Bryce Miner, Youngstown State University’s newest student trustee, is working to get students to want to choose YSU as their first choice school and to get full-time trustees more involved with the students.
“I want students to choose YSU first instead of going to say Akron or Kent and then coming home and going to our university. I want it to be their first pick out of all the universities. I would like to see the progress made. I want a connection between the students and the Board of Trustees. I’m going to work tirelessly to connect us and get us as one unit,” he said. “That’s what we are; we are all YSU penguins.”
Miner graduated from Columbiana High School in 2011, and is now a senior at YSU, majoring in public management and planning to specialize in logistic studies. His term as a student trustee began on July 15 and will end April 30, 2016.
“As a student trustee, your job is to carry out the functions of the university, and we can take student input from that. It’s all about student input. … I had a class last semester and there was a lot of debate about the presidency, and I heard some things to think about and use in a trustee setting,” he said. “When you’re able to take student input from the entire university, you will well round the system and it can all come in and be a good program.”
Miner also works as an intern in the Salem district office of Congressman Bill Johnson. He said he wanted to become a trustee to have more of a connection with the university.
“I really wanted to get involved with the university. It’s an exciting time up here with President Tressel, and I’m just really looking forward to representing the students on the Board of Trustees. I think the university is kind of getting revived a little bit. YSU has had this tradition for over 100 years now, and it’s a major part of the community. Everybody is invested in it, and I think we can capitalize on that,” he said.
One of Miner’s ideas is to create a program that allows direct communication between university recruiters and high school students.
“When I was at Columbiana, we never had a YSU recruiter come in and talk to students. I would like to see some sort of program where we reach out to our local area high schools and try and keep people local. We create some sort of program where we can go into schools and really highlight what our university is about, and then broadcast them locally with the help of President Tressel. I think we’ll be really successful with that,” Miner said.
He also plans to talk to students and faculty members directly on campus this year, and bring their ideas to the Board of Trustees.
“I’m available anytime. Like my counterpart Eric, I want to take an approach where I go out and talk to students. I want to be out there with Eric talking to students myself instead of having them ‘hey come to me if you need anything.’ I want to be out there, boots on the ground, talking to different groups, deans from the different colleges, and really try to get one cohesive unit. That way, we can bring all of it to the board,” Miner said.
Student Trustee Eric Shehadi will be working alongside Miner and President Jim Tressel to help set the direction for the future of the university.
“I’m more excited than I have ever been for the upcoming school year. I’m excited to have President Tressel back at YSU, and I really think he is going to demonstrate strong leadership as we move forward. We are working with the president and the board to shape the future, where we would like to be in five or ten years, and always making sure that it is a place that will be better for the students,” Shehadi said.
Jack Fahey, vice president of student affairs, said that he wants to see Miner follow in the tradition of student trustees being able to connect with students.
“In past years, the student trustees have done an incredible job of helping the regular trustees to keep students at the forefront, to be informed about what is important to students — what their priorities and feelings are, and I’m sure Bryce is going to follow in that great tradition,” Fahey said.
