A team of YSU students – from the left, Matthew Alexander, Erica Cross and David Martin – won an Outstanding Award at the 2008 international Mathematical Contest in Modeling. See News Brief below.

• YSU Centennial: Sculpture unveiled, commencement celebrated
• Math team deemed ‘Outstanding’ at international event
• Open house for adult students set for June 5
• YSU Counseling program celebrates 40^th anniversary

Calendar
Thursday, May 15, 4 p.m. A joint meeting of the YSU Board of Trustees’ Finance and Facilities and Internal Affairs committees will be conducted in the President’s Conference Room on the second floor of Tod Hall on the YSU campus.

Friday, May 16, 4 p.m. A life–size bronze sculpture of Howard W. Jones, the first president of Youngstown College, will be unveiled on campus. See News Brief below.

Saturday, May 17. YSU celebrates its Centennial Spring Commencement. The ceremony for undergraduate students is 10 a.m. in Beeghly Center, while the ceremony for graduate students will be 2:30 p.m. in Stambaugh Auditorium. See News Brief below.

YSU Centennial
Sculpture unveiled, commencement celebrated
Youngstown State University’s year–long Centennial Celebration continues this week with the unveiling of a sculpture of one of the university’s founders and spring commencement exercises.

• Friday, May 16, 4 p.m. A life–size bronze sculpture of Howard W. Jones, the first president of Youngstown College, will be unveiled. The sculpture is located in an area between the north side of Ward Beecher Hall and the south side of Tod Hall on the campus core.
  The sculpture, created by Bruce Wolfe, an accomplished artist whose works have been exhibited from New York to Paris, shows Jones walking down a  flight of three steps. Jones was president of Youngstown College and Youngstown University from 1931 to 1966. The sculpture was commissioned by Tony and Mary Lariccia of Boardman, and their daughters Natalie and Dana. Mr. Lariccia, a 1966 graduate of YSU, provided $100,000 for the project.
  In addition, as part of the dedication of the sculpture, a small amount of the original ivy from YSU’s Jones Hall will be transplanted nearby. In 1932, a piece of ivy from Oxford University in England was planted in front of the towers at what is today Jones Hall on the corner of Wick and Lincoln avenues. Three decades after it was planted, the ivy was growing so aggressively up the outside walls of the building that it was removed. A small amount of the original ivy, however, has been found and will be planted near the sculpture.

• Saturday, May 17. YSU celebrates its Centennial Spring Commencement. The ceremony for undergraduate students is 10 a.m. in Beeghly Center, while the ceremony for graduate students will be 2:30 p.m. in Stambaugh Auditorium.
  The commencements celebrate YSU’s proud past and promising future.  Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, a YSU graduate, will address students in the  morning ceremony. Anu Shukla, the founder and chief executive of Offerpal Media and a YSU graduate, will receive an honorary degree at the afternoon ceremony. Nathaniel Jones, a YSU alum and retired judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, and Marilyn Chuey, Howard W. Jones’ daughter, will also be honored at the morning ceremony.
  Students will receive special Centennial diplomas. In addition, YSU’s ceremonial mace will debut at the ceremonies. A mace, whose origins date to the Middle Ages, is a highly decorated staff of wood and metal carried in civic ceremonies. Most universities and colleges have a mace, used almost exclusively at commencement exercises. YSU’s mace was designed under the leadership of Greg Moring, associate professor of art.

Math team deemed ‘Outstanding’ at international event 
A team of Youngstown State University students won an Outstanding Award at the 2008 international Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Of the 1,162 participating teams from universities across the world, only nine were deemed “outstanding,” including teams from Harvard and Duke. The award places the YSU team in the top 0.77 percent of the teams worldwide.

Members of YSU’s team are: David Martin of Warren, senior mathematics major; Erica Cross of Mineral Ridge, junior mathematics and finance major; Matthew Alexander of Espyville, Pa., freshman mathematics major.

The students were advised by George Yates, YSU associate professor of mathematics and statistics, with assistance from YSU mathematics faculty members Angela Spalsbury, Paddy Taylor and Jay Kerns, and Hazel Marie, a faculty member in mechanical and industrial engineering.

Yates said he is very proud of Martin, Cross and Alexander. “They outperformed many prestigious universities and exemplify the quality of YSU students in mathematics,” he said.

“This year we had a record number of eight teams competing, and we were pleased that all but one team finished in the upper 50^th percentile.”  

Yates said he also is grateful for support from the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURMath) at YSU.

In the online competition, sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, teams of up to three students research, model and submit a solution to one of two modeling problems. YSU’s “outstanding” team worked on a problem that asked teams to develop an algorithm to construct Sudoku puzzles of varying difficulty.

The nine “outstanding” solution papers will be published in The UMAP Journal, along with commentary from the authors and other judges.

In addition to the “outstanding” team, seven other teams from YSU competed. Six of those seven received Honorable Mention awards.

Open house for adult students set for June 5
Youngstown State University will host a special open house for adult students 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5 in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.

The event, sponsored by the YSU Office of Undergraduate Admissions, is designed for adults who want to earn or complete a degree. Participants will learn about YSU’s bachelor’s degree in general studies, career and counseling services, financial aid, adult learner services, and the application process.

For more information or to make a reservation, call 330–941–2000 or visit www.ysu.edu/admissions. Light refreshments will be served. Sitter service will be available for young children.

YSU Counseling program celebrates 40^th anniversary 
The Counseling program at Youngstown State University celebrated its 40^th anniversary this spring with a banquet hosted by the Eta Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota and the East Ohio Counseling Association.

The celebration in the DeBartolo Stadium Club at Stambaugh Stadium included the induction of 25 community and school counseling students into Chi Sigma Iota, the international honor society for professional counselors. The inductees met the standard of excellence in the counseling program as demonstrated by their academic performance and professional dispositions: June Austin–Wells of Farrell, Pa., Kathleen Barreca of Girard, Lynn Beck of Hubbard, Fatema Cosper of Youngstown, Sherri Dawson of Boardman, Jill DeRamo of Canfield, Jacqueline Flowers of Youngstown, Mark Gallot of Cortland, Marie Giles of Warren, Melissa Guterba of Youngstown, Ashley Handel of Boardman, Judy Hopper of Boardman, Patti Johnson of Poland, Tyler Kimbel of Cortland, Jessica Knopp of Enon Valley, Pa., Denise Monus of Columbiana, David Munn of Middletown, Emily Myers of Middletown, Cristina Oslin of Boardman, Melinda Rulli of Youngstown, Irene Skleres of Andover, David Soldo of Youngstown, Heather Whyel of Niles, and Anita Williams of Youngstown.

Tom Davis, counselor education professor from Ohio University, gave the keynote address.