News

Over the past 5 years, Ohio State interior design students have actively shaped campus spaces based on peer research and industry insights as part of their coursework.

The Junior Interior Design Studio (JIDS) course has given students real-world experiences designing learning spaces on the Columbus campus. The course is a partnership between Learning and Collaborative Environments, the Department of Design, and Ohio State furniture partner, MillerKnoll Brand Collective. Other industry partners and internal OSU departments also contribute as guest speakers and in final critique.

In the course, students conduct peer research to identify students’ needs and preferences, and they hear from professionals that are actively designing in all aspects of higher education environments - accessibility, furniture, pedagogy, etc. Students distill their research and learning into key insight areas that guide their design decision-making. 

Consistent key insights over the years include:

• Space for All: ensuring equity and inclusion with next-level Universal Design
• Wellness: including daylight, biophilia, visual stimuli in environments
• Together Yet Alone: considering spaces for both introverts and extroverts
• Usability: encouraging people to spend time on campus
• Connections: using art and tech to connect disciplines and people
• Color and Identity: using color, pattern, and art to support space-specific needs
• Sustainability: promoting sustainable choices and connection to nature

The idea of actively engaging students in designing our spaces started when the Learning and Collaborative Environments team led the formation of the BTAA Student Design Challenge in fall of 2018. While pandemic brought the competition to an end, the spirit of the program lives on through the JIDS course. This work has yielded the creation of 3 student-designed collaboration spaces on Columbus campus, highlighted in this article.

This effort has expanded to include post-pandemic studies and user-focused research, shaping the final design of the new Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship.  

The program has gained industry recognition, with presentations at multiple conferences. Most recently, the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) invited us to present a summary of the student experience and key themes from the past five years at their conference in New York City in 2024.

For more information about the Junior Interior Design Studio, reach out to Stephanie Orr.145, Director of Learning and Collaborative Environments.

Special thanks to those that have partnered to fund these spaces: Integrated Physical Planning Liaison Group, Office of Academic Affairs, College of Arts & Sciences, and MillerKnoll Brand Collective.

Spend category hierarchies (level 5) will be updated to create logical groupings of expenses. These groupings will help provide a level of visibility that is inbetween the high-level Supplies and Services view, and the granular spend category level. Below are a few examples of logical expense groupings the changes will create.

• Computer, Audiovisual, and Copying Services
• Maintenance and Repair Services
• Financial, Accounting, and Legal Services
• HVAC, Electrical and Electronic Components

Once the hierarchy changes are made, the "Sources and Uses - Variance Analysis" report will be updated to bring in the level 5 spend category hierarchies. This will allow you to expand supplies and services and view spend associated with the updated hierarchies. You will still have the option to drill/expand to view at the individual spend category level if you have the need.  

New functionality will be available starting Friday, February 14, which will allow business travelers to email or mobile scan receipts into Workday. The functionality uses AI to read receipts and create a Quick Expense record. The Quick Expense will not automatically generate payment or reconcile PCard transactions. The Quick Expense must be linked to an Expense Report to finalize processing.

This functionality is best suited for business travelers but is not required. Alternately, expense receipts can be submitted through the Expense Report process in Workday from your desktop.

Key considerations:

• Administrative support (e.g., Expense Data Entry Specialists) cannot submit Quick Expenses on behalf of travelers but can link the Quick Expense through the Expense Report process.  
• Quick Expenses for PCard transactions may precede the transaction load into Workday. PCard transactions load into Workday up to 5 business days after purchase. Business process reviewers and approvers should monitor Expense Reports cautiously to ensure that PCard transactions are linked properly with a Quick Expense to avoid reimbursement in error.

For more information, please refer to the BuckeyeLearn course Quick Expense: Emailing and Mobile Scanning and the Quick Expense Process job aid for guidance.

Contact the Travel Office with any questions.

Requirements have been updated to provide guidance on how employee vs independent contractor work at Ohio State should be classified.

If you plan to hire certain types of individuals or businesses for work in your area, you must follow these requirements to ensure they are correctly classified as employees or independent contractors. The Independent Contractor Guidelines provide an overview of the process for how to evaluate independent contractors and are available on the Purchasing website.

Additionally an Independent Contractor form is available on the Policies and Forms page of the Business and Finance website. This form is a decision-making and documentation tool which is to be used by departments when purchasing services from individuals.

Report Enhancement: Find Journal Lines - OSU - Posted Journals by Amount Type: The "Find Journal Lines - OSU - Posted Journals by Amount Type" report has been enhanced with an additional field for "Object Class" in the output of the report.

Grant - FDM Values Report Enhancements: The output of the report "Grant - FDM Values" has been enhanced to include four additional columns. Those columns include the Award Line From Date, Award Line To Date, Prime Sponsor Type, and Sponsor Type.