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More from Across the College Green Her years were few, her mark indelible The best-laid birthday plans Graduates need to employ new career tactics Center is a win for humanities Sharing a true gift for music A case of cultural preservation Students concerned with safety on the job New insights for cancer patients, families The right place, the right time Notes of interest For more information on the Central Region Humanities Center, visit www.ohiou.edu/crhc or contact Joseph Slade, Judith Yaross Lee or Diana Glaizer. The phone number is (740) 593-4602.   Write to us! Care to comment on an Ohio Today story? Or share a memory about your days on campus? Then drop us a letter to the editor. Here's how: E-mail Send e-mail to ohiotoday@ohio.edu By regular mail Letters Ohio Today 102 Scott Quad Ohio University Athens, OH 45701-2979 Fax Fax letters to (740) 593-1887 Letters to the editor may be edited for space and style

The National Endowment for the Humanities has selected Ohio University to establish a center celebrating the history, people and traditions of a five-state region. The Central Region Humanities Center will support research, education and public programming. It will serve community groups, tourist organizations and museums as well as students, scholars and K-12 educators. "We are interested in getting behind an idea and assembling coalitions to support it and are particularly interested in helping grassroots organizations rather than creating new or redundant projects," says Joseph Slade, who co-directs the center with Judith Yaross Lee. Some programs will originate at Ohio University, while others will take root elsewhere in the region. Organizers already are working on some projects. The center is collaborating on a celebration and exploration of the life of African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in the late 1800s. The three-year celebration will include competitive poetry events, a conference and the screening of a documentary about Dunbar. A new interdisciplinary master's program designed for people who want to work in the humanities is being developed by University faculty and the center. Also, an Internet research tool will show historical and cultural developments in the context of their geographical locations. The University learned late last year that it had been selected over Michigan State to host the center serving Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. It will be housed in the Technology and Enterprises Building on The Ridges. Slade says the NEH initially pledged $5 million to each of the nine participating institutions, but the amount was reduced to $378,900. The institutions' agreement with the NEH requires them to match the funds three to one, and Ohio University is in the process of raising nearly $1.2 million to cover its share. The first third of the match must be raised by July. "A million-dollar endowment for the center's basic operations will be in place by July 2004," Slade says. -- Susan Green