Student roster exceeds 13,000

YSU's 'Penguin Parade' will be on the march.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Preliminary figures indicate Youngstown State University's enrollment may creep past the 13,000-student mark for the first time in nearly a decade.
YSU trustees, meeting Thursday, learned that enrollment among full- and part-time students for the fall semester is 13,079.
The number is unofficial, said Ron Cole, university spokesman. YSU will tally its official count Tuesday.
The final number could be different, Cole said.
But if the preliminary figure holds, it means YSU has posted its highest enrollment since 1995, when 13,273 students attended.
The 1995 tally is not YSU's highest, though. For that, you would need to look back to the early 1990s when the university's student roster swelled to the low 15,000s, Cole said.
University enrollment throughout the state ebbed in the 1990s as the economy boomed and more people chose to enter the workplace rather than the classroom.
This year's fall enrollment, as it now stands, betters the fall 2003 final figure of 12,858, and those of 2002 and even going back to 2000, which were recorded at 12,698 and 11,787, respectively.
Parading to Columbus
In other developments, trustees learned that YSU's "Penguin Parade" will be marching all the way to Columbus.
Five of the 31 5-foot-tall fiberglass penguin sculptures created for the "parade" by artists as part of a promotional effort will be displayed early next month in the Ohio Statehouse rotunda.
"It's an excellent way of demonstrating the pride we have in our institution," Walt Ulbricht, YSU's executive director of university marketing and communications, said of the penguin's appearance in the capital.
The birds, based on the university mascot, will be on display for one to two weeks. The exact dates of the display and which of the penguins will be included have yet to be finalized.
The sculptures are now scattered throughout the Mahoning Valley, where they are displayed by businesses and institutions, including YSU.
In form, each of the nearly 300-pound sculptures is identical. But they vary in appearance based on different themes expressed in paint and materials applied to them.
One of the 31 birds remains missing, having been stolen from its perch on the YSU campus in July.
Student recruitment
Trustees also learned that YSU is continuing its effort to recruit new students from the Akron-Cleveland area.
YSU will be advertised in cinemas in Hudson, Akron, Solon and Willoughby.
Tom Green, a lobbyist for YSU in Columbus, told trustees that the budget outlook for higher education in Ohio continues to be grim.
The economic recovery being felt in other parts of the country is still lagging in Ohio and, consequently, has lawmakers keeping a close watch on spending, Green reported.