Melnick Hall is new home for WYSU and YSU Foundation

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

WYSU and the Youngstown State University Foundation have new digs.

Both have moved into the renovated Melnick Hall on Wick Avenue. WYSU likely will start broadcasting from the new site on Melnick’s second floor next week.

“We have about 40 percent more space here,” said Gary Sexton, WYSU director.

The station has been in the basement of Cushwa Hall since 1976. Before that, it was in the former Valley Park Motel on Wick.

“This is the first time in WYSU’s 46-year history that we’re in a place that was designed to be a radio station,” Sexton said Monday.

The YSU Foundation occupies Melnick’s first floor. It moved from Fok Hall, formerly the Alumni House.

“The new offices are a wonderful addition to our operations as we continue to expand and upgrade our development activities on behalf of the university,” Paul McFadden, foundation president, said in a news release.

Melnick used to house the Rose Melnick Medical Museum. Items from the museum have moved to the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services in Cushwa.

Joel Melnick, who is a great-nephew of the late Dr. John C. Melnick, a Youngstown radiologist, is pleased to see the building that bears his family name get more traffic.

“Now with the museum in Cushwa, our family name is at two locations on campus,” he said.

Sexton said the studio space was designed to be soundproof. In the old quarters, employees added elements to limit the outside noise.

The Melnick location also provides a conference space and an area conducive to panel discussions and interviews on air.

The total Melnick renovation cost was about $4.7 million. About $2.5 million in state capital funds paid for the bulk of the project, with $1.6 million coming from bonds and $558,000 raised by WYSU.

In late 2014, YSU trustees and the YSU Foundation reached an agreement transferring all university development functions to the foundation. The foundation, which employs 13 people, is paying rent to YSU for Melnick space.

The foundation has more then $225 million in assets and provides more than $7 million in scholarships to YSU students annually.