Tuesday, September 16

Despite the extensive storm damage from Ohio’s “hurricane without the rain,” the September 2008 Roads Scholars Tour motored on with only one stop canceled and another toured in the dark!

The entire group traveled on one bus instead of the scheduled two buses, which allowed us to get to know one another rather quickly in two fabulous late summer days of travel in central and southern Ohio.

As a former staff member at the Newark campus when the 1999 tour stopped there, I was familiar with the tour route starting at a regional campus. This year, we left Columbus and traveled to the Marion campus after stopping at the Delaware Center to pick up the entertaining Matt Moreau, who crunches the admissions stats for Dean Greg Rose. Matt’s stand-up routine kept us laughing all the way up Route 23 as we learned that Marion’s enrollment has steadily increased at the 186-acre campus, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. After a brief tour of the campus, we gathered in the new administrative building for Dean Rose’s version of speed dating! Marion faculty, staff, students, and community members, strategically placed at a series of round tables, spent several minutes talking to us about the accessibility of the campus in Marion and Delaware. I was impressed that several students were driving from Marysville and Dublin to complete their degree programs at the Marion campus. Traditionally, we think it’s just the opposite: rural residents driving to main campus in Columbus for their college education. Students also emphasized the benefits of having the resources of a large institution available to them in a small campus environment. Dean Rose served as the timekeeper, reminding us when each “dating” cycle was over and it was time to move on to the next “date.”

Speed continued to be the theme of the next tour stop as we headed to Honda of America Manufacturing’s East Liberty auto plant. Engineering Professor Steve Yurkovich and Honda Engineer Jim Wolever talked to us on the bus about the longstanding partnership between Ohio State and Honda, a natural result of the College of Engineering’s involvement in managing the Transportation Research Center, which preceded Honda in the Marysville area. The partnership sponsors programs that benefit faculty and student research and the community. The partnership’s successful math medal award and scholarship program provide high school seniors and college students with the fifth annual math medal award and scholarships for engineering students at OSU.

Jim Wolever noted that despite the struggling economy, sales of Honda vehicles manufactured in Ohio remain relatively stable. The automation and innovation at the East Liberty auto plant were evident throughout the plant tour. You learn to stay on your toes when touring this plant due to the constant AGV traffic. AGVs are the automated guided vehicles that transport parts to the production line. Through the partnership with Ohio State faculty and students, the East Liberty plant became the first auto plant in North America to use a water-borne paint system and later implemented a water recycling process. I had to verify with Jim Wolever that he correctly said 50% of the energy at the East Liberty plant comes from the automotive painting process. That factoid took me by surprise! Aside from the amazing automation of the production line inside the plant, I found the fan design of the parking lot interesting. The design creates equal walking distances to the plant from all parts of the parking lot.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Honda and headed over to the Farm Science Review in London. I guess I should say the Farm Science Review that almost didn’t happen this year because the high winds on September 14 took down all of the tents constructed for the annual event. Chuck Gamble and his crew managed to get most of the tents back up in time for opening day on September 16. The tour bus stopped at the Gwynne conservation center for a quick walk through an environmental presentation in the log cabin. We also picked up Ohio State President Gordon Gee and learned about the significant impact and tradition of the Farm Science Review from Vice President Bobby Moser and Manager Chuck Gamble. The smell of food wafting through the air at the Farm Science Review was a huge temptation for a few of us as the bus rolled past the grounds and on to our next stop.

Next we visited Procter & Gamble’s health research facility in Mason near Cincinnati. I was impressed by the professionalism and savvy of the three P&G presenters. Procter & Gamble employs 1,200 PhDs in 26 research and development centers located in more than 80 countries worldwide. Not surprisingly, these researchers must speak three languages—technical, business, and consumer—to be successful in the corporate world. The discussion about P&G replatforming its products (think 2X laundry soaps) every 7 or 8 years was the most interesting to me, making me think of several programs at Ohio State that could benefit from replatforming, such as distance learning. Other notes of interest from the P&G team leader:

• P&G views its R & D challenge as turning knowledge into dollars rather than turning dollars into knowledge.
• P&G employees need to be T-shaped: you are hired for breadth/scope and trained for depth.

Our last stop of the day was the Great Wolf Lodge near Kings Island where we had dinner and a valuable opportunity for discussion with President Gee and Dr. Gil Cloyd, president of Ohio State’s Board of Trustees.

Wednesday, September 17

Our only tour stop that was canceled due to storm-related power issues was Wednesday morning’s visit at Princeton High School. Instead, we seized the opportunity to discuss various topics, some related to Tuesday evening’s discussion with President Gee and Dr. Cloyd. These discussions provided a great opportunity to get to know our fellow scholars and the areas in which they work at Ohio State. For several of us, the discussion clarified our priorities for the new academic year and presented new opportunities to collaborate with other departments. In fact, I had communicated with at least two Roads Scholars by e-mail and phone before the trip, but spending 2 days with them strengthened our connection to mutual areas of interest and certainly contributed to discussion of specific project collaboration for the coming year.

We wrapped up the 2008 Roads Scholars tour with two stops in Columbus. The South High Clinic, where Ohio State provides dentistry, optometry, and medical services, had to be toured in the dark due to the continued power outage. The Urban Arts Space is located in the former downtown Lazarus store. Some of my earliest memories involve the downtown Lazarus store, so it was exciting to see the building’s renovation and reminisce about attending fashion shows in the current exhibit space. The hanging pants exhibit depicting the escalators at the Lazarus store was a personal favorite. If I had heard the story about Lazarus having to disconnect its escalator, one of the first in Columbus, due to adverse customer reaction, I had forgotten about it!

Thanks to Karen Bruns and the Roads Scholars tour staff for an interesting trip that clearly illustrated the far-reaching connections of teaching, research, and service—despite the challenges that Hurricane Ike brought to Ohio. Best of all, we overcame the challenges of nature by relying on the power of personal connection with our colleagues and outreach partners!