N N IAL CEL O - Youngstown State University

From the Desk of
Martin Abraham
Martin Abraham, the founding dean of YSU’s new STEM
college, comes to YSU after three years as dean of the College
of Graduate Studies at the University Toledo. A chemical
engineer whose research involves hydrogen fuel cell catalysts,
Abraham has a strong record of scholarly publications and
research, including more than 60 refereed publications and
nearly 150 technical presentations. He shares his thoughts on
the new STEM college.
Youngstown State University has taken the innovative step
of merging science and engineering to form a single college
with the ability to take a concept from basic fundamentals
through application. Engineering disciplines apply scientific
principles for the design of products and services, thereby providing
natural connections for the
programs that will now be housed
within our new STEM college.
Such an alignment is consistent
with the way that research and
development is conducted in
industry and leading academic
organizations, and places YSU in
a unique position to capitalize on
trends in science and engineering
education. We should be able
to use our position in support of
state goals to increase enrollment
in STEM disciplines, and to support
economic development in the
Youngstown area.
We will look to opportunities
to take advantage of the inherent
synergies of this novel structure,
in education, research and economic
development. Our unique
structure will benefit our faculty
in the development of collaboration
that support their teaching
Martin Abraham, STEM dean
and research missions. In teaching, we will look for innovative
ways to integrate science and engineering principles that enhances
student learning. It will be easier for our faculty to form
research partnerships across disciplines now housed within the
STEM college, providing them with an advantage in competing
for state and federal funding. And community entrepreneurs
and business leaders will be able to approach faculty teams
from multiple departments within the college who will be able
to work across academic disciplines to address their needs at
multiple levels, and from varying directions.
With the state’s emphasis on STEM education, and with
the deep national need for more technically trained individuals,
we are now poised to become a regional and national model
for engineering and science education. I strongly believe that
this new organizational structure provides the best opportunity
for students and faculty to excel, benefiting the university, the
community, the state and our national agenda.
STEM Continued from page 26 CLASS Continued from page 27
STEM fields, according to the Ohio Research Experiences to
Enhance Learning.
The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive
officers of leading U.S. companies, recently released a report
that calls for doubling the number of STEM college graduates
by 2015. To meet this goal, Ohio colleges and universities must
graduate 16,660 science and engineering students in 2015, up
from 8,330 graduates today. Ohio’s recently approved two-year
budget includes $100 million in college scholarships specifically
targeted to students studying in STEM fields.
“The merger of science and engineering through the new
STEM college creates opportunities at YSU that other universities
will not be able to duplicate,” said Martin Abraham, former
dean of the College of Graduate Studies at the University of
Toledo and the founding dean
of YSU’s STEM college.
Tom Oder, YSU assistant
professor of physics, said he
believes the new STEM college
will help faculty as they apply
for research grants.
For instance, Oder and
other physics faculty have
teamed up with faculty in
electrical engineering, biology
and chemistry to apply for
a $370,000 equipment grant
from the National Science
Foundation. The grant would
help purchase instrumentation
for nano-science and chemical
analysis.
Oder said NSF – a strong
supporter of STEM collaborations
– is likely to view the
application more favorably
because of YSU’s STEM
initiative.
“When the NSF and other agencies fund projects, they
want to see that there is already in place a network of collaboration
and support,” he said.
That collaboration was apparent in the spring in a class
taught by Oder – Condense Matter Physics. The class included
students from every one of the STEM disciplines. Ryan Paul, a
graduate student studying mechanical engineering and a member
of the class, said the new STEM college will make such
collaborations more common.
“My best experiences in graduate school have been working
with other students and faculty who are not in engineering
– understanding their perspective, seeing them at work,” said
Paul, who hopes to seek a Ph.D. in materials science after
grad school.
“Even though we have our own areas of focus and specialization,
there is a lot of common ground.”
university,” Waller said. “Literature, psychology, religious
studies, sociology– these are the heart and soul of an education
that goes beyond career education. It’s an education that
makes life fuller, that makes life rich and worth living.”
While there is a growing emphasis on disciplines in the
applied sciences and engineering, Kestner said the liberal
arts and social sciences are experiencing a resurgence of
their own and will continue to have a strong presence on
university campuses.
In fact, according to Fortune magazine, as many as 40
percent of chief executive officers majored in liberal arts in
college. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that future
chief executives may require a broader liberal arts education
that provides a foundation to better operate in an increasingly
complicated, global and fast-moving business arena.
Individuals with educations in liberal arts and social
sciences are more likely to be team players, analytical
thinkers and good communicators with creative solutions
to complex problems.
“What employers need are employees who are able to
change and can learn new skills, and those are the hallmarks
of an education in the liberal arts and social sciences,”
Kestner said. “They’ve learned a lot about people. They’ve
learned a lot about culture and civilizations and how to adapt
to the changing world around them.”
Shearle Furnish, CLASS dean
From the Desk of
Shearle Furnish
Shearle Furnish, the founding dean of YSU’s new CLASS
college, comes to YSU after six years as the head of the
Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages
at West Texas A&M University near Amarillo. A scholar
of medieval literature who earned a Ph.D. in English from
the University of Kentucky in 1984, Furnish has authored
many journal articles, book reviews and conference papers
and made dozens of presentations at academic conferences
throughout the nation. He shares his thoughts on the mission
of the new CLASS college.
I am eager to take up the position of Founding Dean of
the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, immerse myself
in learning the institutional culture of YSU and knowing
the faculty, and involve myself in the greater community. As
we address the identity and mission of the new college, I find
my thoughts sorting into four questions:
What is CLASS to its students?
What is CLASS to its faculty?
What is CLASS to the university?
What is CLASS to the region?
In its large commitment to general education and early
advising, CLASS is in a position to affect first-year success
and retention of students. CLASS is likely to be a first home
for entering students who do not immediately declare a major.
It seems logical and profitable for CLASS to embrace this role
as first home, to impart the identity of CLASS student to
undeclared majors, to make sure they have an academic
home in which to feel welcome and bonded. That way,
they may be more likely to declare a major, more likely
to declare a major in a CLASS discipline, to persist,
thrive, graduate, and be placed in a career or program of
graduate study that pleases and fulfills them.
Smaller than the College of Arts and Sciences,
CLASS may also feel to that degree less an institution
and more a home to its faculty. At any rate, I will try
to encourage the growth of such a feeling. In CLASS,
we are bonded by centuries-long common traditions of
liberal and general education, and by the mission to cultivate
citizenship. In other words, we are bonded by the
common mission to do the work of democracy. Bound by
long common traditions, we should be capable of fellowfeeling,
brotherhood – even-though the idea may seem
trite or saccharine, identity as a family.
The university and region will appreciate CLASS if
we fulfill these potentials. We have much to do already
in educating majors and graduate candidates in our
several disciplines. Successful in these and in the broader
missions I have discussed, we will be relied upon to
improve the preparation and skills of majors in other
colleges, to give the broadest and most basic parts of
preparation to new employees and professionals for the
region, and to contribute problem-solving skills, wisdom,
and prosperity to society.
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