Today's Update: Friday, September 19, 2025
September 19, 2025
Dear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday!
I’m proud to report that Student Life and friends packed 304,776 meals at last week’s Be Kind event, which were then distributed to non-profits in northwest Ohio, as well as to the Monda Student Resource Center here on the Columbus campus. High Five to Tracy Stuck for organizing and planning this amazing event, and High Fives to everyone who made it possible, including Aubrie Smith, Dave DeAngelo, Sean Stewart, Jen Nelson, Candyce Williams, Dave Isaacs, Anita McCoy, Matt Couch, Hannah Warner, Tiffany Quattlebaum, Travis Barnhart, Angie Wellman, Joel Sedziol, Jeremy Gabis, John Cronin, Jenn Miller, Scott Holmes, Alex Jimenez, Faith Nelson, Jonah Bacho, Shea Ryan, Eric Schutter, Malina Gugle, Veronika Poliakova, Danny Elswick, AT Heyer, Tyler Eskew, Godfrey Ludaway, Darrell Thompson, Spencer Litzenberger, Josh Bodnar, Michelle Blackstone, Julianna Logan, Kim Traverse, Thyrone Henderson, Chris Cade, Drew Stark, Joe Hast, Rob Lyons, Kellie Uhrig, J Randall Hicks and Dave Wiseley.
High Fives to Nancy Thompson, Tara Nord, Jennifer Chilman and Mollie-Marie Workman from the Buckeye Careers team for organizing another incredible University-wide Career and Internship Fair this week. The event is no small feat—it takes nearly a year of planning and coordination.
Rashida Bowman of Student Life Technology Services gets a High Five for answering dozens of questions about BuckeyeLearn and helping set supervisors up for success when it comes to having their employees complete their trainings. Says a colleague, “She is so awesome to work with and replies with amazing speed. Thankful to have her as a partner!”
High Five to the Center for the Study of Student Life’s Marjorie Freggens for taking time out from her day to be responsive and patient through a technology knowledge gap on a time-sensitive project.
Jack Pendleton of Dining Services gets a High Five for stepping up to help one of Dining’s partner food trucks at the Tom W. Davis Tower fix their technology issues so that they could continue to serve food to students and guests.
High Fives to D’Arcy Oaks, Morgan Hammonds and Jen Vandemark for stepping up to be 2025 Buckeye for Charity campaign coordinators.
Off-Campus and Commuter Student Engagement nominates Hal Tedrow for a High Five, grateful that he “was able to move heaven and earth to secure our office a vehicle, which has been a year in the making.”
If you missed this week’s State of the University address by President Ted Carter, you can watch a replay of the speech online. In addition to the Academic Winter Recess announcement that I talked about in my Wednesday Update, and I also wanted to make sure you heard him call Convocation “one of the most amazing we’ve ever had. It was a great experience.” I appreciate President Carter giving a High Five to everyone who was involved with Convocation.
Have a Scarlet and Great weekend. Even though there’s no Buckeyes football game this weekend, it’s never a bye-week for Go Bucks!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University