Below are a variety of items about upcoming events and other news notes on the campus of Youngstown State University:

Calendar
Tuesday, June 2. The YSU Board of Trustees meets in the Presidential Suites of Kilcawley Center on the following schedule: 8 a.m., Executive Committee; 8:30 a.m., Academic and Student Affairs Committee; 9:30 a.m., Audit Subcommittee; 10:30 a.m., Internal Affairs Committee; 11:30 a.m., Ad Hoc Subcommittee for Negotiations and Collective Bargaining; Noon, Lunch (Kilcawley Center, Jones Room); 12:30 p.m., Ad Hoc Subcommittee on University Policy Statement/Procedures Review.

Thursday, June 4. The YSU Board of Trustees meets in the Presidential Suites of Kilcawley Center on the following schedule: 11:30 a.m., Tour of Wick Pollock Inn (Wick Avenue at Spring Street); Noon, Lunch (Jones Room); 1 p.m., Investment Subcommittee; 2 p.m., External Affairs Committee; 3 p.m., Finance and Facilities Committee; 4 p.m., Executive Committee; 6 p.m. Dinner (location to be determined).

Friday, June 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The YSU Board of Trustees holds a retreat in Bresnahan Rooms I and II in Kilcawley Center.

Ohio Public Health Assn. honors two YSU students

Two Youngstown State University graduate students have received awards from the Ohio Public Health Association.

Homer “Tad” L. Skinner of Poland and Thomas J. Albani of Boardman are graduate students in the Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health program at YSU.

Skinner, a physician who practices in Columbiana, was awarded the Ohio Public Health Association’s Graduate Student Award of Merit. The award is given to a graduate student who demonstrates significant accomplishment in scholarship, leadership, service and in research that has influenced the knowledge base of public health.

A member of the medical staffs at St. Elizabeth Health Center and Salem Community Hospital, Skinner is completing his second year of the MPH program and plans to receive his degree in summer 2010.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Iowa in 1978, a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree at Des Moines University College Osteopathic Medicine in 1981, and did his residency in family medicine at the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine/Forum Health in 1984.

“I view the MPH as a vital adjunct in providing high quality preventive, acute, and chronic care to my patients,” Skinner said.

Albani was recognized for his research titled “Healthcare and Ohio''s Public Schools: Trends in Personnel Service Delivery Systems.” Students from across Ohio presented public health projects and research at a statewide conference in Columbus in May, and Albani’s research poster placed first. He also was recently notified that the project was selected for presentation at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in November in Philadelphia. It was one of only 19 presentations selected in the nation. 

Albani is completing his first year of the MPH program and plans to receive his degree in spring 2010. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biology in 2007 from John Carroll University.

He worked with Nancy Mosca, YSU’s MPH program coordinator and professor of nursing, on a statewide survey of school nurses in public schools. Albani entered data and assisted with data analysis. He also examined the relationship between the number of health care workers in schools and the poverty level of those schools.

The Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health program is a partnership between YSU, the University of Akron, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, and Ohio University. The program is geared toward the working professional who would like to broaden his or her role in improving community health, enhance current job skills, or seek career advancement. For more information, visit www.neoucom.edu/MPH/.

Accounting professor identified as prolific author

David E. Stout, the John S. & Doris M. Andrews Chair in Accounting at Youngstown State University, was identified as one of the top published authors in accounting education in an article published in The Accounting Educators’ Journal.

Author Frank R. Urbancic analyzed 868 articles published in six accounting education journals between 1998 and 2007. During that period, Stout was the author or co–author of 12 refereed articles in the six journals. On the basis of number of articles, unadjusted for the effect of co–authorship, he was the top author of education research articles and the number two contributing author of journal articles related to “teaching materials” and “educational resources.”

Between 1986 and 1997, Stout published an additional 23 articles in the set of journals, or predecessor journals, included in the Urbancic study.

Stout joined the YSU faculty in 2003 as Professor and Andrews Chair in Accounting. He just completed his term as president of the Ohio Region of the American Accounting Association. Last year he served as president of the Academy of Business Education. Stout served previously as editor of Issues in Accounting Education and serves currently as senior associate editor of the Journal of Accounting Education and as a member of the editorial board of each of the following journals: Issues in Accounting Education; Journal of International Accounting, Auditing & Taxation; China Finance and Accounting Review; International Journal of Management Education; IMA Educational Case Journal; and Management Accounting Quarterly/Strategic Finance. In addition, he serves as a member of the editorial advisory board of Accounting Education: An International Journal. ﾠ

Stout’s publications cited in the study by Urbancic include the following:

• “Accounting Education Literature Review (1991–1997), Part I: Curriculum and Instructional Approaches” (with J. Rebele, B. Apostalou, F. Buckless, J. Hassell, and L. Paquette). Journal of Accounting Education (1998, Winter), pp. 1–52. (This paper was awarded a “Citation of Excellence” in the Best Research Implications Category by Anbar, publisher of the world’s leading guide to management journal literature.)
• “Accounting Education Literature Review (1991–1997), Part II: Technology, Faculty Issues, Student Issues, Assessment, and Educational Resources” (with J. Rebele, B. Apostalou, F. Buckless, J. Hassell, and L. Paquette). Journal of Accounting Education (1998, Spring), pp. 179–245. (This paper was awarded a “Citation of Excellence” in the Best Research Implications Category by Anbar, publisher of the world’s leading guide to management journal literature.)
• “Survey Evidence of Teacher Development Based on AECC Recommendations” (with M. R. Swain). Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 18 (Spring 2000), pp. 99–113.
• “Current Practices in the External Peer Review Process for Promotion and Tenure Decisions” (with S. Rhoades–Catanach). Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 18 (Summer 2000), pp. 171–188.
• “Procedural Justice and the Development and Use of Peer Evaluations in Business and Accounting Classes” (with D. J. Kilpatrick and M. Linville). Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 19 (2001), pp. 225–246.
• “A Descriptive Account of the Development and Implementation of an Innovative Graduate Accounting Program: An Example of Stakeholder–Based Decision–Making” (with J. Borden, M. German, and T. Monahan). Advances in Accounting Education, Vol. 6 (2004), pp. 249–272.
• “Development and Implementation of an Innovative Graduate–Level Course in Strategic Cost Management, Planning, and Control” (with R. West), Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 22, No. 2 (2004), pp. 95–118.
• “A Writing Intervention for the Accounting Classroom: Dealing with the Problem of Faulty Modifiers” (with J. DaCrema), Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 22, No. 4 (2004), pp. 289–323.
• “A Writing–Improvement Module for Accounting Education” (with J. DaCrema), Advances in Accounting Education, Vol. 7 (2005), pp. 307–328.
• “A Comprehensive Assessment Plan for a Graduate Accounting Program” (with J. Borden, M. German, and T. Monahan). Accounting Education: An International Journal, Vol. 14, No. 4 (December 2005), pp. 395–410.
• “Reasons Research Papers are Rejected at Accounting Education Journals” (with T. P. Howard and J. Rebele), Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 21, No. 2 (May 2006), pp. 81–98.
• “Reasons Accounting Case/Instructional Resource Papers are Rejected for Publication” (with T. P. Howard). The Journal of Accounting Education, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2006), pp. 1–15.

Asteroid named after Planetarium's Rick Pirko

An asteroid has recently been named for the late Richard Pirko, Youngstown State University alumnus and former show producer and technician of YSU’s Ward Beecher Planetarium.

The asteroid is in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and was discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., in June 2000. Formerly known as Asteroid 2000 LS36, the International Astronomical Union has officially named it Asteroid Pirko.

Pirko’s passion for astronomy exposed hundreds of thousands of people to the wonders of the universe, said Warren Young, interim chair of the YSU Physics and Astronomy Department. 

“This is a fitting tribute to a very dedicated educator,” Young said. “He was an amazing person with a unique combination of talents. We feel his loss every day.”

Pirko worked at the planetarium for more than 30 years writing, producing and presenting planetarium shows to public school classes, college classes and the general public. He died of an apparent heart attack on Oct. 15 at the University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center in Chardon. He was 55.



New ETD site makes theses available online
Since 1996, Frederick Stricker’s thesis, “Faith in the Law,” has gathered dust on the Archives and Special Collections shelf at YSU’s Maag Library. Only YSU students and faculty interested in the topic were likely to access the document.

Today, however, the thesis is available to students, faculty and any other interested persons all over the world.

Adopting a worldwide library community trend, Maag Library is creating an Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) collection online, which will make every YSU graduate thesis and dissertation completed since 1968 available through Maag Library’s D–Space and OhioLINK’s ETD Center.

“There’s an awful lot of buzz out there, and there are national conferences about ETDs,” said Kevin Whitfield, catalog librarian and Maag Library ETD project leader. “Many institutions individually maintain their own collection of ETDs.”

YSU, however, submits its theses and dissertations to the OhioLINK ETD Center, which also houses the documents of 25 participating institutions across the state at www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Although the collection began in 2001 with 118 scanned submissions, YSU’s ETD project, with the help of Barb Jones, coordinator of Graduate Administrative Affairs, hit its stride in 2007 when all theses and dissertations were required to be submitted in PDF format for upload to the ETD Center. For the older documents that were submitted on paper, Maag archivist Salvador Barragan and several archival staff are scanning the documents and uploading them to D–Space. So far, 800 theses and dissertations have been scanned, although the online availability of these older projects is sporadic for now, Whitfield said.

“Some of the older theses and dissertations have yet to be uploaded and made searchable,” he said, noting the daunting, time–consuming task that is forming an ETD collection. “Scanning of retrospective theses and dissertations is finite, but this aspect of the project is not due to end any time soon.”

When fully uploaded, the ETDs at YSU will be in PDF format and searchable by author’s name, title, subject and keyword. Files can be downloaded from the Web, and OhioLINK keeps track of IP addresses and blocks those that suspiciously access large numbers of files.

Currently there are 202 files in YSU’s OhioLINK ETD collection, and Whitfield said the online availability of these documents is invaluable for the university. 

“This project provides people access to knowledge produced by the YSU community on a global level, and a number of these theses or dissertations on OhioLINK even show up in an open Web search,” he said. “In February 2009 alone, there were 985 hits and downloads on the ETD Center site.”

For access to current YSU ETDs, visit the OhioLINK Web site; retrospective ETDs are available at YSU’s D–Space page, http://dspace.maag.ysu.edu.

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