Macte Virtute
YSU – Defined by Our Success
By now, most of you have probably heard that I will be stepping aside as president of YSU starting Feb. 1, 2023. In my announcement to campus and the news media, I thanked our students, faculty, staff, Board of Trustees, the YSU Foundation and, of course, alumni for their kindness and support during my more than 25 years on the YSU campus.
One of the items we also emphasized in the announcement was that there’s still much important work to be done, and that we will continue to work as hard as ever, seven days a week, to ensure the ongoing success of this institution that Ellen and I hold so dear. So, the farewells will have to wait. There will be plenty of time for handshakes, hugs and memories. For now, as I told reporters after my announcement – work awaits.
It's from work, on many levels across all of the campus, that comes our greatest successes. This online Summer-Fall 2022 edition of YSU Magazine celebrates many of those successes. We invite you to take the time to click through, catch up and learn about the great people and the great things happening here at your alma mater.
In our “Class Notes” and "Class Notes Extras" sections, for instance, read about alums excelling in their chosen careers, like Joel Ristvey, a Criminal Justice graduate now an officer with the Hermitage, Pa., Police Department who recently graduated from the FBI National Academy in Virginia. Or Dr. Christopher J. Dussel, who holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from YSU and was recently named chief medical officer at University Hospitals Parma Medical Center. And Michelle L. Patrick, also a double-degree recipient, who recently was named president of Robert Morris University outside Pittsburgh. Good luck to all.
Also in this edition, we celebrate “Our Students,” like Mechanical Engineering major Tumi Adeeko, named 2022 National Intern of the Year by the Cooperative Education and Internship Association, and junior Julie Centofanti, among only two students across Ohio to receive the 2022 Student Service Legacy Award for outstanding leadership and contributions to community service. In the “Our Donors” section, we recognize the unceasing generosity of thousands of benefactors who gave $24.1 million to YSU in the 2021-22 fiscal year alone. It’s the largest one-year total in the YSU’s 114-year history. And the “Our Campus” section provides a good overview of accomplishments and initiatives over the past several months, including new academic programs in Nursing and Education, three new members of the YSU Board of Trustees and YSU’s tops-in-the-state ranking for recycling.
It is the responsibility of everyone here on campus to ensure that these lists of achievements continue, year in and year out. The successes define us, and always will. It’s been a privilege to be a small part of that over the past many decades.
Go Penguins,
James P. Tressel, President