There is an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett is caught on mic calling his opponent in the presidential race stupid, though not in so many words: “I think we might be talking about a .22 caliber mind in a .357 magnum world”. Naturally, this “hot mic” faux pas causes the press secretary C. J. Cregg to have to field clarification questions about what the president implied by the statement:

ARTHUR (VO): C.J., can you give it to us unvarnished? Was the President calling Governor Ritchie stupid?

C.J.: Oh, my God, day three!

ARTHUR: Was he?

C.J.: Well, I think this one may be unspinnable. That's certainly saying something coming from my office. Yeah, he was calling him stupid.

Like the fictional characters in the West Wing, unfortunately there is no good way to spin what I have to say: YSU's Administration lied. It wasn't deceptive; they didn't equivocate; they lied. In late June, the powers that be decided that the best approach the pandemic would be to upgrade the filtration system at the University. Aside from this, all other safety precautions were voluntary. There would be no mask mandate, testing, social distancing or vaccine mandate. All of this was prefaced on the tens of thousands of dollars spent on the purchase of Merv 14A/15 filters. Unfortunately, at the time of the eventual processing of the purchase order for these upgrades, the university was informed that the filter would not arrive until a month after the start of the fall term. This information was available to the administration and yet its representatives made public statements stating that the the air handling systems HAD been SUBSTANTIALLY UPGRADED. In fact, the only filters that had been upgraded were those of the loges and the Stadium Club at Stambaugh Stadium.

These lies, along with several other troubling actions are what prompted me to introduce a vote of no confidence in YSU's administration. The full argument for this action can be found here: