Today's Update: Friday, March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026
Dear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday!
I hope you had a chance to refresh and recharge over Spring Break. We’re heading into the home stretch for this semester, with the last day of classes exactly one month from today.
High Fives to all the Buck-I-SERV faculty, staff and graduate student advisors who made the spring trip cycle a success. A special High Five to Student Life’s Matthew D’Oyly, Justin Khol and Liz Westrick for serving as advisors and providing our students with an amazing experience. More than 100 students participated in the nine trips to sites in two international locations, Guatemala and Honduras, and in the states of Florida, Louisiana, Virginia and Tennessee. Altogether, it meant more than 300 hours of service.
The Office of Outreach and Engagement has given an Ohio State 2026 Programs of Excellence in Engaged Scholarship award to Off-Campus and Commuter Student Engagement and their Off-Campus Housing Network. The honor goes to projects that demonstrate excellence in community-engaged high-impact scholarship. High Five, OCCSE!
High Five to D’Arcy Oaks for co-writing an article just published in Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning. The project dug deep into roughly 1,000 Student Affairs assessment listserv threads to understand practitioner needs and shifts in the field.
We had a number of highly important and time-sensitive documents to pull together recently. High Fives to those who helped, including Travis Barnhart, Jen Vandemark, Erica Regan, Chrisse Edmunds, Dave Isaacs, Christian Manning and Katrina Norris.
High Five to Mike Koren of Student Life Technology Services for his helpful (and hours-long) assistance troubleshooting a functionality issue with a vendor.
The team at RPAC and ARC get High Fives for for participating in the recent statewide tornado drill. Student Life Risk and Emergency Management says, “Their student employees (did) an amazing job clearing the floors and getting folks to the severe weather locations in an efficient and calm manner.”
Student Life Environmental Services recently got some well-deserved love, including a giant signed card in the shape of a heart, from the folks at Busch and Holloran Houses. RA Chris Tran and the staff hosted an appreciation breakfast to recognize their EVS team “for all of the amazing and hard work they do. They truly have kept our building up and running each and every day, as well as the rest of the North campus residence halls.” High Fives to everyone involved!
I love this High Five recommendation for a member of our Housing and Residence Education team and am very pleased to pass it along! “When people hear someone say Fred Swank's name, the response is always so heartwarming. There is an audible reaction that usually sounds like ‘Oh, Fred, I love Fred. He is so great...’ and then they share something personal and special Fred has done for them to help them feel seen and appreciated. Fred helps to make Ohio State a Home and reminds us that we all belong here.”
Have a Scarlet and Great weekend and Go Bucks!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University