A Warm Welcome for President Holbrook

Photo by Jo McCulty

Professor of English David Citino wrote and read a poem of welcome to new Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook on her first official day Oct. 1. Flanked by members of the Board of Trustees, administrators, faculty, students and the media on the steps of Bricker Hall, Holbrook greeted the University community. A video of Holbrook's welcoming remarks is online at www.osu.edu/features/welcome/.

At its Oct. 4 meeting, the Board of Trustees named Citino Poet Laureate of Ohio State, for his "creativity time and time again to bring us joy at moments of celebration, inspiration on occasions for reflection, and solace at times of profound sadness."

A special edition of onCampus was distributed Oct. 2, featuring Holbrook's background, vision for Ohio State and some candid reflections from her former University of Georgia colleagues. See www.osu.edu/oncampus.

Grant awarded for teaching history in Columbus schools

By Jo McCulty Gene T. Harris, Columbus Public Schools' superintendent, expresses appreciation to trustees for Ohio State's role in awarding the grant.

History partnership between Ohio State and Columbus schools is part of University's P-12 project

Columbus Public Schools will receive a significant boost toward its goal of academic improvement and training more high-quality teachers with a $1 million grant to History WORKS, a partnership that includes Columbus schools, Ohio State's Department of History and the Ohio Historical Society.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded 114 Teaching American History grants nationally to improve the quality of instruction as well as offer professional development and teacher education activities in American history. The Columbus collaboration ranked 12th of 469 applicants and was the highest-ranking proposal in the Midwest.

The history partnership between Ohio State and the Columbus schools is just one initiative of the University's P-12 Project, a program designed to help improve Ohio's schools, particularly in districts that serve children and youths from lower socioeconomic families. The project addresses one of the University's three outreach priorities as defined in the Academic Plan.

Ken Andrien, chair of the Department of History, said History WORKS will increase teachers'knowledge, understanding and appreciation of American history through an intensive, ongoing professional development program.

"If history is taught well, there are a number of ways in which it improves other skills, like reading and writing,"he said. "History WORKS will deliver everything teachers need to mold the Columbus schools history program into one that puts the district into the Academic Excellence category."

The Columbus school system is the nation's 16th largest urban district.

"Improving academic achievement among district students is our number one priority, and this is the kind of partnership that will help us get there,"said Gene T. Harris, Columbus Public Schools'superintendent. "While we have improved in 21 of 22 state standards over the past year, we remain focused on continuing improvement and progress toward academic excellence."

The history department's Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching will coordinate the program. The Goldberg Program already oversees the History Teaching Institute at Ohio State, a three-year-old initiative designed to improve the quality of history teaching in Ohio.

U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Columbus, helped the partnership receive the grant. "In reauthorizing the Teaching American History program as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Congress has recognized the importance of improving teachers'instructional skills and student performance in American history,"she said. "I congratulate Columbus Public Schools, Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society for their partnership on behalf of our children through this most worthwhile project."

History WORKS is laid out over a three-year period with three major components: monthly seminars, summer institutes and a Web-based resource center. The program focuses on improving teachers'understanding of six core themes in American history: Ohio history, the Constitution and American democracy, foreign relations, people of America, economic history and social movements and change. All of the schools'eighth- and ninth-grade and advanced-placement history teachers will participate in the program and will receive graduate credit hours for completing workshops and attending the seminars.

"This program reaffirms our department's long-standing commitment to the community,"Andrien said. "Moreover, the timing of the grant coincides with the introduction of a new set of statewide standards for history and social studies. This investment in improving the quality of education will benefit both teachers and students for many years to come."

The Ohio Historical Society, through its Archives/Library Division, will help teachers identify primary sources to support the development of curriculum and lesson plans, and instruct teachers and students on the use of primary sources in historical research. The society also will provide access to primary source material in the society's vast collections through digitization, traveling kits and classroom visits, and will help develop the History WORKS Web site and host it in conjunction with its own Web site www.ohiohistory.org.

"Education is a primary focus of the Ohio Historical Society,"said Executive Director Gary C. Ness. "Our partnership through the History WORKS program is an exciting opportunity to continue to share the state's history content with educators. By collaborating with Ohio State and Columbus Public Schools on this project, we are able to effectively leverage resources toward the teaching and appreciation of history."

Board approves competitive admissions

Student success is the goal of the new plan

Ohio State's Board of Trustees voted Oct. 4 to apply competitive admission standards year-round beginning autumn 2003 to improve the University's academic profile and retention and graduation rates, all central themes of the Academic Plan. The Plan is part of the University's strategy to make Ohio State one of the nation's top universities.

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Martha Garland said the University's primary interest is student success. "We're now pairing our mandate to provide Ohio citizens with broad access to advanced study with one of equal -- and urgent -- importance: student success. Applying competitive admissions standards year-round allows us to admit the students who are the most qualified and have the highest potential to earn their degree."

Garland said there is a growing divide between the well-prepared students who enter in autumn quarter and those admitted at other times in the academic year. The latest statistics indicate that 31 percent of freshmen who enter in winter quarter and only 18 percent of those entering in spring graduate within six years, compared to 56 percent of those admitted in autumn.

"Data like these prove that admitting students who are not likely to succeed helps neither the University, nor the students. Many will leave school both disillusioned with their experience at OSU and burdened with substantial debt,"Garland said.

Before receiving board approval, University officials consulted with a variety of constituencies who were concerned about access and its effect on the University's diversity, Garland said. Those requesting clarification were reassured that as the University has become more competitive, diversity has actually increased. In fact, this fall's entering class is the most diverse ever, with an estimated 18 percent of students being African-American, Hispanic or American Indian.

"Strategic recruiting and an improving environment on campus for minority students have contributed significantly to our diversity,"she said. Another factor contributing to the diversity of the undergraduate population is that 20 percent of the 3,000 transfer students entering annually are members of minority groups.

To minimize further concerns about access, the University also plans to add 130 freshmen slots in autumn quarter to accommodate some students who might have sought entry in winter or spring. That way, Garland said, the students can benefit from the additional resources first-quarter freshmen receive, as well as being away from their studies only for three to four months, versus six to nine months if they entered in winter or spring quarters.

Statistics show that better-prepared students are more likely to achieve their educational goals, Garland said. While Ohio State began strengthening admissions standards in the late 1980s, retention has increased steadily since 1995, when it was 79 percent. The most recent data show 86 percent of freshmen entering in fall 2000 returned for their sophomore year in 2001, up from 84 percent in 2000 and 82.8 percent in 1999.

Garland said that the University's movement toward more of a "system"approach, as outlined in the report from the Presidential Commission on Regional Campuses, should help ease the admissions process for some. Prospective students applying to Ohio State for autumn quarter 2003 will see one of the commission's first recommendations put into practice: Applicants will be asked to indicate both a first and a second choice of Ohio State campuses they would like to attend. Allowing students to choose their alternate location will help students find a way to attend Ohio State even if they are not admitted to the Columbus campus right away, Garland said.

"By offering students choices on when or where to start, and then providing them the possibility of moving to Columbus after they succeed, we can help students keep their college outlook positive,"Garland said.

Statistics also show that less well-prepared students who spend a year or two on a regional campus do very well once they get to Columbus. "Starting at a smaller, regional campus has attractive benefits to new freshmen who are not only experiencing the challenges of college-level learning, but living on their own for the first time and handling all its associated stresses,"Garland said.

Regardless of when or where a student starts, the Competitive Admissions Plan offers significant benefits to all prospective Ohio State students: a more qualified, more diverse, and better-prepared student body, and accessibility to one of the state's greatest educational resources -- both of which result in more college graduates in the state of Ohio.

"After all, it's not about beginning college at OSU Columbus, it's about getting a degree from Ohio State,"Garland said.

Lecture, reception celebrate women

By Jo McCulty Above, from foreground, Chair of the President's Council on Women's Issues Jackie Royster, President Karen A. Holbrook, lecturer Nancy Hopkins and Director of The Women's Place Judy Fountain, await introduction at the Oct. 1 Diversity Lecture. Hopkins, the Amgen Inc. professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presented "Breaking Through MIT's Glass Ceiling." The lecture, including Holbrook's comments, can be seen at The Women's Place Web site at http://womensplace.osu.edu. Below, Holbrook, chats with Hopkins at the Annual Women's Reception, which followed the lecture.