No tuition increase at Ohio State Marion for 1999-2000 academic year

Tuition at The Ohio State University at Marion will remain the same for the 1999-2000 academic year, university officials decided last week. Tuition for full-time students will be $1,176 per quarter at each of Ohio State University's four regional campuses - Marion, Mansfield, Newark and Lima.

"This action demonstrates our commitment to making an Ohio State education affordable to as many residents of central Ohio as possible," said Ohio State Marion Dean and Director F. Dominic Dottavio. "It allows us to continue to offer the highest quality education at the lowest possible price."

Tuition will remain the same because of additional state funding provided to regional campuses by the state. Those funds, known as Access Challenge funds, have been set aside to enable more Ohioans to enroll in college by making tuition more affordable at selected campuses and institutions.

On July 2, The Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved a 6 percent tuition hike for students enrolled on the Columbus campus.

Tuition for full-time Ohio State Marion students will be about 14.2 percent lower than tuition for students on the Columbus Campus.

The tuition cap, coupled with the numerous financial aid opportunities offered at Ohio State Marion, make the campus one of the most inexpensive institutions in the state for local students, Dottavio said. For instance, through the Alber Scholarship program, Marion County residents can get scholarships ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent, depending on their high school performance record. Residents of other counties are eligible for some of the $150,000 in scholarships awarded annually to Ohio State Marion students as well as millions of dollars in state and federal grants and loans.

Students Named To Part-Time Dean's List

The students listed on the enclosed attachment have been named to the Part-time Dean's List of The Ohio State University at Marion. To be eligible for this recognition, students have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or better between Summer Quarter '98 and Spring Quarter '99; have not received any non-passing, failing, or incomplete grades; have earned 12 or more cumulative credit hours on graded course work from Summer Quarter '98 through Spring Quarter '99; and must not have been enrolled full-time during any of these quarters.

Ohio State Marion Garners Ohio Arts Council Grant For 1999-2000 Five Nights On Campus Series

The Ohio State University at Marion will receive fiscal support from the Ohio Arts Council for its Five Nights on Campus Cultural Arts Series for the 1999-2000 season.

Ohio State Marion will receive $1,729 from the council, which is based on a competitive application process of more than 70 applicants seeking funds under the Performing Arts on Tour category. Programs were rated on artistic merit, program, cultural participation and budget.

All applications were reviewed by a panel of arts professionals from around the state. Panelists commented the Ohio State Marion's Five Nights on Campus series offered "high caliber artists" and that the university has a "strong commitment to the series."

This year's series begins Oct. 19 with a concert by Marion native Andrew Todd, a classical pianist.

Other Five Nights performances are:
• The Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, with the Marion Civic Chorus, scheduled for Dec. 9, 1999. The orchestra will perform a concert of traditional seasonal numbers and will accompany the Marion Civic Chorus in selections from the Messiah.
• "Down by the Riverside," to be performed February 3, 2000. The play includes spirituals and gospel music performed by Columbus theater group Advent Players.
• Opera/Columbus performing "How the Camel Got Its Humps," an operatic telling of the famous Rudyard Kipling classic. The event will be staged March 9, 2000, and also will be brought to several schools in Marion County.
• Pulitizer Prize nominee Lee Abbott will read selections from his most recent works of fiction on April 27, 2000. Abbott is a professor of English at The Ohio State University and past director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Ohio State.
Series tickets for Five Nights on Campus will go on sale Sept. 1. Ticket requests can be made by calling Ohio State Marion's Office of External Affairs, (740) 389-6786, extension 6279.

Two Ohio State Marion professors win national foundation grant

Two Ohio State Marion professors have been awarded a $83,248 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop inquiry-based curricula in physics and mathematics.

The grant to physics Professor Gordon Aubrecht, of Delaware, and mathematics Professor Brian McEnnis, of Marion, was one of 256 funded by the NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education, from more than one thousand proposals submitted..

This project's aim is to improve the teacher-training programs in mathematics and physics by promoting active student involvement in learning. Many elementary and secondary school teachers teach as they have been taught. In may cases, this results in following a given textbook slavishly. Research on learning has documented improved retention of course material by students actively involved in the learning process.

The new curricula, to be developed by the Aubrecht and McEnnis, will be used with college students who are studying to become teachers the use and benefits of proven techniques of inquiry-based instruction. The project builds on successful physics and mathematical initiatives nationally and statewide. Course materials will be pilot tested in teacher education programs on the Marion and Columbus campuses of The Ohio State University.

Aubrecht has been teaching college physics for almost 30 years and has been at Ohio State Marion since 1975. McEnnis has been a faculty member at Ohio State Marion since 1978 and has been teaching college mathematics since 1976.

The Marion Campus is located on State Route 95, about one mile west of U.S. 23 in Marion. Ohio State Marion serves the residents of north central Ohio, including Crawford, Delaware, Hardin, Marion, Morrow, Union, and Wyandot counties.