Dean’s Message | My Last Commencement as Dean of Arts & Sciences

Dean Robert Frank with alumni at the Arts & Sciences networking reception. From left: Patrick Mose ’12 , Lu Cao ’12 , Yue Dong ’17, Dean Frank, and Lara Wallace ’00.

By Dr. Robert Frank
Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences

This spring’s commencement will be the last I attend as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, as I am returning to my first love—teaching psychology.

May 11 is my last day as dean, and then I will take a much-needed sabbatical before I return to campus as “Professor Frank.”

Plans for a national search to find a successor dean for the College of Arts & Sciences will be announced at a later date. Serving as the college’s interim dean will be Joseph Shields, OHIO’s vice president for research and creative activity, dean of the Graduate College, and a professor in the Physics & Astronomy Department.

Since I came to Ohio University in 2012, I have had the pleasure to get to know many alumni, and I continue to be in awe of the accomplishments of our graduates who enter the world of careers and service armed with their liberals arts degrees and critical thinking skills.

Many of you returned to Athens on Feb. 1 to help hundreds of Arts & Sciences students build their Bobcat network at our second Arts & Sciences Networking Reception. We added resume review to this year’s event, and it was amazing to see industry and non-profit leaders sitting one-on-one, pen in hand, going over students’ resumes.

Some alumni brought corporate material and talked with students about specific internship and career opportunities. And all those conversations among alumni and students at the reception translated into students having a much broader view of career possibilities than they previously thought possible.

• See “Career Impact: Alumni Expand Possibilities for Students through Networking.”

I truly believe in the power of a liberal arts degree, both for students’ personal development and as engaged citizens who will help to solve the issues our society faces in the 21st century.

Please save the date for next year’s Arts & Sciences Networking Reception on your calendar: Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019—Alumni Networking Day here in Athens!