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Three YSU student affairs positions will be replaced with two
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Three Youngstown State University student-affairs positions will be combined into two through resignations, retirements and position eliminations.
The savings is estimated at $135,000 annually including benefits.
Jack Fahey, vice president for student affairs, is retiring in December, and the post won’t be filled. The other two positions being eliminated are executive director of student life and executive director of student services. The former student-life director retired in December and hasn’t been replaced. The student-services director’s contract, which expires in June, won’t be renewed.
“There’s a significant transition that’s taking place in student affairs,” Fahey said.
Instead, YSU Trustees’ University Affairs Committee Tuesday approved resolutions to create two new positions and recruit people to fill them.
One is an associate vice president for student success and the other is associate vice president for student experience.
Fahey said national searches will be conducted to fill both positions, and the plan is to have the new people in place by July 1.
Trustee Delores Crawford said the two positions are critical as the university works to increase enrollment.
“I agree we need to do this as soon as possible, not later,” she said.
The committee also approved recruitment of a dean of the newly created honors college and a dean for the College of Creative Arts and Communication.
CCAS’s former dean, Bryan DePoy, left last month for a job at another institution.
Martin Abraham, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, said YSU intends to fill the honors college dean position from within. He said the only cost is the loss of the teaching time of the individual selected for the job. There may be a need to hire part-time faculty.
A national search will be conducted for the CCAC dean, but Abraham said YSU doesn’t plan to use a search consultant.
Also Tuesday, trustees’ Finance and Facilities Committee approved raising the rent at University Courtyard Apartments on Wick Oval Street by 3 percent to 3.4 percent, beginning this fall.
Trustee Harry Meshel voted against the increases.
Fahey said the additional revenue, estimated at $60,000, will be used to maintain the apartments.
Current residents will be able to lock in this year’s rates for next year through a renewal program.
A one-bedroom, one bathroom apartment costs $757 monthly and would increase to $780 per month next year. For a two-bedroom, two bath unit, the monthly cost would increase from $639 to $660 and for a four-bedroom, two bathroom apartment, the cost would increase from $551 to $570 per month.
Fahey said the rates at the apartments is low compared to other apartment buildings around campus.
Also at the meeting President Jim Tressel said that prospective students visiting campus have commented that there aren’t as many amenities around YSU as at other campuses they’ve visited. He said the university plans to advertise for requests for proposals for ideas from companies for more amenities around campus. He mentioned a grocery store.