From Law to Lame… I Mean Fame

By Chelsie Hazenstab

One problem about YSU is that it is located in Youngstown. Youngstown is not the optimal college town. After all, the city, defined as “where Satan threatens to send residents of hell who are deemed unworthy,” is not the safest place to “hang out.”

YSU’s campus is not what makes YSU an undesirable college; it is the city it is located in. If one were to take a trip from campus, in any direction, that person’s view would be as follows: an abandoned building, an empty lot, glass shards, an abandoned house, a bar and an abandoned building. Anyone going on a college visit to YSU would, at the very least, second guess the option.

Youngstown, in 2007 was ranked the 15^th most dangerous city. Within Youngstown’s population bracket, it ranked fourth. On campus, there are fewer crimes than in other parts of the city, for example there were only 122 thefts in 2008. This is partly due to the fact that YSU has its own police force, which has all the same powers as any other police force. Security at YSU is doubled up.

At a city council meeting on April 7, 2010, two of the seven wards said that their biggest priority was getting the youth crime under control. There is story after story in the Vindicator on the crime that rocks the city; most recently there are stories like a teen murdering an elderly woman at a church and two shootings on the same night, involving a teenager.

Instead of the student imposed motto of, “You Screwed Up,” the motto should be, “Youngstown Screwed Up.” The city had a good thing going when the university first started. Even though some classes date back to 1888, YSU was started in 1908 as a law school. A LAW SCHOOL IN YOUNGSTOWN! It seems that Youngstown can, in fact, follow the law.

The burning question is, “What went wrong?” Well, the law school eventually became the Youngstown Institute of Technology and added some courses in business. YSU continued to grow as Youngstown grew. When the Youngstown boom fell through, so did YSU.

When one thinks of a college town, things like cafés, book stores, parks and college housing come to mind. Yes, YSU has those, but not like in Williamsburg, Virginia. The College of William and Mary is a research school, located in a historic village. It is not scary to walk around. One learns about life now and life in the colonial times, not about some guy named Spank and his art plastered on barren walls.

There are things to do in college towns. In Youngstown the things to do are going to class, partying, hoping not to get caught drinking under age and avoiding getting shot in the wrong parts of town. Other college towns have more constructive activities like reenactments, hands-on museums and tourism. These activities are safer; they also have more learning and economic potential than the ones at YSU. These activities define a college town.

In an informal poll of students in the spring 2010 editorial writing class, 10 out of 12 students said that they would leave Youngstown after graduation. Reasons as to why the students would leave range from the economy and the safety.

In order for YSU to become a potentially great school, Youngstown must get its act together. The city needs to clean up its streets and get off their rears. Sitting around waiting for buildings to magically catch fire or crumble apart is not going to make the city a better, more presentable, place. Giving the city a little bit of credit, the recent economic downfall has hit the Valley hard. The economy was lacking in Youngstown before the national crisis, but it would probably be better for the economy if the city were a college town.