Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon to everyone with us today.
Before I begin my formal report, I’d like to take a minute to honor one of the shining lights in our community who recently passed away.
As many of you know, Rita Wolfe lost her battle with cancer earlier this month.
A daughter of Ann Wolfe and the late John Wolfe, Rita exemplified the compassion, dedication to service and understated leadership that has defined her family for so long. All of us can learn something from her in terms of what it means to be a Buckeye and a member of this central Ohio community.
Rita had a special passion for our College of Veterinary Medicine, and to cement that commitment permanently, her family has decided to endow the dean position there with an incredible $10 million gift.
I cannot thank them enough for their generosity — even during a challenging time like this. We all wish Rita was still with us, but it is also this university’s great privilege to carry forward her legacy and do right by it throughout the years to come.
Support like this, combined with the talents of our faculty, staff and partners, is a big part of why this university is so exceptional.
It also reminds us of our responsibility to do right by all those who helped us reach this point, to keep getting better.
When we met in May, I shared with you that we were getting close to completing many of our open leadership searches. I’m pleased to report today that a number of new academic leaders have joined our campuses over the past few months.
These include Lee Strang, executive director of the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, and Kent Barnett, dean of the Moritz College of Law. We’ve also put in place new leaders at three of our four regional campuses. We named Dr. Meggie Young dean and director of Ohio State Lima, and we welcomed Dr. Jason Opal to Ohio State Mansfield and Dr. Matt Smith to Ohio State Newark.
I’m excited to work with this group to strengthen our presence around the state and make sure we deliver on our promise to be a university for all Ohioans. I’m grateful to everyone involved in these searches for helping us recruit some outstanding leaders.
I also want to thank everyone who’s contributing to our leadership searches that continue, including for our provost. These are priorities for us, and we’re determined to get the right people in these really critical positions.
I’m sorry to say that one important position we’ll have to fill is that of Ohio State Police Chief Kimberly Spears-McNatt. Chief Spears-McNatt is retiring later this month after a 30-year law-enforcement career at the university, a career she started after graduating from Ohio State. I think we can all agree she’s done an exceptional job, and we wish her well as she heads back home, to Clemson University, for the next phase of her career.
We’re committed to making this transition seamless. Mark Conselyea and Monica Moll have been focused on this already — and on ensuring the ongoing safety of all Buckeyes. Director Moll will also serve as interim chief while we conduct the search to fill this role. I know this board has worked with her extensively in the past and is familiar with her strong focus on safety and security in our community.
Significant progress on filling out our leadership team was just one part of a wonderful summer for Ohio State.
Twenty-four Buckeyes competed in the Paris Olympics this summer, and we have one Paralympian who will be competing soon. Collectively, this group has earned one gold, two silver and two bronze medals so far, and we congratulate every one of these amazing athletes.
Two of Ohio State’s student-led motorsports teams won national championships. The Formula Buckeyes and the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle teams work across disciplines and at the edge of science and engineering. Their success speaks volumes to the talent of our students.
Researchers in our College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences were awarded two significant grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, totaling $12.5 million. With that funding, they’re going to pioneer new ways to reduce food waste and help accelerate climate-smart farming solutions.
And while we’re talking about funding, I want to thank the Ohio General Assembly and Governor DeWine for the state’s $76.5 million investment through the capital budget. These funds are an important part of our plan to stay on top of deferred maintenance and maximize our impact across Ohio.
On a personal note, Lynda and I were thrilled to be able to see more of our great state over the summer.
Last month, we joined a busload of students, faculty, and staff members, along with Brutus Buckeye, on a trip through northeast Ohio. We spent two days connecting with our partners, seeing Ohio State research in action and welcoming some of the newest members of the Buckeye family.
Now I want to talk about the TARDISS ERC announcement because, just yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced a five-year, $26 million award to create a new Engineering Research Center at Ohio State.
It’s called Transformation of American Rubber through Domestic Innovation for Supply Security Engineering Research Center — or TARDISS for short — and it’s going to make its home in Wooster at our campus of CFAES.
The researchers in this new center are going to harness the power of nature and combine it with expertise in engineering, biology and agriculture to revolutionize rubber production in the United States. This is a big deal in terms of new jobs and making sure we have a robust supply of this critical material. It’s currently only sourced from southeast Asia.
This is also an example of how Ohio State’s size, scale and scope can be a game-changer in tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges.
And, of course, as we just celebrated, how about giving another round of applause to our now-Distinguished University Professor Dr. Judit Puskas for her leadership in this space — and for the hard work she and her team are putting into this.
This community built incredible momentum over the summer, and thanks to the hard work of our faculty, staff and students during that period, we’re seeing that carry through into the fall.
I’ve had a lot of fun welcoming the newest Buckeyes to campus. I took part in my first Ohio State convocation this week and joined Buckeye Kickoff — which I did a year ago, on the anniversary of when you announced me in this room as the 17th president of The Ohio State University. It’s amazing it’s come around, already a year.
We took a record 80,000 applications this past year for admission. And though we won’t have final numbers for a few more weeks, we believe this will be one of the largest classes in our university’s 154-year history, with more than 60 percent of the incoming class coming from communities across the state of Ohio. And across our entire undergraduate class, we will still be over 70 percent Ohioans. We feel really good about the strength of this class, too.
Strong enrollment like this shows that something special is happening here at Ohio State. It shows that people believe in the value of an Ohio State degree, that they believe in the quality experience we offer on all of our campuses, that they believe in the future of this institution.
Now, as we come together on our campuses this fall, the health and safety of the Ohio State community will continue to be our No. 1 priority. It’s something we should all keep top of mind as we start the semester.
This university — particularly our Columbus campus — is located in one of the largest cities in our country. Crime does happen. But Ohio State offers many great safety resources, and we work continually to make them even better. We’re sharing this message in our communications with our students, faculty and staff this fall, and we’re encouraging everyone on our campuses to learn about the tools and information we make available.
We also recognize that there is a lot going on in the world right now. It’s an election year. We continue to feel the weight of wars that, while fought thousands of miles away, affect us deeply.
The wide range of backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints Buckeyes bring to our campuses is a strength of our university. It’s also an important part of our mission as an academic institution. Meeting and learning from people with perspectives different than ours only deepens and expands our understanding of the world.
To further enhance our ability to engage in this type of dialogue, we’re excited to launch a new initiative this fall called Listen. Learn. Discuss.
This effort offers a centralized set of tools to help us develop skills to engage in respectful dialogue and to give us opportunities to practice those skills. I’m proud to note this was developed with input from our students, faculty and staff.
Our goal is to make sure we have an environment of trust on our campuses — one that fosters productive discussions on challenging topics.
Something that’s critical to this approach is that every member of our university community understands and honors the laws as well as the university rules and standards that protect each and every one of us. They ensure that we can continue to teach, learn, research and provide excellent patient care.
Over the summer, we’ve worked to make sure our university protocols and standards are clear and easy to find. We’ve shared them with every member of our university community this fall. And we’re looking forward to having everyone’s help following them so we can have a great semester and do the important work we came here to do.
All of these pieces — fostering safe and supportive campuses, treating each other with respect and compassion — they all connect to our university’s motto: “Education for Citizenship.”
That principle has guided our university’s work for quite some time, and I believe it will be the driving force behind our progress in the future.
As all of you know, I’ve been listening to and learning from members of the Ohio State community since before my first day on the job. I’ve held dozens of listening sessions with our students, faculty, staff as well as partners over the past eight months. I’ve had many more conversations with members of our community, with our supporters and alumni, and with our elected leaders. We distributed a listening survey to university faculty and staff to help get a broad picture of how these groups feel about where Ohio State is and where we’re headed. We will be sharing the top-line results with our community soon now that everyone is back together on campus.
Now, as we head into autumn, we’re moving from “listen and learn” mode into “action” mode.
Through all the conversations I’ve been having and through all the feedback my team and I have collected, where this university ought to be headed — at a high level — is starting to come into focus.
Over the next few months, we’re working to schedule a series of workshops with members of the Ohio State community to get additional input.
I’m grateful for the collaboration we’ve received from so many Buckeyes, including from this Board of Trustees. I’ll be excited to share more about everything we’re learning and a strategic vision for the next ten years at Ohio State during my formal investiture later this fall.
As this board has no doubt heard throughout your meetings this week, The Ohio State University is on firm footing and has an exciting future ahead.
I know we’re all looking forward to fall athletics gearing up — the famous Archie Griffin is going to “dot the i” in Script Ohio at the first football game two Saturdays from now.
I can’t wait to experience more of our incredible traditions: Skull Session, the rest of Welcome Week and Homecoming, just to name a few.
We should all be proud of this university, of our quality, of all we do for Ohioans and the world. We’re doing great work at this university, but we cannot ever rest on our laurels. I’m excited to be a part of how we take our university to the next level.
I wish everyone at Ohio State a great semester. And, as always and forever, Go Bucks!