Youngstown State University, founded in 1908, is an accredited university located in Youngstown, Ohio US. As of 2005, there were 13,101 students and a student-faculty ratio of 19:1. Records show that
11,803 of the students are undergraduates. Beyond its current student body, YSU
claims more than 77,000 alumni.
History
The university's origins trace back to 1908, when the local branch of the YMCA established a
school of law within the Youngstown Association School. In 1921, the school became known as the Youngstown Institute of
Technology and offered its first evening courses. In 1928, a year after establishing the College of Arts and Sciences, the
institute once again changed its name to Youngstown College. In 1955, Youngstown College was renamed as Youngstown
University, an indication of the school's broadening curriculum.
On September 1, 1967, after becoming a public institution, Youngstown University became officially known as Youngstown State
University. The following spring, YSU opened a Graduate School and College of Applied Science and Technology. In 1974, the
College of Fine and Performing Arts was established.
Presidents
Dr. Howard W. Jones - 1931 to 1966
Dr. Albert L. Pugsley - 1966 to 1973
Dr. John J. Coffelt - 1973 to 1984
Dr. Neil D. Humphrey - 1984 to 1992
Dr. Leslie H. Cochran - 1992 to 2000
Dr. David C. Sweet - 2000 to Present
Statistics
As of fall 2006, the student body totaled 13,183, 1,192 of whom are graduate
students. YSU has approximately 2,100 full and part-time employees, and 426 full-time faculty with 543 part-time faculty. One
hundred and sixty-five faculty members boast full-professor rank with 79% of the instructors holding Ph.D's or terminal degrees. The university also boasts a
student to faculty ratio of 19:1.
Tuition for students living in Ohio is $6,333 plus fees, $8,355 plus fees for students coming from the regional service area,
and $11,541 for students from out of state. Room and board costs an additional $6,280. YSU will often note that these tuitions
are the lowest of any public university in Ohio.
Area between Jones Hall and Maag Library (on right)
YSU is primarily a commuter school, with most students living at home or in residence off campus, but approximately 1,000
students live in residence halls on campus. Another 400 live
in the University Courtyard apartment complexes just off of campus. About 13% of the student
body are international students from 55 countries.
YSU is currently trying to get more students to live on campus, with initiatives such as mandatory on-campus housing for
students in the Leslie H. Cochran University Scholars program, which is Youngstown State's full ride academic scholarship
program. One of the goals for the university's centennial in 2008 is to have 20 percent of the
student body living on campus.
There are over 500,000 volumes at the campus' Maag Library, and participation in the OhioLINK program gives access to the collections of 84 other Ohio institutions. The Wilcox Curriculum Resource
Center in Beeghly Hall complements the resources available at Maag.
YSU is participating in the Early College program, through which students from the Youngstown City School District can take
courses for college credit while in high school. The program is in its second year, and has approximately 150 ninth and tenth
graders enrolled.
Campus
YSU lies on a 140 acre campus just north of downtown Youngstown. Although it is
not located near any outstanding geographical features, that has not stopped Youngstown State's campus from being noted for its
landscaping, which is dissimilar from that of many other urban universities. YSU's geographical center has a park-like
atmosphere, featuring a rather-hilly terrain and a variety of trees and plant life, as well as tables and chairs that surround a
campus fountain.
Most buildings on campus have been built within the last half-century, making them newer than most buildings in downtown
Youngstown, where most buildings were constructed before the Great
Depression.
Buildings
Jones Hall, often the building that welcomes people coming onto the YSU campus, is also one of the campus's oldest buildings,
having been built in 1931, when YSU was known as Youngstown College. Its history as the "main building" of the campus continues
today, as it is perhaps the best-known and most photographed building of the whole campus. The building was renamed Jones Hall in
honor of the institutions first president, Dr. Howard Jones. Today, the building is used as mainly administrative office
space.
The Rayen College of Engineering and Technology is housed in Moser Hall, completed in 1967. The university's geological and
environmental sciences department shares the space, and also sponsor the Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum.
The newest addition to YSU is the Andrews Wellness and Recreation Center. Completed in time for the fall 2005 semester, the
Andrews Center gave YSU a complete gym facility, as well as a climbing wall and racquetball courts.
Bliss Hall, completed in 1977 and featuring two auditoriums, is the home of the College of Fine and Performing Arts. Next door
to Bliss is the McDonough Museum of Art, which is maintained by the university's art department and displays exhibits of the
graduating senior class every semester. McDonough is directly across the street from the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown's largest art museum.
Another recent addition to the campus is Beeghly Hall, which was completed in 1998 at a cost of $14 million. The Beeghly
College of Education resides there, and it also hosts several programs open to the community, such as the Community Counseling
Center. Beeghly, which is located away from the campus proper, is planned to be linked to the rest of the campus through a main
pedestrian pathway, a plan that has recently run into trouble [1].
Andrews Wellness and Recreation Center
Kilcawley Center is primarily a resource and community center on campus. It features reading and study rooms, computer labs, a
copying center, YSU's bookstore, a variety of restaurants, and many student-affairs offices. There are also many meeting and
seminar rooms, which can be rented out for events by the community.
YSU has six housing facilities. Lyden House, completed in 1990, and the Cafaro House residential honors facility, completed in
1995, can accommodate a combined 574 students. Christman Dining Commons, YSU's main residential dining hall, is located in the
Anne K. Christman Campus Green between these buildings. Kilcawley House is attached to Kilcawley Center in the middle of campus.
Weller House, off of Wick Avenue, also houses a small number of students in an apartment setting. The University Courtyard
Apartments, on the east side of the campus (behind Bliss Hall), were built in 2004. These are commonly known as the Courtyards.
They are actual apartments and are not affiliated with housing services at YSU, instead they are managed by an outside company,
Ambling Leasing. Beuchner Hall is an independently owned and operated women's residence hall located on Bryson Street and
operated by the Beuchner Foundation.
Other buildings on campus include: Meshel Hall (Department of Computer Science and Information Systems), Fedor Hall (housing
the Jambar [school newspaper], the Rich Center for Autism, and the Youngstown Early College), Cushwa Hall (College of Health and
Human Services, Mathematics and Statistics, WYSU-FM), Williamson Hall (Williamson College of Business Administration), Phelps
Building (Geography, Urban and Regional Studies), Maag Library, Tod Hall (YSU administrative offices), DeBartolo Hall (College of
Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, aka CLASS), Sweeney Hall (Undergraduate Admissions), and the E.J. Salata Complex (maintenance
services), Cligan-Wadell Hall (YSU Police Department), Alumni House (The oldest building on campus houses Alumni Relations and
The YSU Foundation).
In the works is a new building for the Williamson College of Business Administration, currently located in Williamson Hall on
Lincoln Ave. It is unknown where the new building will be located.
The Ward-Beecher Planetarium
A recent upgrade for the university came with the renovation of the university's planetarium located in the Astronomy/Physics
department of Ward-Beecher Hall. The planetarium $750,000 upgrade included an all new interior which seats approximately 150, a
SciDome full-dome video projector, as well as a Chronos star projector from Spitz. The star projector, which beautifully
replicates the night sky onto the planetarium's 40-foot diameter dome came with a hefty price tag of $489,000.
The planetarium is also the location of the introductory astronomy courses at YSU, which registers almost 1,000 students every
year. It has housed over 500,000 students, as well as 750,000 visitors as of 2007. Organized shows are available for groups
during the week, and scheduled shows available Friday and Saturday evenings (with a show geared toward a younger crowd Saturday
afternoons). All shows are free of charge.
Academics
The University is comprised of the following colleges as of the Summer 2007 academic
reorganization:
YSU offers a doctorate in educational leadership as well as a doctorate in mathematics in cooperation with Rhodes University. Together with the University of Akron
and Kent State University, YSU sponsors the Northeastern Ohio Universities College Of Medicine (NEOUCOM), a BS-MD
program. YSU engineering students may pursue doctoral studies in cooperation with the
University of Akron and Cleveland State University. In addition, YSU has 34
masters programs and over 100 undergraduate majors.
The Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University was deemed an "All-Steinway" school in 2004, now contending with conservatories of music and schools like
Juilliard, CIM (Cleveland Institute of Music), Oberlin, and Yale. The Dana School
of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious non-conservatory schools of music in the United States. It is housed in Bliss
Hall. Additionally, the Youngstown State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble performed in March 2005 at New York City's
Carnegie Hall. The ensemble's performance was highly praised, and they received a standing
ovation.
Youngstown State University is also home to the Center for Working Class Studies and offers a Regional and American Studies program, which was the first of its kind in the United States. The school recently
assisted the University of Chicago in developing a similar program. The center is
operated by John Russo and Sherry Lee Linkon.
Athletics
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Labor relations
Since 2005, the labor relations between the administration and the campus unions has become
increasingly strained. In August 2005, just before the start of the 2005–06 academic year, two of four campus unions were on
strike. Following the conclusion of the strike, relations have remained strained, with some faculty and staff calling for
resignation of YSU President David Sweet in May 2007.[1]
Famous alumni
- Thomas Bopp, astronomer co-discoverer of
Comet Hale-Bopp
- Mark Dailey, Canadian newscaster for City TV
- Bob Davie, former Notre
Dame football coach, currentESPN commentator
- Dave Dravecky, former MLB All-Star pitcher, career spanned 1982–89
- Brad Hennessey, MLB pitcher, currently with the San Francisco Giants
- Ron Jaworski, former NFL All-Pro and sports commentator, color commentator for Monday Night Football
- Nathaniel R. Jones, federal judge
- Sean Jones, jazz recording artist and lead trumpeter for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
- Nanette Lepore, Fashion designer
- Mark Mangino, college football head coach, currently at the University of Kansas
- David Mauerman, watercolor artist
- Ed O'Neill, actor, most famous as Al Bundy on
Married With Children
- Ron Parise, astronaut
- Carmen Policy, NFL executive and former owner of Cleveland Browns
- Milan Puskar, founder of Fortune 500 company Mylan Laboratories
- Ed Rosenthal, author and noted criminal defendant (did not graduate)
- Jeff Wilkins, record-setting NFL kicker of the St. Louis Rams
- Sonny Vaccaro, founder of ABCD Basketball Camp. Marketing executive for
Nike, Reebok and Adidas
Notes
- ^ Gwin, Harold. "60 YSU workers call for
Pres. Sweet to resign", Youngstown Vindicator, 11 May 2007.
External links
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