South Green Party slated for Saturday afternoon

The Women's Panhellenic Association and the Interfraternity Council are providing a Party on South Green Saturday.

Students do not need to be associated with a fraternity or sorority to attend the free concert on South Green, according to a news release. Athens vendors will serve food and drinks all day.

The musical groups Via Sahara of Youngstown, Ohio, and Sauce of Pittsburgh will perform from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Jeff Giesey, Ohio University associate professor of engineering and a winner of the 2001 Fulbright Scholar Award, will leave in December to spend a year teaching at the Polytechnic of Namibia in southwestern Africa.

Giesey will teach engineering classes at the foreign university and work with its faculty members to develop a stronger engineering curriculum, said Beth Clodfelter, assistant director of the Center for International Studies.

The Fulbright pays for airfare and provides a stipend of about $2,500 per month to faculty members from American universities while they are lecturing abroad, Clodfelter said.

The nationally competitive award is given to about 800 faculty members every year, she said.

Three Ohio University Student Senate representatives will travel to the Statehouse today to lobby against the proposed state budget being debated in the senate.

Josh Wolf, state and legislative affairs commissioner; Rebecca Dodd, senator for the Honors Tutorial College; and Colin Mulloy, state and federal legislative affairs chairman, will address the Ohio Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee, Mulloy said.

"We want to represent the interests of students and the views of students on campus," he said. "You have to voice your opinion."

The Athens Community Center has received this year's Friends of the Stars Award, which goes to a local business that uses intelligent outdoor lighting. Because the center directs its lights down to the sidewalk and parking areas, it does not contribute to light pollution.

The award is given by the Southeast Ohio Astronomical Society and the Physics and Astronomy Department, according to a news release.

– Sara Bisker, Becca Manning, Ben Roode and Kevin A. Schneider