UPDATES FROM THE
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST

Something special happening in your life? Let us know so we can celebrate with you: officeoftheprovost@tiffin.edu

April 12th and 13th marked the 5th annual Tiffin University Student Research Conference. This multi-day celebration of student research consisted of nearly 100 presentations in multiple formats. On Tuesday, April 12, 70 students presented their research results in concurrent sessions. Evening activities were highlighted by Poster presentations from 11 students, remarks from the President and Provost, and a Keynote address by Karen Marquardt, the first female Assistant Chief in the history of the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department. Day one of the event closed with an awards dinner and a prize drawing. The following evening, TU’s innovative “Virtual Conference” sessions provided a platform for 12 additional students to present their work and answer questions from Faculty judges. In all, over 30 students earned “Certificates of Distinction” for their outstanding work.

Student Highlights

• Maryssa Oliver: Ms. Oliver is earning a B.S. Mathematics, and also taken courses through the Tiffin University/Lourdes University to earn her Adolescent to Young Adult Ohio Teaching license (7-12). She has passed all of her Ohio Assessment Examinations and will be completing her student teaching in Fall 2022. She is the first student from Tiffin University who will be teaching mathematics at the high school level.
• Zachary Tomlinson: Zachary Tomlinson has been accepted into the National Science Foundation Program for undergraduate students at Mississippi State. This is nationally a highly recognized achievement to be involved in research work during the Summer, and to be paid for the laboratory work he will be doing through this program. He is earning a B.S. in Forensic Science.

Faculty Highlight

• Professor Kylie Stocker has completed her coursework toward her Ph.D. English, Rhetoric and Composition from Bowling Green State University. She passed her Competency Exams in Spring 2022. She has completed this coursework in less than three years, while also serving Tiffin University in initiating and being the Faculty Advisor for First Generation Dragons. Her dissertation topic and research stems from her course development for the Dragon Engagement Course DEC 200 Famous Black Women.

Academic Year 2021-2022: Significant Accomplishments

• Center for Science and Technology: Completion and Opening: Faculty in the School of Arts & Sciences spent much time in the last two years working through the needs for laboratory facilities for not just the current science programs, but the needs for future potential programs. This has culminated in an amazing facility. Faculty spent much time giving advice, identifying materials, and discussing equipment and instrumentation needed. Faculty and students worked together with Tiffin University Facilities to move into the labs and unpack materials and supplies. Faculty moved into their new offices at the beginning of Spring semester. Faculty underwent training on the two new major instruments, the Anatomage Table and the DNA Sequencer Analyzer and on all of the new Exercise Science Equipment, including state of the art Bod Pod and Treadmills, connected to med-carts. Faculty from the School of Criminal Justice will be trained on the Anatomage Table for use in Criminalistics courses.
• Tiffin Core: All of the Tiffin Core courses (37 credit hours) are assessed to identify if Tiffin University is meeting goals in outcomes. For the third year of implementation, Tiffin University has identified that students are achieving at or above targeted levels in learning. I have attached the Outcomes Assessment data to this email.
• Masters Degrees:
  • Master of Arts Degrees: Faculty, working with the Dean and the Provost, has finalized the proposal for a new graduate degree at Tiffin University. This new degree will offer the ability to engage students beyond the undergraduate degree through continuing education into these new programs. Tiffin University will have MA degrees in English, with a concentration in either Rhetoric and Composition, or Literature. Tiffin University will also have an MA degree in Communication. These programs are critically important to Tiffin University offering applied humanities programs to open up doors for high school teachers to earn coursework to have qualification to teach College Credit Plus courses in Ohio.
  • Master of Science in Clinical Exercise Science: Faculty have approved, and ODHE and HLC have approved and accredited the M.S. CEP degree. This degree will be fully implemented beginning Fall 2023, but a pilot will be scheduled to open this degree option to current students earning a B.S. Exercise Science degree from Tiffin University. This degree will offer the opportunity to students to engage in earning a graduate degree from Tiffin University after earning a bachelor's degree.
• School of Arts & Sciences First Career Day: The School of Arts & Sciences held its first Career Day on March 16, 2022. Twenty-nine employers came to campus to work with students. Over 225 students attended this two hour event. At this time, SAS has had three student obtaining an internship position from this event. Credit goes to faculty and Ms. Amanda Hummel, Executive Director of Career Services, who worked hard to organize this event.

Student Highlights

• Marissa Nugent was the recipient of the F. H. Cap Wilkinson Award for 2022 for overall outstanding CJSS student. She is a Forensic Psychology major and Addictions Counseling minor with a 3.97 GPA, and a three-time all-American goalie on the TU Women's Soccer team. Marissa has held many positions on campus including President of TU's chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project. She completed two internships--Crosswaeh and CASA. Law school is in her future.

Academic Year 2021-2022: Significant Accomplishments

• Creation of Sport Psychology as a new concentration to BA Psychology, and Sport Psychology as a new minor. Expect solid athlete enrollment, especially in the minor.
• Dual Enrollment in Undergraduate and Graduate CJSS programs. Undergraduate students would be allowed to take two graduate courses and have it count toward both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Expected to pass Full Faculty in April.
• Restructured and consolidated CJSS Leadership (Creation of Program Lead positions for quality assurance in courses and programs).
• DCJ degree moves forward toward the proposal process and will be championed by Asst. Dean Lacy Ellis going forward. Currently targeting Fall 2024 for prospective rollout.
• Partnership with Lourdes University for a Dual Social Work / Psychology degree is in the early stages but moving forward.

Student Highlights

• Ashton Hemminger, a CCP student, was one of the winners of the Pitch Competition in MKT364 this past Fall and went on to win the Seneca County CEO competition held this Spring. She competed against other high school seniors in the CEO competition, and against Juniors and Seniors at TU in the Pitch Competition. She is majoring in Marketing and graduates from Calvert this upcoming June.
• Zach Raudebaugh, a Computer Science Major, completed his Internship at Marathon Petroleum in the Fall of 2021. Because Marathon requires students to work 40 hours a week, Zach completed his coursework virtually, maintaining a 4.0 GPA for the semester. Marathon has asked him to complete another full-time Internship this upcoming Summer. Additionally, Zach is spearheading a group of students creating an APP for Traci Bild, who was the commencement speaker last year at TU. While the students were only able to get so far in the course on the App, he (and the team) have decided to continue the project after the course ends. Ms. Bild is ecstatic with the work the students have done so far on the APP. Zach will graduate in December of this year and has a 3.81 overall GPA.
• Marcus, Garrett, and Conner White, triplets all graduating with Accounting and Finance Majors, have completed internships, and have been hired full-time by American Plastics (Marcus and Conner) and Webster Industries (Garrett).

Faculty Highlight

• Dr. Diego Hernandez has been accepted to publish a research paper titled Relationships between Corporate Financial Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility when Controlling for Socially and Environmentally Conscious Investments in The Economix – Journal of Economic Sciences. In addition, Dr. Hernandez has been invited to participate and present the research paper at the ECONOMICON 2022 Congress, which will take place in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, on June 8, 2022.
• Dr. Tom Marben and Dr. Diego Hernandez both successfully defended their dissertations this past Academic Year. The title of Dr. Marben’s dissertation was, “Transformational Leadership, Capital Budgeting, and Investment Decisions: A Qualitative Study” and Dr. Hernandez’s dissertation was entitled, “Relationships between Corporate Financial Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility when Controlling for Socially and Environmentally Conscious Investments”.

Academic Year 2021-2022: Significant Accomplishments

• Tiffin University’s School of Business held its tenth annual Summit to Success on Wednesday, March 23. Coordinated by TU’s Business Club. The Summit featured Bruce Boguski, president of the Winner’s Edge, author, motivational speaker, columnist and media personality known for his ability to inspire others to do the impossible. Additionally, the keynote was given by TU Board of Trustees member Chris Deal. Deal is a 1995 TU alum and is the Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition and Delivery at a global consulting organization.
  • Tiffin University’s School of Business opened its Drone Academy in response to the growing and expanding drone industry. The Academy is a place of learning, research and achievement for the advancement of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones. Featuring academic classes, training seminars, community outreach programs, certification opportunities and recreational activities like Community Fly Days, the Drone Academy provides theoretical and applied learning for the technological and operational aspects of the industry.
• The Forensic Accounting class evaluated Saibee Coffee during a fraud consultation this Spring semester. The class was able to observe real world scenarios for areas of adequate controls to prevent fraud and inadequate controls which would allow fraud to occur. The class provided ideas to help improve the business processes in their final fraud report. The owners were presented with this final fraud report at the conclusion of the consultation.
• The Ph.D. in Global Leadership & Change, along with the MBA Concentrations is Data Analytics and Forensics & Fraud Examination received final approvals from ODHE.
• The first four students in the history of Tiffin University will be receiving their Ph.D.’s in Global Leadership & Change during the upcoming Spring graduation ceremony,
• The Marketing faculty redesigned the current Marketing Undergraduate Degree by replacing three existing courses with Digital Marketing courses.

Student Highlights

• Olivia Kramer (graduating senior) has been hired as a Live Performance Engineer at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne.
• Jo Ochenduski (Commercial music student) has been hired as a summer artist-in-residence at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Andrew Ospina (Commercial music student) has been hired as an intern at the Hallowed Halls recording studio in Portland, Oregon.
• Carter Bennett (Commercial music student) has been hired as an intern at Pressure Point Studios in Chicago.

Academic Year 2021-2022: Significant Accomplishments

• Students in Prof. Dan Myers’ Music for Film and Media course are collaborating with students in Prof. Michael Lynch’s Interactive Digital Design course in creating promotional podcasts for local businesses. Music students are contributing original music for these productions.
• Tiffin commercial music students designed and hosted the second annual seminar for women in the music industry, EmpowHER. The event hosted three internationally acclaimed guest presenters and was facilitated by Prof. Alex Manfredo.
• Under the leadership of commercial music student Carter Bennett, Tiffin Kidz (formerly the TU Kids Choir) is releasing an 8-song EP in June.
• TU presented two high school music festivals in April, FestiVOX and FusionFest, which hosted 20 high school bands and vocal ensembles for two days of educational workshops and performances. Guest artists included a variety of music professionals working in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
• More than a dozen independent student musicians and TU student ensembles are releasing recordings this spring.

If you have a question or suggestion about anything found in this update or elsewhere, be sure to reach out to: officeoftheprovost@tiffin.edu