From OWENS COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Dr. Dione D. Somerville began her fourth academic year as president on Monday, Aug. 12 by sharing highlights of the Owens Community College strategic plan for faculty, staff and community guests, including Ohio Association of Community Colleges president and CEO Avi Zaffini.
She also recognized this year’s Presidential Teaching Award recipient, professor of English Cory Hoover, who leads the innovative Open Educational Resources (OER) program which has helped save students more than $2 million the past three academic years. She began teaching at Owens in Fall Semester 2000. A recipient of the TRIO Champion Award (2021), Hoover has been active at Owens, including helping launch the Center for Teaching and Innovation, developing numerous presentations, workshops and events and serving as a lead Honors Program advisor (2012-2021).
The address was held twice, at the Findlay-area Campus in the morning and again on the Toledo-area Campus in hybrid format in the afternoon.
Since taking over the Owens presidency in June 2021, Somerville has prioritized engaging community leaders. More than three dozen community leaders attended the two presentations.
Zaffini began his tenure leading the state’s 23 community colleges in mid-July. Speaking briefly at both presentations, he said Ohio community colleges continue to adapt and collaborate in varied partnerships to meet Ohio’s workforce needs.
Somerville focused her Owens address on the strategic plan adopted in 2023.
“Last year, in the first year of our plan, we worked to put a framework in place that would enable our success moving forward,” Somerville said. “We are kicking off our second year and looking forward to continued momentum.”
She utilized the plan’s six objectives to showcase what the academic year will feature, including:
- Building a community of belonging
- The year-long, college-wide Big Read program features author Sara Novic’s book, “True Biz”
- Men’s soccer returns to Owens Express sports, led by former Express player and Owens alumni Nate Baer
- The Center for Campus and Community Connections continues to be a model for serving students’ basic needs, at institutions in Ohio and beyond
- Expanding partnerships
- Owens is positioned to provide relevant education and training as the only community college partner in the Northwest Ohio Innovation Consortium’s new $31.3 million Glass Centre of Excellence project
- The Water Workforce Coalition, a collaborative effort with TMACOG and the City of Toledo, continues with a second cohort of students this semester
- Jill of All Trades returns in October during National Manufacturing Month with a goal of tripling the exposure to the trades for young people in the community
- Developing an agile framework
- The president applauded the faculty’s engagement to an initial assessment workshop created as a follow up to the Higher Learning Commission’s mid-cycle review site visit last October
- The first cohort of the new cardiac sonography associate degree is full in anticipation of meeting local labor demands
- Trellis Strategies is studying the transportation challenges of college students as a follow up to the City of Toledo feasibility study
- In Findlay and throughout Hancock County, Trellis Strategies is beginning a study focused on enrollment patterns and future enrollment opportunities for the Findlay-area Campus
- Deepening employee engagement
- The president’s leadership team welcomed new Human Resources vice president, Dr. Leslie Erwin over the summer. She will lead employee engagement opportunities.
- Led by the Owens Foundation and a committee of alumni, the college’s inaugural Alumni Hall of Fame class was announced last spring.
- Ensuring a sustainable organization
- The president outlined the fiscal year 2025 budget and noted a few additional funding resources supplementing state capital funds, including the state’s community investment funding and grants
- Phase 1 of the $31.3 million Healthcare Education Center will open for Fall Semester. After Phase 2 is completed next spring, a grand opening will be staged in March 2025.
- Telling our story
- More than a half-million people have attended Owens for credit since the college opened in 1965, according to college research
- Since the 2013-14 school year, 37 percent of Owens students have transferred to and graduated from a four-year college or university
- The college’s 60th anniversary will be celebrated during the 2025-26 academic year
