Published: March 04, 2008 08:25 am      

Forensic science program gets a jolt

With a check for nearly $300,000 on his right and a poster featuring U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, wearing an Eastern Kentucky University baseball uniform on his left, President Doug Whitlock joked Monday about why the congressman was on campus.

“We’re here to announce that it’s been discovered that Congressman Chandler has some athletic eligibility left,” he said. “This is to announce his signing to become the latest member of (Coach) Elvis Dominguez’s Colonel baseball team. (The check) does not represent a signing bonus.”

In reality, Chandler was on hand to announce $295,200 in federal funding to help purchase lab equipment for the EKU Department of Chemistry’s Forensic Science program.

“It’s nice to be able to have the opportunity to contribute a little to this great institution,” he said. “I think that science is, obviously, exceedingly important. While this is not an enormous amount of money, I think it will make a big difference to bring some equipment to the forensics department here at Eastern and give some of our young people the chance to have the very best at their disposal to learn.”

Alan Schick, chair of EKU’s Department of Chemistry, detailed how beneficial the money will be for the department.

“We have microscopes in our forensic microscope lab that are 30 years old that we need to replace,” he said. “We have spectrometers that were donated to us because they were too old for the places that had them. This is a tremendous boom for us.”

“(Chandler) said this wasn’t very much money,” Schick said. “For us, this is a pretty big chunk. I’m glad to see that this isn’t very much money.”

Established in 1974, the EKU’s Forensic Science program is one of only 11 undergraduate programs in the country accredited by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Chandler, who serves on the congressional science committee, as well as the appropriations committee, said the U.S. is not doing as well as it should in the areas of math and science.

“In fact, in the latest testing that we had worldwide, the United States finished 24th out of 40 countries tested,” he said. “These are the areas that are extremely important in the business world and in technology. It makes a big difference in where we go economically in the future. It’s extremely important for us to get our young people prepared in math and sciences.”

EKU is in the process of building a new $80-million-plus science building that will be open in 2010 or 2011.

“I think the chemistry department was allotted somewhere in the $1.2 to $2 million for (equipment),” Schick said. “Our department sat down and started putting together a list. So far, we’re at $4 million. We’re trying to cut it down a bit.”

EKU is very grateful for Chandler’s support of its nationally prominent Forensic Science program, Whitlock said.

“He told me a few minutes ago that he hopes that this is just the beginning,” the EKU president said. “I can tell you that he has shown interest in our Postsecondary Education Center at Lancaster. He’s shown some interest in our Studio for Academic Creativity.”

“Students come from many states to study Forensic Science at EKU, and this state-of-the-art equipment will go a long way toward enhancing the teaching-learning process in this prestigious program,” Whitlock said.

Bryan Marshall can be reached at bmarshall@richmondregister.com or 624-6691.