3-5-99

TRUSTEES APPROVE HONORS HOUSE NAME CHANGE, ESTABLISH NEW CENTERS

   COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees on Friday (3/5) authorized a change to the name of the university's honors house and approved establishment of two academic centers and a new institute. The board also presented a student award.

Honors program undergoing expansion

   Trustees approved renaming the university's honors center the Albert J. Kuhn Honors and Scholars House, a move that signals an administrative reorganization and expansion of the nearly 15- year-old program to serve a wider array of talented Ohio State students.

   "Basically, we're taking everything we've been doing for honors students and extending it to a larger population of students," Interim Director Mabel Freeman said. "We want this house to be the living room of the university for more students, and we want to help develop more programs that bridge the academic world with co-curricular activities that enhance learning."

   Since its inception in 1985, the University Honors Program has attracted high-achieving students to Ohio State and offered them a personal, tailored academic experience within the larger university environment. About 4,000 honors students currently are enrolled in the smaller classes and more challenging curriculum in 180 honors courses across the university. To be eligible for honors status, students typically must achieve a score of at least 29 on the ACT or 1300 on the SAT and graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

   The new University Honors and Scholars Center will work with other campus departments to recruit and serve non-honors students who are high academic achievers and who come to Ohio State because of a special talent or program offered by the university, Freeman said. Many will be university scholarship recipients and may be students living in special living-learning programs, athletes, musicians and ROTC members, among others.

   Freeman said a database of scholars in different programs or organizations will be maintained to enable the center to notify students about upcoming events that are of particular interest to them.

   On a larger scale, programming will be extended through the creation of the Mount Leadership Society. In the fall, 60 entering freshmen will be chosen to participate in co-curricular activities and selected coursework organized around leadership strategies, problem-solving techniques, public policy and community service. Selected on the basis of a strong high school academic record and demonstrated commitment to leadership, they will live in the same residence hall and benefit from special mentoring, career assistance, team projects and an annual book award scholarship.

   "Talent comes in all varieties," said Martha Garland, vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies. "Strict academic ability, the sort that leads people to become important research scientists or scholars, is important, of course. But we attract students with other types of talents: Our students have the capability to become national or international leaders, to provide significant community service, to make a profound difference in artistic or athletic arenas.

   "The time has come for us to extend the effectiveness of the honors program idea."

   The expansion involves a structural reorganization within the program. On the academic side, a new position of associate provost, honors and scholars curriculum has been created to oversee development and expansion of specialized curricula. This tenured faculty member will work with colleges and departments to enhance academic opportunities for honors students and scholars, and will create systems of mentoring students toward competitive graduate fellowships and professional school opportunities. A search is in progress, with an appointment expected this summer.

   Freeman will continue as interim director until the associate provost is appointed. At that time, she will be named director of the University Honors and Scholars Center, overseeing the center and focusing on recruitment of students and provision of co-curricular programming in support of new curriculum. The honors administrators will work closely together, and both will report to Garland.

Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing

   Trustees approved creation of the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing (CSTW), an interdisciplinary unit in the College of Humanities dedicated to helping students and faculty develop and sustain writing and writing instruction.

   A recipient of an Academic Enrichment grant during the 1997- 98 academic year, the CSTW began preliminary operations during autumn quarter 1998, Center Director and Distinguished University Professor of English Andrea Lunsford told trustees during a presentation.

   The CSTW's overall mission is to respond to student, faculty and national requests for more instruction on communication. Programs offered by the center foster strong writing abilities necessary for the personal, academic and professional success of all members of the Ohio State community. Creation of the center is one of many university initiatives responding to recommendations of the Committee on the Undergraduate Experience.

   "Writing -- and the analytic thinking it enables -- has become an increasingly important component of undergraduate education because of employer expectations," Lunsford said. "While focusing on the writing concerns of our students and faculty is a high priority, we also have opportunities with this center to encourage our community's youngest writers to concentrate on these skills."

   The center helps coordinate the delivery of the three-tiered General Education Curriculum writing requirements at Ohio State. In addition, its staff offers resources and programs ranging from on-site consulting and tutoring services and participation in interdisciplinary research to faculty/staff writing workshops and outreach in local schools, organizations, government and corporate employers.

   For example, on campus, the Writing Center's graduate student staff offers free individual consultations to students, faculty, staff and alumni on any piece of writing: research or lab reports and essays, personal statements, resumes, job letters, even screenplays.

   Lunsford, accompanied by Assistant Professor of English Brenda Brueggemann, told trustees about a number of the CSTW's current outreach projects, including a pilot program at Columbus School for Girls focusing on teaching science through writing and an intensive writing instruction initiative for graduate students. Two first-year students, Cindy Alexander and Anne Brandau, also participated in the presentation, describing their involvement in a Neighborhood Literacy Project as tutors of fourth-graders at Indianola and Weinland Park elementary schools.

Center for Survey Research

   The board approved the establishment of the Center for Survey Research in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The center will build on the university's existing Survey Research Unit and combine the resources of faculty and graduate students from several departments. Paul Lavrakas, professor of journalism and communication and director of the Survey Research Unit, will head up the new center.

   The Center for Survey Research will provide statistical and survey information for not-for-profit and government agencies and the public sector. The center also will provide academic initiatives such as graduate student traineeships, graduate student summer fellowships and a faculty fellowship program.

   University officials expect the interdisciplinary center to become nationally known for its survey methods and compete nationally for academically oriented survey research.

   Ohio State currently participates with The Columbus Dispatch, WBNS-TV and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in the Buckeye State Poll, a monthly telephone survey of about 800 Ohio adults. The unit has funding to conduct the poll at least through 2002.

Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities

   The board approved the creation of the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities. The institute, located in the Humanities House, 1478 Pennsylvania Ave., supports development of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in the humanities among faculty and students through emphasis on collaborative research, seminars, colloquia, visiting fellows and reading groups. The institute received $100,000 in annual funding from the Academic Enrichment grant program this academic year.

   Outreach activities will include a traveling chautauqua show, a study of how ethnic communities in Ohio preserve their cultures through heritage schools, production of an encyclopedia of Midwestern history and culture, and other special projects. Finally, a Humanities House living/learning community will allow undergraduate honors students to engage intellectually and socially with scholars and faculty through fireside chats and lunch discussions, communal meals and a planned year-long comprehensive humanities course.

   The institute has received the endorsement of the University District Organization, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Inter-professional Commission of Ohio and the Ohio Humanities Council.

Student recognition award

   Trustees presented a student recognition award to Carolina Estefam Nahuz of SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, a senior majoring in industrial and systems engineering. A four-time Ohio State scholar athlete, Nahuz is the recipient of the University College SUMMA Award and is a Minority Engineering Eminent Scholar. She also was selected to present a motivational speech to the National College Round Table on Women's Health Issues in 1997, and has interned twice with Delphi Chassis Systems in Dayton.

Contacts:
Mabel Freeman, Honors Program, (614) 292-3135
Martha Garland, Academic Affairs, (614) 292-5881
Andrea Lunsford, English, (614) 292-6065
Paul Lavrakas, Center for Survey Research, (614) 292-6672
Christian Zacher, Humanities, (614) 292-2559