Department chair Mat Coleman was on the Newark campus today, visiting the new dean of Newark, Matt Smith, along with a group of chairs from the College of Arts and Sciences. 

If you haven’t visited Newark, it boasts a large and beautiful campus with 12 buildings and ample green space. Students can begin any of Ohio State’s 200+ majors at Newark and later complete their degrees at the Columbus campus or other regional locations. The Newark campus offers smaller class sizes, which provide more personalized attention and foster stronger connections between students and faculty.

The student body at Newark is approximately 50% female, 45% first-generation college students, and 40% students of color. Each year, about 1,200 students transition from Newark to Columbus to continue their studies. Many of the students in classes on the Columbus campus started their academic journey at Newark, reflecting the important role the campus plays in supporting Ohio State’s broader mission.

Mat also had a chance to visit with Kenneth Madsen, our geographer colleague at Newark. 

Kenneth, as many of you know, was promoted to full professor last year based on his teaching, research, and service record on both the Newark and Columbus campuses. What some of you may not know is that Kenneth is also the first geographer on any non-Columbus campus to be promoted to full professor. 

Kenneth took time out of his day to show Mat a range of maps that he uses to teach Space, Power, and Political Geography (GEOG 3600). One of these maps is a giant map of Ohio, published by the National Geographic Society. National Geographic's Giant Maps are immersive, interactive educational tools created to inspire students' curiosity about geography, science, and culture. They are enormous floor maps, made from vinyl and measuring roughly 20x26 feet—in the spirit of the millionth scale maps that President Woodrow Wilson carted off to Europe during the Versailles peace conference marking the end of World War One. The National Geographic maps showcased detailed cartographic depictions of regions, countries, continents, and thematic subjects like ecosystems and historical routes. National Geographic no longer makes these maps; Kenneth’s map is an important resource for our community!