Thanks to retired professor Doug Faires and some other generous YSU alumni, a new center aimed at building on the success of the university’s undergraduate mathematics program has won the approval of the Board of Trustees.

The Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURMath) will provide funding to help mathematics students attend regional, national and international competitions, as well as promote student and faculty enrichment and possibly a mathematics symposium.

“Our goal is to give our students exposure beyond the Mahoning Valley and to create an excellence in mathematics that goes beyond the classroom,” said Faires, emeritus professor of mathematics and statistics, and the driving force behind the creation of the center.

Faires, who retired in July but is teaching part–time through the extended teaching service program, also is the major funding source for the center.

In addition to about $40,000 in upfront money in proceeds from textbooks he has authored, Faires is donating his entire extended teaching salary over the next three to five years to endow the new center. That amounts to about $100,000, Faires said. Many of his former students have also donated to the cause, with total funding reaching about $120,000 to date.

“Dr. Faires’ long commitment and dedication to YSU and in particular the mathematics department is beyond compare,” said Paul McFadden, YSU chief of development. “Math students for generations to come will benefit from his generosity.”

Faires, a 1963 graduate of YSU who joined the mathematics faculty in 1969, said the funds will be used to maintain and build programs he helped establish that allow YSU students to participate in regional, national and international mathematics competitions.

“It’s important for students to attend these competitions and to see how they stack up against students from other schools,” Faires said. “What they find is that they are just as good as and even better than most of them.”

In fact, YSU math students have won a record five awards for “outstanding presentations” at the national MathFest competition in each of the last two years. It is the most awards ever won by a single university at the event, which is the annual meeting of the Mathematics Association of America and Pi Mu Epsilon, the honorary national mathematics society.

Faires said the endowment is intended to help assure that students will continue attending and being successful at MathFest and other competitions well after he leaves YSU. He encouraged other retiring faculty to consider similar investments in programs they have developed.

“I want the programs that I established to continue and grow,” he said. “When I walk out of here, I don’t want to see them fall apart.”