Lt. Governor Husted joins Ohio State dedication of new Mansfield STEM labs

Lt. Governor Jon Husted joined The Ohio State University administrators, faculty and staff to celebrate the opening and dedication of new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) laboratories in Conard Hall at the Mansfield campus on Friday.  The program also celebrated the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology, which will graduate its first cohort of students this May. 

The new Organic Chemistry Lab, Charter Next Generation PLC Lab, Richland County Foundation CSM Lab and mechanical processes lab, supported by the Gorman-Rupp Pump Company, provide state-of-the-art equipment for students to train for careers in STEM and advanced manufacturing, said Ohio State Mansfield Interim Dean Eric Anderman.

“It helps us in so many ways to prepare students to meet the workforce needs in this part of the state,” he said. “The whole program was developed under the guidance and advice of all the manufacturing companies. They told us what they need. We created a program that is producing students with the skills that are exactly what they need.”

Ohio State’s ongoing collaboration with the business community on workforce development is a model for continued economic growth statewide, said Husted, who serves as director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation.

“The way that it works best is when you have the private sector and the public sector working together,” he said. “When we do that right, the great benefit of it all is what happens for our students and for the people in our society because they earn the skills that it takes to have great careers to do amazing things, to have job security, higher pay, all of the things that we want out of life. What we’re doing today is incredibly important to that.”

Husted noted that Ohio State is one of the higher education institutions across Ohio that receives grants through the state’s Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills (RAPIDS) and Super RAPIDS programs. The programs support workforce development initiatives at postsecondary institutions that further students’ career aspirations and economic growth of businesses in the region.

“This $100 million initiative was included in the state’s most recent operating budget to support technology skilling and retraining efforts at career centers and colleges by modernizing lab equipment and funding facility upgrades, which is exactly what we’re here to celebrate today,” said Norman Jones, Ohio State vice president and dean for undergraduate education.

The new Mansfield campus STEM labs will provide students with the training, experience and skills to be competitive in high-growth industries, said Ohio State College of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard.  

“The labs will provide students access to the hands-on learning, the experiential learning that they need to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to real-world applications,” she said. “As a resource, this is a real asset. Students are learning what they need to be very productive from the day they graduate.”

For more information about the new STEM labs and the Mansfield campus, visit Ohio State Mansfield’s website.