“Synergy” is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations or units to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. This is exactly what we are trying to achieve at OSUIT with our new academic schools. By merging ten schools into four, we are bringing academic programs into much closer alignment than they have ever been before.
We are removing past barriers and creating opportunities for consultation and cooperation between professional colleagues from different disciplines, and we want our faculty members to be free to explore cross-disciplinary and hybrid learning opportunities for those who attend OSUIT.
We want to encourage a “synergy of ideas” that will lead to the creation of new pathways for our students that will position them for the careers of tomorrow. Future workforce needs are not static—they are evolving, and OSUIT must evolve with them.
Many employers who eagerly hire the graduates of OSUIT are looking for workers with a plethora of skills and a growing list of proficiencies. Our new academic alignment should allow OSUIT to keep up with the needs of industry and provide our students with the type of cross-training employers want.
I am encouraged by the prospects before OSUIT right now. I am confident in the talent and experience of our faculty members across this campus and in their ability to reach beyond the silos of the past. I am excited by the renewed sense of energy that has been brought about by four dynamic academic deans who have recently been appointed to new positions of leadership and by their forward-thinking goals and ideas for their schools. You can hear from each of them, in their own words, as I interviewed them for the Inside OSUIT series:
- Steve Olmstead – Dean of the School of Engineering & Construction Technologies
- Lisa Weis – Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences & Health
- Terryl Lindsey – Dean of the School of Transportation & Heavy Equipment
- Christian Bradley – Dean of the School of Creative & Information Technologies
My hope is that the deans and faculty members of these four new academic schools will find ways to strengthen all of our existing programs of study at OSUIT, grow our prospects, streamline our processes, and develop new instructional pathways for the future. At OSUIT, we have the talent and expertise—we have the industry connections—and now we have the power of “synergy.”
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