Tressel enjoys lots of goodwill as he sets new course for YSU

Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel has been around higher education long enough to know that today’s outpouring of affection from the campus community can easily become tomorrow’s font of resentment. That’s why he should move quickly to take advantage of the goodwill expressed Monday at his installation.

There was sustained applause and a standing ovation in Beeghly Center for the ninth president of Youngstown State from a large crowd of students, faculty, staff, administrators, politicians, community leaders and other residents of the Mahoning Valley. Their reaction to Tressel, who was joined on stage by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and members of YSU’s board of trustees, lent credence to the contention of his more strident supporters that he takes YSU’s helm as arguably one of the most famous individuals in the Valley and beyond.

To be sure, Tressel’s image has been burnished by his success as a college football coach, leading Ohio State to a national championship and YSU to four national titles. But in pushing his candidacy for the presidency, his supporters argued that the urban, open-access institution of higher learning needed his vision, optimism and calm demeanor to guide it.

Monday’s installation, with all the pomp and ceremony, was obviously a joyous occasion for Tressel, his wife, Ellen, their families and friends.

Today, however, Tressel must face the stark reality of YSU’s continuing enrollment decline. YSU began its fall semester Wednesday with an unofficial full-time enrollment of 12,337, reflecting a decline of 864 from the fall 2013 semester.

A lower head count means less revenue, which will only serve to exacerbate the financial difficulties YSU has contended with for the last several years.

A formula used by the Ohio Board of Regents to allocate state dollars to Ohio’s 13 public universities and colleges emphasizes student retention and graduation rates.

The goal of Gov. Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly is to increase the number of Ohioans with college degrees. Currently, only 25 percent of the state’s residents have graduated from a four-year institution. That figure is below the national average.

It is noteworthy that while Youngstown State is on the front lines of Ohio’s battle to increase the number of first-in-the-family college students, it isn’t being rewarded through the state formula.

There was a time in the not too distant past when open-admission institutions received additional funding from Columbus to help them defray the costs associated with admitting students who need special attention to meet the academic standards of a university.

Open access

President Tressel’s predecessor, Dr. Randy Dunn, changed the university’s open-admission policy to open access because not only was the university spending a lot of money on remediation courses for freshmen, but many of the students were dropping out because of the demands of academia.

Today, with enrollment down for the fourth year in a row and state funding also on the decline, Tressel and the board of trustees have the unenviable task of making the financial numbers work.

Decisions about spending priorities will continue to be a first order of business, which means growing discontent from the interest groups that will have to absorb budget cuts.

For now, however, the new president, who struck a positive, morale-boosting tone in his speech Monday, enjoys a lot of goodwill on campus. He, along with the trustees, must use it to soften the blow of the tough decisions that must be made.