Epic betrayal by Ohio leadership as Youngstown State trustees install MAGA doofus Bill Johnson as next Pres. [View all]

An opinion piece from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

We sane people in the Mahoning Valley are still reeling over this terrible so-called “leadership” choice being foisted upon us. Youngstown State is a big deal here, one of our major employers and one of the best things about our community (or, it USED to be). Johnson has already vowed in interviews to tackle “liberal indoctrination” in public education. Someone who has never been involved in education his entire life….

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By Brent Larkin, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND -- Nowhere in Ohio is the political assault on higher education inflicting more harm than in the Mahoning Valley.

But hurting higher ed seems precisely what’s intended. With the support of Gov. Mike DeWine, the Youngstown State University board of trustees has offered the university’s presidency to U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, who has never spent a day working in education, at any level.

Johnson, a seven-term Republican from Marietta whose district includes much of the Mahoning Valley, has said he plans to resign from Congress and accept the YSU board’s offer to start in March. He would replace Jim Tressel, best known as a football coach but who came to the YSU presidency after spending more than two years as an executive vice president at the University of Akron.

Johnson’s nondescript congressional resume includes one item for which he will be forever remembered -- trafficking in the most destructive falsehood in the history of American politics, the bald-faced lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. More specifically, Johnson voted against certifying the election results in some states, citing “credible allegations of election fraud.”

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Fred Flintstone would have been a more enlightened choice.

If the Ohio State University board had hired someone so woefully unqualified, the board would be drawn and quartered on the Statehouse lawn and Les Wexner would close the school, pending the hiring of someone with real-life experience in higher ed.

But when the Youngstown State board makes the very same colossal blunder, the governor of Ohio says it’s a good hire.

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The eight trustees who voted for him knew Johnson did not possess necessary academic qualifications to lead a four-year public university,” said de Souza. “That’s why they shrouded the selection process in secrecy. Johnson is a right-wing politician with ideas that are a threat to the LGBTQ community, immigrants and academic freedom.”

And the governor of Ohio and eight stooges on the Youngstown State University board of trustees are just fine with that.

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2023/12/epic-betrayal-in-secretive-process-naming-bill-johnson-head-of-youngstown-state-brent-larkin.html