Consider President Sweet a great investment for YSU

Consider President Sweeta great investment for YSU
EDITOR:
Several decades ago Clark Kerr, former chancellor of the California Board of Regents, authored a book on the university presidency wherein he opined that "an effective president must provide parking for the faculty, football for the alumni and sex for the students." An updated version of that advice might be that the president of Youngstown State University must also provide fodder for local scribes, pundits and critics of the university!
I have been involved in public higher education governance for 27 years and have had the opportunity to observe dozens of college and university presidents. By all accounts, David Sweet is doing an outstanding job and appears to be the right president for YSU. Sweet understands the role and mission of an urban university situated in what is otherwise an economically challenged community. Sweet understands YSU's strengths and weaknesses and has a clear vision of what the university might become. Under Sweet's leadership, YSU has broadened its influence among external constituencies, which has generated significant financial and institutional support for the university.
However, The Vindicator's penchant for criticizing all matters associated with compensation and benefits paid to the president, faculty and professional administrative staff of the university -- along with expenditures associated with efforts to broaden the university's external constituencies -- is wrong, unwarranted and unjustified.
The financial crises that now confront Ohio's colleges and universities is the fault of the Ohio General Assembly, which has not made education a priority. This is a statewide problem -- not a Youngstown problem. During the '80s, the General Assembly provided some 55 percent of the cost of a public education in Ohio; however, today that figure has dwindled to less than 35 percent. The difference must be made up with increases in tuition -- which this year will average approximately 10 percent among all of Ohio's public universities.
It is not the responsibility of those employed to serve Ohio's universities to subsidize through wage concessions the failure of the Ohio General Assembly to adequately fund public higher education. Nor is it prudent for universities to refrain from efforts to generate support from external constituencies.
It is therefore unfair and it distorts the argument when The Vindicator attempts to link increases in the cost of tuition at YSU (or for that matter any other public university in Ohio) with the compensation and benefits paid to those employed to serve the university or expenditures incurred to further institutional advancement of the university. Many of us in the professional and business community are perplexed when The Vindicator proclaims with one voice that YSU is the "crown jewel" of the Mahoning Valley and at the same time engages in such unwarranted criticism along with exaggerated headlines to attract attention to what are otherwise benign stories.
PAUL M. DUTTON
Youngstown
Traficant's own actions puthim right where he belongs
EDITOR:
After reading a recent letter to the editor urging people to circulate a petition to free Jim Traficant, I grabbed my pen -- but only to write this response.
My opposing view is this simple: & quot;No one is above the law & quot; and & quot;you do the crime, you do the time. & quot;
Example: If I get a speeding ticket, gather 100 signatures, and present it to the judge, I may get congratulated for having loyal friends, but I will still be handed a fine.
In our judicial system, appearing on CNN or speaking on the Congress floor are irrelevant. Judgments are based on guilt and innocence.
So if I am going to start a petition, it's going to be one that is worthwhile, not hopeless!
CHRISSY FLESCH
Mineral Ridge