YSU students support Meshel, protest plans for Meshel Hall

YOUNGSTOWN

About 30 students filed into the Youngstown State University trustees meeting Wednesday to show their opposition to a plan to move some computer-science labs and classrooms out of Meshel Hall.

Their red T-shirts were emblazoned with an image of Meshel Hall and “We need ALL ... of Meshel Hall” on the front.

Girard senior Jordan Vigorito was one of the students wearing the shirt. He’s a human-resources major but works in the computer-science area.

“We have very limited space, and now they’re proposing to cut it back and limit it,” he said.

A proposal calls for computer science to move out of the first floor of Meshel and the journalism department to move in. Journalism moved from the English Department to the College of Creative Arts and Communication.

The students’ protest followed a Tuesday trustees Academic Quality and Student Success committee meeting, where Martin Abraham, provost and vice president for academic success, said the computer science/information systems classrooms and labs on Meshel Hall’s first floor will be relocated to a different building.

That drew criticism from Trustee Harry Meshel, who secured funding for the building when it was built in 1986. The hall, which was named for the retired state senator, was supposed to be a high-technology facility.

He walked out of Tuesday’s committee meeting in disgust and didn’t attend his final meeting today.

Read the complete story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.