Classes at Ohio State are back in session, and we are attempting to function as close to “normal” as possible.  This means most of our courses are meeting in person, although we offered some courses on-line even before COVID and continue to do so.  This semester has been challenging so far with the current surge, but I think our faculty and students have learned to be adaptable.

We are tracking toward having our largest Spring graduating class ever, with over 160 students expressing an intention to graduate.  As we prepare to launch these graduates, I want to invite any of you or your companies seeking talent to consider connecting with our career services team (Hadella.1@osu.edu) or participating in our Spring Environmental and Sustainability Career Fair.  There are opportunities to recruit and connect with students (from across the University, in addition to our School) in-person or virtually.  See the link above for more details.  Many of our top employers regularly participate in these events, but we are always looking for ways to connect our students to new opportunities, especially beyond Ohio.

I also want to report that as per university policy, academic units such as SENR undergo an external review every seven or eight years.  In November we were visited by an all-star team of reviewers from the University of Minnesota, Duke and the University of Florida who reviewed our self-study and spent three days with us learning more about our work and how we operate.  The review team has now provided us a report with some quite helpful feedback on how we might improve.  Most of the substantive recommendations were not surprising and generally were in alignment with issues we were already seeking to address.  The reviewers were particularly attentive to the challenges we face as a result the doubling of our student population over the last eight years.  This sustained growth has been remarkable, but we are reaching a point where our size could adversely impact the quality of our offerings and programs.  Interestingly, we have not been actively recruiting to grow our student numbers, but we believe our strong reputation, the quality of our instruction, and the general uptick in environmental concern among young people are contributing factors.  We had thought the growth might taper off, but it hasn’t, and we are now having to look at strategies of control the growth.

I’m going to close, though, by sharing a couple of the representative quotes from the external review that jumped out to me that I think some of you may appreciate.  The first one is probably my favorite but the last is the most touching.

• “SENR is a scrappy, innovative, entrepreneurial unit that is becoming known as the hub for all things environment [at OSU].”
• “Faculty, staff and students are committed to what the School is doing and this is an intangible and invaluable resource that should not be underestimated in its worth. Their identity defies easy description in one or two themes but is best encompassed by their innovative and entrepreneurial nature.”
• “Undergraduates love their major, faculty, and staff; students are “blown away” by the quality of instruction and attention that they receive in their majors”

I so appreciate our community of students!  I hope all of you are doing well and keeping healthy and safe. 

Best wishes,

Jeff Sharp
Director, School of Environment and Natural Resources