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The Ohio State University
Diversity Update Autumn 2002
Prepared By The Office Of University Relations
Faculty/Staff Recruitment and Retention
1. Jose Villa has been named assistant vice provost for minority affairs,
having recently served as an expert on migrant education for the U.S.
Department of Education. Villa’s priorities for his position are
to develop a mentoring program for undergraduate students, to help position
Ohio State as a leading institution for enrollment of Hispanic and minority
students, to create academic programs that focus on ethnic studies of
the Hispanic population, and to increase the number of Hispanic faculty
and students. He also plans to work closely with the Hispanic Association
of Colleges and Universities to improve networking and recruitment opportunities
for the university. Villa holds a doctorate in higher education administration
from Ohio State.
2. Georgina Dodge has been appointed the new director of the African American
and African Studies Community Extension Center in Columbus. As director,
Dodge plans to enhance programming by meeting with community leaders to
see what kinds of programs are most needed. Dodge’s focus will be
to make the center a bridge between Ohio State and the community. Dodge
plans to work more closely with nearby facilities like the King Arts Complex,
the Urban League, and the Neighborhood House. She believes there is a
real need to develop creative writing programs for teenagers who are learning
how to express their adolescence experiences, and she would also like
to establish book clubs for adults. Dodge previously served as an English
professor for the university.
3. The Department of Psychology has hired Madonna Constantine as an associate
professor with tenure. Constantine most recently served as chair of counseling
and clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She
cites multicultural counseling competence as one of her current areas
of research, as well as vocational and psychological issues of underserved
populations. Constantine will teach both undergraduate and graduate courses
in the department’s counseling program. Her educational credentials
include bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Xavier University
in New Orleans, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University
of Memphis. In addition to her research and teaching duties, Constantine
will also chair the department’s diversity committee.
4. University leadership approved the hiring of a program director for
its work/life initiative in the Office of Human Resources, and selected
Gabrielle Reinicke to serve in this role. She will be responsible for
ensuring that university policies, practices and services provide a supportive
environment for productive work, for diverse personal needs and ambitions,
and for community involvement. Reinicke will coordinate, implement and
manage work/life projects, ensure coordinated communication on work/life
issues, and establish tools and learning opportunities. The creation of
the program director position was one of the key recommendations in an
action plan designed to address work/life concerns of faculty and staff.
Employers who provide resources and tools to assist employees in their
search for work/life balance are increasingly more successful in the recruitment
and retention of women, who are often primary caregivers in a family.
5. Melissa Ross has been selected director of the Center for Learning
Excellence’s newest project, the Partnerships for Success (PfS)
Academy, whose focus is helping Ohio’s at-risk children succeed
in life and in school. The PfS Academy is working with 15 Ohio counties
selected by the Ohio Family and Children First Cabinet Council to participate
in the Ohio Partnership for Success Initiative. Ross received her doctorate
of psychology from Wright State University in 1996. Since that time, she
has worked in the Ohio Department of Youth Services with juvenile sexual
offenders.
Student Recruitment and Retention
1. A recently approved competitive admissions process has created renewed
focus on an articulation agreement with Columbus State. The agreement
admits students to Ohio State who have met transfer admission requirements,
and who have also earned associates degrees in arts or sciences. The university
has found that students who have done well and transfer from community
colleges perform at a rate nearly equal to Ohio State students. The agreement
may also help the university with regard to its goal to increase diversity.
Community colleges are usually more ethnically diverse than four-year
universities, which make them an important resource in attracting a diverse
student body. Of added benefit to the students is scholarship assistance
that is available for those with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. In order to facilitate
the transfer process, the Office of Minority Affairs will foster a closer
relationship with Columbus State
and will also monitor students’ participation in this process.
2. The College of Medicine and Public Health welcomed its most diverse
class ever this year. Forty-three percent of the class of 2002 were women
and 13 percent were minorities. African-Americans comprise the largest
percentage of minorities at 11 percent, with smaller percentages reported
for Mexican-American, American Indian, and Puerto Rican students.
3. Senior accounting major Beth Blue and 10 other business majors recognized
a need for an undergraduate women’s association in the Fisher College
of Business and decided to create one themselves. The group formed the
nation’s first collegiate chapter of the American Business Women’s
Association in spring 2001 at Ohio State. Under Blue’s guidance
as president, the association holds bimonthly meetings, hosts professional
women as speakers and teaches women stress-reduction and career/family
management skills. The group has been so successful that the national
association is using the Ohio State chapter as a model for other colleges.
4. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Alumni Society at
Ohio State raised $25,000 for a scholarship endowment for gay and lesbian
students. The scholarship will be designated as the Eric Kohring –
PFLAG Scholarship in honor of Kohring, who died in 1998 and left grant
funds for this purpose. It also was established in recognition of PFLAG,
which stands for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. The funds raised
represent the largest and first endowed scholarship for gay and lesbian
students in Ohio.
Academic Programs
1. The Multicultural Center has received grant money to develop a minor
in Native American Studies, with the goal of teaching the first class
in spring 2003. Housed in Comparative Studies, the introductory class
will be Powwow 101, which will focus on the historical, social, and cultural
components of a powwow, as well as the appropriate etiquette for this
ceremony. Students who complete the class will then have the opportunity
to participate in a powwow that is held on campus every spring. The state
of Ohio’s rich Native American heritage, coupled with the university’s
wish to attract and serve more Native American students, are the motivating
forces behind the minor. Ohio State will distinguish the program from
those of its benchmark peers by focusing on a curriculum with global and
comparative aspects, taking advantage of the wide variety of tribal backgrounds
represented in Ohio and the expertise many faculty have regarding indigenous
tribes in Latin America. In related news, a new CIC American Indian Studies
Consortium began offering workshops, seminars, fellowships, and conferences
to faculty and graduate students in autumn 2002.
Leadership/Recognition
1. F. Abiola Irele, professor of African American and African Studies
and French and Italian, was honored as one of two University Distinguished
Lecturers for the 2002-03 academic year. He presented his talk, entitled
What is Africa to Me? Africa in the Black Diaspora Imagination in October
at the Wexner Center. The University Distinguished Lecture Series was
inaugurated in 1996 as one of the university’s highest honors for
a senior faculty member. The lectureship is awarded in recognition of
outstanding academic achievement, particularly, but not exclusively, in
research, scholarship, or creative activity. The President’s and
Provost’s Advisory Committee reviews nominations and recommends
candidates to the president and provost for final selection. The Office
of Academic Affairs presents an award of $5,000 to the University Distinguished
Lecturer to designate for a purpose that promotes the academic goals of
the individual’s college and/or of the university.
2. The Fisher College of Business honored six alumni for their professional
distinction at the annual Dean’s Dinner and Alumni Awards Presentation.
More than 50 alumni have been honored since the college’s Alumni
Society began the awards program in 1993. Lawrence D. Funderburke, former
Ohio State basketball player and forward with the Sacramento Kings and
founder, and executive director of the Lawrence Funderburke Youth Organization,
Inc., received one of two Community Service Alumni Awards.
3. Umit Ozkan, associate dean for research and professor of chemical engineering,
received the 2002 Society of Women Engineers Award in October, the highest
award presented by the society. The award is given annually to a woman
who has made an outstanding contribution over a significant period of
time in a field of engineering. Ozkan was recognized for her outstanding
accomplishments as an internationally recognized and highly respected
researcher in heterogeneous catalysis, as an excellent engineering educator,
and as a dedicated leader in higher education and in professional societies.
4. Susan L. Koletar, professor of clinical internal medicine, received
the 2002 Master Teacher Award from the Ohio chapter of the American College
of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine. At Ohio State, Koletar
has twice received the College of Medicine and Public Health Faculty Teaching
Award and has been named Professor of the Year. Currently director of
the infectious diseases fellowship training program, Koletar is also the
author of numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and a member
of the editorial board of two medical journals.
Awareness
1. The President and Provost’s Diversity Lecture Series began its
third year with nine speakers slated for 2002-2003. The series opened
with a lecture by Dr. Nancy Hopkins, professor of molecular biology at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose talk was titled, “Breaking
Through MIT’s Glass Ceiling.” Hopkins presented results on
the marginalized status of women faculty in the sciences at MIT, which
when published, prompted a number of research universities to conduct
similar studies. The second lecture featured Morris Dees, civil rights
lawyer and founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who spoke on the
topic, “With Justice for All.” Dees’ experiences litigating
against hate groups have prompted him to write and lecture on this topic.
2. Pat Enciso, associate professor of teaching and learning, served as
a consultant to the Story of the Latino Immigration Project, which collected
the works of Latino artists and memories from families who migrated to
Ohio. The project was developed by several community and educational organizations,
and resulted in a multimedia exhibit installed in the Rhodes State Office
Tower in Columbus. Any Latino who had personally migrated to Ohio, or
whose family had migrated to the state, was able to participate in the
exhibit.
3. October marked the 13th year of operation for the Frank W. Hale Black
Cultural Center. Since its opening, the center has grown and now receives
about 3,000 visitors a week. The visitors come for the social, cultural,
and educational programs, as well as for the museum-quality art collection.
However, it is the academic programming that center director Larry Williamson
credits as having the most positive impact. Women’s Studies, African-American
Studies, English, and other departments routinely offer classes at the
Hale Center, which have broadened the scope of diversity and defined the
center as a place for all visitors.
Access for the Disabled
1. The U.S. Department of Education awarded an $865,000 grant to the
Nisonger Center at Ohio State for the ultimate purpose of improving the
quality of education that students with disabilities receive in college
settings. The three-year grant will be used to develop training modules
for faculty and administrators at both two and four-year institutions
of higher education. These Faculty and Administrator Modules in Education,
or FAME, will reflect state-of-the-art technologies and principles of
universal design for learning. The content of the modules will include
topics such as “How to Conduct a Climate Assessment,” “Rights
and Responsibilities of Faculty, Students and Service Providers,”
and “Web Accessibility and Assistive Technology.”
Minority Purchases
1. The Diversity Council officially adopted language in its Diversity
Action Plan Template designed to increase awareness about minority suppliers,
as well as to increase university purchases from them. New to this year’s
template are questions that ask which minority vendors colleges use, and
what internal mechanisms exist to track purchases from these vendors.
The new template also offers background information on minority business
development that confirms a decrease in the percentage of goods and services
procured from minority suppliers. This decrease is attributed to a 1999
U.S. District Court ruling, which deemed “set-aside” laws
unconstitutional. Before the district court ruling, Ohio State purchases
from minority suppliers had risen to an all-time high of 15 percent. The
Supreme Court has since reversed this decision, and the university’s
purchasing department has focused its efforts on re-building relationships
with minority suppliers.
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