It's what you make it

By: Robert Merz

Everything is a lie...

This clever quip comes from one of our classmates, and it has become a humorous mantra of sorts for its ability to fit so many situations where we find ourselves disillusioned. I can think of one specific example right here in our YSU environment, where it proves its worth again.

"You Screwed Up."

We've all heard it, and frankly, it's funny. I laughed the first time I heard it… but it's a lie.

We did not screw up. YSU is not a "last chance" university. Like so much in life, the experience here is going to be what one makes of it.

Why then, do so many students not succeed? Some are simply not prepared academically for the rigors of a university environment. This is a problem YSU administration must now grapple with as it addresses the established policy of open enrollment. Others simply don’t have a clear reason for being here other than they don’t know what else to do.

Statistically, I am a failure. This is not my first college experience; I have attended three Ohio universities. In high school, I did well. I was an honors student, a speech and debate champion, and a member of the varsity football team. My goal was to use those successes to carry me forward. Just two weeks after graduation, I found myself with another four years of school looming.

At first, I did quite well; it seemed the momentum I carried with me from high school would suffice. It did not. Eventually, I was overwhelmed. For the first time I was juggling my class schedule, a 40-hour workweek, and all of the other responsibilities of a young adult. I lacked the maturity to cope, and this caused a lot of stress; my autism surfaced, and I found it increasingly difficult to interact. This sent me into a tailspin. I withdrew from classes and became a statistic.

I was in a “deep blue funk" for a long time afterwards, thirteen years, to be exact. Fortunately, I slowly matured over that span. I became a stay-at-home father of two, and did some work as a freelance writer and editor. I felt comfortable in this life, and wasn't sure if I could, or cared to, face finishing my degree work... but, life has a funny way of changing things.

I'm back.

And this time I know why I’m here. And where exactly is here? YSU. I could have gone anywhere... Penn State, Kent State... I had my pick. I chose YSU for what it has to offer.

Like so many, the impetus for my return has been a life-changing event. I am faced with the daunting responsibility of maintaining a home, and helping to raise my two children… alone. I am 40 now, and I have overcome a lack of maturity and a disability to get here. What I have learned is that college is not about getting grades; that is a lie. College is about doing one's best; it is about completing the coursework and gaining knowledge. I think so many of my fellow students miss these important concepts.

If we reach the end, we are handed a degree, and this does serve as a key to future hopes and dreams, but it is no guarantee of obtaining them; it is really the effort we put in, and the knowledge we take with us, which matters most. This is what our future employers will see in us... they will not ask to see our degrees or our transcripts.

Everything is the truth...

I know. It isn't as funny. But everything above is the truth, and I hope students reading this will listen to me, because I have been where, statistically, many are going.

YSU is not a last chance university. It is not a glorified community college. YSU offers so much to those willing to accept the challenge. Here, one can find a real chance to excel in a university environment.

YSU offers a sense of family that other universities do not have. We constantly read how Youngstown is resilient, and it is usually attributed to a strong sense of family unity. Folks, we have that right here. We are a family of 14,000, and I will say unequivocally, this is the nicest student body I have ever experienced.

YSU is a joke…

There will always be people who make fun of YSU. These are slings and arrows we must suffer, but to believe what is said is another matter entirely, because it is a lie. YSU is a first chance university. Take pride in yourself and your coursework; take pride in our school. Take from your experience here the work ethic you develop, and the knowledge you gain... then the joke will be on everyone else.

A different kind of education

By: Tyler Landis

I currently stand a year away from graduation at YSU, and will be the first male in my family with a college degree. This is a big deal, as I eagerly await the day. I attended Kent State University for my freshman year, but the experience and I didn’t agree. My grades weren’t up to snuff and the experiment of living away from home clearly didn’t pan out as I had envisioned. Classes were challenging, and if I got just a little behind I knew I’d be in trouble. Grades rolled around after the first semester and I had done just enough in three of my classes and had failed another. My mother’s reaction to these grades was stern and unforgiving, after all, she as a single mother was paying for my tuition, and she had good reason to be upset.

I promised change and better study habits for the second semester, but things remained the same. My overall work habits improved, but I still ended up failing the same class after the second semester. After that, I knew attending YSU was a foregone conclusion. I had been a journalism major since my enrollment at Kent State, and had every intention of continuing down the same path at YSU.

Now, a year away from being propelled into the real world, I feel my sweaty palms, think my nervous thoughts, and can’t imagine where I’ll end up in 10 years. Has YSU, as an institution, done its best to prepare me for the modern workplace where having a job means being lucky? I think the majority of my classes outside my particular major have been dull and un-inspiring. It’s too easy for students at YSU to coast by and remain unchallenged by their instructors and professors. The last thing I want to do is come across as the sole voice of YSU, but as I leave some classes, I wonder to myself why I had to pay money for a class that I could have slept through, still receiving a passing grade.

Some classes have been easy A’s, and while the grade registers fine into my GPA, what has it done for me in the long run? Some may argue that classes outside of my major shouldn’t matter since they’re pre-requisites to distinguish where a student stands. I am paying for these classes, and they should all challenge equally. I don’t have a proper solution to the problem, but it’s something that YSU should take a closer look into. With Cynthia Anderson as the new president, she will have her hands full in getting YSU back on track. The new formula for YSU funding has been initiated and supports the fact that YSU needs improvement. The current YSU retention rate sits at 68.9 percent, meaning less than 70 percent of first year students are returning for their sophomore year. YSU’s 2008 state report takes pride in itself, but why are some of these statistics being praised? While the stats aren’t flattering, the results raise the question of whether YSU should become a selective enrollment university. If the school should ever decide to do so, I would imagine that courses would become appropriately challenging to all students.

Those who know me well enough can attest that I am a lover of film. I eat, breathe, and sleep cinematic thoughts all throughout the day and night. My dream is to become a film critic, even though the days of one trick pony journalists may already be over. For me, there is no greater feeling than digesting a film, writing about it on my blog, and eventually discussing it with others who have seen it. I have my own little niche, and I like to think that it will get me somewhere one day.

Raising the question of whether my education from movies outweighs my YSU education may seem unfair. Both educations cost money, but I prefer the cheaper one. YSU has taught me how to learn properly, but it’s a framework that couldn’t even compare with my passion for film. I constantly find myself comparing my YSU education with my film education, where I have learned how to live and behave from the characters in my favorite films. I have grown into this self taught education, as it has molded me into the adult I am today. I can’t help but compare YSU to Wonderland or Oz, knowing that the best education has been in my backyard the whole time.

Let knowledge serve our city

By: Jared Buker

The early college philosophy is built on the grounds that, for some students, environment is everything. According to the Youngstown Early College Web site, the goal is to “create a climate” where kids can “transform goals into realities.”

Recently, the YEC has seen some climate change.

Inner-city education issues have snowballed to a point where no one really knows what road will lead to a solution. We could gear towards better teachers, aim to create better home lives for urban families, or help provide more conducive learning environments.

But the one road we can’t take is the one that leaves at-risk children in the dust.

States now have the extraordinary task of weaning themselves off of stimulus money, and program cuts are inevitable. But shame on Gov. Strickland and friends for targeting a program that the Ohio Department of Education deemed a School of Excellence.

A Vindicator article from December of last year briefly lists some of the things that have been accomplished at the YEC.

These kids worked extremely hard only to be left with the familiar feeling of uncertainty about the future.

Youngstown State University doesn’t disagree with this premise; the administration simply had to nix the program because it claimed it couldn’t afford it. However, the money fueling the YEC was being pulled from The YSU Foundation, a fund that, according to the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, has an endowment of $140 million.

Of that $140 million, only $4 million goes to annual scholarship distribution. A tiny slice of that endowment money could have kept this program alive and well on our campus. YSU’s University Guidebook says that the endowment must maintain liquid assets for things that come up unexpectedly and also accumulate wealth for things like providing new scholarships. Cutting the YEC may save money, but it counteracts YSU’s hopes of becoming an urban research university because it takes away from the community at large.

A March 12 article in The Vindicator stated that, without the state’s assistance, YSU was responsible for $336,000 to finance the program, leaving Youngstown City Schools responsible for $349,000. The state should have kept the YEC higher on their priority list, and YSU should have found some other way to save money than cutting such a beneficial program.

What kind of message does eliminating the YEC send to our city? People forget the benefit that a program like this has on society in general. The only way to stop generational poverty is to get these kids in a place where learning is appreciated.

Most of the early college students live in poverty. To give you a general idea, publicschoolreview.com shows that 64 percent of the students are eligible for free lunch, with the Ohio average only being 24 percent. Also, many of them are first generation college students who have the additional burden of doing something their family members never did.

I commend Eastern Gateway Community College for taking on the program and maintaining these unique opportunities, but I am curious about how well the students will do now that they are no longer in the same college learning atmosphere.

EGCC president Laura Meeks said that YSU should keep the program for a few more years to help ease into the transition, and I urge this to be the case so these kids don’t feel any more tossed around as they might feel at home or in their high schools.

“Let knowledge serve our city” is a phrase that hangs over us every day as we traverse Wick Avenue. It is time to put our money where our mouth is and let education save the kids that need it the most.

Defend Youngstown!

By: Lindsey Ramdin

No, not you Kelly Pavlik. It will take more than two iron fists to defend Youngstown State University against the negative reputation it has in the community. “You Screwed Up” is something many students hear when they say they attend YSU. Unfortunately, this alternative acronym for YSU may have taken on a literal sense, as recent graduation rates are the lowest in the state.

There is an assumption that YSU is a college that students go to when they cannot “make it” anywhere else. Or that it is, as columnist Bertram de Souza of the Vindicator said during a discussion with YSU students, “a glorified community college”. As a student (and proud Penguin), I can’t help but wonder what de Souza’s reasons for a comment like that could be, or why others might agree with him.

If de Souza is right, that YSU is no more than a “glorified community college,” what does it say about the soaring number of new applicants YSU has seen in the last few years? In the last eight years YSU has had higher enrollment than any other state institution, thanks in part to the YSU Centennial Campus Plan that promises to “build enrollment and manage it effectively”. Policy makers hoped to meet a total-enrollment goal of 14,000 students in 2008; unfortunately, there were only 13,712 incoming students, a little shy of the initial goal, but still a huge leap from where enrollment numbers were ten years ago.

These rates show that students want to come to YSU. While it may not be as nationally recognized as other state schools like Ohio State, it is still an accredited university that deserves the same reverence as other benchmark colleges in the area.

Low graduation rates may account for some of the negative feelings towards YSU, but it is important to note that of the student body, one-third is made up of non-traditional students over the age of 24. Non-traditional students usually have more than just school on their plate. Unlike most students, non-traditional students must usually work and support their families while they attend school--making it nearly impossible to complete a degree within four years. As for the other two-thirds of the student population, it is hard to determine what might be causing their graduation delay, but if you look at the graduation rates of students who were able to complete a degree within 6 years of beginning, the rates of graduation increase by nearly 30 percent.

It is hard to tell if YSU’s high enrollment numbers are due to the University’s efforts for improvement, or because of the recession. Some blame the high enrollment rates on the recession, claiming that in a time of economic need schools like YSU thrive, “at times when unemployment increases, our enrollment increases,” said Tom Maraffa, senior assistant to the president, in a Vindicator interview. Of course low tuition rates will draw students in. Students may choose to attend a community college over a state institution just based on financial reasons alone.

It is still unfair, though, to assume that just because YSU has low tuition rates that it can be likened to community colleges, which usually cost significantly less than state universities. YSU offers a lot of financial aid and most YSU applicants qualify for at least one type—lessening the burden of high tuition prices and offering a four-year degree like other, more expensive schools in Ohio.

Regardless of where students are coming from or why, they are coming, and this influx of students can help YSU progress in many ways. YSU policy makers need to place more focus on student assessment and improving graduation rates. Student retention rates and graduation numbers are vital to a school’s success and reputation. Members of the community need to embrace YSU as an asset to our city instead of viewing it as a last-resort option. Affordable tuition, growing enrollment rates, and the constant effort to keep building YSU’s success should be enough to draw in more students and hopefully silence those who have such negative things to say about this campus.

Lindsey Ramdin is a student in the Editorial and Opinion Writing class at YSU.

Youngstown State University, an open enrollment “urban research university”

By: Josh Stipanovich

The increasingly evoked phrase “urban research university” has made its way from the back of our minds to the forefront of the YSU administration’s agenda.

Since Youngstown State University announced Cynthia Anderson its seventh president, the label has students, faculty and staff wondering yet again--what is an urban research university, and how can an open enrollment university be considered as such?

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions at YSU defines what open enrollment means to prospective students:

Youngstown State University offers open enrollment for Ohio high school seniors, therefore, there is no test score, grade point average, nor class rank required to be admitted to the university.

While open enrollment has been a key to the success of the university and the legacy of current YSU President David Sweet, the Ohio Strategic Plan for Higher Education and its missives have positioned the university between a rock and a hard place.

The initiative has designated YSU an urban research university, which means, well, no one really knows.

During Anderson’s first press conference as president designee, she said the label “urban research university” has yet to be defined, but she also said she does think it could be a way for the university to define itself as a teaching institution.

She’s not alone.

The discussions of the meaning “urban research university” began in early September when the independent consulting firm, Storbeck/Pimental & Associates, LLC visited campus to listen to student, faculty and staff opinions on what the qualifications of our next president should be.

The Jambar cited Bill Binning, professor and chair emeritus of the political science department, saying he hasn’t the slightest idea what urban research university means. He even questioned whether or not prospective students took that into consideration when applying to YSU.

In the same article, Scott Schulick, chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees, said he and the board have “pondered over the exact meaning.”

One definition of a research institute is a body capable of “basic” or “applied research” through scientific, social science, sociological and historical studies.

While the number of research areas may vary, the point is that urban research institutes today follow a formula, which usually doesn’t include open enrollment.

Another article in Thursday’s edition of The Jambar reported that the Academic Senate at YSU decided to open discussion among the YSU community to settle on an absolute definition.

In the article, Committee Chairman of Academic Senate Frank Li said the decision to define an urban research university was ultimately made because of the general definition the Ohio Strategic Plan for Higher Education has for it.

Mike Brummel, writer for eHow says open enrollment universities “have two criteria for student admission.” The first is state residency and the second is a high school diploma. This is YSU in a nutshell. The greater part of students enrolled here are commuter students who have graduated from high schools in Youngstown or its suburbs.

Brummel listed five benefits of an open enrollment college: Equal Opportunities, Streamlined Admissions, Nontraditional Students, Untapped Student Potential and Diverse Student Population.

These qualities certainly are beneficial and have been for YSU in the past, but do they contradict what a research university is supposed to be?

If YSU truly wants to make the transition into an urban research university, it must make some drastic changes.

This includes becoming a moderately selective enrollment university and allowing the newly developed Eastern Gateway Community College to do its job.

A community college is defined as a place of higher education that provides “lower-level tertiary” schooling, which allows students to graduate with either an associate’s degree, certificate or diploma.

The general formula for students who attend a community college is rather simple.

That student enrolls at the community college, graduates and then pursues his or her bachelor’s degree at a four-year university or liberal arts college.

Due to YSU’s open enrollment policy, many remedial courses are offered and must be completed prior to the 15 general education courses, which are also required of all majors. This criterion seems familiar.

Let’s not designate YSU a community college as well.

Josh Stipanovich is a student in the Editorial and Opinion Writing class at YSU and also serves as news editor of The Jambar.