On the final day of spring semester, the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees announced that Randy Dunn would become the eighth president of YSU after Cynthia Anderson’s departure.
Dunn had a fairly impressive track record at Murray State University, where he had been president since December 2006, including an all-time high in enrollment for the 2012-2013 academic year, the establishment of Murray State’s first doctoral program and the construction of six new buildings on campus.
These accomplishments have many people expecting big things from Dunn like increasing enrollment, increasing university revenue, and better communication between himself and the faculty.
Here at The Jambar, though, we’re concerned with what Dunn can do for students. During his Q&A session with students after being named a finalist for the position, Dunn said that he and his wife were regulars in the community, attending over 100 events per year. We expect the Dunn’s to continue this at YSU. The identity of the university is so heavily engrained in the city itself, that anything less than a complete love of the city and its people will not be acceptable.
We also expect a certain level of transparency from our eighth president. There have been rumblings among faculty that there is mistrust between them and the president’s cabinet. If Dunn wants to succeed, he’ll need to eliminate that mistrust and get the faculty on the same level, all in order to ensure the success of the university and its students.
Finally, we expect Dunn to be accessible to students. In 2012, a Jambar reporter tried setting up an interview with Cynthia Anderson. He was unsuccessful because instead of serving his office hours, he fell asleep in the library. Anderson walked to the Jambar office and didn’t find him, so she walked around campus hoping to find him. That’s the commitment that the students of YSU are looking for: Someone who’s willing to not only talk to students, but go out and find students that want to talk to him.
