YSU programs help students continue education amid troubled economy

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — Some Ohio universities are launching efforts to help students needing assistance in this failing economy, but Youngstown State University says it already has programs in place to provide that aid.

Both Ohio State and Kent State universities announced plans last week to help students. Those plans include emergency loans, guarantees that financial aid will increase proportionally if tuition rises next fall and personal contact with freshmen who aren’t re-enrolled after the fall term to determine if financial hardship was a factor in their decision.

Both universities said they are responding to a time of economic instability, both regionally and nationally, to assure current and future students that financial assistance will be available.

Youngstown State has had some of those same programs in place for some time and is already prepared to help students, said Mark Van Tilburg, executive director of marketing and communications.

YSU has had an emergency loan fund available since 2004, funded through the Marion G. Resch Foundation, he said.

The university has given out $866,000 from that fund to help students with emergency needs and for regular need-based student assistance, he said, adding that the fund still has money available to those facing financial difficulties.

Like other of Ohio’s public universities, Youngstown State has again frozen its tuition this year and that includes spring semester 2009, he said.

YSU already has “a very aggressive retention program” targeting freshmen to be sure the university is doing all it can to ensure that they return, Van Tilburg said, noting that the program reaches out to all incoming students as well.

YSU hasn’t offered a guarantee that scholarship aid will increase proportionally with any tuition increase that may come next year,

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.