STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Attorneys representing Eastern Gateway Community College are asking a federal judge to grant partial relief from an order preventing the college from selling or transferring its Steubenville campus properties.
In a motion filed Oct. 8 before Judge Algenon L. Marbley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the attorneys argue that the judge made a mistake.
An Aug. 20 order by Marbley said the college, which is in the process of dissolving, may not sell, transfer, move or encumber its Steubenville property until further court order.
But the attorneys representing Eastern Gateway wrote in the motion that no evidence or argument was presented “regarding an intent to sell or otherwise dispose of the Steubenville campus.”
The only evidence presented of an intent to sell or dispose of property by the college was of its Pugliese Center, the attorneys wrote.
“As such, the court made a substantive mistake of fact in finding that Student Resource Center ‘has plainly proven EGCC’s intent to dispose of the Steubenville campus property’ and holding that there are statutory grounds for attachment over the Steubenville campus …,” the motion says.
SRC, the company with which Eastern Gateway contracted for its free college program, sued the college in 2022 after the latter ended the agreement. The program enabled union members from across the country to attend classes and earn degrees at no cost to them.
SRC contends it has suffered more than $50 million in damages in unreimbursed operating expenses, withheld profits and other costs.
The college stopped enrollment after the spring 2024 semester. A governing authority board is overseeing the dissolution. The college had announced last May its plan to sell its Pugliese Center to Steubenville City Schools.
The other building on campus was deeded to the college in the 1960s by Jefferson County commissioners with a clause that it would revert to the county if the building ceased use for educational purposes.
In June, SRC filed a motion for prejudgment attachment in its case against Eastern Gateway to prevent the college from liquidating or dissipating its assets.
The judge’s Aug. 20 ruling said Eastern Gateway “shall not transfer, move, sell or encumber the Pugliese Center, located at 110 John Scott Highway, in Steubenville, Ohio, or the Steubenville campus property, located at 4000 Sunset Blvd., in Steubenville, Ohio, until further order of the court.”
In the motion posted Oct. 8, attorneys for Eastern Gateway wrote that there is no evidence showing the college intends to dispose of the Steubenville campus and that the prejudgment attachment “should not have been granted as to the Steubenville campus.”
It asks the court to vacate the orders regarding prejudgment attachment of that property.
Youngstown State University added about 60 associate, certificate and credential programs beginning this fall to serve former Eastern Gateway students in Youngstown, with some also available online.
YSU plans to open a campus in Steubenville and has pointed to the Eastern Gateway campus as a possible location. The lawsuit and the judge’s Aug. 20 ruling, though, put the timeline in question.