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What interested you in this role?

Otterbein is a special place. I have lived and worked in central Ohio for most of my career and have always been fond of the sense of community that Otterbein fosters. I am now fortunate to be able to enjoy that feeling of belonging and pride. I have big shoes to fill and cannot wait to continue a legacy of success in building strong relationships, role modeling a strong ethic of care for students, and designing innovative programs to help students have a superb experience that prepares them for life after Otterbein.

What are some of the biggest opportunities you see at Otterbein?

I am inspired by the energy and ideas coming from the students. Part of being a student-centered educator means spending time listening to how students describe their experience here and what they want to see continue, change, or stop. Then it’s important that we work alongside and empower students to be responsible and accountable for co-creating that next step. I am paying attention to spaces students enjoy as they live and learn on our campus and ways to further enhance those over time. I am looking forward to leading and further developing our student affairs team — we have great people who are driven to do good work on behalf of students.

Your research focuses on student wellness. How will you apply that research at Otterbein?

I bring a focus on how mission, well-being, and equity are connected, and I wake up every day thinking about the role of student affairs in advancing our mission through advancing a strategic focus on well-being and equity in our work. This is shared work and I look forward to identifying ways that the Division of Student Affairs can work across the various areas of the University community to create the conditions upon which we can more fully live out our commitments to well-being and equity.

What is your approach for connecting with students?

Over the past 20 years, my approach has evolved with practice and student preferences. I hope our students will come to find that I am visible and accessible; genuinely curious about their experience; honest; direct when we agree/disagree; open in terms of letting them know when I don’t know and asking for help and student input; supportive of their expressions about change that is needed; and that I am in their corner and hoping for the best possible outcome for their experience here and lives after Otterbein.

NEW CARDINAL ON CAMPUS
William Fox, Ed.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs

New Vice President for Student Affairs William (Bill) Fox, Ed.D., says he is “inspired by the energy and ideas” coming from Otterbein students.

Student Well-Being and Equity are top of mind for new Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Fox.

The Journey of a Japanese student who finds his home-away-from-home at Otterbein.

HARUKI TADA ’24 chose Otterbein sight unseen, as barriers during the COVID- 19 pandemic forced the Japanese baseball player to make a college decision without ever stepping foot on campus. Once he was on campus, he found a supportive and welcoming community dedicated to his success.

A native of Tokyo, Tada began forming a unique relationship with head coach George Powell while attending IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. Powell visited Tada three times during Otterbein’s 2020 spring break trip and became intrigued with the dual talent, who could play the infield and pitch.

“Coach Powell was such a big influence for me,” Tada said. “He made me feel really comfortable even though I had never been here. He made sure I met everyone and felt good about this new journey. I’ve never felt like I don’t fit in.”

Questions arose about Tada actually showing up when messages through WhatsApp went unanswered for most of that summer due to internet issues. But Powell received a message in August from the 5-foot-5 recruit, saying he would be in Westerville the following day.

Since that time, Powell has completed Japanese lessons on the Duolingo app and even suggested he would consider sponsoring Tada for dual citizenship down the line.

“It’s been a real pleasure watching him develop,” Powell said. “Seeing a young kid embrace our Otterbein culture and adjust to college is always rewarding for a coach, but especially Haruki’s acclimation. He brings such a positive energy and continues developing across all phases—athletics, academically, and socially.”

Tada spent his first two seasons as a backup/JV option but continues working for more opportunities on the diamond. In the classroom, he has a 3.55 cumulative GPA as a sport management major and finance minor.

Faculty Pairings Amplify The Power Of Collaboration

What happens when you make a smart pairing? At Otterbein, faculty collaborations are the norm but the outcomes these partnerships produce are anything but. From Integrative Studies collaborations, which bring seemingly disparate subjects together into one class, to research projects with multidisciplinary applications — faculty partnerships are inspiring knowledge, discovery, social change, and exciting studentlearning experiences. Art secrets unlocked. Global wellness initiatives. Injury prevention for senior citizens. Happiness and the good life. These collaborations highlight the expertise, passion, and purpose that double when Otterbein professors join forces.

For Department of Art and Art History instructor Janice Glowski and Professor and Chair of Chemistry Joan Esson, collaboration is a passion. In their Integrative Studies classes together, and in Otterbein’s museums and galleries, they teach that “an art project is a chemistry experiment in disguise.”

Glowski, as Otterbein’s director of museums and galleries and art historian, brings her degrees in Asian art history, comparative religious studies, and chemistry to the collaboration while Esson’s research and teaching focus includes technical art analysis and applications in environmental and clinical chemistry.

“Soon after I arrived on campus in 2014, I approached the Chemistry Department and talked about collaboration,” Glowski said. “Joan was the quickest to respond and we began a project looking at African masks in the Otterbein collection. My students recorded from where the masks originated, who used them, and the context in which they were used. Joan’s chemistry students took samples and used light fluorescence to discover what substances were found on the masks.”

The early collaboration previewed what the two departments could achieve together.

One such collaboration currently can be found in Otterbein’s Frank Museum, where art and chemistry students are working together on the C.Y. Woo Chinese painting art collection. A $98,000 Henry Luce Foundation grant procured by Glowski helps orchestrate student collaboration.

Glowski has earned National Endowment for the Arts and Ohio Arts Council grants in support of her efforts. She has managed projects supported by the Mellon and Kress foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has curated more than 20 exhibitions.

Esson actively involves undergraduate students in her work, is the co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Cardinal Scholars Program and is the co-lead on the Choose Ohio First Cardinal STEMM Scholars Program. She also enjoys her faculty-led study abroad course to Italy to study preservation and restoration of art.

“In Milan we visit Castello Sforzesco built in the 15th century, where Napoleon’s troops later plastered over art by Da Vinci,” Esson said. “We observe the restoration work, then go see The Last Supper in town. It’s amazing.”

Another collaborative partnership involves extending Otterbein’s community to rural Ugandan communities. Since 2016, professors Diane Ross in Education and Heidi Ballard in Sociology, Criminology, and Social Justice have collaborated in communities and remote rural Ugandan schools to implement Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and Sexual Reproductive Health Education (SRHE).

Assistant Professor of Engineering Elena Caruthers and Assistant Professor of Health and Sport Sciences Ashley Simons are using Otterbein’s Biomechanics Institute, created by the two departments, to study human movement. The lab is equipped with motion capture cameras and specialized software that allows Caruthers and Simons to record and analyze how people move.

Their latest work uses the lab’s camera system to focus on factors related to senior citizens’ risk of falls. Students are identifying best practices in senior citizens’ activities of daily living, including gait, rising from a chair, and stair climbing.

“We’re hoping to gather data to discover how people’s confidence levels affect their normal activities of daily living,” Caruthers said. “We have engineering and health science students working on the study, and we’re collaborating with the Lifelong Learning Community for study participants.”

Caruthers has had a passion for biomechanics ever since she was a dancer growing up but needed expertise on the clinical side. Simons is a doctorate-level physical therapist but realized she needed the biomechanical side. The collaboration was a natural fit.

The lab’s 10-camera Vicon Nexus system gives Caruthers and Simons the ability to study movement in three dimensions with great accuracy and precision. Once reflective markers are placed on various anatomical landmarks of the subject, the cameras track and recreate the subject’s three-dimensional movement. This data can then be further analyzed on a biomechanical level by examining variables like joint angles, velocities, and accelerations throughout the entire motion.

In other applications, Otterbein athletes use the lab to study, for example, their baseball pitching motions, and pinpoint specific biomechanical patterns that could be worked on to improve their delivery. But Caruthers and Simons are taking the technology to a different generation.

“By allowing us to evaluate body movement in senior citizens — to see how their joints are moving, how they use space, their velocity of movement,” Simons said, “we can correlate what we see in the physical world with the biomechanical measures in the data and perhaps help improve their movement during daily living activities to reduce the risk of falls.”

Caruthers and Simons hope to present their findings at conferences and in research journals.

Students are identifying best practices in senior citizens’ activities of daily living, including gait, rising from a chair, and stair climbing.

English Professor Jeremy Smith realized a few years ago his teaching and research interest in comparative literature would pair well with Associate Professor of History Richard Yntema’s focus on European economic and social histor y. Smith approached Yntema to teach an Integrative Studies course together, and that’s how INST 2204: Happiness and the Good Life was born.

In their course, Smith and Yntema lead students to discover how Western societies have defined “the good life” and the critical social challenges each society faced. They examine beliefs, culture, and conflicts over four eras: classical Athens, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, and post-World War II Europe.

“We have a lot of common interests,” Smith said. “I always thought it would be a true integrative course to teach the great works of Western literature in tandem with Western civilization concepts. That’s what we do.”

Smith and Yntema use the texts of classic literature and history to examine ancient concepts and compare them to contemporary topics. The class integrates the study of social, political, and economic history with the close reading of works by Sophocles, Dante, Mars, and Camus.

“Raising questions with students about concepts such as virtue and justice provides them with more of an openness to the past by looking at it in a multidimensional way,” Yntema said. “Examining the past and relating it to the present highlights juxtapositions and inequalities students may not have realized before or allows them to see current issues in new ways.”

Smith has pursued his research interests in religion, philosophy, and literature throughout his career. He is the author of The Staircase of a Patron, a book chronicling the United Brethren in Christ’s presence in Sierra Leone, with a special focus on the missionary work of Otterbein graduate Lloyd Mignerey ’1917.

Yntema’s research focuses on European economic and social history. He explores the development of capitalism in Holland before 1800 in a global framework. In 2010, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Utrecht. In his courses he explores the Renaissance and Reformation, revolutions in early modern Europe, and global capitalism, among other eras.

The collaboration contributes a humanistic capstone to Otterbein’s Integrative Studies program and is a prime example of how Otterbein’s faculty community maintains Otterbein’s commitment to the contemporary significance of a liberal arts education.

​Dear Friends,

We all have our little favorite memories, moments, and places at Otterbein. One of mine is at the back of Towers Hall, on the southwest corner of the building. In the mulch by the building are daylilies and I have noticed these particular daylilies are Otterbein’s first sign of spring. Their green shoots are the first to appear in February and their flowers the first to bloom in March. Seeing those green shoots appear is a better predictor than any groundhog that spring is coming.

And now it is here! Spring on campus is a frantic schedule of celebrations, performances, honorary inductions, and countless other events designed to mark the end of another school year, and for the Class of 2023 the culmination of their Otterbein education. It is exhilarating and all builds up to graduation day.

You will find some of that same energy in the pages of this magazine. Otterbein has so much going on, it can seem a little dizzying at times. But, it is all an expansion and celebration of what has always made this place so special. You can read more about the remarkable Class of 2023 — those whose first year on campus was cut short by a pandemic.

You will learn about how our great faculty are working across departments and disciplines to create dynamic student learning experiences. And, of course, there are always campus leaders to highlight — past and present — who have transformed Otterbein and all the lives we touch.

Leadership has always mattered. Otterbein is leading again in higher education. We are meeting the full cost of tuition for lower income students — without loans. While other schools talk about affordability, we are walking the walk.

Our formation of an independent university system is also garnering a great deal of attention. I have been asked to speak at several higher education conferences and find colleagues across the country that know of Otterbein, know of our innovative spirit, and want to learn more. We have a growing list of other institutions interested in joining the effort to expand access for adult learners and so far, the Higher Learning Commission and other regulatory bodies have been supportive.

There is a lot going on and it can feel a little overwhelming at times. But, we can each do our part — starting with my favorite daylily telling me spring is coming. And nothing can stop Otterbein when we are all pulling together.

Sincerely,

John L. Comerford, Ph.D.

There are not many university leaders who are willing to talk about the problems in American higher education, and even fewer willing to do something about it. On July 14, two leaders took the first step in doing the work of fixing a broken system, with a focus on contributing to society as a whole.

Otterbein University President John Comerford and Antioch University Chancellor Bill Groves, at an event livestreamed to both campuses, announced that the two universities were partnering with the intention to form a first-of-its-kind system of affiliated, independent, not-for-profit universities focused on shared graduate and adult learner programs.

The foundation of the system, and the calling card for future member universities, is the universities’ shared missions of providing access to an affordable, world-class education, while educating students to become engaged citizens advancing democracy; social, racial, and environmental justice; and the common good.

One advantage of the new system is that members will keep their distinctive undergraduate programs, branding, athletics, and student organizations. “Otterbein will always remain a residential undergraduate university built around meaningful faculty-student engagement and relationships,” Comerford said. “But given ongoing demographic trends, with decreasing numbers of high school graduates nationally for the next 15 years at a minimum, focusing only on undergraduates is not a sustainable path.”

Comerford noted that in Ohio alone more than two million adults have some college credit, but no degree.

“The system will additionally offer tailored workforce education programs with badges, certificates and other credentials to learners and business partners nationwide,” stated Comerford. “These workforce education programs not only help to keep and generate jobs in our local communities, they are important on-ramps for adult learners to pursue higher education and advanced credentials. Moreover, because the programs will be tailored to meet the specific needs of the employer, those businesses will ordinarily share in the cost of that education, improving access and affordability of higher education.”

Comerford laments the growing competition within higher education, driven by universities striving for prestige and rankings. “One of the most terrible aspects of our current model is that rather than judging universities by how they change the lives of the students they enroll, most rankings value how difficult it is for students to be admitted,” said Comerford. “The ‘most prestigious’ universities in the nation tend to admit a tiny percentage of the students who apply. Really? That’s how we share this incredible, life-changing resource, by closing the door on deserving students?”

Collaboration Over Competition

The new system prioritizes collaboration over competition. This innovative system allows the universities to expand adult learner and graduate degree offerings, to offer programs in more locations nationwide, to provide innovative learning modalities including online, low-residency, and hybrid settings, to create new opportunities for student engagement across institutions, and to enhance capacities and contain costs through shared services and improved technologies.

The system also gives Otterbein programs a national footprint. Antioch University currently has locations in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Yellow Springs, OH, and Keene, NH.

Faculty and staff teams are working to identify which Antioch University programs will be offered in central Ohio. They are also exploring which of Otterbein’s well-respected graduate nursing and health and sport sciences programs will be offered in these out-of- state locations.

The benefits of the new system will not be limited to adult learners and graduate students. Several exciting undergraduate opportunities are under consideration, including guaranteed early admission pathways between Otterbein undergraduate programs and Antioch University’s graduate programs. Possibilities include pathways from Otterbein psychology and sociology degrees to Antioch University’s many community mental health counseling master’s programs, as well as a connection between Otterbein’s bachelor of fine arts in creative writing with Antioch University’s master of fine arts program.

Other ideas under consideration would allow Otterbein undergraduates to spend a semester or term studying at an Antioch University location, for instance, allowing an environmental studies major to spend a semester in Keene, New Hampshire, home of the environmental studies graduate program.

Otterbein faculty, staff, and administrators have been in discussions about the new system for many months. “Otterbein University and Antioch University saw a huge opportunity to be ahead of the curve, proactive, and forward thinking in what is often an antiquated, slow-to-change higher education system. They both also saw a need to do something different at a time when change is sorely needed in higher education,” said Otterbein Professor Joan Rocks, Department of Health and Sport Sciences.

For more information about plans for this new national university system, visit www.otterbein.edu/system/.