Today's Update: High Five Friday

May 8, 2026

Dear Student Life team, 

Happy High Five Friday!  

High Fives to every member of our team who will receive a degree at Sunday’s Commencement. All of Student Life is very proud of you! 

High Fives as well to Teri Cugliari, Mindy Clagg and Emma Krawiec for leading preparations to gather a record-breaking number of volunteers to support Spring Commencement. We are looking forward to working with over 30 campus partners from both Student Life and beyond to support our graduates this weekend! 

Continuing the Commencement theme, High Five to Ralph Cottrill of Facilities for spending time with the Risk and Emergency Management team this week hosting a tour. This allowed us to grant a hard-working student employee with their graduation wish! 

The end of the academic year is always a busy time, so I’m especially Scarlet and Grateful to everyone who took the time to help Student Life Disability Services administer exams. And High Fives in advance to those who have signed up for shifts to help keep the Monda Student Resource Center open and serving our students this summer. 

The Office of Outreach and Engagement had a reception this week for their Program of Excellence winners, which includes Off-Campus and Commuter Student Engagement’s Off-Campus Housing Network. High Five to the OCCSE team!  

As mentioned in Slice this morning, BuckID’s Josh Bodnar has been elected President of NACCU, the organization dedicated to serving professionals who manage campus identification programs on higher education campuses. High Five, Josh!  

Here’s another example of our Student Life team being leaders in higher education. Student Conduct’s Malcolm Bello has been appointed to chair a committee for ASCA, the Association for Student Conduct Administration.  

High Five to Nate May of Student Life Technology Services, who dropped everything to drive to campus after hours to fix a data center issue. He had everything back up and running within 30 minutes. 

Everyone who filled out the Listening Survey gets a High Five. As I mentioned in my Update earlier this week, the Student Life response rate was much higher than in past years, and significantly higher than the university-wide participation rate.  

Have a Scarlet and Great Commencement weekend!  
 

Melissa S. Shivers, PhD  
Senior Vice President for Student Life  
The Ohio State University