To the OSU Community:

Dr Sherm Bloomer has been appointed as Director of Budget and Fiscal Planning at OSU, effective February 1, 2012. As Director, Sherm will report to the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

We have recognized that the University has a critical need for strong leadership in this position, and many of you will not be surprised that we thought of Sherm for this role. He has a great deal of skill and ability in the budget and fiscal planning area, and we are delighted that he has accepted our invitation to make this transition and serve the University in this way.

President Ray and we are most appreciative of Sherm’s leadership and service as Dean of Science. Sherm served as Dean for over twelve years. Under his leadership, the College’s administrative team, faculty and staff have achieved tremendous growth and success in every discipline. Sherm has worked tirelessly on behalf of the College. He imparted a culture of transparency and fiscal responsibility, leading to an increased participation in shared governance. His deep commitment to student success has resulted in numerous initiatives to increase student retention, graduation rates and course access. Concern for, and mentorship of, his faculty, advisors and staff have been important priorities for Sherm, and have been reflected in the open door policy and easy access that he is known for.

A strong and vibrant College of Science is critical to the success of the University’s goals as outlined in our Strategic Plan. To support those goals, the University has worked with the College to make critical investments in new faculty, advisors, facilities, instrumentation and access to key undergraduate courses. The College will continue to be an essential part of the University’s research, teaching and service missions, and lead the University’s efforts in scholarship and education in basic science and mathematics.

We will immediately initiate an internal search for an Interim Dean and a national search for a permanent Dean, and will provide details to you as soon as possible. Sherm will remain engaged with the College’s interim leadership through Winter term in order to assist with critical issues and to complete the organizational changes that the College has initiated

We will have an opportunity to celebrate Sherm’s leadership and service as Dean during the coming months. In the meantime, please join us in offering our sincere gratitude and congratulations to him.

Best wishes to you as you for a productive Winter term.

Sabah Randhawa

Provost and Executive Vice President

Mark McCambridge

Vice President for Finance and Administration

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Dear Colleagues:

I wanted to follow up the Provost’s announcement with a note to thank you all for the opportunity to have served as Dean of the College of Science.  This has been the most rewarding phase of my career and it has been a constant source of pride to be able to represent the wonderful work that all of the faculty, staff, and students in the College do.

The opportunity for this change in position came up suddenly, but it seemed a change that was timely for me and for the College.  We have accomplished a tremendous amount together.   The College is in a strong financial position, has raised nearly $80M in the Campaign for OSU, has made major investments in new facilities and instrumentation, has created innovative education programs while keeping pace with huge student growth, and has begun (with the Linus Pauling Science Center) to dramatically improve our facilities for research and teaching.   Most importantly, we have had tremendous success hiring talented young colleagues into the College and have a strong and dedicated leadership team in place.  The organizational change we went through has allowed the College to focus on our core disciplines and bring 9 new tenure-track faculty in life sciences, 7 in Mathematics, 7 in Chemistry, 3 in Physics and 3 in Statistics by the end of this year.   A chance to lead a College with such success and such promise will draw some very talented applicants to serve as the next Dean.

While the transition will be rapid, I will remain working with the College leadership to ensure that progress continues on important issues.  I will complete the promotion and tenure reviews for the College this year and will review with your chairs any critical issues that need to be noted for attention by me or by the new leadership of the College.  The Provost has asked me, in particular, to continue to work with the College to complete the proposals for changes to form the School of Life Sciences and associated curricular changes and to finalize a proposal to develop connections in the statistics community on campus.  Much of this work is well advanced and I am sure we will be able to move it forward quickly.

Finally, I note that the Provost has been clear in his commitment to a strong and vibrant College of Science.  This commitment is manifest in the new positions we have seen in the last two years;  the investments that have been made in equipment, advisors, and facilities; and in the commitment for a national search for a permanent Dean.  I know that the future for the College is very promising.

Thank you again for the opportunity to work with you and to learn from you.  It has been a tremendous pleasure and honor.

Best regards,

Sherm