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News from the Office of the President
Together, Braving a New Frontier
The archived webcast of the 2011 Faculty and Staff Convocation, which was held at the Margaret M. Walter Hall Rotunda, is available on the web.
Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis' Prepared Presidential Address
Thank you Distinguished Professor Halliday! I too want to welcome you to the second annual Faculty and Staff Convocation.
It is wonderful to have everyone back home on our campuses. As we begin the important work of another academic year, I appreciate your taking time to join with me to celebrate what we accomplished together last year. We also recognize the daily effort that is crucial to the important work of educating students and fostering their development.
I want to extend a special welcome to:
• New faculty members
• And new staff members
Welcome to Ohio University! We are very pleased to have you as the newest members of our family!
I also want to welcome the newest member of my leadership team. For eight months, I had the privilege to serve as interim Vice President for University Advancement and President and C.E.O. of The Ohio University Foundation. While it was an honor to more closely engage with alumni and friends of Ohio University, I’m very pleased to welcome Bryan Benchoff, our new Vice President for University Advancement and President and C.E.O. of The Ohio University Foundation. Welcome Bryan!
I also want to acknowledge Dr. Joseph Shields, interim vice president for research and creative activity and dean of the Graduate College; Dr. Scott Titsworth, interim dean of the Scripps College of Communication; and Dr. Howard Dewald, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. While they are not new to our university, they have enthusiastically stepped into their interim leadership roles. I welcome you to our leadership team.
Across the street from where we gather today sits a log home – the Bingham House. More than 208 years ago, it was home to Silas Bingham, who was believed to be a Revolutionary War hero and was the first sheriff of Athens County. The residence later became the home to Ohio University President Emeritus Robert Wilson and to John Newton Templeton.
It was moved to its current location as part of the bicentennial celebration of the Northwest Ordinance, which is now nearing its 225th anniversary.
This two-story log home, which serves as our visitor parking registration center, is juxtaposed among buildings where some of our greatest minds are finding cures for cancer, developing new technologies to help children learn, and training the next generation of healthcare professionals.
If the Bingham House could talk, it would tell us that it has witnessed the transformation of our campus. It has seen the transition of our student body from one that was male dominated to a multi-cultural group of young minds from all over the world. The Bingham House has seen the transformation of our students’ mode of transportation on campus. No longer do they arrive by horse and buggy but by electric cars, Go Buses, and – as we saw this past week – U-Hauls.
But one of the most significant changes that has occurred over our last 207 years is technology. Our students’ methods of communication are no longer handwritten letters. They use handheld devices and computers that deliver information from the other side of the world instantaneously.
And through all of those changes, the Bingham House has been steadfast just as the mission and values of our university have remained intact and stronger than ever. Through each transition of our world and community, we have remained true to our identity as a center of transformation, exploration, and discovery for generations of students.
I wonder if the members of the Confederation Congress had any idea what would become of the seed they planted when they passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. Considered one of its most significant acts, the Northwest Ordinance changed the world view of America. Their work drafted a new plan for a young nation – one that was focused on using knowledge to bolster the democracy and improve its citizens' quality of life.
The Northwest Ordinance decreed, “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, school and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
And all of this took place prior to the creation of the United States Constitution.
I find it very fitting that groundbreaking legislation in 1787 would give birth to Ohio University, a university community of faculty and staff who are braving new frontiers in their fields and disciplines, solving problems within communities, and continuing to change our nation and world.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.”
We have served and will continue to serve our state and nation with well-prepared graduates to change our world, and with research to improve the human condition.
Consider how our faculty have utilized nearly $64 million in external grants. They are using those resources to:
• reduce the transmission of disease in Ecuador and improve diagnosis and treatment,
• help children with language impairments,
• develop a new plan for a former power plant,
• clean wastewater to create green energy,
• build tools to extract world knowledge from Wikipedia,
• and advance work in nanotechnology and support student research opportunities.
The work of Ohio University’s Advanced Teacher Capacity team is another example. Team members are working to improve mathematics education in Ohio schools. Thanks to a grant from Texas Instruments they were able to provide handheld computers to select middle and high school algebra, geometry, and statistics classes throughout Ohio during the past academic year. Beyond professional development for teachers, they are putting technology into students’ hands to help them think in new ways and make connections in new ways.
The GRID Lab, or Game Research and Immersive Design lab, in the Scripps College of Communication is helping law enforcement training efforts, thanks to support from the Columbus Urban Area Security Initiative. Between spring 2008 and summer 2011, Ohio University team members used their technology to create interactive digital environments in 20 high-profile Columbus buildings or sites. These sites are places that could be susceptible to attacks from terrorists or other critical incidents.
Through art, faculty are working to understand and illustrate important social issues. Over the course of this year, Distinguished Professor Charles Smith had and will have five of his plays produced in six cities. His work examines directly or indirectly issues of race in America.
Associate Professor of English Paul Jones reexamined antebellum literature. Through his work, he discovered authors who have used their craft to weigh in on the capital punishment reform debate.
Thanks to an endowment fund created through a monetary gift from alumnus Paul Stocker, the 1804 Fund has provided grants to support projects, research, and activities crucial to the transformational learning experience for our students.
This year, grant recipients are using their awards to establish career development programs for our students; create entrepreneurship courses; update lab equipment; support scholarship programs; and produce plays.
I would like to ask those 1804 Fund grant recipients who are with us to please stand. Your ingenuity and creativity are contributing to the student learning experience in ways that are often immeasurable. Thank you and congratulations on your award!!
The talents and innovation of our faculty and staff are evident in every corner of our university.
I’m very proud of the pilot program to offer Gender Neutral Housing for our students that the Division of Student Affairs, specifically the Department of Residential Housing, launched this fall. Based on feedback and an expressed need from students, Residential Housing staff took steps to develop a residential environment that is welcoming and inclusive. We thank Vice President Kent Smith and his team for their leadership with this and other innovative student programs.
Thanks to a generous gift of $2 million from Bob and Peggy Walter through the Walter Family Foundation, the new Walter International Education Center, located at 15 Park Place, is the new home to the Office of Education Abroad and International Student and Faculty Services. These two offices support our global community and continue to elevate Ohio University’s prominence as an international university. This shared space enhances collaboration for the purpose of promoting and supporting international education exchange and mobility.
The Walter Center is our first building built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Silver certification standards. And this comes at a time when we have renewed our focus on sustainability. Thanks to the work of the President’s Advisory Council for Sustainability Planning, we have a plan with prioritized goals and strategies to enhance our stewardship of the environment. Annie Laurie Cadmus, our new Director of Sustainability, will be instrumental in leading our work in this most important area.
During last year’s Faculty and Staff Convocation, I discussed the vision that many people in this room helped to develop. Our senates’ leadership, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, deans, Executive Staff, and governing and advisory boards participated in year-long discussions about who we are and who we will become in the 21st century.
As an outcome of those discussions, we decided that our vision is to be the best transformative learning community in America. We will be the best transformative learning community where students realize their promise, faculty advance knowledge, staff achieve excellence, and alumni become global leaders.
As we just watched in the video, produced by University Communications and Marketing, our students, faculty, staff, and alumni are doing more than changing our world. They are improving it. They are bolstering how we do things, how we live, and how we communicate.
And they are doing this at a time of great economic challenge for our state and nation. Weekly, often daily, we are reminded that millions of people are still without jobs, our markets remain unsteady, and utility costs are moving higher and higher.
In the midst of these pressures, our own university is in a period of great change. This fall marks the beginning of our last academic year on the quarter calendar system. Much work is taking place to successfully complete our transition to semesters in time for the beginning of the 2012 fall semester. I specifically want to thank the leadership of Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit, Jeff Giesey, Gary Neiman, and the many faculty and staff members who are working tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition for our students, faculty, staff, and community.
We also are moving toward a Responsibility Centered Budgeting model. The new budgeting framework is an incentives-based model that links revenues to expenses in support of academic priorities. The model aligns authority with responsibility, and increases transparency and accountability. Successfully developing and implementing this new model will strengthen our ability to focus on our academic priorities with keen attention on the mission and vision of Ohio University.
Thank you for the work you are doing to support this transition, which is important to our future growth. I specifically want to acknowledge the work that Vice President Stephen Golding, the academic deans, budget unit managers, and others are undertaking to put this new budget model in place.
In a wired world, we increasingly put new demands on using a wide variety of instructional and informational technology. Our students have expectations and demands for how to communicate. Consider that more than 24,000 people joined Ohio University’s Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter pages. And more than 19.2 million people viewed the OHIO front door web page last year. These are great accomplishments, but it is a reminder that we need to do more than keep up with current trends. We must be in front of them, creating them.
Nearly 125 years ago, the Morrill Land-Grant Act began a new era and a new age. Known as the industrial revolution, innovations such as steam-powered ships and internal combustion engines were produced.
One could say we are on the cusp of another new frontier. As public investment in public higher education continues to decrease, a more bold and entrepreneurial spirit will be the key to our future success, especially as we navigate this new frontier. And it will give us the edge we need to articulate our path and deliver what our society needs from public higher education, specifically what it needs from Ohio University.
As we embark on this new frontier, Ohio University begins from a position of strength. The entrepreneurial spirit is a cornerstone of our university. One could say it is an inherent characteristic in our faculty and staff.
Consider the many programs and projects underway such as the Certificate in Entrepreneurship. With outside-the-classroom learning opportunities such as business plan competitions, internships, and guest lecturers, students from any college or major will have the opportunity to earn this certificate beginning next fall.
This certificate program will be offered through the new Center for Entrepreneurship, which is a partnership between the College of Business and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. The center also will have synergies with technology commercialization and economic development initiatives in the Vice President for Research and Creative Activity’s office. It will play a key role in supporting technology commercialization and developing regional businesses.
And we already have proved that investment in the work of Ohio University’s faculty and staff is a worthy investment and one we plan to continue.
Goll-Ohio Professor John Kopchick’s discovery of a growth hormone antagonist led to the development of SOMAVERT®, a drug that has made a significant impact on thousands of people who suffer from acromegaly, a form of gigantism. Last February, the university and its investors sold partial royalty income rights to its license for the drug that could net $52 million.
The university plans to reinvest those funds into the work of our faculty and researchers for new translational medical programs and efforts to commercialize faculty technologies; endowed professorships; and graduate student fellowships.
Growing businesses in Southeast Ohio is another way that our faculty and staff are lifting up our region and state.
Our Third-Frontier initiative TechGROWTH Ohio is an example of how we are achieving that commitment. TechGROWTH Ohio provides business advisory services, competitive grant support, and seed-stage investment capital to technology companies and entrepreneurs in Southeast Ohio. It was awarded a new round of funding totaling $3 million in a competitive state-wide process, which will allow this initiative to continue its great work.
Our Innovation Center and Edison Biotechnology Institute recently received $500,000 from the state’s Edison Technology Incubator. The funds are to support biotechnology and high-technology start-up firms in the region. The goal is to stimulate economic development in our region and create jobs. We want to elevate our region and we know that success is possible. A recent study found that the average annual salary of Innovation Center clients is $52,500, which is significantly higher than the regional median household income.
We must continue to explore what is possible, maximize our ability to elevate the human condition, find support for student learning, and lift up our areas of strength and transformation by partnering with public and private entities.
Last year we raised nearly $130.6 million in private gifts. That includes $1 million for the College of Health Sciences and Professions for our nursing program and Kids on Campus; $10 million in support for the Multipurpose Center and renovations of the Convocation Center; and $105 million from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations for our newly named Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Talk about transformation!
Not only does the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations’ gift mark the largest gift in our history and within Ohio higher education, but more importantly, it has the power to transform the health and care of patients; lead to significant medical advancements, including addressing the diabetes epidemic; and expand learning opportunities for future physicians with a new campus to be established in central Ohio. Congratulations to Dean Jack Brose, the team that developed the gift proposal, the Heritage College’s faculty and staff, and University Advancement!
As we look to the future, our agenda should be ambitious. We will look for ways to enhance the quality of Ohio University’s academic offerings; promote the best student-centered learning experience possible; and ensure our competitive position, while maintaining a conservative approach to our fiscal responsibilities. There are a number of ways to accomplish these goals.
We will strive to recruit the next generation of faculty with distinguished records in teaching, academic scholarship, and research and creative activity. We must attract individuals who want to work at a university where the primary commitment is assisting students in developing their potentials.
We will invest in the development of new academic programs that are economically viable and will attract the next generation of students.
We will increase both merit-based and need-based scholarships to ensure that Ohio University remains affordable and accessible as we become more tuition dependent.
We will expand proven student programs and services that assist students in achieving their full academic potentials.
We will increase the care and upkeep of core academic and student residential facilities.
We will expand critical system infrastructure capabilities in support of Ohio University’s academic mission and implementation of our Responsibility Centered Budgeting model.
We will support community-based outreach programs that align with Ohio University’s efforts to sustain healthy, attractive communities.
Doing all of this will be essential to the continued transformation of our university.
At the beginning of each academic year since I became President of Ohio University, I always think, how can we possibly top the success and accomplishments of the previous year?
In fact, as I was preparing to talk today, I had a very hard time selecting areas to highlight because the work you are doing is extraordinary. Let me say that again… you are doing extraordinary and amazing things! And it is occurring in every area, every discipline, and every corner of our university.
Each and every day, you wake up and bring your best to our campuses. You challenge students, you challenge colleagues, you challenge peers to be the best at what each and every one of you do. And in turn you challenge me to do and be the best in how I support, advocate for, and foster the work that you do.
Your passion, creativity, and, most importantly, your commitment to our students is unmatched. You invest in them, you push them to do more and become more, and you help them achieve their dreams. Pick up any issue of OHIO Today to read the outstanding success and the fascinating work that they are doing out in the world. And they are doing this on the foundation of an Ohio University education… an education that provided them with the knowledge, confidence, courage, and curiosity to succeed.
I challenge any other institution in this country to prove that their faculty and staff are more committed to student success than the faculty and staff of Ohio University.
As we move forward, the secret to our success and the key to how we will continue to pursue our vision to be the nation’s best transformational learning community is that we do it together.
Together, we are setting new standards for transformational education.
Together, we are fostering and supporting the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and innovators.
Together, we are lifting up our region, state, and nation and improving the human condition.
Together, we are exploring a new frontier.
Together, we are Ohio University!
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