Today's Update: Thursday, May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
Dear Student Life team,
This has been quite a year, and I could not be more proud of our Student Life team for all the accomplishments of 2023-2024. I am Scarlet and Grateful to each of you.
We will celebrate all that great work as a team on May 29 with our O-H! What a Year Celebration in the ‘Shoe. You can RSVP online at go.osu.edu/slcelebrationrsvp.
And while it was not quite as fun as our celebration will be, I was thrilled to update the Ohio State Board of Trustees this week on our accomplishments for the year.
The presentation I gave at the Academic Affairs and Student Life committee meeting highlighted progress toward key initiatives, including the Off-Campus Housing Network, Buckeye Resource Center, Buck-I-SERV, Buckeye Leadership Fellows and the Student Advocacy Center. It also included information about important organizational shifts made to better serve students, including the realignment of the Suicide Prevention Program. The presentation also shared accomplishments from students, student organizations, staff and key engagement and donor opportunities. I want you to know how appreciative the trustees were of the entire Student Life team’s efforts, so consider this an early High Five to everyone!
To provide a few details about what was shared: I told them about how more than 11,000 properties participated in the Off-Campus Housing Network and 573 partners attended community roundtables, where Student Life shared information and facilitated dialogue. I explained how the Student Access Fund, supporting, expanding and improving Buck-I-SERV trips by off-setting costs for student participants, distributed more than $23,000 in donor gifts to those in need.
The Board members also heard about the continued impact of the Student Emergency Fund and other Student Advocacy Center programs, accomplishments of the Buckeye Leadership Fellows program and progress toward creating the Buckeye Resource Center (stay tuned for even MORE exciting updates about the Center!).
I also highlighted some of the accomplishments of our team members, particularly those who are national leaders in their area. I'll admit it—I bragged about people like Daren Lehman, Facilities Operations Consultant, who was named to the Board of Directors of Elevator U as secretary; Rec Sports Director Andre Love, elected President of the NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation; Mark Sampson of Counseling and Consultation Service elected as the next president of ACCTA, the Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies, as well as Student Life’s Events and Conferences department, supported by the Ohio Union operations team, winning the 2023 Planner’s Choice Award from Unique Venues in the Professional Meetings and Conferences category; and the five Student Life team members who were recognized and received awards from the Ohio College Personnel Association (Tanisha Jenkins, Erica Regan, Tori Rehr, Lucy Hennon and Julie Schnell).
All this makes for an amazing, or, as Dean Danny Glassmann would put it, an O-mazing year! I’m pleased to have provided the Board of Trustees with an overview and am really looking forward to a Scarlet and Great celebration with you later this month.
See you at the ‘Shoe!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University