By Julia Harris

Ask your average Columbus citizen what the city’s landmark sites and structures are and you’re likely to get a furrowed look in return.

And then the usual suspects will pop up: LeVeque Tower, the Statehouse, maybe the full-scale replica of the Santa Maria, definitely the iconic Ohio Stadium.

What you’re not likely to hear mentioned are places like “The Gates of Hell,” a rugged urban hollow beneath High Street full of graffiti and mythology, or the “Salt Mountain,” a shifting elevation of road salt stored north of I-670.

But to Sarah Cowles, assistant professor of landscape architecture at the Knowlton School of Architecture, these desolate and obscure sites comprise a system of monuments just as telling — if not more so — about the character and culture of Columbus. The story they tell is the subject and substance of the exhibit “The Monuments of Columbus, Ohio,” curated by Cowles and on view at the OSU Urban Arts Space through Dec. 12.

Far left, visitors to “The Monuments of Columbus” exhibit are greeted by “Olentangy Corridor” by Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Studio, Spring 2009; Instructors: Jason Kentner, Jason Brabbs and Jake Boswell; at left, remains of wildlife photographed by Courtney Keys in the quarry she visited.

In the exhibit are photos, mappings, physical constructions and dioramas of several abandoned or outlying sites in and around Columbus, primarily created by students in a seminar Cowles taught last winter.

“The exhibit is a sort of debut, if you will, of the kind of work I am bringing to the school and of the kinds of projects that show how we’re thinking about sites and the Midwest.”

No one brings a keener eye to the Midwestern landscape than Cowles, a relatively recent transplant from San Francisco who first became interested in the “underground” landscape of Columbus while touring her new home on her bicycle.

“There are lots of named places and geography in Columbus, like Goodale Park and the Short North and Highbanks, but then there’s this whole unnamed landscape that is much more fascinating to me because it’s totally overlooked, unstewarded and maybe unsafe,” Cowles said.

It was a dim day and her concrete-walled Knowlton office was as gray as the sky — a surrounding she calls, cheerfully, “brutal” and “macho.” The ruggedness of the setting seems particularly appropriate given her recent adventures roaming and photographing the broken concrete slabs that litter an old railroad yard.

“There’s a really wonderful ruin behind the Lifestyles Community Pavilion; I think it used to be an old homeless encampment,” she said, her eyes gleaming.

“One of my favorite places is a big slab of concrete that’s cracked in the middle so that it collects water; it’s actually become a wetland there with cattails, all kinds of birds, berries and apples. It’s its own underground geography.”

To create the works shown in the exhibit, Cowles’ students first had to choose from among 14 hand-picked sites and spend time exploring, documenting, photographing and generating works of art around that site.

In addition to “The Gates of Hell,” students could choose to explore the old Columbus Coated Fabrics factory site, quarries that were no longer being mined, various gritty urban sites and Oho State’s own Olentangy River Wetlands Research Park.

Cowles smiled. “I learned a lot about the psychology of sending students to abandoned sites in the city. There was either intense curiosity and wonder, or fear and terror for others.”

Courtney Keys, a master’s student in landscape architecture, was one of the former and admits she lucked out in her choice of site, a quarry near the Scioto River that has not been mined in 10 years.

“When I got down in it, I honestly felt like I was completely removed from Columbus and back out west, experiencing the type of sublimity you feel when you’re looking at a Rocky Mountain cliff,” said Keys, herself a former California resident.

“There’s a beautiful succession happening where everything is starting to grow over, and it no longer looks like a post-industrial site. You have these elements of danger, sheer rocky cliffs where the rocks are still somewhat unstable, but then you turn and see prairie-like grasses, and then you turn and see wet meadow… All these different landscapes in one place.”

For Cowles (who admits she spent a good part of her summer swimming in that very quarry), the post-industrial landscape of Columbus is immensely interesting.

“So many factories or industrial sites were shut down and left toxins in the soil, so there’s a lot of reclamation going on,” she said.

“Like with the former coated fabrics factory, where they took the whole site, scraped it clean and put it in a big pile. It’s like a big tomb, like a tomb of the former industrial heart of Columbus.”

IF YOU GO

“The Monuments of Columbus, Ohio” runs through Dec. 12 at the OSU Urban Arts Space, 50 W. Town Street. Hours are Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Call 292-8861 for info or visit their Web site, uas.osu.edu.

WHAT EXACTLY IS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE?

“I think there’s a common misconception that we pick out plants for other people’s yards, and it’s really quite a bit beyond that,” said Courtney Keys, a master’s student in landscape architecture at Knowlton.

So what do they do, exactly?

“We’re not building buildings, but we’re doing everything in between,” said Sarah Cowles, assistant professor of landscape architecture. “It’s often called a synthetic discipline because we put everything together: We deal with infrastructure, we deal with accessibility, we deal with ecology. We have all these worlds we pull from, and we build the landscape.”

Often called “the invisible profession,” landscape architecture is defined by Wickipedia as “the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions that will produce the desired outcome.”

By Julia Harris

Steve Fink has no illusions about the scope of the task before him.

“As soon as my name went out there, a lot of people I know expressed their condolences,” he said with a laugh. “But the way I see it, the conversion process is going to be happening whether I’m part of it or not, and I prefer to take an active role.”

The process he’s referring to, of course, is Ohio State’s conversion from quarters to semesters, according to a calendar adopted last June by the University Senate.

Vice Provost Randy Smith, who’s leading the switch efforts from the Office of Academic Affairs, tapped Fink, an associate professor of English, as a faculty fellow to help him head up the Coordinating Committee that will oversee the conversion.

“I think even those in the university community who are eager to be on semesters know the actual process of converting to semesters is going to be a little bit painful, a little bit messy,” Fink said. “But it’s not an impossible task; it’s been done before by other institutions and there’s no reason to think that our converting to semesters is reinventing the wheel.”

Ohio State is not alone in the journey: A total of 17 institutions of higher learning across the state, including community colleges and technical institutes, also are undergoing this transformation, with more or less the same target deadline. At a summit held last month at Wright State, Fink and representatives from all 17 schools met to have conversation/commiseration about the process, to learn from other institutions that have gone through it and to engage in break-out sessions on hot-button topics like workload, advising and curriculum.

“It was a good beginning,” Fink said. “It was encouraging to me that all of us turned out to be at roughly the same spot in the process.”

That being said, Fink is the first to acknowledge the scope and complexity of the job can be daunting, especially in light of the fact that there’s no clear-cut “roadmap” out there that describes, step by step, how to get from point A to point B. The one thing that is very clear is the need for ongoing, transparent communication as the process moves along, culminating in the autumn 2012 switch.

Toward that end, Smith, Fink and their committee colleagues have launched a monthly e-newsletter, QSU (Quarter-to-Semester Update), that will go out to the entire university community and detail what actions have been taken and what still needs to be done.

The first installment went out Nov. 10 and highlighted a number of mile markers already passed, from creation of a three-tiered structure to coordinate the conversion, establishment of a Web site to keep the university community informed and conversations around key issues like the definition of a semester credit hour and the possible revision of the General Education Curriculum.

“An important component of the curricular shift is considering the impact on the GEC,” Fink said. “The University-Level Advisory Committee on the GEC, chaired by Mark Shanda from the theatre department, is looking at the general principles of the GEC to make sure they’re clear and can be affirmed before moving ahead with the conversion. Ultimately they will make recommendations to the Council on Academic Affairs on what they may see as appropriate adjustments to the GEC.”

Also being developed is a manual that will include information on the rationale behind the switch, templates academic units can use for submitting courses and programs and timelines indicating when colleges can submit courses for approval.

“We’re generating very specific templates programs can use as they move course conversions through the system,” Fink said. “One of the functions of this manual is to offer some concrete guidance and guidelines. And we’re on schedule for releasing it in December.”

Though the process is in its infancy here at Ohio State — Fink says the committees have only been nose-to-the-grindstone this past quarter — deadlines are already looming, particularly when he considers the flashpoint issue of the shortened “mini semester” in the new academic calendar.

“Everyone’s wondering what this May Term is going to be for students and faculty,” Fink said. “There’s going to be a fair amount of autonomy for colleges and units to decide how they want to use it, but it’s still a big question as to what’s possible with it, what the constraints and opportunities are.”

Even with all the big questions and bigger challenges, Fink remains cautiously optimistic about the overall conversion process. “I feel that my job is not to be Pollyanna-ish or complacent but to make sure we don’t miss anything,” he said. “Let’s try to get things right. If that means I have to weather a fair amount of criticism for the next three years, so be it.”

People with relatively extreme opinions may be more willing to publicly share their views than those with more moderate views, according to a new study.

The key is that the extremists have to believe that more people share their views than actually do, the research found.

Kimberly Rios Morrison says her study may help explain the fractured political climate in the US.

The results may offer one possible explanation for our fractured political climate in the United States, where extreme liberal and conservative opinions often seem to dominate.

“When people with extreme views have this false sense that they are in the majority, they are more willing to express themselves,” said Kimberly Rios Morrison, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.

How do people with extreme views believe they are in the majority? This can happen in groups that tend to lean moderately in one direction on an issue. Those that take the extreme version of their group’s viewpoint may believe that they actually represent the true views of their group, Morrison said.

One example is views about alcohol use among college students.

In a series of studies, Morrison and her co-author found that college students who were extremely pro-alcohol were more likely to express their opinions than others, even though most students surveyed were moderate in their views about alcohol use.

“Students who were stridently pro-alcohol tended to think that their opinion was much more popular than it actually was,” she said.”

Morrison conducted the study with Dale Miller of Stanford University. Their research appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

The studies were done at Stanford University, which had a policy of prohibiting alcohol usage in common areas of all freshman dorms. In the first study, 37 students were asked to rate their own views about this policy. The average student’s views were near the mid-point of the scale — but most rated the typical Stanford student as more pro-alcohol than themselves.

“There’s this stereotype that college students are very pro-alcohol, and even most college students believe it,” Morrison said.

In the next two studies, students again rated themselves on similar scales that revealed how pro-alcohol they were. They were then asked how willing they would be to discuss their views on alcohol use with other Stanford students.

In general, students who were the most pro-alcohol were the most likely to say they wanted to express their views, compared to those with moderate or anti-alcohol views.

However, in one study the researchers added a twist: they gave participants fake data that indicated other Stanford students held relatively conservative, anti-alcohol views.

When extremely pro-alcohol students viewed this data, they were less likely to say they were willing to discuss alcohol usage with their fellow students.

“It is only when they have this sense that they are in the majority that extremely pro-alcohol students are more willing to express their views on the issue,” Morrison said.

However, students who had more extreme anti-alcohol views were not more likely to want to express their views, even when they saw the data that suggested a majority of their fellow students agreed with them.

“Their views that they are in the minority may be so deeply entrenched that it is difficult to change just based on our one experiment,” she said.

This finding shows that not all extremists are more willing to share their opinions — only those who hold more extreme versions of the group’s actual views.

These results have implications for how Americans view the political opinions of their communities and their political parties, Morrison said.

Take as an example a community that tends to be moderate politically, but leans slightly liberal.

People with more extreme liberal views in the community may be more likely than others to express their views because they think the community supports them.

“Everyone else sees these extreme opinions being expressed on a regular basis and they may eventually come to believe their community is more liberal than it actually is,” Morrison said. “The same process could occur in moderately conservative communities.”

By Jeff McCallister

Terry Conlisk had been invited to present a paper at a prestigious conference, and for efficiency’s sake, he figured it best to take his presentation on his laptop computer.

But as he planned his trip, it occurred to him that as a professor of mechanical engineering, his computer likely contained information — from login encryption software to certain other programs even to some of his own research — that the United States government may not exactly appreciate him taking with him; the conference, the International Workshop on Continuum Modeling of Biomolecules, was in Beijing, China.

So part of his planning for the trip included a call to the Office of Research Compliance, which is charged with overseeing the university’s export controls policy.

Export controls regulate both items (such as laptops, GPS units, cell phones) and some types of research information (such as restricted or proprietary data). Whether the item or information is regulated is based on the specific item as well as where the item is going.

Non-compliance with export controls can result in heavy fines and criminal charges against the individual involved and sanctions against the university. It can result in the loss of research contracts, governmental funding and the ability to export items.

“To be honest, I think faculty are about 90 to 95 percent completely ignorant of the entire policy,” Conlisk said. “It’s just something that in general they do not think about.”

While the vast majority of research done at Ohio State is shielded from export controls under the fundamental research exclusion — basic and applied research, the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the scientific community — there are numerous examples of instances that could trigger export controls, according to Jennifer Yucel, Ohio State’s export controls administrator.

Some examples are: Research in export restricted science and engineering areas such as military articles, nuclear technology, select biological agents or toxins and satellite technology; traveling overseas with high-tech equipment, confidential, unpublished or proprietary information or data, sponsored research containing contractual restrictions on publication or dissemination. Even the sharing of certain information with a foreign national (and even if that person is, say, one of a professor’s own graduate students) is covered by export controls.

“It’s a very complicated set of regulations, administered by three different departments of the US government,” Yucel said. “We don’t expect anyone to know everything about what’s covered, so we would strongly urge anyone traveling across the border to get in touch with this office to make sure everything’s in order first. Our primary goal is to make sure that people have the correct information if they are asked for it when traveling.”

Conlisk, for example, decided to take his laptop, but first backed it up on an exterior hard drive and purged the computer of any files that could have been export controlled. He then had Yucel’s office take a look and issue any necessary paperwork for anything he had left.

“They tell you you could very well get your laptop confiscated at the border, either when you enter another country or when you’re coming back to the US,” Conlisk said. “If you don’t have the right licenses and such, it really could ruin your day.”

In the end, Conlisk said that thanks to the advance preparation, his trip to Beijing went off without a hitch. “It was rather pleasant,” he said. “I was surprised how easy it actually was.”

A copy of the Ohio State policy on export controls as well as general information and FAQs on export controls can be found at orc.osu.edu/exportcontrol/index.cfm.

Ohio State ranks as one of the nation’s top 20 universities for its international student enrollment and the number of students studying abroad, according to a national report.

Ohio State is ranked 14th among the nation’s colleges and universities for hosting 4,583 international students and 20th with 1,704 students studying abroad. Ohio State also ranks sixth in the nation with 1,449 students studying abroad on short-term programs. Short-term programs are defined as taking place during the summer, January term or for eight weeks or less during the academic year.

These findings were issued as part of the Open Doors 2009 report, an annual survey published by the Institute of International Education.

“As the importance of international and cultural exchange becomes an increasingly critical component of a student’s education, Ohio State is developing a plan that will give us a presence in key locations around the world,” said William Brustein, Ohio State’s new vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. “Our national rankings provide us with a good foundation from which we can build.”

Brustein recently joined Ohio State and is responsible for integrating international and multicultural experiences to the academic units within the university and expanding and enhancing its global reach.

He is developing plans for Ohio State to open “Global Gateways” that will serve as a central location in another country or region of the world where the university will be able to engage alumni, recruit international students, foster partnerships for faculty with universities abroad and enhance study abroad opportunities for students. Ohio State would start with Global Gateways in China, India and Brazil.

Also part of Ohio State’s strategy is to provide international learning experiences that will be based on global competency skills. “In today’s world students need to be globally aware and familiar with global change,” Brustein said. “They must be able to adapt to diverse cultures and be able to communicate across cultural boundaries. And students must be able to comprehend the international dimension of their field of study.

“We are preparing a strategy that will ensure our students will succeed in this new and changing global marketplace.”

International students at Ohio State are from 119 different countries including China (1,161); India (876); South Korea (820); Taiwan (272) and Indonesia (122). Nationally, the leading home countries for international students are India, China, South Korea, Japan and Canada.

The most popular destinations for Ohio State students to study abroad include United Kingdom, Italy, China, France, Germany and Spain. Nationally, the leading destinations for studying abroad are the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China.

The Open Doors 2009 report is released as part of the nationwide observance of International Education Week (Nov. 16-20), a joint initiative established by the US departments of Education and State.

At Ohio State, the week is celebrated with a number of activities sponsored by the Office of International Affairs, which oversees Ohio State’s study abroad programs and international student and scholar services.

The office also advances high quality international education programs, scholarships and service activities to promote global opportunities for Ohio State, its faculty, staff and students.

Brustein began early on path to internationalization

Shortly after John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States, the nation as a whole began to reach out across its borders to help developing areas around the world. It was in that setting that a young Connecticut high school student named William Brustein first started developing international relationships in education.

He participated in the formation and led a student group that began helping schools in third-world nations get needed supplies and other aid.

The group gained impressive notoriety — when basketball player Meadowlark Lemon heard of what had become a widespread effort started by a high school student, he brought his team, the Harlem Globetrotters, to play a benefit game to raise money.

Former Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff lauded the group’s efforts (which by then was helping schools in Nigeria, India and Peru) in a speech to the US Senate, calling out Brustein and the group as examples others around the nation could follow.

“From very early on, I’ve always been fascinated with other cultures,” Brustein said. “My father was a journalist, and from a young age, I had access to newspapers from around the world and I read them all the time.”

By the time he arrived as an undergrad at the University of Connecticut, he already was well advanced on the career path that has brought him to Ohio State as vice provost for global strategies and international affairs.

He participated in exchange programs as a student and professor in Italy, Germany, France and England and talked his way into a junior-year abroad program in France, even though at the time his French wasn’t quite good enough to qualify. He brought it up to speed in time and found himself participating in the French student uprising of 1968.

He’s since gone on to become one of the most respected and accomplished leaders in internationalizing higher education in the US, directing international programs at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before arriving at Ohio State.

He’s already made a mark here, helping to shape the report and recommendations of the President’s and Provost’s Council on Strategic Internationalization that has developed the university’s international goals.

Ohio State has afforded me the wonderful opportunity to focus on developing the initiatives,” he said. “Because we have Dieter Wanner to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Office of International Affairs, my charge is to spend my time developing these global strategies, how to make the best use of Ohio State’s depth, breadth and reach to fulfill the land-grant mission. It’s been a fascinating experience already and I’m excited about the things to come.”

Now, Ohio State is preparing to offer vaccines to spouses, domestic partners and dependents of faculty, staff and students who meet the CDC guidelines for high-risk priority.

Those are:

• Pregnant women.
• Caregivers of children 6 months of age or younger.
• Children 6 months to 17 years of age.
• Young adults, 18-24, with chronic underlying health conditions.

Those wishing to register a dependent, spouse or domestic partner for the H1N1 vaccine should call 292-3581 or 4-4161. Callers will need a BuckID or employee ID to access the telephone-based registration system.

Faculty, students and staff who have not registered for the vaccine are still encouraged to do so, but they will not be contacted until high-risk populations first have been inoculated.

The registration process is the same: Call 292-3581 or 4-4161 with a BuckID or employee ID.

Employees will be notified via e-mail once they’ve completed the registration process for either themselves, their spouse, domestic partner or dependents. A second e-mail will be sent at a later date, to notify those who have registered when the spouse, domestic partner or dependent’s inoculation can be scheduled.

This e-mail also will provide instructions and an access code that will be needed to make the appointment.

Employees will be asked to accompany their spouse, domestic partner or dependents to the vaccination site or to provide the proper Ohio State identification or insurance card.

Supervisors are asked to share this information with those employees who may not have seen it elsewhere, to inform them of the registration process, then remind them to check their e-mail daily for vaccine notification.

Anyone with questions about the process may send an e-mail to emergencymanagement@dps.ohio-state.edu.

More information about the telephone registration is available at flu.osu.edu.

By Jeff Grabmeier, Research Communications

For sports fans watching their favorite team play, the greatest enjoyment comes with a strong dollop of fear and maybe even near-despair, a new study suggests.

Fans get more enjoyment out of the games they watch when they experience some negative emotions during the game.

Researchers studied fans of two college football teams as they watched the teams’ annual rivalry game on television.

They found that fans of the winning team who, at some point during the game, were almost certain their team would lose, ended up thinking the game was the most thrilling and suspenseful.

“You don’t want to be in a great mood during the whole game if you really want to enjoy it,” said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, associate professor of communication and co-author of the study.

“We found that negative emotions play a key role in how much we enjoy sports.”

The study will appear in the December issue of the Journal of Communication.

Researchers studied 113 college students as they watched the 2006 OSU-Michigan football game.  While the game has always been a bitter rivalry, the stakes were particularly high that year: Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the country and Michigan was second. The winner was assured of a berth in the BCS National Championship game.

Ohio State won the game 42-39 in a dramatic finish.

“Ohio State was winning easily in the first half, but the good thing for our study was that Michigan really tightened the game in the second half. It turned out to be a great game,” said Prabu David, associate professor of communication and study co-author.

Students from Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State participated in the study. Before the game, they completed questionnaires about which team they were rooting for and how committed they were to their favorite team.

They then watched the game on television from wherever they wanted and logged on to a Web site during the 24 commercial breaks to answer questions about the likelihood that their favorite team would win, how suspenseful they thought the game was and how positively or negatively they were feeling at the moment.

The results showed how important negative emotions were to enjoyment of the game.

“When people think about entertainment in general, they think it has to be fun and pleasurable. But enjoyment doesn’t always mean positive emotions,” David said.

“Sometimes enjoyment is derived by having the negative emotion and then juxtaposing that with the positive emotion.”

Results showed that positive feelings during the game had the greatest effect on suspense, but negative feelings also played a role.

In the past, researchers have thought of positive and negative emotions experienced in entertainment as cancelling each other out, David said. But this research suggests that both positive and negative emotions act independently and together to contribute to entertainment and enjoyment.

“You need the negative emotions of thinking your team might lose to get you in an excited, nervous state,” Knobloch-Westerwick said. “If your team wins, all that negative tension is suddenly converted to positive energy, which will put you in a euphoric state.”

That’s why the fans of the winning team who felt the most sense of enjoyable suspense were also those who at some point were most convinced their team would lose, she said.

David said the results of this study closely followed those of a previous study he did with colleagues that examined fan reaction during the 2006 Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.

The results of that study also showed the importance of negative feelings in contributing to how much fans enjoyed the game.

“Obviously, winning helps people enjoy a game. But we’re finding that it doesn’t help to have a game where you have positive feelings the whole game — negative feelings are an important part of enjoying a game,” he said.

While some people may question the purpose of studying fan reactions to a football game, the researchers say the study has important implications.

For one, sports provide a unique opportunity to study how emotions operate in people.

“Researchers want to study the impact of emotions, but it is very difficult to create powerful emotional reactions in a laboratory setting,” David said.

“This is a study that was done in the real world, and we can get a snapshot into a person’s emotional state while they are actually experiencing the emotion. Sports creates emotions that are very powerful, and which matter to people.”

By Adam King

Richelle Simonson found herself far outside her comfort zone, standing inside a circle of chairs at the Longaberger Alumni House in front of a sizeable group of fellow OSU employees, most of whom she had never met.

She had the group’s rapt attention, though, as she talked about changing the way they approached their jobs and how to better collaborate with one another through understanding personality types and removing real or perceived obstacles.

Richelle Simonson is one of many new disciples of the “Be Here Now” work concept at Ohio State. Photo by Adam King.

Simonson had just finished her own training on these and other concepts, and this was her first foray as a newly minted facilitator — an OSU employee who volunteers to help President Gordon Gee change the workplace culture one unit or department at a time. Simonson is one of 22 facilitators who have been recruited and trained to host sessions across campus to help build a high-performance workforce, an integral part of Gee’s six imperatives needed to bring the university from excellence to eminence.

“There’s a unique opportunity for us right now to get even better,” said Simonson, senior director for strategic services at Facilities, Operations and Development, who has been at OSU for 18 years. “It’s about attaining whatever our maximum potential is. It’s a huge undertaking. It has long-ranging ramifications, it won’t be easy and it will take a lot of work and commitment. But the institution is ready, and I think Ohio State is an outstanding place to work and I believe in it.”

Her belief in OSU is so strong she was willing to put aside her own fears of whether she could successfully present the concepts, many of which Simonson had fundamentally ingrained in her work ethic. But never before had she seen the concepts packaged in a way many could so easily understand.

Yet going through the training, Simonson found her own bedrock foundation was able to shift in new ways.

“For me I’ve changed in that I’m still being assertive and willing to push agendas forward, but I try to do it in a way that embraces everyone, no matter what their style is,” Simonson said. “I’ve had to be much more conscientious in that this is how I’m a controlling style and this is how I approach this. Those competing personality styles, they approach it from a completely different perspective.

“Because of the culture-shaping process, I’m actually very quickly able to identify where they’re at in their style or their approach and adjust mine accordingly so that we can be more effective. I also do a lot of coaching and feedback now with people I might not have approached in the past.”

It’s that personal buy-in to the culture shaping that is critical for facilitators to be effective, said Todd Suddeth, program director for the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male, who began facilitating in October.

Working at the university since 2002 has been an “incredible journey,” he said, because it’s made him a better person and raised his quality of life. He felt driven to give something back and believed helping shape the OSU culture would deliver the biggest return on his time investment.

“Work performance is something I’ve always been interested in,” Suddeth said. “One of the main things I want people to take away from these retreats is just be curious as to the direction President Gee wants to take the university, curious about what culture plays in any organization and how culture shows up in what we do at the university and curious about thinking differently: What can I do? What can I do better? Can the sessions be effective in making me an effective employee and make my teams more effective? Will I have better relationships with my coworkers? A lot of that starts with being curious and actually trying something different.”

Those who agree to become facilitators take a big leap toward trying something different. They have to take two weeks off from their jobs to go through intensive training and then lead two-day “unfreezing retreats” as well as follow-up half-day sessions that reinforce the concepts they teach. The facilitators also meet with each other once a month to go over their successes and struggles.

And the president himself seems pleased with their results.

“When I first met with the facilitators last spring, I told them that they were like drum majors — setting the direction and leading the charge,” said Gee. “They are doing a superb job as champions for positive and lasting change at the university, helping to create a campus culture that isvibrant, innovative and fully supportive of shared successes.”

Ohio State staff members have been trained as facilitators to conduct "unfreezing sessions" and help more the university from excellence to eminence.

Peer-to-peer interaction

A key element to making OSU’s culture change a success is having university employees teach the sessions. The facilitators live and breathe the current culture and understand university jargon.

“The trust level is higher if you see fellow employees who have bought into the process and taken time out of their regular work schedules to do this,” said Todd Suddeth, who started facilitating in October. “Those going through the sessions might say, ‘If this person is taking time out of their schedule, there must be something to this and this person must believe in this process. Since they have experience working here and they see this is something that can work better in their department, maybe I should take this seriously to improve what’s going on in my area.’”

New facilitators are likely to be recruited in 2010, and Richelle Simonson, who became a facilitator this year, said it’s important those new trainers come from all employment levels.

“Having a good mix of facilitators is going to strengthen this program,” she said. “It was a huge growth experience for me. But I also learned that there are a tremendous number of talented people on this campus who are fundamentally committed to making us better. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds, but at the end of the day, there’s a love for this campus and people want to do what’s right so individuals and teams can grow and the institution can achieve whatever its destiny is.”

Jesse Owens’ oldest daughter, Gloria Owens Hemphill, speaks at the Statuary Committee Hearing on Jesse Owens in the Thompson Library’s Campus Reading Room, Nov. 6.

Ohio State is leading an initiative to have a statue of legendary track star Jesse Owens represent the state of Ohio in the US Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

The university presented its case to members of the National Statuary Collection Study Committee Nov. 6 in the Campus Reading Room at Thompson Library.

“Jesse Owens was not only a stellar athlete, but a true diplomat for humanity,” said Rusty Wilson, an Ohio State alumnus, staff member and author of the book, The Ohio State University at the Olympics. “His athletic accomplishments have long been surpassed, and although he has been gone for more than 29 years, he still is recognized the world over more for his triumph over adversity and tyranny.

“In fact, whenever I travel abroad and mention The Ohio State University, people respond ‘Ah, Jesse Owens’ university.’ It’s clear he is considered the ultimate Olympian and example of all that is positive in sport,” said Wilson.

Wilson was one of several university and community representatives who spoke to the committee on the appropriateness of Owens’ selection. Speakers also included Ohio State alumnae Marlene Owens Rankin, who is Owens’ daughter, and Stephanie Hightower, a former student athlete and Olympic track star, as well as alumnus and former student-athlete Rob Oller, a Columbus Dispatch columnist.

Rankin is vice president and managing director of The Jesse Owens Foundation.

The National Statuary Hall houses 100 marble statues — two from each state — of individuals of notable historic importance who reflect and represent the values of their native state. Ohio has been represented by President James A. Garfield, chosen in 1886, and William Allen, chosen in 1887. In 2000, Ohio’s General Assembly decided to replace the statue of Allen, a former governor who opposed Lincoln’s emancipation of the slaves. The study committee has been charged with finding a suitable replacement.

Owens, who grew up in Cleveland, broke several world records while competing for Ohio State in 1935. He made history at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by winning four gold medals in track and field, thwarting Adolf Hitler’s intention of proving Aryan superiority at the Games.

Forty years after he won his gold medals, Owens received the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter honored Owens with a Living Legend Award, and, in 1990, President George H. W. Bush awarded him a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal.

Owens died in 1980.

Humanities Distinguished Professor of History Kevin Boyle will speak at Ohio State’s autumn quarter commencement.

About 2,100 students will receive degrees at the ceremony, which begins at 2 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Schottenstein Center.

Boyle, who teaches 20th-century American history with an emphasis on class, race and politics, received the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2004 for Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age.

Arc of Justice also received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Tolerance Book Award and the Society of Midland Authors Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It also was named a New York Times notable book for 2004, a State of Michigan notable book for 2005 and the 2007 selection for the Detroit metropolitan area’s community-wide reading program.

Boyle’s other books include The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945-1968; Muddy Boots and Ragged Aprons: Images of Working-Class Detroit, 1900-1930, which he co-authored with Victoria Getis; and an edited volume, Organized Labor and American Politics, 1894-1994: the Labor-Liberal Alliance.

He is at work on a new book, The Splendid Dead: An American Ordeal, which is to be published by Houghton Mifflin.

His articles have appeared in Diplomatic History, The Journal of American History, Labor History, The Michigan Historical Review and various anthologies.

He also has published essays and reviews in The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, Inc. Magazine, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Boyle has held fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

In 1997-98 he held the Mary Ball Washington Chair in American History at University College Dublin in Ireland. He serves on the advisory board for the Walter P. Reuther Library and on the editorial boards of Labor History and Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. He also is a Fellow of the Society of American Historians and a member of the PEN American Center.

During the ceremony, Ohio State will award the honorary doctor of public service to Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, the president of Iceland.

The university also will present Distinguished Service Awards to Mildred Chavous, retired staff member of Ohio State’s Graduate School, and Jack Creighton, a 1957 graduate of the Moritz College of Law and Strategic Director of Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle-based venture capital company.