Blog Extra: Mark Responds to Betram de Souza
This is my Letter to the Editor in response to an editorial appearing in the Youngstown Vindicator in which Betram de Souza, Vindicator columnist, says Youngstown State University should become a satellite school of Ohio State. My apologies for those not from this area.
Dear Editor:
I am absolutely flabbergasted at Mr. de Souza’s editorial relating to Youngstown State University. First of all, this is the second news article I have seen where those attending the OSU/YSU football game were portrayed as a bunch of rubes seeing the big stadium and all the people for the first time. How insulting.
My son is a senior in Youngstown State’s outstanding business school, which we chose over several other so called name schools after side by side comparisons in quality and accreditation. My wife and I are both Ohio State graduates. But I attended YSU for 2 years in addition to numerous hours of post graduate work. My wife got her Masters from YSU. I can tell you that the course work and quality of teaching at YSU out does Ohio State in every way. I never had a 250 student lecture class at YSU taught by a TA (teacher's assistant) for 10 weeks. And those big undergraduate classes at Ohio State resulted in one thing: teaching down to mediocrity. In Ohio State’s undergraduate program, you are a cog in the machine.
As to the need for remedial classes at YSU, that is the fault of the local school systems and not the university. If the local school districts would quit dumbing down secondary education out of political correctness and crazy, whacko liberal teaching ideas, perhaps Johnny would be able to read when he gets to the university level. Johnny doesn’t need a hug. Johnny needs to flunk if he doesn’t do the course work. The taxpayers should not have to pay for remedial education that we already paid for once at the secondary level. The so called standards at OSU are minimal at best. You have to have a C average.
For years I have been complaining about how the State of Ohio has short changed this area, and they are setting us up again to take the last and best item we have here. The per student allotment from Ohio for YSU students is about $3,400.00 per pupil. At Ohio State, it is $7,500.00/pupil. And I don’t want to hear about the graduate/undergraduate dichotomy. Central State gets $10,000.00/pupil. The capital improvement budget at Ohio State is so far beyond what is allotted for here it is beyond comprehension. For example, the budget for the expanded medical facility at Ohio State is $750 million dollars. That is for one facility. Just walk around campus and look. Then state officials come here with a million or two in their pocket for us….we get the chump change. I lay that at the feet of our awe struck state representatives who either don’t care or are sucked into the Columbus culture or don't have the political skill to get what we need here.
Even when our factories were closing down, Ohio took more out of this area than we got back in tax revenue, building roads to nowhere in Columbus. They have raped and pillaged northeast Ohio, and the only part of the state to benefit is Columbus, not even Cleveland or Akron. They are continuing to do so. Just drive east of Columbus to New Albany to see your tax dollars at work, while we continue to struggle here. Has anyone seen the decorative arches over High Street in the Short North area? Has anyone seen the white rail fences east of Columbus that line the freeways? How about the New Albany Arts Center? Who paid of those? If you follow the money, no matter how they try to hide it, you did in one way or another.
Mr. de Souza should be outraged. He should wise up and call for a community wide effort to watchdog Youngstown State along the lines of the committee that was formed to save the air base. We are viewed as being expendable. While those who are running the University are good folks, at the end of the day, they are not from here. If you don’t think that is important, look at what is happening at Forum. It is time we quit crying about it and say enough is enough. Otherwise, let’s just change the name of the State from Ohio to Columbus, because that is all that will be left.
My son is a senior in Youngstown State’s outstanding business school, which we chose over several other so called name schools after side by side comparisons in quality and accreditation. My wife and I are both Ohio State graduates. But I attended YSU for 2 years in addition to numerous hours of post graduate work. My wife got her Masters from YSU. I can tell you that the course work and quality of teaching at YSU out does Ohio State in every way. I never had a 250 student lecture class at YSU taught by a TA (teacher's assistant) for 10 weeks. And those big undergraduate classes at Ohio State resulted in one thing: teaching down to mediocrity. In Ohio State’s undergraduate program, you are a cog in the machine.
As to the need for remedial classes at YSU, that is the fault of the local school systems and not the university. If the local school districts would quit dumbing down secondary education out of political correctness and crazy, whacko liberal teaching ideas, perhaps Johnny would be able to read when he gets to the university level. Johnny doesn’t need a hug. Johnny needs to flunk if he doesn’t do the course work. The taxpayers should not have to pay for remedial education that we already paid for once at the secondary level. The so called standards at OSU are minimal at best. You have to have a C average.
For years I have been complaining about how the State of Ohio has short changed this area, and they are setting us up again to take the last and best item we have here. The per student allotment from Ohio for YSU students is about $3,400.00 per pupil. At Ohio State, it is $7,500.00/pupil. And I don’t want to hear about the graduate/undergraduate dichotomy. Central State gets $10,000.00/pupil. The capital improvement budget at Ohio State is so far beyond what is allotted for here it is beyond comprehension. For example, the budget for the expanded medical facility at Ohio State is $750 million dollars. That is for one facility. Just walk around campus and look. Then state officials come here with a million or two in their pocket for us….we get the chump change. I lay that at the feet of our awe struck state representatives who either don’t care or are sucked into the Columbus culture or don't have the political skill to get what we need here.
Even when our factories were closing down, Ohio took more out of this area than we got back in tax revenue, building roads to nowhere in Columbus. They have raped and pillaged northeast Ohio, and the only part of the state to benefit is Columbus, not even Cleveland or Akron. They are continuing to do so. Just drive east of Columbus to New Albany to see your tax dollars at work, while we continue to struggle here. Has anyone seen the decorative arches over High Street in the Short North area? Has anyone seen the white rail fences east of Columbus that line the freeways? How about the New Albany Arts Center? Who paid of those? If you follow the money, no matter how they try to hide it, you did in one way or another.
Mr. de Souza should be outraged. He should wise up and call for a community wide effort to watchdog Youngstown State along the lines of the committee that was formed to save the air base. We are viewed as being expendable. While those who are running the University are good folks, at the end of the day, they are not from here. If you don’t think that is important, look at what is happening at Forum. It is time we quit crying about it and say enough is enough. Otherwise, let’s just change the name of the State from Ohio to Columbus, because that is all that will be left.
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