YSU sees continued increases in freshman class, grant funding

By Justin Wier | September 6, 2018 at 12:04a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University saw a continued increase in the size of its freshman class and raked in a nine-year high in grant awards.

Those were topics discussed at Wednesday’s board of trustees committee meetings.

The freshman class numbered 2,384 as of Tuesday, which surprised Gary Swegan, the university’s associate vice president of enrollment and management.

“I thought last year we were going to flatten out,” Swegan said. “I was surprised to see us maintain that trend.”

It marked a 4.7 percent increase over 2017’s 2,278-student class and represents a new high for the university since it went to selective admission in 2014.

Swegan said he will be happy if the university can maintain freshman classes of that size, which will increase the university’s overall enrollment.

“We’ve kind of rebuilt the enrollment pipeline over the last four years,” Swegan said.

While the university saw record highs in the number of multicultural students in the class and in those student’s GPAs, it did see a decrease in international undergraduates.

This freshman class had 58 as of Tuesday compared to 175 last year.

Swegan said the university saw the second-highest number of international students overall, but a large percentage of them enrolled in graduate programs.

The university also earned $8.9 million in research and service grants which Mike Hripko, the university’s associate vice president for research, said will benefit students, the university and the community.

“[It] also affirms that we are an emerging research institution,” Hripko said.

Also at Wednesday’s meetings, committees approved Marc Malandro – who serves as vice president of operations for science at the Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Institute – as this falls commencement speaker and approved a contract with the Association of Professional and Administrative Staff union.

Both actions will require approval from the full board at today’s meeting.