From the Dean

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to March. At the end of the month, we’re holding our annual Communication Week events, which include a reception, Schuneman Symposium, alumni visits and the Carr Van Anda Symposium. View the Communication Week schedule. I hope everyone will take the opportunity to join us for the reception, during which we’ll induct David Descutner into the Communication Hall of Fame. We will also award the employee of the year, faculty service award and the student employee of the year. See the upcoming deadlines section below for nominations forms to be submitted by March 5. Note that we’ve made a slight change to the celebration—it’s a late afternoon event this year in Schoonover Center. Let us know you're coming!

This month I’d like to turn the spotlight onto a college initiative that we introduced last year, but that really deserves a little more attention than we’ve given it up to now. The Dean’s Leadership Circle is my way of honoring individuals who have shown extraordinary service to the college. To date, we’ve inducted three people to the circle with a few more “on deck.” You can see the permanent installation in the dean’s suite, where some details about our honorees are on display.

Last month, we inducted our first student: Lexi Murray. It’s very likely that you know Lexi, as she is an extraordinarily engaged student who serves as an ambassador, double-majors in two of our schools and seems to find new ways to get involved at every turn. On top of all that, Lexi is responsible for the piano in the RTV studio (read about that endeavor here).

Our other two inductees to this point are Claudia Hale, former COMS director and a great steward of the college, and Daniel Mondschain, whose assistance with the OHIO-in-LA program has opened doors for so many of our students.

I hope this gives you an idea of the type of work we value and the want to celebrate. We started the award to recognize folks who go above and beyond to impact our students and our programs. If you have ideas for potential nominees, please feel free to schedule a time to talk!

I hope—as I’m sure we all do—that March will start acting like a lamb sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let’s be gentle with each other and have faith that spring is on its way.

Scott