Promise and challenge for YSU

Promise and challenge for YSU

A year ago, there were very real fears that Youngstown State University was going to come out on the short end of the reorganization plan for higher education that was one of the first initiatives launched by the administration of Gov. Ted Strickland.

There was good reason for concern. The academic world can become a cutthroat battle for limited state funds, for power and influence and for academic turf. During one interview, Dr. David Sweet, president of Youngstown State University, predicted that the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown would cease to be an independent medical school. Some influential Clevelanders openly coveted the medical school, which was established as a consortium of Youngstown State, Kent State and Akron universities. They wanted it moved to Cleveland and attached to Cleveland State University and Cleveland hospitals. There were also Akron interests who wanted to take control of the college.

In separate conversations during 2007 with Gov. Strickland and his chancellor, Eric Fingerhut, Vindicator editors pointed out that NEOUCOM was unique in the state, producing new doctors with a six-year program that was both academically sound and fiscally responsible. But neither would commit to protecting NEOUCOM, saying that the evaluation process would have to run its course. As it turns out, that was fair enough.

Safe, at least for now

NEOUCOM has survived scrutiny by the Northeast Ohio Universities Collaboration and Innovation Study Commission. Cleveland State University will be invited to join the consortium. A recommendation that the presidents of the member universities be replaced on NEOUCOM’s board of trustees could at some future date create a power shift that would once again endanger the status of the institution. The Mahoning Valley and its legislators are going to have to be on the alert and ready to defeat a future assault on NEOUCOM if one materializes.

The study commission’s report also provides reason to believe that Youngstown State University faces a future of both promise and challenge on a number of fronts. Notably the move toward establishment of a Mahoning Valley community college will require years of work. YSU will face a need to balance short term losses in enrollment in its freshman and sophomore classes against the long-term prospects of maturing into a stronger four-year institution.

The future of YSU within the context of a redefined higher education system in the state will certainly merit additional editorial attention in the months and years to come.

The university is one of the Valley’s most important institutions and no one can take for granted any aspect of its future.