Dr. Mac A. Stewart
Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and
Vice Provost for the Office of Minority Affairs
I am grateful to the staff members of ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? for helping to build a sense of community among our Hispanic/Latino students and personnel here at Ohio State. Thanks to their work, and that of many others, the number of students with this heritage is growing. Even better news is that retention and graduation rates are rising, so the number of Hispanic/Latino alumni increases with every commencement ceremony.
Ohio State welcomes these changes, because we know that everyone benefits when diversity increases on our campuses. For more than 30 years our leadership has worked to support a course structure and an environment that would best prepare Ohio State students for success in the global community of the 21st century.
We continue to build toward that objective, through scholarships, through mentoring, tutoring, and specialized advising programs, and through cultural programming that encourages a campus-wide dialogue on diversity. I hope that the many readers of this issue will participate with us in the Office of Minority Affairs as we work to achieve our diversity goals.
Dr. Martha M. Garland
Vice Provost for Enrollment Services and Dean for Undergraduate Education
As another academic year begins, I am delighted to welcome you (or welcome you back) to the campus of The Ohio State University. In my experience, there’s nothing more exciting than each beginning of a new academic year, with all its promise of new challenges and new opportunities. I suspect that for those of you who are arriving at Ohio State for the first time, this is a particular time of anticipation and enthusiasm, and to you I offer an especially warm welcome!
I hope that this fall will be the time when you make a commitment to take the fullest possible advantage of your university opportunities: make new friends, engage with your academic work, join interesting co-curricular activities. Promise yourself that each quarter you will get to know personally at least one of your professors — instructors all hold office hours, and they really feel gratified when students take advantage of those times to clarify issues raised in class, discuss their career goals, or just in general show an interest in their intellectual work. Please also plan to take the fullest possible advantage of your living situation. Programming in the residence halls is designed to help you feel at home on campus, and your Residence Advisor can be an incredibly valuable resource.
We’re very proud of our student body, and extremely glad that you
are a part of it. Have a wonderful year!
