911 remembrance

Photos by Kevin Fitzsimons Pipers Marian Beck and Allan Shaffer lead the procession from Browning Amphitheatre to Mirror Lake during theUniversity's remembrance ceremony held on Sept. 11. Behind them is Scott Boden, assistant director of residence life, carrying the wreath to be placed on Mirror Lake.

Akua Bandele, library associate at the Main Library, observes the University's remembrance ceremony.

U.S. News cites two OSU programs that lead to student success

Innovative programs that make the transition to college easier at Ohio State are named among the nation's best, according to a U.S. News and World Report special edition on America's Best Colleges.

Overall, the magazine continues to rank Ohio State among the nation's top 25 public institutions. Ohio State is tied at 24, (with Texas A&M University) and is the only public university in Ohio included in the top 25. Miami University is in a two-way tie for 26 and Ohio University is in a five-way tie at 45. The magazine also provides annual rankings for undergraduate business and engineering programs. Ohio State's Fisher College of Business was rated 14th best in the nation, up from 16th, and its College of Engineering 27th among colleges whose highest degree is a Ph.D.

The publication lists two Ohio State initiatives, the First Year Experience and Living-Learning Programs, as stellar examples of programs that lead to student success. OSU's First Year Experience (FYE) programs help students navigate the complexities of college life, academically and socially. The magazine rated Ohio State's FYE program as seventh in the nation.

"These are substantial initiatives that help our students become successful college students,"said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and First Year Experience. "New students need more than a two-day orientation to make an effective transition into college and beyond their first year. We provide ongoing networks of resources and programs to help them manage their time, their finances and their new independence, while they pursue the academic opportunities that Ohio State offers. We believe it is possible for Ohio State to be both a successful research university and a university that focuses on enhancing and personalizing the student experience, and we appreciate this recognition."

Living-Learning Programs are residence hall programs that group students with common interests -- such as academic interest, cultural background, or lifestyle preferences -- together in a residence hall. In a new category of learning communities, the magazine rates Ohio State's Living- Learning Programs as 18th in the nation.

"Living-Learning Programs help students, especially freshmen, get acclimated to college life by helping them connect and interact with other members of the Ohio State community,"said Ron Kochendoerfer, director of residence education. "We have 43 Living-Learning programs in the residence halls. For example, students can live with other students studying the same major, or even others who, like them, might be undecided. Students can live with others who are part of the Honors or Scholars programs. We partner with the academic side of the University to match the needs and aspirations of students with what the colleges want as outcomes, and that personalization is what sets us apart."

To reach its conclusions, institutions are compared in categories that include academic reputation, freshmen retention, faculty resources, graduation rates, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Among all national universities, public and private, whose highest degree is a Ph.D., Ohio State ranks in the second tier.

The guide's analysis of Ohio State, based on 2001 statistics, noted improvement in several categories over the previous year. Freshmen retention increased to 84 percent from 82 percent; the average ACT score of incoming freshmen increased to 25.2 from 24.9, and the number of incoming freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school class increased to 33 from 32 percent.

The University's focus on improving academic quality is once again evident in the entering freshman class this fall. For the seventh consecutive year, the University welcomed its best-prepared freshman class ever. The class of 2006 ranks higher than previous freshman classes in terms of high school performance, test scores and other indicators of academic quality.

The U.S. News rankings of undergraduate programs cover only a small portion of the programs offered at Ohio State. In addition to overall institutional rankings, the magazine also annually ranks undergraduate programs in business and engineering, and publishes an annual guide to graduate schools each spring, which ranks a number of Ohio State programs.

Medical research projects receive tobacco grant funding

Two medical research projects at Ohio State have been awarded a total of $12.5 million in funding from the Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Commission.

The commission awarded $6.5 million to fund a cardiovascular bioengineering enterprise led by Mauro Ferrari, associate vice president for health sciences technology and commercialization, and $6 million for a biomedical informatics synthesis platform led by Joel Saltz, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics.

Ohio State's awards equal more than half of the total funds available in this round of proposals considered by the commission, which was established by the Ohio General Assembly in 2000 to oversee allocation of part of the funds coming to Ohio from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

"This is a great achievement for investigators, The Ohio State University Medical Center and the entire University, considering the strong statewide competition and external peer review,"said Fred Sanfilippo, senior vice president for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health. Sixteen proposals -- eight from Ohio research universities and eight from commercial enterprises -- were considered in this round of funding.

The project led by Ferrari will bring together a group of physicians and scientists to conduct a broad study of coronary artery disease. Collaborating institutions include Ohio State, General Electric, iMEDD Inc., Battelle Memorial Institute and Berlex/Schering.

Saltz will lead a team of scientists to create a technology (computational) platform that will unify bioinformatic, experimental and clinical data, accelerating advances in human medicine and producing a stream of commercial products. Ohio State, LabBook Inc. and the Ohio Supercomputer Center are partners in this project.

The commission next will execute a grant agreement with the Ohio State University Research Foundation. The funding will be provided over three years.

A third grant of $9 million went to a genome research infrastructure partnership based at the University of Cincinnati.

The funding represents a portion of the state's investment in biomedical development and new job opportunities, which is expected to attract $175 million to Ohio over the next five years.

The Biomedical Research and Technology Research Trust Fund receives a portion of the tobacco revenues based on a statutory formula. The law governing distribution of funds states that competitive grants are to be made from the trust fund for biomedical research and technology transfer projects that will improve the health of Ohioans and enhance jobs and business opportunities in the state. Special consideration is given to projects relating to tobacco-related illnesses.

"These awards clearly signal a major step into the Third Frontier,"Gov. Bob Taft said in a news release. "These scientific projects will be instrumental in furthering the goal of making Ohio a premier state in biomedical research. We are encouraged by the scientific merit of these projects and the commercialization potential they carry to bring additional funding into the state and to create new opportunities for Ohioans."

The Third Frontier Project, a $1.6 billion, 10-year plan, is intended to set Ohio's course for national leadership in the high-tech economy of the 21st century.

OSU intensifies efforts to promote safety

As students return to campus, Ohio State is intensifying its summer-long efforts to promote increased awareness and preventative measures against crime. More than ever, students are being encouraged to lock their doors and windows to protect themselves from home invasions in light of the series of assaults that have taken place off-campus. The University is fully cooperating with Columbus Police in its investigation and public awareness campaigns.

The University has developed a Web site (http://studentaffairs.osu.edu/news/) linked to the University home page, with crime alerts, safety tips and a list of resources available, including free self-defense and rape prevention classes. All students, faculty and staff have received e-mails alerting them to the danger and offering safety tips. Student Affairs staff and other University volunteers will be walking through neighborhoods, knocking on doors, talking with students and handing out safety literature.

Students arriving in residence halls received safety fliers and brochures, and attended mandatory floor meetings where safety issues were discussed at length.

These back-to-school efforts are in addition to the work of Off-Campus Student Services staff members, who have been working in neighborhoods all summer with both residents and landlords. Faculty and staff are urged to remind their students about caution and safety.