Multiculturalism

By Nathan Robinson Christine Balangee Morris, interim director of Ohio State's new Multicultural Center, speaks with President Brit Kirwan during the festivities surrounding the center's opening on Oct. 3. The center is housed on the fourth floor of the Ohio Union and has as its mission the goal of promoting greater cultural awareness and understanding. An avenue for discussion, networking and relationship building, the center will offer a clearinghouse of information to Ohio State faculty, staff and students, as well as the general public.

University Distinguished Lecture

Law Professor Colker examines success of the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act has great intentions, but has not been adequately enforced, according to Moritz College of Law Professor Ruth Colker.

Colker, the holder of the Heck-Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law, will discuss enforcement of the ADA during her University Distinguished Lecture at 4 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater. Her lecture, titled "The Americans with Disabilities Act: The First Decade of Enforcement," will examine the success of the law on several fronts.

The free, public lecture will be followed by a reception.

Ruth Colker

Enacted in 1990, the ADA was designed to protect the rights of people with disabilities in employment, public entities and public accommodations. While the ADA has often been portrayed in the media as a windfall for plaintiffs, Colker will argue that this is untrue. Focusing on appellate court decisions, she has found that defendants disproportionately prevail in ADA employment discrimination litigation.

Colker concludes that, in general, employment discrimination matters are treated worse than other civil rights matters before appellate courts.

Moreover, Colker argues that a backlash against the passage of the ADA has negatively affected other laws designed to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

The lecture will be broadcast live internationally on the World Wide Web at www.osu.edu/lecture.

The University Distinguished Lecture Series was inaugurated in 1996 as one of the University's highest honors for a senior faculty member. The lectureship is awarded in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, particularly, but not exclusively, in research, scholarship or creative activity. The President's and Provost's Advisory Committee reviews nominations and recommends candidates to the president and provost for final selection.

The Office of Academic Affairs provides a $5,000 award for the distinguished lecturer to designate for a purpose that promotes the academic goals of the individual's college or of the University. Colker has designated that her award should be used to help make the auditorium at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law more accessible to people who use wheelchairs.

Fisher College news briefs

The Fisher College of Business is establishing a Sept. 11 Memorial Endowment to support student programs at the college. The endowment is being established in memory of alumni who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in western Pennsylvania.

"At this time, we have been informed of one alumnus, Peter Mardikian, who died in this tragic event," said Joseph A. Alutto, dean of the college. "Peter, who received his bachelor's degree in 1995 in marketing and business administration and had been married only six weeks prior to his death, was just beginning to make his mark on the world." An employee of Imagine Software Inc., in Manhattan, he was at the Windows on the World restaurant with a trade show at the time of the attack.

"Peter's family contacted the college to tell us how much he enjoyed his years at Fisher College and Ohio State, and said they wanted to designate that any memorials received on his behalf be given to the college," Alutto said.

"This is a tremendous act of kindness by his family at this time of terrible sorrow for individual families and the business community as a whole. While no action on our part can alleviate that sorrow, we hope that this endowment, and the students that it will support in the future, will help us remember what happened on Sept. 11," he said.

The college is allocating $25,000 from its current resources to establish this endowment. Any donations made on behalf of Peter Mardikian will be added to the endowment. Should the college learn of other alumni who died because of the terrorist attacks, their names will be added to the fund.

Contributions to this endowment may be made payable to The Ohio State University Foundation and sent to the attention of James E. Miller, director of development and alumni affairs, Fisher College of Business, 101 Fisher Hall. For additional information, contact Miller at 292-2181.

Accounting programs ranked in top 20

The graduate and undergraduate accounting programs at Fisher College are ranked among the top 20 accounting programs, according to CPA Personnel Report's 20th annual survey of accounting professors.

Fisher College's undergraduate program was ranked 13th and its Master of Accounting (MAcc) program, 17th. At the undergraduate level, the college continues its long history of offering a quality accounting education, with both a regular and honors accounting track.

Last year, the college initiated the MAcc program so that students could build on their undergraduate education, developing a broader understanding of how accounting relates to the total organization and what it takes to succeed in today's competitive global environment. The new program also enables students to meet the educational requirements for CPA certification in Ohio

"I am very pleased to see that the college continues to be recognized for the quality of our accounting faculty and the caliber of our students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels," said Joseph A. Alutto, dean of the college.

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