The Ohio State University
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

All institutions of higher education in Ohio are governed by the Ohio Board of Regents, which consists of a nine members advisory board appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate. The Board’s main responsibilities include authorizing and approving new degree programs, managing state-funded financial aid programs and developing and advocating policies to maximize higher education’s contributions to the state and its citizens. Additionally, the Board reports on key topics including enrollment, student preparation and academic progress, degrees awarded, post-graduation employment outcomes, tuition, financial aid, and costs and expenditures per student at Ohio's higher education institutions. Ohio State strives to catalyze Engagement, Ownership, and Buy-In to Sustainability via engaged and inclusive partnerships, on and off campus, that support the long-term economic, social and environmental welfare of the campus, surrounding neighborhoods and the global community. Utilizing a council of internal and external stakeholders (i.e., students, staff, faculty, alumni/ae, companies, non-governmental organizations, agencies) to serve in an advisory capacity for the ongoing formulation, development, implementation, and assessment of goals, initiatives and outcomes allows the continued enhancement of university standing as it pertains to community engagement and outreach.

All community stakeholder groups are represented through the election process for both the mayor of Ohio as well as members of the Ohio Senate. Additionally, as a charter land-grant institution, Ohio State is committed to finding new ways to include and promote engagement scholarship as something that creates meaningful and mutually beneficial collaboration with partners in education, business, industry, public, private, and social services to ensure that it “advances the well-being of the people of Ohio and the global community through the creation and dissemination of knowledge.” External partnerships across public and private sectors continue to be an integral component of Ohio State’s overall engagement strategy, as the university constantly seeks opportunities for cultivating new university-level partnerships to complement the myriad of existing ones. The system for identifying and cultivating partnerships across the breadth and scope of the institution remains decentralized within each of the colleges and academic support units – and by extension, their subordinate departments, centers, and institutes. The internal collaboration of these units and the external partnerships they have developed are fundamental to the university’s core missions of teaching, research, and service. Partnerships enhance student academic experiences and support faculty by providing opportunities for engagement scholarship that complement their teaching and research activities.

At the local, state, national and international level, Ohio State community stakeholders include: community groups, non-profit organizations, individuals, educational institutions, businesses/industry, governments, students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors

The descriptions below include just a few of the successes from the past three years include: The Field to Faucet initiative is an innovative suite of research and extension efforts by The Ohio State University aimed at ensuring safe drinking water while keeping farms productive and profitable. The initiative began in 2014 after a water quality crisis in Lake Erie due to harmful algal blooms galvanized an interdisciplinary group of partners to seek end-to-end, systems solutions to the problem affecting the lake. A sister effort, co-led by Ohio State and the University of Toledo, created a complementary set of research and development projects funded by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. Ohio State and partners have a mission to help communities and individuals make choices that help maintain water quality while balancing other important needs such as food production. http://field2faucet.osu.edu/home Graduate students and staff from the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic partnered with Hilltop Preschool in an on-site, pre-K literacy intervention program to improve reading/comprehension levels and build a better support system for parents and teachers. After 11 weeks, the results showed 89 percent of students demonstrated higher literacy scores. artsandsciences.osu.edu/news Energize Ohio is a multidisciplinary program that addresses a wide range of energy education topics including shale energy, renewable energy, energy policy, on-farm energy, youth education, landowner leasing, and sustainable community planning. The curriculum consists of worksheets, presentation materials, workshop materials, bulletins, fact sheets, marketing templates, and evaluation tools. The ultimate goal of Energize Ohio is to enhance community leaders’ and local residents’ knowledge of energy drivers and development in order to promote informed decision-making and best practices. In 2014, OSU Extension taught more than 700 Ohioans how to prepare for, attract, and develop potential renewable energy projects. In 2014, OSU Extension delivered 32 programs, reaching 1,191 people, on shale energy-related topics. In total, since 2012 the Energize Ohio Signature Program team has delivered 141 programs in 64 of Ohio’s 88 counties, reaching 11,688 participants. http://energizeohio.osu.edu/ The Endeavor Center is a vibrant example of community-university collaboration to realize a shared vision in an economically distressed Appalachian community in Southern Ohio. Opened in 2005, the 27,000-square-foot business incubator and training facility is recognized as a community leader in economic development, business training, and technological excellence. The area served by the incubator is predominately rural and has been significantly impacted by the loss of industry while struggling to develop new opportunities for residents. Over the course of its first decade of operation, the Endeavor Center has helped local businesses create more than 2,500 jobs and retain 10,000 more, adding almost $200 million of direct economic activity to the local community. The community and university share responsibility for the direction and vision of the Endeavor Center through the Endeavor Center Council, a group of private and public sector partners. Guidance from the Council allows the university to understand the region’s changing economic conditions and adjust to the needs of local businesses. http://southcenters.osu.edu/endeavor-center The Making a Difference Program is a community-engaged project designed to address health disparities in the Near East Side. The program implements health and wellness activities with community residents in prevention and self-management of their health, while creating enhanced experiential learning for nursing students, and research opportunities for faculty and graduate students. The program also helps build community capacity through skill development and funding community-initiated projects. Impact Faculty and students volunteer at the Ask a Buckeye Nurse Forums, a health initiative that provides free health screenings and education, conducted biweekly at a local barbershop. Community grants provide seed money for community initiated health-based programs for Near East Side residents. Thirteen community grants have been awarded over the past two years, with impactful outcomes. The program provides community engagement opportunities for students and faculty.