A research fund has been created in honor of Dr. Darrick Danta, associate dean for the college of social and behavioral sciences, who died Feb. 15 in a mountain climbing accident.

A memorial service will also be held for Danta Friday at the Eternal Valley Memorial Park Mortuary at 1 p.m. The date for the university’s memorial service for Danta is still undecided.

In honor of Danta the geography department created the Darrick Danta Fund for Field Research for students in the department.

“The Darrick Danta Fund for Field Research is a memorial to Danta to reflect his commitment to support students being out in the field and collecting information,” said James Hayes, professor in the geography department.

“The contributions will be used to support student projects and writing papers of thesis work for graduate students,” Hayes said.

Hayes said the department started collecting contributions and cannot establish the fund until they reach $1,000. He also said he is not sure how much money the department has received for the fund and a setamount is yet to be determined. The fund may vary from year to year or the department could come up with a fixed amount.

“Essentially there is no limit,” Hayes said. “It can be as large as it gets depending on fundraising efforts.”

Hayes also said contributions are coming from faculty in the geography department, other faculty at CSUN, alumni, retired professors and friends of the family that want to make contributions in Danta’s honor.