Details of YSU shale program discussed

By Ashley Luthern | December 2, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University trustees learned more details Thursday about a proposed institute that will prepare students to work in Utica Shale-related industries.

Martin Abraham, dean of the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, announced the Natural Gas and Water Resources Institute Wednesday at the Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas conference. Students will be able to earn a minor at the institute.

Trustee Leonard D. Schiavone asked Abraham about the expected cost of creating the institute.

“We don’t anticipate substantial costs. We’ll hire maybe two or three part-time instructors,” Abraham said. “...We’re taking advantage of existing courses.”

Schiavone, however, pressed him and asked for “even a ballpark figure,” to which Abraham replied $20,000, which would include the cost of an institute director.

Abraham said the institute will have two missions. The first is to provide students’ education in drilling technology, water chemistry, subsurface geology and environmental challenges related to the shale and natural-gas industry.

The second is to promote research and have YSU faculty working to solve the technical problems, especially those relating to water, Abraham said.

Water is used during fracking, a process in which it, along with chemicals and sand, is blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock oil and natural gas.

To earn a minor from the institute, students are expected to complete about 20 credit hours through the institute, including three core classes — water chemistry, geology of shale and environmental science — that “should be accessible without prerequisites,” Abraham said.

Students also will need to complete an internship, he said.

“Every company [at the conference] said ‘Get me interns,’” Abraham said. “They are looking for skilled, trained and educated students.”

The dean said the institute will develop an external advisory board before September 2012 composed of representatives from shale-related businesses, such as V&M Star. An institute director is expected to be chosen by then, too.

The full proposal for the minor program will be completed this month and will likely go before YSU’s Academic Senate in May. Students could graduate from the institute as early as May 2013.