‘Retention is key,' Tressel says in State of University

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The number of new students at Youngstown State University this fall exceed those of last year by 11 percent and new freshmen are up 17 percent.

President Jim Tressel delivered his State of the University Address Tuesday, a day before the fall semester begins, to a Kilcawley Center Chestnut Room filled with faculty, staff, administrators and trustees.

“Attracting students can help get us an uptick this year,” he said. “But the real thing we’re going to focus on is retention.”

Retention from fall 2014 to this semester is nearly 73 percent, compared to fall 2013 to fall 2014 when it was 67 percent.

“That is the key,” Tressel said. “Retention is the key.”

Retention is one of elements used in the calculation for state funding.

The university’s six-year graduation hovers about 33 percent.

That’s not high enough, Tressel said.

“That number has to grow if we’re going to have a chance to reach our goals,” he said.

Tressel set 3,450 as the goal for new students in 2016 which would be a 12 percent increase from this year.

Final enrollment numbers won’t be available until the 14th day of the semester, but Tressel pointed out that last fall, the number increased between the first and 14th days.

Those increases have to continue for Tressel to be able to meet one of his goals: increased workforce compensation.

The last two contracts for faculty and staff included no net pay increases.

“That’s not acceptable,” he said.

In his low-key and often self-deprecating style, the president reviewed some accomplishments of faculty, students and the institution during his first year in office.

He listed the awarding of two national patents — a YSU first — to two professors.

Tressel believes YSU has been a major driver in the resurgence of downtown Youngstown and he wants that to continue.

Ground is expected to be broken in the next two weeks for a new privately-owned student housing complex.

Hallmark Campus Communities of Columbus plans to build a $7.8 million, 162-bed, four-story apartment-style complex that it will finance. The structure will be built on 4.4 acres of university-owned land on Fifth Avenue between Rayen, Lincoln and Belmont avenues and is expected to open in fall 2016.

Improvements to Wick Avenue also are planned.

In June, YSU trustees approved spending $800,000 for beautification of Wick Avenue. That project is a joint effort among the university, the city and Youngstown CityScape.

The city’s portion of the project – which includes replacing a waterline and a sewer line, moving above-ground utility poles underground and paving the street – is expected to cost about $4 million.

CityScape is raising private funds for the utility move and YSU’s portion would be used to rebury the utility lines.

“We want to bring Wick back to the grandeur it had been historically,” Tressel said. “It used to be the showplace into the university and downtown.”

He said the university is working on a strategy for a capital fundraising campaign.

“Great things are on the horizon at YSU and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Tressel said.