College of Engineering, General Electric join forces to improve student math skills

By Gina Langen, College of Engineering

Officials of Ohio State's College of Engineering and the GE Fund of Fairfield, Conn. have announced an award of $500,000 to the College of Engineering, to support its Partnership for Math Excellence, a collaboration between Ohio State and two Cincinnati public schools.

Designed to strengthen the math skills of high school and junior high school students through a rigorous math curriculum featuring hands-on problem-solving experiences, the program will be piloted at Cincinnati's Aiken High School and Chase Elementary School. The program's ultimate goals are to prepare and to encourage Aiken students to go on to college and to pursue careers in quantitative fields such as engineering, and to eventually replicate the program at other high schools.

By the end of the five-year program, it is hoped that Aiken students will also be ready to succeed in an Introduction to Engineering course like the one now being piloted at Cincinnati's Walnut Hills High School, as part of an existing Ohio State-GE Fund partnership.

"Most high school students don't have a solid grasp of what engineers do, so they tend not to consider engineering as a potential college major or career. This is especially true for women and minority students, who have few role models in the field," said associate professor Audeen Fentiman, who chairs Ohio State's Nuclear Engineering Program and spearheaded the college's proposal to the GE Fund for support of this project. "The Partnership for Math Excellence is designed to address these challenges, and to help meet a national demand for more engineers, particularly those who are women and/or minorities."

Specific goals of the Partnership for Math Excellence program include:

• Strengthening the math and quantitative skills of Aiken and Chase students, enabling more of them to pass math proficiency tests and better preparing them for advanced study and careers in engineering and other fields.

• Increasing the students' knowledge of and interest in math and quantitative careers through hands-on problem-solving experiences beginning in the seventh grade and continuing into college.

• Providing professional development opportunities for Aiken and Chase teachers, fostering their ownership of the Math Excellence program and their stake in its success.

• Developing a program that is replicable in other high schools in Ohio and beyond, broadening the impact of the program and the GE Fund's support of it.

The GE Fund's long history of giving to Ohio State includes generous support for the College of Engineering and the Max M. Fisher College of Business, through the GE Affirmative Action Award, and the GE Faculty for the Future Fund, which helps prepare women and minorities for academic careers in business and computer and information science. The GE Fund's most recent grant for the Partnership for Math Excellence is part of Ohio State's ongoing fund-raising efforts in support of the Academic Plan.

OHR announces new Third Party Administrator

By Susan Wittstock, onCAMPUS staff

Most faculty and staff won't notice a change, but Ohio State is switching to a new Third Party Administrator (TPA) for University medical plans, effective July 1. The appointment was approved at the Feb. 7 Board of Trustees meeting.

NGS American will take over responsibilities currently carried out by Central Benefits.

"Faculty and staff will get a new health care ID card, but this has nothing to do with changing of benefits," said Nick Maul, director of benefits for the Office of Human Resources. "A TPA processes all of the information generated through medical plans. They make sure the right payment gets to the hospital lab or doctor and that you are billed for the right amount. NGS will provide us with excellent customer service and timely processing."

Ohio State has done business with Central Benefits for nearly 50 years, with Central Benefits becoming the University's TPA 10 years ago when health plan administration services were consolidated.

"We've had a good relationship with Central Benefits, but as a public institution, it's our responsibility to open up our process to the market from time to time. It had been 10 years since we'd undergone a public bidding process," Maul said. "We were looking for a partnership with a very flexible administrator because we have some pretty non-standard benefits in our plan and we need a lot of information on what services are being provided. We like to watch trends so we can better manage our health services."

NGS stood out as a company that could meet Ohio State's high expectations, said Jeff Walters, executive director of Managed Health Care Systems. "Of all the companies we looked at, we thought NGS was far and away advanced because they built their business on technology. It's paid off for them because they are able to provide a high degree of customization to clients like Ohio State," he said.

NGS specializes in the administration of self-funded group health plans for companies whose business needs require significant flexibility. It currently administers a variety of plan designs for more than 900 group medical plans located in all 50 states. NGS was founded in 1979.

NGS was selected with input from a national consulting firm and an Ohio State committee led by OSU Managed Health Care Systems and the Office of Human Resources with a cross section of faculty and staff representatives from other areas of the University.

Central Benefits will finish processing all claims filed prior to June 30.

News briefs

Exit ramp construction to affect parking

Approximately 160 B and 90 C parking spaces in the Polo Field Parking lot off Cannon Drive will be lost temporarily beginning March 3. Contractors are installing a stormwater detention system in the area in preparation for the new entrance and exit ramps that will provide a direct connection to and from state Route 315 from Cannon Drive, just west of the Ohio State Medical Center. The spaces will be lost for about five to six weeks to facilitate the construction work, but are expected to be restored before the end of spring quarter. Pedestrians are asked to be careful and use crosswalks, and motorists are urged to use caution and slow down and watch for pedestrians.

As is being done in other areas of the campus, police will be monitoring both the speed of motorists and pedestrians who are not using the crosswalks to ensure safety. Please follow all posted signs and speed limits while in a construction zone. For more details, contact Transportation and Parking at 292-9341, or visit its Web site at www.tp.ohio-state.edu. To receive regular construction updates, subscribe to the listserver by sending an e-mail message to listserv@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu, or visit the University Architects Web site at www.apo.ohio-state.edu.

University responds to advertising mailings

A recent increase in advertising mailings and solicitations by private companies to faculty and staff have prompted concerns about how names and work addresses have gotten into the hands of people outside Ohio State. According to Larry M. Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources, the University does not sell employee information in the form of mailing lists to private firms, nor does the University allow companies to solicit employees. And when the University contracts with an outside vendor, such as a pharmaceutical company or health-care provider who requires employee information, the vendor must sign and be held to a strict confidentiality agreement.

"The offices of Human Resources and Information Technology have not and will not sell faculty and staff mailing lists to marketers," Lewellen said. "We are disturbed by the nature of some of these mailings and know they can be offensive to people. We want to reassure faculty and staff that Ohio State doesn't seek these kinds of solicitations either."

Among the recent offers that have been sent to University employees have been catalogs, magazine subscriptions and credit card offers. According to Lewellen, entrepreneurial marketers often buy directories, such as the Ohio State Faculty and Staff Directory, and then pay data-entry employees to create a database with the readily available information. Other firms create computer programs to automatically cull information from online e-mail directories.

Fountain named to ACE's board on women

Judy Fountain, director of The Women's Place, has been selected to serve on the national executive board of the American Council on Education's Office of Women in Higher Education. Board members serve as liaison between state and regional networks and the office to support a national network for identification, recommendation and advancement of women administrators in an effort to increase the number of women who hold major decision-making positions in higher education.

Counseling centers conference to be at Ohio State

For the first time in 11 years, Ohio State's Counseling and Consultation Service will host the 2003 Big Ten Counseling Center Conference Feb. 19-21 at the Pfahl Executive Education and Conference Center. The conference will showcase the Counseling and Consultation Service's new facilities at the Younkin Success Center, as well as Ohio State's campus.

Attendees from all of the Big Ten universities will hear about effective interventions and strategies through 28 workshops designed to provide the latest research in helping college students succeed. The theme, "Trauma and Triumph: Reviewing the Past and Creating the Future," was chosen to address the challenges facing students following a national tragedy that can often reactivate previous traumas in students' lives as well as make academic pressures feel more stressful.

McKay recipient of Weimer Mount Award

Dennis McKay, professor of pharmacy, was presented with the annual John T. and Ruth Weimer Mount Award at the Mortar Board/Sphinx Honorary Faculty Reception Feb. 11. McKay was selected by members of the two honors societies because of his commitment to leadership, scholarship and service as well as dedication to students.

Executive Vice President and Provost Ed Ray was the featured speaker at the reception, which recognized student-nominated faculty and staff who are especially supportive of students and have shown genuine interest and concern for the educational development of undergraduates, have successfully advised students in their academic curricula and career options, and have been a role model and inspiration to students.

Mortar Board began in 1915 to uphold the ideals of community, leadership and service in the University and surrounding community. Sphinx was founded in 1907 and recognizes leadership, scholarship, character and service.

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