N N IAL CEL O - Youngstown State University

Around Campus
Around Campus
From left – Brian Wells and Jonelle Beatrice, Center for Student
Progress, and Christi Campf, president of YSUnity.
The touring photo-text display was created by the awardwinning
Family Diversity Projects of Amherst, Mass.
“Ohio is not a welcoming place for LGBT people and
their families,” said Christi Campf, president of YSUnity.
“We hope these photos will help cut through all the political
arguments right to the heart of the issue by showing the love,
caring and connection that are so basic to all families.”
Photographs by Gigi Kaeser depict a variety of LGBT
people and their families of all races in familiar family settings.
The photos are accompanied by text edited by Peggy
Gillespie from in-depth interviews she conducted with each
family member.
To show support to fellow students at Virginia Tech and
their families, sympathy books containing the signatures of
more than 1,100 YSU students and employees have been sent
to the families of the 33 victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.
The book was the idea of YSU graduate student John
Paul DeSimone of Poland.
In addition, the families also received a small penguin
doll from the YSU bookstore.
Anna Boyd, YSU freshman, with YSU President David C. Sweet in
the background, during a prayer vigil for the victims of the killings at
Virginia Tech University.
12 Youngstown State University
The project was funded by donations from people and
organizations who signed the book and by the work of more
than 50 volunteers.
The book was also sent to 22 Virginia Tech students who
were injured but survived the shooting and are recovering.
YSU Student Government also helped organize the signing
campaign, which lasted for four days on campus.
The Center for Nonprofit Leadership is offering more
than 15 paid internships at nonprofit organizations with support
from the Raymond John Wean Foundation.
For more information, call Jane Reid, campus director
for Center for Nonprofit Leadership and professor of marketing,
at 330-941-1870.
About 100 education faculty and graduate students
from five universities across Ohio attended the fourth annual
Educational Resource Exchange at YSU in March.
Graduate students from Central State University, Cleveland
State University, Kent State University, the University of
Akron and YSU presented research on topics including special
education, school funding, accountability, poverty and education,
counseling and the use of technology in education.
Gunapala Edirisooriya, YSU professor of Educational
Foundations, Research, Technology and Leadership and chair
of this year’s ERE, said the purpose of the event was to give
graduate students an opportunity to present their research and
to develop research connections and cooperation among the
universities.
Dr. James E. McLean, university professor and dean
of the College of Education at the University of Alabama,
presented the keynote address.
Two original operas created by students in YSU’s
SMARTS program were performed in May at the Ford Family
Recital Hall in downtown Youngstown.
The two short operas, “The Princess Fiesta:
Revenge of the Muffin Man” and “Mysterious
Hawkeye: Child Defender,” were created by 30 firstthrough
12th-grade students from the Youngstown
region.
SMARTS students participated in the class
for three months handling all aspects of the opera,
including documenting the project with photography
by fifth-grader Eilish Deuley, whose images were
shown during the opera.
Becky Keck, SMARTS director, credited the
teachers – Lynn Anderson, Amanda Beagle, Diana
Farrell, Corinne Morini, Craig Raymaley and
Angela Speece – for their leadership in helping the
students create quality operas.
SMARTS – Students Motivated by the Arts – is
an arts education partnership among YSU’s College
of Fine & Performing Arts, the Beeghly College of
Education, the Youngstown City Schools, and the many vital
arts organizations in the community.
Youngstown area SMARTS students perform in the original
opera, “The Princess Fiesta: Revenge of the Muffin Man” at the
Ford Family Recital Hall.
The St. Anthony’s Society of Struthers has donated
$33,588.45 to YSU.
The Society, founded in the late 1920s as an Italian
immigrant social club, donated the money from its John J.
Spano-Frank Quattro Scholarship Fund, which was established
in the early 1980s as a way to help Struthers High
School students seek a college education.
“We are honored to receive this very special donation,
and we look forward to continuing the Society’s proud tradition
of helping students attend YSU,” said Paul McFadden,
YSU chief development officer.
For more information, contact Nick Visingardi at 330-
536-8537.
Faculty and Staff
Philip Hirsch of Girard and Philip A. Snyder of Boardman,
two retired, long-time YSU administrators, received
YSU’s Heritage Award at the 26th Annual Awards Dinner
in May. The Heritage Award is among the highest honors
bestowed by YSU.
Hirsch came to YSU in 1973 as
the first director of Kilcawley Center.
An ambassador for YSU, he brought
prominence to the university through his
extensive participation in the Association
of College Unions-International.
Hirsch was chief negotiator for the
university for several non-faculty union
contracts. YSU achieved success in
negotiated collective bargaining agreements
with YSU-ACE, YSU-APAS and
Philip Hirsch
YSU-FOP due to Hirsch’s efforts.
Prior to his retirement, he was also asked to serve in
an interim capacity as special assistant to the president for
development and community affairs.
Snyder served the university for more than a quarter
century, joining the professional/administrative staff in 1966
as director of university relations. A native of Savannah, Ga.,
Snyder graduated from YSU in 1952
with a bachelor’s degree in advertising
and public relations.
During his 26-year tenure at YSU,
he wrote a history of the university, organized
the records and data of hundreds
of former and present faculty and staff,
and planned and coordinated all groundbreakings
and dedications of university
Philip A. Snyder
buildings until his retirement in 1992.
Administrative Distinguished Service
Awards, retiree and service awards were also presented
at the dinner. For a full list of the award recipients, visit
http://www.cc.ysu.edu/hr/.
Eugene P. Grilli is YSU’s new
vice president of finance and administration.
Prior to joining YSU, Grilli was associate
vice president for administration
and finance at California University of
Pennsylvania. He served at CUP since
1972.
As YSU’s chief financial officer,
Grilli provides leadership to finance, Eugene P. Grilli
facilities and support services, which
includes supervision of more than 150 full-time employees.
“I am confident that Mr. Grilli’s extensive experience
in higher education will be a strong asset to our university,”
YSU President David C. Sweet said.
More than 20 candidates from across the country applied
for the cabinet-level position. Grilli was part of several
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education committees,
including the committee that developed the first formula to
allocate legislated funds to the 14 universities in the Pennsylvania
state system.
The American Physical Therapy Association selected
Nancy Landgraff, associate professor and chair of YSU’s
Physical Therapy Department, as the
recipient of the Dorothy Briggs Memorial
Award for Scientific Inquiry.
The award, named after the late
Dorothy Briggs, an educator and an
active investigator at the University of
Wisconsin, was presented to Landgraff
for an article she published in 2006
in the professional journal, Physical
Therapy.
Nancy Landgraff
Summer 2007 13