By Michael V. Drake, President,  The Ohio State University

The Supremes, with their polished performances and family-friendly lyrics, helped to bridge a cultural divide and temper racial tensions. AP Photo/Frings

Editor's Note: In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting this story originally published in 2018.

When Sly and the Family Stone released “Everyday People” at the end of 1968, it was a rallying cry after a tumultuous year of assassinations, civil unrest and a seemingly interminable war.

“We got to live together,” he sang, “I am no better and neither are you.”

Throughout history, artists and songwriters have expressed a longing for equality and justice through their music.

Before the Civil War, African-American slaves gave voice to their oppression through protest songs camouflaged as Biblical spirituals. In the 1930s, jazz singer Billie Holiday railed against the practice of lynching in “Strange Fruit.” Woody Guthrie’s folk ballads from the 1930s and 1940s often commented on the plight of the working class.

But perhaps in no other time in American history did popular music more clearly reflect the political and cultural moment than the soundtrack of the 1960s – one that exemplified a new and overt social consciousness.

That decade, a palpable energy slowly burned and intensified through a succession of events: the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.

By the mid-1960s, frustration about the slow pace of change began to percolate with riots in multiple cities. Then, in 1968, two awful events occurred within months of each other: the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Through it all, there was the music.

Coming of age during this time in Northern California, I had the opportunity to hear some of the era’s soundtrack live – James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.

At the same time, virtually everyone in the African-American community was directly connected in some way or another to the civil rights movement.

Every year, I revisit this era in an undergraduate class I teach on music, civil rights and the Supreme Court. With this perspective as a backdrop, here are five songs, followed by a playlist that I share with my students.

While they offer a window into the awakening and reckoning of the times, the tracks have assumed a renewed relevance and resonance today.

“Blowin’ in the Wind,” Bob Dylan, 1963

First made a hit by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, the song signaled a new consciousness and became the most covered of all Dylan songs.

The song asks a series of questions that appeal to the listener’s moral compass, while the timeless imagery of the lyrics – cannonballs, doves, death, the sky – evoke a longing for peace and freedom that spoke to the era.

As one critic noted in 2010:

“There are songs that are more written by their times than by any individual in that time, a song that the times seem to call for, a song that is just gonna be a perfect strike rolled right down the middle of the lane, and the lane has already been grooved for the strike.”

This song – along with others such as “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Chimes of Freedom” – are among the reasons Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“A Change is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke, 1964

During a 1963 tour in the South, Cooke and his band were refused lodging at a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana.

African Americans routinely faced segregation and prejudice in the Jim Crow South, but this particular experience shook Cooke.

So he put pen to paper and tackled a subject that represented a departure for Cooke, a crossover artist who made his name with a series of Top 40 hits.

The lyrics reflect the anguish of being an extraordinary pop headliner who nonetheless needs to go through a side door.

Singer Sam Cooke stands next to a huge reproduction of his head on the roof of a Manhattan building. AP Photo

Showcasing Cooke’s gospel roots, it’s a song that painfully and beautifully captures the edge between hope and despair.

“It’s been a long, a long time coming,” he croons. “But I know a change is gonna come.”

Sam Cooke, in composing “A Change is Gonna Come,” was also inspired by Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”: According to Cooke’s biographer, upon hearing Dylan’s song, Cooke “was almost ashamed to have not written something like that himself.”

“Come See About Me,” The Supremes, 1964

This was one of my favorites of their songs at the time – upbeat, fun and necessarily “unpolitical.”

The Supremes’ record label, Motown, played an important role bridging a cultural divide during the civil rights era by catapulting black musicians to global stardom.

The Supremes were the Motown act with arguably the broadest appeal, and they paved the way for other black artists to enjoy creative success as mainstream acts.

Through their 20 top-10 hits and 17 appearances from 1964 to 1969 on CBS’ popular weekly live program “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the group had a regular presence in the living rooms of black and white families across the country.

“Say it Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud,” James Brown, 1968

James Brown – the self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business” – built his reputation as an entertainer par excellence with brilliant dance moves, meticulous staging and a cape routine.

But with “Say it Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud,” Brown seemed to be consciously delivering a starkly political statement about being black in America.

The track’s straightforward, unadorned lyrics allowed it to quickly become a black pride anthem that promised “we won’t quit movin’ until we get what we deserve.”

“Respect,” Aretha Franklin, 1967

If I could choose only one song to represent the era it would be “Respect.”

It’s a cover of a track previously written and recorded by Otis Redding. But Franklin makes it wholly her own. From the opening lines, the Queen of Soul doesn’t ask for respect; she demands it.

The song became an anthem for the black power and women’s movements.

As Franklin explained in her 1999 autobiography:

“It was the need of a nation, the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher – everyone wanted respect. It was also one of the battle cries of the civil rights movement. The song took on monumental significance.”

Of course, these five songs can’t possibly do the decade’s music justice.

Some other tracks that I share with my students and count among my favorites include Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” and Lou Rawls’ “Dead End Street.”

Michael V. Drake, President, The Ohio State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Reik, a rising third-year majoring in middle childhood education, feels she’s experienced enough to mentor students trying to make the band this summer.

“I feel comfortable dedicating myself to the new people. I feel that when I put myself out there and I’m helping them learn their stuff for the first time it helps them,” she said. “But it helps me make sure I know my stuff too. It’s kind of a test for me.

Reik has focused on music or marching band since she was a child. She’s played trombone since the fifth grade but learned piano when she was five years old.

“I’ve been in various orchestras, bands and choirs throughout my entire life,” she said. “Having that musical background, that’s mainly what I bring to the table.”

Reik is also preparing to be in the spotlight for another reason. Her experience in the 141st season of the marching band will soon appear on the silver screen.

A new documentary “TBDBITL 141” will have a theatrical debut in the fall and Reik is featured prominently in the movie. “TBDBITL 141” takes viewers inside the 141st season of the marching band, from summer practice to tryouts to the makings of their legendary halftime shows.

The season was a special one for the marching band, featuring historic trips to New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and to the Rose Bowl. The Macy’s parade was a first for TBDBITL.

Reik hasn’t seen the full movie but she has previewed some of the clips in which she appears and the trailer promoting the film.

“It’s just incredible to watch yourself on the big screen, to see yourself reflected,” she said. “It’s nice to have all these memories to look back on.”

The documentary is currently in post-production. University Communications Director of National Broadcast Media Joe Camoriano is the producer and director of the film.

“We were fortunate to witness this special season through the experiences and emotions of students like Sydney,” Camoriano said. “It’s really their story and we’re excited for everyone to see their hard work and dedication.”

An experienced filmmaker, he and his team had exclusive access on the marching band from the start of summer practice, to tryouts, to New York City for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“To be able to remember all those times, with those specific friends, doing those specific shows, to have that in my memory forever and now on film, on the screen, in photos… it’s just magical,” she said.

Reik is preparing for a new season while waiting to see the premiere of “TBDBITL 141.” She said she’s ready for another challenging but rewarding season.

“Going in, you know beforehand as you’re prepping for this marching band program that it’s intense,” she said. “You know it. You dedicate yourself to it. You dedicate your time. So you just got to do it.”

Proceeds from "TBDBITL 141" will support Ohio State Marching Band scholarship funds.

But new research indicates that focused physics professional development for teachers—even those who have no prior physics training—can lead to better experiences for both students and teachers, and can improve students’ understanding of physics concepts.

The study, published last month in the Journal of Science Teacher Education, followed two groups of advanced-placement science teachers as they went through three years of training. The program was designed to improve their understanding of physics concepts and to assist them in developing teaching strategies to help their students better retain what they learn about physics.

Justina Ogodo, the study’s author and postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University’s Department of Teaching and Learning, said that when she launched this project, she remembered being a physics student in high school, and being uninspired by the education she received.

“I truly hated physics, because my teacher would speak to the board—he would teach to the board,” she said. “I imagined students were having the same experience I had, because the teachers don’t have the content knowledge or pedagogical skills to teach physics.”

Ogodo wanted to understand how a teacher’s subject-matter knowledge could affect a student’s ability to learn and understand. She followed a group of advanced-placement physics teachers through intensive physics professional development funded by the National Science Foundation, then compared their teaching practices and student outcomes with AP teachers who did not attend the courses.

To evaluate the teachers, Ogodo used the Reformed Teaching and Observation Protocol (RTOP) instrument, which has been in use as a teacher-evaluation tool since 2000. Ogodo used the instrument to measure each teacher’s effectiveness in five categories: lesson design and implementation, content, classroom culture, communicative interactions and student/teacher relationships. She found that teachers who completed the training earned scores about 40 percent higher than teachers who did not participate in the professional development.

Prior to the training, Ogodo found, most teachers used “traditional, teacher-centered methods” to teach. Those methods include lectures, note-taking and problem-solving activities—methods designed to complete the AP curriculum and focused on the AP exam.

Ogodo observed that teachers who completed the course were more likely to use conceptual learning techniques and the Socratic method to teach their students—a method driven by inquiry-based teaching and learning, along with hands-on labs to help students see the real-world applications of the theories they learned.

The teachers who did not complete the training, Ogodo found, continued to fall back on lectures and standardized labs.

The shortage of physics teachers is severe. Across the United States, just 47 percent of physics teachers have physics degrees or physics education, according to the National Science Foundation.

And in Alabama, where this study was conducted, the problem is worse: Just 9 percent of physics teachers there have physics degrees or certification in physics education.

“They are just thrown into the physics classrooms to teach,” Ogodo said. “That means they are not equipped to teach physics, and that can be frustrating for both teachers and students.”

The results can be harmful, Ogodo found. Some teachers in Ogodo’s study reported feeling a lack of confidence in their abilities, especially when teaching physics concepts they did not understand, and suggested that these feelings could lead to teacher burn-out. Ogodo also found that teachers’ lack of knowledge can diminish students’ interest in physics.

But in classrooms led by teachers who participated in the intensive physics education training, teachers reported feeling greater satisfaction in teaching physics and greater trust in their abilities.

Previous studies about science and education have shown that students’ ability to achieve in any subject is directly connected to the quality and effectiveness of their teachers.

Ogodo said this study shows that increasing training for teachers will likely lead to better outcomes for students and to greater numbers of students seeking futures in the sciences.

“One student told me she likes to write, and that she wanted to be a creative writer, but that after taking this physics class with her teacher who had learned these better techniques, she wants to be a physics teacher,” Ogodo said. “That just made my day.”

This work was supported by the Alliance for Physics Excellence project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation through the University of Alabama, Alabama A&M University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Researchers at The Ohio State University wanted to know what happens to obese people with metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes, when they eat a diet low in carbohydrates but don’t shed any pounds. They found that more than half of study participants no longer met the criteria for metabolic syndrome immediately following a four-week low-carb diet.

The new study included 16 men and women with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of factors that also put people at higher risk of heart disease and stroke. The conditions that contribute to metabolic syndrome include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormally low ‘good’ HDL cholesterol or high triglyceride levels. About a third of American adults have the syndrome, according to the American Heart Association.

After eating a low-carb diet, more than half the participants – five men and four women – saw their metabolic syndrome reversed even though they were fed diets that intentionally contained enough calories to keep their weight stable.

Previous work in the Ohio State lab and elsewhere has shown that low-carb diets can be beneficial for people with metabolic syndrome and diabetes, but nutrition scientists and others have debated whether that’s a product of the diet or a product of the weight loss typically seen when people reduce carbs, said the study’s senior author, Jeff Volek, a professor of human sciences at Ohio State.

“There’s no doubt that people with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes do better on low-carb diets, but they typically lose weight and one of the prevailing thoughts is that the weight loss is driving the improvements. That was clearly not the case here,” Volek said.

“Our view is that restricting carbs even without weight loss improves a host of metabolic problems. Obviously, quality of diet matters because quantity is locked down in this experiment.”

The study appears today (June 20) in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight.

Over about four months, each study participant ate three month-long controlled diets – high-carb, moderate-carb and low-carb – with a two-week break between diets. The order in which the participants ate the diets was randomly assigned. All three diets had 20 percent protein. The low-carb diet was 6 percent carbs and 74 percent fat, the moderate-carb diet was 32 percent carbs and 48 percent fat, and the high-carb diet was 57 percent carbs and 23 percent fat.

The research team, led by research scientist Parker Hyde, ensured that the participants would not lose weight by providing them with pre-prepared meals that contained an amount of calories equal to their energy expenditure.

After eating the low-carb diet, the participants had a variety of significantly improved health measures, particularly lower triglycerides and improved cholesterol readings. Despite the fact that the low-carb diet contained 2.5 times more saturated fat than the high-carb diet, it decreased saturated fat in the bloodstream and was associated with an increase in the size of cholesterol particles in the blood, which decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, Hyde said.

The researchers also report evidence of increased fat-burning efficiency after a low-carb diet and an improvement in blood sugar. They did not see statistically significant improvements in blood pressure or insulin resistance.

Three participants no longer had metabolic syndrome after the moderate-carbohydrate diet and one no longer had the syndrome after the high-carb diet. Volek said that those results are likely explained by the fact that even these study diets – particularly the moderate-carb diet – represented a shift toward fewer carbs for study participants.

“Even a modest restriction in carbs is enough to reverse metabolic syndrome in some people, but others need to restrict even more,” he said.

Because of the study design, waist circumference was not factored in as a contributor to metabolic syndrome. Had the participants been permitted to lose weight, it is likely that several more would have been considered free of the condition after the low-carb diet, Volek said.

This research doesn’t address the potential long-term benefits and challenges of adopting a low-carbohydrate diet, and the researchers suggest that future long-term diet studies on people with metabolic syndrome need to include low-carb diets.

The research was supported by the National Dairy Council and the Dutch Dairy Association.

Volek has authored books on the benefits of low-carb diets and is a founder of a company seeking to help people with type 2 diabetes through low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets.

She strode through dewy grass until she reached the edge of a small wooded area just west of Browning Amphitheatre. Glanville squatted, removed the paper clip securing the bag, and reached in. She pulled out a Bay-breasted Warbler, a tiny bird just 5.5 inches long, stunned from colliding with a window on campus earlier that morning.

She set it gently on the grass. The bird took two small hops and stopped.

“That’s not good,” Glanville said.

After waiting a moment, she picked up the warbler and put it back in the bag. “Maybe it just needs to rest a bit more. We’ll try again in a few minutes.”

***

Glanville, 22, graduated from Ohio State a few weeks earlier on May 5 with a degree in wildlife science, but she still volunteers with Lights Out Buckeyes, a project she helped launch last year.

Lights Out Buckeyes, sponsored by the Ohio State Ornithology Club, seeks to learn more about a serious threat to migrating birds throughout North America: window collisions. Each year in the United States, up to 988 million birds die by hitting windows, researchers say. That’s second only to predation by feral and household cats (up to 4 billion birds a year) as the largest human-related cause of bird deaths.

Most window collisions occur during spring and fall migration, when more than 4 billion birds move between their breeding grounds in Canada and the northern United States and their winter homes as far away as South America. The “lights out” project title is a nod to a known contributor to window strikes: well-lit urban areas that attract migrating birds into unfamiliar settings full of dangerous obstacles.

Glanville and her fellow Ornithology Club members are assessing the scope of the problem on the Ohio State campus. How many birds are victims of these collisions? Are some buildings attracting more collisions? And, most important, is there any way to help prevent these usually deadly window strikes?

Glanville created Lights Out Buckeyes with Tyler Ficker, 21, another Ornithology Club member and wildlife science major who just finished his third year at Ohio State.

The impetus for the project came in spring 2018, when Glanville and Ficker talked about how many dead birds they were coming across on campus, especially during migration.

“From a research perspective, we were interested in how many birds we could find that had hit windows. And from a conservation perspective, we wanted to find out if campus buildings were a problem,” Glanville said.

So beginning last fall, a group of Ornithology Club volunteers scoured the campus twice a week during migration – from the start of autumn classes until Nov. 1 – usually collecting data from about 5 a.m. until their 8 a.m. classes.

The results, which she submitted as an undergraduate research thesis, surprised Glanville.

“We started out thinking we would find maybe 50 birds last fall. And then we documented more than 150 collisions. I was surprised by how many birds were being killed.”

In fact, the official tally for last fall was 173 birds, with 11 found alive.

During this spring’s migration, students started their campus building checks on March 1 and planned to continue until June 1. By mid-May, they had found 61 more birds, only two of which were alive.

***

Glanville had left her south campus area apartment at about 9 that May morning. She was going to Thompson Library to meet a friend who had found a window-strike victim that had not survived -- an Ovenbird, another type of migrating warbler. She decided to do a quick check around the Ohio Union for birds and spotted the Bay-breasted Warbler on the west side of the building.

“It was sitting up against the window, stunned,” she said. She pulled a net out of her backpack that she keeps for this purpose. “It didn’t even notice when I put the net over it. Didn’t care at all, didn’t move.”

She gently picked up the bird and placed it in the paper bag, put the paper clip on top, and left for the library. She met her friend and picked up the Ovenbird, which was sealed in a freezer bag. Then she headed to the wooded area to try to release the live bird.

***

The Bay-breasted Warbler that Glanville found had probably experienced an arduous journey even before it hit the Ohio Union window. Most of them winter in Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. They leave there in late April, flying at night to reach the boreal forests of Canada, where they breed. That means that Glanville’s stunned warbler had probably already traveled at least a couple of weeks and more than 2,000 miles by the time it reached Columbus – and still had a long way yet to go.

“These birds have to run the gauntlet to get to their destination,” said Christopher Tonra, assistant professor of avian wildlife ecology at Ohio State. “It still amazes me to this day that they are able to do that.”

The Bay-breasted Warbler weighs less than half an ounce. Being so tiny and having a high metabolism, they must feed voraciously on their diet of insects to have the energy to make the long migratory journey.

“For some of their big flights, they are eating enough to double their mass,” Tonra said. One of those flights includes a treacherous trip over the Gulf of Mexico that they must make without stopping.

“In the Midwest, we have created another ocean they have to cross, but this one is made of corn and soybeans. They used to have lots of opportunities to stop and refuel at forests across the Midwest, but there is now less available habitat,” he said.

“It can be hard for them to find the resources to complete their migration, even without the direct causes of mortality like window strikes.”

***

After not being able to set the Bay-breasted Warbler free, Glanville headed to Jennings Hall. There, Ohio State employee Sara Faust had a dead bird to be collected. Faust found the bird, an American Woodcock, a few days earlier in the building’s courtyard, which is surrounded by windows.

“Now that I know about you guys, I will keep a closer eye out,” Faust told Glanville. “We get a fair amount of window strikes.”

Faust led her to the top floor of the building where she had stashed the bird in what she called an “out of the way” freezer. “I didn’t want to terrify the TAs,” she said.

Glanville took the bird, thanked her and headed for the lobby.

***

Most window-strike victims are not Ohio’s familiar year-round resident birds like robins or cardinals or Blue Jays, said Matthew Shumar, program manager of the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative (OBCI), which is based at Ohio State. It may be that these resident birds use the local landscape differently, resulting in fewer window collisions.

Most victims are migrant birds just passing through, Shumar said. Nocturnal migrants see the lights of the city while flying high above and get confused for reasons scientists don’t completely understand. “Lights draw migrants into urban areas where they would not normally stop,” he said.

Only some fly directly into the buildings at night. Many collisions appear to happen right after sunrise. “The sun comes up, birds see reflections of adjacent green space in windows, and that is when we see most of the collisions,” Shumar said.

The OBCI has started “lights out” programs in seven Ohio cities, with the goal of getting as many buildings as possible to reduce unneeded lighting, especially during migration season. Less lighting draws fewer birds to the cities, reducing window-strike deaths. These “lights out” efforts are occurring throughout the country and have succeeded in reducing window strikes.

“There was an 80 percent reduction in bird deaths at a site in Chicago simply by reducing the lighting throughout the city,” Shumar said.

Other solutions include special window treatments that reduce reflectivity or make it obvious to birds that the windows should be avoided. Those solutions can be more expensive, though, he said.

***

Lights Out Buckeyes volunteers are only beginning to get a handle on how many birds strike windows on campus, but they say it is larger than any of them expected. Ficker, the co-founder of the project, can vividly recall one particularly bad day last fall.

“It was Oct. 26. We found 18 dead birds that day. We knew we would have bad days, but I never thought we would have a double-digit day,” he said. He recalls another early morning last fall when a Lincoln’s Sparrow hit a window on the Ohio Union as he was standing there.

Even on days when they don’t do an official check of campus, volunteers often will look for birds when they have a few minutes. On one May day – not the same one on which Glanville found the Bay-breasted Warbler – Ficker did a quick 20-minute late-morning tour of a few buildings on campus and picked up five dead migrants: a Palm Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Gray Catbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Cedar Waxwing.

Ficker compiles data for Lights Out Buckeyes, maintaining a detailed spreadsheet with information on every bird they find. Included is not only where the bird was located, but also on what side and how far from the building it was found. Volunteers also note if the building lights were on and collect information on the sex and age of the bird, if it can be determined.

Dead birds are taken to Ohio State’s Museum of Biological Diversity, where they are kept as specimens for study. The few live birds they find are usually transferred to the Ohio Wildlife Center in nearby Powell for rehabilitation and release – unless they can be released on campus after a short rest.

With Tonra as his adviser, Ficker is writing an undergraduate research thesis this year that will examine which buildings on campus have higher collision rates and determine if they have common characteristics.

Volunteers already know some buildings seem to attract more collisions, such as Thompson Library, the RPAC, Blackburn House, the Ohio Union and Dreese Laboratories. Some of these building seem to have obvious dangers, such as wide expanses of windows, but others don’t. And not all buildings with a lot of windows seem to have a lot of collisions.

***

Despite the many birds students are finding, many more are probably being missed, Shumar said.

“Trying to figure out how many birds actually hit windows is a really complicated issue. There are issues with scavengers, like cats, raccoons and opossums. And cleaning crews, too – they often get to the birds before we do,” he said.

The building coordinator for Pomerene Hall, Matt Hughes, bears this out. Like many coordinators, Hughes didn’t know about Lights Out Buckeyes and their offer to collect window-strike victims, so he has disposed of dead birds found outside his building. He said he collected at least six dead birds this spring.

There were 571 buildings on the Columbus campus in 2018.

Eventually, Lights Out Buckeyes hopes to gather enough information to offer potential solutions to the window strike problem at Ohio State.

Kevin Perozeni, a student who just finished his second year as a wildlife major, is doing an undergraduate research project based on Lights Out Buckeyes, just as Glanville and Ficker did. His focus will be finding strategies to reduce the number of window strikes. He hopes to test some experimental solutions – for example, comparing the number of collisions at buildings with lights turned off at night during migration to similar buildings that stay lit.

“I hope to gather enough evidence to show not only that this is a real problem, but also that there are real solutions,” Perozeni said.

***

When Glanville left Jennings Hall after picking up the American Woodcock, she decided to try to release the Bay-breasted Warbler again near the same woodlot on campus. But she wasn’t holding out a lot of hope. “I don’t feel any movement in the bag,” she said.

When she arrived, she put the bag on the ground and unfolded the top. This time, the bird immediately flew out and into the lower branches of a nearby tree. Glanville walked closer for a look. The bird sat motionless for the few minutes Glanville watched, but she took it as a victory that the bird flew off on its own.

“It doesn’t look 100 percent, but it did fly. Maybe it will be OK after all.”

If you find dead birds on the Ohio State campus during fall or spring semester, email Lights Out Buckeyes at osubirds@gmail.com.

To learn more about preventing window collisions, go to the Glass Collisions webpage from the American Bird Conservancy.

Researchers at The Ohio State University analyzed the health records of 1,185 cancer patients who had been referred to hospice and found that a verified do-not-resuscitate order, or DNR, before the last 30 days of life reduced the odds of hospitalization. A prominent note in the electronic health record indicating advanced care planning (for example, discussions with providers on legal directives, a living will or a health care power of attorney) also reduced the chances of admission – especially if that note was made at least six months prior to death.

Once a terminally ill patient transitions into hospice care, the goal is to avoid hospitalizations and procedures that are unnecessary and unwanted, said Laura Prater, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Ohio State’s College of Medicine.

The aim is twofold: to respect the wishes of the patient and to focus on quality of life and pain management. On top of that, keeping hospice patients out of the hospital reduces medical costs.

“Our research supports the importance of sharing your wishes with your physician and your family, and suggests that doing that earlier can prevent unwanted procedures and hospitalizations that don’t align with your priorities and deteriorate your quality of life,” Prater said.

The study was recently published online in the American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine.

It’s important for physicians and others on a patient’s care team to have conversations that address that person’s values and goals, including what to do if his or her illness is no longer treatable, said Seuli Bose-Brill, the study’s senior author and an Ohio State Wexner Medical Center primary care physician who specializes in internal medicine and pediatrics.

“These study results really support the idea that earlier is better for documenting these wishes. Those who had advanced care planning notes in their health records six months or more before a hospital trip were significantly less likely to be admitted,” Prater said.

Specifically, the researchers looked at the “problem list” on the medical record – an easy-to-spot synopsis of that person’s health status. When advanced care planning was noted there more than six months before the final month of life, hospitalization was least likely.

Previous studies have found that only 13 to 44 percent of terminally ill patients have documentation of advanced care planning in their electronic health records and that the location and ease of finding that documentation is inconsistent.

In times of crisis, hospice patients often are not in a position to advocate their own priorities and family members can be unsure, afraid or in disagreement about those wishes, complicating matters. When the medical team can easily see in the electronic health record that the patient has documented his or her wishes, it eases their ability to act in the patient’s best interest, Bose-Brill said.

“I think everyone in medicine is aware that we need to do a better job documenting end-of-life wishes, but as a nation we haven’t figured out how best to do that,” she said.

Prater said this study could prompt discussions within medical practices and hospitals about how to consistently discuss and document advanced care planning for patients.

“It’s important to make this part of the process, to look for ways to make sure that these conversations are happening consistently, early and often, even though they are complex and difficult conversations to have,” Prater said.

And the topic shouldn’t only come up when transitioning to hospice, Bose-Brill said, because that is a time that can be particularly fraught with emotion and grief and not always the best opportunity to broach the subject.

“The earlier we start this process, the more it normalizes it,” she said.

“There are so many opportunities to explore these issues that patients and families are grappling with and we in health care need to not absolve ourselves of our responsibility to talk about these things.”

Thomas Wickizer and Julie Bower of Ohio State’s College of Public Health also worked on the study.

By R. Joseph Parrott

Assistant Professor of History, The Ohio State University

Police officers loyal to the Houthi rebels march during a military parade in Sanaa, Yemen in July 2017. The placards read: ‘Allah is the greatest. Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.’ REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The Trump administration on May 24 announced an emergency declaration to sell billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval.

This comes just a month after Congress passed legislation demanding the halt of U.S. aid for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen against Houthi rebels loosely aligned with Iran.

President Trump vetoed the measure, but reports cast this confrontation as a major challenge to executive war powers.

How Congress responds to the emergency arms sales may signal whether the Yemen vote represents an isolated event or the first salvo in a campaign to limit the president’s foreign policy powers.

My current research examines individuals who once saw Congress as a check on presidential interventionism abroad. After the Vietnam War, legislators like Frank Church and Dick Clark wanted to rethink national security structures and priorities. Their foreign policy revolt inspired the War Powers Act of 1973, the law Congress used to express its disapproval of Saudi aid.

Revisiting this history – and the difficulty legislators have had reigning in presidential power – provides context for analyzing recent events.

The birth of the imperial presidency

The Constitution’s separation of powers is at the heart of the current conflict between Trump and Congress. Separation of powers means each branch of government has distinct but overlapping duties, making negotiation and compromise necessary in forging policies.

In terms of foreign affairs, the president manages diplomacy while the Congress funds it, regulates commerce and approves treaties.

But when it comes to war powers, the Constitution is vague.

Congress – with two bodies, 535 members and a tendency toward deliberation – has the sole right “To declare war, [and] grant letters of marque and reprisal,” the latter being 18th century methods of limited warfare.

The more nimble presidency directs and deploys the armed forces as commander-in-chief.

The terse Constitution says little about how the two bodies should manage these divided responsibilities. Presidential prerogative generally won the day as U.S. power grew in the 19th century, though not without periodic dissent. Most of the 200 plus foreign military deployments in U.S. history – which include only five declared wars – lacked advanced congressional authorization.

This history of executive-legislative jockeying is largely absent from discussions of foreign policy due to the politics of the early Cold War. As communist paranoia and the threat of nuclear weapons stoked domestic unease, Congress empowered the executive branch.

Congress had earlier given up control of key trade and economic powers during the Roosevelt era. Now it embraced long-taboo collective security treaties and conceded to unilateral military deployments and covert operations championed by the White House.

Most legislators agreed the United States had a global mission and the president was best positioned to guide it. “Politics,” as the motto paraphrasing Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg went, “must stop at the water’s edge.”

Disagreements over emphasis or direction usually occurred in private meetings or at the edges of budget requests. This expanded executive authority gave rise to what some scholars call the “imperial presidency,” a term coined by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 1973.

The Vietnam War challenged the political status quo and inspired a more assertive Congress. AP Photo

The congressional revolt of the 1970s

Only when the Vietnam War shattered this consensus did Congress embrace new structures to constrain presidential power. A generation of politicians that historian Robert David Johnson calls “the new internationalists” used anger over the unpopular war to champion an alternative vision of U.S. foreign policy.

These leaders rejected strict anti-communism and militarist interventions in favor of diplomacy, cooperative aid and reduced defense spending. They also sought to place legislative constraints on executive privilege.

This revolt used the traditional powers of Congress. The Church Committee investigated and publicized covert operations in 1975. The Clark Amendment to the 1976 Arms Export Control Act forbade distribution of aid to anti-communists in Angola.

There were also new laws. The 1974 Hughes-Ryan Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act requires that the executive branch disclose covert operations to key congressional committees.

Even more bold was the War Powers Act, which passed over Richard Nixon’s veto in 1973. This joint resolution requires Congress to approve any deployment of American military forces within 60 days.

Though the War Powers Act formalized congressional authority and tried to limit when presidents could use unilateral force, it could not reverse over a century of accepted practice. The act yields to the president the ability to deploy troops proactively and specifically excludes covert operations from the approval process. Effectively, Congress recognized the imperial presidency even as it sought to limit it.

Reluctantly supported by the new internationalists, the act was a vaguely worded compromise that reflected a hard reality. The centrist critics who passed the law chafed at Vietnam, Watergate and the Nixon administration’s secretive handling of foreign affairs, but they could not fully abandon the Cold War or the presidential authority used to fight it.

What comes next

Even this qualified moment of congressional reassertion proved short-lived. Ronald Reagan’s revival of anti-communist rhetoric mobilized voters against the new internationalists, weakening the appetite for congressional assertiveness.

The Cold War mission still championed by many legislators transitioned to the militarized humanitarianism of the 1990s – as in Somalia and Haiti. Still later came anti-terrorism after 9/11. The responsive, flexible power of the presidency seemed best suited to handle these new political realities.

Indeed, Congress has been loath to use its war powers since the 1970s. It has provided blanket authorizations for military operations across the world. This famously occurred with 2001’s broadly defined Authorization for Use of Military Force that continues to legitimize interventions in Somalia and Yemen as part of the War on Terror.

Even when Congress has refused such authorizations – notably in Libya in 2011 – it has not effectively challenged presidential prerogative. Barack Obama sidestepped an irked Congress by claiming that supporting NATO in Libya did not constitute hostilities and therefore did not require legislative permission.

Indeed, it seems congressional acquiescence to the imperial presidency remains even in today’s divided Congress. Though championed by legislators with deep reservations about U.S. policy, the long-simmering Yemen issue only gained political traction due to President Trump’s missteps in the Middle East. His tepid public response to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder combined with his waffling on regional troop commitments, causing consternation among Republicans and centrist Democrats.

It’s no coincidence that the monthslong Yemen debate book-ended the Senate’s rebuke of Trump’s planned withdrawal of troops from Syria. Taken together, these votes signal that legislators are leery of Trump’s unpredictability and unprincipled rhetoric, but many still stand behind an interventionist foreign policy led by a powerful executive branch.

There is a minority associated with the Democratic Party who want to challenge this consensus. Bernie Sanders has been the most prominent voice urging a reevaluation of American foreign policy with a strong Congress as a key player.

Yet history shows how difficult it will be to seriously alter the dominant national mindset and the executive-legislative balance of power in foreign affairs. How Congress responds to the president’s ongoing efforts to aid Saudi Arabia – and how it uses its powers to limit unilateral executive actions more broadly – will prove whether it is truly reasserting its constitutional authority.

R. Joseph Parrott, Assistant Professor of History, The Ohio State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Head coach Geoff Carlston said his team wanted to be surprised when they opened the doors to their new home. The reaction to their first visit to the new building this weekend was exactly what he hoped it would be.

“A lot of them were crying. They were hugging. There was excitement. Everyone handles it a little bit differently,” Carlston said. “We had a few that were just in awe. And I mean there were definitely tears.”

Carlston offered Ohio State News a behind-the-scenes tour of the new 3,700-seat arena. The arena is the new home to seven varsity sports: wrestling and the men’s and women’s squads in volleyball, gymnastics and fencing. In addition, it will serve as the occasional venue for women’s basketball as well as the host site for local tournaments and camps.

The Covelli Center now serves as the dedicated training facility for men’s and women’s volleyball. The teams will benefit from up-to-date locker rooms, offices, training and treatment rooms.

Inside the dedicated locker room is a team theater. A giant television, flanked by new speakers, sits in front of two rows of movie-style seating.

“We’ll do a lot of team meetings here. Obviously, we’ll go through our teaching and our game plan and practices and all that will be in here,” Carlston said.

Next to the theater is a player’s lounge. Carlston said the room is still awaiting some finishing touches as the team finds ways to personalize it.

“As we make it more of our own and let them put their touches on it, it will feel even more and more like home. I’m super excited for that part of it,” he said.

The new building is already helping the women’s team compete in the future.

“We have a top-five recruiting class coming in that’s built on the dream that has now become reality,” said Carlston, adding that he and his team are thankful to have a new home in the university’s Athletic District.

Gratitude is a central theme to his coaching philosophy and part of a breakfast discussion every morning.

“So when we’re breaking bread, we’re talking about ‘what are you thankful for today? What are you thankful for? What are you grateful for?’ And all of them, at one point or another, have said this building, this space, the ability to be here.”

Jennings Family Wrestling Practice Facility

The Covelli Center is also home to the Jennings Family Wrestling Practice Facility. The new site includes a state-of-the-art practice facility, along with offices for coaches and student-athlete space.

“It was always the right time for student-athletes to be in a place that is as cool as they are,” said wrestling head coach Tom Ryan. Executing a plan to upgrade space for the team “took the leadership of this current administration. So I’m really grateful to this administration and to our donors who stepped up.”

Ryan said the new facility is already drawing attention for Olympic and national wrestling events.

Students, faculty and staff members presented success stories about some of the innovative ways education is evolving at Ohio State. Mike Hofherr, Ohio State’s vice president and chief information officer, led a presentation on the Digital Flagship program during the Academic Affairs and Student Life Committee meeting.

Hofherr said the university entered year two of an iPad distribution plan to put the devices in the hands of all first- and second-year students. More than 11,400 iPads were delivered in year one with 13,000 more deploying in the new academic year.

“This isn’t just about devices – it’s about preparing our students for the future,” Hofherr said.

Digital Flagship also includes Swift coding and app development courses to give students the knowledge they need to build a great app and code effectively. A Mobile Design Lab and support for developing university apps round out the program.

The program is seeing results.

Melissa Beers, program director for Introduction to Psychology, said the number of Digital Flagship instructors in the program went from two in autumn semester 2018 to 21 in spring semester 2019. Beers conducted a survey of more than 500 students and found:

• 85 percent of students agreed it has improved their learning experience.
• 76 percent said it helped them improve academic skills.
• 72 percent said it helps them be more creative.

Beers said the survey found students were using the iPads for note taking, homework, answering questions in the classroom and other academic purposes.

“I think it’s encouraging that the top uses are all academic,” she said.

Added Hofherr, “Students coming to Ohio State in the future are going to expect this type of learning.”

Hofherr said the Digital Flagship program is creating one of the largest learning laboratories in higher education and that students and faculty will continue to see the benefits as more data is collected from the program.

“I’m excited that a land-grant university is on the leading edge here,” said Timothy Smucker, interim chair of the Board of Trustees.

Innovation in learning was a key theme all week. On Wednesday, the Wexner Medical Center Board members heard about the use of virtual reality in medical education.

One of the first things medical students learn is the essential skill of taking a patient history. The College of Medicine is transforming the way students learn this classic communication with the use of technology.

Medical faculty collaborated with the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design and the Department of Linguistics to create virtual standardized patients – avatar representations of human patients, controlled by artificial intelligence. These virtual patients offer consistent responses while simultaneously participating in a nuanced dialogue.

“The system gives students immediate feedback on how they did,” said Douglas Danforth, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and academic director of the first two years of the medical curriculum. “Students get to compare themselves against the gold standard.”

Danforth told the board that the college is developing a virtual reality patient and exam setting that will more fully immerse students into a simulated physician-patient interaction. Ohio State was also awarded a federal grant to conduct a virtual reality simulation of a mass casualty event. The system will record and assess participants’ performance.

President Michael V. Drake summed up the different approaches as the key to improving the student experience.

“Innovative learning begins with innovative teaching,” he said.

In a study published June 3 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the team showed that nearly half of fresh submarine groundwater discharge flows into the ocean near the tropics. They also found that regions near active fault lines—the area around the San Andreas Fault in California, for example—send greater volumes of groundwater into the ocean than regions that are tectonically stable. And, they found that dry, arid regions have very little groundwater discharge, opening the limited groundwater supplies in those parts of the world to saltwater intrusion.

The Ohio State team worked with researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Saskatchewan to combine topographical data from satellites and climate models to show the flow of groundwater around the world’s coasts.

The findings could help coastal communities better protect and manage their drinking water.

“Freshwater-groundwater discharge is a natural line of defense against saltwater intrusion,” said Audrey Sawyer, assistant professor of earth sciences at Ohio State and a co-author of the study. “And saltwater intrusion is a concern in places like Miami, Georgia, Cape Cod—it’s up and down the coast. It’s a problem that dry regions have as little groundwater discharge as they do because these are also the places where people are going to tend to look for groundwater to meet their freshwater needs.”

Their work, the first near-global and spatially distributed high-resolution map of fresh groundwater flow to the coast, could give scientists better clues about where to monitor groundwater discharge. Such monitoring is more challenging than monitoring the water quality of a river or stream, because groundwater, by its nature, enters oceans and lakes under water—people can’t see it from land.

When researchers think about coastal water quality and the way water affects the biochemical makeup of the world’s lakes and oceans, they typically think about rivers and streams—and for good reason. Most of the water that gets to lakes and oceans comes from surface water sources. But groundwater plays and important role, too, carrying minerals and, in some cases, pollutants, to surface bodies of water.

“If you’ve ever been swimming in a lake or in the ocean in the summertime and you go through a cold patch, that is probably a place where groundwater is coming out,” Sawyer said. “And that’s just one way that groundwater affects surface water—in that case, it’s affecting temperature, but it also affects the chemistry of the water. These effects can be hard to measure over large scales.”

That’s why Sawyer’s team started building these images: The research group focuses on groundwater, and realized that there was limited information showing—in detail—where groundwater was most likely to flow into the oceans.

The study found that in some parts of the world, groundwater could be polluting oceans and lakes with nutrients and other chemicals.

Groundwater, for example, can carry higher concentrations of nitrates—a key contributor of the types of harmful algal blooms that have caused problems for both fish and drinking water in Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico—as well as high concentrations of mercury. Understanding how and where groundwater gets to surface water could help policymakers create better plans to improve those bodies of water.

The study also found that climate heavily influences groundwater flow, and that cities in dry areas are especially vulnerable to saltwater contamination of aquifers.

“This study draws attention to the idea that surface water and groundwater are all connected, and if you start to extract groundwater, you’re affecting that connection to our surface water bodies, and that can affect surface water quality, too,” Sawyer said. “There is competition between the outward push of groundwater towards the coast and the saltwater that wants to come in, and if we don’t have as much of an outward push because we’re taking that fresh groundwater out of the ground instead of letting it flow to the coast, it puts us in a more vulnerable position. It’s not that we can’t use groundwater, but we need to monitor our impact and remember that groundwater is not an inexhaustible resource.”

Ohio State is seeking remaining design and construction approval for its planned regional ambulatory location at Hamilton Road and State Route 161 in northeast Columbus, a portion of design approval for a Dublin outpatient care site and funding for two enabling projects for the West Campus Ambulatory Facilities to be located on the Columbus campus.

The effort continues a strategy to expand the Wexner Medical Center’s ambulatory care network through new, state-of-the-art outpatient centers offering more locations to provide the level of care the health system is known for and to meet the increased demand for these services.

“These new outpatient care centers are part of our commitment to improving health and wellness in our communities,” said David P. McQuaid, chief executive officer of The Ohio State University Health System and chief operating officer of the Wexner Medical Center.

Ohio State is seeking board approval this week on the remaining $125.9 million in design and construction dollars associated with the $137.9 million Hamilton Road project. It is the first of three previously announced regional ambulatory sites to request full construction approval. Site work began in the fall of 2018 and the facility is expected to open by July 2021.

“The Hamilton Road facility will be approximately 244,000 square feet and include primary care, oncology, heart and vascular, orthopedic and neuroscience care along with four ambulatory surgery operating rooms and four endoscopy rooms,” McQuaid said.

The proposed Dublin location will also seek $12 million for professional services to advance through design development with construction slated to begin in the summer of 2020. Ohio State continues the process to acquire 34 acres of land from the City of Dublin near State Route 161, State Route 33 and Shier Rings Road.

Cost estimates will be determined through the design process and require approval by the Wexner Medical Center board and university board. The final timeline for construction is yet to be determined.

The West Campus Ambulatory Facilities previously received $23 million for design that will move the project through design development. This week, Ohio State will request $6.6 million to fund enabling work that includes parking and initial building equipment expenses.

“This is a very complex building that will deliver state-of-the-art care for our patients,” said Mark Conselyea, associate vice president of Facilities Operations and Development. “Initial funding will allow us to build parking to accommodate disruptions during construction.”

The building will provide outpatient operating rooms, urgent care with a 23-hour observation unit, an endoscopy unit, a pre-anesthesia center, diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology. The facility will be approximately 395,000 square feet and will include central Ohio’s first proton therapy treatment facility in partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The two largest grants, $100,000 each, reflect the diversity of the proposals. One will review five years of death records to identify characteristics that mark certain populations as having a heightened risk of dying from drug overdose. The other proposal supports young children of opioid users through a reading intervention program.

Researchers involved in the project to identify at-risk populations will work with counties in northeast Ohio to coordinate community response plans to prevent opioid deaths. “By using traditional public health data in innovative ways, the project will help community organizations to align strategies and rapidly respond to risk,” said Andrew Wapner, the director of the Center for Public Health Practice and the leader of the research team.

The reading intervention program will support young children who are now being cared for by grandparents, family, friends or neighbors.

“Doing this work through a partnership with OIF provides many supports to facilitate the success of our project and ensure that the intervention, if proven efficacious, can be rolled out to families at the local and national level,” said Kelly Boone, who leads the reading intervention study and serves as associate director of research at the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.

The six other winning proposals in this year’s round of funding were each awarded grants of approximately $50,000. The projects will:

• Develop easy screening tools to identify infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome so they can be quickly referred to developmental specialists. NAS is a group of withdrawal problems experienced by newborns exposed to narcotics in the womb.
• Investigate the effects and potential risks of drug interactions that can result when patients being treated with medications for opioid use are also taking prescriptions to treat chronic health conditions.
• Study whether families would be more likely to get rid of leftover opioids prescribed to their children if provided with a drug-disposal bag.
• Develop a curriculum to foster greater empathy in emergency department physicians who treat patients at risk for opioid abuse.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of Sudarshan Kriya yoga — a type of cyclical controlled breathing practice — as a supplemental intervention for people who experience psychological disorders and are being treated with medications for opioid use.
• Investigate whether financial coaching for recovering opioid users can reduce risks that can lead to discontinuing treatment and relapse.

Click here for more details about the winning proposals.

“Because of the scope of the university’s disciplines and resources, and because of the partnerships we’ve formed over the years throughout the state, we are well suited to attack the many problems associated with addiction,” said William J. Martin, dean of the College of Public Health, which administers the fund. “The Opioid Innovation Fund connects creative minds to help us do that and squarely aligns with our land grant mission.”

Created by Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron in October 2017, the fund has distributed nearly $1 million to 16 teams over two rounds. Projects serve one of two goals: to develop products that community partners can use right away or to answer research questions that inform the scientific community, practitioners and policymakers.

According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,293 Ohioans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2017. That breaks down to 39.2 opioid-related overdose deaths per 100,000 people, a rate that is second only to West Virginia.

The Wexner Medical Center, Ohio State Extension and colleges throughout the university are all involved in addressing the substance abuse and the opioid crisis.

Last month, the National Institutes of Health awarded a $65.9 million grant to Ohio State to lead a statewide consortium charged with reducing opioid overdose deaths by 40% over three years. The award for HEALing Communities Study is the university’s largest research grant ever.

Researchers at The Ohio State University were interested in understanding changes in neurological development that arise from a genetic defect associated with neurological disease – specifically, the loss of a gene called Protocadherin-19, or PCDH19. The link between the mutation and brain disorders is well-established, but the mechanics of why one might lead to the other have been a mystery.

The new study, published online this month in the journal eNeuro, points to a “clustering” of cellular interactions in the brain that may disrupt normal development and brain health.

“Scientists have discovered hundreds of genes that give rise to schizophrenia, autism and other brain disorders, but nobody knows what specifically goes wrong as a result of these genetic mutations,” said lead researcher James Jontes, an associate professor of neuroscience at Ohio State and member of the university’s Neurological Institute.

“Our goal is to understand the cellular roles of these genes and how defects can lead to developmental changes in the brain.”

Zebrafish, or Danio rerio, are small tropical freshwater fish that appeal to scientists for a handful of reasons. Their embryos are transparent, they develop at warp speed and they share a significant chunk of DNA with people, allowing for an expedient and enlightening examination of developmental changes that could eventually have implications in attempts to thwart human disease.

Jontes and his collaborator, graduate student Sarah Light, wanted to see what happened neurologically when they introduced a PCDH19 mutation into zebrafish.

Using a high-powered microscope that allowed the researchers to watch cellular-level changes over time – an instrument that Jontes made himself – the researchers saw clear differences between embryonic development in normal “wild type” zebrafish and embryonic zebrafish in which they’d eliminated the PCDH19 gene.

“This is the first study to use functional imaging at a single-cell level to explore the effects of a mutation known to cause human neurological disease in a living organism, and we saw obvious differences in the brain architecture of the animals with the mutation,” Jontes said.

“This type of work has the potential to help us understand in more detail the relationships between genes and diseases including autism and epilepsy. We don’t understand exactly what these mutations do to brain structure and development in humans and if we can figure out what they do in fish, that will get us a long way toward some answers.”

Neurons form networks in the brain that are essential to human development, thought, function, behavior and emotion. In the altered zebrafish, the researchers were able to observe neuron-level activity with great detail.

And, with the help of advanced mathematical analysis designed to look for relationships between the neurons and patterns in their activity, they saw that the neurological networks in the zebrafish with the mutation were more connected, or clustered, than in the brains of ordinary zebrafish.

The data was collected between three and six days after fertilization, a period of rapid growth and maturation in zebrafish. By the sixth day after fertilization, zebrafish larvae already are demonstrating behaviors such as hunting for food and swimming.

“We saw lots of interconnections between neurons in the mutant zebrafish. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it could mean that inappropriate connections are occurring between cells that wouldn’t normally interact. Maybe it becomes a problem when too many cells are incorporated into a network of neurons.”

Jontes said neuroscientists are intrigued by the fact that any number of genetic mutations have been linked to a given disease, such as autism.

Work like this could help explain how each of those mutations results in human illness, and that could be an important step toward better treatment, he said.

The National Eye Institute supported this research.

Horujko took action to stop a violent car and knife attack on the Columbus campus in November 2016. The award for Horujko is the highest national award for valor presented to a public safety officer.

“Thanks to Alan, not a single innocent person died that day. Officer Horujko, we are forever grateful,” Trump said.

Horujko joined police and firefighters from across the country at the White House. Barr said only a handful of the more than 2 million first responders across the country receive the medal of valor each year.

“Each of them has had their fight-or-flight moment and each of them has stood their ground,” Barr said.

Horujko shared his thoughts about the attack in a video in 2017. At the time, he credited a university police training program for preparing him to respond to the attack.

Horujko said he was at the right place at the right time to save lives that November day.

“There was a plan that had me there that day,” he said in 2017. “It seems like the stars aligned in some way to put me right there where I was needed to protect those people. So that’s why I’m just very grateful that happened.”

The medal of valor is awarded to public safety officers who have exhibited exceptional courage, regardless of personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life. Public safety officers are nominated by their chiefs or public safety directors and recommended by the Medal of Valor Review Board.

The state has also honored Horujko. The Ohio Attorney General presented him with the Ohio Distinguished Law Enforcement Valor Award in 2017.

By 

Nathan Silver

PhD Student in Communication, The Ohio State University

Michael Slater

Director, School of Communication, The Ohio State University

Some have any easier time than others connecting with fictional worlds and characters. zhuda/Shutterstock.com

The best TV shows and films don’t simply distract from the drudgery of everyday life. They’re places to vicariously get to know different people, and learn from their relationships and experiences.

Media scholars like ourselves have a term for how stories can effect us in these ways – “boundary expansion” – and every viewer experiences some level of this.

But some seem more drawn to these fictional characters and their fictional worlds than others.

In a recent study, we wanted to learn more about these types of people. Why do some become absorbed in the tumultuous relationships playing out before their eyes on the screen – holding their breath during every tense interaction – while others seem to have a tougher time connecting with the characters and the drama?

Interestingly, we found that your attachment style – or your ability to form close relationships in real life – can play a big role.

Why some struggle to form close relationships

According to attachment theory, your experiences with caregivers in childhood tend to influence how you relate to romantic partners later in life. If a caregiver is appropriately nurturing without being too overprotective, you’ll develop secure attachments as an adult.

But many who grow up with unreliable caregivers will go on to develop insecure attachments in adulthood. Psychologists have parsed insecure attachment styles into three types.

1. Those who constantly worry about the security of their relationships have an anxious attachment style.

2. Others steer clear of intimacy altogether, which is an avoidant attachment style.

3. Then there are those who experience severe anxiety about close relationships and cope with their anxiety through avoidance. This is often called a fearful-avoidant attachment style, and these individuals still long for intimacy, but will often sabotage their relationships.

An imaginary refuge

We suspected that, in lieu of forming fulfilling real-life relationships, people with insecure attachment patterns might find refuge in the fictional worlds of television and film.

In the study, we administered a survey to 1,039 American adults. Some of the questions assessed their attachment anxiety (“I often worry that my partner doesn’t care as much about me as I do about them”) and avoidant tendencies (“I feel myself pulling away when partner’s get too close”).

We also looked at their proclivity to engage in boundary expansion, asking them to respond to statements like “When watching television and film, I experience what it’s like to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise meet.”

We found a consistent pattern. Those who possessed anxiety about their relationships could more easily engage with stories and were more likely to form imagined relationships with characters. They were better able to vicariously pursue unmet needs through the stories, were more likely to reflect on events from stories and were more likely to report that they had learned something about the real world from watching these stories.

However, those who expressed avoidant tendencies seemed unable to engage with and reflect on stories on TV or in movies in the same way. It’s almost as if they shy away from feeling anything, emotionally, from what they watch – much in the same way they avoid intimacy in real life.

The most interesting results were for those who exhibited both anxious and avoidant attachment patterns. These people seemed to have the best ability to engage with the stories and feel something towards the characters.

We suspect this may be due to the fact that these fictional stories act as a safe space – a place to circumvent their anxiety without succumbing to their avoidant tendencies. After all, they must know, deep down, that none of it is real: There aren’t any demands for closeness being made and there’s no relationship to sabotage.

Our study shows that fictional stories can act as a refuge and create opportunities for personal growth.

We’re not saying that watching more television or movies will automatically improve your life or your relationships. But there’s something certainly to be said about the power stories can wield – and their ability to help those grappling with real-life attachment issues.

Nathan Silver, PhD Student in Communication, The Ohio State University and Michael Slater, Director, School of Communication, The Ohio State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Officer Michael Blankenship was killed Feb. 10, 1997, while responding to a suspicious person call at the Wexner Center for the Arts. The shooter committed suicide days later.

Now, a bench honoring Blankenship’s service resides in front of the building that bears his name.

A dedication ceremony Friday afternoon was part of National Police Week. In addition to recognizing Blankenship’s sacrifice, the ceremony also honored all officers killed in the line of duty.

Dianne Blankenship, Blankenship’s wife, said the dedication is a reminder to her of how university police continue to remember her husband’s service.

“It’s really nice they keep him in their hearts and minds all this time,” she said. “The bench just adds to that. It’s a beautiful bench. I’m really pleased and he would be, too.”

The service had special meaning to the leadership of the police department. Ohio State Police Chief Kimberly Spears-McNatt and Deputy Chief Tracy Hahn worked with Blankenship early in their careers.

Spears-McNatt and Blankenship were instructors in classes teaching students self-defense techniques.

“We want the Blankenship family to know we have not forgotten him,” she said. “We appreciate him and we still miss him to this day.”

Hahn said Blankenship taught her what it took to be a great police officer. She said she thinks of him every day.

“Mike, in particular, taught me patience, taught me when to be compassionate and when to be stern and direct with people,” Hahn said. “We helped people and we had a good time while we were doing it.”

Dianne Blankenship said she appreciates that connection.

“It makes me more proud of him and I know he’s proud of them,” she said. “They’re like family.”

The ceremony at Ohio State included a prayer for fallen officers as well as those still serving. A police officer played “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes and police guided a single riderless horse near the bench during the ceremony.

“These officers are so brave and so strong. They put everything they have into their jobs,” Blankenship said. “They leave their families to do this knowing they might not come back. I know how that is. I just love them all. They are special people and they deserve our praise and all the accolades.”

President Michael V. Drake joined Michael Bloomberg in St. Louis to announce the Midwestern Higher Education Climate Summit. The summit, to be held in 2020, is expected to be the largest meeting of Midwest universities focused on mitigating the effects of climate change and moving to a 100 percent clean-energy economy.

The summit will bring together Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to work together to find innovative and measurable ideas to solve the challenges of climate change at a local level.

Washington University will serve as the anchor for the climate summit and the partnership with other higher education institutions. Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide support for the operations of the summit.

“Universities have a critical role to play in fighting climate change,” said Bloomberg. “And Washington University is a great example – as a hub for cutting-edge research, as a key partner for the city of St. Louis, and as home to students who want to put their talents to work to build a better future. This summit will fuel new efforts across the Midwest to cut emissions and protect communities from impacts.”

Washington University will host the summit and will develop a model for regional climate leadership. The host university will also employ students and faculty to work beyond the classroom in the city of St. Louis and disseminate the St. Louis model to other peer institutions, starting with the members of the climate summit.

The summit is expected to build on St. Louis’ OneSTL model that uses a regional coalition of public-private partnerships to build a more sustainable community. Founding members of the summit, like Ohio State, will help develop the goals and outcomes of the event.

“Institutions of higher education have the opportunity to develop the research and technology required for a clean energy economy and the future leaders who will get us there,” Drake said. “Ohio State is excited about the opportunity from Bloomberg and Washington University to work with students, faculty and resources from institutions throughout the region. Addressing the global threat of climate change and ensuring a sustainable future requires deep collaboration and coordination of all of our best ideas and talents — and this summit and partnership will allow exactly that.”

The university has made sustainability a priority. Ohio State is committed to being a carbon-neutral campus by 2050 and is one of the largest users of renewable energy in Ohio, with over 15% of the university’s total purchased electricity sourced from an Ohio-based wind farm.

In 2017, Ohio State entered into a partnership with Ohio State Energy Partners to manage the campus utility system and make Ohio State a global model of energy efficiency. One goal of the partnership is to improve energy efficiency on the Columbus campus by at least 25 percent by 2025.

Click here to learn more about the summit announcement.

Not only do blooms routinely occur in this area, they can also produce types of cyanobacterial toxins that aren’t typically detected through routine water-safety monitoring, according to a study published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

“The cyanobacteria we found in the central basin are completely different from what we’ve seen in the Toledo area in the western basin,” said lead researcher Justin Chaffin, a senior researcher and research coordinator at The Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory.

“That’s troubling because water treatment plants aren’t typically set up to look for this bacteria or the toxins they create. It requires more expensive, more sophisticated equipment.”

Harmful blue-green algal blooms and the toxic microcystins that accompany them have been a persistent threat in the lake’s western basin. But until this study, bloom-related toxins hadn’t been formally documented and analyzed in the central basin.

Several years ago, environmental scientists began hearing reports of harmful algal blooms in the central basin, in the waters just west of Cleveland. This was surprising at the time, because the experts thought these environmental threats were concentrated primarily near Toledo, Chaffin said.

The water in the central basin hadn’t been thought of as friendly to cyanobacteria because it isn’t as warm or nutrient-rich as in the western basin, where nitrogen and phosphorous is plentiful because of agricultural runoff brought in by the Maumee River.

The research team sampled the water in four areas from 2013 to 2017 and analyzed satellite images taken before then for evidence of blooms. They found a cyanobacterium called Dolichospermum in the central basin during early-season blooms in July. This cyanobacterium is capable of producing a toxin that can attack the central nervous system in humans, and the researchers found genetic evidence that the bloom has the potential for the neurotoxin.

“What this means is that if you’re a water plant operator in Cleveland, you have to be ready by late June or early July for cyanobacteria because they do have the potential to produce a really potent toxin. It could also be a problem for beachgoers if there’s a north wind and these blooms gather along the Ohio shoreline,” Chaffin said.

Researchers have shared these findings with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and with water plant operators, he said.

Later in the season, the researchers found the cyanobacterium Microcystis – the chief troublemaker in the western basin, which feeds off of excess phosphorous – in the central basin. The toxins, called microcystins, that it produces are most harmful to the liver and also a threat to the kidneys and reproductive system. Water plant operators routinely look for microcystins.

Figuring out precisely what is causing these unexpected algal blooms in the central basin will require more work, Chaffin said.

“We still can’t pinpoint what’s really causing these blooms because it’s a complex interaction of several factors,” he said.

But the new study did find evidence that it’s a combination of low levels of iron (which decreases nitrogen availability), muddy water and a strain of Dolichospermum adapted to cooler waters.

The researchers found an association between central basin blooms and lower water clarity – meaning that when the water is muddier, the likelihood of harmful blue-green algae goes up. There’s also evidence that iron plays a role. If there’s not enough iron, beneficial algae’s growth is suppressed, but the harmful algae found in this study likely flourish because they are efficient at capturing iron when the nutrient is in short supply, Chaffin said.

Continual work to reduce sediments, which lead to lower water clarity, is important, he said. And though phosphorous and nitrogen – which have driven blooms in the western basin – aren’t present in high concentrations in the central basin, minimizing them is important to Lake Erie’s overall health, he said.

Ohio State’s research enterprise, medical complex, construction projects, athletics events and status as Ohio’s fourth-largest employer combined in Fiscal Year 2018 to support more than 123,000 jobs across Ohio. Putting that in context: One in every 57 jobs in the state is directly or indirectly supported or sustained by the university.

“Ohio State is committed to continued collaboration with our friends, partners and colleagues to advance Columbus and Ohio,” Drake said.

Drake noted that Ohio State’s momentum – university highs this year for academic excellence and diversity of the student body, sponsored research funding and donor support – positions the university well to create a talented workforce that will contribute to the innovation economy.

“We are focused on being the most innovative university we can be,” he said. “It is very important that our university prepares not just for the foreseeable future, but for those things that will define our work 10, 20, 30 years from now.”

To gauge Ohio State’s current economic impact in Ohio, the university partnered with the consulting firm Tripp Umbach to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the economic benefits that arise from university operations. The firm used a modeling system to calculate the economic benefits traced to the direct and indirect effects of Ohio State’s operational spending. This takes into account the ripple effects of spending by employees, students and visitors on retail purchases, restaurant meals, hotel stays, events and other goods and services that filter through the economy and support jobs.

The total economic impact is attributed to Ohio State’s six campuses, academic medical complex and the Department of Athletics. The analysis estimated that the Columbus campus alone generated $7 billion in economic benefits, supporting 67,244 jobs and stimulating $348.8 million in state and local tax revenue. Wexner Medical Center generated $7.3 billion, almost half of which represents direct spending in the state, and directly supported almost 22,000 full- and part-time jobs.

“This employment makes a direct contribution to the overall workforce vitality of the state and bolsters the economy,” Tripp Umbach analysts wrote in the report. “The Wexner Medical Center spending on capital projects, development and planning projects, and suppliers support an additional 26,707 indirect jobs throughout the state.”

Tripp Umbach also evaluated the economic and fiscal benefits expected to accompany construction over the next five years of a new Wexner Medical Center tower, West Campus Ambulatory Clinical Complex and an Interdisciplinary Research Center. The projects combined are projected to generate $3.8 billion in economic impact on Franklin County and create 22,000 jobs over the period of construction.

In addition to operations-related impact, Ohio State has potential to create an estimated $184 million of additional earning power annually for new graduates and generates at least $364 million each year in faculty, staff and student charitable donations and volunteer services, according to the analysis.

In a study published this month in the journal Batteries and Supercaps, researchers from The Ohio State University detailed their findings centering around the construction of the battery’s cathode, which stores the energy produced by a chemical reaction in a metal-oxygen or metal-air battery. The finding, the researchers say, could make renewable energy sources like solar and wind more viable options for the power grid through cheaper, more efficient energy storage.

“If you want to go to an all-renewable option for the power grid, you need economical energy storage devices that can store excess power and give that power back out when you don’t have the source ready or working,” said Vishnu-Baba Sundaresan, co-author of the study and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State. “Technology like this is key, because it is cheap, it doesn’t use any exotic materials, and it can be made anywhere and promote the local economy.”

Renewable energy sources don’t emit carbon dioxide, so they don’t contribute to global warming—but they provide energy only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. In order for them to be reliable sources of power for a region’s energy grid, there needs to be a way to store excess energy gathered from sunshine and wind.

Companies, scientists and governments around the world are working on storage solutions, ranging from lithium-ion batteries—bigger versions of those in many electric vehicles—to giant batteries the size of a big-box store made using the metal vanadium.

Potassium-oxygen batteries have been a potential alternative for energy storage since they were invented in 2013. A team of researchers from Ohio State, led by chemistry professor Yiying Wu, showed that the batteries could be more efficient than lithium-oxygen batteries while simultaneously storing about twice the energy as existing lithium-ion batteries. But potassium-oxygen batteries have not been widely used for energy storage because, so far, they haven’t been able to recharge enough times to be cost-effective.

As teams tried to create a potassium-oxygen battery that could be a viable storage solution, they kept running into a roadblock: The battery degraded with each charge, never lasting longer than five or 10 charging cycles—far from enough to make the battery a cost-effective solution for storing power. That degradation happened because oxygen crept into the battery’s anode—the place that allows electrons to charge a device, be it a cell phone or a power grid. The oxygen caused the anode to break down, making it so the battery itself could no longer supply a charge.

Paul Gilmore, a doctoral candidate in Sundaresan’s lab, began incorporating polymers into the cathode to see if he might be able to protect the anode from oxygen. If he could find a way to do that, he thought, it would give potassium-oxygen batteries a shot at longer lives. It turned out he was right: The team realized that swelling in the polymer played a vital role in its performance. The key, Gilmore said, was finding a way to bring oxygen into the battery—necessary for it to work—without allowing oxygen to seep into the anode.

This design works a bit like human lungs: Air comes in to the battery through a fibrous carbon layer, then meets a second layer that is slightly less porous and finally ends at a third layer, which is barely porous at all. That third layer, made of the conducting polymer, allows potassium ions to travel throughout the cathode, but restricts molecular oxygen from getting to the anode. The design means that the battery can be charged at least 125 times—giving potassium-oxygen batteries more than 12 times the longevity they previously had with low-cost electrolytes.

The finding shows that this is possible, but the team’s tests haven’t proven that the batteries can be made on the scale necessary for power-grid storage, Sundaresan said. However, it does show potential.

Gilmore said potential may also exist for potassium-oxygen batteries to be useful in other applications.

“Oxygen batteries have higher energy density, which means they can improve the range of electric vehicles and battery life of portable electronics, for example, though other challenges must be overcome before potassium-oxygen batteries are viable for these applications,” he said.

And the finding offers an alternative to lithium-ion batteries and others that rely on cobalt, a material that has been called “the blood diamond of batteries.” The mining of the material is so troubling that major companies, including TESLA, have announced their plans to eliminate it from batteries entirely.

“It is very important that batteries intended for large-scale applications do not use cobalt,” Sundaresan said.

And it is also important that the battery can be made cheaply. Lithium-oxygen batteries—a possible energy storage solution that is widely considered one of the most viable options—can be expensive, and many rely on scarce resources, including cobalt. The lithium-ion batteries that power many electric cars cost around $100 per kilowatt hour at the materials level.

The researchers estimated that this potassium-oxygen battery will cost about $44 per kilowatt hour.

“When it comes to batteries, one size does not fit all,” Sundaresan said. “For potassium-oxygen and lithium-oxygen batteries, the cost has been prohibitive to use them as grid power backup. But now that we’ve shown that we can make a battery this cheap and this stable, then it makes it compete with other technologies for grid power backup.

“If you have a smallish battery that is cheap, then you can talk about scaling it up. If you have a smallish battery that is $1,000 a pop, then scaling it up is just not possible. This opens the door for scaling it up.”

This work was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

And other rural counties including Harrison and Morgan nearly matched Columbus’ job growth rate during that same period, said Mark Partridge, an economics professor at Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

Columbus, typically the state’s front-runner for job growth, experienced 18% job growth between 2010 and 2018, but Wyandot’s was 23% and Holmes’ was 20%. Both Morgan (16%) and Harrison (17%) counties’ job growth rates were just slightly less than the Columbus rate.

“Rural Ohio is definitely not considered on life support,” said Partridge, who is also chair of the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy at CFAES.

Among Ohio’s metro areas, Columbus tops the list for its job growth rate between 2010 and 2018, followed by Cincinnati (11%), Toledo and Dayton/Kettering (tied at 8%), and Canton/Massillon and Akron (tied at 7%), Partridge said.

Partridge was the keynote speaker at the May 8 Spring 2019 Outlook and Policy Conference “Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Development in Ohio” hosted by the CFAES Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.

Another speaker at the event, Zoë Plakias, an assistant professor of agricultural, environmental, and development economics at CFAES, proposed that communities investing in producing local food consider some trade-offs and think about how their efforts will benefit their areas in the long run.

That’s partly because producing locally might not be the cheapest or most efficient way for a product to be made, Plakias said.

“The reason we moved away from local food systems in the first place was because particular regions of the country and world are really good at producing certain things,” she said.

So, relocalizing a food system needs to produce other benefits that outweigh these costs, Plakias said.

One key benefit that can come from locally and regionally developed food systems, including food co-ops and farmers markets, is that they’re social gathering spaces in communities and are, therefore, considered assets to an area, Plakias said.

Environmental benefits are also possible, she pointed out. But it depends on what the resources, like land, were used for before and whether the local food is produced sustainably, she said. For example, if a farm that was producing a crop using sustainable practices for markets outside Ohio switches to producing that crop for local markets, the environmental benefits will be small, she said.

“It turns out that the environmental impacts from transporting food long distances tend to be relatively small for common modes of transport like trucking,” Plakias said.

Local food production, from craft beer to strawberries, has gained in popularity in part because consumers have lost some trust in larger food companies that might not tell consumers where their food is coming from or how it’s produced, Plakias said.

But there’s always competition from large retail food chains trying to meet the consumer desire to buy locally. Large retail grocery chains carry locally grown produce, and chain restaurants are already making a point to show which farm the ingredients for their food came from. This could hurt independently owned stores, restaurants, and other establishments that are based in the community, Plakias said.

“As regions invest in local food systems, they need to recognize there’s going to be this increasing effort by large food companies to get on that bandwagon,” she said.

Decades from now, the way people move through their daily lives will likely look even more different—and a new program in the partnership between The Ohio State University and Honda R&D Americas is working to nurture the kinds of innovative ideas that will, hopefully, make transportation easier, safer and more environmentally friendly.

Ohio State’s Office of Research hosted a pitch day recently at the newly opened 99P Innovation Laboratory on Kinnear Road and heard ideas to improve transportation from research groups from across the university. Seed funding was provided by the Office of Research, the College of Engineering and Honda. 

“We’re really at an inflection point where things in the world of mobility are changing pretty rapidly,” said Alissa Comella, the university’s co-director of the Honda-Ohio State partnership. “We have the opportunity, by partnering with Honda, to really have a unique vantage point on taking commercial thinking and academic thinking and bringing them together to look at what the future could be.”

A panel of engineers, scientists and others from both Honda and Ohio State evaluated those pitches and offered seed funding to five projects. The proposals varied from creating better, more sustainable, high-energy lithium batteries, to building a “smart” roadway that can tell drivers, pedestrians and cyclists what’s happening outside their line of sight, to social-work outreach to create a framework for testing, reviewing, and enhancing mobility innovations for older adults and individuals with disabilities.

The seed funding—$25,000 to each project—will allow teams to begin research and have development updates for the 99P Lab’s official unveiling this fall.

“99P creates a place for our researchers to stretch their ideas, and to try something they might not have tried before, to improve mobility for decades to come,” said Morley Stone, Ohio State’s senior vice president for research, “and they benefit from the real-world expertise of Honda’s research and development team. It’s a win-win.”

Mike Wiseman, senior director of research at Honda R&D Americas, said this expansion of the partnership is a win-win for Honda, too.

“We’ve been investing in student-driven innovation for decades, but we haven’t always had Ohio State principal investigators and other faculty and staff engaged at an essential level,” Wiseman said. “The goal was really to give research leaders a new space for their teams to bring their research to life as working products.”

And the partnership could help Honda move into the future with fresh ideas.

“Honda is more than an automaker. We’re a mobility company that’s proud of the fact that we extend beyond automobiles and motorcycles—into robotics and other areas,” said Jonathan Dayka, a Honda spokesman. “We really wanted this collaboration to continue to increase our concept of mobility, not just our development capability.”

The research groups that received funding include:

• A team led by Jung Hyun Kim, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State, will work on building thicker electrode technology to develop a higher-energy lithium-ion battery to power electrical vehicles. The goal, the researchers said, is to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper and more efficient, allowing more vehicles in the future to move away from being powered by petroleum products that contribute to climate change.
• A team led by Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, associate professor of social work, will focus on creating a framework for testing, reviewing and enhancing mobility innovations for older adults and individuals with disabilities. 
• A team led by Anish Arora, professor of computer science and engineering, will examine ways to build sensors into roadways, bikeways and walkways that can notify drivers, cyclists and pedestrians about other travelers and objects outside their lines of sight. “If roads could talk, what would they do to help us stay safe?” Anora said at the pitch day.
• A team led by Shawn Midlam-Mohler, associate professor of practice in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, plans to build a better way to evaluate the user experience in autonomous vehicles.
• A team led by Robert Lee, professor of electrical and computer engineering, intends to build a “smart” steering wheel that can support distracted-driver detection by sensing a driver’s hands not just on—but near—the steering wheel.

The 99P Lab’s “grand opening” will be held this fall.

Ana Berrios Allison, assessment specialist with the Office of Student Life’s Career Counseling and Support Services, manages a service to help students prepare for life after graduation. Berrios Allison manages Buckeye OnPace, a career development tool that helps students navigate the path from student to employee.

“OnPace is a series of career modules designed for anyone – not only undergrad students but anyone – who really wants to take a role in their own career development process,” she said. “It’s self-guided so students can go to the system and, depending on where they are in their career development process, they can go through any module.”

The modules feature instruction on topics like finding a career focus, how to build an effective resume and advice for negotiating a salary. Buckeye OnPace was developed at Ohio State for Ohio State students.

In addition to career planning information, the program helps prepare new employees for their first jobs.

“It’s also for when you transition to the job market,” Berrios Allison said. “What is it like the first year with an employer? What do you do? How do you learn the culture of the workplace?

“I added modules that are related to diversity in the workplace and how you look for employers that are friendly to who you are.”

Tools like Buckeye OnPace and the university’s career counseling services are some of the reasons why Ohio State gets high marks for preparing students for the workforce. 

In addition, of the most in-demand jobs in the state requiring a bachelor’s degree, Ohio State graduates have accepted employment in more than 90% of these occupations, on average, over the past several years.

A record number of Ohio State students graduated Sunday, and the next step in their lives was clearly on their minds. Many of them were already prepared because of the opportunities they found in the classroom.

“One of the biggest draws to Ohio State, the reason why I came here, was because of the big classes and the opportunity to meet a lot of people and network,” said Sebastian Saw, a health sciences graduate. “Because there are so many people, there are so many opportunities.”

Saw is beginning an internship at a New Albany, Ohio-based pharmaceutical company this summer. He credits the communication and cooperation skills he learned in his classes for his success in getting a job.

These graduates are heading into the workforce at the same time Ohio is drawing attention to the number of jobs, industries and skills that are in-demand in Ohio. The annual In-Demand Jobs Week is designed to help students and job seekers discover, get connected with and learn more about the careers that are available in their local communities.

There are more than 200 occupations considered in-demand by employers in Ohio. Many of those jobs are in the health care field.

Zulal Zeren, a new graduate with a human nutrition degree, said she’s ready to pursue a career as a sports dietitian because of the experience she gained at the Wexner Medical Center and working with student-athletes.

“It’s amazing. I don’t think I could get this much experience somewhere else,” she said.

Berrios Allison said the combination of a hot job market and the quality of students graduating from Ohio State means students can afford to be selective with their opportunities.

“Why will I compromise four years of work and education just to get whatever comes first?” she asked. “Really look for a place where you can be you. From a professional standpoint, you need to feel like your skills are being put to use.”

A lawyer by training, Lasher has been the senior leader of the Office of Civil Rights and Institutional Equity at Central Michigan University since 2013. In that role, she also currently serves as Central Michigan’s Title IX coordinator and its affirmative action officer.

The consolidation of reporting and response functions reflects Ohio State’s continuous work to develop enhanced, robust protections for students, faculty and staff.

“Strong support and policies for students guide our every action in the university’s approach to campus safety,” said Ohio State President Michael V. Drake. “We work actively to put values-based policies and procedures in place to prevent misconduct, rapidly address issues when they occur and provide support to those affected.”

Lasher will lead a unit that has been structured to achieve four primary goals:

• Ensure a consistent and coordinated response for every student and employee who seeks assistance.
• Provide coordinated intake and outreach support, including help in understanding resolution options and in accessing university and community resources.
• Ensure rigorous, fair and impartial review of complaints by trained and experienced professionals through a process that prioritizes procedural protections for all involved. Centralizing the report and response structure further ensures that allegations of criminal behavior are reported to law enforcement.
• Monitor and address patterns and trends across campus.

“Our students and employees must learn and work in an environment that is fair, safe and just,” Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron said. “Ohio State is committed to that standard, and Katherine will guide our work to ensure we meet this level of excellence.”

OIE is within the Office of Academic Affairs, and Lasher will report directly to the provost.

The new office is the most recent action taken by the university as part of its regular and ongoing review and refinement of efforts designed to provide a safe and supportive environment for all students, employees and visitors. Building on systems already in place over the past two decades, Ohio State has established multiple programs to address sexual misconduct issues and expand Title IX initiatives. These include:

• Creation of the Office of University Compliance and Integrity in 2012 following a comprehensive, external assessment of compliance functions across campus.
• Conducted in 2015 a campus climate survey in partnership with the Association of American Universities to identify and provide increased training for awareness and prevention programming. Ohio State continues to conduct annual climate surveys, most recently this spring.
• Launch in 2015 of Buckeyes ACT, a community-wide approach to combat sexual misconduct through action, counseling and support, and training.
• Established requirement in autumn 2018 that all staff, faculty and students complete online sexual misconduct prevention education.

“Ohio State is one of this nation’s great land-grant universities, and I look forward to collaborating with students, faculty and staff to advance this office’s important mission,” Lasher said. “I am pleased to be returning to my home state to continue my work to ensure equitable treatment for all.”

She will start Aug. 1.

McPheron said Lasher’s record of achievement aligns with the improvements Ohio State has made in recent years. During her tenure at Central Michigan, Lasher:

• Developed and implemented the university’s first comprehensive sexual misconduct policy for students, faculty and staff.
• Directed the development of harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct awareness training programs.
• Improved and expanded tracking and case management systems.
• Led an initiative to require training for incoming first-year students on healthy relationships, consent and bystander intervention.

Before she was hired by Central Michigan in 2012, Lasher was an attorney with Graydon Head & Ritchey, LLP in Cincinnati. Lasher was also previously a judicial law clerk for the First District Court of Appeals in Ohio for Judge J. Howard Sundermann and a judicial law clerk for the Office of Administrative Law Judges.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology and a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati, which honored her with the Nicholas J. Longworth III Alumni Achievement Award for her contributions to the College of Law.

The university awarded a record 12,213 degrees and certificates to the largest graduating class in university history. The ceremony at Ohio Stadium included a graduating class size that was the largest for the fifth consecutive year.

President Michael V. Drake presided over the ceremony. Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN and columnist for The Washington Post, delivered the commencement address.

Zakaria warned of the growing social and political divide in the country. He compared it to sectarian feuds in Europe or the Middle East.

He suggested a mandatory year of national service could help bring the nation together. Zakaria said service could be in public schools, impoverished communities or the military.

Ultimately, Zakaria said a new policy could go only so far and he asked the new graduates to be better to one another.

“Public policy is really only one aspect of how we can come together. We all need to get out of our echo chambers and talk to each other and respect one another,” he said. “We must all listen and empathize more, and listening means listening to those with whom you fundamentally disagree. We must judge and condemn less: online, in print and in person.”

Two students also addressed the crowd: Nick Frankowski, a new graduate with a degree in economics; and Melissa Martinez-Cuen, an early childhood education graduate.

Martinez-Cuen said she feels compelled to serve because of the family, faculty and friends who helped motivate her to succeed.

“I also learned that service goes a long way and involvement teaches us about the community, and ourselves,” she said. “Because I’m a Buckeye I plan to give back and help guide others just as I was helped through my college experience, starting with the young minds I will have in my future classroom.”

Frankowski spoke of the challenges facing the new graduates.

“Science and technology present us with exponentially more opportunities than ever before – and exponentially more problems,” he said. “We are confronted with unparalleled challenges, and countless ways to overcome them. These are the tasks which we, as Buckeyes, must lead on. These are things which we are prepared to lead on. By virtue of our Ohio State education and our membership in the Buckeye family, we are prepared to enter the world at precisely the time the world most needs us.”

In addition to the degrees and certificates, the university awarded Zakaria the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Distinguished Service Awards were presented to George W. Acock, founder and president of Acock Associates Architects and credited with the renovations of Pomerene Hall, Thompson Library and Sullivant Hall; Linda Kass, former university trustee, author and owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley; and William T. “Ted” McDaniel Jr., professor emeritus of music and African American and African Studies and specialist in jazz history, jazz performance and African American music.

Drake helped conclude the ceremony by encouraging the class of 2019 to change the world for the better.

“Graduates, you have worked so hard to get to where you are. Now you must use what you’ve learned for the greater good,” Drake said. “Let yourself be supported by the quality of the work and effort you’ve put in thus far. Let that be your foundation – and then build upon that foundation a life of which you can be proud.”

Current and former Buckeye student-athletes graduate

More than 160 current and former Ohio State student-athletes received their degrees at spring commencement.

Complete list of Spring 2019 Student-Athlete Graduates

Among the student-athlete graduates are national and conference champions, All-Americans, academic standouts and Big Ten Medal of Honor winners and finalists.

Graduates include:

• 2019 Big Ten Medal of Honor winners Mason Jobst and Karrington Winters. The award is given to the top male and female senior student-athlete based on athletics and academics on each Big Ten campus. Jobst is the second two-time All-American in Ohio State men’s hockey history and a three-time All-Big Ten selection, and was part of three NCAA Tournament teams. Winters, part of the women’s track and field team, is a three-time First Team All-American and two-time Second Team All-American and owns three Ohio State records.
• Greg Oden returned to Ohio State to pursue his undergraduate degree after leading the men’s basketball Buckeyes to the Final Four during his freshman season in 2007. He has spent the last few years assisting with the Ohio State men’s basketball program as a student assistant coach.
• Lilli Piper and Emily Clark, seniors on the softball team, were selected in the third and fourth rounds, respectively, of the National Pro Fastpitch College Draft April 15. Piper is a two-time All-American and First Team All-Big Ten selection, while Clark earned All-Big Ten recognition twice.

The 169 spring graduates join 40 current and former student-athletes who earned their Ohio State degree at winter commencement. At the annual Scholar-Athlete Dinner in April, 674 Buckeyes were recognized. There have been 212 Ohio State student-athletes named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team so far this year, with spring and at-large sports still to come.

That was the message and the mission advanced by University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank as she delivered the 16th annual James F. Patterson Land-Grant University Lecture at the Ohio Union Thursday.

“At this moment in time,” Blank said, “communicating our value and responding effectively to public criticism is an absolutely critical part of our job as higher education leaders.”

Blank said higher education is a target for critics who suggest it has become too expensive, fails to educate students effectively for the job market and is often poorly managed. While some of these points have a grain of truth behind the critique, she said, they don’t reflect the real importance of a college education.

“We are at a moment where the degrees we grant have never been more valuable to our graduates,” Blank said.

An economist by training, Blank became chancellor of Wisconsin’s flagship university in July 2013. She also served as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama. She was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton.

From 1999 to 2008 she was dean and professor of public policy and economics in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Blank said public skepticism is compounded by cuts to federal and state funding of higher education that often force colleges and universities to raise tuition. Universities, and particularly public universities, need to fight back, she said, while at the same time demonstrating fiscal diligence and responsibility to avoid criticism.

“Our responsibility as land-grant schools, as public universities, is to make sure any student who can get into our university has the ability to come and to afford a college education,” she said.

She said the role of land-grant universities remains central to a healthy economy, pointing out there are two things that will matter if the U.S. is to remain on the front edge of the global economy: a skilled workforce and groundbreaking research and innovation.

“Once you say those two things, there is only one institution in society that does them both and that is the big research institution,” she said.

In order for public universities to ward off criticism, Blank said they need to do a better job of public advocacy to show legislators and decision makers that universities are economic engines for states. One way to do that: Ensure that university outreach and engagement to the state is as strong as possible.

“We have to be present and we have to be involved everywhere in the state,” Blank said.

Finally, Blank said universities must communicate their message effectively – in order for the public to understand the good work universities are doing, they must speak for themselves and share that message broadly.

University Engagement Recognition Awards

Ohio State presented its annual University Engagement Recognition Awards before the Patterson Lecture. The awards honor faculty, staff, students and community partners for outstanding achievement in meaningful partnerships that produce engaged scholarship and community impact.

The College of Pharmacy’s Generation Rx program won the Distinguished Community Engagement Award. Generation Rx is a partnership with the Cardinal Health Foundation to teach safe medication practices. The program combines academic scholarship and community outreach through its free, educational resources and network of community-based educators and professionals to address prescription medication misuse.

The Distinguished International Engagement Award was awarded the South Africa Antibiotic Stewardship “Train-the-Trainer” mentoring program. The program works to reduce the use of antibiotics, improve the quality of patient care and increase safety for South African citizens who are threatened by antibiotic-resistant “superbug” infections.

A full list of award winners is available at the Office of Outreach and Engagement website.

The discovery, nearly 30 years in the making, was published recently in the Bulletin of Geosciences and provides a clue as to how creatures were able to make the evolutionary leap from living stuck to marine sediment grains—which were held together by gooey algae-like colonies, the original way that echinoderms lived—to living attached to hard, shelly surfaces, which is the way their modern-day descendants live now on the bottom of the ocean.

“It throws light on a critical time, not just in the evolution of organisms, but also in the evolution of marine ecosystems,” said Loren Babcock, co-author of the study and professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “This represents a creature that clearly was making the leap from the old style of marine ecosystems in which sediments were stabilized by cyanobacterial mats, to what ultimately became the present system, with more fluidized sediment surfaces.”

The creature, a species of edrioasteroid echinoderm that Babcock and his researchers named Totiglobus spencensis, lived in the Cambrian Period—about 507 million years ago. (The Earth, for the record, is about 4.5 billion years old.) A family of fossil hunters discovered the fossil in shale of Spence Gulch, in the eastern part of Idaho, in 1992, and donated it to Richard Robison, a researcher at the University of Kansas and Babcock’s doctoral adviser. That part of the country is rich with fossils from the Cambrian period, Babcock said.

For years, the fossil puzzled both Babcock and Robison. But the mystery was solved a few years ago, when Robison’s fossil collection passed to Babcock after Robison’s retirement.

Once Babcock had the fossil in his lab, he and a visiting doctoral student, Rongqin Wen, removed layers of rock, exposing a small, rust-colored circle with numerous tiny plates and distinct arm-like structures, called ambulcra. Further study showed them that the animal attached itself to a small, conical shell of a mysterious, now-extinct animal called a hyolith using a basal disk—a short, funnel-like structure composed of numerous small calcite plates.

The discovery was a type of scientific poetry—years earlier, Babcock and Robison discovered the type of shell that this animal appeared to be attached to, and named it Haplophrentis reesei.

The edrioasteroid that Babcock and Wen discovered apparently lived attached to the upper side of the elongate-triangular hyolith shell, even as the hyolith was alive. They think a sudden storm buried the animals in a thick layer of mud, preserving them in their original ecological condition.

Echinoderms and hyoliths first appeared during the Cambrian Period, a time in Earth’s history when life exploded and the world became more biodiverse than it had ever been before. The earliest echinoderms, including the earliest edrioasteroids, lived by sticking to cyanobacterial mats—thick, algae-like substances that covered the Earth’s waters. And until the time of Totiglobus spencensis, echinoderms had not yet figured out how to attach to a hard surface.

“In all of Earth’s history, the Cambrian is probably the most important in the evolution of both animals and marine ecosystems, because this was a time when a more modern style of ecosystem was first starting to take hold,” Babcock said. “This genus of the species we discovered shows the evolutionary transition from being a ‘mat-sticker’ to the more advanced condition of attaching to a shelly substrate, which became a successful model for later species, including some that live today.”

In the early part of the Cambrian Period—which started about 538 million years ago—echinoderms likely lived on that algae-like substance in shallow seas that covered many areas of the planet. The algae, Babcock said, probably was not unlike the cyanobacterial mats that appear in certain lakes, including Lake Erie, each summer. But at some point, those algae-like substances became appealing food for other creatures, including prehistoric snails. During the Cambrian, as the population of snails and other herbivores exploded, the algae-like cyanobacterial mats began to disappear from shallow seas, and sediments became too physically unstable to support the animals—including echinoderms—that had come to rely on them.

Once their algae-like homes became food for other animals, Babcock said, echinoderms either had to find new places to live or perish.

Paleontologists knew that the creatures had somehow managed to survive, but until the Ohio State researchers’ discovery, they hadn’t seen much evidence that an echinoderm that lived this long ago had made the move from living stuck to cyanobacterial-covered sediment to living attached to hard surfaces.

“This evolutionary choice—to move from mat-sticker to hard shelly substrate—ultimately is responsible for giving rise to attached animals such as crinoids,” Babcock said. “This new species represents the link between the old lifestyle and the new lifestyle that became successful for this echinoderm lineage.”

The project, developed and managed by Associate Professor of Environmental History Kip Curtis, is supported by a $2 million matching grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).

The Mansfield Microfarm Project will provide both training and microfarm kits to roughly a dozen initial producers, and help them farm cooperatively and bundle their produce for marketability. The microfarms will create a system that, when fully operating, will produce and sell enough fresh produce to become a fully sustainable economic driver in the Mansfield-area economy.

“This pilot effort of microfarms will establish a food system in the city of Mansfield that can collectively generate the volume and quality of specialty crops to compete for commercial markets,” Curtis said. “It will keep local dollars circulating within the community, rather than exporting them out, while promoting healthier lifestyles by providing residents with access to fresh, local produce right there in the neighborhood.”

The microfarm network will progress over three years, allowing researchers and growers to adjust the growing, harvesting and marketing processes for the local setting. In the meantime, a parallel interdisciplinary research team will measure the ways in which this embedded local production system impacts a range of local issues, including food insecurity, urban beautification, food literacy and educational achievement.

Curtis introduced the concept to faculty and staff participating in the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) in 2016, prompting a cross-disciplinary approach to developing the project. Curtis also led a group of six students in the design and construction of a demonstration urban microfarm on the Mansfield campus, which consisted of two high tunnels housing raised plant beds as well as several outside plant beds on a one-third-acre lot.

When fully implemented, the local production pilot system will represent a scalable fresh produce marketing core for local vegetable producers.

“Inconsistent access to affordable nutritious food is a problem that plagues communities nationwide,” said FFAR’s Executive Director Sally Rockey. “This project has the potential to transform agriculture production while simultaneously fostering local economic development. We are excited to pilot the microfarm model and explore the impact for the Mansfield community.”

Added Curtis, “This project is fundamentally focused on developing and fine-tuning an urban microfarm aggregation system designed to create genuine opportunity for participant producers in Mansfield, Ohio.

“The potential impact, however, extends well beyond the original microfarmers and one small urban aggregation system. If successful, such models present opportunities for urban growers in other redeveloping cities across Ohio and beyond.”

The FFAR grant provides one-to-one matching funding to develop and study a pilot community-based sustainable food production and aggregation system in Mansfield. The match was made possible in large part through partnerships with the North End Community Improvement Collaborative, Mind and Body Align and Braintree Business Solutions, and the support of the Fran and Warren Rupp Donor Advised Fund of the Richland County Foundation. The FFAR funding is also matched in part by donations from the new Sustainability Institute at Ohio State, as well as in-kind support from researchers in Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Fisher College of Business, Knowlton School of Architecture, Department of History, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and College of Social Work.

Graduates receiving their bachelor’s and master’s degrees – and who purchased their gowns from Barnes & Noble – will march in sustainable caps and gowns. The store identified a vendor to provide gowns that are made from material consisting of 100% recycled plastic bottles. After commencement, graduates who don’t want to keep their gowns can drop them off at Barnes & Noble’s Gateway location for recycling again.

Ohio State President Michael V. Drake will preside, and the commencement address will be given by Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square) for CNN Worldwide and columnist for The Washington Post. The two student speakers are Nick Frankowski, a native of Cincinnati and candidate for the bachelor of science in economics; and Melissa Martinez-Cuen, a native of Paulding and candidate for the bachelor of science in early childhood education. The entire ceremony will last 2.5 to 3 hours.

Ohio Stadium opens at 10 a.m. on Sunday. No tickets are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Large handbags (bigger than 14” by 14” by 4”) are among the prohibited items. For more information, see commencement.osu.edu.

The class processionals leave French Field House and the Recreational and Physical Activity Center at 11:40 a.m. and enter Ohio Stadium at noon. Guests should be in their seats by 11:45 a.m. since access to certain areas will be restricted until after the processional has concluded. Woody Hayes Drive will be closed to vehicular traffic during the procession to the stadium.

The university will award the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Fareed Zakaria, the commencement speaker. Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to George W. Acock (BS ‘63, architecture), founder and president of Acock Associates Architects and credited with the renovations of Pomerene Hall, Thompson Library and Sullivant Hall; Linda Kass (MA ’78), former university trustee, author and owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley; and William T. “Ted” McDaniel Jr., professor emeritus of music and African American and African Studies and specialist in jazz history, jazz performance and African American music.

Family members and friends who are unable to attend the ceremony may watch a live video stream of the ceremony beginning at noon on May 5.

The university will now begin working on detailed implementation plans so that the new GE program can launch in Autumn Semester 2021, providing a cohesive academic foundation for a generation of future Buckeyes.

The new GE is designed to be an integrative program that threads through a student’s undergraduate career but requires fewer credits, providing students with more flexibility to pursue electives, minors or second majors. The structure emphasizes critical thinking and is intended to provide students with a breadth of awareness, knowledge and skills that cross disciplinary boundaries and prepares them to be global citizens.

“It has been decades since we re-evaluated our General Education curriculum in a meaningful way,” Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce McPheron said. “Career paths are different, technologies are different, and the subject matter of our majors has changed over that period.

“It’s understood that our students need a common educational grounding, but the real power of an Ohio State degree should enable them to weave together disparate threads of knowledge and to integrate that information into higher-order thinking and innovation.”

All 12 undergraduate-serving colleges endorsed the GE structure before the proposal was presented to University Senate.

The new structure requires 32 to 39 credit hours of GE coursework. By comparison, a Bachelor of Arts degree currently requires 46 to 69 hours of GE coursework and a Bachelor of Science requires 45 to 66 hours.

The new GE model consists of three parts: foundation courses, courses in thematic areas, and “bookend” courses at the beginning and end of the program.

• The foundations component includes classes in writing, mathematical and quantitative reasoning, data analysis, the arts and humanities, historical studies, and social and behavioral science. While it aligns closely with the current GE curriculum, it includes one notable addition: It requires students to take three credit hours in the area of race, ethnic and gender diversity. Significantly, the foundations component also aligns with the Ohio Transfer Module, which allows students to transfer credits from one Ohio public college or university to another in order to avoid duplicating course requirements.
• The thematic component examines broad areas of contemporary importance through a liberal arts approach. All students will complete Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World, a theme that consists of the foundation course on racial, ethnic and gender diversity, plus two additional courses. Students will then complete courses in one of the other themes that align with Ohio State’s mission as a public, land-grant, urban, engaged, research university: Lived Environments, Health and Wellbeing, Sustainability, and a theme or themes still to be developed.
• The bookends piece consists of two one-credit classes. The first, a General Education Seminar, introduces students to the structure and value of the GE program. The second class, Understanding a Diverse and Just World, is the last class of the GE program. It is designed to give students the opportunity to reflect on their learning across all GE courses and demonstrate how their thinking has evolved.

“Right now we have a GE program, but one that looks very different from college to college. Under this, the GE structure will be more consistent from student to student,” said Eric C. Bielefeld, an associate professor in speech and hearing science who chairs the Council on Academic Affairs. “This cohesive model will provide our students with a broad-based general education, with the theme coursework that can help inform their specialties as they move deeper into their majors.”

With the Senate approval, an implementation committee will be formed that includes broad representation of undergraduate colleges. During the implementation period, individual colleges will redesign courses and adjust offerings to meet the new GE standards.

Ohio State’s current General Education curriculum was established in 1988. (For context, the World Wide Web was created a year later.) Since then, the GE program has been reviewed three times — in 1996, 2002 and 2007 — but never substantially revised, even as the university shifted to selective admissions and first-year students increasingly arrived with course credits already in hand.

Following the recommendation of the University Senate, a 16-member coordinating committee — led by Larry Krissek, now professor emeritus; Catherine Montalto, associate professor of consumer science in the College of Education and Human Ecology; and Andrew Martin, professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences — was established in February 2017 to review the GE curriculum, a process largely driven by faculty. In March 2018, the committee released its draft proposal after soliciting feedback from the university community.

Each of the colleges and campuses with undergraduate students then began its own review. Once endorsed by all parties, the final, revised proposal was sent to the Council on Academic Affairs, which unanimously approved the proposal April 17 and forwarded it to the University Senate for consideration on April 18.

Each undergraduate college will review the plan produced by the implementation committee for endorsement by the end of calendar year 2019. If all colleges approve that plan, courses would be submitted throughout calendar year 2020 for review and approval.

The Office of Research and the Corporate Engagement Office held the new Research and Innovation Showcase at the Ohio Union on Wednesday. The event revamped the university’s annual State of Research address.

Senior Vice President for Research Morley Stone helped open the ceremony by highlighting some of the achievements in research at Ohio State. Stone noted research funding from NASA, the Department of Energy and Department of Defense had increased at Ohio State year-over-year.

“When I visit with faculty members and students throughout this campus, always know that my question is going to be ‘Why are you doing that? What are the basic questions you are trying to answer?’” Stone said. “It’s that fundamental insight that drives us all and why we are here at this great institution of higher education.”

Scott Osborne, interim vice president for economic and corporate engagement at Ohio State, said there are currently 88 startups based on Ohio State technology. That’s a record number for the university.

“At Ohio State, discovery is at the core of our academic mission. Our faculty, students and staff live through the innovation they discover,” he said. “As a leading public research university, Ohio State has a responsibility not only to our researchers but also to our state and our country.”

The showcase featured TED-style talks from six university researchers:

Forrest Schoessow, a graduate student in the Department of Geography, discussed the development of an aerial drone to help monitor mountaintop glaciers and better understand the human toll from climate change.

Department of Microbiology professor Matthew Sullivan talked about his work with the sailing research ship Tara and imagining a world in which viruses will fight ailments in humans.

Harmony Bench, associate professor in the Department of Dance, spoke about being prepared for the unexpected during research.

Shahid Nimjee, associate professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, discussed the importance of listening and learning from others to become a better research partner.

Anna Voelker, coordinator for the university’s Astronomy Accessibility Program and recent undergraduate, spoke about her efforts to make astronomy, and science as whole, more inclusive, particularly for individuals with disabilities.

“I hope that more students and more learners can come out and think to themselves, ‘maybe I, too, can explore the universe,’” she said, “whether it’s traveling to places like the moon and beyond or studying the universe through research and innovation here on the ground.”

Scott Gaudi, Thomas Jefferson Professor for Discovery and Space Exploration, challenged the audience to continue in their efforts in innovation and exploration. He encouraged his colleagues to remember the motto of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Dare mighty things.

The evening closed with awards for research and innovation.

Katrina Cornish received the 2019 Innovator of the Year award. Cornish is the endowed chair and Ohio Research Scholar for Bioemergent Materials, and technical director of the Program of Excellence in Natural Rubber Alternatives. Cornish is an internationally recognized expert on alternative natural rubber production and on natural rubber biosynthesis.

Tim Raderstorf, Chief Innovation Officer in the College of Nursing, won the Early Career Innovator of the Year award. Raderstorf founded The Innovation Studio, a mobile workshop to help provide funding, tools and support to innovative ideas.

Two Ohio State graduates received the Next Generation Innovator of the Year award. Wesley Thio and Schoessow were honored for their research on self-powered wearable technologies and the development of unmanned aerial research sensors to study glaciers, respectively.