Today's Update: Friday, August 16, 2024
August 16, 2024
Dear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday.
I’ll start with a major High Five to Abby Hertzfeld, who, after a national search, has been named the new Senior Director of Student Life Dining Services, effective August 26. She’s been interim director since January, and I am thrilled that she has accepted this position. High Five, Abby!
Move-In is well underway (High Fives for all of that to come in a future High Five message), and I want to offer a High Five to our entire Environmental Services team for getting all the rooms ready for our students so they can arrive to clean living spaces on campus, in addition to our buildings that are open to the public, like the Ohio Union. Everything is sparkling!
High Five to John Cronin and his team for pitching in and helping with an unplanned move of the OWL t-shirts during this busy week. It definitely helped the housing team focus their energy on early arrival programs instead of tracking down boxes at the Schott!
Housing and Residence Education’s Rebecca Kapusta gets a High Five for, as her department puts it, “pitching in on pretty much everything over the last week: keys, Zippy Shell deliveries, helping prepare the new Involved Living Headquarters. You name it, she did it.”
High Fives to Leah Wheeler, Quantazia Merchant, Ariel Burns and Holland Cavanaugh for all their time and energy welcoming students for the Residential Leadership and OWL Programs.
Our next High Five goes to Jon Plante of Student Life Technology Services, who dropped everything to spend several hours working on an important website update to get it live on schedule. High Five as well to Marketing’s Seth Rhodes, who tagged a pdf for accessibility in record time so it could be added to the site and to Dave Isaacs for serving as traffic cop for the whole undertaking. And a High Five across High Street to Lauren Kulik (University Marketing and Communications) for being an excellent partner in pulling all the changes together.
High Five to Johna Walls, Travis Barnhart, Dave DeAngelo, Pete Miller and Jen Vandemark for all their help getting Scarlet the Golf Cart all dressed up. She looks gorgeous!
Rachel Conners, Travis Barnhart, Josh Bodnar, Sean Stewart, Spencer Litzenberger, Jen Vandemark and Tyler Wynkoop get High Fives for all their work on the new name tags, from ideation to implementation.
Josh Bodnar and his BuckID team get High Fives for collaborating with Events and Conferences on some updated processes and enhanced procedures.
High Fives to a number of people who helped with a facility emergency on a recent weekend, including Stacey Renker, Andrew Crow, Tom Roush, Troy Keller, Kirk Winters, Chuck Winchell, Joe Stuckey, Samuel Raymond, Jeremiah Odoi, Martin Dentu, Helios Yu, Mark Arthur, Michael Loomis, Mohammed Baseer and Josh Bodnar.
Housing and Residence Education recently held an overnight learning and development session for Mansfield, Newark and Wooster resident advisors. They called it “Camp Molyet” since it took place in our Mansfield housing, Molyet Village Apartments. High Fives to Housing Coordinators Shantrice Bradley, Mike Schopieray and Laila Alharbi who planned everything, including session content, meals, activities, transportation and special guest sessions. Randy Kline and Joe Steiner from Facilities get High Fives for making all the spaces welcoming for everyone coming to "camp" and then going back through spaces after to ensure everything was ready for students to Move-In the next week. Also, a very special High Five to our Residence Hall Desk Coordinator, Sarah Smith, who is currently managing both the Mansfield and Wooster housing office operations. Says a colleague, “In the midst of the business of getting ready for Move-In, Sarah decorated the spaces for Camp Molyet, made door decs for everyone attending, including human and fur babies, preparing apartments for staff to stay overnight, and a million other things she jumped in to help make the experience awesome for everyone!”
Have a Scarlet and Great weekend and start to Welcome Week! I hope to see you around campus in the coming days!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University