Path Clearing for Eastern Gateway Students to Enroll at YSU
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Youngstown State University Academic Senate next week is expected to approve changes to enable Eastern Gateway Community College students to enroll.
“We’ve been working on the educational pathways for our fellow students at Eastern Gateway,” Chet Cooper, chairman of the Academic Senate, told the trustees Academic Excellence and Student Success Committee meeting Wednesday.
That involves adjustments to admission and residency policies.
Trustees at Eastern Gateway, based in Steubenville with a campus in downtown Youngstown, voted last month to pause enrollment and registration following the current semester. YSU as well as community colleges in the region are enrolling those students. YSU also has taken steps to have a campus in Jefferson County.
Also on Wednesday, the Professional Development Center announced it is welcoming people affected by the Eastern Gateway pause. The Professional Development Center is a division of Flying High Inc. It’s a technical school registered with the Ohio Board of Career Colleges and Schools.
People seeking to become a state tested nurse aide, become certified in basic welding, advanced welding or fittling/blueprint reading may enroll in accelerated training programs at PDC. Students also can enroll in carpentry programs or the PDC program to become a state licensed chemical dependency counselor assistant. Tuition assistance is available to those who qualify.
The PDC operates job placement welcome centers at 6 W. Federal St. in Youngstown and at 237 Main Ave. SW in Warren.
At the YSU trustees committee meetings, trustees commended administrators and faculty for working quickly to prepare for the university to enroll Eastern Gateway students.
Jennifer Pintar, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, told trustees that the review of 12 programs to improve their metrics is going well.
The programs are telecommunications studies, public health, dental hygiene, sociology, economics, philosophy, journalism, environmental science, anthropology, geology, dietetics and physics astronomy.
Deans, chairpersons and faculty of those programs met with university marketing department and Pintar and discussed ways to improve the programs and differentiate them from competitors, Pintar said. A follow-up meeting is expected next month.
Trustees learned about an initiative from the YSU Foundation to offer gratitude markers to donors who make significant contributions. The marker for a $1 million gift would be 9 feet high, 48 inches wide and 48 inches long. For a $500,000 gift, a marker would be 5.5 feet high, 34 inches wide and 34 inches long. The cost to buy and install the markers would come out of the gift amount.
Greg Morgione, associate general counsel, told trustees the markers would be placed at a location on campus that is mutually agreed upon with YSU.
“The donor may request an area on campus for the marker to be located, but YSU would have the discretion to approve it,” he said. The university would also approve the wording.
Trustee Chuck George asked that the gift agreement specify that the amount donated could be used how YSU deems to use it. That would prevent what he called “double-dipping,” where a donor contributes money for a scholarship in his or her name, for example, and then also has one of the markers bearing his or her name. Morgione said that change could be made.
Other trustees had concerns. Jocelyne Kollay Linsalata, one of the panel’s national/global trustees, questioned whether many markers would look like a graveyard on campus. President Bill Johnson said it reminded him of Stonehenge.
Trustee Molly Seals suggested the markers be penguins on a base instead.
In light of the concerns, George recommended that the proposal come back to trustees after 12 months to determine if it’s something they want to continue.
Pictured at top: From left are YSU President Bill Johnson; Michael Peterson, trustees chairman; and Chuck George, trustees vice chairman.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
