BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Hundreds of Ohio State students turned out for a presentation by author Bebe Moore Campbell, pictured below, on Oct. 10. Campbell's book Brothers and Sisters was one of two selections for the Buckeye Book Community, an initiative launched this year under the umbrella of the Office of First Year Experience to encourage discussion of diversity and change. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel was to appear on campus Oct. 23 for a presentation about the other book community selection this year, Wiesel's Night.

Photos by Jo McCulty
	Faculty members Scott Schricker of restorative dentistry and Michele Basso of physical therapy, both of whom participated in faculty-led book discussions at the beginning of autumn quarter, speak with Campbell during a book signing after her presentation.

Construction to start on Aronoff Lab

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Stanley J. Aronoff Laboratory of Biological Sciences is set for Nov. 2 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. adjacent to the site at 318 W. 12th Ave.

When completed in 2003, this five-story, $26.7 million building will provide 55,000 square feet of laboratory and office space for College of Biological Sciences researchers, staff and students in the departments of entomology; evolution, ecology and organismal biology; and plant biology.

"This high-tech laboratory will facilitate the modern biological research carried out by our faculty, staff, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Just as importantly, it will enhance our teaching mission and provide an environment to nurture increased undergraduate research activity," said Richard W. Hall, interim dean of the College of Biological Sciences.

In addition to department offices, the building will contain 32 research laboratories plus cold rooms, autoclave rooms, darkrooms, microscope rooms and other research support spaces. The hallways in the laboratory portion of the building will function as linear equipment zones housing safety devices and shared equipment. The building also will contain faculty, staff and student offices, interaction spaces and four conference rooms.

Researchers in the building will study things such as insect behavior and physiology; restoration ecology; metal-absorbing properties of plants; metabolic engineering; impact of introduced species on the ecology of Lake Erie; movement of toxins through aquatic food chains; effects of global climate change on forest ecosystems; plant development, structure and function; ecological impact of transgenic plants; habitat fragmentation; space biology; and social behavior in animals.

The new facility, which is named for former Ohio Senate President and longtime supporter of the University Stanley J. Aronoff of Cincinnati, is an important component of the Biological Sciences Complex and is the second phase of the three-phase process of renovating the buildings in the B&Z area. Phase one was the construction of the Biological Sciences Greenhouses that replaced the old B&Z greenhouses located on this site. Phase three is the renovation of B&Z, which is scheduled to begin in about three years.

For more information, contact Sandi Rutkowski at 292-4759 or rutkowski.1@osu.edu.

Ohio State helps develop CIC program in American Indian Studies

Ohio State, in partnership with the other member universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), have joined forces with the Newberry Library in Chicago to create an unprecedented program devoted to American Indian Studies.

Drawing on the vast resources of Ohio State and other CIC institutions and the Newberry's matchless collections in the field, the new American Indian Studies Consortium will facilitate development and training of graduate students in anthropology, history, literature, education and other fields whose academic research focuses on the cultures and experiences of American Indians.

The program will be headquartered at the Newberry's D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History and its director will also have a half-time faculty appointment at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The two institutions will search jointly for the director. An executive committee of distinguished scholars and faculty members from CIC institutions will oversee the new program.

Lucy E. Murphy, assistant professor of history at Ohio State Newark, played a key role in helping develop the CIC program. Murphy, who was a fellow at the Newberry Library before joining Ohio State's faculty in 1999, is the author of last year's A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Metis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737-1832 and teaches several courses on Native American history at Ohio State.

The new consortium will offer core programs to enhance the training of students at Ohio State and other CIC campuses. Each year, one CIC faculty member will spend a year at the Newberry to conduct research and to teach a spring seminar to graduate students from the collaborating institutions. Graduate students at CIC universities will apply for 20 months of short-term fellowships to support research on their dissertations. Scholars will also come to the Newberry for an annual conference, as well as workshops and seminars. In addition, the Newberry Library, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, will solicit applications nationally for two additional fellowship programs, and a third program will be funded by the Newberry's own endowed sources.

At Ohio State, where 217 graduate and undergraduate students identified themselves as American Indian this quarter, Murphy said the CIC venture has helped provide an impetus for the formation of the Committee for Native American Studies at OSU, a core group of nearly two dozen University faculty and graduate students who work closely with community organizations and others in central Ohio involved in local Native American issues. Murphy said the CIC consortium will also offer Ohio State students expanded opportunities for scholarship and research.

"Collaborative inter-university programs, for example, will allow students at Ohio State to take distance learning courses in Native American languages from other institutions," Murphy said. "And Ohio State students who attend and present at the consortium's conferences will be able to learn about research from a variety of different perspectives, and will find a broad audience for their research in the field. These are just a few of the many activities that present a wonderful opportunity for our graduate students and faculty."

Barry Landeros-Thomas is a graduate student in school psychology at Ohio State who presented at the consortium's conference last spring. "Having the opportunity to network with students from other schools helped raise awareness about some of our local issues in central Ohio, like the Octagon Mounds in Newark, an ancient Indian burial ground that's now the site of a country club's 18-hole golf course," said Landeros-Thomas, who also serves as director of American Indian Student Services at OSU. "Because of the contacts made at the CIC conference, we've begun planning a statewide conference at Ohio State in the spring where Indian students can discuss their unique issues."

"The consortium brings together a remarkable range of resources to create a unique and extraordinary opportunity for scholars," said Barbara Allen, director of the CIC. "The new program responds to the growing demand for academic training in American Indian Studies and promises to significantly increase the production of scholars in this field."

The CIC is a consortium of 12 research universities. Along with Ohio State, member universities are the universities of Chicago, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin-Madison, and Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Pennsylvania State and Purdue universities.

Family therapy program receives accreditation

The Marriage and Family Therapy Ph.D. program at Ohio State recently received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Marriage and Family Therapy Education, the accrediting body of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Accreditation puts Ohio State among the 15 accredited doctoral programs in the United States and Canada, giving the University a competitive edge in attracting the best and brightest Ph.D. students to its course of professional preparation.

Accreditation also assures clients at the Ohio State Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic, where the doctoral students practice, that the program has undertaken extensive external evaluation and meets standards established by the profession.

The clinic serves the faculty, staff and students of Ohio State as well as the public. For more information about the clinic, visit www.hec.ohio-state.edu/hdfs/outreach/mft. For more information about the Ph.D. program, visit www.hec.ohio-state.edu/hdfs/mft or contact Program Director and Associate Professor Julianne Serovich, Department of Human Development and Family Science, at 292-5685 or serovich.1@osu.edu.