State stalls community college plan for Valley

YSU prefers to become the
administrator for the proposed
community college.

By ANGIE SCHMITT and HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s community college initiative has hit a roadblock in Columbus.

Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, during a meeting with YSU officials June 12, called for a six-month delay of the university’s ambition to place a community college in the Mahoning Valley.

In the meantime, YSU officials will meet with Fingerhut for monthly planning sessions, said Nathan Ritchy, YSU’s interim associate provost.

“The challenge in some sense is patience,” Ritchy told the academic affairs committee of YSU’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday. “What I thought today would be a recommendation of ‘let’s move forward’ or ‘let’s not move forward’ turns out to be: ‘we need a lot more planning.’”

YSU officials had counted on Fingerhut for strong support of the initiative, which, under YSU leadership, would establish a two-year college for the purpose of granting technical training and associate degrees. An earlier report from Ritchy said Fingerhut had assured the university that establishing a community college in the region was one of his priorities.

But in an interview with The Vindicator earlier this month, Fingerhut said YSU’s community college initiative will be a strategy the state will consider — along with others.

University officials blame the lack of a local two-year college for higher education attainment levels in Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties that lag behind state averages.

Resident support

In a YSU-commissioned study, 77 percent of local residents, ages 18 to 49, reported they see the need for a community college. Another 47 percent said they would likely attend such a college, Ritchy said.

YSU has proposed using its community partnerships to develop a range of high-need two-year programs. It proposes reduced tuition rates of $100 per credit or $3,000 per year for community college students.

University President David Sweet said Fingerhut may be resistant to the university’s preference for an integrated partnership model, which would make YSU the administrator of the college. Sweet described the plan as a hybrid of a community college operating as an independent institution and one that exists as subsidiary of the university.

“I think that the chancellor is more in the mode of a more traditional [independent] approach,” Sweet said.

The university has not yet determined how it will fund the project, Ritchy said. The university is considering seeking public support for a tax issue, but he said it is not clear that local voters would support the issue, he said.

YSU officials will return to trustees for recommendations in six months, Ritchy said. In the meantime, Sweet has invited the chancellor to tour the university.