The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) presented the virtual summit. The event brought together parents, teachers and administrators from throughout Ohio to discuss strategies to increase families’ involvement in their education.

“This conference affirms the importance of family engagement and vitality in enhancing the lives of children,” said Erik Porfeli, interim dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology, which houses CETE. “We know that family is among the most powerful of human contexts and that partnerships between families and educators are vital to support students in academic and human development.”

Conference sessions included discussions on strengthening partnerships and enhancing trust among families and educators, strategies to increase the statewide high school graduation rate, and increasing student and parental involvement in science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) programs.

“Sometimes in education, when we talk about family engagement, it can feel overwhelming. We think we have to overhaul the entire system overnight,” Barbara Boone, director of the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, told attendees.

“But really, lasting change starts like this: One drop. … The statement you make in a meeting that tells a parent that their child may be having some struggles now, and that’s normal and it’s not forever. You’ll be there to support them and their child will learn and have a bright future. That single drop creates a ripple, creates a change in the climate. It builds trust. It’s the power of a small step.”

In one session, principals from central Ohio middle schools shared best practices on how to engage parents in helping to not only help their children reach their full academic potential, but to ensure they have the best overall experience in school.

Tabbetha Greco, assistant principal of Bexley Middle School, said the school recently surveyed parents of students who transitioned from elementary to middle school to determine how to best provide information to streamline the process.

The survey helped administrators and teachers determine, “How are we getting information? How are we receiving information?” Greco said. “Who’s collaborating with us? Who’s evaluating us? And then who’s knocking on the door, calling our offices with concerns? How do we involve them in some of the solutions?”

Cassie Muller, a seventh-grade math teacher and instructional coach at Graham Elementary and Middle School in Columbus, said administrators and teachers collaborate each year before the school year begins. They brainstorm on how to best provide parents with resources to help their children learn math and address issues that may cause the students to fall behind.

“We hear that from families a lot: ‘I don’t know how to do this math that kids are doing nowadays,’ but we give them resources so that they can support their student,” Muller said. “There’s also a calendar link. … Each grade level has their own section so that if families have students in multiple grade levels, they just have a one-stop shop to look for to know exactly what their student’s doing that week, what test they have.”

In her keynote address, Shalinee Sharma, author of “Math Mind” and CEO of the nonprofit Zearn, which provides instructional support for math educators, offered insights on how parents can help their children overcome obstacles to learning.

An important step is often a mindset shift in which parents communicate to their children that they’re capable of learning math, Sharma said.

She shared an anecdote in which the mother of her son’s preschool classmate told Sharma that the classmate’s family are artists and, therefore, “We’re just not math people.” Sharma said she encouraged the mother to change her messaging to ensure her children would be receptive to learning.

“All kids are math kids, and even if you don’t believe it yet, just say it. That’s a small change and that will have extraordinary impact,” Sharma said. “When math makes sense, kids build confidence.”

For more information about the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center and the 2027 Family Leaders for Ohio Schools Academy, a leadership program for parents of children in K-12 Ohio public schools, visit the program’s website.

Researchers, posed as “secret shoppers” looking for appointments for issues including anxiety and grief, called 5,822 psychiatrists and psychologists on commercial provider lists in five states — Delaware, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia.

Their aim was to test whether the provider information in insurance directories actually connected patients with available, in-network mental health professionals.

A successful call (meaning someone picked up the phone) resulted in an appointment with the health care provider only 24% of the time. If the caller was willing to see another clinician, an appointment could be made 31% of the time.

The research, led by Simon Haeder and Wendy Xu of The Ohio State University College of Public Health, appears today in JAMA Health Forum.

“Access to mental health care in the U.S. is a well-documented struggle. This shows that even those with private insurance, who are told they have many providers to choose from, can have a hard time getting the care they need,” Haeder said.

The researchers couldn’t analyze more than 6 in 10 calls because they reached an automated system or answering machine and could not speak with a person.

When analyzing the remaining 2,252 calls, Haeder and his colleagues found:

• 56% revealed inaccurate information in the provider directory.
• 22% of calls didn’t result in an appointment because of capacity limitations, including providers not accepting new patients.
• Callers were told they’d have to wait an average of 20.5 days for care, with longer waits for psychiatry than psychology.

“Providers move, change phone numbers, leave practices or otherwise become unavailable, but those changes aren’t always reflected in insurance directories,” Haeder said.

Insurers may also list clinicians who are part of a contracted group even when those individual clinicians aren’t actually available. Researchers describe these as “ghost” providers or networks because they appear to exist on paper but aren’t necessarily accessible to patients.

“Our study speaks to a broader problem in American healthcare: the disconnect between having health insurance and actually being able to use it,” said Xu, an Ohio State professor of health services management and policy.

“Inaccurate provider directories are not simply an administrative inconvenience. They can create substantial barriers to care, leaving people effectively underinsured despite having insurance.”

Challenges with provider network directories have been documented across healthcare and are especially worrisome when it comes to people looking for help with mental health concerns, the researchers said.

“Seeking help can already be difficult for someone experiencing anxiety, grief or another mental health concern, and that’s exacerbated when they’re running into answering machines, unavailable providers and ‘in-network’ psychologists who’ve moved to another state,” Haeder said.

Provider-directory accuracy is a longstanding, systemic problem across specialties, with its roots in several challenges, including inconsistent regulation and enforcement and incentives for insurers to beef up provider lists, he said.

“I’d love to see a centralized provider directory that clinicians maintain and insurers can access, rather than every insurer separately trying to maintain its own database,” Haeder said.

The study received funding from Inseparable, a national mental health advocacy organization.

Other researchers who worked on the study are Ohio State doctoral student Yuqin Lou and Benjamin Miller of Stanford University.

Publishing today (Oct. 16, 2026) in The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, the 52 authors agreed to 28 recommendations designed to help first responders, healthcare professionals and agencies work toward five primary goals: timely recognition of traumatic brain injury (TBI), safe recovery, operational readiness, reduced stigma and first responder-centered care. 

Researchers and clinicians at The Ohio State University assembled the team that developed the guidelines, which apply to law enforcement officers, corrections personnel, firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) – a group of professionals at high risk for violent interactions, falls and car crashes working in a demanding culture that makes it tough to seek help. 

While addressing injury prevention, treatment and return to duty, the recommendations also recognize that better outcomes will require education, supportive reporting practices and organizational cultures that enable first responders to identify injuries and access appropriate care. The authors wrote in the paper that management of traumatic brain injuries in first responders “must shift from an individual burden to an organizational responsibility.” 

“The first step is recognizing that TBI is a problem in first responders. I think everybody thinks of it as a sports problem, but there are a lot of other populations that TBI impacts, and, clearly, first responders is one of them,” said lead author Jaclyn Caccese, associate professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State. 

“We don’t have to start from scratch. There is a lot we can learn from sports and the military, but those approaches have to be adapted with first responders to reflect the realities of their work. That partnership is really important if we want the recommendations to be practical, trusted and ultimately useful.” 

The authors convened at Ohio State last spring to pursue consensus on protocols surrounding six frameworks that they had been discussing in smaller groups for months before they met.

• workplace policies
• injury prevention measures
• challenges of recognizing injuries
• diagnosis and treatment of the injury
• mental health monitoring
• steps needed to get a concussed first responder back to work 

Though concussion research on athletes and military personnel has informed this work, the complex nature of first responders’ responsibilities brings a different set of challenges after a TBI: Symptoms can interfere with duties that require making split-second decisions, while driving at high speed with lights and sirens can provoke symptoms. Shift work disrupts sleep, which is essential to repairing the brain. An additional strike to the head could set back the recovery process.

The recommendations emphasize shared organizational responsibility, supportive and non-punitive reporting and referral processes, clinician-guided care, occupation-specific return to duty progression and continued research partnerships with first responder communities. 

Two recently published studies led by Caccese and colleagues provided new details on the size of the problem of TBIs in first responders. 

In a statewide survey of Ohio law enforcement and corrections officers, 64.1% of respondents reported at least one lifetime TBI, and 28.3% reported duty-related TBI. Nearly three-quarters of the duty-related injuries had never been diagnosed or treated. 

A review of 23 studies of TBI occurrence in first responders showed the prevalence of a lifetime TBI in this population was 58.8%. The research also showed there is a high risk for TBI in firefighters and revealed that head injuries in EMTs have barely been studied at all. 

New federal funding will support an investigation into symptoms and recovery timing in first responders. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health awarded Ohio State $1.9 million to fund a project adapting the sideline assessment and repeated testing of injured athletes as closely as possible to the law enforcement environment. Personnel with a head injury will be compared to uninjured controls on a range of symptoms 72 hours after the TBI, once symptoms have resolved, when they’re cleared for unrestricted work and six months later. 

“The idea is to look at what are the common mechanisms of injury, how long does it take officers on average to hit those milestones, and what do their trajectories look like?” said Caccese, who is the principal investigator on the grant. “And we’ll also look at the risk factors for persisting symptoms – for officers who do take longer to recover, why do they take longer to recover?” 

Many other consensus statement authors are working to shrink the gap of research on TBI in first responders and helping spread the word about the recommendations and the collaborative process that led to them. A major next step is working with first responder organizations to determine how the recommendations can be implemented across different agencies and occupational settings. Caccese and colleagues are presenting the consensus statement at the International Association of Chiefs of Police in late October. 

Though there is a lot more work to be done, Caccese said publication of the recommendations is a significant milestone in the effort to build more consistent, evidence-informed systems of TBI care with and for first responders, whose workplace safety and well-being “really affects everyone.” 

“A first responder should not have to recognize a TBI alone, decide whether reporting it could threaten a career, find a clinician who understands the demands of the job, negotiate appropriate work restrictions, and determine when it is safe to resume a high-risk duty,” she and colleagues wrote in a preface to the topical issue of the journal. “Yet in many settings, there is no clear system to guide that process. The consensus statement offers a framework for beginning to build one.” 

This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs endorsed by the Department of Defense through the Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program, and by Ohio State’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Center for Brain Injury Recovery & Discovery. 

Additional Ohio State co-authors are James Oñate, Nathan Edwards, Andrew Sas, Carly Smith, Thomas Beach, Laura Boxley, Michael Guthrie, Jacek Kolacz, Patrick McKenna, Ashish R. Panchal, Bryant Walrod and Jeffrey J. Wing.

These imperfections, usually caused by tiny distortions within the material, could be a powerful design tool for building complex, three-dimensional structures.

Using a two-step process to strengthen a pair of metal alloys, researchers found that organizing defects in dense networks could arrange the atoms within the material in a way that strengthened the alloys without changing the chemical composition.

Notably, this method significantly increased both the amount of stress the metals could withstand and their resistance to gradual warping at high temperatures. These results suggest that adding a layer of engineered defects to structural materials could complement conventional materials design, said Andreas Bezold, lead author of the study and an adjunct assistant professor of materials science and engineering at The Ohio State University. 

“Defects are very important to learn more about, because by understanding how they interact with a material’s internal structure helps us design stronger materials,” he said.

The study is published today (Oct. 15, 2026) in Science.

Built on previous Ohio State research that showed how microscopic defects that form during deformation can be turned into layers that strengthen the structure, this team’s approach is the first to introduce densities that fully enrich these alloys. Using this method to develop alloys with more advanced properties could help scientists create more sustainable, longer-lasting materials.

“We wanted to make these strengthening structures a deliberate part of the material’s design,” said Bezold. “So it was fascinating to see how defects could have such a positive effect on the overall durability of the alloys.”

To measure how defects could strengthen metal, researchers first deformed the crystals in a cobalt-nickel-based superalloy and a cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloy, then used heat to slowly age them. This process created atomically thin, dense features in the structure that scientists could analyze.

Utilizing a combination of two techniques, transmission electron microscopy and computer simulations, the team found that the resulting boost in strength was linked to how atoms were arranged around the structural defects. Altering this complex formation could influence the strength of the material.

“Seeing the strengthening process on the atomic scale was quite stunning, since despite being associated with damage, the right defects with the right structure and chemistry can actually make a material stronger,” said Michael Mills, co-author of the study and a professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State.

In the future, this method could be used to create high-strength alloys for technologies that have to withstand high temperatures, such as aircraft turbine engines or power plant machinery. For now, Bezold’s team is helping pave the way for richer design principles in engineering.

“This is a field that is quickly becoming very exciting,” he said. “We hope that this idea becomes a new lever that strengthens and pushes the limits of material engineering even further.”

This study was supported by Ohio State’s Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Other co-authors include Yunzhi Wang from Ohio State; Manuel Köbrich, Jan Vollhüter, Lukas Amon, Jan Vollhüter, Mathias Göken, Steffen Neumeier, Nicolas Karpstein and Erdmann Spiecker from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany; and Longsheng Feng from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

A growing body of research shows that urban green spaces — parks and other areas lined with plants, grass and trees — improve community and individual health outcomes by encouraging physical activity, reducing stress and improving air quality. They’ve also been associated with reduced gun violence and other violent crimes, but the relationship is complex, and not fully understood.

While attending a recent conference, the study’s lead author, Gia Barboza-Salerno, made a point that resonated with fellow researchers who study urban greenery and violence prevention: When it comes to the effects of green space on communities, local context matters.

“It’s not as simple as planting a tree and thinking that alone will solve it,” said Barboza-Salerno, an associate professor in Ohio State’s colleges of social work and public health. “Even though we know urban greenery is a great prevention measure for a lot of reasons, we don’t understand how or whether there’s an interaction between where this greenery is — the local context in which the greenery sits — and a subsequent reduction in violence.”

That question became the basis for a study published this month in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Barboza-Salerno’s team looked at how green space, neighborhood disadvantage and gun violence intersect in Cook County, Illinois, which reported the most homicides in the U.S. in 2022.

“Firearm-related violence is a public health crisis in this country, and it disproportionately affects young Black males,” Barboza-Salerno said. According to research cited in the study, racial and ethnic disparities in violence are often linked to factors such as poverty, limited educational and employment opportunities, economic inequality and residential segregation. Urban green spaces may offer protective benefits, but no previous study had specifically investigated greenery near the locations of firearm-related deaths as it would be seen from the street level, from a pedestrian’s point of view, according to the study.

“We really wanted to show in this paper that urban planning is a critical part of public health prevention by evaluating the quality of streets that people traverse daily in their activity spaces,” Barboza-Salerno said.

As director of Ohio State’s Investigating Spatial Structures in Urban Environments (ISSUES) Lab, Barboza-Salerno leads a research group that uses advanced spatial statistics, geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and machine learning to understand how neighborhood environments shape health, safety and social well-being.

For this study, the team examined 899 firearm homicides and 2,256 natural deaths in the county in 2023 and compared them with natural deaths of people similar in age, sex and race who died nearby. By using Google Street View images and machine learning tools, they measured the amount and types of greenery a person would actually see from the street where each death occurred.

The study found that more visible greenery, tree canopy and green space along walkable streets were linked to lower odds that a death in that location was a firearm-related homicide. But the benefits of green space aren’t universal. Tree cover and greenery offered the most protection in less disadvantaged neighborhoods, while in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, being closer to a park was actually linked to a higher risk of firearm homicide.

The researchers attribute this finding to multidimensional measures of social deprivation, including poverty, structural housing disadvantage, economic inequality, family structure and income, having a stronger impact than a neighborhood’s green spaces.

“Green space is very important and critical for violence prevention, but not all green space matters equally,” Barboza-Salerno said. “Basically, if you lived in a socially advantaged environment, having green space mattered more for reducing violence than in a socially disadvantaged area. Green space should be thought of as a violence-prevention intervention, yet the green space that does the most protective work tends to be concentrated in more advantaged neighborhoods. That’s a double inequity: disadvantaged areas get less quality green space, and the green space they get is less protective without other supports.”

When parks in disadvantaged neighborhoods aren’t well-maintained or used regularly, they can become more of an eyesore than a protective factor, Barboza-Salerno said. Whereas in neighborhoods with more resources, well-kept parks have a beautification effect that can improve how people feel, and strengthen neighbors’ willingness to look out for one another.

“In these very [disadvantaged] areas, there’s a lot of economic disinvestment, and that is the association with violence, not the park per se,” Barboza-Salerno said.

The researchers caution that the study looked only at environments, not individuals. “We only looked at the location of death for the person in the context of the environment at that moment,” said Taylor Harrington, a doctoral candidate in public health and a co-author of the study. “It doesn’t encapsulate their whole lived experience or exposure throughout life up until that point.”

Barboza-Salerno has seen green space work as part of a broader effort. As the lead researcher at the Violence Prevention Collaborative in Boston and Director of Research for the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), Barboza-Salerno partnered with youth development organizations that employed young people to fix up local parks. The work gave them new skills and changed how neighbors perceived them.

Among other things, parks can provide safe places for children to play, socialize and have positive reciprocal interactions. Alongside housing and food security, “it’s one part of a comprehensive community-building approach that needs to be scaled to see effective violence prevention in this country,” Barboza-Salerno said. “If we think carefully about where green spaces are placed and why they make a difference, this could be huge.”

Other Ohio State co-authors of the study are Balaji Ramesh and Jeffrey Wing of the College of Public Health.

Kristin Wickham-Saxon, assistant professional practice professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been signing since she was a child. When it was discovered that a younger cousin was born deaf, Wickham-Saxon and her mother joined family sign language classes at her cousin’s preschool.

“Having her in my life has enriched it in ways that I can’t put into words,” she said. “I see the value in the work we do because I see the impact it makes in the daily life of my cousin, my deaf friends, when they can interact more easily in their day-to-day lives. That’s something we want to bring to our students in the major.”

The ASL: Applied Communications and Community Studies major covers both language and intercultural competence as well as Deaf cultures and histories. Not a member of the Deaf community herself, Wickham-Saxon worked with the university’s ASL program to ensure deaf perspectives are included in the coursework.

“Our deaf and hearing instructors all had a say,” she said. “And all of us are connected, in some way, to Deaf communities. … Everyone is bringing a different worldview to the table.”

Wickham-Saxon said the university’s ASL courses always had a waitlist, particularly for ASL 1101, the introductory course. Now, there are three students officially enrolled in the major, with more planning to follow. There are 150 students enrolled in the ASL Studies minor, and Wickham-Saxon is optimistic about future enrollment. 

“There are 180 high schools in Ohio that offer ASL,” she said. “I reached out to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to let them know that we exist. My jaw hit the floor. I had no idea there were that many schools. Just think about how many potential ASL majors are out there in Ohio.”

Like in many spoken languages, Deaf history is part of learning ASL, Wickham-Saxon said.

“You can’t understand a language without understanding the people who are the users of that language,” she said.

Exclusion is a throughline experienced by deaf people, she said. Recognizing that helps students understand how to work as partners with deaf communities, how ASL evolved and how it functions today.

For example, ASL sentence structure differs from spoken English. When deaf people are encouraged to speak and sign simultaneously, the sentence doesn’t follow ASL syntax and the facial grammar is removed, making it harder for everyone to understand one another.

In addition to classroom learning, students have the chance to engage in service-learning with deaf communities outside of Ohio State.

“We’re lucky,” Wickham-Saxon said. “In central Ohio, we have the largest deaf population in the state. In Columbus, we have the Ohio School for the Deaf just a couple of miles up the road. There are deaf education programs in Columbus City Schools and Upper Arlington Schools. Local agencies and organizations provide a range of services to meet the unique needs of deaf people.

“We want the course to connect students with those organizations and hopefully, students will get authentic learning experiences. They’ll have a chance to understand family dynamics.”

In the United States, around 70% of families with deaf children don’t sign, Wickham-Saxon said. Not having access to language can have devastating consequences for children.

“If you don’t have a solid language by the time you’re 5,” she said, “you’re playing catch-up for the rest of your life, linguistically and cognitively.  And families, if they don’t know the language, they can’t be a language model.”

While majors are learning to work with and within deaf communities, the skills they learn in the program are transferable.

“The things we’re looking at are accessibility in a broader sense,” Wickham-Saxon said. “The things our students will learn, they can take with them into any job, any profession. This is a skillset they can take anywhere.”

Accessibility and service are important to Wickham-Saxon.

“That’s the root of why I wanted to teach ASL at Ohio State,” she said. “That land-grant mission, serving the community. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The paper was published today in Science Advances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accelerating scientific research and computing

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

Key research components include:

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

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

AI Fluency and student experience

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

Student-focused initiatives include:

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

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

Dear Colleagues:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Ravi V. Bellamkonda, PhD

President, The Ohio State University

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Among the experiences shared by public health leaders:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional highlights from the enrollment census include:

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

In a dynamic performance, the band saddled up tunes like “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and the themes from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Tombstone.”

Fans were roped in by formations of a sheriff’s badge, boots and spurs, cowboy hats, and more.

Saturday’s i-dotters were Evan Kvach, an electrical and computer engineering major from Northfield, Ohio, and Wyatt Smith, a geographic information systems major from Findlay, Ohio.

When kids regularly miss school, it creates a ripple of consequences that negatively impact everything from grades and test scores to future education plans, career opportunities and economic mobility. Yet one group of especially vulnerable students has been largely overlooked in existing research on absenteeism: kids who have had contact with Child Protective Services (CPS).

New research from The Ohio State University, published in Children and Youth Services Review, found that students with CPS contact were more likely to be absent from school than their peers, for both excused and unexcused reasons. These students were also 14 percentage points more likely to have their teachers contact their families about attendance problems and reported feeling less connected to their schools than their classmates.

The research, led by Arya Ansari, an associate professor of human development and family science, used data from the Future of Families Child Wellbeing Study, which tracked 3,334 adolescents across 20 urban cities from birth through age 15. They examined responses from kids who have had CPS contact through the age of 15, relative to those who have not, including what their families reported about their attendance, and any feelings students expressed with respect to their school connectedness.

According to Ansari, many kids have contact with CPS at some point in their childhood. These investigations are prompted by concerns about children’s safety and well-being, with reasons including suspicion of potential abuse, neglect, substance abuse or domestic violence. In 2024, almost 3 million children were the subject of a CPS investigation. By the time they reach 18, over a third of children in the U.S. will likely be impacted by a CPS investigation, and that number is even higher for Black children — more than half of whom will have contact with CPS before turning 18.

Chronic absenteeism has always been an issue in U.S. schools. During the 2018-19 academic year, 15% of K-12 students were considered chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of instructional time. The COVID-19 pandemic drove national rates of absenteeism up to 28% in 2021-22 before declining to 24% in 2024.

“Surprisingly, in the attendance or absenteeism literature, there’s been very little intersection with kids or families that have had contact with CPS,” said Ansari, also a faculty associate at the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.

Contact with CPS itself can be a source of adversity, he explained. And families often respond to the increased surveillance in one of two ways: Some disengage, avoiding the system through even more school absence, while others become more diligent about getting their kids to school every day.

Ansari wanted to explore how schools could better compensate for some of the adversity kids in contact with CPS might be experiencing outside of school.

“Absenteeism reflects many challenges that children and youth experience. Our study suggests that youth with CPS contact face elevated risks,” he added. “But an important piece of that puzzle, as schools think about how to engage students and families, is their connection to school. This is important because school connectedness is malleable and modifiable.”

For example, he said, past studies have found that positive relationships with teachers, inclusive school climates and extracurricular activities all help kids feel safe, valued and connected to their school.

While school connectedness explained some of the attendance gap between kids with CPS contact and their peers, the study found that on its own, school connectedness doesn’t effectively reduce attendance gaps between youth with CPS contact and their peers who haven’t interacted with the system. In other words, while school connectedness interventions don’t necessarily benefit kids with CPS contact more than others, they benefit all children equally.

“School connectedness is one piece of the puzzle, but it ultimately can’t be the only answer to the adversity these kids face,” Ansari said. “It has to be one piece of a larger toolkit.” The toolkit, he explained, should also address issues like housing and income instability, food insecurity, and mental and physical health disparities that students and their families are navigating.

“Many families have to cut meals, and when kids come to school hungry, they’re less likely to be engaged. … If kids don’t have a school bus, they have to walk, and sometimes families don’t feel comfortable with that because of traffic safety or crime. There are a lot of issues at play, largely driven by poverty,” Ansari said.

For kids involved with CPS who are dealing with potential abuse and neglect in their homes, school can serve “as a resource and a getaway — a way out in terms of pursuing higher education and moving on to greater opportunities. But it cannot counteract all these other historical and ongoing forces happening at the same time,” he added.

While schools are often viewed primarily as academic institutions, the relationships between students, teachers and peers are essential to this toolkit. “The social-relational aspect of education is really important,” Ansari said. “We need to keep that in mind as we strategize around tackling absenteeism.”

The study was co-authored by Kierra M.P. Sattler from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

BuildX combines real-world startup practices, rapid experimentation and mentorship from experienced founders, operators and investors. The pathway empowers students to transform promising ideas into scalable ventures with tangible impact. 

“BuildX will further establish Ohio State as a haven for student entrepreneurs – a place where innovators can turn big, bold ideas into new businesses and products with real-world impact,” said Bellamkonda, who helped create a business accelerator while a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Students will not only learn practical skills for startup success, but will also experience the extraordinary joy of building, making our university one of the most vibrant communities of creators in higher education. As we have always done, Buckeyes won’t wait for the future – we’ll build it.”

The president unveiled details about BuildX at today’s State of the University address, highlighting the initiative’s place as a presidential priority.

The initiative aims to launch 100 investable student startups annually by 2030 and to increase investment in Ohio and grow the startup ecosystem.

Building on a strong foundation
BuildX leverages the momentum of existing university offerings while creating new programming for students who want to pursue entrepreneurship at a higher level.

Students will engage actively and directly in key steps of the startup experience. Teams will be challenged to move quickly from idea to early traction while receiving structured support and feedback from builders who have already been there.

Beginning in spring 2027, students will have access to two new three-credit-hour BuildX startup labs in addition to the already piloted Intro to Software Startups course founded by Arnab Nandi, professor of computer science and engineering and multiple-time founder. One lab will be open to all students who are validating a problem and developing an initial solution. A second lab will support student teams that have demonstrated that they are ready to build and launch their ventures. These intensive, experiential-based courses provide students interested in the BuildX Accelerator with a foundation of skills and access to mentorship needed to excel.

BuildX is embedded directly into the student academic experience rather than existing solely as an extracurricular activity. Students will also have dedicated time to work on their ventures alongside mentors and experts such as Ohio State alumni Andy Sparks, co-founder of Mattermark and Holloway, and Alan Gilbert, product and engineering leader who helped scale CoverMyMeds and Codonics.

Students participating in BuildX lab courses will be eligible to apply for startup development funding to help advance their ventures, and those interested can register for the spring 2027 courses starting in October.

BuildX Accelerator
The focal point is the competitive, in-person summer BuildX Accelerator, designed to help the most promising ventures accelerate growth and prepare for investment.

Selected teams will receive $15,000 in funding along with embedded founder coaching and access to investors, hosted in a new dedicated, 7,000-square-foot space in Pomerene Hall at the heart of Ohio State’s Columbus campus. The space will provide an active environment where students can collaborate, test ideas, advance their ventures and connect with mentors and a community of peers.

It culminates in a Demo Day, where founders present their ventures to investors and supporters.

A new $1 million BuildX Fund, established through donor investment in student innovation and entrepreneurship, supports the program.

Applications for the BuildX Accelerator open Oct. 1 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Students will receive direct access to a range of industry and startup experts as part of an expanding network of mentors, including:

• Christina Cacioppo, co-founder and CEO of Vanta
• Chris Farinacci, former COO of Asana and CMO of Google Cloud
• Dan Manges, co-founder of RWX and Root Inc.

Existing innovation
The initiative builds on the strengths of the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, which supports more than 1,000 students annually, the Center for Software Innovation and OHI/O, Ohio State's student-led innovation community that engages thousands of student builders each year, as well as the vibrant student founder community on campus.

The Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship is Ohio State’s platform for innovators looking to transform bold ideas into market-ready ventures by guiding Buckeyes as they launch and grow their entrepreneurial ideas. The center was established through a commitment from the Keenan Family Foundation, founded by philanthropists Tim and Kathleen Keenan. Tim Keenan, an Ohio State alum, founded the center with an eye toward cultivating an active entrepreneurial mindset across multiple academic disciplines.

The Center for Software Innovation is a digital tech hub that advances interdisciplinary learning and software entrepreneurship. It was made possible by a watershed donation from alumnus Ratmir Timashev, a technologist and founder of Veeam Software, and his wife Angela through the Timashev Family Foundation, with a goal to help position central Ohio and Ohio State as a tech epicenter.

Students interested in BuildX can attend a virtual information session on Sept. 25, followed by an in-person student information session on Oct. 1.

For comprehensive information about BuildX, including entry points and opportunities, visit the BuildX webpage.

Bellamkonda delivered his first State of the University address Thursday morning on the university’s Founders Day. Founded in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, the university committed to a mission of access, excellence and citizenship and, more than 150 years later, is an athletics, healthcare and academic powerhouse, he said.

Bellamkonda pointed out that Ohio State has a history of excellence that includes Jesse Owens, Archie Griffin and Katie Smith. The university’s researchers have invented the first functioning electron microscope, the first self-driving car and pioneering treatments for lymphoma and leukemia.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we are a consequential university, important to this region, to the nation, and to the world because of our spirit of innovation,” he said. “What do we do now from this moment going forward? It is important to trace our roots and our traits before we craft our future. And my suggestion is that we will become the finest public university in the country, and that should be our goal because our mission demands it.”

Now it is time to build upon that foundation, he said, with guiding principles that include a relentless pursuit of excellence, embracing the scale of the university as an advantage and winning with hard work, grit and grace.

His strategy for excellence included six pillars: a signature undergraduate experience with access to excellence for students; investment in the faculty and staff who lead and innovate every day; a commitment to life-changing research; vibrant colleges and academic programs; and a pursuit of operational excellence and efficiency.

The president highlighted bold ideas to build on the university’s success.

Ohio State has entered a partnership with Google Public Sector to establish an on-campus space at the university’s Innovation District. It will be one of the largest foundational partnerships between Google Cloud and a U.S. university and one of the first Google spaces on any university campus.

The partnership will accelerate research across fields from biomedical engineering to earth sciences to the humanities through access to premier AI models, high-powered computing capabilities, student research ambassadors and collaboration with Google’s DeepMind.

The partnership will enhance year two of the university’s AI Fluency initiative. The initiative is ensuring that every Ohio State student, beginning with the class of 2029, will graduate AI fluent – fluent in their field of study and fluent in applying AI in that field.

This year includes dozens of new and current courses that specifically center on AI. Support for the project includes the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning continuing to expand its AI Fluency support resources for instructors at all levels.

Bellamkonda also announced BuildX, an initiative that combines real-world startup practices, rapid experimentation and mentorship from experienced founders, operators and investors. The pathway empowers students to transform promising ideas into scalable ventures with tangible impact.

The initiative aims to launch 100 investable student startups annually by 2030, increase investment in Ohio and grow the startup ecosystem.

“Many times, parents ask me, what should my child study in a world that’s changing so fast? And I say that one should optimize for meta-skills: the ability to solve complex problems with incomplete information, the ability to work in a team, to have analytic skills, to have communication skills, and one of the qualities I always say is an entrepreneurial mindset – the ability to imagine a process, a product, or a state that doesn’t yet exist and have the confidence to make that real.”

Bellamkonda also announced that Ohio State will invest up to $1 million in five bold, high-potential research concepts that are too early, too interdisciplinary or too novel for traditional funding sources in their current form. This fund will help Ohio State researchers unlock breakthrough discoveries by empowering them to pursue ideas that challenge conventions and could create entirely new fields of inquiry.

The story of Ohio State is still being written, the president said. He invited students, faculty and staff to write their own bold chapters to further the mission of education for citizenship and change the world for the better.

“I said in the beginning that I’d like us to be the finest public university in the country. What does that mean? It means that we embrace who we are. We embrace our scale. We embrace our region. We embrace our mission unapologetically,” he said. “We don’t need to be somebody else. We will be ourselves. We will be unafraid to lead. And we will do this in the pursuit of excellence. We will do this with our access mission. And we will do this with boldness and fearlessness to take on the hard problems. This is our path to defining and becoming the finest public university in the country.”

While attending an international convening about the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to the 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles, lab co-director Teri Murphy met with a group from the UBPD.

Since the 1960s, Colombia has been ravaged by warring factions, criminal gangs and internal conflict. A strategy on all sides of these conflicts was to “disappear” people; many were killed and thrown into municipal dumps, wells, rivers and mass graves.

The Colombian and Northern Ireland delegates were keen to share their perspectives and learn from each other, Murphy said.

“I had the privilege of being able to sit in on those conversations and be part of that exchange,” she said. “And during our time together, [UBPD director] Dr. Luz Janeth Forero Martinez came up to me and said they were looking for a university partner and wondered if we might be interested.”

Two years later, in June of this year, the Mershon Search Lab was launched.

The lab brings together an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in social psychology, forensic anthropology and archaeology, geography and sociology. Research topics range from geographic (What happens when dead bodies are thrown into rivers?) to psychological (How can search contribute to social healing?) to technical (How can data-driven approaches improve search efforts?).

“[At Ohio State], you’ve got brilliant minds, people with time and resources who focus on solving problems, but they’re often disconnected from the people who may need that support,” said Derek Congram, Mershon Search Lab’s co-director. “The people who need that support, if you think of Colombia, they’ve got more than 137,000 people that they’re investigating. Who among them has time for research? Research is a luxury for them.”

Ohio State is able to provide that research, Murphy said. 

“If we can come alongside and say, ‘What are the problems you’re wrestling with? What do you need to learn more about? What can we unpack for you? What can we track for you?’” she said. “We are really supporting that work.”

“Writing is slow, publishing is slow,” Congram said. “It takes two years to publish something. Guess what: It’s a different Colombia in two years. So, we’re constantly assessing how we can be supportive in a way that’s actually useful to them.”

“On behalf of Colombia’s Unit for the Search of Missing Persons,” said Director Forero Martínez, “we extend our deepest gratitude to the Mershon Center at Ohio State University for the opportunity to continue advancing this search laboratory – this wonderful project we have built together.”

The benefits of the partnership flow in both directions. Colombia’s search process is considered the best and most coordinated approach in the world, Murphy said, providing a rare opportunity for the Mershon Search Lab team, graduates students included.

“These people, in Colombia, they’re experts,” Murphy said. “They’re forensic experts, they’re medical experts, they’re dental experts. They’re psychological experts. … We’re gaining access to real, live data in real time. It’s exposure for us; it’s exposure for the students.”

Given the at-times tense history between the United States and Colombia, Murphy stressed that humility is crucial to the partnership’s success.

“We’re not flying in with savior capes on. We don’t say we know what’s best for you,” she said. “We want to support the work, not get in the way of it.”

“Miles Davis said that what makes jazz great isn’t the notes you play but the notes you don’t play,” Congram said. “When I got to a new place, when I’ve been sent to help, the first thing I have to do is listen. Don’t tell people how you’re going to solve their problems.”

This attitude is foundational to the alliance with UBPD and is a core value of Mershon’s Search Lab, Murphy said.

“We’re a land-grant institution,” she said. “This pivot out of the ivory tower, to step out and make our knowledge available, to share it, to make it practical so it can be useful to the people who need it most, that’s embedded in the history of Ohio State. A real-world impact, not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”

The search lab team is driven in part by the desire to bring answers to families of the missing, Congram said. He finds their courage remarkable.

“These are the people who teach you as well,” he said. “When we talk about teaching and expertise, it’s not just the scientists and the academics, it’s also the families, it’s the community leaders, the people involved in all of this who teach you about what it is to be resilient and how you define what is right and what is wrong.”

Murphy’s motivator is “the fight against oblivion.”

“In Colombia, when individuals were taken, they were vanquished. Their history, their identity, their personhood was literally snuffed out,” she said. “Together with UBPD, our work is an act of remembering each person's humanity, to recognize their worth and to support a dignified return to their families and communities.”

The event is part of the university’s broader initiative to invest in language education, named “Global Fluency, Career Agility: Ohio State’s Model for Transforming World Languages,” supported by a Mellon Foundation grant. Programming includes new interdisciplinary language double majors, a multimedia campaign promoting language study and research into how Ohioans view language education.

“The idea behind the 5K had to do with a lot of important things that are happening in the world right now related to connectedness, intercultural competency and trends in higher education,” said Dana Renga, dean of arts and humanities. “I wanted to shed light on the world languages and run a campaign on why studying the world languages matters, how it can get you a job, how it can really be transformative and why students should come to Ohio State to do that.”

Ohio State currently offers courses in over 30 world languages, ranging from Spanish to American Sign Language to Uzbek. And language study is expanding: The university plans to hire six faculty and postdoctoral scholars in world language departments within the next year.

The university invests in world language study, Renga says, because of its benefits to students. Beyond offering cohort-based learning within some of the smallest classes on campus, language education opens doors to a variety of professions by helping students build transferable skills. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found world language majors have one of the lowest unemployment rates of all academic disciplines.

“Employers across the world want people with the competencies world language study can provide. It gives students intercultural competence, critical thinking skills, and the ability to read and write well and work across a range of disciplines,” Renga said. “One of the best things about learning a world language is that you’re always making mistakes. It’s terrifying! But you learn how to come out of those mistakes as a better communicator and collaborator.”

The Love of Languages 5K will commemorate these aspects of language learning at Ohio State. Aside from the race itself, the event will feature appearances from student ambassadors from all language departments, the women’s glee club, Brutus Buckeye and local food trucks.

Renga has three goals for the event: to raise awareness about world language study, to encourage students to major or minor in a language and to create time for people in the community to have fun with one another. She also hopes the 5K will become an annual tradition.

“This 5K is important right now, at a time in higher education when morale around world languages is down at a lot of other institutions across the U.S.,” Renga said. “I see this as an opportunity to show why the country looks towards Ohio State as an example of why language study and learning matter.”

Named for both the 88 keys on a piano and the 88 counties of Ohio, Opus 88 launched in October 2022 with a mission of bringing music to every corner of the Buckeye State. The initiative sends music faculty, staff and students to perform, teach and present in every county in Ohio.

“The program came about from the broad idea of being active across the state to meet our land-grant mission,” said Michael Ibrahim, director of the School of Music. “For us, engaging across Ohio is a real opportunity and a gift, but it’s also a responsibility.”

Opus 88 outreach options include conducting workshops, presentations on music research and performances by large and small ensembles in a variety of settings, from performance halls and schools to assisted living facilities and coffee shops. Angela Heck Mueller, manager of the Ohio State Community Music School, coordinated the final 33 county visits and worked to match the university’s offerings to community needs.

“I think about, ‘What can we do to bring new and exciting opportunities to every county?’” Heck Mueller explained. “A school that has a band program might be able to experience a string quartet or a chamber orchestra, so they have a unique experience.”

A highlight of the program was the connections formed between Ohio State students and K-12 students in school districts across the state.

“Sometimes, I think hearing about something like discipline or leadership from a person who is not too far from a student’s age is different than when it comes from a teacher,” Ibrahim said. “Bringing college students to a middle or high school is kind of like bringing in Taylor Swift.”

Heck Mueller also worked to match Ohio State students to their home school districts and counties, noting that this allowed students to become “a hometown hero for budding musicians hoping to follow in their footsteps one day.”

While Opus 88 was welcomed across the state, it also benefited the students and faculty who attended the trips.

“We recently took a bluegrass band to a rural part of Ohio, and some of the students on that trip had also been on larger trips to Japan and Ireland,” Ibrahim said. “They spoke to how the impact and the feeling they got from performing in a rural setting in Ohio was just as meaningful, if not more, as those international trips.”

As the school approaches its final county, it plans to launch a second iteration, known as Opus 88 Encore, to address a growing waitlist among counties requesting additional visits. Offerings will expand upon the original program’s performance and teaching options to include new areas like hip hop.

“As we’re making these trips, we’re serving the state,” Ibrahim said. “That partnership is important for us. We are Ohio’s music school.”

To request an Opus 88 visit, go to the program website: https://music.osu.edu/form/request-opus88-visit

Once home to the Huntington National Bank Building, this historic downtown landmark at 17 S. High St. is distinctively beneficial to the Moritz College of Law. Just minutes from many of the flagship law firms that recruit from the college, the move will embed students closer to professional opportunities at a scale few other facilities can match.

It also brings Ohio’s flagship university into the heart of Columbus – enabling world-class researchers and scholars to engage with decision-makers and create an even greater impact.

“Ohio State’s land-grant mission calls for us to be deeply connected to the community we serve. Our Moritz College of Law is central to that excellence, driving academic distinction and public impact,” said Ohio State President Ravi V. Bellamkonda. “Moving the college to this historic facility in the heart of downtown will give our students greater access to internships, future employers and city policymakers – a truly immersive experience for Ohio’s future legal leaders. I’m grateful to our partners at Huntington, the city and Downtown Columbus, Inc. for their vision and support in creating extraordinary opportunities for our students, faculty and staff to engage with our community and contribute to Ohio’s vibrant future.”

The project reflects a coordinated public‑private partnership between Ohio State, the city of Columbus, Downtown Columbus, Inc. and Huntington Bank.

"By establishing a nationally recognized law school in downtown Columbus, this initiative advances the city’s goals of economic growth and downtown resilience,” shared Mayor Andrew Ginther. “It also benefits students and strengthens the city’s ability to retain and grow our workforce. This partnership underscores Columbus’ position as a hub of talent, governance and innovation."

Downtown locations have become more common for university colleges of law. Universities are increasingly locating key academic programs in the hearts of cities – integrating education with the environments where professions are practiced.

“Being within walking distance to courts, policymakers, law firms and public-interest organizations dramatically expands opportunities for externships, clerkships, clinical experiences and meaningful mentorship,” explained Kent Barnett, dean of the Moritz College of Law. “This location also amplifies the impact of our faculty’s research and community-focused programming, allowing us to engage more directly in our land-grant mission while visibly shaping the rule of law.”

The facility will also provide opportunities for various colleges and university administrative offices to use as needed, expanding educational programming, experiential learning, and connections with private and public sector partners downtown.

“For 160 years, Huntington has called the corner of Broad and High home, and we’re proud to support the future of this core part of downtown Columbus,” said Steve Steinour, CEO of Huntington Bank. “The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law will bring new energy and opportunity to the heart of downtown Columbus, creating a dynamic environment for students, faculty, staff and alumni. Huntington is proud to partner with Ohio State and Downtown Columbus, Inc. on a project that reflects our shared commitment to the continued vitality of our city.”

Downtown Columbus, Inc. will serve as the developer and lessor, leading the renovation of the existing building. Ohio State will occupy the space as a tenant under a 30‑year lease, with an option to purchase the property in the future.

“When we toured Phoenix several years ago, we saw firsthand the mutual benefits that come from connecting a major university with a thriving downtown,” said Alex Fischer, board member of Downtown Columbus, Inc. “There’s a unique energy when education and innovation intersect with the momentum of business, culture and civic life. Those benefits are even greater when you consider the tremendous scope and breadth of The Ohio State University, and the remarkable growth downtown Columbus has experienced over the past decade. I commend Mayor Ginther and President Bellamkonda for their leadership and vision in taking this idea and turning it into a reality.”

Ohio State expects to open its downtown location in fall of 2029.

The university’s tri-service ROTC departments (Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force) host the climb each year. And each year, more supporters arrive before dawn to climb hundreds of steps in honor of the first responders who climbed into the World Trade Center to rescue as many people as possible.

“There’s nothing like a little pain and discomfort, and soon the morning sunrise, to remind you that you’re alive. … It’s a privilege,” said Trevor Brown, Ohio State’s interim executive vice president and provost. “I hope as you’re running up and down these stairs, you feel that privilege of being alive and that joy of being in a community. Thank you for getting up early and joining all of us to remember what happened 25 years ago.”

Brown was joined in the opening remarks by keynote speaker Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. (Ret.), director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.  

“I encourage you, even those of you who weren’t born yet, to never forget the plight of that day,” he said.

Harris spoke about the central question in the National Anthem that still echoes today: Is the flag still there?

“The flag does not wave over our armed forces, our economic systems. It waves over the land of the free and the brave,” he said. “And that’s not only those who wear the uniform of the nation, but all those who stand behind them. You are the free and the brave. So as you run the stairs today, I encourage you to query yourself, have I done my part to ensure this is the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Following the blast of an air horn, volunteers march up and down the stairs in the stadium for 45 minutes. The climb is the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs – symbolic of the 110 floors of the World Trade Center towers.

For Emilia Riddell, a third-year graduate student in the occupational therapy doctorate program, the first experience with the stair climb was moving.

“It was incredible seeing everyone come together for such a special event. I’m doing work with the Upper Arlington Fire Department for my capstone, so I got to see a couple of them and cheer them on today,” she said. “I have so much gratitude for all of our fire, police, military, everyone.”

Riddell said the attendance at the memorial stair climb shows the exceptional qualities of the Buckeye community.

“The Buckeye community is already so strong. Like anywhere you go, you see Ohio State gear,” she said. “I knew it was already a tight community, but coming together for more than just Ohio State, seeing surrounding communities come in, it’s just incredible.”

The honorees are:

Christian Alliegro

Beau Atkinson

Nolan Baudo

Cam Calhoun

Bennett Christian

Phillip Daniels

Alec DelSignore

Zach Hayes

Carson Hinzman

Ty Howard

Brandon Inniss

Julian Goines-Jackson

Ja’Kobi Jackson

Kenyatta Jackson Jr.

Brenten Jones

Earl Little Jr.

Justyn Martin

Jermaine Mathews Jr.

Devin McCuin

Luke Montgomery

Terry Moore

Kyle Parker

Dalton Riggs

Qua Russaw

Brennen Schramm

Austin Siereveld

James Smith

John Walker

Vasean Washington

Hunter Welcing

Brady Young

“We want to make it easier to work and learn at Ohio State,” Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Trevor Brown said. “The latest round of improvements will give faculty, staff and students more time and resources to focus on teaching, research and essential support services.”

Recently completed UCI projects, based on input and feedback originally provided by Ohio State faculty and staff, include the following:

• The Office of Business and Finance reduced the travel pre-approval process to two steps from five and the expense process to three steps from six, resulting in approximately 6,700 hours saved, primarily at the employee certification and department leader levels.
• Sprint Studios, launched by OAA, introduced a new, agile approach to remedying barriers for students. The first sprint conducted this summer centered on the major-change process to assist students in more efficiently changing majors. An implementation plan is being led by OAA and the Office of Undergraduate Education to improve this process. Future studios will focus on various ways to advance student success, reducing friction and proactively guiding students to degree completion.
• The Office of Faculty Affairs has implemented a Voluntary Phased Retirement Program, which enhances unit succession planning and is intended to meet the needs of a full-time faculty member who would like to transition into full-time retirement. Faculty affairs has also begun a pilot for Interfolio Faculty Search, which ensures clarity and consistency in attracting and retaining world-class faculty at Ohio State.  This comprehensive, user-friendly applicant tracking platform guides and supports units in managing materials and documentation throughout each stage of the search process. The implementation of this platform ensures alignment with university policies and faculty-recruitment best practices while providing search committee members and support stakeholders ease of use and efficiency.

Previous UCI “wins” since the initiative launched in spring 2026 include:

• The Office of Human Resources’ implementation of the new Quick Hire process designed for the efficient hiring and rehiring of select populations such as graduate associates and semester lecturers. Early results with a group of 2,600 individuals significantly reduced the time to hire.
• Improving and simplifying the Strategic Hiring Initiative for Faculty Talent (SHIFT) while enhancing the user experience for hiring units and faculty search committees.
• Increased visibility for advising staff through a new tool supporting retention efforts and aiding students and families in college planning.
• Implementing closer drop-offs at the new University Hospital via a Med Center Express bus system expansion, improving reliability and safety.

More information, as well as a project intake form for submissions from Ohio State faculty and staff, is available on the UCI webpage.

The idea for UCI emerged from faculty and staff input around administrative and operational challenges that affect their work. Additionally, in the 2025 Ohio State Listening Survey, employees shared that they value having a greater role in decision making and elevating good ideas from anywhere at the university. Based on subsequent listening sessions with President Ravi V. Bellamkonda, then in his role as provost, and an operations survey administered by Faculty Council, UCI aligned administrative units and colleges to make a large and complex public university more effective though operational efficiencies.

Along with being the direct result of feedback from the Ohio State Listening Survey, UCI addresses the importance of operations to all aspects of the university’s strategic plan.

It’s hard enough for adults with deep-rooted mental checklists to make it out the door. For young children, such lists give way to treasure maps.

Everything from clothing choices to snacks and toys for the car require diplomatic negotiations that can’t be rushed without risking a meltdown. The clock is ticking, but your child is blissfully unaware and is suddenly more interested in staying home.

Whereas adults rely on streamlined internal mind maps to carry out their daily routines, young children’s brains appear to be wired for distraction. According to a review paper published recently in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, what might look and feel like pure chaos — or worse, obstinance — is an important window into how growing minds think and learn through exploration.

In the paper, lead author Vladimir Sloutsky, a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, revisits research his lab previously reported in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and notes that “children tend to explore broadly, and, despite its costs, exploration confers important benefits, especially early in development, when they know little.”

In other words, Sloutsky said, “they are humans learning to be human.”

When choosing between trying something new (exploration) or repeating actions that have already proven successful (exploitation), learners of all ages encounter what researchers call the “exploration-exploitation dilemma.” Trying new things might prove to be a waste of time and energy, but repeating familiar actions could prevent someone from acquiring new skills or knowledge.

Adults are typically more exploitative, preferring to repeat actions that have previously led to successful, rewarding outcomes, while children are less selective about where they direct their attention. Sloutsky and his co-authors wanted to find out more about what is driving this exploratory behavior, particularly in children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old.

For decades, the prevailing theory was that children explore simply because they are naturally curious — or, possibly, because their decision-making is more random. Sloutsky’s work offers a different explanation: Early exploration is driven by the immaturity of a child’s working memory system.

A mature working memory helps adults hold onto a plan and selectively filter out distractions, while an immature working memory, by contrast, is set to “distributed attention,” meaning young children are prone to spreading their attention broadly. To test this, Sloutsky’s team overloaded adults’ working memory by asking them to complete a decision-making game while also reporting whenever two consecutive odd numbers appeared in a stream of continuous numbers. When their working memories were taxed, adults in the study abandoned their strategic choices and explored more broadly, exhibiting attentional patterns nearly identical to 5-year-olds.

While children’s lack of focus might make leaving the house a test of patience, it serves a crucial evolutionary purpose, ensuring that young learners absorb as much information as possible about the world. “Because they don’t have a fully developed working memory system, children will explore and resample, especially in less familiar situations. An adult will quickly decide that something is worthy of attention and other things are not. Children do not make those selective decisions as quickly,” Sloutsky said.

For example, let’s say you’ve researched nearby gas stations and found a couple with lower prices. You might start to frequent those stations without continuing to search for better options. Meanwhile, other stations are dropping their prices and becoming more competitive, but you won’t benefit because you are certain that your initial choices are the best ones.

“Because children explore, they may not immediately optimize the benefit of the best option, but they also won’t lose out if something in the environment changes,” Sloutsky explained. “That is where exploratory behavior becomes very beneficial, guarding them against being entrapped by their own knowledge early in development.”

Sloutsky hopes studies like this help remind parents that kids “are annoying and destructive for a reason: They need to acquire a lot of knowledge in a relatively short period of time. We need to provide them with things that are OK to break, because exploring and breaking things is how they learn about the world.”

If you plot immaturity — measured by the onset of the first molar in mammals or the age of sexual maturity — against brain size, you will find an almost perfect dependence: the greater the brain size, the longer the period of immaturity, he noted.

“Children are almost completely immobile for the first year of life, disorganized for the next three, extreme risk-takers for the next 15 and self-insufficient for the first 22 years,” Sloutsky said. “It is extraordinarily costly, and that cost is mainly borne by caregivers. But it is necessary given how much kids need to learn. Organisms with bigger brains have longer periods of immaturity to allow them the flexibility to learn all that.”

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Co-authors include Qianqian Wan of the University of California, Davis and Brandon Turner of The Ohio State University.

“The land-grant universities remain among the most successful institutions ever created in America’s history,” Gavazzi said in his introduction. “They educate millions of students, conduct world-class research, contribute to economic growth and strengthen communities across the country. It’s a pretty good track record.”

The question at hand, he said, was not whether land-grant universities are relevant today but “whether they are organized in ways that make sense for the country they now serve.”

With that notion as a throughline, the three men – frequent research collaborators on the subject – spoke for an hour before taking audience questions.

All three agreed that public education and access to it are foundational to the idea of America. Gee told a story about Sen. Justin Morrill speaking with Abraham Lincoln during the height of the Civil War about the establishment of public colleges.

“In comes this young [man] from Vermont and he says, ‘Mr. Lincoln … it really is not about race alone. It’s about access to the American dream. It’s about what makes a difference between our citizens and an educated citizenry. It’s about democracy in its fullest.’”

Gavazzi and Rosowsky discussed changing views Americans have about higher education institutions. Gavazzi shared figures from a recent poll that asked Americans about their overall trust in higher education. While 80% of Americans trust universities to provide a good education, only 50% trust universities to prepare citizens to function in a democracy.

And most challenging, he said, was the less than 30% of Americans who trust universities to keep political bias out of the classroom.

Rosowsky believes that the trust problem isn’t a marketing issue and that telling a different story about higher education won’t change how people view it.

“Remember why we’re here. We’re the land-grant institution. You go to [your community] and you take the time to understand their pressure points and their needs and their expectations of their great state land-grant university,” he said. “And then you go back and say, ‘What do we have in our quiver that we can bring to bear to make their life better, solve their most pressing problems?’”

Extension programs were held up as an example of how this type of community engagement is already working.

“I think that Extension, of course, really is the concept of translating knowledge into reality, into purpose, into the daily life,” Gee said. “I think that we really have a responsibility to use Extension as the portfolio for how we deliver educational services across many different platforms. I think that’s exactly what Extension should be doing. We don’t want to lose the sense of our community bases.”

Another example the panel pointed to was the School of Music’s Opus 88 program, which brings musical experiences to all 88 of Ohio’s counties.

“I thought it was absolutely fascinating,” Gee said.

“There’s a lesson there,” he went on. “What humanists need to do, is we need to show that we’re important by doing important things and but not hiding under a bushel, so to speak.”

The issues communities face today are complex and do not fit neatly within academic boundaries, Gavazzi said. Connections must be made between disciplines. Land-grant universities have always been a type of civic infrastructure. That will be the key to their continued success.

“Just as transportation systems connect people and places,” he said, “universities can connect communities to expertise, research to application, evidence to decision-making and opportunity to public need.”

Researchers used data from The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) to measure the amount of helium — the second-most common element in the cosmos and a vital ingredient for the formation of life — in metal-poor nebulas, clouds of gas and dust in space where stars are sometimes born. Their findings strengthen long-held theories about how ancient elements, such as carbon and nitrogen, may have been dispersed in the period following the Big Bang.

Astronomers did this by analyzing helium signals in optical and infrared light to determine the temperature and density of the gases within faraway systems. After collecting 48 high-quality galactic samples, the team created a dataset aimed at significantly expanding researchers’ ability to infer the universe’s primordial helium abundance.

“Everything that we need to live here on Earth was once fused inside of a star,” said Miqaela Weller, lead author of the study and a PhD student in astronomy at The Ohio State University. “Understanding precisely where those elements come from helps inform us of how our universe evolved and how it will evolve in the future.”

The study was recently published as part of a series of papers in The Astrophysical Journal.

The work was completed as part of the LBT Yp project, a collaboration designed to accurately determine how much primordial helium was created at the universe’s beginning, an amount theorized to be largely dependent on the types of neutrinos, tiny and abundant subatomic particles, that were likely formed when the universe was only a second old.

If, for example, the amount of helium found in metal-poor galaxies is vastly different from astronomers’ current predictions, their results might challenge current theories about the universe’s early conditions as well as open the door to new, undiscovered physics, said Weller, who leads the infrared data reduction for the project

Still, it can be extremely difficult to peer into the universe’s past, as astronomers can only see up to about 400,000 years after the Big Bang, or when the universe became transparent enough to form the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Thus, by comparing their new observations with archival ones of the CMB, they can determine if current models of the universe are accurate.

“The importance of galactic archaeology cannot be understated,” said Weller. “The stars are within us, and learning more about them helps us determine our place within the universe.”

Roughly 90% of the universe’s helium formed during the Big Bang, with 10% originating from stars that have undergone nuclear fusion over the last 13.5 billion years. While researchers had previously only been able to estimate the universe’s helium abundance to a precision of about 2%, this work reduces that error to almost half a percent, a development that amounts to a huge leap in computational astrophysics, said Richard Pogge, a founding member of the project and a professor of astronomy at Ohio State.

“By making this exciting measurement, we’ve learned something fundamental about the universe,” said Pogge.

Scientists have theorized that all the raw materials of the universe emerged in the first few moments after its birth, including neutrinos. Until this paper’s result, it had been unclear whether the many subatomic particles that drive our modern grasp of particle physics appeared simultaneously or arrived later in an alternative, sequential way.

In searching for the answer, the team was challenged to locate extremely rare metal-poor galaxies, such as the tiny Leo P, as well as account for how Earth’s atmosphere could affect their data. Ultimately, their research confirmed that the number of neutrino species present at the Big Bang is, in fact, consistent with the standard model of particle physics, said Pogge.

“Finally having atomic data precise enough to show how the universe worked seconds after it began gives us the ability to make meaningful constraints on the nature of physics itself,” he said.

According to the team, the LBT Yp project plans to continue deciphering cosmic mysteries by constraining less-explored parameters of undiscovered metal-poor galaxies, likely with the aid of vast astronomical archives of collaboration projects like DESI.

“It’s going to take us many years to try to explore new galaxies and turn the techniques we’ve developed onto them,” Pogge said. “So it’s an enormous pleasure to be able to pass these decades-long findings onto those who are going to be the future of this field.”

Co-authors include Ohio State’s Jayde Spiegel as well as Evan Skillman and John H. Miller Jr. from the University of Minnesota, Erik Aver from Gonzaga University, Noah Rogers from Northwestern University, Danielle Berg from The University of Texas at Austin, and John Salzar from Indiana University. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and Ohio State’s Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics.

Joining the band on the field for the 57th year was the Ohio State University Alumni Band. Quadruple Script Ohios closed the halftime show, with current band members in the south end zone and alumni band members in the north, east and west.

TBDBITL’s formations remain a program highlight. This weekend’s show featured the Statue of Liberty, Revolutionary War soldiers and the Liberty Bell.

Saturday’s i-dotters were Robert Gawdyda, from Hubbard, Ohio, and alumni Jeremy M. Rogers (north), Mark B. Enochs (east) and Tom Goodman (west).

Ohio State is one of seven universities partnering with Stanford University for a first-of-its-kind advanced manufacturing training program known as Foundry School. Foundry School is a national program to train the entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians and industrial leaders needed to rebuild American manufacturing.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the program details at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Thursday. During the launch event, Ohio State President Ravi V. Bellamkonda joined U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and other manufacturing and technology leaders for a panel focused on revitalizing American manufacturing and creating jobs. The program also featured presidents and senior leaders from the universities working to deliver the Foundry School curriculum.

“Ohio State is a national leader in advanced manufacturing, and we're excited to partner with the U.S. Departments of State and Labor, along with university peers from coast to coast, to launch the Foundry School,” Bellamkonda said. “The university has a number of labs and centers, including the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME), already partnering with employers to educate the next generation of manufacturing leaders, and the Foundry School will further enhance our offerings and help us tailor Ohio State's student experience to grow Ohio’s economy and maximize job opportunities for our graduates. This work is core to our land grant mission, and Ohio State is proud to play a leading role.”

Bellamkonda offered several examples of how Ohio State was already working with industry to support advanced manufacturing. CDME is partnering with a company in Piqua to help manufacture a novel, high-pressure sand-casting technology for defense alloys. Students from CDME work directly with the company to help develop the technology. After completing their paid program with the firm, they can often join the firm as an employee.

American manufacturers will need an estimated 3.8 million skilled workers by 2033 in semiconductor, defense, energy and other technology fields, according to a report referenced by the State Department. The Foundry School is designed to help close that gap.

“I’m very proud that we have Ohio State front and center along with Stanford, Penn State, and a few other great universities,” Vance, an Ohio State alumnus, said. “I think it’s an amazing collection of people, of institutions, of businesses, of thought leaders, and of entrepreneurs that we’ve gotten together in order to make this possible.”

Stanford University has collaborated on the curriculum with Ohio State, Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, University of Kansas, Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis. At each campus, the program will run 17 sessions, each taught by founders and CEOs from advanced manufacturing firms. Industry leaders will come from the U.S. and the Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India.

The curriculum begins this year on supporting campuses and will cover topics like fundamentals of modern factory design, materials and supply chains and assembly-line engineering. A core program hosted by Stanford University starts in January 2027 and will focus on precision tooling, industrial automation, digital manufacturing, defense production and other sessions.

“The future is through manufacturing in states like Ohio and in the Midwest,” Bellamkonda said.

Trustees on Thursday honored each scholar as a Distinguished University Professor. The permanent honorific title is awarded annually to tenure-track professors who have been at Ohio State for at least five years and have demonstrated truly exceptional records in teaching, research, scholarly or creative work, and service. Distinguished University Professors become members of the President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee and are awarded a $30,000 one-time grant to support their academic work. The university has awarded just 78 faculty since the creation of the honor in 1987.

The recipients are:

• Gail E. Besner, H. William Clatworthy Jr. Professor of Surgery, College of Medicine
• Shan-Lu Liu, professor, College of Veterinary Medicine
• Alan Luo, professor, Donald D. Glower Chair in Engineering, College of Engineering
• Giorgio Rizzoni, professor, Ford Motor Company Chair in ElectroMechanical Systems, College of Engineering
• Brent Sohngen, Distinguished Professor of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
• Claudia Turro, Dr. Melvin L. Morris Endowed Professorship in Inorganic Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences

“Academic excellence is only possible because of our people,” President Ravi V. Bellamkonda told trustees on Thursday. “World-class research, exceptional scholarship, dedicated service — we have lots of reasons to be incredibly grateful for and proud of our distinguished faculty.”

Trustees also reviewed the tenure of Bellamkonda, praising his progress on goals including academic excellence, integrating AI into undergraduates’ academic experience, and driving transformative research and innovation. Bellamkonda was named the 18th president of Ohio State in March.

“You do a great job articulating a really compelling vision for the kind of university that we can be and ought to be,” Board Chair Jeff M. S. Kaplan said. “The urgency, enthusiasm and action that you bring to this role, we believe, are exactly what we need.” 

The board agreed to a 3% adjustment to Bellamkonda’s base salary as part of the university’s Annual Merit Compensation Process, and an annual performance award for achieving agreed-upon goals of $420,000, or 30% of his base salary.

Trustees approved the president’s fiscal year 2027 goals, focused on inspiring, innovating and empowering people across Ohio and beyond, and building upon the themes of the Education for Citizenship 2035 strategic plan.

The goals are:

• Academic excellence, which includes enhancing Ohio State’s signature undergraduate experience, advancing life-changing research, cultivating dynamic people and leaders, and bolstering strong colleges and programs.
• Healthcare excellence, in which Ohio State will help to reshape and transform healthcare by providing world-class care for every person, pursuing relentless innovation to improve lives, and being the best place to work and learn.
• Athletic excellence, a space in which the university is positioned to define the future of college sports.

The following actions were taken during the full board meeting:

Establishment of academic programs approved
The board approved the establishment of the Bachelor of Science major in biotech science and the Bachelor of Arts major in civics, law and leadership. The major in biotech science addresses a growing workforce need within Ohio’s rapidly expanding biotechnology and life sciences sector, and the civics, law and leadership major offered by the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society advances Ohio State's land-grant mission by preparing students to participate thoughtfully and lead effectively in civic life through the study of history, constitutionalism, law and leadership.

Revision of program curricula approved
Trustees approved revisions to the classics major, comparative studies major, natural resource management major and the environmental policy and decision-making major.

Honorary degree approved
The board approved the awarding of the honorary degrees for the following:

• Douglas Laycock, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa
• Dianne McIntyre, Doctor of Arts, honoris causa

Resolutions in Memoriam

• Edward “Ned” J. Behrman, who died on March 7. He was professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences.

• R. Bruce Curry, professor emeritus in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

• James R. “Jim” Helt, who died on June 15. He was an associate professor emeritus in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

• Floyd L. Herum, who died on Jan. 12. He was professor emeritus in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

• Michael Jon Kindred, professor emeritus in the Moritz College of Law and former associate dean.

• Cheryl Lee Krueger, former member of the Board of Trustees, who died on June 13.

• Robert Frederic Lawson, professor emeritus in the College of Education and Human Ecology, who died on Aug. 9, 2025.

• Sheila J. Marion, associate professor emerita in the Department of Dance in the College of Arts and Sciences, who died on June 22.

• Thomas Edgar Noyes, assistant professor emeritus within the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, who died on April 6.

• John D. Ong, former member of the Board of Trustees, who died on June 4.

• Russell “Russ” M. Pitzer, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, who died on May 25.

• Richard P. Swenson, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, who died on Feb. 20.

Personnel actions approved 
Trustees approved the following appointments and reappointments:

Appointments

• Karin Allenspach has been appointed professor (The Endowed Chair in Comparative and Translational Oncology and Biomedical Research) in the College of Veterinary Medicine for a term running from Sept. 1, 2026, through July 31, 2031.
• Natarajan Balasubramanian has been appointed professor (The Robert and Anne Hoyt Fund) at Fisher College of Business for a term running from Sept. 1, 2026, through Aug. 31, 2031.
• Susie Breitenstein has been appointed professor (Centennial Endowed Professor of Nursing) in the College of Nursing for a term running from Aug. 20, 2026, through Aug. 19, 2031.
• Kristi Cheramie has been appointed professor (The Hubert Schmidt Chair in Landscape Architecture) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Edward Dodson has been appointed professor-clinical (The William H. Saunders M.D. Professorship in Otolaryngology) in the College of Medicine for a term running from August 15, 2026, through June 30, 2030.
• Kiely Fletcher has been appointed vice provost for strategic enrollment management in the Office of Academic Affairs effective June 15, 2026.
• Frank Jacobus has been appointed professor and director (Walter H. Kidd Designated Professorship KSA) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Osama Khalil has been appointed associate professor (Dr. Charles Saltzer Professorship in Mathematics) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from Aug. 16, 2027, through Aug. 16, 2032.
• Kami Maddocks has been appointed professor-clinical (Natalie M. Knutsen Professorship) in the College of Medicine for a term running from Sept. 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030.
• Antoinette Marsh has been appointed professor (Endowed Chair in Comparative and Translational Parasitic and Infectious Diseases) in the College of Veterinary Medicine for a term running from Sept. 1, 2026, through July 31, 2031.
• Dustin Mixon has been appointed associate professor (Russell C. Shaw and Lynn B. Shaw Endowed Professorship in Mathematics) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Nathan Mowery has been appointed professor-clinical (Margaret Bowers Hardymon Professorship in Surgery) in the College of Medicine for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030.
• Michael Neblo has been appointed professor (Ann and Darrell Dreher Chair in Political Communication and Policy Thinking) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Kathy Northern has been appointed associate professor (Joanne Wharton Murphy/Class of 1965 and 1973 Professorship in Law) in the Moritz College of Law for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Efthimi Parasidis has been appointed professor (The Robert J. Lynn Chair in Law) in the Moritz College of Law for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Robin Queen has been appointed professor and chair (Bertha Lamme Professorship) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Jeffrey J. Walline has been appointed dean of the College of Optometry from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Balasubramaniam Shanker has been appointed interim dean of the College of Engineering from Aug. 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.

Reappointments

• Elizabeth Cooke has been reappointed professor-clinical (Frank C. Woodside III Clinical Professorship of Trial Advocacy) in the Moritz College of Law for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Monica Cox has been reappointed professor (Distinguished Professor of Engineering) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Laura Dugan has been reappointed professor (Ralph Mershon Designated Professorship of Human Security) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez has been reappointed professor (Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) in the Moritz College of Law for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Andrew Glassman has been reappointed professor and chair (Frank J. Kloenne Chair in Orthopedic Surgery) in the College of Medicine for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028.
• John Horack has been reappointed professor and vice president (Neil A. Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Igor Jouline has been reappointed professor (Rod Sharp Professorship in Microbiology) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Ahmet Kahraman has been reappointed professor (Howard D. Winbigler Designated Professorship) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Sanjay Krishna has been reappointed professor (George R. Smith Chair in Engineering) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Dhabaleswar Kumar has been reappointed professor (Distinguished Professor of Engineering) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Tasha Lewis has been reappointed associate professor-clinical (Nina Mae Mattus Professorship) in the College of Education and Human Ecology for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Jamie Lipp has been reappointed associate professor-clinical (Mary Fried Endowed Clinical Professorship) in the College of Education and Human Ecology for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• Rama Mallampalli has been reappointed professor and chair (S. Robert Davis Chair of Medicine) in the College of Medicine for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030.
• Matthew Mayhew has been reappointed professor (William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Endowed Professor in Educational Administration) in the College of Education and Human Ecology for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2031.
• David McComb has been reappointed professor (Ohio Research Scholar in Materials) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Marta Nowak has been reappointed assistant professor (Christos Yessios Endowed Professorship) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• John Nusstein has been reappointed professor (Dr. William J. Meyers Endowed Chair in Endodontics) in the College of Dentistry for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through Aug. 14, 2030.
• Phillip Popovich has been reappointed professor and chair (Ray W. Poppleton Research Designated Chair) in the College of Medicine for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030.
• Dongbin Xiu has been reappointed professor (Ohio Eminent Scholar in Scientific Computation) in the College of Arts and Sciences for a term running from Aug. 15, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Ahmed Yousef has been reappointed professor (Virginia Hutchison Bazler and Frank E. Bazler Chair in Food Science) in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.
• Xiaodong Zhang has been reappointed professor (Robert M. Critchfield Professorship in Engineering) in the College of Engineering for a term running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031.

Trustees also approved a market compensation adjustment for Jake Wozniak, treasurer, vice president of financial services and innovation and deputy chief financial officer.

Professional services and construction contracts approved
The board authorized the university to enter into or increase professional services and construction contracts for the following projects:

East Hospital endoscopy expansion and catheter lab
Professional services totaling $3.6 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Hughes Hall renovation
Professional services totaling $5.2 million, to be paid for with university funds, state funds and partner funds.

Wexner Medical Center community facilities
Professional services totaling $20 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Ramseyer Hall renovation
Professional services totaling $3.1 million, to be paid for with university funds and state funds.

Research Center deferred maintenance, phase 1
Professional services totaling $4 million, to be paid for with university funds.

Airport capital improvements
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $1.3 million, to be paid for with university funds and partner funds.

Baker Hall portable air conditioning and electrical upgrades
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $4.7 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Blankenship Hall upgrades
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $1.5 million, to be paid for with university funds and partner funds.

Fawcett Center renovations
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $6.5 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Howlett Hall deferred maintenance
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $11 million, to be paid for with university funds and grant funds.

Knowlton Hall roof replacement
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $5.6 million, to be paid for with university funds.

North Towers renovations
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $145 million, to be paid for with university debt.

Outpatient Care East clinic renovations and relocations
Professional services and construction contracts totaling $14.2 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Tunnel rehabilitation, phase 1
Construction contracts totaling $6.1 million, to be paid for with university debt, university funds, state funds and partner funds.

University Hospital pavilion air handling units review/repair
Construction contracts totaling $37.8 million, to be paid for with auxiliary funds.

Fiscal year 2027 capital investment plan approved
Trustees approved the university capital investment plan for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027.

Joint use agreements approved
The board approved entering into joint use agreements between Ohio State and the following entities following funds appropriated in the state capital bill:

• Edison Welding Institute (EWI)
• Junior Achievement of Central Ohio
• Lifecare Alliance
• Rev1 Ventures

Settlement agreement and amendments to the concession agreement with Ohio State Energy Partners approved
Trustees approved a settlement agreement and amendments to the long-term lease and concession agreement for the Ohio State utility system.

Amendments to the bylaws of the Board of Trustees and Wexner Medical Center board approved
Trustees approved amendments to the bylaws of the Ohio State Board of Trustees and the bylaws of the Wexner Medical Center Board.

Board of Trustees committee appointments approved
Trustees approved the ratification of committee appointments for fiscal year 2027 as follows:

Academic Excellence

• Reginald A. Wilkinson, chair
• Bradley R. Kastan, vice chair
• Elizabeth P. Kessler
• M. Katherine Holcombe
• Elizabeth A. Harsh
• Juan Jose Perez
• Patrick J. Tiberi
• Annabelle B. Feibel
• Phillip Popovich (faculty member)
• Eric Bielefeld (faculty member)
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio)

Engagement & External Relations

• Patrick J. Tiberi, chair
• Elizabeth A. Harsh, vice chair
• Elizabeth P. Kessler
• M. Katherine Holcombe
• Pierre Bigby
• Bradley R. Kastan
• Kara J. Trott
• Annabelle B. Feibel
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio)

Finance, Audit & Investment

• Gary R. Heminger, chair
• Pierre Bigby, vice chair
• Tomislav B. Mitevski
• Juan Jose Perez
• George A. Skestos
• Kara J. Trott
• Patrick J. Tiberi
• Patrick C. Arp
• Amy Chronis
• Kent M. Stahl
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio)

Governance & Institutional Accountability

• Jeff M.S. Kaplan, co-chair
• Elizabeth P. Kessler, co-chair
• Gary R. Heminger
• Reginald A. Wilkinson
• Tomislav B. Mitevsk
• Juan Jose Perez
• Kara J. Trott
• Patrick J. Tiberi

Master Planning & Facilities

• Tomislav B. Mitevski, chair
• Suzanne R. Kiggin, vice chair
• M. Katherine Holcombe
• Elizabeth A. Harsh
• Reginald A. Wilkinson
• Pierre Bigby
• Bradley R. Kastan
• Annabelle B. Feibel
• Robert H. Schottenstein
• Keith Myers
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio)

Talent & Compensation

• Juan Jose Perez, chair
• George A. Skestos, vice chair
• Elizabeth P. Kessler
• Gary R. Heminger
• Reginald A. Wilkinson
• Suzanne R. Kiggin
• Patrick C. Arp
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio)

Wexner Medical Center

• Robert H. Schottenstein, chair
• Kara J. Trott, vice chair
• Gary R. Heminger
• Suzanne R. Kiggin
• Tomislav B. Mitevski
• George A. Skestos
• Patrick C. Arp
• Leslie H. Wexner, chair emeritus
• Stephen D. Steinour
• Cindy Hilsheimer
• Amy Chronis
• Hiroyuki Fujita
• Jeff M.S. Kaplan (ex officio, voting)
• Ravi V. Bellamkonda (ex officio, voting)
• Trevor Brown (ex officio, voting)
• Michael Papadakis (ex officio, voting)
• John J. Warner (ex officio, voting)

Finance Committee, Wexner Medical Center

• Stephen D. Steinour, chair
• Tomislav B. Mitevski
• Juan Jose Perez
• Pierre Bigby
• George A. Skestos
• Amy Chronis
• John J. Warner
• Michael Papadakis

Quality & Professional Affairs Committee, Wexner Medical Center

• Kara J. Trott, chair
• George A. Skestos, vice chair
• Suzanne R. Kiggin
• Trevor Brown
• Michael Papadakis
• John J. Warner
• Eric Bourekas
• Stacy A. Brethauer
• David E. Cohn
• Scott A. Holliday
• Daniel Like
• Kami J. Maddocks
• Traci Mignery
• Elizabeth Seely
• Corrin Steinhauer
• W. Kimryn Rathmell
• Andrew M. Thomas
• Crystal Tubbs
• Nicole Williams

Foundation Board Representative

• Pierre Bigby

Alumni Board Representative

• Bradley R. Kastan

Fiscal year 2027 Clinical Quality Management, Patient Safety, and Patient Experience Plan approved
Trustees approved the annual review of the Clinical Quality Management, Patient Safety, and Patient Experience Plan for fiscal year 2027 for the university hospitals.

Fiscal year 2027 Quality, Safety and Experience Council Plan approved
Trustees approved the annual review of the Quality, Safety and Experience Council Plan for fiscal year 2027 for the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

Plan for patient care services approved
The board approved the annual review of the plan for patient care services for university hospitals.

Scopes of care approved
Trustees approved the annual review of the scope of patient care services the Ohio State Ambulatory Surgery Center — Outpatient Care New Albany, Dublin Ambulatory Surgery Center, Powell Ambulatory Surgery Center, and Extended Recovery Unit for Outpatient Care Dublin and New Albany clinical departments.

Direct patient care services contracts and patient impact service contracts evaluation approved
The board approved the annual review of the direct patient care service contracts and patient impact service contracts for the university hospitals.

Contracted services evaluation approved
Trustees approved the annual review of the contracted services for the Ohio State Ambulatory Surgery Center — Outpatient Care New Albany and Dublin Ambulatory Surgery Center.

Emergency General Surgery Program verification approved
Trustees approved the submission for verification of the Emergency General Surgery Program for university hospitals.

Ohio State Energy Partners utility system capital improvements plan for fiscal year 2027 approved
The board approved the fiscal year 2027 capital improvements plan for Ohio State Energy Partners.

University Foundation Report approved
The board approved, as of July 31, 2026, the establishment of two endowed chairs as part of the Provost’s Endowed Chair Matching Program: the James Mitchell Endowed Chair, the Barbara and Al Siemer Chair in Functional Medicine; one endowed professorship: the Jim and Christina Grote Professorship in Integrative Health Education; one endowed professorship fund: the Dr. Martha S. Pitzer Professorship Fund in Nursing; one fellowship: the Morell Family Fellowship; one scholarship as part of the Scarlet and Gray Advantage Endowed Matching Gift Program; 23 additional named endowed funds; and the revision of 26 named endowed funds.

Naming of spaces
Trustees approved the following namings:

• The Oklo Nuclear Reactor Laboratory in the College of Engineering
• The Christine Coultrip Dwarf Conifer Collection in Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens
• The CVS Health Innovation Hub in the Riffe Building
• The east-west portion of Carmack Road in the Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory to Hess Road.
• The following internal spaces in the Engineering Research and Education Laboratories:
  • Ayanna Howard Innovation Space (room 2241)
  • Google Foundations Lab (room 1250)
  • Air Transport Services Group Charitable Foundation Office (room 2203)

Touring Disney Animation Studios and Tokyo Disney Sea with alumni executives, attending Q&A sessions with Disney engineers and having dinner with Mickey Mouse are just some of the highlights 29 students from The Ohio State University experienced during the inaugural Around the World with Disney Imagineering global education program.

Open to all majors, the four-week summer course allows students from diverse backgrounds to explore how their interests can contribute to collaborative creations like Disney parks. Students from 15 disciplines took part, including 16 engineering majors and one architecture major.

“The course was designed around Disney Imagineering as a model for large-scale creative collaboration, bringing together engineers, designers, storytellers, technologists, artists and business professionals to create immersive experiences,” said Yuri Melendez, an instructional designer for the College of Engineering. “What made the concept especially appealing from an educational standpoint was the opportunity for students from different academic backgrounds to see how their own skills could contribute to complex, multidisciplinary projects.”

The brainchild of Engineering Instructional Technology Director Chris Strasbaugh, it is the first course offered by the Office of International Affairs at Ohio State to combine both domestic and international travel.

Visiting Disneyland Resort in California and Disney Tokyo, students enjoyed a unique behind-the-scenes peek into the creative force behind Disney’s immersive experiences.

“We had the opportunity to learn about the behind-the-scenes processes that go into designing Disney parks through backstage tours and panels with Imagineers in Disneyland in California and in Tokyo,” said Haven Tan, a civil engineering major. “We learned about attraction design, interdisciplinary collaboration within Imagineering, and theming within the Disney intellectual property. This was a dream come true experience and I am so thankful for all that I was able to learn.”

The coursework included a group project focused on designing a new park attraction, individual response papers on how students envision their academic careers fitting into the Imagineering ecosystem, and maintaining a travel journal to document their experiences.

“As a part of our coursework, we worked in teams to create and film an attraction pitch. Our group was inspired by Pixar’s film, ‘Hoppers,’ which we used to theme a unique boat ride attraction,” said Kaylin Kerrick, a computer science and engineering major. “Individually, I explored interactive queue design through the Disney mobile app for my problem portfolios relating to computer science. This course was an incredible opportunity to combine my interests in both computer science and animation and see how it relates directly to Disney Imagineering.”

Ohio State alumni were essential in making the trip an impactful learning experience for students, organizers said.

“Planning for the course included contributions from Ohio State alumni and Disney professionals, which I believe is one of its strengths,” Melendez explained. “Meeting with alumni in person helps students feel a sense of belonging and realize that they are in this wonderful Buckeye community.”

In California, students toured Disney Animation Studios and shared an insightful Q&A with Technical Supervisor Rebecca Thompson, a computer science and engineering alumna. In Tokyo, landscape architecture alumnus Mark Schirmer, the recently retired executive portfolio creative producer at Walt Disney Imagineering, spent a day with students exploring Tokyo DisneySea, including the newest addition, Fantasy Springs, and sharing some of the park's unique aspects.

“Our walkabout provided the students with an up-close look into the storytelling and level of detail that Imagineers strive to produce at our parks,” Schirmer said. “The students and faculty were truly engaged and curious with their questions. Throughout the day, we shared our experiences in creating and operating these parks and attractions. Their interest and enthusiasm was an inspiration for us and we hope the time together will inspire them to look to their future and believe, ‘If you can dream it - you can do it.’”

Fellow alumni Brad Okeson, Kelli Ross, Machi McGuire and Robert Anderson also provided invaluable insight that made the trip successful.

“It’s the alumni who made this trip special,” Strasbaugh said.

In summer 2027, the program will travel to Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and Disneyland Paris. Student applications are due January 7, 2027.

For fans who want to experience the build-up to the home opener, The Ohio State University Marching Band’s pregame Skull Session will be livestreamed — accessible on phones, tablets and laptops for those who cannot watch it live in St. John Arena.

This is the sixth year that University Communications will livestream Skull Session before each home game of the season. The livestream is available on the Ohio State News YouTube channel through the website or the YouTube app.

“We’re excited to be back for our sixth season of livestreaming Skull Session. We are bringing back our popular guest interviews as well as the flag giveaways,” said Director of National Broadcast Media Joe Camoriano. “If you tune in 2 1/2 hours before kickoff of each home game, you’ll get to see one of the best fan experiences in the country.”

Camoriano and a team of videographers will stream Skull Session using seven different cameras and multiple microphones to capture the action from all angles.

Skull Session originally served as a final music rehearsal for the Ohio State Marching Band before its performance on the field. It has evolved into one of the most anticipated game day traditions for Buckeye fans. Doors to St. John Arena open three hours prior to kickoff and the arena can quickly fill up.

TBDBITL marches into the arena and plays “Fanfare for a New Era” as the football team arrives. Coach Ryan Day, assistant coaches and players speak each week to the fans before they head to the stadium. The band then performs a final musical run-through of its pregame and halftime shows before game time.