decide states’ preservation duty

October 19, 2011

Researchers suggest using public trust doctrine to ‘rescue’ wildlife from politics

by Emily Caldwell

When a species recovers enough to be removed from the federal endangered species list, the public trust doctrine - the principle that government must conserve natural resources for the public good - should guide state management of wildlife, scientists say.

In the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Science, the researchers note that the public trust doctrine holds that certain natural resources, including wildlife, have no owners and therefore belong to all citizens. So, they add, when federal statutory law no longer offers protection to a species, the public trust doctrine imposes upon states an obligation to conserve the species for their citizens.

The researchers cite the case of the gray wolf, which lost federal protection in the northern Rocky Mountains last spring under a rare Congressional legislative rider. This rider was passed after courts had reversed three previous US Fish and Wildlife Service attempts to delist the wolf in the region, which includes Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.

The merits of protecting gray wolves have been hotly debated for years in the northern Rocky Mountains, where public opinion varies considerably among livestock owners, hunters and wildlife advocates. Idaho and Montana have launched public hunts aimed at reducing wolf populations since federal protections were lifted.

Wolf advocates fear that heavy-handed “lethal management” of wolves could deplete the population so rapidly that the species will require federal protections again. Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government monitors a species for at least five years after it is delisted, but state wildlife agencies take over management.

Lost in these bitter arguments is any attempt to clarify state agencies’ obligation to their citizens, said Jeremy Bruskotter, assistant professor in Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources and lead author of the Science paper.

The wildlife trust doctrine, a branch of the public trust doctrine, defines that obligation, the paper’s authors argue. The public trust doctrine has roots in ancient Roman and English common law, but its application to wildlife in the United States dates to the late 19th century. In an 1896 case, Geer vs. Connecticut, the US Supreme Court ruled that the wildlife trust doctrine imposed on states a duty “to enact such laws as will best preserve the subject of the trust and secure its beneficial use in the future to the people of the state.”

“If you recognize a wildlife trust doctrine, and that the state has the obligation to maintain these populations in perpetuity not just for current residents but for future residents, then there is a degree of protection for species in the absence of the statutory protection,” Bruskotter said.

The researchers note that natural resource agency professionals are likely to be aware that all wildlife are communally owned by each state, but western politicians’ open hostility toward this formerly protected species raises the question: What are states actually going to do?

“Some of the rhetoric about the killing of wolves might be political showmanship. But when they make exaggerated claims - for example, comparing wolf restoration to the resurrection of the T. rex, which was done in Utah - that adds layers of ambiguity and fear. Conservationists wonder if they will try to eliminate wolves and wonder if they can do it,” Bruskotter said. “But the public trust doctrine holds that if state politicians were to intervene to try to prevent the maintenance of a viable wolf population, they could be taken to court. There is a legal mechanism to prevent that type of action.”

While case law exists to define the reach of the public trust doctrine, additional case law would be beneficial to firmly establish states’ obligations in the management of species no longer covered by federal protection, the authors contend.

“If this obligation is going to be more than just understood, there will need to be case law established, which is going to require somebody to take things to court to see what those obligations are,” said Sherry Enzler, a co-author of the paper and a public trust scholar at the University of Minnesota.

“It’s not about protecting any particular species. It’s about how we ensure we have adequate protection for all imperiled species under state-led management,” Bruskotter said.

Bruskotter and Enzler co-authored the article with Adrian Treves of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A multicultural future

October 19, 2011

Valerie Lee, vice provost for Diversity and Inclusion, says diversity and eminence go hand-in-hand.

The Ohio State University recognizes that diversity enriches the educational experience. A diverse learning environment prepares students to be active participants in an increasingly complex, global society.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion promotes the recruitment, retention and success of students, faculty and staff who enhance the diversity of the intellectual community at Ohio State. We work to open pathways, strengthen pipelines and build partnerships in order to make education an accessible goal for all communities.

Undergirding all of ODI’s programmatic efforts is the knowledge that we want to make the shift from a satisfaction with simply having numerous diversity-related activities to an emphasis on impact and outcome. At the end of the day, ODI understands diversity and excellence to be complementary, not antithetical, goals. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion seeks excellence through diversity.

Diversity is at the core of the environment we are creating for the university. In fact, an appreciation for diversity is at the heart of the One University principle. Our success depends on not leaving any talent on the table - this means recruiting and retaining the best students, faculty and staff, as well as listening to every idea and viewpoint in order to arrive at fair, equitable and effective solutions.

When I look at the concepts covered in the culture retreats - be curious, respect difference and be aware of one’s filters - it is clear that diversity is the common thread. In order to remain curious, one must value people who bring different points of view. In order to respect difference, one must be willing to engage others who have different perspectives than one’s own. Recognizing that we all have filters helps open us to see the value of others’ unique contributions.

It is important to deepen our understanding of what it means to be inclusive. Diversity is not narrow; it is made up of all of the parts that create the whole person, such as race, national origin, socioeconomic status, able-bodiedness, gender and sexual orientation, educational background and family structure. Each of us has a different story; there are chapters that resonate with and overlap others’ stories, like a multi-layered, highly textured novel.

We all must see diversity as a dividend, not a deficit. Some ways to expand an appreciation for diversity include:

• Read more about other cultures.
• Interact with people from various walks of life.
• Travel to other locales, regions and countries.
• Listen to voices not your own.

Above all else, think of diversity as a verb, as something that one does, as something that requires action, purpose and intentionality. By doing diversity, Ohio State is positioning itself for a multicultural future.

Ray Cashman, Center for Folklore Studies

October 19, 2011

How did the holiday of Halloween develop?

Halloween in its contemporary American form is the result of several influences - English, Scottish, German and (surprising to some) Mexican - but it derives primarily from Celtic and, more specifically, Irish belief and custom. Irish immigration to the US spiked during and after the Potato Famine of the 1840s, and these immigrants brought with them several practices that are familiar today - masking, ghost stories, trick-or-treating, lighting bonfires and carving Jack-o-lanterns (though in the Old World, lacking pumpkins, they used large turnips).

The first thing to appreciate is where Halloween falls in the yearly cycle of an agrarian society. The end of October is also the end of the harvest and, in northern latitudes, the beginning of the considerably darker half of the year. In pre-Christian Ireland, Halloween was known as Samhain (pronounced “sow-in,” meaning “end of summer”) and was known as a time when the thresholds between this world and the Otherworld were open wide. From the Otherworld poured forth the souls of departed loved ones, fairies, the dallachán (the precursor of our headless horseman) and the púca (a phantom in the form of a pig or horse who urinated on fruits and grains not yet harvested). Everyone traveling at night, especially women and those considered to be the best and brightest in the community, were believed to be fair game for abduction or “sweeping” by the fairies. At the same time, it was possible to recover anyone who had been swept in the previous year. The bean sí (banshee) wandered the night, and anyone sitting on a graveyard wall, especially at midnight, could hear her call out the names of those destined to die in the new year.

Contact with the Otherworld was not always frightening or dangerous, however, and the visitation by the souls of departed relatives was quite welcome. The living prepared their homes for the return of their ancestral dead by leaving doors unbolted, lighting a candle for each soul departed from the family, sweeping the hearth clean and leaving food and water out.

Are there any traditional practices that arose from the development of Halloween?

Perhaps the most widespread practice at Samain, in pre-Christian and Christian times, was divination. Most divination games predicted future fortune, vocations and marital status. Marriage divination was the most popular. In one custom, two grains of wheat representing a certain couple were placed over a fire in pan or shovel. If the grains burned to ash without bursting, the couple would live happily together, and if otherwise, the couple would constantly bicker and fight. There were numerous methods for divining the identity of one’s future spouse. A woman who combed her hair or skinned an apple in front of a mirror could catch a glimpse of her future husband behind her. However light-hearted these marriage divinations were, death was always around the corner at Samain, itself the death of summer, and there was always the possibility of seeing through a divination not the future spouse but a coffin or some other image of death.

Where do we get the saying ‘Trick-or-Treat?’

Trick-or-treating has its origins in the practice of roving bands of disguised youths impersonating ghosts and frightening passers by. These bands also demanded contributions for their Halloween feast, and if no contribution was made, the rovers resorted to pranks such as taking the wheels off carts, uprooting gardens, blocking chimneys and blowing smoke through keyholes. In addition to the blurring of boundaries between past, present and future and between this world and the next, Samain was a time to let loose and venture beyond the pale of ordered, social behavior, a theme that continues today.

Top 3 on 2, 10/20/11

October 19, 2011

Why did you choose to work at Ohio State? I fell in love with Ohio State the first time I came here for a high school field trip. I knew that this is where I wanted to go to school. Once I got here, I never wanted to leave. It’s been my family. I’ve never felt that it was a “huge” place like you hear so many times. Ohio State and Columbus have been home for a long time.

What do you like about your job? My coworkers; they are great people to work with and some have become lifelong friends. I also enjoy writing about our benefits and getting creative with the design team to make our communication pieces visually interesting.

What is the greatest life challenge you’ve overcome? Being the first one in our family to go to college, and then to stay here and have a career. In doing so, I discovered more about myself and have stayed true to who I am.

How do you apply the ‘One University’ concept?
By forming a working partnership with University Marketing Communications, onCampus, UniPrint and Addressing Services to produce and distribute our benefits information.

If you weren’t working at Ohio State, what would you rather be doing? At one point I would have liked to be an architect and design home interiors. I took one class while in school and I do get to apply some of that knowledge every time we switch around offices.

Who is your hero? I don’t have just one. I admire those who champion for the fair and just treatment of all humans and our animal friends.

What is your favorite activity outside of work? Gardening and traveling. I love working in the soil and watching the plants grow and bloom. I could do without the weeds but they come with the territory. I recently took a 12-day bus tour with my mom through nine states and Yellowstone National Park. It was wonderful to spend time with my mom and to get to see so much of our beautiful country.

What are you going to do when you retire? It’s getting close, so the plans are becoming more real. I would like to teach a body movement class, fill my yard with flowers, write and “see the USA in my Chevrolet.” I’d like to tour through all 50 states, visit their comedy clubs and continue my photography.

If you were the university president for a day, what would you do? I would build more parking garages and safe bike paths so they are not sharing the road with cars or the sidewalks with pedestrians. And I would hold an annual picnic on the Oval for staff.

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

Join President Gee, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Geoff Chatas and other university officials at 2 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Saxbe Auditorium in Drinko Hall (Moritz College of Law) for continued discussion on ways to financially sustain the university. This Town Hall Meeting is co-hosted by the University Staff Advisory Committee and the Faculty Council.

The event also will be streamed live at rtsp://streaming1.osu.edu/broadcast/president.rm (Real Media) and mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/president.wm (Windows Media). Questions may be submitted in advance to usac@osu.edu. A limited number can be answered.

Brent Davis, WOSU Public Media

October 19, 2011

Brent Davis is senior content director for WOSU Public Media and has published two novels, The Spelling Bee and Raising Kane.

What are your five favorite books and why?

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Okies. Route 66. The Dustbowl. Both a novel and a documentary about an amazing time in America.

One Man’s Meat, by E.B. White. My introduction to the essays of E.B. White.

Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain. Hilarious and informative. And about five steamboat explosions per chapter.

The Shipping News, by
E. Annie Proulx. This book has it all: Style, humor, tragedy and useful information about knots.

Ahab’s Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund. A gripping and gruesome account of the woman who waited for the return of The Pequod.

Who is your favorite character (villain or hero) in literature?

Bartleby the Scrivener from the short story by Herman Melville. His “I would prefer not to” is an entirely appropriate response for many situations we find ourselves in.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

The Haygoods of Columbus, which is Wil Haygood’s terriffic account of growing up here.

What classic novel was a disappointment to you?

It’s not in the classic novel category, but I’ve not worked up much interest in the Stieg Larsson books. Give me a police procedural by Richard Price, Lush Life, for instance, any day.

What’s your “guilty pleasure” - a book you love but don’t often talk about because it’s not “serious” literature?

Richard Russo says it’s harder to write humor than nearly anything else, and that it’s not taken seriously. My favorite of his comic novels is Mohawk. I laughed out loud a lot when I recently read Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis. I love anything by Peter DeVries and Calvin Trillin. I pick up James Thurber quite a bit, especially My World And Welcome To It.

What “important book” have you not read and why haven’t you read it?

Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. One-and-a-half-million words? Reminds me too much of a committee meeting.

What book would you most want your kids to read? What would you want them NOT to read?

My son is a fan of Stephen King, which is great. I’d be alarmed if my son came home with The Accordion For Dummies.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read (history, fiction, biography, etc.) and why?

History, fiction and biography are my favorite genres. I just finished reading a graphic biography, I guess it would be called, of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. I picked it up because of the quote on the cover: “If that’s the world’s smartest man, God help us.”

What magazines do you subscribe to and why?

I subscribe to The New Yorker and The Banjo Newsletter. I like one for the cartoons and the other for the articles.

keep looking »