But the literary benefits to a reader’s well-being don’t stop there, according to the results: For those of us holding a grudge against someone who wronged us, this literary technique has potential to help us find a way to forgive offenders in our own lives, too. 

The writing technique is called “internal focalization,” when the story narrative gives us access to a character’s innermost thoughts – in this case, a man’s regret about his careless act. Being transported into the character’s mind elicits empathy toward him and forgiveness for his wrongdoing. Study participants who were prompted to reflect on a past transgression tended to extend their forgiveness of a fictional person to that real-life event. 

“If you just give people a story without the empathy technique, they’re not likely to forgive a character. But if you put the technique in, they not only forgive the character, but are then more likely to forgive other people in their actual life,” said senior author Angus Fletcher, a professor of English at The Ohio State University’s Project Narrative. 

With Gallup research finding that over 1 in 5 people worldwide routinely feel angry, Fletcher said, this study suggests stories may be a prescription to better emotional health. 

“What’s really great about literature is you don’t have to be at a crisis point to use it,” he said. “It’s something that you can just use a little bit to help get you through daily anger, daily depression, daily pessimism, daily anxiety. The right literature, once you learn how to use it, can help pop you out of that, can give you more joy, more optimism, more love, more empathy, all of these positive effects.” 

Fletcher completed the study with Mark Matthews, a recent Ohio State PhD graduate in social psychology. The research was published Oct. 1 in Frontiers in Psychology. 

For over 2,000 years, people have believed literature helps create empathy, aiding us in getting over anger and seeing situations from another person’s perspective – all of which are beneficial to mental health and social function. Scientists reported that they had demonstrated this influence in a 2013 study, finding that reading passages of literary fiction, compared to nonfiction or popular fiction, enhanced a reader’s ability to understand others’ beliefs and desires – a concept known as theory of mind. 

But efforts to replicate that study – by others and the original researchers themselves – have not panned out. So for this research, Fletcher and Matthews used scientific precision to focus on one writing technique that they predicted would pinpoint one way in which literature influences the human emotion of empathy that leads to forgiveness. 

“We said, ‘What do we know about the history of how artists develop these techniques for creating empathy?’ We put the most powerful of those techniques into a story, and then tested whether that story without the technique creates empathy and if the story with the technique creates empathy,” Fletcher said. “By being more precise about it, we were able to identify these very specific mechanisms and connections.” 

The story is about a woman named Mary who, as a child, watched her puppy die after being hit by a car and swore off dog ownership until, at 85, she adopted a puppy to heal her lifelong grief. She hires a repairman, warning him to keep the door shut so the dog can’t get out. He leaves the door open and the puppy escapes, to Mary’s horror. 

Study participants are then offered different information about the repairman’s act: Either he disregarded Mary’s warning, meaning it was entirely his fault, or he accidentally left the door open because he was distracted by personal issues at home. In the next section, the internal focalization appears: “The repairman thought to himself, I wish I didn’t leave the door open,” a contrast to the nonliterary condition: “The repairman said to Mary, ‘I wish I didn’t leave the door open.’” 

Over the course of three studies involving a total of 1,563 people, Fletcher and Matthews found that forgiveness of a fictional character can be promoted through the literary technique of internal focalization, and that facilitating literary forgiveness can bring about forgiveness of real-life transgressions. Based on how the study was designed, the fictional forgiveness had to occur first. 

What study participants never learned is whether Mary forgave the repairman – Matthews and Fletcher deliberately omitted that detail so as not to model the behavior. 

Fostering empathy in readers involved creating conditions in the story that enabled detection of the pathway to forgiveness. Before we can forgive, we have to feel a sense of outrage at the repairman’s callous attitude about keeping the dog safe. And it’s one thing to opt for forgiveness, which is called decisional forgiveness. It’s different when we engage in emotional forgiveness and restore closeness in a relationship, Matthews said. 

“Once we know the transgression is someone’s fault, what we discover is that if we can create a condition where you can see the internal remorse, the internal world of the person, people can feel the sincerity of it. They can open up and connect with the emotions that person is having,” he said. “As a result, now we have the opportunity to forgive them more.” 

Both types of forgiveness toward a fictional character and a real-life transgressor were elicited by the literary technique. 

The core idea is that exposure to literature changes our perception of the world around us, Matthews said. “That’s the hope. That’s the goal,” he said. “And in our study, we wanted to approximate that.” 

The effect isn’t restricted to the written word, Fletcher said. 

“People often report being much more in tune with their emotions when they’re watching a movie or reading a novel than they do in regular life, and that’s telling you something,” he said. “So I think what this piece really points to is a single instance of a much larger phenomenon, which is an emotional health crisis that we’re experiencing because we’re spending too much time with technology and not enough time with these ancient sources of human wisdom.” 

This work was supported by Ohio State’s Department of English.

Featuring Batman television and film themes from the 1960s to present, the band pulled a variety of formations out of its utility belt, including the Batmobile, Bat-signal and the Caped Crusader himself.

Saturday’s i-dotter was Matthew Sliwinski, an earth sciences major from Westerville, Ohio.

Oklo’s investment will facilitate the launch of an undergraduate nuclear engineering major, renovate instructional and research facilities, create an endowed professorship and support student scholarships. Together, the company’s support, gifts from its executives and university matching funds for scholarships will deliver a total impact of $4.5 million.

“Industry demand for nuclear engineers continues to grow, and Ohio State is expanding to meet that need,” said College of Engineering Interim Dean B. Shanker. “Oklo’s support will help us launch a new undergraduate major and give students access to the faculty, facilities and hands-on experience that prepare them to contribute from the start of their careers.”

Currently, only graduate students can earn a nuclear engineering degree at Ohio State. With Oklo’s support, the college will develop the undergraduate curriculum, hire additional faculty and modernize space and equipment for an anticipated autumn 2027 launch of an accredited nuclear engineering major.

The investment will also expand research capabilities at Ohio State’s Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, which has supported teaching and research on west campus since 1961. The university will rename the facility the Oklo Nuclear Reactor Laboratory.

In Scott Laboratory on main campus, Ohio State will create the Oklo Experiential Engineering Education Lab. The new lab will support capstone teams, hands-on build work, simulation and modeling, and interdisciplinary engineering projects.

“Ohio helped build America’s nuclear industry and the people of the Buckeye State will help lead its future,” said John Hanson, a native Ohioan and Ohio State alumnus who serves as corporate chief of staff and leads Oklo’s power business. “The next generation of nuclear engineers will turn the technologies we’re developing today into the reliable energy our country needs for decades to come. By expanding access to nuclear engineering education and hands-on research, Ohio State is preparing students to lead that work. Together, we’re connecting education with real-world opportunity, so students can put their knowledge to work building advanced nuclear technologies right here in Ohio.”

The Oklo Endowed Professorship in Nuclear Engineering will help Ohio State recruit and retain leading scholars in the field. Gifts from company executives will also establish two endowed scholarship funds to support nuclear engineering students: the Dr. John Hanson and Dr. Lindsey Pack Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Dr. Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Ann DeWitte Endowed Scholarship Fund in Nuclear Engineering.

David C. Jacobs began plotting his career path early in high school. It would begin at The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing before continuing on Wall Street as a stockbroker.

“It didn’t quite work out as planned,” he said. “But my time at Ohio State afforded me the opportunity to pivot quickly into a different industry altogether.”

That industry was insurance, where Jacobs spent more than 35 years building successful teams, growing his companies’ revenue and expanding into new markets and products.

And while he never made it to the trading floor, Jacobs never lost interest in investing. Throughout his career, the former president and COO of Oswald Companies continued to invest in people, real estate and his alma mater.

Most recently, Jacobs and his wife Brenda, who is also an Ohio State alumna, helped establish the Jacobs Family Business Lab at the Fisher College of Business. The new hands-on learning space is designed to provide students with practical knowledge in investments, artificial intelligence, innovation and emerging business technologies.

Located on the first floor of Mason Hall on Ohio State’s Columbus campus, the lab includes 30 Bloomberg terminals where students can monitor and analyze real-time market data.

“Bloomberg gives students pursuing careers on Wall Street — in investment banking, institutional asset management and wealth management — a significant competitive advantage,” said Matt Sheridan, senior lecturer in finance and the Bloomberg lab director. “It is the most powerful investment tool in the world and is leveraged by financial professionals to access market data, analyze securities, conduct research and make investment decisions. More than 300,000 professionals use Bloomberg terminals as an integral part of their daily work.”

Prior to the lab’s dedication in September, students had access to just 12 terminals in a space that didn’t allow room for instruction.

“Although the college has several computer labs, none are designed as dynamic, interactive teaching spaces,” said Sheridan. “The Jacobs Lab is filling this important gap by creating a highly engaging classroom environment that allows students to learn by doing, interact with professional financial tools and develop skills that directly translate to the workplace. Most importantly, this experience has the potential to make a meaningful difference in the educational and professional lives of our students.”

Jacobs said making a difference and increasing the job potential for Fisher students is what he and his wife intended for the lab.

“I hope that it can be transformational for the students,” Jacobs said. “Students coming out of Fisher are some of the top in the country.”

Jacobs joined Fisher’s Alumni Board and four years ago became a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council. That’s when he learned about the need for a larger business lab.

“The lab was something that piqued my interest because I wanted to do something to give back to the students,” he said. “Brenda and I wanted our gift to be educationally based.”

Sheridan said the new state-of-the-art terminals will bring finance to life for students.

“A hands-on environment will allow me to move beyond teaching students about financial data and instead have them actively use it to analyze markets, evaluate investments and solve real-world financial problems,” said Sheridan, who teaches in the Specialized Master of Finance program.

Professors across all departments and disciplines can use the lab for instruction. In addition to new terminals, the lab includes a digital stock ticker that scrolls around the room’s exterior.

The new lab is a blueprint for the direction in which Fisher is headed, said Aravind Chandrasekaran, Fisher’s interim dean.

“When we talk about disrupting business education in ways that meet the needs of our students and workforce development, the Jacobs Family Lab is proof of that concept,” he said. “It’s a space that’s adaptable and designed to meet the needs of how today’s students want ― and need ― to learn. Thanks to Dave and Brenda’s incredible dedication and generosity, we’re excited to take a giant step forward in our shared goal of creating a holistic educational experience that’s focused on the future of business.”

DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang are among the pioneering figures credited with inspiring generations of hip-hop artists and shaping a cultural and musical movement. The School of Music at The Ohio State University has introduced a minor in hip-hop studies starting this semester and hopes to influence the next generation of artists and DJs that will make their own mark on the culture.

The minor comes after years of planning and direction by assistant professors Jason Rawls, Stevie Johnson and many others.

“The hip-hop minor itself is truly exciting, but what Jason Rawls, Stevie Johnson and lecturer of hip-hop DJ O Sharp are building reaches well beyond the new curriculum alone. They are shaping the culture of the School of Music, bringing real breadth to what we teach and to who we are,” said Michael Ibrahim, the director of the School of Music. “They are opening new pathways into the school for students who may never have pictured themselves here.”

Johnson specifically can identify with the latter part of Ibrahim’s statement.

Johnson received his undergraduate degree in health and exercise science at the University of Oklahoma but taught himself how to create beats in his dorm room. When working on a curriculum and plan for the new minor, Johnson said he and Rawls reflected on their time as students, when hip-hop wasn’t thought of in an academic context.

“Nineteen-year-old Stevie was very introverted and didn’t have these classes or mentors,” Johnson reflected on his undergraduate career. “I am grateful for the trajectory and success of my career, but I also wonder what it would have looked like if I had certain things in place and opportunities to publish or perform.”

The ability to learn hip-hop and create beats is just the beginning of what the minor has to offer. Students are required to take MUSIC 3450: “The Art and Politics of Hip-hop,” in addition to MUSIC 3354: “Hip-Hop Sampling and Beat Making.” In order to complete the minor, students must complete 15 credit hours across five courses, including three electives.

In “The Art and Politics of Hip-Hop,” described as the program’s flagship course by Rawls, students will learn the four main elements of hip-hop; DJing, graffiti, break-dancing and emceeing. All these elements were at the core of hip-hop culture when it began in New York City and continue to be pillars today.

“We focus on teaching students about these elements and why they’re important and why they shouldn’t be forgotten,” Rawls said. “Nowadays, people only think about the music part of hip-hop, and that’s a very important part, don’t get me wrong, but there are other facets to the culture. That’s what we make sure students are aware of and what they learn.”

Rawls acknowledged that graffiti is illegal and he is not encouraging students to participate in it. Rather, he wants them to look at graffiti with an artistic lens and how that artwork visually framed the genre and impacted hip-hop’s focus on creative and personal expression.

“What we stress and what we talk about in that course is the appreciation and understanding of why people did it and continue to do it,” he said.

In Johnson’s “Hip-Hop Sampling and Beat Making” class, students don’t report to a classroom on the first day. Instead, he takes them to a record store.

“A lot of these students have never been in a record store, let alone touched vinyl,” Johnson said. “They don’t know what it means to get an idea of what the music would sound like based on the artwork or looking at the liner notes. They have a rhythm roulette challenge where they pick three records, and they have to make a beat out of the records that they chose.”

Even if a student isn’t a music major or doesn’t plan on exploring working as a DJ, Johnson said the hip-hop studies minor teaches students many skills that can be applied to any career path. He explains that in a 30- to 40-second span, a DJ will be tasked with playing a record and listening to his next mix in his headphones, while also carrying on a conversation with a patron discussing the music being played. Being able to multitask at that level and be successful in doing so builds a skill set that is transferrable to many walks of life.

“The ability to have to make important decisions at an incredibly rapid rate is something that people won’t see on the surface of a DJ or their booth,” he said. “It is something that is taking place as our students are learning to perform and make decisions on the fly.”

For Rawls and Johnson, the hip-hop studies minor is about more than just music. It is about creating a space for students to create beats, discover new career paths and learn about the culture that surrounds hip-hop while also developing skills that will serve them in their postgraduate careers.

“They are opening creative and professional doors for students past their graduation,” Ibrahim said of the school’s hip-hop faculty. “Students rave about their classes, and the deeper story is in the ripple effect, felt outside our building, off campus, and across the music and hip-hop communities at large.”

A professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Nagib is the first Ohio State faculty member to receive a Blavatnik National Award.

Founded in 2007 to celebrate the potential of early career scientists, the award recognizes scientific advances by researchers in three fields: life sciences, chemical sciences, and physical sciences and engineering. Of the 18 finalists nominated in this year’s cohort, Nagib is one of three laureates who will receive a $250,000 cash prize — the largest unrestricted scientific award available to early-career scientists in the United States.

Nagib, who joined Ohio State in 2014, was awarded the highest honor in the chemical sciences category for his work enabling the faster discovery of better, longer-lasting pharmaceuticals. “I’ve always been passionate about the discovery of new medicines,” Nagib said. “That’s been the guiding star for the successes in my career, playing in sandboxes or empty areas where nobody else is looking.”

In Nagib’s lab, his team develops new ways to create key medicinal building blocks by harnessing reactive chemical species called radicals and carbenes. On average, it takes 10 to 15 years for new medicines to be discovered and brought to market, but Nagib’s methods address this by helping chemists create more potent and selective medicines faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.

“My dream for the advances that we develop is that it’s simple, so easy that anyone in the world can do it without any specialized techniques or strategies,” said Nagib. “Our goal is to democratize radical chemistry so it can be used by all, and even in AI workflows.”

Previously selected as a Blavatnik National Awards finalist in 2024, Nagib has since focused his research program on using artificial intelligence to design new catalysts for drug candidates. One such effort led Nagib’s team to create an open-source database so that any researcher with a smartphone can simulate chemical reactions and learn how to use radicals selectively, too.

Using their models, chemical predictions that once would’ve taken more than a day can now be accomplished in a few seconds, said Nagib. Despite such huge automated leaps, he hopes such tools inspire the next generation of young scientists to continue to think outside the box.

“Creativity doesn’t come from sitting alone and having a eureka moment,” Nagib said. “It comes from constantly discussing new ideas, thinking about why they didn’t pan out and then coming up with new ones together.”

On Oct. 6, Nagib is being honored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City during the 2026 Blavatnik Awards Gala ceremony, where the winning scientists will give a short presentation about their work. Since 2007, the Blavatnik Awards have invested more than $20 million in over 500 scientists worldwide. Finalists are selected by an independent jury of distinguished scientists. This year, 372 young scientists were nominated, representing 187 academic and research institutions across 43 states and the District of Columbia.

“The most exciting science is the stuff on the edge of possible, but persevering to get such ideas to work is the rewarding part of it,” said Nagib. “I think that’s the coolest part of discovery.”

Nagib plans to use the monetary award to support ongoing lab projects, procure much-needed equipment and lab instruments, and pursue other exciting new ideas.

“This award mainly reflects how excited the community is about the work we’re doing at Ohio State,” said Nagib. “To be recognized in this way, it really motivates us to keep chasing the stars.”

The Ohio State University Office of Student Life hosted The Big Table at The ’Shoe on Sept. 29 at Ohio Stadium to facilitate conversation among students, faculty, staff and community members.

Launched in 2016 by the Columbus Foundation, the Big Table is an annual community conversation held citywide in Columbus. Participants share stories about acts of kindness and discuss how to foster a sense of belonging throughout the community.

Among the participants at Ohio State’s gathering was the university’s first lady, Lalita Kaligotla, an associate professor in the College of Nursing and senior director for Leadership, Policy Engagement and Innovation. The event centered on the university’s Listen. Learn. Discuss. platform.

“Today there are over a hundred of these events happening around the city of Columbus. You are part of a movement that’s happening,” Tracy Stuck, assistant vice president of student life, told attendees. “The beauty of today is you have one goal, which is to meet someone you didn’t know when you walked in, and also it’s to listen and to be curious.”

Leading the discussion were Melissa Shivers, senior vice president of student life, and John Warner, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

During the event, participants gathered in small groups and shared responses to questions that Shivers and Warner posed. Participants shared anecdotes about people who have made a difference in their lives, spoke about experiences that brought them joy and reiterated statements from fellow attendees that made an impression.  

Shivers said The Big Table supports Ohio State’s focus on promoting kindness.

“It’s about how do we interact and engage with one another?” she said. “Just last week at the university, we hosted a food packing event where we packed over 325,000 bags of food to send to southern Ohio.”

The Big Table also promotes hope, Warner said. He cited medical research indicating that hope can contribute to a patient’s emotional and physical well-being.

“There’s real science behind hope, integrating it into all that you do,” he said. “In fact, there are several large [clinical] trials of 25,000-plus patients followed over 14 or so years with either heart disease or cancer. And if they had a feeling of hope from the very first day they received the news of their diagnosis, they do much better. That’s important in all that we do.”

For more information about Listen. Learn. Discuss. and a calendar of upcoming events, visit the program’s website.

“Founders Fair is a networking summit for students who want to be entrepreneurs or are actively building something while in school,” said Swartley, a finance major. “It brings together talented students and connects them with mentors and investors who can help them aspire to what they want to be.” 

Swartley co-founded and leads the event with Zach Carlo, a student at Miami University, whom he met at an entrepreneurship networking event. A team of several other student founders helps manage the initiative. 

“We were able to see that having mentors and being thoughtful about going to networking events and building relationships can have such a profound impact on what you’re able to do, not just in college, but also after,” Swartley said. “We had this idea to bring together student founders with a bunch of mentors and connections that we’ve made.” 

The first Founders Fair took place in Oxford, Ohio, in April, with 110 students from 22 universities and over 80 mentors in attendance. The duo has now brought the initiative to Columbus, with the second Founders Fair occurring on Oct. 2 at The Loom. The day-long summit featured speed mentoring, presentations from select student startups, and a keynote address from Max Brickman, founder of Columbus-based venture capital firm Heartland Ventures. 

For Swartley, Founders Fair is an opportunity to pay forward the wisdom and mentorship he’s received through Ohio State programs. Swartley was a 2025 winner of the President’s Buckeye Award (PBA), a several-month-long competition among student-led ventures competing for $50,000 in startup funding, culminating in finalist presentations to a panel of entrepreneurs and investors. Swartley’s winning startup, Mobile Pantry, delivers fresh produce to homes at discounted rates to combat food insecurity with dignity. 

“The PBA program helped me get partnerships, helped me really understand what it means to be a student founder and gave me an appreciation for giving back and finding new ways to help other entrepreneurs,” he said. 

Ohio State is now growing its support for student startups through BuildX, an initiative unveiled during President Ravi V. Bellamkonda’s recent State of the University address. BuildX aims to support 100 student startups annually by 2030 and provides dedicated venture development coursework, founder mentors and a competitive summer accelerator experience.  

“It’s great to see the university investing in entrepreneurship. As I’m doing with Founders Fair, it’s important to amplify the founder ecosystem and community so that we bring in more investment and resources,” Swartley said. “The more you do that, the more likely we are to succeed, and the more likely we are to help Columbus become a city of innovation, a city where we can have people doing startups at a very high level.” 

Swartley hopes students who attended his event walked away with internship opportunities as well as investors and customers for their ventures. What matters most to him, though, is the relationships attendees built with fellow students and mentors. 

“Success for me is really the energy in the room, just seeing people light up by the conversations that they’re able to have, the meetings that they’re able to get and the people that they’re able to meet,” he said. “You never know where a conversation will lead you, and that’s really what we want to come out of Founders Fair: students meeting people who can change their lives.” 

To learn more about the Columbus Founders Fair, visit the program website. 

“Cenovus has a long history of supporting access to excellence for future generations of innovators, and this latest investment in Ohio State’s students and programs will create transformative impact across the communities we serve,” said Ohio State President Ravi V. Bellamkonda. “We are deeply grateful to Cenovus for their partnership and their confidence in the extraordinary academic experience Ohio State offers, both at our regional campuses and in Columbus. We look forward to working closely together to expand opportunity and build a skilled workforce for Ohio’s future.” 

At an event celebrating the donation, Eric Zimpfer, head of downstream at Cenovus, spoke about the importance of businesses supporting their local communities. Cenovus, a Calgary-based integrated energy company, has its U.S. regional headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. 

“Developing the next generation of skilled talent is essential to the future of our business and industry,” Zimpfer said. “This partnership allows us to support students in meaningful ways while strengthening our connections to Ohio State’s engineering and business programs, which are closely aligned with the skills we need across our Ohio operations.”

Nate Hager, a 2017 Ohio State alumnus and senior process development engineer at Cenovus, shared his experience: first as a high school student who toured the company’s Lima refinery, then as a Buckeye completing a chemical engineering degree, and finally as a Cenovus employee who has worked with Ohio State students through Cenovus’s student ambassador program. 

The partnership is mutually beneficial, he said, bringing together “a company that prioritizes acquiring top talent and developing their abilities and a university that prioritizes the success of their students and supporting their career aspirations.”

Half of the donation will support the Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE) Honors program, including “Multidisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design,” an integrated business and engineering honors course. The IBE Honors Program prepares the next generation of business and technology leaders through an interdisciplinary approach.

Cenovus is one of the project sponsors for the 2026-27 academic year. Thirty-six students, half studying business and half studying engineering, spend the semester studying an industry and its real-world problems. They are challenged to find solutions together, across disciplines. They also have the chance to network with experts in the same field.

Tessa Haffner is six weeks into the class. Haffner, a fourth-year food, agricultural and biological engineering major, said the program is helping her understand how to work collaboratively with people in business fields.

“It’s about learning how to talk that same language,” she said. “I also feel like it gives me more professional mobility. I’m an ambitious girl, so I want to participate in all the opportunities that I can.”

Haffner has found her Cenovus mentors to be open and eager to help her learn. They’re always willing to answer questions and will help track down answers if they can’t, Haffner said.

“I think Cenovus is a great company to work with,” she said. “I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and background within oil refineries and that industry that I wouldn’t really have had a chance to experience otherwise.”

Even if she doesn’t join the oil industry after graduating, Haffner said the skills she’s learned are transferable.

“I’ve learned how to approach something that you don’t know how to approach,” she said. “How to interact with different professionals with different backgrounds, meeting them in the middle.”

In observance of the nation’s 250th anniversary, The Ohio State University recently hosted a discussion about the origins and enduring impact of the United States Constitution. The event, “Remember Our Union,” was held at the Wexner Center for the Arts on the annual observance of Constitution Day, Sept. 17.

“We have representatives from across the institution here. We have academic leaders, we have faculty members, we have staff members and, most importantly, we have students,” said Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Trevor Brown. “Constitution Day is a day to celebrate and think about and reflect on one of the most remarkable contributions to democracy, but also to learn.”

Jason Opal, dean and director of Ohio State Mansfield and professor of history, delivered the keynote address. The Constitution continues to guide modern-day legal proceedings and politics, he said.

“The Constitution was formed in the summer of 1787. It was released on Sept. 17, which is the occasion for our gathering,” he said. “It was ratified on its own terms the following summer, and it went into effect the following spring in 1789 with the inauguration of the first president, George Washington, and the installation of his first Congress. And [the Constitution] is still in charge. It is still our fundamental law for this moment.”

The event also included a panel discussion featuring Benjamin McKean, associate professor of political science, and Margaret Newell, professor of history. Christopher McKnight Nichols, Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and professor of history, served as moderator.

Several high-profile events on all sides of the political spectrum in recent history have centered on the Constitution, McKean said. He cited the example of Occupy Wall Street, a movement to bring awareness to economic inequality that began on Sept. 17, 2011.

“I do think that it is striking to think about how many different valences Constitution Day can have,” McKean said. “I think that it would be a mistake to reduce it to any one political tendency.”

The nation’s founders intended the Constitution to act as a “living document,” updated periodically to address societal changes, Newell said.

“It was not as static a document that now appears in public debate. … It was a document that government modified, Congress modified immediately and continued to do so,” she said. “I would say it’s a historic document that says something really important. But also, it’s that susceptibility to amendment, change and flexibility that’s made it still relevant in the 21st century.”

It is well-established that comparing your body to someone else’s can lead to a negative body image and disordered eating. Popular theories in the field suggest that across the lifespan, our peers, parents and the media we consume all reinforce societal beauty standards, driving people to measure their own value against unrealistic ideals. However, according to the study published recently in Body Image, people are just as likely to compare their current bodies to their former appearance, with equally harmful results. And few scholars have studied this phenomenon in-depth.

“There’s so much literature on social comparison, especially in body image and eating disorder literatures, and there’s virtually nothing on self-oriented comparison,” said lead author Tracy Tylka, a professor of clinical psychology at Ohio State’s Marion campus.

Findings in Tylka’s new work, and a measurement scale she and colleagues created and validated, may have potential to alter psychological treatment for people seeking help with adjusting to appearance-related changes – including aging.

“Self-oriented comparison matters. It is uniquely associated with body image and eating behavior,” she said. “In clinical treatment, we shouldn’t just focus on how clients are comparing themselves to others, but also how they are comparing themselves to previous versions of themselves.”

For Tylka, the gap became clear during conversations with her former Ohio State graduate student and the study’s co-author, Nichole Wood-Barcalow, who now works in private practice in Westerville, Ohio. Wood-Barcalow had noticed a pattern among her clients, who frequently compared their current appearance with how they looked in old photos, videos and memories of their younger selves.

They would tell Wood-Barcalow, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how much I’ve changed.”

These reflections were often triggered by major life milestones and physical changes, including puberty, pregnancy, menopause, andropause, illness, aging and weight fluctuations. While some people felt they had changed for the better, most perceived these appearance-related shifts negatively.

Tylka has a deep background in psychometrics and analysis and has created scales that measure everything from intuitive eating and body appreciation to body acceptance by others. Established scales measuring social comparison are used regularly in research and clinical practice, so when Tylka searched for a trait-based scale to measure self-oriented comparison, she was surprised to learn it didn’t exist yet.

“Once we found out this was such an untouched construct with no scale developed to measure it, I knew we had to assess it,” she said.

Historically, she explained, body image and eating disorder research have focused on young white women or adolescents, who are comparing themselves more to others than to previous versions of the self.

“The body image field has been late to notice ageism and the lack of research on the aging process as it relates to body image. As we age, we move further away from what society tells us we should look like, and we compare ourselves to previous versions, photos or videos from decades ago,” Tylka said.

Tylka worked with Wood-Barcalow and other experts to design an 11-item measure of self-oriented appearance comparison, named the Self-Oriented Comparison Scale for Appearance (SOCS-A). They tested the scale across two separate community samples of U.S. adults to confirm its accuracy.

Through statistical analysis, the study confirmed support for two distinct subscales: upward and downward self-oriented comparison. Upward comparison involves measuring your current reflection against a past vision of yourself where you felt more attractive, while downward comparison means looking back at a photo, memory or time when you felt less attractive. Among study participants, researchers found that upward comparison was strongly linked to negative body image, body shame, rumination and disordered eating. Downward comparison, by contrast, was associated with lower levels of shame and higher appearance pride and body appreciation.

“What surprised us was that downward comparison was viewed more favorably. We were expecting a pattern more similar to social comparison, where downward comparison is also maladaptive,” Tylka said. “People think comparing themselves to others they view as less attractive would make them feel good, but downward social comparison is linked to body-focused shame, guilt and less body image flexibility.”

In other words, when we use others as a gauge to evaluate ourselves, we might feel bad for those other people or guilty for making comparisons. Downward self-oriented comparison, however, often means you worked to change or overcome something you didn’t like about your appearance, so you’re more likely to report feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment.

The study results also revealed gender differences. While the scale worked the same way structurally across the gender spectrum, women scored considerably higher than men on upward self-oriented comparison, while men scored higher on downward self-oriented comparison.

Tylka said this finding aligns with societal pressures: Women are expected to maintain a certain appearance, and if they deviate from that in any way, it tends to bother them more because their worth in society is often tied to appearance.

She hopes that the SOCS-A will be translated and used by research teams around the world – and in prevention programs, clinical interventions and therapy settings — to explore the experiences of diverse groups of people going through appearance-related changes and evaluate whether upward self-oriented comparison decreases as a result of treatment.

“Beyond age, I think (the SOCS-A) has relevance to be explored in the context of GLP-1 use,” Tylka added. “I am starting to do research with colleagues on GLP-1s, body image and eating behavior. We haven’t analyzed the data yet, but I think the intersection with self-oriented comparison will be really interesting.”

This work was funded by an Ohio State Joan Huber Fellowship Grant.

In honor of the 90th anniversary of legendary Buckeyes track athlete Jesse Owens’ 1936 Olympic triumphs, Owens’ descendants and university representatives participated in a recent panel discussion about his place in history.

The Ohio State University’s Sports and Society Institute hosted the event at Thompson Library in partnership with America 250-Ohio State and Ohio State Libraries.

In the 1936 collegiate track season, Owens was undefeated in 42 events for Ohio State. At that year’s Olympics in Nazi-controlled Berlin, Owens won gold medals in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, broad jump, and as a member of the 4x100-meter relay team.

Although Owens didn’t graduate from Ohio State, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate of athletic arts in 1972.

“There’s no one who has had more of an impact from a sports perspective on this country that touches Ohio State than Jesse Owens,” said Nicole Kraft, professor of journalism practice and director of the Sports and Society Institute. “The privilege of having Jesse Owens as part of our family and part of the legacy that we share at Ohio State is really extraordinary.”  

The panel discussion featured Owens’ grandchildren Stuart Owens Rankin and Marlene Hemphill Dortch, a graduate of Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law.

Owens Rankin said when people find out he’s related to the track legend, he’s taken aback by the reverence that people of all backgrounds express for his grandfather.

“It is heartening and it fills you with pride to see people’s reactions and their astonishment and awe,” he said. “Ninety years later, his accomplishments still holding the impact that they have on people is pretty special.”

Hemphill Dortch said she enjoys talking about her grandfather’s legacy, but he also taught her and her family to take pride in their own achievements.

By interacting with people who express curiosity about her grandfather, “it really gives other people the opportunity to learn more about him and also to share their stories and experiences,” she said.

“I think it is a testament to how we were raised, is that we are proud of his accomplishments, but those were his accomplishments. ‘So what are you going to do?’ And I think that’s what we live by: He is an inspiration for us to be of service.”

The panel also featured 1988 Olympic track gold medalist Butch Reynolds, an Ohio State alumnus; Rosalind Joseph, director and head coach of Ohio State’s track and field and cross country programs; Fox Sports anchor Gus Johnson; and Kevin Jones, author of “Jesse Owens: A Life in American History.”

Reynolds said Owens’ legacy influenced his decision to attend Ohio State. The young athlete saw Owens as a role model for overcoming obstacles.

“I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to go to Ohio State because I know that Jesse Owens came here,’” he said. “I know that he won four gold medals, so I know he can endure [challenges] through the tradition of The Ohio State University. I said, ‘I can come here because I’m going to be good. I’m going to be strong.’”

Joseph said many young Buckeye track athletes are eager to carry on Owens’ tradition of excellence.

“It’s always nice to hear when they get to campus, the knowledge that they have for Jesse Owens,” she said.

“If you’re a track and field athlete, you don’t know Jesse Owens because you’re a track and field athlete. You know him because of his impact, not only in sports, but in his legacy across the world. There’s a lot of affinity for student athletes who want to come here and be a part of that.”                    

Prior to the panel discussion, Kraft and John Davidson, Ohio State’s faculty representative with the Athletics Department, discussed the historical significance of Owens winning four gold medals in Germany on the brink of World War II.

Owens’ place in history has not only been cemented at Ohio State with facilities such as the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, but also in Berlin, Davidson said. The city named a road after him, Jesse Owens Way, near the historic Olympic stadium.

“I think the reception of the crowd, the public broadly, was actually fairly welcoming” when Owens made history at the Olympics, Davidson said. “Jesse Owens is revered.”

“It felt very special to be part of such a large network across the globe,” said AFIC director Marisa Sheldon, “and to recognize that there are people working towards these same goals in 60+ countries.”

In 2007, WHO created the Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide. Cities identified as age-friendly work to strength their community in eight categories – including housing, transportation and social participation – chosen by older people, caregivers and service providers. Columbus joined the AFIC network in 2016, through the support of Mayor Andrew J. Ginther.

Sheldon was joined by Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, professor in the College of Social Work, and Katie Simpson, a doctoral student in the college. For Simpson, the experience was both exciting and overwhelming.

“Being on the global stage as a doctoral student, seeing all those career researchers,” she said, “I’ve read their papers, I’ve cited their papers, I’ve looked at their work. That’s what I want to be when I grow up and all of a sudden, we’re in a room together.”

Simpson presented research on food insecurity and its relevance to WHO’s guide. Food insecurity is not currently one of the eight domains that WHO considers for age-friendly communities, Dabelko-Schoeny said. Simpson’s research will help guide future initiatives.

“I was really proud of the fact that one of our doctoral students is a thought leader around what kinds of changes need to occur in the framework. While there hasn’t been a lot of talk about food insecurity previously, the talk at the congress was led by Katie. It is exciting for Ohio State and for the College of Social Work.”

Simpson wasn’t the only Ohio State attendee making waves. Dabelko-Schoeny was part of a team mapping all the existing interventions under the age-friendly framework, Sheldon said. The only U.S.-based researcher on the project, Dabelko-Schoeny reported the group’s findings at the multiday event.

“The invitation to the congress came from WHO because of the work that we do at AFIC,” Dabelko-Schoeny said. “I was so honored to be invited to the table with this international group of scholars to map out our existing evidence in this space.”

“Real age-friendly transformation happens when older people, their communities, policymakers and researchers coproduce the future together,” said Thiago Hérick de Sá, who oversees age-friendly environments for WHO. “The Age-Friendly Innovation Center at The Ohio State University stands as a leading example, not just working to fulfill that vision but also willing to share their experience internationally, as we witnessed during the 3rd World Congress of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in Spain this year.”

Meeting so many international peers was an extraordinary experience, Sheldon said.

“I often say that in our work, I don’t always know what the next step is when I meet a partner, but I’m glad I know you now so when that step arises, we have a relationship,” she said. “There was a lot of sharing and requests for follow-up. To have these networks across the country and across the globe is so powerful as we think about the future of our work.”

“That old saying, ‘We are better together,’ is really true,” Dabelko-Schoeny said. “To be at the table as a U.S. representative, as an Ohio State representative, it’s the collective that allows that to happen.”

On the world stage, an organization like AFIC has credibility because of its affiliation with a research powerhouse like Ohio State.

“We are known for having evidence-informed tools that can be used in the community,” Dabelko-Schoeny said. “The work we do is always with an eye for dissemination to older residents, practitioners, policymakers. We want to infuse our scientific understanding with engagement from our older adults, our ‘experience experts.’”

“Being in the College of Social Work at Ohio State allows local, grassroots work to happen,” Sheldon said. “Through the grounding of an institution that is well-respected, well-connected and does things in a rigorous way, we can build knowledge from what happens here.

“We’ve been doing this work for quite a long time now,” she added. “It’s exciting to see the vision come together. Being at Ohio State, the relationships, the work, the respect, the publications, it makes sense.”

The initiative reflects a university-wide commitment to creating a residential experience that goes beyond merely a place to live, and instead supports learning, well-being, community and engagement. By bringing together housing, dining, recreation, academic engagement and student support services, Ohio State aims to make the residential experience a competitive advantage and create vibrant residential communities where students have extraordinary opportunities to engage, learn and thrive.

"As I shared in my State of the University address, creating a signature undergraduate experience is one of the university's highest priorities," Bellamkonda said. “This includes providing a transformative residential experience that serves each student in line with our academic excellence mission. This initiative represents an opportunity to intentionally shape these experiences in ways that foster connection, support academic success and help every Buckeye reach their full potential."

Research consistently demonstrates that students who live on campus experience benefits that contribute to retention, persistence, community connection and overall success. Building on significant investments already underway in residence hall renovations and renewal, the Residential Experience Transformation initiative will take a broader view of how the university creates environments where students can flourish throughout their Ohio State journey.

University leaders emphasize that the effort is not simply a facilities plan.

"This work is fundamentally about student success," said Senior Vice President for Student Life Melissa Shivers. "Our goal is to create a residential experience that serves as a competitive advantage for Ohio State by intentionally integrating housing, dining, recreation, academic engagement and student support. We are moving beyond conversations about buildings to ask a more important question: How do we design residential communities that help students build meaningful relationships, connect their residential, dining and recreation needs with academic success, engage deeply with the university, access opportunities for growth and ultimately succeed both during and after their time at The Ohio State University?"

The initiative is being led by Shivers, Trevor Brown, interim executive vice president and provost, and Mike Papadakis, senior vice president and chief financial officer. Together, they are guiding a collaborative effort that connects student experience goals with the university's academic mission, enrollment strategy and long-term planning efforts.

A central focus of the initiative is strengthening the connection between where students live and how they learn. The work will explore opportunities to enhance academic engagement, expand support for student well-being and create residential communities that foster learning, leadership development and a stronger sense of connection to the community. Particular attention will be given to opportunities that further elevate the Honors and Scholars experience and support Ohio State's aspirations for a truly distinctive undergraduate journey.

To help shape the future of the residential experience, Ohio State will launch a comprehensive engagement process this fall. Students, faculty, staff, families, campus partners, alumni and community partners will be invited to participate in visioning sessions focused on identifying the experiences, programs and services that matter most to student success.

"The best ideas come from listening," said Brown. "The future of the Ohio State residential experience should be shaped by the students, faculty, staff, families and alumni who know firsthand the transformative impact these communities can have. Their voices will be essential as we define what the next generation of the Buckeye experience looks like."

The Residential Experience Transformation initiative aligns with Education for Citizenship 2035 and the university's broader efforts to strengthen student success, community and academic excellence. Through intentional planning and broad collaboration, Ohio State is working to create a residential experience that will serve future Buckeyes for decades to come.

The analysis, comparing ice cores drilled from the Guliya Plateau in 1992 and 2015, shows that both samples contained similar oxygen isotope patterns, suggesting that the environmental signals they contain are consistent and reproducible.

“Reproducibility of the records within a given ice cap is extremely important,” said Lonnie Thompson, lead author of the study, professor of earth sciences and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University. “If you get an identical record a quarter of a century later, it can tell you a lot about the behavior of the ice over time.”

To measure the true age of the ice, researchers employed advanced dating techniques to detect two radioactive isotopes, beryllium and chlorine, whose half-lives make them reliable tools for capturing large-scale environmental changes. In this paper, the international team used these elements to mark the Laschamp Geomagnetic Excursion, a reversal of Earth’s magnetic field that left major chemical traces in the ice more than 41,000 years ago.

By comparing these results with oxygen-isotope records from nearby Tibetan cave deposits, this team estimates that the Guliya record’s age may stretch back well over 128,000 years, said Thompson.

“It’s a really critical finding, because outside of the polar regions, this is the only ice core we have from the mountaintops that go back that far,” he said. “Records out of Huascarán only go back over 30,000 years, not over 100,000, so that makes Guliya a very unique record.”

The paper was published today in Science Advances.

Ice cores serve as vital climate archives of the locations and time periods they represent. Yet deciphering these flash-frozen treasure troves can be a challenge, as it requires an accurate knowledge of the ice core’s timescale, said Thompson.

For example, while previous work suggested that Guliya’s record stopped at the Mid-Holocene, an era that began nearly 12,000 years ago, evidence from this work lays to rest doubts about its chronology, confirming that some of its ice is, in fact, much older than the Holocene.

“If we only had Holocene-era ice in Tibet, that would mean that the big ice sheets from the last ice age didn’t persist through the early Holocene,” said Thompson. “But evidence shows that it did.”

While Guliya’s topography likely plays a role in its ability to preserve such old paleoclimate records, constructing a more accurate timescale for the ice cap may also offer answers to bigger environmental questions, such as when Earth’s intense periods of glaciation began and ended.

“When did ice start forming on the planet and what did those natural processes of loss look like?” said Thompson. “We need to know those things, and the only way you can really demonstrate it is with accurate time scales on these records.”

Because these results open new pathways for other types of detailed scientific investigations on Guliya ice cores, the team plans to use future samples to determine how other key climate and environmental indicators may change with this new acknowledgment of Earth’s geologic history.

“The big picture is that our results tell a very consistent story,” he said. “If you get the science right, it’s consistent. It’s our understanding of what it’s trying to tell us that has to catch up.”

This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Ohio State co-authors include Mary Davis and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, as well as Juerg Beer from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Christof Vockenhuber and Marcus Christl from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Tandong Yao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ninglian Wang and Ling Fang from Northwest University in China.

In a new study, researchers found that this protein, called linker histone H1, initially flits around inside a cell with no clear aim even in the presence of its target: a nucleosome containing spooled-up segments of DNA. H1 binds directly to two DNA strands sticking out from the nucleosome, but struggles to bind to the nucleosome itself until a chaperone protein escorts it there.

The team used single-molecule experiments to visualize individual H1 proteins and their nucleosome targets before, during and after H1 bound to the DNA and to the center of the nucleosome. Single-molecule methods provide direct understanding of the target processes by quantifying molecular motions and interactions one molecule at a time, said senior author Michael Poirier, professor of physics at The Ohio State University.

“Many proteins are dynamic, and the way you get at mechanistic dynamic information is by doing these single-molecule studies where you literally can watch in real time what individual molecules are doing,” Poirier said.

These insights are especially important when studying a protein with so much influence over cellular functions, he said.

“H1 is a key regulator of which genes are being used by a cell and which genes are not. If you want to understand how disease develops because gene expression is no longer working properly, then you need to understand how H1 works. Once you understand this, then you open up the possibility for new therapies that counteract this cause of disease.”

First author Ehsan Akbari, a research scientist in Poirier’s lab, led the team’s work. The research was published Sept. 22 in Molecular Cell.

Every cell in a plant, animal or human contains the organism’s entire DNA. In human cells, our 6-foot-long genome must fit inside the nucleus, which is less than 1/10th the width of a human hair. To do this, sections of genomic DNA spool around a collection of histone proteins to form nucleosomes – similarly to how a watering hose might be organized in a backyard.

Nucleosomes then fold in on each other, clumping together to form chromatin. The linker histone H1’s job is to facilitate chromatin compaction, ensuring DNA segments containing genes the cell isn’t using stay wrapped up and unavailable for expression.

“We know that H1 is important for compacting the genome, which is important for regulating gene expression,” Poirier said. “In the genome, regions that are going to be compacted are loaded with a lot of H1, while regions that are more open are going to have less H1.

“Most of your genes are turned off – you only use a small fraction of your genes for any particular cell, so most of the genes need to be maintained in these compacted states so their expression is turned off.”

Poirier and colleagues used optical tweezer instrumentation and single-molecule fluorescence measurements to visualize H1 interactions with DNA and a nucleosome. They observed that H1 continues to move around even after binding to DNA and, instead of loading onto the nucleosome by way of the DNA, the protein reflects away from the nucleosome.

“It moves around and doesn’t even go to the nucleosome, which I didn’t believe,” Poirier said. That’s when the team, predicting a chaperone protein might be the missing link, added three known linker histone chaperone proteins to the experiments.

“Amazingly, the chaperones did a bunch of things to regulate how H1 goes around and how it actually finds and gets onto nucleosomes. And that’s the main point, that people have not understood how H1 loads and gets onto a nucleosome,” he said. “What we found was that it actually will directly load and likes to slide along DNA – we also didn’t even know that it would do that – but it needs a chaperone to help get onto the actual nucleosome.”

Though this work doesn’t tell the entire H1 story, the step-by-step visualizations offer new hints about where the process could go wrong. Poirier’s lab has previously studied H1 variants and their post-translational modification that can occur – changing H1 targeting and function after it’s been fabricated by the cell.

“One very natural thing to do next is to look at how these variants, post-translational modifications, and, most importantly, cancer-relevant mutations influence H1 properties and function that we are now in a position to measure,” he said.

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Additional co-authors were Nathaniel Burge of Ohio State and Matti Valdimarsson, Aritra Chowdhury and Benjamin Schuler of the University of Zurich.

The initiative establishes an on-campus AI space in Ohio State’s Innovation District, including Google DeepMind collaborations, provides Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Notebook access campuswide through Google for Education, and launches an exclusive student research ambassador program.

The collaboration is one of the largest partnerships between Google Public Sector and any U.S. university, uniting Ohio State’s preeminent research and academic programs with Google Cloud’s full AI-optimized tech stack and high-performance computing power.

“Ohio State’s new partnership with Google unites two powerhouses of innovation to create excellence at scale for our students, faculty and staff and the state we serve,” said Ravi V. Bellamkonda, president, Ohio State. “In close collaboration with our partners, we will accelerate research across the enterprise through the AI^(X) Hub, enhance and improve the student experience and strengthen our AI Fluency initiative goals.”

Accelerating scientific research and computing

The partnership focuses on driving life-changing scientific discoveries across the hub’s core research pillars — including biomedical engineering, earth sciences and the humanities. University researchers tackling complex challenges will have access to more than 200 AI models, AI-optimized supercomputing systems and technology from Google DeepMind.

Key research components include:

• AI model and Google DeepMind access: Ohio State researchers gain access to Google DeepMind’s advanced scientific models — such as AlphaFold, Google Earth Engine and agentic AI like AlphaEvolve — to accelerate breakthroughs.
• Google’s AI for Science: As one of an initial cohort of leading R1 institutions, Ohio State will receive enterprise access to Google’s AI research agents through Gemini Enterprise, helping researchers shorten discovery timelines by generating and testing scientific hypotheses.
• Project SCARLET: An AI-powered human performance platform that uses predictive models, computer vision and advanced analytics to optimize Buckeye athletes’ training, recovery and health across all 36 sports, custom-built in partnership with the Ohio State Athletics and the Human Performance Collaborative.

“We are entering a new era of scientific discovery where AI acts as a true force-multiplier for human curiosity and breakthrough research,” said Karen Dahut, CEO, Google Public Sector. “Through our advanced tech stack and AI research tools we are putting unparalleled computing power and scientific models directly into the hands of Ohio State’s world-class faculty and researchers. This is one of our largest and most comprehensive education partnerships to date, and we are incredibly proud to partner with Ohio State to pioneer solutions in critical, rapidly evolving fields.”

AI Fluency and student experience

New tools for students will transform the Ohio State experience, providing personalized AI assistants, advanced career pathway tools and unique experiential learning opportunities.

Student-focused initiatives include:

• Increasing technology access: Through Google for Education, select students, faculty and staff members will have access to Google Workspace for Education and Gemini Enterprise.
• Student concierge experience: Ohio State will launch a 24/7 virtual assistant powered by Google Cloud’s AI. This student concierge will enhance academic advising, registrar services and career pathway planning, and provide a streamlined personalized experience for every student.
• Research ambassador program: A first-of-its-kind Google Public Sector ambassador program will recruit Ohio State students to work alongside Google teams, gaining hands-on industry experience.

Collaboration with Google will also help the university modernize campus operations, enabling intelligent campus infrastructure and cybersecurity automation, and eliminating operational barriers for faculty and staff.

Dear Colleagues:

I hope you’re enjoying a successful start to the academic year. As I shared during my recent State of the University address, I’m reminded daily what a privilege it is to be part of such an extraordinary community.

I’m writing to share results of the Ohio State Listening Survey that we conducted this spring with the help of Perceptyx, a third-party research firm. We have periodically conducted these surveys to gather your input on how Ohio State can become an even better place to work and learn.

I want to thank the many of you who participated. Your feedback is helping us take action to remain a workplace of choice for talented faculty and staff – the heart of our university and the people who bring our vision for excellence to life.

You may view detailed results of the listening survey here. Key overall points include:

1) Employee engagement remains a point of pride. A strong majority of you report that your work gives you a sense of accomplishment – an affirmation that you are engaged in meaningful, mission-oriented work.

We’re also working hard to ensure that all of us who hold leadership roles can speak to the university’s priorities and their alignment to our teams’ daily work.

2) We’ve heard your feedback about the importance of affirming that good ideas can come from anywhere at Ohio State. I’m pleased with the early success of our University Continuous Improvement initiative, which has turned input from staff and faculty into tangible actions to improve our efficiency and effectiveness. This effort will continue, as our pursuit of excellence will require good ideas from all of us.

3) I’ve asked university leaders to take action from the data – some of it unified across Ohio State and other actions tailored to your units. Your leader will share detailed survey results for your college or unit soon. This year, leaders will prioritize connecting decisions to the “why.” Leaders will also identify additional actions informed by their unit’s results.

Ohio State is a community of extraordinary people who give life to the Buckeye ethos: hard work, grit, passion and grace. Thanks to your engagement, we’re in a position to become an even better place for you to do consequential work that changes lives and communities.

Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Ravi V. Bellamkonda, PhD

President, The Ohio State University

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Disney classic “Aladdin,” TBDBITL performed selections including “Friend Like Me,” “One Jump Ahead” and “A Whole New World.” An elephant and rider, the genie and his lamp and the Taj Mahal were just a few of the band’s formations.

Saturday’s i-dotter was Connor Croley, a medical laboratory science major from Wadsworth, Ohio.

The Ohio State University is committed to working with the statewide business community on workforce development and advancing innovation and development, President Ravi V. Bellamkonda said during a recent meeting of the Columbus Partnership.

“We have some bold things happening,” he said. “We are reimagining business education. We’re reimagining what partnerships with companies will look like.”

The meeting brought central Ohio business leaders to the Fisher College of Business – the first time the Columbus Partnership held a meeting on Ohio State’s campus. The Columbus Partnership is a nonprofit, membership-based organization of executives from Columbus businesses and organizations.

Bellamkonda said Ohio State has a long-standing relationship with the business community. He noted that Ohio State recently announced BuildX, an initiative designed to help student founders move through every stage of the startup process, from idea exploration to building a company and investor readiness.

Ohio State also recently announced a partnership with Google in which the technology company will establish an on-campus space in the university’s Innovation District.

Bellamkonda said the partnership will accelerate research across fields from biomedical engineering to the humanities through access to premier AI models, high-powered computing capabilities, student research ambassadors and collaboration with Google DeepMind technology.

“The partnership is not just Google’s first announcement of a physical presence of any U.S. university right here on our campus, the Innovation District, but also their personnel being here and engaging with our students, offering internships,” Bellamkonda said. “They’ll be working with our professors to take on deep research in multiple spaces, from health to earth sciences to national security and other spaces.”

In addition, the university maintains a host of educational programming and facilities that promote workforce development, Bellamkonda said.

“Right here on our campus, we have a 45,000-square-foot classroom for manufacturing,” he said. “One hundred and fifty companies work with undergraduate students on equipment that companies use in their plants.”

Fisher Interim Dean Aravind Chandrasekaran encouraged the business leaders to tap into the university’s resources and increase engagement by providing internships and employment opportunities for Ohio State students.

“If you think about problems in your organizations, we would love to have those as a learning lab for our students, because at the center of what we all do is our students,” Chandrasekaran said. “We want to make sure they get to see, they get to experience your organizations.”

Huntington Bank CEO Steve Steinour, co-chair of the Columbus Partnership, said Ohio State’s research and the expertise of the university’s faculty are assets to the business community.

“There are clearly things happening. There’s an energy about the place,” Steinour told Bellamkonda and Chandrasekaran. “We’re thrilled with the energy and effort you’re bringing on so many fronts, including what you’re doing around innovation and entrepreneurship.”

One of the few university-based initiatives of its kind in the country, Ohio State Events serves as a central point of access for planners and helps to attract events such as conferences, meetings, athletic competitions, symposia, celebrations and other events to campus.

The no-cost resource helps planners navigate site selection, event proposals, site visits and the more than 150 rentable spaces on the institution’s Columbus campus. Ohio State Events also connects planners with the university’s many event-related resources, including catering and dining, transportation, technology and on-site event support. This coordinated approach is particularly valuable for complex events that span multiple venues and require services and expertise from across the university.

The new Ohio State Events website (ohiostateevents.com) gives planners a starting point to explore venue and service options and learn more about hosting an event at Ohio State.

“This initiative will enhance the academic reputation of the university and support its overall academic mission by attracting and convening events that will bring scholarship, innovation and creativity directly to our campus,” said Xen Riggs, vice president of business advancement and chief operating officer of athletics at Ohio State.

Recent events hosted on campus have ranged from national academic conferences to international athletic competitions utilizing multiple Ohio State venues and services.

“We have incredible spaces across Athletics, Student Life, academic facilities and other signature campus locations,” Riggs said. “What makes Ohio State Events special is not just identifying a venue, but the expertise and experiences we can surround events with to simplify the planning process and make an event truly unforgettable.”

The launch also formalizes Ohio State’s partnership with Experience Columbus, the city’s official destination marketing organization, and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, an LLC of Experience Columbus. Located in the heart of one of the Midwest’s fastest-growing cities — where more than half the U.S. population lives within a single day’s drive or one-hour flight — Ohio State provides an accessible and attractive event hub.

“Ohio State is an integral part of the Columbus experience, and this partnership allows us to connect the university’s extraordinary event capabilities with the hotels, attractions, restaurants and culture our city offers,” said Sarah Townes, chief marketing and innovation officer for Experience Columbus and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “Columbus is a premier destination for meetings, conventions and sporting events, and through this new initiative, meeting planners will have unprecedented access to Buckeye Nation and unique experiences that create unforgettable events.”

Ohio State Events is the public-facing name of the Office of Events and Experiences, whose goal is to streamline the event planning process while helping planners take advantage of the depth of venues and event resources available across Ohio State.

“Events are one of the most powerful ways universities share knowledge, build partnerships and advance their mission,” said Kelly Mulhern, senior director of sales for Ohio State Events. “Our role is to help turn opportunities into meaningful connections by bringing the right people, places and resources together to create experiences that have lasting impact.”

Darmanie is one of 10 participants in a pilot program that pairs Ohio State students with second- and third-graders at Weinland Park Elementary School near the university’s Columbus campus. Ohio State’s Leading Through Service class is a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Central Ohio.

When Darmanie first began meeting with her Little Sister when the program began last spring, she worked on helping the second-grader open up.

“We were really working on her being able to express her emotions because sometimes that can be really hard, especially when you’re little and may not be able to understand the whole spectrum of emotions,” Darmanie said.

“She’d just always say either, ‘[I’m feeling] good or bad.’ And we’re like, ‘OK, well let’s break that down a little bit.’ And by the end [of the semester], she was able to articulate really well, ‘Well, I'm feeling frustrated because of this class.’ We were really working on her emotional ability to regulate.”

By helping her Little Sister express herself, Darmanie said she enhanced her own communication skills.

“When you’re working with someone who’s in second grade, I realize patience is a really important virtue,” she said. “I definitely learned some of my own emotional regulation, working with her.”

Darmanie and several other Ohio State students from last spring’s cohort have returned to participate in the mentoring program at Weinland Park Elementary this academic year. The students spend one class period each week with their Weinland Park counterparts. Mentors help their “Littles” cultivate emotional intelligence and leadership skills, as well as gain an understanding of basic business principles.

In addition to the personal satisfaction that comes with volunteering, the Ohio State students receive course credit.

The Leading Through Service class marks the first time Fisher students have received course credit for community service, said Cynthia Turner, Fisher’s strategic advisor to the dean.

“One goal was to have, at the end of the semester, the Littles knowing a little bit more about business, a little bit more about Fisher and Ohio State,” she said.

“But what I thought was unique about this program is the ability for our students, in a safe space, to develop emotional intelligence skills, being able to engage with students who are often from different backgrounds, learning how to inspire those students.”

To prepare to interact with their mentees, the Ohio State students attended weekly Leading Through Service classroom sessions at the university. Terry Esper, a professor of logistics who teaches the class, said the curriculum aligns with BBBS’s goals of matching children who need guidance with responsible adults.

“We developed a class that was focused on the importance of mentoring as it relates to being an effective business leader. Of course, the essence of the engagement with Big Brothers Big Sisters is all around mentorship,” he said.

“This was a really good opportunity for us to leverage this idea of mentoring someone who’s significantly younger than you and how that would play out if we were to apply that to a business organization.”

Gabriella Perkins, BBBS public service strategist, said the organization’s partnership with Ohio State offers numerous benefits for the Weinland Park Elementary students. The advantages include connecting with young adults from whom they can learn both social skills and entrepreneurial concepts.

“We are focusing on, for our Littles, providing them with that one supportive adult. But on the other end of that for our Ohio State students, we’re providing them with some service learning and leadership,” she said. “[Ohio State students] came up with an idea for a lemonade stand that they work on with the Little as well. What that looks like is a business plan, and they work through that throughout the year.”

Samantha Roman, a human resources major, said she decided to return to the Leading Through Service program this academic year so that she can strengthen the bond that she formed with her Little Sister last spring.

“Every single time that I got to go with my Little, whether it was rain or shine outside, I feel like I always took something with me, especially when it comes to working with younger people,” Roman said. “Since it was my first experience [mentoring], I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to interact with her or connect with her on the level that I did, but I’m so glad I got the opportunity. And that’s what motivates me to come back this year.”

Juan Colon, who is majoring in real estate and urban analysis as well as political science, said he bonded with his Little Brother by teaching him strategy through chess.

“I started bringing my chessboard, and during our free time we’d play chess. And through that, I was able to connect with him more. He was more comfortable talking to me,” Colon said. “He called me his best friend, and that really touched me. … Chess is what built our connection.”

Mike Zebedee Musungu, a finance major, said he returned to the mentoring program this year to help his Little Brother explore academic and career options and encourage him to maximize his potential.

“Seeing him having fun, just being a kid, that’s also one of the also reasons why I decided to continue,” Musungu said. “But also to try and tap into his creativity and give him the opportunity to understand that he can be something.”

Ohio State is also ranked 17th in the nation in the new Best Value Schools for In-State Students category. The university also ranked 44th overall among more than 400 universities nationwide.

The rankings emphasize Ohio State’s focus on fostering a commitment to excellence that yields high-quality academic programs and research.

“These rankings highlight the academic excellence across Ohio State. We are proud of the hard work and exceptional talent of our faculty, students and staff who support these nationally recognized programs,” said university President Ravi V. Bellamkonda. “We have ambitious goals at Ohio State and are committed to a strategy for excellence to become the national leader in public universities.”

In his recent State of the University address, Bellamkonda encouraged the students, faculty and staff of Ohio State to pursue excellence to become the nation’s finest public university.

His strategy for excellence includes six pillars: a signature undergraduate experience with access to excellence for students; investment in the faculty and staff who lead and innovate every day; a commitment to life-changing research; vibrant colleges and academic programs; and a pursuit of operational excellence and efficiency. He also highlighted bold ideas to build on the university’s success, including embracing an entrepreneurial mindset and pursuing AI fluency.

Beyond overall rankings, the university remains among the top 10 in a variety of academic programs. The College of Nursing’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is ranked 4th nationally and 2nd among public universities.

In the Fisher College of Business, the supply chain management program ranks 5th nationally and 4th among public universities. The accounting program ranks 12th nationally and 6th among publics.

The production/operation management program ranks 11th nationally, up one spot from last year, and 8th among public universities. The college’s undergraduate business programs were also 8th among publics and 15th nationally. The finance program ranks 18th nationally and 8th among public universities.

In the College of Engineering, the biological and agricultural engineering program ranks 11th nationally and 10th among public universities. The materials engineering and mechanical engineering programs also ranked in the top 10 of public universities, placing 7th and 8th, respectively.

Ohio State remains among the top universities for commitment to military-connected students. The new report ranks the university 22nd nationally and 14th among public institutions.

Ohio State’s top ranking in Ohio is tied with Case Western Reserve University.

Now in its 42nd year, the Best Colleges issue evaluates nearly 1,500 colleges and universities on up to 17 measures of academic quality.

“The backlash we’re studying is different than people disagreeing about wearing masks or getting a COVID vaccine,” said lead author Marian Moser Jones, associate professor of health services management and policy in The Ohio State University College of Public Health. “This is true hostility. Threats of violence. Undermining these people in ways that harm their ability to do their jobs.”

Of 109 leaders interviewed for the study, 76% were threatened or harassed, a category of backlash the researchers deemed “extraordinary.”

Among the experiences shared by public health leaders:

• The FBI arrest of a person making ongoing credible death threats. “That was the first time I felt scared because in his house he had over 100 guns…”
• A public health official described a persistent “scary,” “obsessed” male “stalker” who sent a picture of someone strangling a child the same age as her child.
• “The worst day was [when] I came home from work one day. … I came home and on my front door I found a note taped. And when I opened it up, it was a threat to kill my dog. And it had a picture of my dog in my backyard.”

About half experienced “undermining” backlash, which made it hard for them to work — things like overwhelming their offices with data requests, repeatedly demanding revisions to pandemic guidelines and publicly disparaging their qualifications. The research appears in the American Journal of Public Health.

The research team interviewed leaders from 18 geographically and politically diverse states. Participants were from suburban and rural areas and included local and state leaders.

Many of them have retired early or left the field, Moser Jones said.

“Politicians expect this kind of thing when they go into the field. But before this, most public health officials hadn’t been in the spotlight and they hadn’t been targets. It’s been hard on the profession,” Moser Jones said.

The good news? The research team identified some successful strategies officials used, approaches that could inform future fraught moments in public health leadership.

Particularly in smaller areas, officials often had deep ties to the community and knew the people making threats and creating other challenges, Moser Jones said. Sometimes, they had success bringing upset community members or small business owners to the table for conversations or calling opponents and talking it through.

“They’d say things like, ‘Listen, you’re threatening my kids,’ and it would sometimes turn the temperature down,” Moser Jones said.

“Anecdotally, promoting civil discourse seemed to cut down on the backlash. It didn’t stop it entirely, but it helped prevent officials from being fired or forced out.”

Amy Fairchild, senior author of the study and a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said some health officials who weathered backlash involved local businesses in decision making.

“They understood that they needed to explain not only the science but acknowledge the painful tradeoffs at stake and explain the rationales behind these tough decisions,” she said.

The researchers, whose work with public health leaders is ongoing, have identified some potential policy approaches as well, including:

• Criminalizing doxing, the act of publicly revealing private or personally identifiable information about someone online without their permission. (In many cases, officials’ addresses or phone numbers were shared online to encourage organized backlash.)
• Requiring boards of health members to have backgrounds related to the field. (In some communities, people with little or no connection to public health are calling the shots.)

Outside of policy approaches, Moser Jones said health officials may build bridges outside a pandemic by building relationships with different groups in the community who have different values and viewpoints.

“Bringing people who have disagreed about the pandemic together around issues that matter to them, such as the ongoing opioid crisis, can be powerful,” she said.

“Another take-away is there is a lot of work to do to deal with the vicious polarization in this country. For public health officials, it may be working harder to explain why they’re relevant, and all the work they do to keep people healthy — from keeping food safe, to helping moms and babies, to offering people help quitting smoking.”

The project received funding from the Commonwealth Fund, the Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Study co-authors from NYU include Shevya Awasthi, Faith Daniel, Cheryl Healton, Julie Holm, José Plascencia Jimenez, José Pagán and Mahathi Vojjala. Study co-authors from Syracuse University include Ashley Marie Bursie, Anne N. M. Getz Eidelhoch, Tori-Ann Haywood, Sierra Jade Kaplan, Winston Junior Scott and Kelsey Anne Wilber.

New numbers from the university’s autumn 2026 enrollment census show total enrollment at Ohio State increased 1.4% over last year to a total of 68,183 students.

“We’re excited that so many talented students in Ohio and around the country are choosing the extraordinary educational experience that Ohio State provides,” said President Ravi V. Bellamkonda. “As Buckeyes, our students have access to excellence: experiential learning, industry-connected internships, research opportunities and an immersive campus life that will prepare them for success as professionals and leaders in their communities.”

Total enrollment on the Columbus campus reached a record high of 62,010 students, up 1.1% from the prior year. Undergraduate enrollment on the Columbus campus also reached a record high of 47,308 students.

The new enrollment report highlights growth on the university’s regional campuses. Regional campus total enrollment increased 4.1% to 6,173 students. And new first-year enrollment on the regional campuses is 3,256, a 6.1% increase over last year and a 22% increase over the past two years.

Autumn 2026 is the first year for the Regional Campus Commitment program, where eligible new first-year students who enroll at one of the university’s campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion or Newark or at Ohio State ATI in Wooster can now attend Ohio State without having to pay tuition or mandatory fees. The program supports qualifying students whose family income is less than $100,000 and who have demonstrated financial need

On the Columbus campus, new first-year enrollment grew to 8,585 students, up 375 students from the previous year. Students from the Buckeye State are at the heart of the new first-year class, with 70% coming from Ohio.

The new class remains academically strong with an average ACT score of 28.6 and an average SAT score of 1300. Students are also succeeding once they are on campus. Ohio State achieved a 93.9% first-year retention rate on the Columbus campus, according to the new report, up from 93.5% the previous year, with first-year retention also increasing on nearly all regional campuses. 

In his State of the University address, Bellamkonda highlighted several bold initiatives to support student success. They include a new university partnership with Google Public Sector that will offer student ambassadors research opportunities with on-campus Google researchers. BuildX combines real-world startup practices, rapid experimentation, and mentorship from experienced founders, operators and investors to help students turn promising ideas into scalable ventures. And the continued growth of AI Fluency to help students become AI fluent – fluent in their field of study and fluent in applying AI in that field.

Additional highlights from the enrollment census include:

• Graduate student enrollment remained stable with 11,427 students.
• Professional student enrollment increased slightly to 3,281 students, up 1.3% from the prior year.
• Ohio State Online total enrollment grew to 4,196 students, up 884 students, or 26.7%, from the previous year.