Column was inaccurate

Column was inaccurate
EDITOR:
Having been involved in public higher education governance for 30 years, I feel uniquely qualified to respond to Bertram de Souza's July 16 column concerning the Ohio Core and its impact on Youngstown State University, Central State University and Shawnee State University. I have been a trustee at YSU, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents and currently serve as a trustee at Central State University.
Mr. de Souza's assertions are inaccurate, deceptive and harmful to each of these universities. He references a discussion he had with Gov. Bob Taft concerning the Ohio Core -- a proposal to establish more rigorous high school graduation requirements and limiting graduates who have not completed the "core curriculum" from gaining unconditional admission to Ohio's public universities. The Ohio Core, however, exempts Youngstown, Central and Shawnee state universities from this cap on enrollment. Why? Because each has embraced "open access" as part of their institutional mission. This is good public policy and should not be used to denigrate these universities.
Historically, Central State (Ohio's only historically black college) has served an underrepresented African American population. More recently, Shawnee State was established to serve an underrepresented Appalachian population. Youngstown State has historically used its open access mission to educate under-prepared students from the Mahoning Valley where no open access alternative such as a community college exists.
The intent of the Ohio Core is to encourage Ohio's high schools to graduate better prepared students who will hopefully not require remedial course work at the university level. But, even with the Ohio Core, virtually all of Ohio's public universities will continue to admit students who will require some form of remedial course work. YSU, CSU and SSU will be permitted to admit more of those students, consistent with their historic mission as open access institutions.
Good public policy requires that we not simply write these students off, but that we provide them with opportunities to succeed in life.
PAUL M. DUTTON
Youngstown