Office of the President, University of Cincinnati


	Office of the President

Remarks by President Nancy L. Zimpher to the Board of Trustees November 29, 2005

Good morning. First, I have someone exceptional to acknowledge. As most of you know, unless we have a special meeting unexpectedly, today is George Schaefer’s last meeting as a Board member. He had commented that he has mixed emotions: joy and happiness! That is a classic George Schaefer remark. It has been 11 years of diligent service, and throughout this morning you will hear more. But I will express the gratitude of the Board, the State of Ohio, and the University of Cincinnati to George. We should not be miserly in our applause. We are going to recognize George again later on, and we will do it as many times as it takes.
On the good news front – UC, in cooperation with Cincinnati USA’s higher education community, raised more than $123,000 for Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief. The donations were presented to the American Red Cross in a ceremony on November 17, presided over by Mitchel Livingston.
This month we also held our first-ever UC Volunteer Recognition Program, honoring all UC faculty and staff who perform service in the community. According to our new database, more than 314 UC volunteers are involved in over 790 service activities. Our new database, we think, will ultimately yield quite a bit of documentation on involvement. But at the moment, we estimate that over 7300 hours of service are delivered to this community on behalf of our faculty and staff monthly. That is quite an accomplishment!
I hope everyone saw the November issue of Cincinnati magazine, which features UC’s Dr. Stephen Strakowski on the cover. Timothy Broderick of the Department of Surgery, Susan McElroy of the Department of Psychiatry, and Dr. Strakowski of the Division of Bipolar Disorders Research, were featured in the magazine’s “Top Doctors” edition. The issue listed about 200 of our faculty among the region’s best doctors.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of NetWellness, the consumer health Web site that began as a UC Medical Center experiment with just one faculty participant. It now flourishes with over 37,000 pages of health information produced by the faculty of UC, Ohio State, and Case Western Reserve. The "Ask an Expert" feature has expanded to include 398 health faculty who volunteer their time to answer consumer questions. Today, NetWellness has outlasted most Web sites, largely because of the contributions of the faculty, who have answered over 27,000 questions to date.
Drs. James Herman and Yvonne Ulrich-Lai from the Department of Psychiatry garnered international media attention recently because of their research finding that eating or drinking sweets may decrease the production of a stress-related hormone. Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C.
Henry Nasrallah, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, has won the Psychiatric Times Teacher of the Year Award for his dedication to mental health education.
The Department of Environmental Health has received $7 million from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to operate its Education and Research Center through the year 2010. Founded in 1977, the center teaches young professionals the skills necessary for pursuing occupational and safety health careers.
The Medical Center has received a $2 million endowment from Professor Emeritus Ira Abrahamson Jr. to establish the Ira A. Abrahamson, M.D., Endowed Chair of Pediatric Ophthalmology. The Abrahamson Chair will be awarded to the Director of the UC Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology, who also will serve as Director of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The UC-Cincinnati Children’s programs work jointly in the diagnosis and treatment of retinoblastoma, the leading type of eye cancer in children.
Two DAAP fashion seniors – Stephanie Otto and Dong Eun Kim – were national finalists in an international competition sponsored by Air France. The students traveled to San Francisco November 11 and 12 to compete against their peers from 42 other schools.
Also through DAAP, UC opened this fall a new art gallery Downtown. It is called University Galleries on Sycamore, and it showcases our wonderful fine arts collection in a space convenient and readily available to the community.
As you know, we have tapped Mike Thomas as UC’s new Athletics Director, replacing Bob Goin, but we know that is impossible. However, yesterday we had some fine festivities to honor Bob and to say good-bye. I am thrilled to report that Mike starts in just two days and possesses the combination of Bowl Championship Series and AD experience our search committee sought.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, our UC law students involved with the Ohio Innocence Project were featured on the A&E network on the “American Justice” program.
Also in the College of Law, Professor Paul Caron made the Wall Street Journal’s list of most influential blogs in their fields. In the TaxProf Blog, he compiles the latest tax news articles, legislation, academic papers, and updates from other tax blogs. It also contains links to state, federal, and international tax information.
Other good news at our College of Law is that the 1967 grad, William M. Barker, has been sworn in as the new Chief Justice for the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Our wonderful UC groundskeepers have been recognized by the Professional Grounds Management Society. UC was selected to win the Green Star Award in the “Urban University Grounds” category of their honors program.
Kudos also go to our Utilities Department. They have received a Certificate of Recognition from the Federal EPA for our combined heat and power performance.
While not exhausting all the good news, I must close with this news from Clermont College. We have opened a Milford Campus at Park 50 TechneCenter. This outreach center contains two interactive television and two high tech classrooms as well as a computer lab, and office support areas. Our BBA Extend program, which is our Bachelor of Business Administration located on the Clermont two-year campus, is being offered both day and night in this new location, as well as credit programs and non-credit training.