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Campaign is opportunity for employees to help out, pay back

March 14, 2012

By Jeff McCallister

She was one of those people that everyone in the entire college knew.

For 32 years, Kathy Brooks guided students through the College of Pharmacy with the loving hand of a second mom.

“Kathy cared deeply about her colleagues, her work and especially the hundreds of students she helped during her 32-year career,” said Robert Brueggemeier, dean of the college.

For the last 21 of her years, she was the graduate student coordinator for Pharmacy. She earned the Council of Graduate Students’ Distinguished Service Award in 1995 — just four years into the job — and could have won it every year since, many students say, because of her level of attention to them and their concerns.

“No concern was too small for her attention or too grand to be helped or outside of her job description,” a former student said. “Kathy always seemed to treat our problems as her first concern no matter what she had going on at the time, and I truly cannot imagine any student that interacted with her not loving her because of how she took care of us.”

So when Brooks lost her battle with breast cancer in November 2010, the Pharmacy community decided to try to pay her back.

With her family’s blessing, the college initiated the Kathleen I. Brooks Fund to support graduate students in the master’s and doctoral programs, with a goal of raising enough money to have the fund endowed so she could help her students in perpetuity. It’s one of more than 8,000 funds to which Ohio State staff, faculty and retired employees can contribute as part of the annual Campus Campaign.

“We’ve been overwhelmed at the response throughout the Pharmacy community and really around the university because she came into contact with so many people over the years,” said Gail Vornholt, human resources manager in the college.

Now just more than a year old, the fund recently topped $20,000 — it takes $25,000 to get endowed through the OSU Foundation.

“We’ve raised some money through walk-a-thons and things like that, and we’ll be hosting our second annual March Madness Munchies fundraiser March 16 for the basketball tournament because she was such a huge Ohio State fan, too,” Vornholt said.

But the largest income generator for the fund, by far, has been the Campus Campaign (fund No. 313572).

The annual campaign provides current, retired and emeritus faculty and staff the opportunity to make gifts in support of the groundbreaking research, scholarships, innovative programs, cultural and athletic events and exceptional services for others at Ohio State.

Since the campaign began in 1985, faculty and staff have donated more than $137 million.

Opportunity to give

The Campus Campaign started March 1 and ends April 30. You can give either online at campuscampaign.osu.edu or by filling out your pledge packet. Online giving can be done by credit card or payroll deduction.

Parking remains a hot topic among faculty and staff

March 13, 2012

by Jeff McCallister

When it comes to privatizing the parking operation at Ohio State, Geoff Chatas, senior vice president for Business and Finance, has been trying both to educate the Ohio State community and to discover any other issues that he and his team have not yet considered.

Whoever wants to listen, he’s been willing to engage through a series of town hall meetings, speeches and Q&A sessions with different groups around campus.

The stakes, after all, are high. With what has been described as a fundamental resetting of the economy and ever-waning governmental funding, university leaders are trying to find new revenue sources to fund the university’s core missions of teaching and research.

See a list of frequently asked questions on the Business and Finance website

Chatas has concluded that privatizing the parking operation has the potential to add $400 million or more to the long-term investment pool — money that would be used to add and support tenure-track faculty, provide new scholarships, boost the arts and humanities and improve campus accessibility and transportation. Continue reading ‘Parking remains a hot topic among faculty and staff’

BuckeyeThon cements its place as an iconic Ohio State event

March 1, 2012

By Jeff McCallister

After last year’s event, it seemed certain that the BuckeyeThon was well on its way to being one of those great iconic events at Ohio State.

BuckeyeThon, Ohio State’s largest student philanthropy effort, is a dance marathon whose mission is to emotionally and financially support the children on the hematology/oncology floor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a member of the Children’s Miracle Network, which treats any child regardless of a family’s ability to pay. Continue reading ‘BuckeyeThon cements its place as an iconic Ohio State event’

Getting down to basics

February 29, 2012

Editor’s note: The following is the first in a series of brief updates on discussions regarding a potential lease of the university’s parking operations.

onCampus: Why is the university considering leasing its parking operations?

Provost Alutto: The short answer is that we are seeking to provide a stable funding stream to grow academic excellence. Although Ohio has proved to be a remarkably consistent funding partner in comparison to other states, it is reasonable to assume that the university will not see significant funding increases from the state or federal governments. With new, alternative sources of funding, Ohio State will protect its current teaching and research activities, and it will generate resources to match faculty and staff aspirations for the future. Continue reading ‘Getting down to basics’

MAPS course teaches four generations of workers to play nice

February 29, 2012

By Julia Harris

Not only do the folks at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs offer a course on dealing with the generation gap in the office, they also know a thing or two about putting their own words into practice.

Tim Bailey, program director for the school’s MAPS (Management Advancement for the Public Service), has worked for Ohio State for more than 20 years — and he works side by side with Natalie Gintert, who wasn’t even born yet when he began his career.

“We’re kind of a generational experiment here in our own office,” Bailey said with a laugh. “We’ve got a Baby Boomer, two GenXers — one on either end of the spectrum — and a Millennial.”

For anyone not conversant with the terms used to define the generations, Baby Boomers were born between 1946-64, Generation X spans 1965-80 and Millennials include anyone born after 1981. To date, there are roughly 98 million Boomers in this country, 57 million Xers and 79 million Millennials — plus 45 million Veterans, who include people born between 1922-45.

“There are four different generations in the workplace today, so a lot of people are dealing with these different groups and how to manage them,” Gintert said.

Indeed, materials for the MAPS course “Leveraging Generational Differences in the Workplace” — which will be offered March 7 at the OSU Fawcett Center — indicate that such a diverse workforce is unprecedented in American history. Given that each generation brings different experiences and expectations to the mix, understanding general traits and unique attributes for each group makes communication and management easier. Ultimately the goal is to capitalize on the strengths and contributions of the different generations to create a dynamic and productive workplace atmosphere.

“You’re going to come out of this with a better understanding of each generation, about why they do things the way they do them, and then you can take that back to your office to inform how you communicate with each other,” Bailey said.

“Take our office as an example. I know that if I want to get Natalie here to do anything for me, I just pick up my phone and text her. My other colleague is like, ‘Now how do you text?’ I’m kind of in the middle.”

And while Gintert acknowledges that she’s the go-to person for technology questions, she has no problem going to Bailey with questions that draw on his long institutional memory. It’s a synergy that works for them.

Given that the course has been offered through the MAPS program for the past five years — which reaches not only Ohio State employees but state and non-profit agencies as well — it’s apparent that its principles and insights have lasting value. Participants in the interactive one-day course are encouraged to explore their own stereotypes and misconceptions about each generational group and then to break down lingering myths that might hinder productive work relationships.

“The instructor always tells participants to step deeply into their own discomfort and find out how and why those myths developed,” Bailey said.

Of course, this seminar is only one of many available through MAPS, which has been around since 1970 and is targeted specifically toward developing leadership skills among employees in the public sector. Bailey estimates that there are 45 different course offerings, some of which are offered more than once during the academic year because of their popularity.

Sample courses include “Difficult Conversations, Positive Outcomes,” “Time Management Strategies to Improve Productivity” and “Working with Colleagues and Superiors: The Art of Influencing Others.” The latter course, Bailey says, is the longest running class in the program.

“I took it 17 years ago,” he said. “That’s how I got involved in this program: I took the class and then when I saw this job open up in the employment listings, I knew I wanted to work here.”

If you go…

Making home feel more like home

February 29, 2012

University steps up efforts to help student veterans transition to college life

By Julia Harris

Even though there are almost 2,000 of them enrolled at Ohio State, quietly attending classes all over campus, they remain largely unseen, unheard and unknown. And while that’s perfectly fine with most of them most of the time, there are occasions when they need a little extra help — and don’t know how to get it.

That’s where Mike Carrell comes in.

A 23-year veteran (Col., retired) of the US Air Force, Carrell has been working with a cadre of faculty and staff across the university to examine and restructure Ohio State’s services for student veterans. Carrell is sifting through the various services and programs currently in place at the university and drafting a blueprint for how to consolidate and streamline veterans’ services.

“We have a lot of services on this campus that are either geared toward veterans or could be used by them, but we want to make it friendlier for them and easier to use,” said Carroll, veterans resource analyst in the Office of Undergraduate Education.

“We’re probably progressing toward a centralized office, one that would take on the responsibility of training and educating the university community about how to serve our student veterans and letting all of us know what the issues are.”

Toward that end, Carroll has been collaborating with Mike Forrest, OSU Veterans Affairs, and Jennie Williams, program coordinator for UCAT (University Center for the Advancement of Teaching, to host the upcoming conference, “Today’s Veteran: Creating a Supportive Educational Environment.” The conference, a one-day affair open to all interested faculty and staff, explores the challenges of transition to civilian and student life from a highly structured military life — particularly in a combat zone.

“Kyle talks about what it’s like to return from war and go back to school, how the world looks different to you — and looks differently at you,” said Williams.

In addition to the keynote address, there will be breakout sessions on suicide prevention, a workshop about teaching student veterans and a panel discussion with four Ohio State students about their experiences — both good and bad — as student veterans here at this university. A lunchtime performance by the student group InterACT will address the experience of some student veterans in the classroom.

“The conference is geared toward faculty who may have had veterans in their classrooms — even if they didn’t know they had them,” Carrell said, adding that many veterans don’t self-identify, choosing to remain anonymous. “We want to educate them on some of the struggles veterans may face when they come home. They may have PTSD or traumatic brain injury; they may have questions about their VA benefits or pay, and then they need some individual assistance.

“But in some ways they’re no different from any other student on campus – they’re just non-traditional students who come with more luggage,” Carrell said. “They’re likely to be older, they’re likely to be married, they probably have dependents. People often ask me, what can I do to take care of all veterans? And I say, ‘If you’ve met one veteran, then you’ve met one veteran.’ No policy takes care of all students at all times with all issues. We just want faculty to know there’s a group out here that might need services and here’s how you could handle a discussion in class that might be offensive to combat veterans.”

Carrell hopes that the conference, which will be held March 5 in the Cartoon Room at the Ohio Union, will be just the first in a succession of endeavors that draw attention to student veterans and their unique situation. He estimates that Ohio State has one of the largest populations of student veterans in the country — not to mention the roughly 1,000 veteran faculty — and is proud to be part of the university’s efforts to adopt best practices in its veterans’ services.

“I think you’ll be surprised how many student veterans are on this campus and what they’re facing,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to help people at Ohio State and in the greater community, to connect with other resources and do more outreach, so that these students can get more care when and where they need it.”

A sustainability showdown

February 29, 2012

Residence halls battled it out for green superiority, but the goals are actually greater

By Katy Ricchiuto

As one of the largest universities in the United States, Ohio State excels at everything from education and scholarly research to athletic competition. University leaders now are using the expertise in all those areas to improve another of its foremost initiatives — sustainability.

For more than a year now, two Ohio State residence halls have been participating in the Scarlet Gray and Green Smart Housing Challenge — a competition aimed at measuring educational outreach and infrastructure changes and their impact on long-term energy reduction and overall sustainability.

The initiative is part of the larger Buckeye Footprint project, a real-time online energy dashboard that shows the energy consumption of different metered buildings on campus.

The project’s creators wanted to “transform the university into a living laboratory for the practice and development of sustainability,” said Aparna Dial, director of Energy Services and Sustainability.

That’s where the Scarlet, Gray and Green Challenge comes in.

“The vision established for the project was to create a living/learning facility in which students can live and study the positive impacts of ‘green’ building and to promote, demonstrate and educate the entire OSU community about Ohio State’s sustainability goals,” said Stephen Schick, director of Planning and Design in Facilities Management and Logistics.

Thanks to funding from the President’s and Provost’s Council on Sustainability, Blackburn and Norton Houses were selected in 2010 for the project, chosen because they were similarly sized smaller buildings with a near equal number of residents. Meters were installed on the buildings and officials put up interactive kiosks showing the Buckeye Footprint — a real-time display of energy usage. They also provided educational programming to go along with the project.

A third hall, Barrett House, was selected as a control. In other words, Barrett does not have a kiosk or an educational component. “So we are using that to see how and if there is a difference in consumption between the halls where we were actively working with the students versus a hall where there is not information readily available,” said Kai Landis, program manager for Energy Management and Sustainability in the Office of Student Life.

At the end of the 2010-11 competition, program coordinators had six months of consistent data allowing them to declare Blackburn House the winner of the Scarlet, Gray and Green Challenge — residents of that hall used about 84,000 fewer kilowatt-hours of electricity than those in Norton did.

With that data in hand, officials made improvements to this year’s competition. For the second phase of the program, infrastructure changes were made in Norton House, including low-flow shower heads and plumbing improvements.

This year’s challenge also targets one topic area a quarter, such as electricity, recycling or water. Finally, peer-to-peer outreach was encouraged between student chairs of each building and residents.

“We know we may not always have a perfect direct link between education, behavioral changes and energy output, but we can certainly paint a picture with better data,” explained Landis.

Throughout the project, program managers have continued to emphasize the importance of continued education to promote the university’s wider sustainability goals.

“One of the ideas is to look at the influence of education versus just the changes themselves, because you can have the most energy efficient building, but if the people that are occupying that building leave everything on, it defeats the purpose,” Landis said.

The same can be said about the university’s Buckeye Footprint and wider sustainability goals.

“The greatest contribution that we can make toward sustainability is to graduate generations of global citizens,” said Dial. “For us, sustainability is not just about operational efficiencies but ultimately about integrating it into the social and intellectual life of our campus.”

Medical Center staff celebrate historic day

February 15, 2012

At 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, the sound of the Orton Hall chimes could be heard across the Oval and across the city of Columbus. They were the first sounds in a brief video that called to order an historic standing-room-only gathering in the College of Medicine’s new Clinical Skills Education and Assessment Center on the sixth floor of Prior Hall.

Hundreds of Medical Center staff heard the same chimes webcast live to Wallace Auditorium at University Hospital East, the lobby of 660 Ackerman Road, the Morehouse Medical Plaza Auditorium and an overflow room in Prior Hall. More than 8,000 other staff, alumni, donors and friends of the Medical Center heard them as well as they tuned in to the webcast in their own homes and offices.

All had gathered to see and hear the first public announcement of The Ohio State University Board of Trustees’ decision to rename The Ohio State University Medical Center the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University. The Board’s decision was unanimous and is a tribute to more than 30 years of leadership and commitment that Board Chair Leslie H. Wexner and his wife Abigail have given to the university. Continue reading ‘Medical Center staff celebrate historic day’

Medical Center renamed in Wexner’s honor

February 15, 2012

Leslie H. Wexner doesn’t blink when he tells you that Ohio State researchers and scientists will find cures for cancer.

He realizes that sounds like a lofty goal, but the man who turned a small Columbus clothing store in into a multibillion-dollar empire, is known for thinking big.

“Why can’t it happen here?” he asks. “We’ve got a super medical center that’s advancing by leaps and bounds. And the James is doing great research and great work with patients. They’re a model for the entire university.”

Of course, Wexner has played a major role in enhancing Ohio State’s ability to produce breakthrough research and improve patient care. Last year, Wexner, his family and his company gave $100 million to the university-the largest gift in its history-with much of the money expected to go to the medical center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

But while the gift generated widespread publicity, fewer people seem to know that beyond giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Ohio State, Wexner also donates thousands of hours of his time.

It is that commitment of both time and resources, said OSU President Gordon Gee, which spurred the Board of Trustees to vote unanimously today to rename the Ohio State Medical Center the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University. Continue reading ‘Medical Center renamed in Wexner’s honor’

On becoming eminent

February 15, 2012

Provost to talk specifics in address to University Senate

By Jeff McCallister

It’s one thing to put out there the institutional goal to move from excellence to eminence, as Ohio State has since the day more than four years ago when Gordon Gee returned to campus for his second term as university president.

Joe Alutto, as Gee’s executive vice president and provost, has largely been charged with overseeing that transformation, and for the first time since he’s been at Ohio State, he says the pathway to make it happen is crystal clear.

Alutto will discuss specifics of the way ahead as he delivers his annual address to the University Senate at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in 130 Drinko Hall.

The speech always has been referred to as the “State of Academic Affairs,” but Alutto has used the occasion in past years to look ahead rather than to review, and this year will be no exception.

“This is a speech that ought to be important to all faculty, staff and students at Ohio State,” Alutto said. “This affects all of us here and clarifies and makes more transparent the things we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

He is looking forward to getting into the specifics of the quest for eminence. “You’ve got to believe in what you’re doing. I hope to convey a sense of where I believe the university should be going and do so in a passionate but fairly straightforward way.”

Alutto will try to bring the aspiration of moving from excellence to eminence into clear focus, first by actually defining what “eminence” will mean, then discussing steps that will get the university there.

“We need to think more systematically about the extent to which we plan for the future, so I’m going to talk about strategic planning, the process which we’ve been through for a couple of years now. Just as important, I want to reinforce the reality that academic planning is now driving the planning for all of our support systems from Human Resources to IT to Student Life.”

But much of that kind of process-talk has been out there for a while. One difference in his speech, Alutto said, will be the focus on actual outcomes.

“Obviously, the planning is important. It’s vital to do, and no one can argue about that. But I want to talk about outcomes. The goal of all this is not complicated and I want to define what that means.

“We know that all the ranking systems are different, including our own. But when you ask ‘What are the metrics or indicators of success?’ the answers are fairly consistent: the quality of the faculty, as measured in a variety of ways; the quality of the student body and success after graduation; and finally, the resource base a university can focus on exciting programs of teaching and research.”

The provost will talk about some “simple but nuanced” things to do to improve Ohio State’s performance along those three areas to a point that would be regarded as eminent.

“First, in comparison to our peers, we need to add tenure-track faculty. Second, we need to further improve the student body and the experience they have here. Finally, in order to do these things, we need to grow our resource base by about $5 billion over the next ten years,” he said.

Obviously, those things are much easier to aspire to than to implement.

Adding faculty is complicated because of the decline in the number of doctorates produced, more competition world wide and the expected rise in attrition due to retirement.

Improving the student body, he says, will be complicated by the debate about on-campus housing as well as discussions about the ratio of in-state to out-of-state students.

Which of course leaves the funding discussion. Reallocating current expenditures through savings and increasing annual revenue generation are not controversial. But one-time monetization has already come under fire with the debate over leasing of the parking operation.

“It’s one thing to have the aspiration, but you must have a plan to make it happen and then execute on that plan,” Alutto said. “That’s not just a discussion of resources but also the investments you plan to make.”

And the investment talk goes to two areas: Rewarding faculty and staff for effective, high-impact work (“We have to do that; it’s not an option,” he said) and focusing on three “discovery themes” (health and wellness, food production and security and energy and environment) that the entire university can put its weight behind with focused research and central as well as college and departmental funding.

“If you think about it in a creative way, which is what we’re hoping, we think many people will be able to tie in their areas with one or more of the discovery themes,” he said. “There are opportunities there for just about everyone to work within the discovery themes, if they seek out the connections between the basic science they do in their disciplines and the discovery themes.

“In summary, I will be describing a future in which the experiences of outstanding faculty and students are enriched in a virtuous cycle that is the hallmark of truly eminent universities.”

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