YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Wednesday is the first official day on the job for Youngstown State University’s new interim president.

Helen Lafferty met with the Academic Senate and sat down with the university cabinet.

Lafferty is an Ursuline High School and YSU graduate. She says she’s not here just to keep the lights on, and she wants the university seal, which says Animus Liberatus (loosely translated means minds are freed) to be a model for all.

“What we are doing and what I believe every university should be doing is freeing our minds to think new thoughts, to think in new ways, to think how our world is changed and how we fit into it now. That’s what our students will help us do,” Lafferty said.

Lafferty is an interim president until a permanent selection is made.