Thursday, April 12

I woke up this morning and looked out the window at a rainy day. Great day for a bus tour! As I made my way to campus I was unsure of what to expect out of the next two days—I mean how much fun could a bus tour really be?

7:30—the appointed time to meet. Lots of half awake people all looking at each other, but then Karen Bruns’s staff had enough energy for everyone—lots of upbeat greetings and smiles! Grabbed some coffee and a snack bar, got my bag of stuff and my t-shirt and then looked for a place to sit. I found a seat and looked around— this was the first time I was in the Continuing Education building [Mount Hall]—what a beautiful room to lecture in.

It didn’t take long for all of us to start conversations and start meeting one another. It wasn’t long before Karen began the program with introductions of the people that worked to put the tour together and then had all of us introduce ourselves. I was surprised at the breadth of people from across the university—this was going to be fun! Most of us had to admit we knew next to nothing about Ohio since we had just moved here in the past year. A lot of us had only driven through Ohio on I-80 before coming here.

After we agreed to find ourselves a “buddy” so that no one would be left behind (guess they figured we needed help keeping track of ourselves—the whole absent-minded professor thing?) we were told to get on the bus.

8:15—you would think that everyone here has known each other for more than 45 minutes—lots of conversation on the way to our first stop in Mansfield. On the way Bobby Moser, Vice President, University Outreach, gave us background on what it meant to be a land grant university and how that tied into outreach and engagement activities at OSU. Bobby’s excitement was contagious as he spoke about the impact that OSU has throughout the state of Ohio, the U.S., and the world. He explained that there are not many universities that can carry off the same mission as OSU within one campus. The University of Wisconsin is probably the closest (being a Wisconsin grad that was nice to hear).

The Dentistry OHIO Project

9:15—Stop #1 was the Third Street Family Health Services where we were to learn about the College of Dentistry’s clinical rotations. Driving through the neighborhood and pulling up to the building one could not help notice that we were in a depressed area of the city. The City of Mansfield has a population of about 50,000 and only 13% of the population has B.S. degrees; the median income is $30K (whereas the U.S. median is $41K). A lot of the people that use this clinic are 200% below poverty level. This stop was an eye-opener for many of us—especially those of us not familiar with the health care professions.

The building was beautiful—an old house that had been renovated and expanded to encompass the growing need for care in this part of the city. The clinic is both medical and dental—in both cases they have a hard time hiring and retaining doctors. However, the employees that we spoke with all across the clinic genuinely loved working there. They appreciated the fact they make a difference in people’s lives on a daily basis. No one gets turned away from care.

We really were there to focus on the dentistry program and learned that education is one of the bigger challenges. The City of Mansfield has no fluoride in the drinking water. This is an issue that the voters decide and last time it was on the ballot it was voted down. (We learned later from the Mayor that the cost is $700,000 per year to do this and that it will be back on the ballot soon.)

Dental interns from the OSU Dental Program have to do clinical rotations and those that come to Mansfield for 2 weeks get a lot of experience working with the clients and get an understanding of the type of clientele that uses this clinic. Many of the people don’t or won’t use the facilities unless it is life threatening or it hurts unbearably. The interesting thing is that for most of the people that come to this clinic they are only charged $10 per visit. Dr. Anna Jose gave a presentation titled “Marrying Academia with Community Health.” She is a faculty member based at this clinic and works with the students there on rotation. It takes a special type of person to work and be successful in this setting. Most of the patients are in survival mode wondering where the money for rent, food and the bills is coming from on a daily basis. This translates to a lot of depression as well as habits that aren’t healthy—like fast food.

OSU Mansfield

Back on the bus to the OSU Mansfield Campus for lunch and two different panels. The first panel over lunch was with faculty and administrators from the Mansfield campus who explained how the Regional Campuses work, their goals and challenges. They also talked about their very strong connections with the Columbus campus in terms of teaching, research, and service. After lunch we got a tour of the campus and ended up in the new building (Riedl Hall) to talk with a panel of community leaders.

OARDC & ATI

Back on the bus and to Wooster to visit the OARDC and ATI facilities. This takes about 45 minutes and gave us time to continue other conversations among ourselves and to get additional information from our leaders (Bobby and Karen) regarding what and who we would be seeing next. This gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to lots of different people, from extension to public health.

OARDC is a wonderful facility—but then I am there quite often and have lab space there, so I guess I’m biased. We had a whole delegation of people waiting for us, including Representative Jim Carmichael and Senator Ron Amstutz. The interesting thing about the senator is that he worked at OARDC back in the 1960s as a student worker. Steve Slack, OARDC Director, spent some time giving us some background on the agricultural resource industry sector: in Ohio it accounts for $80 billion and 1 out of 6 jobs in the state.

We toured portions of the campus including the Molecular and Cellular Imaging Center where we learned the types of projects that the faculty here are involved in, which are more varied than one would think. Everything from genomics to soybean rust to trying to identify why ground beetles have holes in their exoskeletons (which came as a tangent to studying the emerald ash borer). The development of genes and markers to characterize resistance for the introduction of new varieties of crops to stay ahead of the pathogens is fascinating. One research faculty member (Dr. Anne Dorrance, a plant pathologist and leading expert in soybean rust) told us that development in their ability to develop germplasm had significantly cut the time to the introduction of new varieties from about 15 years to 6 years.

At the greenhouses we learned about a project to use the Russian dandelion as a raw material for rubber. This is joint effort with the Delta Plant Technologies—a new company that OSU is working with to develop this technology. Dandelions naturally produce latex, the white stuff in the roots, which is needed to produce rubber. The rubber capitol of the world is Akron so this works out well, and in fact OSU is also working with the University of Akron on this project. OSU is doing the work on commercial crop production of dandelions that can produce >10% latex by weight and the University of Akron is studying the process needed to produce the rubber. This appears to be a viable project in that they have found that the Russian dandelion can produce up to 20% by weight latex and the entire plant needs to be harvested, so it would have to be planted every year. The Ohio Legislature is also very supportive of this project.

After the greenhouse tour, we took a bus tour (with lecture) on the Secrest Arboretum located on the OARDC campus. Beautiful place—must come back and explore more!

We also toured, by bus, the ATI campus—saw the 1-hole golf course! ATI is part of OSU and offers two Associate Degrees. They have three divisions of classes: arts & sciences & business (general education courses), agriculture and engineering classes, and horticulture (green industry) courses. They have 35 faculty (primarily teaching), 60 adjunct faculty. The Floral Design degree is #1 in the country. They also have a 1,700-acre farm that houses beef cattle, dairy cattle, equine, swine, and sheep. The really interesting statistic regarding ATI is the fact that they have a 99% placement of graduates within 6 weeks of graduation. Wow.

4:45—Leave for Canton. This is where we will stay for the night and have dinner with OSU Young Scholars and 4-H kids. On the way Bobby and Karen saturated us with trivia information on OSU (by way of quizzing us—but they also had prizes!).

Canton

5:30—checked into the McKinley Grand Hotel in downtown Canton. Nice place, big rooms, comfortable bed. As much as I just wanted to lie down I decided it would be a bad idea with dinner at 6:30.

6:30—Arrive downstairs for dinner and get to talk to some people that I hadn’t had the chance to talk to yet. This time it was two vet school faculty members. Given that I own dogs and compete with them we had something in common, but the more interesting thing was discovering that they only accept 145 students each year out of about 1,000 applicants and yet there is a dire need for vets. The problem is space and too few vet schools. I found it interesting that they are turning people away and I am actively recruiting as we want more students in our programs!

Dinner was fun talking with the Young Scholars and 4-H participants. Interesting and well-spoken young people; I was very impressed. I was especially intrigued by the young scholars program, which starts in sixth grade. The young lady in the program at our table, Breanna, wanted to go on to study corporate law. After dinner, we talked with a panel of current OSU students and had a dialogue on what they felt they needed from faculty. A very interesting, enlightening, and fun conversation—it was good to hear what students want and need, but especially was nice to see how they perceive OSU.

After 14 hours we were done with the first day and told that we needed to be on the bus by 7:30 the next morning…or get left behind!

Friday, April 13

Jackson High School, Massillon

First stop—Jackson High School. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but it ended up being one of my favorite stops on the tour. But I digress—we drove up to the school and it was just plain impressive. The building is just being renovated and they have 1,900 students that attend the school. Also impressive is the fact that 97% of the incoming freshmen graduate and 82-86% go on to college. What struck me as we walked in was the smiles and friendliness of everyone we met.

While at the school we talked with a panel of teachers and staff, as well as the school superintendent. It was interesting to get their perspectives on what they focused on and ultimately what the students needed to prepare them for graduation and beyond. We were also able to talk with a panel of students, which I found very enlightening. We talked about study skills and what college would require. Afterwards I spoke with several students about their majors and found out that while they were interested in environmental science, they didn’t know what they could do with it. This tells me that people like me need to do a better job of communication and outreach with the high school students to educate them on opportunities in careers that they don’t necessarily hear a lot about.

Amish Country

Next we were on our way through the Sugar Creek Watershed and into Amish country. Richard Moore filled us in on his collaborative research in the area as we worked our way through the watershed. We eventually ended up at an Amish residence for lunch where we were welcomed into the home and fed more than we could possibly eat—but it was good! It was the first time I had tasted homemade peanut butter.

Coshocton

From there it was on to Coshocton where we met with community leaders to learn about their challenges and their recent strategic planning. They had worked closely with OSU Extension during the process and while they feel that the plan is a success in itself, they were also quick to point out that the next challenge is to implement the plan and not just have it sit on a shelf.

Perhaps the highlight of this particular tour was the announcement of a $10 million endowment by an OSU alumnus from Coshocton for Coshocton County students wanting to attend OSU. The gift was announced in the Wall Street Journal and will provide for full tuition, room and board for at least 12 students per year. A very heartwarming and inspiring event! Made me proud to be with OSU.

Newark

From Coshocton it was on to the Newark Earthworks and the OSU Newark campus. We stopped at the Earthworks first—hat a cool site! I definitely plan on going back to this one. A lot of information on the site is provided at www.octagonmoonrise.org. It is amazing to think that the Hopewell people understood so much about the lunar schedule and geometry. The site has been nominated for World Heritage Status.

We also visited the Newark Campus. It is bigger than the Mansfield Campus in student population, but the ties with the Columbus campus are the same, as are the importance of its ties to the surrounding community.

With that, we were on our way back to Columbus, tired, but more knowledgeable about OSU and its reach around the state. I, for one, was impressed and more appreciative of the community I joined when I became a faculty member with the university.

Overall I was extremely impressed with the things I saw, the people I met, and the programs that I learned about. I came into the experience not knowing what to expect—and quite honestly did not hold high expectations for time well spent. I was wrong. I would do this again in a heartbeat. Not being from Ohio and not knowing the state, it was time that was very well spent. Even if I had been from Ohio, to see first hand the impact that the university has on all types of situations and people was well worth it. I met some faculty that I will likely work with in the future, and those outside my area of study are now friends. We covered only Northeast Ohio this time around. I would love to go on the next three (assuming they do a quarter of the state at a time) and see it all. I feel much more a part of the university now and also understand much better the importance of the outreach and engagement program.

Thanks to Karen Bruns and her crew—and to Bobby Moser whose enthusiasm was certainly contagious!