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

Calendar
Tuesday, May 12, 5 p.m. Penguins baseball squad plays Toledo at Eastwood Field in Niles. The team wraps–up the regular season Wednesday, May 13, 3 p.m. against Buffalo, also at Eastwood Field.

Tuesday, May 12, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cardboard canoes made by area high school students are featured in the annual Penguin Regatta in the swimming pool of Beeghly Center on the YSU campus. The regatta is sponsored by the YSU Office of Associate Degree and MAC Tech Prep.

Thursday, May 14, 10 a.m. YSU conducts a news conference to announce an initiative to better serve military veterans.

Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16, 8 p.m. Ward Beecher Planetarium at YSU presents “Two Small Pieces of Glass.” Also, Saturday, May 16, 1 and 2:30 p.m., the planetarium features “Secret Cardboard Rocket.” Free. For more information, visit http://www.cc.ysu.edu/physics–astro/planet.htm.

Saturday, May 16, 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. More than 1,000 students will receive diplomas at YSU’s spring commencement ceremonies in Beeghly Center. Undergraduate students receive diplomas at 10 a.m., and graduate students will be honored at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony.

Political Science professor named Fulbright Scholar

Youngstown State University professor and chair of political science Paul Sracic has been named a Fulbright Scholar and will lecture at the University of Tokyo and at Sophia University in Tokyo during the 2009–2010 academic year.

Sracic, who also directs the Rigelhaupt Pre–Law Center at YSU, is among 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright program next academic year.

He will teach courses on the American Constitution and on the American presidency. 

“I want to congratulate Dr. Sracic for this prestigious appointment,” said Shearle Furnish, dean of YSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. “Paul’s professional accomplishments and his contributions to the university and the community are many. He is most deserving of this opportunity, and I am confident that students in Japan will find him to be a great asset to their understanding of the United States.”

Sracic joins an impressive list of individuals who have participated in the Fulbright Japan–United States program. That list includes five Nobel Prize Laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners, five members of U.S. presidential cabinets, a dozen Supreme Court Justices, and 17 members of Parliament.

A resident of Boardman, Sracic earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Albright College and a Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University. He joined the YSU faculty in 1992 and was named chair in 2007. His most recent book is San Antonio v. Rodriguez and the Pursuit of Equal Education: The Debate over Discrimination and School Funding (2006). He has contributed articles to academic journals and books including P.S.: Political Science and Politics (2004), The Constitution and its Amendments (1998), and The Yale Biographical Dictionary of Law (2009). 

His op–ed columns have appeared in The Washington Post and USA Today, and he has been interviewed by CNN’s The Paula Zahn Show and American Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Le Monde and The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese Daily).

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program has provided approximately 286,500 people — 108,160 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 178,340 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States — with the opportunity to observe each others’ political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world''s inhabitants. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

For more information about the Fulbright program, visit http://fulbright.state.gov.

YSU student newspaper staffers win national awards
Members of the staff of The Jambar, Youngstown State University’s student newspaper, won five awards in the 2009 Society of Collegiate Journalists competition:

• J. Breen Mitchell won a first place award in the competitive news story category for his article, “Fight over eminent domain continues.” This story won first place in the highly competitive news story category.
• The Jambar editorial board placed second in the staff editorial category for the piece, “Premature election nation.”
• Darlene Wagner placed third in the spot or hard news category with her story, “Shocked but safe.”
• Chelsea Pflugh placed second in the feature writing category for her story, “YSU’s pin–up girl poses for PlayBoy.”
• Andrew Berry received an honorable mention for the sports page layout from the Nov. 13, 2008, edition.

The Society for Collegiate Journalists is the nation''s oldest organization designed solely to serve college journalists. SCJ was formed when Pi Delta Epsilon, which was founded in 1909, merged with Alpha Phi Gamma, which was founded in 1919. Today, SCJ has approximately 80 active chapters nationwide and 800 members.

Mary Beth Earnheardt, assistant professor of English in YSU’s journalism program, is president of the society.

Author visits Early College Prep students this week

Award–winning author Jaime Adoff will visit Youngstown State University on Tuesday, May 12, as part of the Youngstown Early College Prep program’s literature circles.

YEC Prep consists of eighth–grade students from the Youngstown city’s public schools who are being considered as possible candidates for the Youngstown Early College, a high school located on the YSU campus that allows students to earn high school diplomas and take college classes at the same time.

Students in YEC Prep’s literature circles have met on a weekly basis since last summer and have read six novels and short stories throughout the school year. The literature circle will end with a visit from Adoff from 3 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, in the Ohio Room in Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.

Adoff, an author, musician and poet, has been a resident of Yellow Springs, Ohio, for much of his life. He has won numerous awards for writing, and he is the son of authors Arnold Adoff and the late Virginia Hamilton. His books include Small Fry, The Death of Jayson Porter and the critically acclaimed, Jimi and Me.

Names Will Never Hurt Me, Jaime''s first novel, was read by the YEC Prep students as part of the literature discussion experience.

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