Story Ideas for Media 2/28/12

News

Ohio State named one of America’s most disability-friendly colleges. Ohio State goes beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act in providing services to students with physical disabilities, according to a new book, “College Success for Students With Physical Disabilities.” The publication, written by Chris Wise Tiedemann and published by Prufrock Press, is the only listing of colleges in the United States that provide accommodations for students with physical disabilities that go beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. SEE: http://www.disabilityfriendlycolleges.com. CONTACT: Scott Lissner, Ohio State ADA coordinator, (614) 292-6207.

National report urges colleges to better support minority males in science. A new report outlines exemplary practices for recruiting, retaining and graduating minority males in college science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Recognizing that the nation’s public research and land-grant institutions could do more to address the problem of small numbers of minority males in STEM fields, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) drafted the report, “The Quest for Excellence: Supporting the Academic Success of Minority Males in STEM Disciplines” which addresses the issue of low enrollment and graduation rates for minority males in STEM disciplines.
The report makes recommendations for strengthening K-12 college-bound curriculum, and urges college faculty and administrators to support minority males throughout their college careers.
James Moore III, professor of counselor education at Ohio State and director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male, contributed to the report and is a national expert on recruiting and retaining minority males. He is attending the APLU’s Symposium on Supporting Underrepresented Minority Males in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), where it is being released today. Moore is available for interviews. CONTACT: Amy Murray, (614) 292-8385.

Experts

Norovirus experts available to discuss recent outbreaks. Two recent outbreaks of norovirus in Granville in central Ohio – on top of other outbreaks across the country – have Ohio State University food safety experts warning people to take precautions to prevent the spread of the foodborne illness.
Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne disease in the United States, responsible for 58 percent of all cases -- nearly 5.5 million illnesses a year. Most cases are relatively mild, but norovirus causes 26 percent of all foodborne illness-related hospitalizations and 11 percent of foodborne illness-related deaths in the United States each year.
Linda Saif, distinguished university professor, and Qiuhong Wang, research scientist and adjunct assistant professor at Ohio State’s Food Animal Health Research Program at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (the research arm of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences), are part of a team studying the stability of noroviruses on leafy greens and their potential modes of transmission to humans. Both are available to talk about noroviruses. CONTACT: Wang,