Heritage Festival wraps up

By Jo McCulty Members of the Alpha Nu Omega Step and Mime team perform in the "Ahali" Gospel Concert April 27 in the Ohio Union West Ballroom. The concert was one of the concluding events during the week-long African American Heritage Festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

Brueggemeier appointed dean of College of Pharmacy

Robert W. Brueggemeier has been named dean of the College of Pharmacy, effective July 1 through June 30, 2008. The appointment was approved by the Board of Trustees at the May 2 meeting.

Brueggemeier succeeds John M. Cassady, who is stepping down June 30 after serving as dean for 15 years. Cassady will return to the faculty.

Robert Brueggemeier

Brueggemeier joined Ohio State in 1979 and became chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in 1992. He has concurrently served as director of the Radiochemistry and Instrumentation Support Laboratories in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1979 and as program director of the center's Hormones and Cancer Program since 1985.

"Bob's strong credentials and outstanding record of accomplishment as an administrator, scholar and researcher are extremely impressive," said Executive Vice President and Provost Ed Ray. "His scholarship is reflected by his fellowships in the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a leader of great integrity with strong personal skills who, after a lengthy national search, I believe is best qualified and prepared to guide the college forward, building upon the substantial accomplishments of colleagues in pharmacy under the leadership of John Cassady."

Brueggemeier's research focuses in the areas of steroid chemistry and biochemistry, hormones and cancer, medicinal chemistry, and radiochemistry. He is the principal or co-principal investigator on several research grants funded by the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command. His primary teaching responsibilities include undergraduate, professional pharmacy and graduate-level courses in the general areas of medicinal chemistry and biochemistry. He received his Ph.D. and master's degrees from the University of Michigan, and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School.

"I am excited about assuming the deanship of the College of Pharmacy on July 1," Brueggemeier said. "Our college's outstanding reputation and excellent academic programs are reflections of our high-quality faculty, students, staff and alumni. This is what attracted me here years ago as a junior faculty member and continues to keep me excited about the opportunities for the future. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the college and the university as we move forward to the next level."

University names new dean of MAPS

Chair of applied science at UC-Davis chosen to succeed Gold

Richard R. Freeman was approved as dean of the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, effective Aug. 1 through June 30, 2008, by the Board of Trustees at its May 2 meeting.

Freeman, the Edward Teller Professor and Chair of the Department of Applied Science at the University of California at Davis, will succeed Robert Gold, who retires June 30 after seven years as dean and 35 years of service to the university.

Richard R. Freeman

Freeman previously spent 20 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories in research-centered management positions as well as in business development, ultimately serving as associate director of strategic planning and business. He also served as deputy director for laser programs and science adviser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. Internationally known and respected in the field of lasers and their applications, he has an extensive scholarly record with numerous publications in major technical journals, and his research resulted in six patents on devices and processes related to microelectronics.

"Dr. Freeman has a strong background in both the academic and corporate worlds, holding senior management positions within AT&T, and leading an excellent research unit at UC-Davis," said Ed Ray, executive vice president and provost. "He has a proven record of collaborative partnerships at national laboratories, and I am certain the college will benefit enormously from his experience and leadership."

After earning his doctorate in physics at Harvard University in 1973, Freeman spent 22 years in commercial and government research before joining the faculty at UC-Davis, where he spent the next five years. As professor and department chair, Freeman also taught graduate and undergraduate students.

"The university is very fortunate, and I am extremely pleased that Dr. Freeman has agreed to join Ohio State," said President Karen Holbrook. "He is an exceptional scholar. Not only is he a visionary leader but a great scientist who will promote Ohio State's national position in laser research. He will also be a wonderful role model for students."

"It is an honor to be chosen to lead the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and I am delighted to be coming to Ohio State," Freeman said. "The college has an excellent reputation, and the depth and breadth of its teaching and research programs are impressive. I look forward to working with such outstanding faculty, staff and students."

Spotlight on success

Five technology projects recognized for innovation

By RANDY GAMMAGE, onCAMPUS staff

The creation of an innovative "buffet model" for teaching Introductory Statistical Concepts -- designed to satisfy a wide range of individual learning styles -- has resulted in improved retention rates and substantially reduced the cost-per-student.

In addition to improving learning and using instructional time more effectively, the redesign of the course will produce cost savings to the university of about $200,000 per year, said Dennis Pearl, professor of mathematical and physical sciences.

Pearl is project director of the Statistical Buffet, one of five separate Ohio State technology projects selected as 2003 Computerworld Honors Laureate Awards winners (see sidebar, this page). All five projects received awards in April in San Francisco, and became part of an archived collection that includes 300 of the year's most innovative applications of technology.

Two of the five Ohio State projects, Statistical Buffet and the Web Media Collective (project director Diane Dagefoerde, Humanities), have advanced to join 60 Computerworld finalists from 16 countries that will be honored on June 2 at a black-tie gala at Washington, D.C.'s National Building Museum. Finalists were selected by a panel of judges on the basis of benefit to society, importance of information technology, originality, success and difficulty.

"Ohio State is using information technology to make great strides toward remarkable social achievement in education and academia," said Daniel Morrow, executive director of the Computerworld Honors Program.

Founded in 1988, the honors program searches for and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated vision and leadership as they strive to use information technology in innovative ways across 10 categories, ranging from "Education and Academia" to "Media, Arts and Entertainment."

The chairs or chief executive officers of the 100 top information technology companies in the world select the award winners.

Case studies from the 2003 collection are available at www.cwheroes.org, where the entire collection is available to scholars, researchers and the general public worldwide.

Statistical Buffet

Pearl said the Statistical Buffet model provides students a choice of content delivery strategies in a multi-section course. The choice is exercised through an online contract informed by a detailed self-assessment and the testimony of previous learners. Automated course administration and individualized Web content optimizes each student's experience and success while decreasing costs.

"It's the design of our course that is the most exciting aspect because we've shown that large classes are not necessarily bad," Pearl said. "We can take a big class and offer individualized instruction so that individuals can get even more personalized instruction than a student in a smaller class."

Introductory Statistical Concepts enrolls 3,000 students each year. While a 1990 redesign optimized the course for an entire group, too many individuals continued to struggle.

"The problem was always that, no matter how well you teach there has always been around 20 percent that would withdraw from class at some point," Pearl said.

In his quest to reduce that number, Pearl came up with the food analogy, saying that a large class at a public university should be more like a Las Vegas buffet that provides a desirable meal to large numbers of people with variable appetites and tastes.

Since first serving up the buffet model in spring 2002, the number of class withdrawals has been reduced from 21 percent to 13 percent, Pearl said.

The course redesign is a collaborative effort drawing on expertise from the Department of Statistics, Technology Enhanced Learning and Research, and the Office of Faculty and TA Development.

Web Media Collective

The Web Media Collective is a group of faculty, staff and students in the colleges of Humanities, Arts and Architecture who are working together to find cost-effective ways to make knowledge created at Ohio State available across disciplines and to audiences beyond the university.

The collaboration was born in 1998 when, after realizing they were struggling with the same kinds of problems, the parties involved committed to cutting through the red tape, sharing resources and making things work on a grassroots level, Dagefoerde said. The results are impressive: six digital media collections containing more than 850,000 media assets that will reach over 20,000 students in 105 course sections annually.

This has been accomplished on a relatively small budget: the five-year funding (1998-2003) total for shared infrastructure, application development and support was approximately $260,000, Dagefoerde said.

Information on all of the Ohio State projects can be found on the Web at https://secure.cwheroes.org/briefingroom_2003/search.asp. Use a keyword search for Ohio State and all of the projects will be displayed.

Workgroup offers tips to reduce unwanted mail

Paper and electronic spam at work annoying to all, offensive to some

By JONI BENTZ SEAL, onCAMPUS staff

A recent increase in advertising mailings and solicitations to faculty and staff caused many to wonder how private companies had access to campus address information.

In response, Larry Lewellen, associate vice president of human resources, asked University Relations to convene a workgroup to investigate such mailings, determine if the university's databases were secure, and then to discuss possible ways to eliminate or reduce these mailings. Members of this workgroup included representatives from the offices of the Chief Information Officer and Information Technology, Campus Mail Services, Human Resources, Legal Affairs and University Relations. The workgroup met to discuss the issues and suggest a response to the university community.

The conclusion? While the university does not voluntarily supply employee mailing information, dedicated and financially-motivated parties can recreate the campus mailing database in a variety of ways, resulting in mail solicitations that the university must deliver to the addressee by law.

The university's position

"The university never sells employee information to private firms nor does it voluntarily allow companies to solicit employees," Lewellen said. "And when the university contracts with an outside vendor, such as a pharmaceutical company or health-care provider who requires employee information, the vendor must sign and be held to a strict confidentiality agreement."

As a public institution, Ohio State must adhere to state laws requiring the disclosure of public information, such as names, work addresses and telephone numbers. "Thankfully," Lewellen said, "this rarely happens." Typically, the university is at the mercy of entrepreneurial enterprises that write programs to query the university's directory, or -- for the really motivated -- purchase a copy of the printed directory and retype the information into a mailing or addressing program. Once created, vendors can use this list for their own mailings, and even sell it legitimately to other companies and organizations.

Restricting the availability of the directory to only on-campus inquiries, or eliminating it altogether were not options, according to Lewellen, as the workgroup found the directory an immense value to the business of the university.

Mail delivery: it's the law

With the university compelled by federal regulations to deliver third-class mail, which is the typical postage-rate for bulk-mail solicitations -- regardless of the content matter, the workgroup suggested departments place trash/recycle bins and shredders adjacent to mailboxes for easy disposal of unwanted materials.

"Unfortunately, the workgroup found that the authority to request removal of names from e-mail, telephone and mailing lists applies only to residential addresses," Lewellen said. "While the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse offers consumers opportunities to protect their personal privacy, there are no options for employees who want to protect their privacy at work."

Steps to take

While OIT has installed a number of speed bumps to combat automated harvesting of the online directory, they acknowledge it cannot be prevented altogether. But, there are a number of steps individuals can take to reduce unsolicited, annoying or offensive mail. According to the workgroup, the most powerful way to reduce or eliminate these mailings is for faculty and staff to complain directly to the vendor, and let them know their mailings are unwanted and are creating ill will toward their company. The workgroup also suggested not using a work address for the delivery of personal packages and catalogs. This not only lessens the burden on the mail services staff who must handle those personal packages, but may reduce the likelihood that a work address will be used or sold in the future.

Lewellen acknowledges these measures will reduce the mailings, but not eliminate them. "It is a frustrating problem, and one that won't completely go away," he said. He also noted that the First Amendment creates a double-edged sword for the university in this case. "The amendment that ensures our academic freedoms is the same one that protects the vendors' rights to market their products. We may find their solicitations unwanted and sometimes offensive, but they are not illegal," Lewellen said.

For suggestions on how to reduce the amount of electronic spam received at work, review "Tips to Avoid Receiving Spam E-mail," which can be found at www.oit.ohio-state.edu/infopages/spam.html.