Story Ideas for Media 10-17-05

News

Ohio State graduation rate continues to climb -- The university's six-year graduation rate has risen to 68 percent; up from 55 percent just five years ago and 51 percent 10 years ago. The figure is based on the graduation rates of students who entered the university in Fall 1999. Ohio State University President Karen A. Holbrook says more students are staying, thriving and graduating as the university rises in rankings. "With the recent National Science Foundation ranking of Ohio State among the nation's Top 10 public research universities, this statistic is dramatic evidence that our strategies to improve performance and recognition in academics and research are working. They both say a lot about the quality of our students, our faculty and this institution," Holbrook said. The average six-year graduation rate for all comparable public institutions was 62.5 percent for the classes that entered in 1996-97, the most recent data available. While the six-year graduation rate is a federal reporting standard, Holbrook noted that most Ohio State students actually graduate in five years or less.
CONTACT: Shelly Hoffman, (614) 247-4748.

Experts

Bird Flu in Humans: Ohio State in national effort to understand, prevent and control Bird flu now is a threat to both poultry and people. Outbreaks already cost U.S. poultry producers millions of dollars a year. In Ohio, a $3.3 billion industry is at stake. Now one particular strain, a highly virulent one called H5N1, has spread from chickens to humans in Asia. The virus was recently found in Turkey, and birds in two Romania are being tested to find out if the virus has spread there.
Finding the mechanism that enables influenza viruses to jump from one species to another is Mo Saif's goal. Saif, an international expert on poultry diseases and chair of the Food Animal Health Research Program at Ohio State's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) is conducting a three-year study of swine and turkey influenza transmission. Backed by OARDC's animal-disease research facilities, Saif's study is part of a $5 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prevent and control bird flu.
Other Ohio State faculty involved in the project are Richard Slemons, associate professor of veterinary preventive medicine and animal sciences and an international expert on flu among wild birds who isolated the first bird flu virus in wild ducks 30 years ago, and Nathan Watermeier, technology program director and geospatial specialist with OSU Extension. They received a $488,000 grant to determine the dynamics and evolution of influenza.
CONTACT: Mo Saif, (330) 263-3743,