In other words, about 2,040 YSU employeees didn't ask Dr. Sweet to resign

In other words, about 2,040 YSU employeees didn't ask Dr. Sweet to resign
EDITOR:
In a May 11 story, The Vindicator noted that the letter asking for YSU's president, Dr. David Sweet, to resign was signed "by some 60 of the university's 2,100 employees." Another way to say that is "some 2,040, or 97 percent, of the university's 2,100 employees did NOT sign the letter." Some new staff and untenured faculty wanting promotion and tenure may not have signed the letter because they feared signing the letter may put their futures at YSU in jeopardy. However, others including myself, who have already been promoted to full professor and have the double job protections of tenure and a strong union, did not sign the letter because we do not agree with it.
As the recent strikes revealed, there are labor-management problems at YSU and the court did find that one union leader whose job was lost was entitled to both a job and back pay. However, it is clear that there has been substantial growth and improvement at YSU during Sweet's tenure. Over the past school year at least, Sweet has attempted to work with the union leadership constructively. These efforts have been responded to by a small but vocal handful of faculty with attack after attack.
Some faculty are concerned that a few popular faculty that were recommended by their departments and colleges did not receive promotion and/or tenure. However, when the bar of scholarship is raised, some will necessarily fall below it, and this bar is still very low at YSU. Numerous studies show that the way to be a popular faculty and receive high teacher ratings is to tell the students they are learning a lot, even if they are not and give A's and B's regardless of what students actually learned. Students will flock to such faculty and give them very high ratings. But the students and ultimately society have been cheated by this "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" relationship between student grades and faculty evaluations. In fact, the faculty that actually engage in scholarly productivity who I have spoken to agree that it is high time tenure and promotions at YSU are based on scholarly productivity in addition to the easily manipulated teaching evaluations and co-worker popularity. While it may be painful for some, it is good for YSU that the days of giving tenure and promotions solely on how well liked the person is in their department may be ending. Faculty should be expected to be productive scholars. Scholarship informs effective teaching.
No doubt Sweet has made mistakes and missteps as president of YSU. But he is not an evil man. Sweet works extremely hard at YSU, for YSU and Youngstown. If the faculty worked as hard on our jobs and worked as hard for YSU as President Sweet works for YSU and at his job, YSU would be a wondrous place indeed.
STEPHEN RAY FLORA, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Youngstown State University
Motorists drive up gas prices
EDITOR:
It's summer driving season once again with all of the attendant howls about the cost of gasoline. Yes, it is relatively pricey, but Americans keep on driving the miles and fuel the demand, as usual. The price increase should come as no surprise.
This writer is old enough to clearly remember the gasoline shortages of the 1970's. The future was perfectly clear and my 350 horsepower Camaro went up for sale. In the following decade Detroit went on a diet and it looked like the automotive offerings were beginning to make sense. It does not require 4,500 pounds of machinery to move one and a half people on the daily commute.
But, how quickly we forget. The small, fuel efficient cars of the recent past have been replaced by hulking behemoths weighing more and occupying more space than the cars of the 1960 tail-fin set. If this trend continues, and GM was betting on it last year, expect the cost of fuel to maintain an ongoing, upward bias.
LOREN KINDLER
Hubbard