Fingerhut to speak at YSU ceremony, get degree

Staff report

youngstown

Eric D. Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, will receive an honorary degree and speak at Youngstown State University’s fall commencement at 2 p.m. Sunday in Beeghly Center.

Salvador Bolan, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in education, will be the student speaker.

About 750 students will receive diplomas at the ceremony.

Bolan, a native of Youngstown, was raised on a small farm in New Waterford, along with his seven sisters and three brothers. After graduating from Crestview High School in 1990, Bolan attended the University of Cincinnati for one year and then enlisted in the Navy, where he served from 1992 to 1996.

After his military service, Bolan enrolled in YSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He then worked as a substitute teacher for the Youngstown City School District for two years and enrolled in the YSU Beeghly College of Education. Bolan is working as an intervention specialist at American Spirit Academy in East Liverpool.

In March 2008, Fingerhut delivered Ohio’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education to the governor and Ohio General Assembly, with an overall goal to raise the educational attainment of Ohio’s population.

Since the report’s release, he has worked closely with the administration, the Ohio General Assembly, businesses, colleges and universities, and other state agencies to implement strategies to make higher education more efficient while expanding low-cost pathways and educational opportunities to students.

From 2005 to 2007, Fingerhut was a member of the business-administration faculty at Baldwin-Wallace College as director of economic development education and entrepreneurship. He also has served as a senior lecturer in Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Political Science, School of Law and Weatherhead School of Management.

From 1991 to 1992 and from 1999 to 2006, Fingerhut was a member of the Ohio State Senate, representing the 25th District in the eastern half of Cuyahoga County.

He served for eight years on the Senate Finance Committee and also served on committees related to health, aging, environment, insurance, tax policy, economic development and education.

He received the Senator of the Year award from Omeris Ohio’s Bioscience Association in 2005 and the Ohio Governmental Affairs Award from the Ohio Rehabilitation Association in 2000.