Dr. William E. Thornton, aerospace medicine physician and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientist, and the NASA Johnson Space Center have donated a sizable collection of original data and research records to the University Libraries. The Thornton collection - original graphic, magnetic tape, written data, reduced and analyzed data, reports, some hardware, photos, illustrations and other aerospace medicine research records dating from NASA missions in the mid-sixties through 1987 - will be held in the Fordham Health Sciences Library's Special Collections and Archives.

"These are an extremely rich resource for our residents," said Stanley R. Mohler, director of the aerospace medicine residency program. "We are the premier facility for aerospace medicine civilians, and collections like this help make us so."

Wright State University Libraries are one of only four sites that will house data from shuttle missions. The others are the Johnson Space Center, The Goddard Space Flight Center, and the National Space Science Data Center.

A finance class on the stock market is reaping big returns both in terms of educational value and in actual profits for Wright State Foundation scholarships.

Finance 480: Real Money Investing is a three-quarter course in which students apply what they learn about the stock market to manage an actual portfolio of stocks and securities. The portfolio was established with $30,000 in seed money from the WSU Foundation. Any profits from the investments are rolled back into the foundation's endowment funds to provide more money for scholarships. All told, the Raider Asset Management Fund has grown to around $50,400 in market value as of May 1997.

While fund performance is one goal of the course, the bottom line is to teach about the stock market and investing, says class advisor Robert Sweeney, professor and chair, Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. "The students are not graded on fund performance, they're graded on what they learn."

"The board has been very impressed with the students' professionalism," says chair of the finance subcommittee, Riad Yammine (president, Emro Marketing Co.). "We see our involvement as supporting the educational mission of the university, which is the purpose of the foundation. I think we made a good investment in these students."

The 1997 Corporate Appeal got off to an enthusiastic start at an April 16 luncheon to kick off this annual campaign. Headed by Beth E. Mooney, chairman and chief executive officer of Bank One Dayton, the 1997 appeal marks the fifth consecutive year that the corporate community has rallied to support the mission of the university by raising money to support scholarships, programs, and outreach efforts. Approximately 400 area business leaders have served as volunteers, securing commitments totaling $1,676,000 over the past four years. This year, 100 volunteers from the business community will solicit their colleagues with the goal of raising $435,000.

"As a public university, Wright State receives only 40 percent of its budget from the state," says Mooney. "It's imperative that the business community invest in the growth and strength of the university, one of the Miami Valley's most valuable resources."

School of Medicine - $300,000 from the estate of Donald L. Ranville

Student loan fund - $25,000 from the Charles E. Schell Foundation

David S. Gutridge Endowed Business Scholarship Fund - $20,000 from WSU alumnus David S. Gutridge

Lois F. Renner Lucero Memorial Scholarship Fund, College of Nursing and Health - $25,250 from Eddie F. Lucero

Edgar Hardy Chemistry Scholarship Fund - $31,250 from Edgar and Catherine Hardy

Dr. Jean T. and Phyllis Nussey Dubois Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry - $50,000 from the estate of Phyllis N. Dubois

College of Education and Human Services - $50,000 Incentive Award in Teacher Education from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, Institute for Educational Inquiry