A gift of $130,000 was given to Ohio State from alumnus Corbett A. Price, chairman and CEO of Kurron Shares of America of New York. The money has been donated to support the Institute for Race and Ethnicity Research and to support the department of Health Services Management and Policy in creating a new professorship.

Ohio State envisions the Race and Ethnicity Institute as a center for interdisciplinary research, learning and dissemination of knowledge on the history, current conditions and future prospects for racial and ethnic minorities.

“The institute will be unmatched elsewhere,” said Michael J. Hogan, dean of the College of Humanities and the College of Arts and Sciences. “It will provide for cross-country, cross-cultural comparisons.”

The institute is designed to establish OSU as an international leader in its field and will be a public resource through outreach and community involvement programs, Hogan said. The Race and Ethnicity Institute plans to contribute to local, state, national and international discourse on crucial issues of race and ethnicity, Hogan said.

“It will help us recruit and retain excellent teachers and scholars, including faculty of color, by creating a framework that will allow them to explore intellectually and socially important issues,” Hogan said.

A search committee has been established and is currently looking for a director for the institute, Hogan said. He would like to see the institute up and running by fall 2002, he said.

“I am very enthusiastic about this initiative,” Price said in a statement. “The institute will greatly enhance the university’s efforts to become one of the top ten public institutions, to foster diversity and to maintain its commitment to community outreach.”

The professorship for the Department of Health Services Management that is also being supported by Price’s gift will allow the program to recruit and retain a nationally renowned faculty member with a distinguished record in teaching, research and publication, said Steve F. Loebs, Health Services Management and Policy professorship program chairman.

This professorship is very critical to the national status of the program, Loebs said. The program is currently ranked 12th out of 75, he said.

Loebs said he is very grateful for the Price gift. Price has had an outstanding career in health services management and he continues to support OSU, he said.

Dawn Tabata, a fund officer for the OSU Medical Center, said they are seeking outlets to help raise the rest of the money needed to create the new professorship.

“The interest level for this professorship is really high. Alumni and friends of the program are very grateful and supportive of it,” Tabata said.

Loebs said that he hopes to have the funding of the professorship completed within two years. Then the search to fill the faculty position will be underway.

“I hope that my support of this professorship will inspire others to make gifts to complete funding for this important faculty position,” Price said.

Price’s past gifts to OSU include an endowment established in Health Services Management and Policy to support scholarships, technological enhancements and training programs. His most recent gift is part of OSU’s ongoing fund-raising efforts following the success of its $1.23 billion “Affirm Thy Friendship” campaign.