Editor’s Note: After consultation with the Faculty Senate four years ago, the president’s annual State of the University report transitioned from a spoken address to a written account. Below is 2018’s edition; readers are encouraged to post questions and comments.
To the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Community:
Reflecting on the past year, I am exceptionally grateful to the remarkable faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. In the last 12 months, we have had much to celebrate, and when faced with a challenge, have come together to support each other.
In 2018, we welcomed new leaders. Provost and Executive Vice President Ben Vinson III joined us in July from George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. An acclaimed historian of Latin America, Provost Vinson also has a faculty appointment in our Department of History. Among his first initiatives are strategic planning and implementation of recommendations from the Provost’s Commission on Undergraduate Education (CUE). He has also spent considerable time getting to know our campus community through town halls, group meetings, and even walkway.
In the fall, became dean of the Case School of Engineering. Previously, he spent nine years as head of Purdue University’s largest academic unit as well as served as an accomplished researcher in system and control theory. Dean Balakrishnan also has a faculty appointment in our Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
In August, we welcomed more than . These students come from 50 different countries and 17 percent are from underrepresented groups. Fourteen of these students are Cleveland Scholars—students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and East Cleveland Schools who have earned full-tuition scholarships. Recently, we heard from .
This spring, we launched the Student Success Initiative to help us increase our students’ opportunities to flourish in all aspects of their undergraduate experience. It is also a first step in addressing one of the CUE recommendations. I was delighted that we could use a , along with matching funds from our Board of Trustees, as start-up funding for the Student Success Initiative. Under the leadership of Interim Associate Provost Tom Matthews, we have hired 15 navigators who will support our undergraduate students during their entire time at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, working closely with students’ faculty mentors. Faculty members also are engaged in the Student Success Initiative through a Faculty Advisory Group, an ad hoc committee of the Faculty Senate, and a Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education Subcommittee on Academic Advising, Mentoring and Student Success.
This year, we celebrated our School of Medicine’s 175 years of excellence in education, research and improving the health and wellness of our communities. During almost two centuries, we have seen significant changes to how we educate physicians and physician scientists, and along the way, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø’s School of Medicine has remained a leader in advancing curricula and forging exceptional clinical partnerships. In spring 2019, we look forward to opening the Health Education Campus with Cleveland Clinic. Here we will take interprofessional education to the next level by educating together in one building our medical, nursing, dental and physician assistant students. This fall, we launched a search for a central leader of these efforts who will report to Provost Vinson.
The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center celebrated its 30th anniversary of advancing the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. We are proud of how the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center has remained at the forefront of making cancer breakthroughs by bringing together hundreds of top researchers from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals and has secured its role as the driving force in advancing cancer research to benefit patients in Northeast Ohio, nationally and internationally. This year, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center scored for the first time , which is the highest possible, from the National Cancer Institute after its review and renewal of its status as a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. We are thrilled to be in the world-renowned company of Memorial Sloan Kettering Center and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Additional milestones include now based at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. This year also marks , a student group that emerged out of calls from students to improve the experiences of African-American students on our campus. The African American Society then and today has greatly influenced significant and enduring changes on our campus.
Earlier this year, a group of faculty members with expertise in trauma and clinical social work established the Center on Trauma and Adversity. Here they advance trauma-focused research as well as training for social workers so they can effectively assess, intervene and treat individuals and communities affected by trauma.
Now in its fifth year, the leads the university’s efforts to integrate new technology into our research and educational programs. This year, the Interactive Commons launched a second .
Our faculty, staff and students continue their impressive research and scholarship and innovative academic programs, made possible through funding from the government, philanthropy and other sources. Examples include:
- Researchers at the Mandel School are .
- A faculty member and students at the Case School of Engineering are using a .
- A professor in the Department of Art History and Art recently co-authored a book, .
- A report issued by a human rights group co-founded by our School of Law co-dean Michael Scharf .
- School of Dental Medicine researchers found that .
- Researchers at the Weatherhead School of Management .
- Our School of Medicine and Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing received a .
- A School of Medicine faculty member is leading a national collaboration The faculty member is part of the leadership team of the Cleveland Brain Health Initiative, a collaboration of neuroscientists and physician scientists from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, MetroHealth Medical Center, Kent State University, and Northeast Ohio Medical University.
