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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/.

How will you expand on the work that’s already being done at Otterbein?

It is both an honor and kind of a humbling experience to be the person chosen to lead the institution — an institution that’s 175 years old — on to hopefully even greater heights, especially as it pertains to moving toward a more diverse and equitable campus community.

What most interested you about joining Otterbein at this time in this role?

I started my career at an institution that was part of the Underground Railroad, Wilberforce University. That was my first opportunity to work in an institution that was so integral in the Underground Railroad and the freeing of enslaved Africans and African Americans. Coming to an institution that was so instrumental in that same movement set the stage for the latter part of my career.

From your standpoint, what does an inclusive and equitable campus look like?

It looks like a place where you see representation of diversity everywhere you go, and diversity does not just have to be represented in the color of someone’s skin or the way that person dresses or the gender of that person. If we are able to welcome and recognize that diversity on our campus and promote it, that’s what we’re looking for.

How will you expand on the work that’s already being done at Otterbein?

There are a lot of good things that are already going on that just need to be expanded upon. We just need to bring more voices to the table. It’s a matter of making sure that we include everyone that wants to be included, in the way in which they want to be defined and included.

How do you hope to engage with students?

We have to meet students where they are to make sure that we’re listening to the students and amplifying their voices and making sure those voices are heard. I think that’s part of why you have a Chief Diversity Officer now — to make sure their voices are being heard at the level of the cabinet and the Board of Trustees, in the community, and with the alums so their needs are being met and addressed.

What does culturally inclusive curricula look like and what is the benefit to students?

The concept of culturally responsive teaching practices, as I call it, came from a colleague of mine at Vanderbilt University, Professor Rich Milnor, who wrote a book called Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There. If we’re doing good things in the classroom, continue those things but don’t just stay there. Make sure that you’re taking on challenges, looking from different perspectives, and employing teaching practices that will hopefully engage students that may have a different background. We can know everything that we need to know about another person’s culture but still not understand that person. And that’s where the concept of not only culturally responsive teaching practice has become so important, but the concept of cultural humility. Cultural humility is the capacity for us, as faculty and staff members, to address our students at an appropriate level where they understand that we’re not that different from who they are becoming. They don’t know that we’ve had some of the same hardships and experiences. Some of us failed calculus just like they did, some of us had difficulties getting to our 8 a.m. class just like they did. Once we can get to that concept of cultural humility, students start to understand us better and trust is built.

Are there ways alumni can get involved or support the work that you are doing at Otterbein?

I’m going to be reaching out to Otterbein alumni to talk to a group of students about your career path and what you did in your career to succeed. Talk about the obstacles that — in that same spirit of culturally responsive teaching and cultural humility — show these students that you had the same struggles that they have and now you’re a lawyer or engineer. We want alumni encouraging our students, being a network for the students so they can catapult on to their successful careers.

What do you want the Otterbein community to know that’s a core part of who you are and how you like to do business?

I hope that the faculty and administrators on this campus, as well as our students and the people of Otterbein, Westerville, and Columbus, understand that we want to work with you. If you want me to come to your class and speak to them about diversity or to have a dialogue, then I will come, I will bring others with me, and we will continue to work with you. If you decide you want to do a program, talk to my office about possible collaborations because that’s the only way I will do business. You will hardly ever see a program sponsored by this one office or this one entity; it is going to be a litany of co-sponsors working in close association that support each other.

Frank E. Dobson Jr., Ph.D.

Frank is the new director of the Office of Social Justice and Activism. He has served in numerous capacities in higher education, teaching, and promoting campus diversity efforts nationwide. A published writer and scholar, he seeks to promote the “Beloved Community,” and the African concept of Ubuntu: “I am, because we are.” His novels, Rendered Invisible and The Race is Not Given, probe conflict and trauma due to racism, violence, and mental health.

Most recently, he has written on Black popular culture and film, including such diverse figures as Spike Lee, Clint Eastwood, Vin Diesel, and the legendary actor and athlete, Woody Strode. Dobson has served on several social justice boards, and he believes that social justice can be furthered through communication, empathy, and grace toward one another. Along with his daughter, Jasmin, he is coauthoring a series of children’s books titled Black Legacy Lessons, highlighting African American trailblazers.

The Campus Center renovation broke ground in March, and now phase one of this exciting project is nearly complete with many new features for our campus community.

“The Campus Center was initially constructed in 1964, so the renovations will modernize and bring the building into the 21st century,” said senior public relations major Hope Beverick ’23. “I’m looking forward to seeing the new plaza in front of the Campus Center and the addition of the second-floor parlor.”

Associate Director of New Student Transitions Colette Masterson served for many years as the director of the Center for Student Involvement, which is housed in the Campus Center. She thinks a renovated Campus Center is important to student life. “The Campus Center is truly the living room of the campus and student experience. These renovations will allow us to enhance the student experience outside the classroom.”

The focus for the first phase of the renovation is to make the building more accessible and inviting for all members of the Otterbein community. To achieve this, major improvements were necessary, including a new elevator at the southwest corner of the building, a plaza in front of the building with improved ramps, and new restrooms on the second floor and lower level.

“I see this project as an opportunity to create an inviting, collaborative space for students to use, socialize in, and enjoy all three levels of this building,” said Patrick Siconolfi, executive director of facilities management and planning.

Additional upgrades include a redesigned bookstore, new second-floor parlor and entrance to the Cardinal’s Nest dining hall, and new improvements to the lower- level theatre lobby and ticket booth.

“I think it will bring a renewed, invigorating spirit to the Campus Center. It shows the commitment of the University to invest in student spaces and make them places we want to congregate together, further enhancing the community feel of our campus. It makes me proud to be a student here,” said James Akers MBA’23, who is also the executive chef at Otterbein with Parkhurst Dining.

​Dear Friends,

There is something about place. In the early days of the pandemic, I tried working from home. But I did not like it. And it wasn’t just the distractions of three kids and a dog. I didn’t feel like the president of Otterbein at home at our kitchen table. I felt disconnected. So I quickly came back to the office well before campus had generally reopened. I had all of Roush Hall safely to myself, but I had a sense of place again. I could see Towers Hall, walk the campus, thank the facilities and police staff still doing their work, and connect to our purpose.

Part of that for me is knowing the same spaces were occupied by legends of our past. I will never know Lewis Davis, William Hanby, Mary Katherine Winter Hanby, Sarah Miller, William Fouse, or Kiyoshi Yabe. Yet, I know they are
here. Each of them and thousands of others left their legacies here. Legacies that live on. We are caretakers of those legacies and we are charged to advance their work.

The legacies that made Otterbein what it is today have a common theme – boldness. Imagine starting a college in a tiny frontier settlement not yet even a town. That’s bold. Opening it to men and women and putting them in the same classes. Bold. Recruiting Black students, even as most Black Americans were still enslaved. Bold. Rebuilding when most of the campus was lost to fire. Bold. Offering an education to Japanese Americans who were being vilified and interred during World War II. Bold. Inventing the first truly integrated curriculum in the country, giving students equal voice in governance, launching into new fields from nursing to engineering. Bold, bold, bold.

We take these moments in our history for granted now. We know the outcome — Otterbein being on the right side of justice and growing over time. But, those outcomes were not certain when the bold decisions were made. There have been countless moments in our history when we came to a fork in the road and faced a choice. One direction was cautious, stayed, expected, and followed the crowd. The other was risky, innovative, and put us into a position of leadership. You know which path we took — over and over again. Bold. And, as Robert Frost would say, it has made all the difference.

It is now our turn to stand at the fork. We face the aftermath of a pandemic, economic uncertainty, inflation, a demographic decline in the number of high school graduates, and shifting workforce demands. I can tell you the path most colleges are taking. It is as if they are following a sign, “hope things get back to normal,” that draws them ahead. Normal is recruiting high school students with merit aid and campus amenities that have little to do with learning. Normal is the good ol’ days when families paid full price without asking about outcomes, where meeting the budget just meant raising tuition on students with few choices but to pay.

Let those other colleges take that path. I am absolutely convinced it is a dead end. Otterbein will be bold.

Our path is serving new student populations left behind by high tuition and purely merit-based aid. It is serving first-generation students, caring more about changing lives than prestige or hollow accolades. Our path takes us to adult learners in more graduate and degree-completion programs. It does so in partnership with other colleges — community colleges and four year colleges — in recognition that most students do not follow a straight-line to a bachelor’s degree. Our path is wide and allows plenty of room for those who thought a private college education was out of their reach. The bold path challenges us to link our academic programs directly to career preparation for every student. And that we do so with corporations and employers at our side.

There are risks. We will travel alone as other colleges crowd around an ancient and failed business and educational model. We will make big bets and investments in the future and not every idea will work. We will ask for your trust and your support.

But, we will not go backwards looking for “normal.” As we move forward, mindful of the choices that shaped this special place, I hear our forebearers whispering in our ears…it’s time to be bold.

Sincerely,

John L. Comerford, Ph.D.