Tressel needs his ‘peeps’ to ante up

It didn’t take long for the honeymoon to come to a screeching end. Youngstown State University President James P. Tressel, who took the reins of the fiscally challenged urban institution with an outpouring of support from the campus community and political and business leaders in the Mahoning Valley, today finds himself in the midst of labor strife that could result in a strike by faculty.

Indeed, members of the Youngstown State University-Ohio Education Association union cast a no-confidence vote against the administration and the board of trustees, and then last week rejected a tentative agreement that would have brought labor peace to the troubled institution.

Now, a walkout looms large. Members of the faculty union have authorized their negotiating team to call a strike if the talks reach an impasse.

No guarantees

The two sides will return to the bargaining table — well aware that a tentative agreement guarantees nothing. In fact, the three-year proposal that was turned down by the faculty contained bonuses and raises. It is notable that members of the board of trustees who are appointed by the governor were unanimous in their support of the pact.

By contrast, the faculty’s rejection was clearly designed to send a message to the university and the Mahoning Valley: Jim Tressel’s popularity doesn’t impress us.

The rejection also was a repudiation of the leaders of the unions on campus who supported Tressel’s candidacy for president, and of the 32 prominent Valley leaders who signed a letter urging the board of trustees to offer the job to the former YSU and Ohio State University football coach. Tressel led YSU and Ohio State to national football championships.

But the end of the honeymoon was illustrated in an even more aggressive manner by the faculty. During the meeting at which the tentative agreement was unceremoniously rejected, members wore buttons that read, “Academics Above Athletics.”

To be sure, this isn’t a new complaint from faculty. And it isn’t confined to YSU. Indeed, the only institutions of higher learning that are spared this us-against-them battle are those with football programs that are so successful financially they actually funnel money to — rather than take from — the general fund.

Not so YSU, which sucks hundreds of thousands of dollars from the operating budget to support football and other financially starving athletic programs.

The faculty union has done a great job of putting all of this in perspective. Consider:

From fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2015, YSU increased spending on academics by 2 percent — $76.5 million to $78.1 million. By glaring contrast, spending on intercollegiate athletics increased 46 percent — $9.6 million to $14 million.

The faculty union noted that spending on administration and finance in the last seven fiscal years went from $19.6 million to $22 million.

The message from the YSU-OEA is clear: the board of trustees has its priorities upside down.

There’s also the underlying threat from the faculty: If the university does not realign spending so academics take precedence over athletics and administration, there will be a strike.

Tressel can’t be blind to the fact that an attack on the athletic department is an attack on him, his being “Mr. YSU Football” and all.

Sore thumb

Indeed, the search for a new football coach will inevitably come down to money — lots of it. A coach making six figures, plus a lucrative benefit package, sticks out like a sore thumb when the average salary of a professor is in the mid-$70,000 range.

What is the president to do?

Here’s a suggestion: Tressel should contact all the movers and shakers of the Valley who signed the letter to the trustees demanding his hiring and ask them to ante up.

The former highly successful football coach at YSU and Ohio State should consider having his “peeps” (people) put up the money for the new football coach’s salary and benefits for the term of the contract.

Why? Because many of those on the list get to re-live their youth through YSU football.

Given the net worth of a goodly number of Tressel’s backers, the new coach’s compensation package would be pocket change.

So to those responsible for Tressel’s being president, hear this: Put your money where your mouth is.