YSU’s next president should be willing to stay for a while

What’s the most obvious ques- tion each of the three finalists for the presidency of Youngstown State University should be asked when they’re on campus this week?

This is it: “Will you publicly pledge to serve out your first contract, however long it may be, and not pull a Randy Dunn on the university?”

Dr. Dunn, who began his tenure as president of YSU last July with lots of fanfare and eager anticipation, left at the end of March to take over the presidency of Southern Illinois University.

His premature departure was made all the more egregious because he did not have the decency to inform the trustees that he had been interviewed for the SIU job. They found out through a story in that college’s newspaper.

Dunn violated the public trust by leaving YSU before serving even a year, which is why the three finalists on campus this week, Dr. Mary Cullinan, Dr. Gary L. Miller and James P. Tressel, should be asked about their professional goals.

Is Youngstown State the last stop on their higher education journey, or is the position a steppingstone to a dream job?

There is a way for the trustees to make sure the tenure of the new president will not be as short-lived as that of Dunn’s: The contract they negotiate should not include an escape clause.

The contract, which will be for three years if the past is any indication, should list specific conditions under which the new president’s employment can be terminated.

Otherwise, three years should be the minimum amount of time the new president serves.

Tenure is one of several pressing issues that needs to be addressed by the finalists when they meet with the university community and Mahoning Valley community leaders.

Cullinan is president and professor of English at Southern Oregon University; Miller is chancellor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington; and Tressel is executive vice president for student success at the University of Akron and former football coach at YSU and Ohio State.

Topping the list of issues is the continuing decline in enrollment, which stood at 12,823 this spring semester, compared with 15,194 in the fall of 2010. The downward trend is expected to continue, thus exacerbating YSU’s fiscal problems.

With state funding for higher education taking a major hit in the last two biennium budgets, trustees have sought ways to deal with the crisis. They have raised tuition four years in a row — student fees have also gone up — and are implementing cost-cutting measures.

Spending-reduction plan

During his brief stay at Youngstown State, Dunn had begun working with faculty and staff to develop a spending-reduction plan — against the backdrop of labor negotiations.

Cullinan, Miller and Tressel should be prepared to talk about higher education funding in the context of declining state support and demands by the governor and General Assembly for universities and colleges to clearly define their missions — and to do more with less.

There’s intense competition for the shrinking tax dollars, while YSU also must deal with Eastern Gateway Community College’s expanding presence in the Mahoning Valley.

More than three decades ago, the word “retrenchment” was used to describe the demise of major steel in the region.

That word well describes what is occurring in Ohio on the higher education front.

How does YSU fit in the overall scheme? It’s a question the next president will have to address.