DEAR EDITOR:

Recently, the board of trustees for Youngstown State University, my alma mater, hired current U.S. Congressman and extreme MAGA Republican Bill Johnson as its president. This decision comes as a surprise considering how divisive Johnson is as a politician. Don’t take my word for it. Just look at his rhetoric and actions.

In a recent op-ed titled “Student debt plan is unfair, irresponsible,” Johnson made the unusual argument that student loan forgiveness might encourage people to go to a traditional four-year college instead of trade schools.

How can the university hire someone who promotes a platform that dismisses the needs of college students and graduates who are victims of a predatory loan system established by politicians like him? Or, more importantly, how can they hire someone who advocates against going to a traditional four-year college? How can students who decide to attend YSU feel confident their president has their best interests at heart?

It’s quite interesting that a politician who is so critical of the cost of college and how it affects the taxpayers is now more than willing to resign from Congress to take a six-figure paycheck from a public university.

Johnson has written articles criticizing the removal of statues with problematic histories. He supported the racist and xenophobic Muslim ban promoted by former president Trump in 2017.

He denies the presidential election results of 2020 and continues to support the disgraced ex-president’s attempts to subvert democracy. He is also adamantly against the legalization of same-sex marriage. So, how can non-Christian students or LGBTQ students feel confident their president has their best interests at heart?

Considering the current movement by his party to combat what they perceive as the liberal domination of academia (i.e the GOP’s recent attempts to oust university presidents across the country), all these issues have a major impact on Johnson’s ability to be a fair, effective and inclusive university president.

I am not the only person who feels this way. I have heard from countless YSU alumni and former professors outraged by the hire.

Their frustration was elevated when it was clear the university would not be transparent during the hiring process, essentially confirming it is a “political hire.” Even former YSU president David Sweet has encouraged Johnson to decline the position.

The university is sending a clear message. It is no longer concerned with its primary goal of being a “student-centered university.” With this hire, Youngstown State University has become an arm of the radical MAGA Republicans in Ohio, and they will use that power to enforce their intolerant ideology.

JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS

Starkville, Mississipp