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Students, campus personnel like former coach’s message
By Denise Dick
and emmalee torisk
YOUNGSTOWN
Jim Tressel’s message about the need to bolster retention, work collaboratively and focus on fundraising resonated with many who attended forums with him during his Monday campus visit.
Tressel, one of three finalists for the Youngstown State University presidency, met with groups of faculty, students, deans, union leaders and the campus community.
Stephen Rodabaugh, associate dean of the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is a Tressel supporter.
“I think he can accomplish more here than at the University of Akron,” he said.
UA already is more established as an urban research university. YSU has further to go toward that goal and Tressel would help toward that aim, Rodabaugh said.
As president of the YSU Student Diversity Council, junior Julian Jones said he was curious about Tressel’s opinion on the importance of diversity at the university level. Overall, Jones said, he was “really satisfied” with Tressel’s response: that having a “diverse environment” at YSU would better prepare students for the future.
Jones acknowledged that he supports Tressel’s becoming YSU president, and said the benefits would be many.
“I believe he would bring good enrollment here because of his name,” Jones said.
Kirstie Feorene, a YSU freshman, said though she initially wasn’t sure about Tressel’s qualifications for the presidency, he “didn’t say anything [she] disagreed with” during the open forum. In particular, she appreciated his insistence that faculty and staff be “involved in the big decisions” at YSU.
Still, Feorene said she will be keeping an open mind toward the other candidates and attending their forums as well. She added that in YSU’s next president, she looks for loyalty — he or she “has got to stick around” — and for ideas to minimize the university’s deficit.
“I really care about what happens here,” Feorene said.
Danny O’Connell, YSU’s director of support services, worked under Tressel when he first arrived at YSU in the 1980s.
“I thought his presentation was very good, and I expected no less,” he said.
As a president, Tressel would be fair as well as an asset to both the university’s recruiting and fundraising efforts, O’Connell said.
Jimmy Tancabel, a sophomore from Boardman, read Tressel’s curriculum vitae before attending Monday’s session.
“I thought he had some different experience from what the other candidates have,” he said.
Tancabel believes each of the three finalists would bring his or her own strengths to the position.
He liked how Tressel talked about the importance of the relationship between YSU and the Mahoning Valley and the need to develop ways to allow commuter students to feel more ownership of the university.
Tancabel plans to attend the sessions for the other two finalists as well.
“I haven’t settled on any one candidate just yet,” he said.
Though he hasn’t seen the two other finalists, graduate student Luke Politsky said he was “very impressed” with Tressel’s performances both at a meeting with students and at the open forum. He added that he would wait before choosing a favorite — but that he’d “love to see [Tressel] in this position.”
“From the very beginning, I saw the need for a more public relations-minded president,” said Politsky, the YSU Student Government Association’s outgoing vice president for university affairs. “Academics is, of course, our primary concern here, but our outlook in the community is so important. We need to be making sure we’re providing the right things to the right people.”
As for Tressel’s supposed lack of qualifications for the role of university president, it’s “not like he has no experience in academia,” Politsky said. What’s most important is that the next president of YSU wants to be with the university’s students — and “have that passion deep down.”
Tressel’s being a finalist for the position at both YSU and the University of Akron doesn’t worry Politsky, and neither does Gary L. Miller’s being considered for the presidency of SUNY Buffalo State in New York. Miller, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is another YSU presidential finalist.
The decision will come down to where each candidate can see himself fitting best.
“I think they’re going to make the decision that’s best for them and the organization,” Politsky said.
Kurt Hess and Torrian Pace, both fifth-year seniors and both football players, support Tressel as the next YSU president.
“I’ve met him a couple of times before and he’s so humble,” said Hess, a native of Dayton.
Pace, who is from Chantilly, Va., likes how during Tressel’s coaching days, he instructed his players in not only how to be successful on the field, but also in life.