Submitted photos An architectural rendering shows the exterior of the proposed $40 million Zoldan Family Centeer at Youngstown State University.

YOUNGSTOWN — Prominent businessman Bruce Zoldan, whose family committed $5 million for a new student center at Youngstown State University, said unless the board of trustees rescinds the hiring of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson as president, he will pull his family’s name from the proposed facility.

Zoldan also said Wednesday that his family’s charitable foundation already has delivered about $800,000 of the $5 million to YSU for what is to be called the Zoldan Family Center. If the trustees go through with the Johnson decision, Zoldan said his family plans to donate no more money to the center and instead give the rest of it to the university for student scholarships, if it is legally permitted to do so.

The $5 million commitment matched the largest financial gift ever given to YSU.

“I’m not going to reverse my commitment to the students, but if it stays the way it is and the process moves along, my family feels very strongly we can help students without our name being on a building,” said Zoldan, president and CEO of Phantom Fireworks. “It’s nice to see a Zoldan name on a building, but it’s not a priority.”

The Zoldans gave $1 million in 2020 for student scholarships.

Zoldan said he is “very upset” that the YSU board of trustees voted 8-1 on Nov. 21 to hire Johnson, R-Marietta, without a transparent search.

Zoldan said he supports Johnson as a congressman, but he said he is certainly not the best person to be YSU president. Zoldan gave $2,900 to Johnson’s re-election fund in the 2022 election cycle and gave $5,200 in previous campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Several other past contributors to YSU said they also will not donate money to the school because of the decision to hire Johnson.

Also, the YSU Foundation, an independent organization that supports YSU student scholarships and development, issued an unprecedented statement Tuesday expressing “our concerns regarding recent development surrounding the YSU presidential search,” calling for a “more inclusive process.”

It added that many donors, supporters and alumni, “have reached out to the YSU Foundation trustees to express concerns and their reluctance to provide ongoing support moving forward.”

OTHERS OBJECT

The foundation’s letter wasn’t worded strongly enough for Ed Muransky, its chairman, who resigned wanting it to take a firmer stance, a source close to him said Wednesday.

Muransky, who is chairman of the board and founder of the Muransky Companies, and his wife, Chris, have been major financial supporters of YSU.

Jim Cossler, the former head of the Youngstown Business Incubator, posted on Facebook that he and his wife, who have no children, were going to leave the bulk of their estate to YSU. But that is no longer the case.

“There is a line in the sand you can’t cross with us — and his name is Bill Johnson,” Cossler wrote.

Zoldan said Wednesday of Johnson, he “best serves our Valley where he’s at: in Congress. We don’t need a politician from the far right or the far left as president. We need an educator. Parents might say to their children: ‘You’re not going there because Bill Johnson is the president, and he put out propaganda about'” Donald Trump not losing the 2020 election that’s false.

Zoldan also said the YSU trustees, all appointed by Republican governors and three of them being among Johnson’s largest contributors, would be “angry” if Democrats tried to pull the same thing and named Tim Ryan, the former longtime Valley congressman and a Democrat, as president — and Zoldan said he wouldn’t blame them.

“I want to do what’s best for the Mahoning Valley,” Zoldan said. “Right now, as far as keeping my name on the student center or not, I’ll see how this plays out. If the contract isn’t rescinded, the university has a lot of challenges ahead, which it doesn’t need. (Former President) Jim Tressel spent years rolling the boulder uphill for YSU. In one short period of time, the trustees rolled the boulder back down the hill.”

JOHNSON UNAVAILABLE

A YSU spokeswoman said Johnson would not be available until the beginning of next year to comment.

After his Nov. 21 hiring, Johnson said he was “committed to an inclusive and respectful environment at the university regardless of politics, religion or personal affiliations.”

Johnson, a seven-term congressman, is to start at YSU on March 15, 2024.

Several people at the trustees meeting booed the decision and criticized the process and the selection of Johnson, who has no experience working in education. Johnson opposes gay marriage, is anti-choice, supports immigration restrictions and challenged the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

Zoldan said the lack of an open, transparent selection process “is a crime,” and the trustees have “broken relationships with people who think this is wrong.”

The YSU board of trustees has faced backlash since quickly calling a Nov. 16 emergency meeting to vote to offer Johnson a contract to succeed Tressel, who retired Feb. 1.

In an open letter Tuesday, Michael Peterson, YSU trustee chairman, again discussed the process and said it “was a confidential search, not a closed or secret search as more than 20 campus constituents were included in the process.”

The university hasn’t disclosed the names of any of the other candidates or finalists who applied for the president’s job.

Johnson said he didn’t seek the job. YSU trustees have declined to say how Johnson was among the finalists recommended by WittKeifer, the firm that conducted the president’s search, for the job.

Zoldan said he wants to know which trustee or trustees recommended Johnson to WittKeifer for the position.

The trustees didn’t permit public comments at the Nov. 21 meeting. The body is scheduled to meet Dec. 7 and will permit public comments then.

STUDENT CENTER

Zoldan said he committed the $5 million to the student center at the request of Tressel, when he was president, because the two are friends.

“That’s why I gave the $5 million,” Zoldan said. “If they want to put Tommy Tuberville’s name on the building, that’s fine.”

Tuberville is a Republican senator from Alabama who has drawn the ire of both Democrats and Republicans for holding up all military promotions requiring Senate approval since February in protest of the U.S. Department of Defense’s policy on abortion. Tuberville has indicated he may drop some military holds in face of growing pressure.

The replacement of Kilcawley Center, YSU’s current student center, will cost about $45 million with about $20 million to be collected through fundraisers and donors and the rest either borrowed or bonded.

Almost $8 million has been raised with the Zoldan family’s $5 million commitment being a majority of it.

The new facility is to be built at the site of Kilcawley Center.