Minority enrollment gains go unheralded at YSU

Minority enrollment gains go unheralded at YSU
EDITOR:
Why hasn't The Vindicator published a story on the increase in minority enrollment at Youngstown State University for fall semester? I think that is a sleeper story. Minority enrollment at YSU continues to increase every year, while the overall enrollment took a dive this fall. According to "For the Record," an online transmission of information from YSU Board of Trustees meetings, YSU President David Sweet reported that minority enrollment at YSU now stands at 15 percent. It increased by 9 percent this fall.
This is both good news and disconcerting news to me, in light of the way that minority employees are treated at YSU. Before my retirement on Aug. 31 of this year, as coordinator of diversity initiatives, I was very heavily involved with the recruitment of undergraduate and graduate minority students at YSU. So I believe I deserve a lot of credit for my part in the continued increase in YSU minority enrollment. Despite this, YSU did not think that I deserved to receive its "Distinguished Service Award" for administrative professionals. Since the university began giving the awards in 1988 some 163 people have been recipients, only eight of them African Americans. In 1996, when there were two African American recipients, there was no cash award. No African American has received the award since 1997. This year, there were 10 recipients of the the award and none were African American.
I have filed charges of race and age discrimination against YSU with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, not just because I believe I was treated unfairly, but also because I want YSU to be the best that it can be. It is long past the time for the university to just talk about diversity, there must now be some substance behind the rhetoric.
I think YSU and its unions must be careful about how they treat minority employees on campus. Just as the university is becoming more dependent on minority students to keep its doors open it needs the services of minority employees to whom those students can relate. Also, YSU will be up for accreditation and celebrating it centennial soon. The last time YSU was up for accreditation it received low marks on the diversity criteria. This time, a lot of minority employees at YSU, especially African Americans, will be telling their stories to the accrediting agency. So, when the centennial comes up it can be a celebration of how far YSU has come in 100 years on matters of race or a reminder of how backwards its thinking is on the subject a century later. It has a choice in the matter.
LEON STENNIS
Youngstown
Delphi bankruptcy wasn't much of surprise to many
EDITOR:
The filing for Chapter 11 by Delphi was not the total surprise that the media suggests. It has been in the background for quite some time.
This has happened before with the steel industry and we are repeating the process. The new world economy is now in full gear. We are contributing to it more than any other nation.
The "I will buy the cheaper import and my neighbor will buy the product I make attitude," has gone full circle. We have given the world freedom from military dictatorship both by war and example. Through Lend-Lease, the Marshall Plan and other give away economic and manufacturing programs we have helped create the new world economies that now threaten our way of life.
If Robert Miller is serious abut getting Delphi turned around, he is starting out wrong by giving "bonuses" to his 21 board buddies who helped guide Delphi into the situation that it is in today. Remember, they are employees like everyone else at Delphi, and must contribute to saving the company.
GEORGE R. HOLKO, SR.
Warren