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YSU Faculty's Research Activity Reaches Record $6.5 Million
"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Bolstered by a new breed of research-driven faculty and several campus efforts to support grant activity, Youngstown State University won $6.5 million in research grants in fiscal year 2004.That's nearly six times more than $1.2 million a decade ago, officials said."The amount of research and grant activity on this campus is unprecedented," said Peter Kasvinsky, dean of graduate studies and research. "It's absolutely phenomenal."YSU celebrates the record amount at the seventh annual research recognition luncheon tomorrow. YSU faculty and staff received funding for 103 of the 152 grant proposals submitted in 2004, a success rate of 68% -- well above the national standard of about 35%, Kasvinsky said."There is some amazing scholarship that is being done on this campus, and the reason is because we have faculty chomping at the bit to get money, and they are doing a damn good job," said Robert Bolla, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.The awards are coming in all shapes and sizes from every corner of campus: $356,475 to James J. Carroll in physics and astronomy from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to continue his research in nuclear physics; $496,750 to the Rayen College of Engineering and Technology from the U.S. Department of Education to support programs in advanced materials; $350,000 to John Russo and Sherry Linkon from the Ford Foundation to help advance the YSU Center for Working Class Studies; $209,131 to Chet Cooper and Gary Walker in biological sciences and Thomas Kim in chemistry from the National Science Foundation to pursue research in proteomics; $75,000 to Marcia Matanin of human performance and exercise science from the National Youth Sports Program to help fund summer programs for children from low-income families; $26,500 to Ricky George in the Center for Human Services Development to evaluate the alternative education project in the Youngstown city schools.Bolla and Kasvinsky said the increase in grant activity is the result of a cultural and economic shift in higher education and on the YSU campus.Bolla said many YSU faculty hired in the late 1960s and early 1970s have retired and been replaced with younger faculty who "grew up in a culture that has placed more emphasis on scholarship and research for success in an academic career, as opposed to an earlier environment when scholarship wasn't emphasized as much."In 1994, YSU developed the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs to encourage and provide support, including matching funds, for faculty seeking external research grants. "Prior to that, there was no real organized approach," said Ed Orona, director of grants and sponsored programs.As a result, YSU began to more seriously consider research and scholarship activities in faculty promotions. At the same time, state funding for higher education began to drop significantly, forcing many faculty to look outside the university to fund their research interests. "There was a confluence that involved a big infusion of new faculty and a renewed vision that scholarly activity was a valuable thing for the university," said Carroll, who has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for his research in nuclear physics.Bolla and Kasvinsky said the grant activity has had rippling effects across campus, increasing research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and improving the level of classroom teaching. "The best faculty member is often the faculty member actively involved in scholarship, seeking new knowledge and keeping up with what's going on in the field," Bolla said. Kasvinsky said the increased funding and research activity also could have a strong impact on future economic development in the Mahoning Valley. YSU, he said, is building an infrastructure for science, math and engineering that will help attract high tech companies to the region. "It's the intellectual capital of a community, not the monetary capital, that is the key to economic development," he said. "That's what we're building here.""