N N IAL CEL O - Youngstown State University

Around Campus
Around Campus
YSU journalism and telecommunications students traveled
to Sago, W.Va., last spring to report stories about the
community one year after 12 men died in one of the nation’s
worst mining accidents.
The 14 students covered a variety of stories, ranging
from profiles about victims’ families to examinations of communications
and rescue devices in mines.
Tim Francisco and Alyssa Lenhoff, journalism faculty
members who led the trip, said they chose Sago for YSU’s
first reporting field project because of the many unanswered
questions surrounding the disaster and because people of the
town have become comfortable talking with reporters.
Francisco and Lenhoff, who both worked as newspaper
reporters and editors before joining the YSU faculty, said
getting real-world reporting experience is a critical part of a
quality journalistic education.
YSU’s Center for Working-Class Studies helped fund the trip.
Campus Visitors
Futurist Alvin Toffler, the author of “Future Shock,”
whose writings have influenced leaders around the world,
spoke in March at Stambaugh Auditorium as part of YSU’s
Paul J. and Marguerite K. Thomas Colloquium on Free Enterprise.
Toffler and his
wife and co-author,
Heidi, have written
such classics as “The
Third Wave,” “Powershift”
and “War
and Anti-War.” Their
newest book, “Revolutionary
Wealth,”
attacks key features
of conventional
economics as it paints
the emerging global
“wealth system” of
the decades ahead.
Steven Levitt,
the author of
“Freakonomics,”
spoke at YSU in
Alvin Toffler, author of “Future Shock,” spoke at
YSU in March. His wife, Heidi, who is co-author of
his books, joined him on campus.
March at Stambaugh Auditorium as part of YSU’s Paul J.
and Marguerite K. Thomas Colloquium on Free Enterprise.
“Freakonomics” has been on the New York Times Bestseller
list for over a year.
Levitt is the Alvin Baum Professor of Economics and
director of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the
University of Chicago where he has been on the faculty since
1998.
He earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1994 and graduated from Harvard
Steven Levitt, author of the best-seller “Freakonomics,” visited
campus in March. The economist is known for using simple
questions to reach startling conclusions.
University summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree
in economics in 1989.
He is the author of hundreds of articles that have been
published in both academic and non-academic journals.
Terry Green and Nori-zso Tolson of “22 product,” a
world-renowned motion graphics and interactive
company, lectured at the McDonough Museum of
Art in April.
The work of “22 product” appears as title
design, broadcast identity, motion graphics for
commercials and prototyping for web sites.
Green and Tolson have worked with corporations
such as Nike, NEC, Adobe Systems, IBM,
Levi Strauss & Company, MTV, America Online,
Yahoo!, Apple Computers, Sony and Hewlett-
Packard.
The free lecture was sponsored by the art
department.
Mike Jackson, former vice president of
marketing and advertising at GM North America,
presented “Riding the New Media Wave . . . the
Thrill of a Lifetime” as part of the Williamson
Symposium Series, an executive-on-campus
program designed to bring international speakers
to campus to network with students. Jackson visited YSU in
March.
Jackson, a Youngstown native, became GM North
America vice president of marketing and advertising in March
2006. Jackson was the regional general manager of GM’s
Western Region, where he led the sales, marketing and distribution
efforts for the region’s 16 member states. He joined GM
in February 2000 as executive director of sales and marketing
support. Among other honors, he received the distinguished
Chairman’s Honors in 2002 for being a leader in the “Keep
Mike Jackson, former vice president
of marketing and advertising at GM
North America, spoke at YSU as part
of the Williamson Symposium Series.
America Rolling”
program.
Jackson also
held leadership positions,
spanning more
than 20 years, in a
variety of sales and
marketing assignments
at Coca-Cola,
Pepsi-Co. and Coors
Brewing Co.
Ohio Gov. Ted
Strickland visited
YSU in June to
celebrate passage of
the two-year state
budget, which calls for
significant increases in higher education funding.
“We want to make sure we reinvest in higher education,”
Strickland told a crowd of about 50 students and employees
in the Board of Trustees’ meeting room in Tod Hall. “(YSU
President) Dr. (David C.) Sweet has done a remarkable job
with this institution,” he added.
The state budget includes a two-year tuition freeze for
undergraduate Ohio students, increases in state funding for
higher education and increases in scholarship funding. Later
in the day, the YSU Board of Trustees approved the two-year
tuition freeze. As part of the budget bill, YSU will receive $2.9
million in additional
state funds in fiscal
year 2008 and $4.1
million in fiscal year
2009. YSU’s tuition
will remain the
lowest among the
public, comprehensive
universities in
the state.
Sweet hailed
the governor’s efforts.
“After several
years of flat funding
for higher education,
it is encouraging to
see state lawmakers
and the governor approve
a budget that
Gov. Ted Strickland, left, receives a
penguin from President David C. Sweet
during a campus visit.
recognizes the important role that higher education must play
in the economic revitalization of Ohio,” Sweet said.
Dr. Najma Najam, vice chancellor of Fatima Jinnah
Women University in Pakistan, visited YSU in February
to explore establishing academic linkages and exchanges
between the two universities.
Fatima Jinnah, in Rawalpindi,
was founded in 1998 as
the first public university in
Pakistan exclusively for women.
Najam, who received a master’s
degree and a Ph.D. in neurosciences
from Bowling Green
State University in Ohio, was
the founding vice chancellor of
the university and oversees all
university operations.
Fatima Jinnah and YSU
signed an agreement in 2005 setting
the groundwork for student
and faculty exchanges and joint
research projects. Najam’s visit
was aimed at further exploring
what specific projects to pursue
under that agreement. Ikram
Khawaja, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has
served as a visiting professor at the Pakistani university.
Penguin Envy?
Najma Najam, vice chancellor
of Fatima Jinnah Women
University in Pakistan, came to
the university to establish academic
linkages and exchanges
between the two universities.
A family of Red Shoulder hawks have made YSU their
home – for at least part of the year.
The hawks selected a tree outside the 6th floor of Maag
Library as the place to nest for the last two years. This year,
those who work in the library reported seeing the parents
begin to “refurbish” the nest in March. Two chicks hatched
this year – last year, there was just one.
Red-shouldered hawks are large, broad-winged hawks with
relatively long tails and heavy bodies, meaning that females
are larger than males. The tail of the both immature and mature
red-shouldered hawks is dark brown with white bands.
At the end of June, both “fledged” (left the nest), but were still
coming back “home” to feed on small mammals or birds and
insects brought to them by both their parents. Visit http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Buteo_lineatus.html
for more information.
20 Youngstown State University
Summer 2007 21