Saturday, May 29, 2004
As an open-access, urban public institution serving the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, Youngstown State University must deal with the reality that a significant percentage of its incoming class each year will not have the academic grounding needed to successfully tackle higher education. Remediation is a fact of life.
With 43 percent of the student body entering YSU without having completed college core courses, the first year on campus essentially becomes the 13th year of high school. And that necessitates a commitment of money, faculty and staff that institutions with admission requirements, such as high school grade point average and college entrance examination scores, don't have to make.
But given that the governor, the Ohio General Assembly and the Ohio Board of Regents have been challenged by a special commission to increase statewide college enrollment by 30 percent, the work being done by YSU takes on new importance.
We have no doubt that the regents recognize the enormity of the problem created by the lack of academic readiness by high school graduates. A BOR report released last week shows that 39 percent of the recent graduates of Ohio's high schools who attended public colleges in fall 2001 enrolled in at least one remedial course as a freshman.
"All of the basic measures of early college success are higher for students who take more rigorous courses while in high school," notes Roderick Chu, chancellor of the board of regents.
Easier said than done, given the state of public primary and secondary education in Ohio today.
School districts
Nonetheless, Youngstown State, led by President David Sweet, has been working closely with local school districts to assist them in developing academic programs aimed at making the transition from high school to college as seamless as possible.
In addition, Sweet is advocating the creation of a conditional admission process, whereby students with low grade-point averages or test scores or who have not completed the college core would be limited to enrolling in basic courses and be required to participate in academic counseling and other services at YSU's Center for Student Progress.
But even with such initiatives, there is no guarantee that the enrollment goals embraced by the board of regents will be met.
Thus we are intrigued by Sweet's idea for a community college that would serve as a bridge between high school and YSU.
A separate institution -- Youngstown State Community College, perhaps? -- to fulfill the academic needs of students not prepared for the rigors of college life has enormous potential for success. Why? Because the state Legislature has made it clear that two-year colleges are deserving of increased state funding given the important role they could play.
Indeed, Youngstown State is surrounded by Kent State University's branch campuses, which not only offer two-year associate degrees but are entry points for students who intend to pursue four-year degrees on the main campus.
Competition
These branch campuses are competition for YSU, which by virtue of its being a mostly undergraduate institution is losing out in the state funding sweepstakes. The basic formula that determines how much money each college and university receives is weighted toward the ones that offer master's and doctorate degrees.
We have long called for a funding formula that recognizes the important role being played by YSU and others, but there has been little support in Columbus for the idea.
That is why Sweet's push for a community college deserves the backing of political and community leaders in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys. Indeed, YSU is already collaborating with Cuyahoga Community College and Jefferson Community College, but that isn't the same as YSU's operating its own two-year institution.
The Ohio Board of Regents should understand that the state will not meet the goal of increasing enrollment by 30 percent unless Youngstown State, in particular, is given the financial backing to expand what it has been doing for years.