Meshel walks out of YSU committee meeting over use of Meshel Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
It was his last round of committee meetings and Youngstown State University Trustee Harry Meshel made it memorable.
Martin Abraham, provost and vice president for academic affairs, talked at Tuesday’s Academic Quality and Student Success Committee about how some journalism courses are moving into the first floor of Meshel Hall. That means that the computer science classes and labs will move out.
Meshel, for whom the hall is named, said it was built as a computer science incubator and was the first of its kind, but it’s been neglected. Other universities such as Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and Penn State University, became known for such innovations instead.
“Computer science has been treated like an illegitimate child at the family reunion,” he said.
Computer science has been ignored by every YSU administration, Meshel said, because “no one here had the intelligence to deal with that.
“You ignored computer science altogether,” he said.
The building provided an opportunity for YSU to become a leader in computer science that was lost, Meshel said.
“No one has done a single thing with computer science in that building since it was built except invade it,” Meshel continued.
“This is absolutely one of the failures of this school to ever do anything differently,” he said.
An online petition has been started by some students and alumni to ensure that Meshel Hall remain a building for interdisciplinary research with ample classroom space.
Crawford asked Meshel to ask his questions as the meeting was running late and the board was trying to stick with a schedule.
“I’ll help you with that,” Meshel said,
He gathered his things and walked out — and didn’t return for the day.
Read more about the meeting and the issue in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.