On target

Diversity and freshman test scores improve, Columbus campus enrollment stabilizes

Columbus campus enrollment at Ohio State has seen a decrease this academic year, primarily reflecting decreased graduate student enrollment and early closure of transfer admissions, as well as an intentional reduction in the size of the freshman class.

Enrollment is 48,003 on the Columbus campus, down 1.0 percent from the 48,511 undergraduate, graduate and professional students attending Ohio State last autumn quarter.

"Our projections have been at or slightly above 48,000 -- we're essentially where we expected to be," said James Mager, assistant vice president for enrollment management.

The student body in 1999 includes the most academically prepared freshman class in Ohio State history, as well as new records for enrollment of African-American and Asian-American students in Columbus.

This year, 3,487 African Americans are enrolled on the Columbus campus, up from the previous record of 3,465 in 1998. Similarly, enrollment of 2,541 Asian-American students in Columbus exceeds the previous record of 2,488 last year.

Total minority enrollment -- also including Hispanics, American Indians and Alaskan natives -- is 7,025, up 1.3 percent from a year ago.

The freshman class also recorded new all-time highs in several categories: highest average ACT score of 24.7; highest percentages in the top 10 and 25 percent of their high school classes, at 29 percent and 62 percent, respectively; the most University Scholars, at 696; the most Honors students, at 1,304; and the most high school valedictorians, at 231. The 104 National Merit Scholars in the class is the highest number of those scholars attending Ohio State in at least a decade.

Final freshman enrollment stands at 5,986 students, down from 6,092 last year. Officials intentionally sought to enroll a class of approximately 5,800, Mager said.

"Last year, we increased the freshman class enrollment to offset expected reductions in other areas of student enrollment resulting from the financial crisis in Asia," Mager said. "We returned to the effort to enroll 5,800 freshmen because we believe that our resources in academics, housing and other student services are better suited to accommodate an incoming freshman class of that size."

The steady recruitment of better-prepared freshmen has led to improvements in retention. The first-year students who began college in autumn 1998 register a retention rate of 83 percent, up from 82 percent for the 1997 entering class, Mager noted.

The decline in graduate student enrollment is attributable to a variety of factors, said Susan Huntington, vice provost for graduate studies and dean of the Graduate School. Enrollment of students pursuing master's degrees and Ph.D.s in Columbus decreased to 9,153 from 9,538 in 1998.

Overall graduate enrollment on all campuses decreased from 10,047 to 9,635.

"The decline in graduate enrollment is part of a national trend. It's happening absolutely everywhere across the country," Huntington said. "It's associated with the strong economy. Undergraduates are being offered high-paying jobs right after graduation that will allow them to pay off loans and reduce their debt. It's hard to compete with that."

Huntington also noted observers of graduate education have seen a decline in interest among Americans to pursue advanced degrees in the sciences and engineering. She said funding agencies are trying to reverse that phenomenon by creating programs encouraging American students to specialize in those disciplines.

Graduate professional student enrollment -- those pursuing degrees in medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry and veterinary medicine on the Columbus campus -- increased slightly, to 2,758 from 2,721 in 1998.

Columbus campus undergraduate enrollment decreased 0.4 percent, to 36,092 from 36,252 last year. Total University undergraduate enrollment increased, though, to 42,596 from 42,465.

Mager said early closure of transfer enrollment affected the number of undergraduates attending the Columbus campus. The University enforced a June 25 application deadline for autumn transfer enrollment because in the past, those admitted after the deadline tended to have difficulty getting into courses and housing.

"We are doing what we can to ensure that transfer students admitted to Ohio State have the best possible chance to be successful," Mager said.

Total University enrollment -- including Columbus plus the four regional campuses and the Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster -- stands at 54,989, down 0.4 percent from 55,233 last year. Even with the overall decrease, all regional campuses saw an increase in enrollment this year.

Among them, ATI, at 1,031, has broken the 1,000 mark in enrollment for the first time in its history, and has experienced four straight years of record-breaking enrollment.

Regional campus enrollment this autumn include: Lima campus, 1,323, up 0.2 percent; Mansfield, 1,573, up 3.7 percent; Marion, 1,176, up 3.1 percent; and Newark, 1,883, up 5.9 percent.

Faculty development focus of report

Commission claims OSU has low number of faculty leaves

Professional development opportunities need to become more emphasized and integrated across campus if faculty are going to maximize their University experience, a faculty group told Ohio State's Board of Trustees at its Nov. 5 meeting.

In a report to trustees, members of the Commission on Faculty Development and Careers recommended that Ohio State make continuing faculty development a "more central concern," and suggested that a new Universitywide program be created to guide faculty development planning efforts.

The commission was formed in 1997 by then-Provost Richard Sisson to address concerns relating to faculty professional development. Faculty development opportunities include faculty leaves, or sabbaticals; special research assignments; computer training; grant writing training; and attending conferences and professional meetings.

The group gathered a wide range of information from several sources, including the provosts' offices at 21 institutions. Also surveyed were faculty and administrators on Ohio State's Columbus campus and four regional campuses.

"Faculty surveyed did not identify any major barriers, but clearly there is room for improvement in the area of faculty development," said Distinguished University Professor Emeritus J. Robert Warmbrod, a faculty member at Ohio State since 1968 and co-chair of the 14-member commission with Vice Provost Nancy M. Rudd.

"We need an institutional culture that plans for some sort of faculty development process," said commission member Sally V. Rudmann, chair of the campus' Faculty Council. "It's our sense that if we want to improve the University academically and move to the next level, we need to develop the best opportunities possible for faculty development across careers that supports continued growth and contributions to the University."

Eighty-four percent of the more than 600 faculty who were surveyed said they were satisfied with their Ohio State experience, and 80 percent said they believe the primary responsibility for professional growth lies with the individual faculty members. But nearly 25 percent of those surveyed said they find it difficult to make and implement long-term plans for professional development.

Especially disturbing to the commission was the finding that, on average, only 183 tenure-track faculty out of 3,000 experienced some type of sabbatical -- or faculty leave -- each year from the 1993-94 academic year to 1996-97.

"The commission concluded that at Ohio State the rate of faculty participation in leaves is not high when compared with other peer universities," Warmrod said. "It appears that the culture of the University is to not really encourage or expect faculty to participate in professional leaves.

"Over their careers, faculty members need to reinvent themselves, to become reengerized, to get up-to-date and develop new specializations."

The most significant of the commission's 16 recommendations was the suggestion to form a Faculty Development Planning and Review program across the University. The recommendation calls for department chairs and faculty to develop a periodic faculty development plan.

A plan might be developed during the first year of a faculty member's probationary period and another in the year following the granting of tenure, Rudd said. Tenure is determined after a faculty member's sixth year on campus. The plan would assist the faculty member in establishing goals mutually beneficial to the faculty member and department and include an agreement on the resources and actions needed, she said.

Rudd, who has been visiting Ohio State colleges this fall to receive input on the report, notes that feedback on this recommendation so far has been positive but with an emphasis on the importance of allowing individual departments and colleges to "implement the concept in a manner that fits their discipline and department culture.

"We do want to assure that the way we implement the recommendations in this report is perceived to be of genuine value to faculty and their departments rather than to be simply more work," Rudd said.

Another recommendation calls for the Office of Academic Affairs to develop guidelines for the creation of faculty development programs for each academic unit.

The commission's report has been widely distributed on campus. It is available on the Web at http://oaa.ohio-state.edu/comfacdevel.html. Responses to the report should be directed to Rudd at rudd.2@osu.edu.

Rudd said the commission expects to forward responses to Executive Vice President and Provost Edward J. Ray by the beginning of winter quarter.

Neighborhood Services benefits from OSU connection

Ohio State is a good neighbor to Neighborhood Services Inc.

Education students work with families, Ohio Staters collect truckloads of canned goods, College of Pharmacy faculty and students provide free flu shots, Hillel students participate in volunteer projects, and Ohio State staff develop databases for sorting out statistics.

Neighborhood Services is a nonprofit charity sponsored by the University Area Council of Churches. It is one of hundreds of Central Ohio health and human services charities faculty and staff are being asked to contribute to for the 1999 Community Charitable Drive.

By Jo McCulty

Lydia Brown of Sandusky, a graduate student in social work, is interning with Neighborhood Services.

Neighborhood Services Inc. reaches out to people in an area roughly bordered by Hudson Street, 11th Avenue, I-71 and the Olentangy River.

"We are primarily a food pantry," said Denise Youngsteadt-Parrish, director of the charity. In 1998, the center served 17,866 individuals food. So far in 1999, it has served 11,293 people.

The center has other services, too. "We have an oasis -- a lounge -- where people can come in, get a cup of coffee, take a nap or read a book," Youngsteadt-Parrish said. "We also have donated clothing and books. All of our stuff is given away. We don't charge for anything."

Judy Richards, coordinator for Project Community through off-campus and commuter services, is one of many volunteers at Neighborhood Services with an Ohio State connection. She started out two years ago helping to coordinate student volunteers in the food pantry, and has stayed on. She currently is developing a computer database which will help the center keep better track of who it is serving.

"I did change my Charitable Drive contribution after I started working here," Richards said. The experience has been an eye-opening one for her. "The food goes out of here so fast. We just can't keep up. There's someone at the counter continuously, and people are only allowed to come in here once a month."

Neighborhood Services Inc. was founded in 1965 as a way for area churches to centralize their outreach efforts. "During the past five years, we've really grown by leaps and bounds," Youngsteadt-Parrish said.

She credits the increased number of clients in part on a recent move to a storefront location at 1950-E N. Fourth St. that is on the busline. She's also expecting welfare reform to have an impact on the number of clients Neighborhood Services assists, as cut-off deadlines for participants in Ohio Works First (OWF) begin in October 2000.

For the past two years, Neighborhood Services has been a part of Greater Columbus Community Shares, one of eight federations that participate in the Community Charitable Drive. The drive, formerly known as the United Way Campaign, was expanded in 1997.

This year's campaign began Nov. 1 and will run through Dec. 10. The goal is set at $670,000. Pledge cards are being distributed by designated coordinators in all departments and units on campus.

This year's federations are: Greater Columbus Community Shares; Community Health Charities (formerly National Voluntary Health Agencies); the Black United Fund of Central Ohio; the United Negro College Fund; and United Way of Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin and Union counties. Each group serves as an umbrella organization for several independent member agencies representing a wide range of health and human services.

Assistance is appreciated, Youngsteadt-Parrish said. "Even though we're small, we're one of the busiest because we're in the most densely populated area of Columbus."

The center provides special services throughout the year. In August, they provided toys and school supplies to 641 children, and will do the project again in December. At Thanksgiving, they'll donate Thanksgiving dinners to 200 families. In January, they'll offer a spring cleaning program in which they donate cleaning supplies to families.

The center sometimes helps people with incidentals, Youngsteadt-Parrish said. In the case of one man, it was a suit for him to wear to his wife's funeral. In the case of three graduating teen-agers, it was paying for them to go to Kings Island with their classmates.

"People's lives are so crazy we can't really anticipate what will come in that door," she said.

For more information about the Community Charitable Drive, call 292-0641 or contact your unit coordinator.

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