CFAES Wooster Campus Connector: April 2025

Congratulations, graduates!

Ohio State ATI's 52nd Commencement will be held Saturday, May 3, in Fisher Auditorium. Commencement on the Columbus campus will take place on Sunday, May 4 in the Shoe. Below are lists of the graduates from our campus. 

ATI Students

CFAES Wooster Graduate Students 

Operations update:

The start of exciting projects on the Wooster campus and the retirement of one of Operations' longest-standing employees mark just a few of the many things happening with the Operations team lately.

Turfgrass project begins

In late April, we will break ground and begin earth movement on the first phase of the turf grass project to add an athletic field and research plots.

Once completed there will be a new 2-acre athletic pitch on the east side of Gossard Drive; plots north of Williams Road for putting green research, fairway research, and turf plots (Phase 1); and a three-hole golf course that will cover 21 acres on the campus (Phase 2) north of the existing turkey buildings. This new project will be an opportunity to consolidate the turf program, and enable students to work, learn, and conduct research in close proximity. It will also be a space to promote physical health for the campus community.

These new amenities were part of the 2021 CFAES Facilities Master Plan. Phase 1 is funded from previous property sales and we are working on securing funding for Phase 2.

Congrats Roger Hamilton on his retirement!

At the end of April, Roger Hamilton – CFAES Wooster Grounds Manager – will retire from Ohio State with 41 years of dedicated service, totaling nearly five million minutes of work with the grounds department. Roger started working with that group during his summers in high school before becoming a full-time employee.

He reflects on his time with CFAES Wooster below.  

“I know there’s a popular song from the Broadway musical, Rent, which asks the question of how best to quantify the number of minutes in a year. So, how does one quantify the number of minutes in a moderately long career?  Obviously, one cannot spend that quantity of time doing something they don’t enjoy, and this was certainly true in my case. Whether it was climbing an 80-foot pine tree to carefully remove it piece by piece or shoveling through a snow drift to open a campus sidewalk, I’ve honestly enjoyed it all. Feeling the warmth of the first rays of sun as it rose over arboretum trees on a cool spring day more than offset the chill of removing snow from a closed campus.   All things considered; it has been a rewarding journey that doesn’t feel like it’s lasted a second longer than 4.5 million minutes…” Congrats, Roger! Thank you for all your work over the last four decades! 

Title and Department:  Graduate Research Assistant, School of Environment and Natural Resources 

Describe your work:  I work in the environmental social sciences and, more specifically, study the adoption of agroforestry practices. A growing number of farmers and forest landowners are choosing to combine trees with crops and/or livestock, and I am interviewing some of them to better understand why they are using these practices, what challenges they've run into getting started, and what resources and connections have been helpful to them in learning about and implementing agroforestry. I also work whenever I can on actual farms. That is the work that keeps me going. 

How long have you been with OSU?:  This is my second year at Ohio State, I am in the 2-year MS-ENR program. 

Tell us about your family/pets: I am the youngest of six siblings, and most of my family is still in Ohio. We are scattered around the state but after having lived away from home for awhile, it's great to be back in Ohio and close to my parents and siblings again, especially my nieces and nephews who I get to see more often now. Last August, I adopted a 13-year-old cat named Katara. She is very shy around other people but cuddly with me.  

What is your hometown?: I grew up in Columbus, not far at all from Kottman Hall. 

What is something you would like to learn?:  I enjoy cooking and it would be neat to learn how to develop new recipes. I experiment a bit and cook without recipes, but to actually understand what makes a recipe work or not work, and how to fine-tune my ingredients and proportions to get something just right, is a skill I'd love to learn. I like to cook with foraged ingredients, and there aren't that many recipes out there for some things.  

What is your favorite restaurant or food?: There's a small Indian restaurant near my parents' house called Taj Palace. It might just be sentimental for me because we went there a lot when I was in high school, but I think they have some of the best samosa in Columbus.  

What is a talent or superpower you wish you had?:  It's so unimaginative, but I do dream of flying. I had the opportunity to go hang-gliding once and that was terrifying, because there are so many things that could fail. But if I could jump off the top of a mountain and not worry about it? That'd be amazing. Alternatively, it would be cool to be able to hang-glide on my own.  

Where is your favorite place to vacation?:  I've been lucky to visit a lot of beautiful and interesting places, but Appalachia/the Blue Ridge Mountains will always be special to me. A backpacking trip or a cabin weekend there is probably my favorite kind of getaway.