The University District Student Involvement Fund Program is accepting funding applications from students seeking to improve living conditions off campus.The program awarded five Ohio State student-led projects $13,195 on Feb. 16. The money will support student-sponsored neighborhood improvement efforts around the campus area during Winter and Spring quarters. OSU established the program as a pilot program for the 1999-2000 academic year with $35,000 in funding. “One of the things we wanted to do is help students get involved in the community,” said Shane Hankins, student program representative. The University Neighborhood Learning Center was awarded $5,000 to purchase computer equipment, supplies and a resource library. One of the functions of the center will be to make it easier for students and faculty to get involved in the community.”We will do a community assessment and match up community needs with people,” said Erin Galloway, a senior child and family studies major, who applied for the Learning Center’s funding. The Learning Center, located on N. Fourth Street, is being leased by the College of Human Ecology. Galloway said the Learning Center plans to open in March.The Council of Graduate Students received $2,445 to support their BuckEyes Watch Program and Weinland Park Housing Assessment. The BuckEYES Program will survey the attitudes of residents on crime around the campus area. “We intend to do community-based research to evaluate student attitudes towards the willingness to look out for each other,” said Ron Meyer, president of the Council of Graduate Students. “While growing up we all knew our neighbors would at least call the police if someone was breaking into our homes. I don’t get that feeling from the university neighborhoods.” Public Relations Student Society of America was awarded $4,000 to support their burglary and crime prevention public awareness campaign for students living off campus, which will begin before spring break.Evans Scholars applied for funding to support the OSU Adopt-A-Street Program and received $1,750. The money will be used to help organize the program under which student organizations will adopt a street in the campus area. The organization will be responsible for monthly clean up and quarterly distribution of information to residents on their adopted street.The program’s five-person board includes a representative from Undergraduate Student Government, the graduate council, Inter-Professional Council, Campus Partners Advisory Board and the Campus Partners Board of Trustees. The program will have two more rounds of funding distribution. Applications for the second round will be accepted until Feb. 28. Hankins said he encourages more student organizations to apply for project funding. “We funded all the applicants who applied during the first round,” Hankins said. “The project has to support students and the community.”Applications are available in the Ohio Union in the offices of USG, room 201; Council of Graduate Students, room 208; and Student Activities, room 218.