| Dr. Leslie H. Cochran became President of Youngstown State University
in the fall of 1992 and retired in 2000. Because of his previous administrative
experience and background as an Industrial Arts teacher, he was awarded
tenure and Professor Rank in the Department of Educational Administration.
In his eight years as President, Dr. Cochran's was a tireless
advocate for Youngstown and YSU. His farsighted vision is nowhere
more evident on campus than in the College of Education.
One of his first decisions
as President was to build a new building to house the College of Education. It
was his feeling that the college needed a new state-of-the-art building in
order to demonstrate the cutting-edge role he expected YSU to play in K-12
education throughout the region. With the significant financial support of the
Beeghly family and a reprioritization of state building funds, his personal
commitment was the enabling force behind the creation of the current
Beeghly College of Education building.
A second qualitative improvement originated by Dr. Cochran that was of direct
benefit to the College of Education was the creation of the University Scholars
Program. It was Les's belief that a university ought to offer as many full-ride
academic scholarships as full-ride athletic
scholarships. Funded by the YSU Foundation, the University Scholars Program awards full tuition and
room and board to entering students who are academically gifted. The
scholarship award is renewable for four years for those able to maintain a high
level of excellence. The program awards 40 new scholarships per year so there
are approximately 160 University Scholars enrolled at any one time. A number
of these Scholars plan to be teachers in K-12 area schools. This program is
now called the Leslie H. Cochran University Scholars Program.
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