President's Blog

September 2022: Moving Forward Together

The beginning of the academic year is always a great time to reflect on our shared vision for Owens: As the premier two-year college in Northwest Ohio, Owens Community College will be the first choice for students seeking career credentials and university transfer, and will be recognized as an indispensable partner for businesses, educational institutions and community organizations.

We will realize our vision by moving forward together!

We are starting this year with many exciting things happening, a few of which I’ll mention here. Last fall we created the Owens Findlay Task Force charged to propose academic programming for our Findlay-area Campus and we’re already implementing the recommendations.

We are launching the Physical Therapist Assistant program with two cohorts of students this fall. We’ve hired an additional faculty member and we opened a new lab. Additionally, for several programs in our School of Nursing and Health Professions, students will have expanded clinic site access to direct patient care as part of our new agreement with Blanchard Valley Health System.

Our partnership with Blanchard Valley is one of several of which we are very proud! These strategic partnerships enhance the student experience, our campuses, the communities we serve, and help move us further to realizing our shared vision.

One new partnership is with both the Employers’ Association and with the Tiffin University Center of InterculTUral. They will conduct training titled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Building Cultural Competencies. Our trustees, executive leadership team, supervisors and organizational staff will all participate. The goals are for participants to think deeply, recognize and minimize their own respective biases, advocate for others by stepping up with courage and respect for the sake of valuing others who are different from themselves, and creating a workplace environment that celebrates, welcomes and respects differences.

This training is a recommendation of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Task Force, created last spring. This task force was charged with developing a DEIJ strategic plan that will dovetail into the College’s strategic planning process this fall. The team has made significant progress and has recommended this training to support our efforts.

Assuring that we’re an inclusive college is of great importance to Owens, as is our focus on our college culture. Another strategic initiative we’ve implemented is our College Forum. We created this advisory body to promote engagement, transparency and communication. We launched this group this spring with 35 members representing executive leadership, deans, chairs, faculty, professional and support staff. To model continuous improvement, we assessed the College Forum and created a small task force which recommended enhancements that we are implementing at our next meeting. Agendas include meaningful and constructive discussion and problem-solving on College-wide matters as well as addressing issues of broader concern.

And finally, I am excited to share that we have begun the process of our new strategic plan and I’ll be sharing more on that process in later communications.

In the meantime, I’m grateful that we are moving forward together. I thank you for your continued dedication to our students, and your unparalleled support of Owens and our Northwest Ohio community. I look forward to an incredible year as we continue to focus on our path together.

Dione D. Somerville, Ed.D.
President