Ohio congressman pushes for Jim Tressel to be the new president of Youngstown State
If an Ohio congressman has his way, Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel will be in charge of Youngstown State before the end of the school year.
Representative Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, is leading the charge with about 30 other community members to convince Youngstown's Board of Trustees to hire Tressel to replace Randy Dunn, who announced last week that he was leaving the university to become the head of the Southern Illinois University system.
“As long time supporters of Youngstown State University, we are writing to offer our full and unequivocal support behind Jim Tressel to be the next president of Youngstown State University,” Ryan and others said in the letter to the university’s board of trustees. “We hope that the Board considers moving expeditiously to make this happen.”
Tressel, who is currently the vice president at the University of Akron, unceremoniously resigned from Ohio State in 2011 following scandal where players were trading autographs and memorabilia for tattoos and cash. Meanwhile, Ohio State had to deal with the NCAA fallout, which included missing a bowl game that could have been the BCS National Championship game.
Tressel coached at Youngstown from 1986 to 2000, won four I-AA national championships and has been a big donor for the program. However, a spokesman for Ryan told insidehighered.com that he didn’t know whether the former coach would be interested.
Moreover, some weren’t thrilled with hiring a new president simply based on the endorsement of a handful of community members.
“Anybody that is going to be considered for the presidency of YSU -- the faculty will not accept anybody who is anointed,” Chet Cooper, chairman of the Youngstown State Academic Senate, told insidehighered.com. “It is going to have be somebody who goes through a national search – be that anybody.”
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