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.
I relate to the irritation many at YSU feel about the university's open enrollment policy. There is something to be said about how 'lowering the bar' erases the potential for a certain competitiveness that can lend a college its edge. However, YSU is a state university that sits smack dab in the middle of one of the more economically depressed regions of Ohio. Where some may grumble about substandard admittance procedure, there must be some that see opportunity. Opportunity is a word full of hope, particularly for people that are looking to break barriers (economic, professional, social, etc..). It's a slippery slope when examining the lenses through which we see the university. Do some students want greater academic challenges? Of course. Do instructors want to challenge their students? I would hope they do. Do some people just want to go to college, hoping that piece of paper is a proverbial step toward a better future? Yes. Of course they do. Maybe the key is to be less judgmental of the institution itself and strive for content enrichment in the areas that need it most. Assess and address, people. YSU is fine. It just needs to be better. Then again, what university doesn't?
ReplyDeleteDoveana Petty
I would like to start off by saying you make very good points. Eastern Gateway Community College will play an integral part in YSU making future, necessary changes, and open enrollment was great for YSU in the past, but it threatens to harm our funding now. I am curious as to how you define an urban research university, though.
ReplyDeleteWhile comparing the Strategic Plan for Higher Education’s description of YSU to the other urban research universities and the universities designated as “the land grant and national research university,” “the historic ‘four corners,’” and “the public, historically black university,” it seemed to me that these titles weren’t very important; they are basically just nominal titles.
The Plan calls for YSU to “provide the Youngstown area with the talent and research base for the growth of new companies and industries to replace those that have been lost to a changing economy” and claims it will support “undergraduate and graduate programs that focus on quality and have relevance to economic rebirth.” It calls for Akron and Cleveland State Universities to continue the STEM focused research programs that give them global recognition and gives kudos to Wright State University for developing programs around the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
These individual missions tell me the creators of the Plan aren’t looking at YSU to become a cookie cutter “urban research university” that falls into a general definition, they are looking at YSU to develop and use their “basic” or “applied research” programs to fulfill the unique mission of restoring the Mahoning Valley just as the other public universities must use their research facilities to play their own roles in a collaborative advancement of Ohio as a state.
YSU doesn’t need to “transition into an urban research university,” it already is one, even though it spends the least on research and development of all the Ohio public universities. YSU needs to transition into its role as the Valley’s savior. If we do not, the state may designate one of the other universities in the already crowded north east Ohio landscape as the one to bring our area out of this economic slump. That would leave Youngstown State University with no use to the state, except for lower-level tertiary schooling. On the bright side though, Youngstown Community College would have a leg up on the competition.