Trustees consider community college

If proved viable, the trustees want the school to be running within two years.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees is looking into the possibility of launching a community college in Mahoning County as a means to increase overall college enrollment in the region.
A YSU-sponsored community college would serve as a feeder school for the university, said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president.
The trustees, meeting in a retreat last week, voted to have the administration examine details such as costs, location, programming and staffing. The trustees want to be ready to make a "go or no-go" decision on creating a community college by March 2007.
If they vote to proceed, they want the program up and running within a year after that.
There are no community colleges in this region, although Kent State University has branch campuses in Columbiana, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties that serve many of the same purposes as community colleges, which focus significantly on two-year degree and certificate programs.
Where idea came from
The suggestion about sponsoring a community college, either alone or in partnership with another institution, came up during a discussion of YSU enrollment and what might be done to increase it.
Youngstown already has a long history of offering two-year programs, starting with secretarial studies and business administration in the 1920s.
It continues to offer a variety of two-year programs, but awards only 160 to 170 associate degrees annually.
Sweet said the university also already has some experience in the community college business. The university, in conjunction with Jefferson Community College and the Columbiana County Career & amp; Technical Center, opened the Higher Education Center of Columbiana County in Lisbon last fall.
The center offers two-year programs but also serves to encourage students to continue their education at YSU, Sweet said. They do lower-level courses there and YSU offers the higher-level courses, he said.
A community college here could serve that same function, he said.
Youngstown also delivers course work to Lorain County Community College, Sweet said.
Support from regents?
Bruce Beeghly, a former member of the YSU Board of Trustees and currently a member of the Ohio Board of Regents, was at the meeting and said the regents would likely support the creation of a community college by YSU, provided that it wouldn't duplicate programs already offered at the Kent branch campuses.
There's no seed money to launch a community college, although individual state legislators could try to get a bill passed to specifically provide such funding, Beeghly said.
He encouraged the trustees to pursue the idea, estimating that a community college could draw 12,000 students, making it a strong economic engine for the region.
Community colleges have lower tuition, thereby making higher education more attractive, he said.
YSU has a student enrollment of just under 13,000 and awards between 1,400 and 1,500 bachelor degrees and around 300 graduate degrees annually.
Gov. Bob Taft, in his 2006 budget message for education, said he wanted community colleges, rather than four-year degree schools, to handle the task of providing any needed remediation courses for college students.
Because there are no local community colleges, YSU has been fulfilling that need for its students. Creating a community college would relieve the university of that responsibility and allow it to focus more on its core strengths, the trustees said.
gwin@vindy.com