Photos by Kevin Fitzsimons

Student fencers Sachia Smerden, left, and Allan Jones demonstrate fencing techniques during the Campus Campaign kickoff, while Donald Anthony, secretary of the U.S. Fencing Association, keeps score from the podium.

Enthusiasm high at Campus Campaign kickoff

Crowd told last year's fund-raiser netted $7.7 million

By Randy Gammage

Food, fencing and festivities were in abundance as Ohio State employees gathered March 13 in the Fawcett Center to kick off the Campus Campaign 2000 fund-raising drive.

The drive organizes the collection of gifts from faculty and staff for the $1 billion Affirm Thy Friendship campaign.

"We're celebrating 15 years of Campus Campaigning, with $58 million coming in since 1985," said Linda Johnson, director of the Campus Campaign and associate director of annual giving programs in the Office of Development.

Johnson introduced President Kirwan to the crowd, but first convinced him to pull on a campaign 2000 sweatshirt with the words"I Believe in Ohio State," reflecting the campaign slogan.

"You can't possibly get up on the podium at a Campus Campaign kickoff dressed like a president," Johnson said.

President Kirwan addresses the crowd at the Campus Campaign 2000 kickoff held March 13 at the Fawcett Center.

Kirwan credited the hundreds of volunteers for the success of the Universitywide fund-raising campaign.

"What we have going for us is the Buckeye spirit, and there is no better example of it than the Campus Campaign," Kirwan said."Last year, this campaign raised $7.7 million from more than 4,300 University employees and nearly 1,000 retirees. I'm especially proud that, thanks to these loyal Buckeyes, our annual Campus Campaign continues to raise more contributions than similar campaigns at any other university in the country."

Kirwan presented members of the Ohio State fencing team, three of whom have qualified for the NCAA tournament. Team members paired up for a well-received fencing demonstration that concluded the kickoff festivities.

Johnson said the kickoff mirrored the festive nature of the campaign. "Campus Campaign tries to function not only as a fund-raiser but as a morale booster to bring people together," she said.

"It's a time to think about what this institution is about and how we can be a part of it."

The campaign occurs year-round but intensifies each spring when more than 1,000 volunteers work together to coordinate individual college and departmental campaigns.

Some of the"mini" campaigns devised over the years have included a scavenger hunt across campus, pizza parties, and pie-throwing and kiss-a-pig contests.

Donations can be designated to any of thousands of University funds, including athletics, the libraries, WOSU, scholarship funds, Wexner Center or medical research.

"We are able to support areas that we may not work in ourselves but that we have an appreciation for," Johnson said.

She said the campaign doesn't set a monetary goal each year."Our goal is to bring more people on board and encourage them to find something they care about at Ohio State and support it," Johnson said.

This year's co-chairs -- selected by Kirwan -- are Mary Ellen Jenkins, assistant dean and honors director for the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, and Charles Babcock, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Greek and Latin.

For details, contact Linda Johnson at 292-3065 or johnson.78@osu.edu.

Group seeks to maximize advocacy for increased legislative support

University Senate's Legislative Affairs Committee is teaming with students and alumni to maximize the number of Ohio State constituents advocating for more state support of higher education.

Committee Chair George Kalbouss, associate professor in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, told Senate in March that the committee's focus is four-fold: Build, Inform, Advise, Lead.

"We have this incredible secret weapon called students," Kalbouss said.

Undergraduate Student Government has created a database identifying at least one student per Ohio House and Senate district willing to serve as a point of contact with legislators. And the committee also has joined forces with Ohio State Advocates, a program that encourages alumni and friends of the University to communicate with members of the General Assembly and other elected officials regarding issues of importance to Ohio State and higher education.

These contacts are supplemental to the committee's regular coordination with the University's federal and state government relations officials, Richard Stoddard and Colleen O'Brien, respectively, as well as William Napier, special assistant to the president for government relations.

To increase its capacity to inform Senate of its activities, the committee has begun circulating a monthly newsletter and is constructing a Web site to expand that information to the entire University community, Kalbouss said.

"Previously, we haven't been able to communicate what's hot quickly," he said.

The Web site, still under construction, is available at http://senate.ohio-state.edu/LEGAFFAIRSINDEX.htm. The committee also is collecting input -- and, more specifically, will seek feedback to legislative matters affecting Ohio State -- via e-mail at lac@admin.ohio-state.edu.

The advising and leading are the committee's intended future endeavors, Kalbouss said, explaining that the group still is working on creating the mechanisms for closer contact with legislators. Plans do include, however, increased contact with legislators and University Senate committee member attendance at legislative sessions and hearings when issues concerning Ohio State are being discussed.

This attendance also would be extended to students and alumni living in districts represented by House and Senate committee members, Kalbouss said.

He also said the committee intends to prepare legislative impact statements describing how Ohio State affects the lives of people in individual districts -- for example, outlining new advances in agriculture or telling the story of a life-saving procedure conducted at the OSU Medical Center.

Finally, Kalbouss emphasized that Ohio State is in a position to be a leader in pursuing a legislative agenda rather than functioning in strictly a reactive way to proposed bills. He cited the University's leadership of a collaborative effort to expand opportunities for faculty, staff and student entrepreneurship (see the Feb. 24 onCampus) as an example of Ohio State's effectiveness in this capacity.

Ohio State is the majority enroller of students from 31 of Ohio's 88 counties, Kalbouss noted, adding that the committee also wants to help promote legislative awareness of activities sponsored by the President's Council on Outreach and Engagement.

"We do deliver to the Legislature what it wants -- in the way of agriculture, technology and health care, as well as an unprecedented learning adventure for students. So these are easy to sell," Kalbouss said."I can't imagine a flagship in the Navy not being a place which doesn't bring people together from all other parts of the fleet.

"In the future, it strikes me that if our goal is to increase subsidy to higher education, we must work with other universities on the concentrated goal of improving Ohio's poor performance vis-a-vis the wealth of the state."

Battelle Endowment names technology grant winners

The Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs, administered through the Office of Academic Affairs, announces the winners of this academic year's grant funding.

The recipients and their proposals are:

• Susan T. Brown, Ohio Supercomputer Center -- Office of Research,"Young Women's Summer Institute."

• Saul Cornell, Department of History,"History of Technology Through the Millennium: Using Technology to Teach Technology."

• David Culver, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, "Impacts of Science on Society: A National Workshop and On-Line Resource for Scientists and Science Educators."

• Earl Epstein, School of Natural Resources,"Geographic Information Systems in a Changing Society."

• Susan V. Olesik, Department of Chemistry,"Wonders of the World -- WOW."

• Maria Palazzi, Department of Industrial, Interior and Visual Communications Design and the Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design,"summerDesign+Technology: A Mentoring Program for Young Women."

• Kenneth E. Rinaldo, Department of Art,"Self, Community and Interdisciplinary Thought on the World Wide Web."

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