I would like to offer my thanks and congratulations to Candace Kendle on her reappointment as a Trustee. Thank you, Candace, for everything you have done for the university and for what you will do going forward.
And now for my report, I would like to begin with the terrific news that UC’s Interior Design program has once again been rated No. 1 in the nation for the sixth year in a row. The undergraduate Architecture program is No. 2, while the graduate program is No. 6. These rankings come from DesignIntelligence, a design industry publication that surveys employers. The question they ask is, “Which institutions graduate your most outstanding students as employees?”
Our CCM Musical Theater Department this year celebrates its 35th anniversary. Currently, we have three musical theater graduates in leading roles on Broadway, Shoshana Bean, in “Wicked,” Sara Gettelfinger in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and Angela Gaylor in “La Cage aux Folles.”
We have appointed a new Intellectual Property Associate Vice President. She is Anne Chasser, formerly Commissioner for Trademarks for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, D.C. She oversees all activities of the UC Intellectual Property Office, which is responsible for the patenting, licensing, and technology transfer of discoveries made by our UC scientists.
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals has acquired exclusive rights to a heart failure treatment technology jointly invented by UC and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. This is yet another excellent demonstration of a collaboration that can help our local community and regional economy, while also saving lives.
Speaking of collaboration, UC, Xavier, and NKU are beginning to team up on some issues, including tsunami relief in response to the disaster that struck Asia and Africa. Our fund-raising campaign continues until February 10, and all three campuses will observe a minute of silence tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. — exactly one month since this cataclysm occurred. Provost Perzigian has asked our Institute for Global Studies and Affairs to take the lead in orchestrating further conversations and planning regarding UC’s long-term response.
Just in time for the 75th anniversary of the Taft Fund in our McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, a Taft House and expanded Taft Research Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences will be housed in the new Stratford Heights development. The house will open in September of this year.
Sean Arthurs, a third-year UC Law student, has been awarded a 2005 Skadden Fellowship, making him UC’s first student to earn one of the nation’s most prestigious and competitive fellowships in what is dubbed the “Legal Peace Corps.” His winning proposal focuses on responding to the needs of the Latino population in Butler and Hamilton Counties.
Of the only 15 American students competing in the prestigious International Competition of Young Fashion Designers in Paris in December, one-third were from UC’s DAAP. One of our seniors, Mary Wolf, came home a winner, earning the top prize in “accessories” for a handbag. Perhaps you saw it in the paper. She created it from a walnut tree, a branch scavenged from her grandparents’ backyard.
From playground equipment to new locker rooms, local schools and organizations will get a much-needed helping hand from UC and XU during the Eighth Annual Crosstown Helpout this Saturday. About 1000 volunteers from both schools will paint walls, wax floors, clean windows, pick up trash, sort clothes, and build bookshelves. Last year, the picture in the Enquirer was of two kids painting each other’s hair, but I trust that some of this paint got on the gymnasium walls.
UC has joined with other colleges and universities to issue a statement titled “Calling the Question.” This report commits us to extended community engagement. Since the Kellogg Commission report, there has been a decade of calls to action. This one, penned at the hand of a number of UC faculty and staff along with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was issued from the Wingspread Johnson Foundation Retreat.
You also have at your places our most recent news clips and this impressive full-size color feature from this wonderful magazine called Metropolis, which states “Renowned for signature buildings by star architects, the University of Cincinnati charts a new course by asking three firms to think collaboratively about place.” Place is the word used in UC|21 Goal 5 — not that we are dubbing these goals with numbers, but we really probably are — which is to create a sense of place at UC. Metropolis took note.
As well, an article in Business Officer penned by Dale McGirr, Ron Kull, and Scott Enns, also talks about neighborly negotiations and features our work in Uptown. But, things just don’t stop there. I have from the hand of Mary Stagaman last Sunday’s New York Times magazine in which Thom Mayne, the main Architect for the Recreation Center is also featured, as are we.
And, we have mentioned The Chronicle of Higher Education before. It has launched a Web site of exciting new campus architecture; it launched that website with only two universities, one of them being the University of Cincinnati. That is a lot of wonderful press.
Let me add to that that there was also recently an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about research universities in the Ohio Valley — meaning UC, UK, the University of Louisville, and Wright State — collaborating. It was a wonderful three-page article, and it arrived in our mail boxes the day Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University came to our campus for the third time in our 3C collaborations. Very, very timely since it was about the GRI, and we were at the GRI.
And, of course, Kurt Sassmanshaus, Professor of Classical Violin, was featured in a Wall Street Journal article on online education.
I conclude my good news with an update on our efforts to reenergize alumni markets. Since our last Board meeting we have been to Fort Worth, Phoenix, Tucson, and Detroit. In Detroit we took 23 faculty and staff from DAAP and Engineering who attended the Annual Detroit Auto Show on a facilities’ tour of GM Design, and we shared with GM the collaborations we do between those outstanding colleges.
Today, we continue our new tradition of featuring our deans and colleges. We are highlighting, as you know, two at a time during each regular Board meeting moving alphabetically through the colleges. Today I would also like to call your attention to the bios of the deans you have met previously and will meet today. Those bios are in your packet. Today we will learn more about Clermont College from David Devier and about the College-Conservatory of Music from Doug Lowry. I believe Dean Devier will take the lead.
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