CONNECT 2021

PHOTO COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES FROM THE DEAN’S OFFICE OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SC I ENCES 1 Dear CAS Family, We are back as the fall semester begins. Our college and university overcame many unique challenges over the past year, and you’ll read about a few of them in this magazine. We know there will be many unique challenges this year, but we are confident that our administration, faculty, staff and students will help us to overcome those as well. If you missed it, we underwent a major change in OSU’s leadership with the retirement of President Burns Hargis and the promotion of Dr. Kayse Shrum. President Hargis was only the second OSU alumnus to take on that role, leading the transformation of the university fromMarch 2008 until his retirement on July 1, 2021. Dr. Shrum is also an OSU grad, having earned her D.O. at the Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. She became president there in 2013, making her Oklahoma’s youngest and first female dean and president of a medical school. Now she is the first female president for the entire OSU System and the first woman to lead an Oklahoma public research institution. I’mwriting this letter just a month into her tenure, and I can already tell she is leading this university to an even brighter future. At the college level, we’ve also had a couple of major changes. We added an assistant dean position that will serve as senior inclusion officer. Professor Craig Freeman, director of the School of Media and Strategic Communications, is fulfilling that role. You can read more about that beginning on Page 8. Another change in the dean’s office is that Dr. TomWikle is stepping down as associate dean for academic programs after 21 years, though he remains as a professor in the Department of Geography. I want to thank him for everything he has done in the dean’s office, starting before most of our current students were born! We are thrilled to announce his replacement is Dr. AndrewDoust, who was serving as head of the Department of Plant Biology, Ecology and Evolution. He brings stellar energy and intellect to this role, and his wonderful Australian accent and sense of humor will be a welcome addition as well. Finally, we are planning a golf scramble scholarship fundraiser for April 25 at Karsten Creek. We will share more information about that in the coming months, and I hope to see you there. Go Pokes! Glen S. Krutz, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Professor of Political Science Puterbaugh Foundation Chair