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New President Says YSU Will Stay the Course
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The newest member of the Youngstown Rotary, Randy J. Dunn, offered glimpses of what he will say Monday when, as president of Youngstown State University, he delivers his first state of the university address.
Addressing the Youngstown Rotary Wednesday, Dunn reinforced what he has been telling other audiences on and off campus as he introduces himself as the eighth chief executive of YSU.
The strategic plan the trustees of the university have developed is “strong,” Dunn said, and he will focus on “three strategic directions I see emerging”: enrollment, heightening YSU’s engagement with its constituencies, and better communicating the “success stories” YSU students and faculty have to tell.
In introducing Dunn, the president of Youngstown Rotary, Scott Schulick, announced he had invited Dunn to join the Youngstown club yesterday morning and that he had accepted. Schulick completed his nine-year term as a YSU trustee last month.
In his remarks, Dunn stated, “The cornerstones of our work are not changing.” He might set new deadlines to meet the goals of the strategic plan but foremost are emphases on increasing enrollment, creating more partnerships with constituencies throughout the region while strengthening those YSU has established, and devoting more resources, especially on social media, in marketing the university to prospective students and faculty.
“Students want something they can call up on their smartphones” when they want information, Dunn, said, especially about a college or university, not a big package of information in the mail.
“We must reinvigorate those [marketing] efforts,” Dunn stated. And critics must allow time for those efforts to take effect, “1½ to two years to move the needle,” as he put it.
Youngstown State University has the physical capacity to comfortably handle an enrollment “in the 15,000 range,” Dunn said. Its fall 2010 enrollment was 15,294, its fall 2011 enrollment 14,253 and last fall it was 13,698.
Returning to his theme of a university, especially a public university, being “a steward of place,” Dunn further developed his thoughts on YSU reaching out even further to support arts and cultural organizations, municipalities and other local governments, chambers of commerce, economic-development organizations, public schools, Eastern Gateway Community College and other colleges and universities in the region. “The opportunities exist,” he said, and YSU must do more.
More than a decade ago, Youngstown State launched a marketing campaign that features “success stories,” graduates who have gone on to stand out in various fields from accountants and an astronaut to businessmen and women, engineers, physicians and nurses and teachers.
That approach might be resumed, Dunn hinted. “We have a thousand [success] stories to tell [including] faculty talent,” he said.
Last, he invited suggestions and criticisms of where the university needs to improve or could do a better job. “You are leaders in your fields,” he told the Rotary. “Please don’t hesitate to tell me where we can do better.”
Bill Russell, chairman of the Youngstown Rotary’s Operation Warm committee, reported on the efforts of the club to raise $10,000 by early October to buy 500 coats for the students in grades K-6 at Harding Elementary School. Last year the Rotary bought 467 coats for the students there in grades K-5, co-chairwoman Carol Sherman reported. The club has raised $1,000 toward its goal matched by a gift of $1,000 from the Youngstown Rotary Foundation.
In the 50-50 raffle, attorney James E. “Ted” Roberts, managing partner of Roth Blair Roberts Strasfeld & Lodge PLA, won the $600-plus jackpot, all of which he gave to Operation Warm.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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