Why Not Numero UNO in our Metroplex?

  Given the positive changes in the higher education establishment Columbus these days, and the newly emerged focus on regional development, the time may be right to consider the creation of a truly great regional state university in our part of Ohio: our Northeast Ohio “Metroplex”. 

  We could call it the University of Northeastern Ohio -UNO. Potentially a first rate public university on a par with the best in undergraduate, graduate and research-related education.

And although UNO would not single handedly solve all our Metro area’s problems, it could be another piece in the complex struggle to create, or perhaps recreate, our region (the Cleveland, Akron-Canton, Youngstown triangle) into something with a heart and a soul.

(The regional Metroplex theme is based on the Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas area, where scores of towns like Grapevine, Plano, Arlington have sprung out of the enormous growth surrounding the two core cities. Texas folks readily identify with the Metroplex idea and take pride in it.  If you live in Grapevine, for example, you tell folks you live “in the Metroplex near DFW”, their huge regional airport, and you say it with considerable pride  The focus there is on regionalism, which purely a state of mind that opens the doors to area-wide thinking.)

  The elements for a regional university in Northeastern Ohio are already in place.  That could be a beginning.

  It was Jim Rhodes, our governor in the 1960’s and early 70s, who perhaps unwittingly made this fantasy possible. One night during his reign he walked into a Fenn College board of trustees meeting at the Union Club and declared private engineering school at  E. 22^nd and Euclid to be “Cleveland State University”.

  Later, the floundering municipal colleges in Akron and Youngstown became “state universities”. A new state medical college, (turned down by the Cleveland power structure) ended up near Ravenna.  Jim Rhodes even had a hand in making Kent State, a nationally known center of higher learning, by calling out the National Guard in June 1970.

  Blend these five institutions Kent, Cleveland. Akron, Youngstown state universities with the Medical College and there is the potential for one great national university in Northern Ohio. Given the realities of academic turf issues It won’t be easy, but it might make sense.

  Is it possible to have too much overlapping, competing university education crammed into one section of the state?  The answer is maybe.  Is it possible to spread money too thin on four separate universities and a medical college, each endowed with its own board, its own administration, each vying for dollars in esoteric advanced areas of study; in many cases competing for research grants, competing for great faculty in advanced studies and research?  Perhaps.

  If we did it right we might become a “Numero UNO” in the higher education world.

  It would be wise to retain the identity of the five major institutions within the university. Put the top administration for UNO in downtown Cleveland, but not on the CSU campus.  Limit freshmen admission to the very best high school graduates, and declare our first rate community colleges as the primary educator of Freshman and Sophomores, drawing on the patterns in California, Florida and Arizona and Texas.

  Go for the very best at the graduate level, blending the quality that each of the four campuses have to offer.  Eliminate overlap and go for greatness. Wouldn’t that be refreshing for our area?

  Why not a Numero Uno in Northeastern Ohio? Why not a winner. Why not now?