Joseph Shields, Vice President for Research & Creative Activity and Dean of Ohio University’s Graduate College attends the 3 Minute Thesis Competition at the Stocker Center on February 15, 2017. Photo by Daniel Owen
By Joseph Shields
Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences
Nearly 1,000 new undergraduate students are streaming to Athens in June for orientation, their first of many Bobcat experiences.
They represent one of the largest incoming classes of Arts & Sciences students in recent years, and we are excited to welcome them as they begin their intellectual journey here at OHIO.
As David Wolfort ’74 noted during an Arts & Sciences Alumni Career Panel, today’s graduates are entering a very strong job market, especially for liberal arts graduates of the College of Arts & Sciences.
“As a matter of fact, you’re in high demand today. Very high demand,” says Wolfort, President of Olympic Steel. “I’m going to tell you right now, the prosperity of this country looks very strong. Now I couldn’t make that speech in 2009, nor could I make that speech in 1974 when I graduated because those were recession years. But you’re not in a recession year. You’re in a hyper-growth environment. And you have the ability to secure that job,” he said.
“We have to hire great people who want to come to work, who want to learn and are ambitious and have great intellect and want to be successful,” he said. Read more about Wolfort’s job search strategy for Arts & Sciences graduates.
Part of the legacy of former Dean Bob Frank is a College of Arts & Sciences that is committed to helping both our students and our alumni succeed in a diverse and changing world. One result of that commitment is a new menu of online programs that give alumni and recent graduates continued access to our top faculty in programs that can help advance their careers. We are introducing graduate certificates in GIS & Cartography; Data Analysis, and Gender, Sexualities and Health. And two new online master’s begin this fall: an M.S. in Chemistry and an M.A. in Law, Justice & Culture.
Coming Home to Arts & Sciences
As I begin my tenure as interim dean, it’s like coming home again. I arrived at the College of Arts & Sciences as an astrophysicist in 1996, but for the last seven years I have been working as OHIO’s Vice President for Research and Creative Activity and Dean of the Graduate College.
I am looking forward to seeing many alumni during the coming year. Some of you are volunteering at the Summer Law and Trial Institute, a free summer program for Southeastern Ohio high school students, or at a reception for STEMstart students getting their introduction to the sciences at OHIO.
Our third Arts & Sciences Career and Networking Reception is on Jan. 31, 2019. Last year more than 80 alumni came back to review resumes and help Arts & Sciences students practice networking. And we are adding an Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Career Day on Oct. 5. For more information about volunteering with career events and more, contact Lisa Cohen, our Director of External Relations.
You’re invited to a groundbreaking for our new Chemistry Building on Aug. 30.
I hope to see many of you at Homecoming on Oct. 20, 2018. Plan to stop by the College of Arts & Sciences tent at Tailgreat Park.
The search for a permanent dean of Arts & Sciences will commence in the fall. I am honored to lead the College during this year of transition.
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