TRESSEL LIVE | Dispatches from YSU

YOUNGSTOWN

Jim Tressel believes it's a necessity to expand YSU's recruiting area.

Internatiional students on campus can help not only with numbers of student son campus but also with students' experiences, allowing students to be around those from other countries.

Picking a provost needs to involve all of the stakeholders -- faculty, staff, others -- and taking into account the strengths of the president, he said.

"The most impactful thing we can do from a financial standpoint is retention," Tressel said. "Secondly, we've got to do a great job at development, at fundraising." Faculty must be involved in collaborrating with all parts of campus involvement. Tressel touts a "culture of collaboration." "You can't discount what another person wants," he said. The former football coach said he met with union leaders this morning and was impressed with that leadership. He says from talking to people at YSU former President Randy Dunn put good plans in place during his tenure. Tressel believes students want a hybrid of distance and more traditional types of higher education. He also says he wants the best instructor for a course, whether full time or an adjunct. Most of the time the goal has to be "to maximize fulltime faculty" but not be afraid to use adjunct.

People are gathered outside of the meeting room, listening as Tressel answers questions. Seats are full inside the room and people are standing along the walls. Tressel says he doesn't expect he'll go back to coaching. "I don't wake up in the morning and say, 'i wish I were still coaching,'" he said. Tressel said he has more important things to do -- "not that it's not important." Jim Tressel says being at Youngstown State University shaped who he is. He told members of the campus community this afternoon who packed into the Tod Hall meeting room that "we don't brag enough about here."