96-05-31 Story Tips for Local News Media STORY TIPS University Communication offers this list of potential news stories on the Columbus campus. We'll update this listing every week. This and every University Communications news release is available on the Internet and World Wide Web. To access by Internet, you may reach us through either OASIS (Ohio State Information System), the Columbus Freenet or World Wide Gophers. Select News and Weather, then Ohio State University News Releases, then News Releases from University Communications. Our Web address is http://www.acs.ohio- state.edu/ Choose News Releases from The Ohio State University, then News Releases from University Communications. POET NIKKI GIOVANNI SPEAKS AT AFRICAN AMERICAN FAREWELL--May 31. Nationally known author and poet Nikki Giovanni will speak at 6 p.m. in the Ohio Union ballrooms, 1739 N. High St., at the African American Farewell Celebration, a ceremony honoring spring and summer graduating students of African descent. Giovanni, author of several books, has held a number of teaching positions including a visiting professorship in English at Ohio State in 1984-85. The African American Farewell Celebration is an annual event sponsored by the National Pan-Hellenic Council at Ohio State, the governing body of Ohio State's nine traditional African American sororities and fraternities. CONTACT: Kai Johnson, Office of Student Organization Services, (614) 292-8763. UNIVERSITY POLICE OFFICER SITS ON BILLBOARD FOR THREE DAYS--June 4- 6. Ohio State Police Officer Alan Washer will mount a billboard at the corner of Spring and Hocking Streets near the Ohio Pen at 10 a.m. Tuesday---and sit and sit and sit. Washer's marathon is an effort to raise awareness and funds for the Ohio Special Olympics, which will be held later this summer in Ohio Stadium. University Police have supported Special Olympics with several events and programs over the last three years. Washer will sit on the billboard for about 15 hours each day and spend nights in a trailer just below his perch. He will have a cellular phone with him and is available for interviews (and maybe traffic reports??) while sitting. CONTACT: Alan Washer, University Police, 646-8590--beeper--leave your message or number. TRUSTEES OF FIVE OHIO STATE CAMPUSES HOLD VIDEOCONFERENCE---June 5. The Ohio State University Board of Trustees will hold a joint video conference with the boards of trustees of the university's campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion and Newark. Several university trustees and President E. Gordon Gee will meet from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in 3136 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall, on the Columbus campus. At the same time, trustees of the extended campuses will gather at each campus. The five groups will communicate via the Ohio State University Video Conferencing Network, with all groups being visible and audible to each other. Wednesday's videoconference is primarily a demonstration of the video conferencing network and a chance for the trustees to see firsthand how it works. The trustees will not be conducting any official business. Although, Ohio State has used similar technology for distance learning between Columbus and a single extended campus at a time, this meeting will be the first use by all campuses simultaneously. CONTACT: Ruth Gerstner, University Communications, 292-8424. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES--June 6. The Board will hold its June meeting on Thursday rather than Friday this month to avoid conflicts with commencement. The full board meeting begins at 11:00 in the Alumni Lounge of the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road. Among the agenda items: an interim budget, and updates on restructuring and undergraduate services improvement. The updates will be heard in greater detail at the Educational Affairs Committee meeting at 9 a.m. CONTACT: Tom Spring, University Communications, 292-8309. SPRING QUARTER COMMENCEMENT FEATURES JOHN JAKES--June 7. Commencement exercises for some 5,300 spring quarter graduates of The Ohio State University will be held June 7 in Ohio Stadium beginning at 9:30 a.m. The commencement speaker will be author John Jakes. A 1954 Master of Arts graduate of Ohio State in American literature, Jakes has published 200 short stories and some 60 books, including the Kent Family Chronicles, Civil War, North and South, Love and War, and Heaven and Hell, which was made into a TV mini-series. CONTACT: Tracy Turner, University Communications, 688-3682. COMMISSIONING CEREMONY MARKS 10,000th ARMY OFFICER FROM OHIO STATE-- June 7. The annual commissioning ceremony for the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) holds special meaning this year. It recognizes the 10,000th U.S. Army officer to hail from the Ohio State Unit. The colorful military ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at the Faculty Club, 181 S. Oval Drive. The unit will receive a certificate marking the event. The student who is the 10,000th officer will be awarded a sword and plaque. CONTACT: Patrick Davis, Department of Military Science, 292-6075. OLYMPIC TORCH PASSES THROUGH CAMPUS--June 8. The Olympic flame will be carried through the campus en-route to the Olympics in Atlanta, beginning at 6:31 a.m. on Saturday morning. The route takes the torch through the short north from City Hall. The torch enters the campus at the intersection of King and Cannon Drive. The flame is carried on north on Cannon; right on 12th Avenue and left on College Road. The torch goes past the Oval on College, then right on Woodruff; left on N. High Street and to Worthington. The route of the torch, which was planned by a committee in Atlanta, does not take the torch past Ohio Stadium or the Jesse Owens Plaza in front of the stadium. Several Ohio State former athletes and Olympians will carry the torch through Franklin County. CONTACT: For torch route information: Sharon Keaney, United Way of Franklin County, 227-2726; for Ohio State athlete involvement: Jeff Wuerth, OSU Sports Information, 292-6861. UNIVERSITY AREA SCHEDULED FOR BI-WEEKLY CLEANINGS--The Public Service Department of the city of Columbus will begin sweeping streets throughout the University District on the second Thursday and second Friday of each month from April through November. The sweeping will begin in June with the even-numbered (north and east) side of the streets being swept on Thursday, June 11, and the odd- numbered (south and west) side of the streets being swept on Friday, June 12. Sweeping will be conducted between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day. Signs are being installed to remind residents to move their parked vehicles during the hours of the sweeping. This sweeping is in addition to a quarterly sweeping of all streets in the high-density, predominantly student neighborhood east of Ohio State. The second quarterly street sweeping will take place June 11 and 12 in an area bounded by N.High St. on the west, N. Fourth St. on the east, E. Norwich Ave. on the north and E. 11th Ave. on the south. CONTACT: Steve Sterrett, Campus Partners, 294-7300. The person listed as the contact for each item will have the best information about the story. However, feel free to call on our news services staff for assistance with these or other Ohio State news stories. Amy Murray, 292-8385; Ruth Gerstner, 292-8424; Tom Spring, 292-8309, and Tracy Turner, 688-3682. -Compiled by Amy Murray, University Communications, (Murray- Goedde.1@osu.edu). [Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) Mon, 3 Jun 1996 09:13:31 -0400] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.