Charita Goshay: Youngstown State's new president is a poor choice for a college leader

These days, colleges and universities find themselves caught in a vortex of criticism, more commonly known as Damned if They Do, Damned if They Don't.

From virulent protests over the Israel-Hamas war to gender issues to the angst over affirmative action, every day must feel like being on a runaway roller coaster.

Critics of America's universities argue they've become too accommodating to the squeakiest wheels, so perhaps no one should be overly surprised that a college in a largely conservative state might opt for a native son for president who's impervious to the notion that a campus needs "safe spaces" or that colleges are at fault for all the world's ills.

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We could suppose this may be why the trustees at Youngstown State University just opted to hire U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, a veteran congressman whose 6th District encompasses a large swath of eastern Ohio along the borders of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

It would be perfectly understandable except for the fact that Youngstown State's new president is an election-denier.

There's a huge difference between being a conservative, which Johnson is, and being an election-denier — which Johnson also is.

His hiring last month was met with petitions and vocal opposition from YSU students, faculty, alumni and concerned citizens who are old enough to remember that Johnson was one of five Ohioans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, and one of 106 congressional members who signed onto an amicus brief in a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton to scrap the results in four states; a petition slapped down by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court which includes three Donald Trump-appointed justices.

They remember the Ohio Republicans who accepted the 2020 election results and were chased out of office for it.

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To be an election denier means you have to reject the findings of Trump-appointed federal court judges, several of whom dismissed election lawsuits. You'd have to ignore Christopher Krebs, the Trump administration's director of Homeland Security who termed the election of 2020 as "The most secure in history" and public statements by Trump cabinet members and officials, including Attorney General William Barr and former Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly.

You have to believe that the Republicans such as White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who testified under oath before the Jan. 6 Committee, had some ulterior motive other than the truth, and that all of the above mentioned were somehow in cahoots to overthrow the president who appointed them.

To be an election-denier, you have to ignore the math.

To make matters worse, Johnson, one of three candidates, was appointed by the YSU trustee board during an emergency meeting, giving credence to the criticism that the process lacked transparency.

It's since been learned that several board members contributed to Johnson's election campaigns, which should have resulted in their recusal.

Adding salt to the wound is the fact that Johnson has no experience in education beyond graduate school and probably writing tuition checks for his kids.

It goes without saying that the trustees are cognizant of the connections Johnson has developed as a result of serving 14 years in Congress and during a distinguished military career. It's no secret that public colleges and universities are perpetually desperate for money. As the joke goes, we know Osama bin Laden didn't attend a state school in the U.S. because if he had, an alumni fundraiser would have tracked him down long before the Navy Seals did.

The purpose of higher education is not only to prepare young adults for professions, it's also designed to foster critical thinking and fact-finding while expanding one's world view.

It's about being exposed to different philosophies, beliefs and points of view, including those which may challenge our own.

But there's a difference between disagreement or debate and outright denial.

One can argue that Trump should have been reelected president in 2020, but you can't deny the math, which showed that he lost.

Anything else endangers the republic as we saw for ourselves on Jan. 6, 2021.

Let's be honest, most people can name a school's football coach much easier than its president —unless that president is a rock star like Johnson's predecessor, Jim Tressel, who just happened to be a former football coach.

College coaches also make measurably more money than college presidents, even when a team is mediocre. Many make a lot more than a congressman, too. As Youngstown State University's new president, Johnson's salary jumps from $174,000 to $410,000.

Johnson has said he wrestled with the decision, but apparently, a $236,000 raise is math he can believe in.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Charita Goshay: Youngstown State's Bill Johnson upsetting school base