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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.

Otterbein University is mourning the passing of President Emeritus Thomas J. Kerr IV on Aug. 6, 2021.

Kerr joined the faculty in 1963 and served as president from 1971 to 1984.

“Tom was dedicated to service and lived that out at Otterbein. Everyone who knew him was better for it, including me. I am proud to have called him a friend and to continue his work of caring for Otterbein and our students,” said President John Comerford.

Kerr was born Oct. 8, 1933, in Columbus, Ohio. He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University in 1956, a master’s degree in history from the University of Buffalo in 1959, and a doctorate degree in social science from Syracuse University in 1965.

He came to Otterbein as an assistant professor of history. As a faculty member, he was active on campus committees and served as acting academic dean for seven months from 1969 to 1970.

Kerr was selected from a pool of 117 candidates to become the 18th president of Otterbein in 1971, when he was only 37 years old. In his inauguration program, it was noted that although he was “young in years,” he already had “a wide range of experience as a scholar, teacher and college administrator.”

As a president, Kerr was known as a builder of ideas, implementing innovative programs that established Otterbein as a leader in higher education—programs that other universities would later implement.

When he accepted the position in 1971, Kerr laid out his plans for his future presidency in a statement, which partially reads: “Private colleges face financial problems stemming from rising costs and increased competition for students. Progress cannot come primarily through growth but must come through reassessment of our present programs. We must also conceive imaginative new programs responsive to the needs of both our rapidly changing society and our students who become its future leaders. We must develop a flexible curriculum combining study and action.”

In response to his insights about the future of higher education, Kerr launched the University’s nationally acclaimed Integrative Studies curriculum, which remains a model curriculum in higher education today, as well as the continuing education program for adult learners. He also launched Otterbein’s signature programs in nursing and equine science. He created new partnerships for Otterbein, many of which remain strong today.

In a 2014 interview, Kerr said, “The sense of total community and its educational impact, both the curricular and the co-curricular programs, create a unique and really outstanding environment. That community goes out in rings to the metropolitan area, into the larger country and the world.”

Viewing students as future leaders, Kerr valued the role of students in governing the University. As a faculty member, he was involved with the reorganization of the University’s governance system. During his presidency, Otterbein became the first university in the nation to have students and faculty seated as permanent, voting members of its board of trustees.

“The most important thing you could do in your decision-making process came in the recruiting of faculty and staff members and making sure that they would continue the traditions of the community and decision making in the community, which was a very open governance system…involving students. It was a learning experience at all levels and a unique system when it was implemented in the late ’60s, and has continued its tradition today,” Kerr said in 2014.

Kerr also led changes to facilities, often with a focus on strengthening the arts at Otterbein. In 1972, he dedicated the new library, which was named the Courtright Memorial Library seven years later and houses the Becker Gallery for art on the lower level. When the Rike Center was built in 1975 to address changing needs for Otterbein’s athletics program, the shift allowed the Alumni Gymnasium to be renovated into a hub for arts on campus. The gymnasium was reborn as the Battelle Fine Arts Center in 1979. Another advancement in the arts was the addition of the scene shop to Cowan Hall in 1982, which provided space to build more elaborate sets for Otterbein’s theatre productions.

During Kerr’s presidency, the endowment rose from $2.9 to $6.9 million. After his retirement from higher education at the age of 50, he continued to raise money to fund higher education initiatives. He later served as president of the Grant Medical Center Development Foundation in Columbus, Ohio.

An editorial in The Columbus Dispatch at the time of Kerr’s resignation announcement stated, “Thomas J. Kerr IV, president of Otterbein College, will end his 13-year tenure in June on a high note. At a time when many small private colleges are in serious trouble, Kerr leaves the Westerville institution with an increased enrollment, substantially greater endowment support, new buildings completed and a number of new programs in place geared to changing educational needs.”

Kerr remained involved with Otterbein after his retirement, attending events and even researching and speaking about Otterbein’s history to alumni audiences and the Westerville Historical Society. The Presidents Gallery exhibit on the second floor of Towers Hall displays his research on the other presidents, as well as Kerr’s own achievements as the 18th president.

In a 2014 interview, he stated, “(Otterbein) is a university of opportunity and it has provided countless opportunities for students—sometimes second chances—and the strength of the sense of community is so exceptional that it distinguishes it from many other schools.”

He added, “I’m certainly proud that I had the opportunity to serve (at) a university that has so many successful graduates and so many successful stories of their experiences when they were students here.”

President Emeritus Kathy Krendl recognized her predecessor’s impact on the university. “President Kerr’s legacy lives on in the essential and distinctive character of an Otterbein education and its commitment to being accessible to a diverse population of students. His vision for the institution continues to serve as an important touchstone.”

Bob Gatti, vice president emeritus for student affairs, said, “Tom Kerr was a gentle, thoughtful, kind person who, along with his wife, Donna, loved Otterbein.”

He is survived by his wife, Donna Kerr; children, Thomas Kerr V, Cheryl Kerr Coleman, and Kathleen Kerr Hansen; and eight grandchildren.

Retiring faculty leave behind a legacy for new faculty to continue

As students and alumni know well, Otterbein faculty members do more than lecture behind a podium. Faculty devote their lives to guiding their students through mentorship, research, networking, and other support that often extends beyond graduation. The work of Otterbein’s faculty members leaves a timeless impression on students and often shapes the direction of their careers and lives.

At the end of the 2021 academic year, seven highly respected and long-serving faculty members retired. Between them, they committed a combined 201 years of service crafting Otterbein students to go into the world and make a difference.

These retirees are passing the light of learning onto newer faculty members, ensuring the Otterbein experience they helped to build will continue for generations to come.

Also retiring but not profiled is Professor Lou Rose, who joined the faculty of the Department of History and Political Science in 1991. Rose continues to serve as the executive director of the Sigmund Freud Archives, a role he has held since 2015.

New Faces, Same Commitment

As beloved faculty members retire, new members are making their mark. In their relatively short time on campus, these professors have made a big impact.

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