News and Notes: October 1, 2021

EPN is excited to host an event for our community of environmental and natural resource professionals on Growing the Future of Agriculture: Conversations with Black Farmers and Educators at Ohio State. The breakfast event on Oct. 12 will feature Black farmers sharing about opportunities and challenges that exist for growing and enhancing connections to the land through agriculture and other regenerative land and community practices, including for youth of color. This event will feature in-person and live streaming opportunities from the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center. Doors, coffee, and conversation open at 7:15 am with formal remarks starting at 8:10 am. The event will conclude by 9:30 am.

This program will feature a conversation with leaders from Central State and Ohio State universities about their efforts through Extension, engineering, and agricultural sciences to improve opportunities for Black farmers in Ohio. Yolanda Owens, a chief cultivator at Forage + Black, will moderate the conversation. Additionally, Ariella Brown, associate director for Gender Equity Programs and Education at Antioch College, will share few comments about the recent Black Farming: Community Land & Food Sovereignty Conference, next steps, and future activities. Learn more and register at go.osu.edu/epnOct21.

Join the Ohio State maple team at the sugarbush on the Mansfield campus on Oct. 9. Maple producers around the state will be participating in this annual event, which features sugarbush tours, woodland walks, and Ohio State syrup for sale. Visit ohiomaple.org/maple-madness to see all the Ohio maple producers participating in this event. If you want to travel, visit fallmapletour.com to explore all the states participating in the event from Oct. 8-17.

OSU Extension is celebrating “Urban October,” a worldwide campaign that the United Nations launched to focus on the opportunities and challenges created by the fast rate of change in cities. The theme of Ohio’s month-long campaign is “Celebrating Ohio Cities—Where We Live, Work, Play, Learn, and Serve.” This is OSU Extension’s first year to participate in Urban October. In coming years, we look forward to collaborating with additional university and community partners to build on this foundation and foster local, state, national, and global connections. If you’d like to get involved in any way, there are plenty of opportunities to keep the celebration and conversation going. Check out this one-minute video on Celebrating Ohio Cities (youtube.com/watch). More information is available online at go.osu.edu/urbanoctober.

Consider nominating one or more of your deserving CD colleagues for the 2021 Raymond A. Schindler Excellence in Community Development Extension Award. The $1,500 award recognizes an Extension CD professional for significant programmatic strengths, major contributions, and innovative approaches achieved over the course of his or her Extension career. To once again accommodate for this year’s virtual Extension annual conference, the nomination submission deadline has been moved up to Oct. 15.

You can read complete information about the award, including past recipients, as well as download the nomination form at comdev.osu.edu/about-cd/community-development-awards. This award has been named in honor of Raymond A. Schindler, one of the first Extension regional CD specialists who helped shape the Extension CD profession we know today. Ray’s contributions, from the earliest stages of the program area (early 1960s) to the present day as faculty emeritus, have been far reaching and impactful. The award is funded through the Extension CD Endowment. Contact David Civittolo (civittolo.1@osu.edu), interim assistant director for community development, if you have any questions.

This $1,500 cash award recognizes an FCS-focused program employee for significant programmatic strengths, major contributions, and innovative approaches achieved over the course of his or her Extension career. It is named in honor and memory of Marilyn R. Spiegel, former FCS assistant director. Funding is provided via interest income from the FCS Extension Development Fund. Nominations for this award must be made by an OSU Extension peer or team; individuals may not nominate themselves. An anonymous committee appointed by the FCS assistant director reviews the nominations and makes the award selection.

The award application packet (which includes a letter of nomination and a letter of support from the nominee’s supervisor) must be emailed to Pat Bebo, assistant director for family and consumer sciences, c/o Thallia Blight (blight.3@osu.edu) by 9pm on Nov. 1.

The college web team launched an update across all of our CFAES websites earlier this week, which touched all of the college’s 300+ websites and modified more than 30 individual modules.  As with any updates of this size, there are some bugs and oversights. The web team is working to fix any known issues as quickly as possible, and website content managers also are working with the web team as needed.

The adjustments were made for design reasons, as well as improved functionality across all of the sites and updated accessibility needs. Some more noticeable changes are in the location of the Give Now (Give Today) link, font and headline styles, the homepage slide show, menu, and size of the entire template on-screen. If you have questions about the update or notice some items on your unit website that might need to be addressed, contact Cheryl Buck (buck.19@osu.edu), Extension communication manager; and she’ll connect you with the web team to follow up.