Sutton assesses space needs

By Jo McCulty Architecture educator Sharon Sutton presents suggestions for space utilization in the Multicultural Center renovation project May 1, as Carol Kane, left, and Lisa Hinkelman, graduate administrative assistants for the center, listen. Sutton spent 11 days as a scholar-in-residence at the center, lecturing and facilitating workshops on home space, and the role of culture in architecture.

Trustees approve tuition plan

By DAVID BHAERMAN, University Relations

Ohio State's Board of Trustees has given its approval to a tuition plan designed to provide the university with the financial flexibility to deal with an uncertain state budget picture, while at the same time trying to minimize impact on the university's current students. Trustees approved the plan at their regular meeting on May 2.

The plan calls for a 9 percent increase in tuition for continuing students and an additional $100 per quarter charge for students who are new to the university. That increase will result in three tiered levels of tuition. Tuition for students who enrolled at the Columbus campus before the current academic year will increase $156 per quarter, and fees for students who enrolled this year will increase $170 per quarter. A third level of tuition for all new undergraduates includes the additional $100 per quarter surcharge above the tier-two fees beginning summer quarter.

The tuition plan is the same as was recommended by Gov. Bob Taft in his executive budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year and approved by the Ohio House of Representatives last month. The Ohio Senate is currently working on its version of the state budget, and uncertainty about final funding levels for higher education required the university to plan based on the most current information. Administrators point out that the plan could be modified if state support for higher education is either increased or decreased.

With the 9 percent tuition increase, a junior or senior undergraduate student from Ohio will pay $5,658 annually, while an incoming student will pay, including the surcharge, $6,474 annually -- still one of the lowest tuition levels among the university's benchmark peers and below the average of tuitions expected for next year at the state's 13 public colleges and universities. Tuition for a non-resident undergraduate at the Columbus campus will increase 6 percent, an additional $188, per quarter. Incoming undergraduates from outside Ohio will now pay $16,461 in instructional and general fees next year.

"Our tuition policy is as fair as possible to our current undergraduate students while placing a greater responsibility on incoming students,"Ed Ray, executive vice president and provost, told trustees. "Our tuition proposal will allow the university to maintain its commitment to academic quality -- even during the current recession -- which is critical to our students as well as to Ohio's longer-term economic vitality and competitiveness."

Tuition at the regional campuses will increase 6 percent to $4,800 for full-time undergraduates and to $4,782 at the Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster. Regional campus fees are still subject to change depending on the level of support the legislature provides for those campuses. Decisions about tuition for graduate and professional students will be made later as part of the regular 2003-04 budget process.

Discussions about next year's budget also will include a focus on financial aid, where plans are to earmark 25 percent of the additional $100 new student increase, "so that students who meet academic requirements but qualify for financial aid will still be able to attend Ohio State,"Ray said.

"The other high priority for use of the increased resources will be to preserve and improve the quality of the student experience both inside and outside the classroom,"he said. "The phased-in nature of the additional tuition to new students allows us to maintain progress on our academic goals, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than we had hoped."

Sofia named chair of board

Zuheir Sofia, chairman of Sofia & Company Inc., a private company that provides financial and investment advisory services, was named the new chairman of Ohio State's Board of Trustees May 2. Sofia, who has been a member of the board since 1995, served as vice chairman of the board in 2002-03, and remains chairman of its Fiscal Affairs Committee.

Sofia also is president of The Stanbery Group, LLC, a registered investment adviser, and is co-managing partner with A. Michael Lipper of L&S Partners I, LLC, a private fund investing in the securities of financial services and diversified equity mutual funds. Previously, Sofia served as president and chief operating officer and director of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.

Zuheir Sofia

President Karen Holbrook said the university will benefit greatly from Sofia's professional investment and business expertise and his long-time leadership for the OSU Medical Center. He is chairman of the board of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove

Research Institute and serves on the boards of University Hospitals and the Ohio State University Foundation. Also, Sofia has taken an active role in the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences and serves on its advisory board.

"Mr. Sofia is highly-regarded personally and professionally at the local, state and national levels,"Holbrook said. "He has proven to be a tremendous asset to the university through his long-term guidance as a trustee and he has made significant contributions to numerous areas at Ohio State."

Sofia said he is looking forward to his year as board chairman. "It will be an honor to serve as chairman of the Board of Trustees of this great institution. I am committed to Ohio State's goal of achieving academic excellence as set forth in the university's Academic Plan,"Sofia said. "Ohio State is already a great university and is on its way to becoming one of the nation's premier teaching and research institutions."

Sofia's many business, civic, educational and professional affiliations include serving as a director of Lancaster Colony Corporation. He was appointed by Gov. Bob Taft to serve a second term on the Ohio Banking Commission. Sofia also serves on the Western Kentucky University Board of Advisors, Foundation Board and in 1998 was elected to Western's Hall of Distinguished Alumni. He is a member of the Chief Executives Organization and World Presidents' Organization. Sofia was founder, past president and chairman of the honorary trustees of the Columbus Council on World Affairs.

Longaberger elected vice chair

Tami Longaberger of Dresden, a trustee since 1996, was elected vice chair of the board. Longaberger, president and CEO of The Longaberger Company in Newark, received a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Ohio State in 1984.

The Longaberger Company is recognized as one of the 500 largest privately held companies in the U.S. by Forbes Magazine and is the premier maker of hand-crafted baskets in the United States.

Cancer Center receives $9.8 million grant

By MICHELLE GALIUN, Medical Center Communications

Scientists in the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) have been awarded $9.8 million from the National Cancer Institute to study how viruses cause cancer, how they might be used to fight cancer, and how the body's immune system recognizes and reacts to viral infection.

Michael Lairmore, chair of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences and principal investigator of the project, said the grant will support various activities at the OSUCCC and the Center for Retrovirus Research at Ohio State, which over the past 30 years has initiated more than 60 major initiatives identifying and clarifying the pathobiology of retroviral disease.

Retroviruses come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can infect both animals and humans. They are unique in that they replicate "backwards,"that is, they carry their viral code in RNA that has to be converted to a form of DNA before it can be passed on to daughter cells that will spread the infection throughout the body.

Retroviruses cause several well-known and widespread cancers and other disorders. They include agents like human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), the first confirmed retrovirus to cause cancer in people -- an aggressive and deadly cancer of the white blood cells called adult T cell lymphoma/leukemia (ATL). HTLV-1 also can cause other immune-related disorders because of its ability to spark the over-production of T cells. A closely related virus, HTLV-2, can cause hairy cell leukemia and neurologic disease. Another well-known retrovirus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), causes the immune deficiency that leads to AIDS.

One of the reasons scientists find retroviruses so intriguing is the challenge and promise of their dual nature. On one hand, retroviruses may lead to cancer, but on the other, the very same mechanism may offer an efficient model of gene transfer and gene therapy that could be used to treat cancer and other diseases in the future.

Lairmore said the most important goal for all viruses is simply to reproduce themselves; viral infection becomes the "first hit"in a sequence of biological events that leave some cells more vulnerable to other changes that may lead to cancer. "In that sense, cancer becomes the unfortunate byproduct of this process."

In terms of intervention, the earlier, the better. "It is critically important for us to fully understand how HTLV-1 helps transform normal T cells into cancerous cells,"Lairmore said. T cells are important players in the body's immune system that normally help fight off foreign invaders like viruses and tumor cells. But the timing and the process of activation have to be just right for T cells to function properly. Lairmore said HTLV-1 appears to activate T cells in an aggressive and persistent manner that can transform the very mechanism designed to protect the body into a lymphoproliferative process that can kill it.

Millions of people in the world are infected with HTLV-1, but fewer than five percent of them will go on to develop lymphoma as a result of infection.

"Those are the people we are trying to help,"Lairmore said. "Ultimately, we hope that by knowing more about HTLV-1, we'll be able to figure out effective ways to intervene to successfully thwart diseases like leukemia and lymphoma and some of their complications."

The grant will support five major initiatives led by scientists at the OSUCCC and Washington University that will build and refine an extensive body of work the team has already accomplished. Lairmore will administer the program and will specifically study key proteins in HTLV-1 that activate T cells. Patrick Green will focus on a regulatory protein called "Rex"that controls viral replication, while Kathleen Boris-Lawrie will use retroviruses to study how cells control RNA and protein production. Thomas Rosol will work to understand bone lesions associated with ATL and help refine animal models of HTLV infection, and Lawrence Mathes will provide supervision of support facilities and the use of state-of-the-art imaging instruments. Finally, Lee Ratner, director of the AIDS clinical trial group at Washington University and his colleague, Kathleen Weilbaecher, will continue their collaborative studies with the OSU investigators by making genetically altered mouse models to study retrovirus-induced bone disease.

The team will include additional scientists, biostatisticians and staff support and will receive assistance from a number of core facilities within the Comprehensive Cancer Center.