The process to obtain the next president of YSU has been met with some backlash from alumni and faculty for a lack of public transparency. 

However, Dr. Chet Cooper, Youngstown State University Professor of Chemical & Biological Sciences, tells 21 News that he, along with nine other university members, sat in on the interviews of three candidates in the search for the 10th president of the University. However, Cooper declined to identify who else was interviewed or who else was a member of the committee.

Cooper said the ten university employees were part of a community committee consisting of all university employees and the Board of Trustees - Dr. Sergul A. Erzurum, Charles T. George, Anita A. Hackstedde, Richard C. Fryda, Joseph J. Kerola, Laura Lyden, Michael Peterson, Atty. Allen L. Ryan and Molly S. Seals - interviewed Valley congressman Bill Johnson and two other candidates for the university leader role before the offer to Johnson last Thursday.

Trustees will conduct a special meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Board Meeting Room to consider and possibly act on the presidential search. The meeting will be followed by a news conference in the University Relations Conference room, on the first floor of Tod Hall.

The University Board of Trustees announced last week that members voted to offer the job to Johnson, a Republican who has represented Ohio’s Sixth District since 2011 and was re-elected earlier this month.

Former YSU president Jim Tressel retired in February.