Story Tips for Local News Media - 05/31/96

                             STORY TIPS

University Communication offers this list of  potential news stories 
on the Columbus campus.  We'll update this listing every week.

This and every University Communications news release is available 
on the Internet and World Wide Web.  To access by Internet, you may 
reach us through either OASIS (Ohio State Information System), the 
Columbus Freenet or World Wide Gophers.  Select News and Weather, 
then Ohio State University News Releases, then News Releases from 
University Communications.  Our Web address is http://www.acs.ohio-
state.edu/  Choose News Releases from The Ohio State University, 
then News Releases from University Communications.

POET NIKKI GIOVANNI  SPEAKS AT AFRICAN AMERICAN FAREWELL--May 31.  
Nationally known author and  poet Nikki Giovanni will speak at 6 
p.m. in the Ohio Union ballrooms, 1739 N. High St., at the African 
American Farewell Celebration, a ceremony honoring spring and summer 
graduating students of African descent.  Giovanni, author of several 
books, has held a number of teaching positions including a  visiting 
professorship in English at Ohio State in 1984-85.  The African 
American Farewell Celebration is an annual event sponsored by the 
National Pan-Hellenic Council at Ohio State, the governing body of 
Ohio State's nine traditional African American sororities and 
fraternities.
CONTACT:   Kai Johnson, Office of Student Organization Services, 
(614) 292-8763.

UNIVERSITY POLICE OFFICER SITS ON BILLBOARD FOR THREE DAYS--June 4-
6.  Ohio State Police Officer Alan Washer will mount a billboard at 
the corner of Spring and Hocking Streets near the Ohio Pen at 10 
a.m. Tuesday---and sit and sit and sit.  Washer's marathon is an 
effort to raise awareness and funds for the Ohio Special Olympics, 
which will be held later this summer in Ohio Stadium.  University 
Police have supported Special Olympics with several events and 
programs over the last three years.  Washer will sit on the 
billboard for about 15 hours each day and spend nights in a trailer 
just below his perch.  He will have a cellular phone with him and is 
available for interviews (and maybe traffic reports??) while sitting.
CONTACT: Alan Washer, University Police, 646-8590--beeper--leave 
your message or number.  

TRUSTEES OF FIVE OHIO STATE CAMPUSES HOLD VIDEOCONFERENCE---June 5.   
The Ohio State University Board of Trustees will hold a joint video 
conference with the boards of trustees of the university's campuses 
at Lima, Mansfield, Marion and Newark.  Several university trustees 
and President E. Gordon Gee will meet from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in 3136 
Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall, on the Columbus campus.  At the same 
time, trustees of the extended campuses will gather at each campus.  
The five groups will communicate via the Ohio State University Video 
Conferencing Network, with all groups being visible and audible to 
each other.  Wednesday's videoconference is primarily a 
demonstration of the video conferencing network and a chance for the 
trustees to see firsthand how it works.  The trustees will not be 
conducting any official business. Although, Ohio State has used 
similar technology for distance learning between Columbus and a single 
extended campus at a time, this meeting will be the first use by all
campuses simultaneously.
CONTACT: Ruth Gerstner, University Communications, 292-8424.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES--June 6.  The Board will 
hold its June meeting on Thursday rather than Friday this month to 
avoid conflicts with commencement.  The full board meeting begins at 
11:00 in the Alumni Lounge of the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy 
River Road.  Among the agenda items: an interim budget, and updates 
on restructuring and undergraduate services improvement.  The 
updates will be heard in greater detail at the Educational Affairs 
Committee meeting at 9 a.m. 
CONTACT: Tom Spring, University Communications, 292-8309.

SPRING QUARTER COMMENCEMENT FEATURES JOHN JAKES--June 7.  
Commencement exercises for some 5,300 spring quarter graduates of The 
Ohio State University will be held June 7 in Ohio Stadium beginning 
at 9:30 a.m.  The commencement speaker will be author John Jakes.  A 
1954 Master of Arts graduate of Ohio State in American literature, 
Jakes has published 200 short stories and some 60 books, including 
the Kent Family Chronicles, Civil War, North and South, Love and War, 
and Heaven and Hell, which was made into a TV mini-series.
CONTACT: Tracy Turner, University Communications, 688-3682.

COMMISSIONING CEREMONY MARKS 10,000th ARMY OFFICER FROM OHIO STATE--
June 7.  The annual commissioning ceremony for the university's 
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) holds special meaning this 
year.  It recognizes the 10,000th U.S. Army officer to hail from the 
Ohio State Unit.  The colorful military ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at 
the Faculty Club, 181 S. Oval Drive.  The unit will receive a  
certificate marking the event.  The student who is the 10,000th 
officer will be awarded a sword and plaque.  
CONTACT: Patrick Davis, Department of Military Science, 292-6075.

OLYMPIC TORCH PASSES THROUGH CAMPUS--June 8.  The Olympic flame will 
be carried through the campus en-route to the Olympics in Atlanta, 
beginning at 6:31 a.m. on Saturday morning.  The route takes the 
torch through the short north from City Hall.  The torch enters the 
campus at the intersection of King and Cannon Drive.  The flame is 
carried on north on Cannon; right on 12th Avenue and left on College 
Road.  The torch goes past the Oval on College, then right on 
Woodruff; left on N. High Street and to Worthington.  The route of 
the torch, which was planned by a committee in Atlanta, does not 
take the torch past Ohio Stadium or the Jesse Owens Plaza in front 
of the stadium.  Several Ohio State former athletes and Olympians 
will carry the torch through Franklin County.
CONTACT:  For torch route information: Sharon Keaney,  United Way of 
Franklin County, 227-2726; for Ohio State athlete involvement: Jeff 
Wuerth, OSU Sports Information, 292-6861. 

UNIVERSITY AREA SCHEDULED FOR BI-WEEKLY CLEANINGS--The Public 
Service Department of the city of Columbus will begin sweeping  
streets throughout the University District on the second Thursday 
and second Friday of each month from April through November.  The 
sweeping will begin in June with the even-numbered (north and east) 
side of the streets being swept on Thursday, June 11, and the odd-
numbered (south and west) side of the streets being swept on Friday, 
June 12.  Sweeping will be conducted between  8 a.m. and 2 p.m. each 
day.  Signs are being installed to remind residents to move their 
parked vehicles during the hours of the sweeping.
     This sweeping is in addition to a quarterly sweeping of all 
streets in the high-density, predominantly student neighborhood east 
of Ohio  State.  The second quarterly street sweeping will take 
place June 11 and 12 in an area bounded by N.High St. on the west, 
N. Fourth St. on the east, E. Norwich Ave. on the north and E. 11th 
Ave. on the south.
CONTACT: Steve Sterrett, Campus Partners, 294-7300.

The person listed as the contact for each item will have the best 
information about the story.  However, feel free to call on our news 
services staff for assistance with these or other Ohio State news 
stories.  Amy Murray, 292-8385; Ruth Gerstner, 292-8424; Tom Spring, 
292-8309, and Tracy Turner, 688-3682.
-Compiled by Amy Murray, University Communications, (Murray-
Goedde.1@osu.edu).


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Mon, 3 Jun 1996 09:13:31 -0400]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.