Question #3

Question #3 - Dr. Cowen said that as YSU plans for its future, we can most effectively map our course by asking one simple question: "Why should I attend or work at YSU?" How would you answer Cowen's question?

 

• I used to believe that YSU was a place for first-generation students to have the opportunity for higher education as I was.  I was able to graduate from YSU as a person of color, first-generation, immigrant who then had the opportunity to attend an ivy league graduate school.  I was lucky because I managed to take control of my education as an undergraduate and I was pretty well academically prepared from high school.  But this is not true for today's students of color especially low-income.  They are accepted with academic deficiencies and no understanding of the culture or rules of higher learning.  Now, YSU doesn't to target this students that THEY accept with special services.  If YSU doesn't want to help them, don't accept them. YSU is lying to itself and to students.
• I would like to answer this as if marketing to a potential student:  "Because we can offer you the best value in the State of Ohio - and one of the best values nationally.  Low cost, great programs and great career opportunities."  I also like the idea of saying that EVERY student will have a paid internship during their tenure.  I'm not sure that we can make that promise today.  But accomplishing that goal should be an integral part of our strategic planning process.
• YSU has given me and continues to give me opportunities to influence and challenge students to be the best professional they can be. We find ways to make things happen.
• When we are considering hiring new tenure track faculty, I am always conflicted. While I want good new faculty members to come here, I feel dishonest about encouraging them to take a job at YSU, because I know they will be very overworked and held to impossible standards. When it comes to scholarship, we pretend we're a research institution, and demand that level of scholarship, and yet we also require a 4/4 teaching load and a heavy service load. The only thing honest thing I can tell potential faculty is that working with YSU students, while often very frustrating, can also be rewarding.
• Students should attend YSU because we provide a high quality education and a competitive price.   I enjoy working at YSU because of the wonderful faculty colleagues in my Department.  They encourage program wide excellence, support collaborative achievement and they are fun to work with!
• Amazing students, incredible staff/faculty and inspiring leadership and administration.
• Because it’s an excellent return on investment: the smart choice.
• Because YSU offers a high quality, high-value undergraduate education for students. YSU should focus on undergraduate instruction, and work to become a destination for undergraduate education. While other universities continue to slip toward research, graduate education and online programming, YSU has an opportunity to distinguish itself by re-focusing our attention to undergraduate education--in the classroom. YSU should avoid mission-creep and stick to its roots of undergraduate instruction to students. This would ensure YSU's long-term position in the region. And by shedding the burdens of research and graduate education, YSU could achieve excellence by re-establishing undergrad education the main theme of its mission. As Dr. Cowen noted, it's better to be excellent at a few things than "pretty good" at many things.
• Why should I (did I) attend YSU?
  When my father lost his career when the local steel mills closed, there was no money saved for my education as everything my parents had saved was used to pay the mortgage, utilities and for food.  Besides the fact that I would have to pay my own way through college if I was to pursue an education, I didn’t know how to develop my own support structure or how to quickly acclimate to a new city, environment, etc., and was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of living away from my family.  So I decided not to go away to college or to attend college locally, directly after high school graduation.  Instead I got married and started a family.
  After two children and seven years working office jobs, I came to the realization that a majority of the jobs available to me in this area pay their non-degreed employees only barely above the national minimum wage.  And that if I wanted a better life for my family and me, because I am a woman, I needed to obtain a college degree and graduate with the highest grade point average I could earn.  This was absolutely necessary in order to be competitive for the few adequately paying jobs in the local job market.
  YSU afforded me the opportunity to earn an outstanding college education locally while continuing to work 36 hours per week to support my young family.  In addition to providing access to excellent faculty and a challenging academic curriculum, I was awarded academic scholarships and YSU Foundation funding which ensured that after college graduation I had only a minimum amount of debt to pay back for college loans.
  Why should I (do I) work at YSU?
  I was raised to have a strong work ethic, to strive to be a productive member of society, and to use my knowledge, talents and time to make the strongest, most positive impact that I can.  YSU was/is the only employer in the area where I could both fulfill the expectations instilled through my upbringing and be appreciated and compensated for my contribution.  Additionally, after earning my baccalaureate degree I had an intensely strong desire to support the university that had transformed my life and to do everything in my power to guarantee that the opportunity provided to me would be available to those who came after me also seeking a better life.
  I see YSU as providing every student and employee a step up to a better life. 
  YSU – Your Step Up!
• I don't this question can be answered well until we answer the "Who are we" question.  We need to define who we are before we can tell students why they should attend YSU or why excellent faculty should join our team.
• Expand on historical YSU  motto  "Animus Liberatus" adding regional manufacturing discussed during questions:
• " Animus Liberatus - INSCRIBITUR "- loosely translated: 
• YSU is a place "Where minds are freed and bridges to success are forged"…
• When posed with this question, I can think of three primary reasons as to why I chose the attend Youngstown State University coming out of high school. The three reasons were price, notoriety, and experiences. Firstly, YSU not only had a significantly lower tuition cost in comparison to other schools, but they also offered a lot of renewable scholarship money simply for test scores and grades; this meant that the main cost of college (which all students are thinking about) was much less than anywhere else. Secondly, as a STEM major, YSU has been noted for having an excellent program in this area, so I knew that I would receive an excellent education here. Finally, through various open houses and tours at the university prior to attending, I was told by faculty about the experiences I would have as an undergraduate student, specifically with high tech equipment. This equipment is usually reserved for upper-level and graduate students at other universities, so the prospect of getting to have experience with it before that was exciting to me. I feel these reasons to attend YSU should be maintained in the future as best as possible, as they really are the driving force as to why I chose to be a student here than any other university.
• The reason why I decided to attend YSU was because my answer to this question was opportunity. I had the opportunity to enroll in a great program, with the opportunity to learn from great professors, the opportunity to work on research as an undergrad, and the opportunity to do all this with acquiring no debt. The value of the opportunity YSU gives was worth coming to learn.
• The reason why you should attend YSU is because the staff does a great job at trying to help you find co-op and internship experiences. This is part of why they are so good at finding most students jobs that they can have as soon as they leave the university. Also, there are many ways that you can be involved on campus. Lastly, the professors do a good job of explaining and teaching all of the information that they are required to.
• For me, when choosing where to study after high school, the decision was not difficult. For many degrees, the university at which you obtain that degree is not necessarily important, therefore as a business student, I wasn't really concerned with the credentials of the business school at a university, but rather the idealness of the qualities the university had. YSU is a very affordable university and also very close to home. For me, it was ideal to commute to YSU and worry less about my cost of education.
• I decided to attend YSU primarily because of the price. It offered the lowest overall tuition compared to the other schools I looked at. Some of the other factors that I accounted for was the close proximity to my home (boardman), which also meant a lot of people from my school (Canfield High School) were going to come here. I also liked the size of the campus, being small enough to walk everywhere, with classes having being a size similar to that of what I was used to. Those are the reasons I came to YSU.
• I would answer Dr. Cowen's question by saying that I should attend YSU, if the benefits I receive from attending this university outweigh the costs. I believe that YSU has done a good job of making sure that is true, by keeping tuition relatively low, yet still offering a great education, they should look to continue this for the future.
• I should attend YSU in order to complete my next level of education while creating connections with others and having fun in the process.
• I should attend YSU because YSU is one of the most affordable colleges in the country. YSU also offers a wide range of majors and minors and lots of student organizations and events to get involved in. On the other hand, the school has generous scholarship policies that students can apply for either during or after they apply for YSU.
• There are many reasons to go to school at YSU. On reason is the way the school keeps on top of your grades and notifies you if your struggling in a class. There are also many places to get help for your classes such as the math assistance center, the writing center, and the center for student progress. There are also many traditions on campus that you can bad a party of.
• You should attend YSU because you can receive a good education for less than what other schools are charging. YSU is affordable and they want to help you out with providing scholarships. There is no reason to go far away in order to get the same education and pay 3x the amount. If you are not from around YSU and want to come to it anyways, that is still a good idea. You can receive a good education, comparable to any school, and do it for less money. I understand that people are looking for a college experience, and you can get that at YSU. There are campus events that you can attend in order to have a good time. The goal of college should be to come, learn, and leave with your degree. While you are here you should have a good time, but do not lose focus on the fact that you are attending college to attain a degree, and YSU does that well.
• YSU is an accredited state university, which means that regardless of one's future plans, a degree earned at YSU is valid for any occupation that requires it, or for further studies at any other institution of higher education. Combined with the fact that it is relatively affordable, and is local to a few larger cities in NE Ohio/NW Pennsylvania (a heart of manufacturing), there are honestly few reasons not to at least consider attending YSU.
• Normally, affordability of a college mars its prestige and effectiveness. YSU seems to diverge from that idea. Even though it is highly affordable, our involvement in STEM research, along with most other areas, seems to have a marginal impact. One need only look to the fact that YSU's additive manufacturing center is always on the bleeding edge of technology YSU offers a mix of opportunity and affordability that one should be hard pressed to pass up.
• its fun and a great experience
• YSU is located in a small community where there are many things to do both on and off campus. The professors here want to help in whatever way they can so that all of their students are not only successful in the classroom but in their profession as well. YSU is a home away from home for anyone that attends.
• To answer the original question of "Given the evolving nature of higher education, how must Youngstown State University respond to assure its relevance and vitality in the future?" I would say the university needs to (1) invest in virtual/ augmented reality (I see VR and AR as the future of education, these tools will help make the material tangible and much more easily understood), (2) promote emotional intelligence and resonant leadership to students by training and MEASURING professors on their EI and leadership (as a YSU alumni who then went to a private school for my master's, this was the biggest difference in the two schools. The learning environment at the latter was much more effective, conducive to collaboration, and overall a much richer experience), (3) foster a global, inclusive mindset (something else I didn't realize until after I started my master's. Teach kids to dream BIG and expose them to other cultures, languages, ways of understanding the world so they can better interact in today's diverse workplace).