YSU leaders welcome Class of ’14 amid hoopla of enrollment growth

YSU Students Move Into Dorms

Gallery

YSU students move into their dorms and prepare for classes starting on Monday.

Williamson College of Business Administration

Gallery

The new Williamson College of Business Administration will provide a professional business education environment, a resource for the regional business community and a link between YSU and the city’s downtown. Betty Jo Licata, dean of the WCBA at Youngstown State University, led a tour of the $34.3 million facility Tuesday for media representatives. A ribbon-cutting for the building is set for 4 p.m. Sunday

Staff Report

YOUNGSOWN

Administrators, deans, faculty and student leaders welcomed one of the largest classes in the history of Youngstown State University to campus Sunday.

Administrator Jack Fahey told hundreds of freshmen gathered at Beeghly Center for the university’s annual Freshman Convocation that one of them would represent “the happy milestone” of being the 15,000th student enrolled for fall semester, which begins today.

“This fall’s enrollment is above 15,000 for the first time in over 20 years,” he told them.

Fahey, interim vice president for Student Affairs and Ombudsman, said the 15,000-plus enrollment is a milestone for the university’s prosperity, for northeastern Ohio’s resurgence and for each student’s ability to flourish.

YSU President Cynthia Anderson thanked students for choosing YSU — ‘‘the greatest university in Ohio and beyond” — for their undergraduate education.

“YSU is the perfect-sized university,” she said, adding that it’s big enough to offer many of the programs of “mega-universities” but small enough to offer one-on-one support.

Scott Schulick, president of the YSU Board of Trustees, used a passage from the Gospel of Luke to urge students to become productive campus members: “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

He advised students to go beyond the classroom in their university experience.

“Education and service go hand in hand,” he said.

Ikram Khawaja, provost and vice president of academic affairs, congratulated the Class of 2014 on its scholarship, noting that 93 of them were their high school valedictorians.

Some $5 million from the YSU Foundation has gone toward scholarships for the class, he said. These included:

• 40 full-ride University Scholars
• 70 trustee scholarships
• 77 President Scholarships
• 76 Dean Scholarships
• 408 Red and White Scholarships.

Tyne Esarey, a 2007 graduate, nursing home administrator and one of 90,000 YSU alumni, said students should avail themselves to all of the educational and social resources on campus. “There is something on campus for everyone,” she said.