Panel Meets to Begin Process of Eastern Gateway Dissolution
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Eastern Gateway Community College is the first public higher education institution in Ohio to dissolve, and the panel appointed to manage that process met for the first time Wednesday.
Fred Ransier, a retired Columbus attorney, was appointed as the conservator of Eastern Gateway by Gov. Mike DeWine, effective Aug. 1, to manage the start of that process. That appointment lasted 30 days, and then management of the college’s closure and dissolution transferred to the five-member Eastern Gateway Community College Governance Authority, also appointed by DeWine.
The college is based in Steubenville and has a Youngstown campus.
Kimberly Murnieks, director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, is the chairwoman of the governance authority.
“Collectively, our first priority was to make sure students were taken care of, and I appreciate that Eastern Gateway and other institutions have worked to ensure that students could transfer as smoothly as possible,” she said.
Wednesday’s meeting was organizational. Another meeting is set for Sept. 18. The panel appointed Ransier as the executive director of the college to serve throughout the closure and dissolution process. His compensation will be negotiated.
Ransier said he developed his initial report through meetings with EGCC interim President Arthur Daly and others who are still working at the college.
“This is the first conservator report – ever,” Ransier said.
The law allowing the governor to appoint a conservator for a public college or university was enacted in the mid-1990s, but Eastern Gateway is the first institution to see such an appointment.
Eastern Gateway trustees voted earlier this year to formally withdraw the college’s accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission and dissolve.
The staff has been whittled down with no more faculty, Ransier said.
His reports will cover human resources, registrar’s office, technology, office of institutional research and effectiveness, financial aid, bursar’s office, grant closures, revenues and expenditures and evaluation of the college presidents.
Regarding the registrar’s office, Ransier said that as the school grew rapidly, the office wasn’t able to keep up with the ordinary functions of the school.
“There’s work yet to be completed,” he said. “One of the charges I was given as the conservator was to make sure the students were not any further harmed …”
Work is ongoing to secure agreements with other colleges and universities to allow Eastern Gateway students to transfer easily.
Eastern Gateway’s enrollment grew from about 4,000 to about 40,000 through its free college benefit program. That program, offered through a contract with outside provider Student Resource Center, allowed union members from across the country to attend EGCC classes and earn their associate degrees at no cost to them. Most of the students who attended through the free program took classes online.
The U.S. Department of Education ordered an end to the program in 2022, determining that Eastern Gateway was charging Pell Grant recipients more than non-Pell students.
Ransier said the financial aid department is where the college has to work to input records and information.
“Why are we backed up there? It also has to do with the rapid growth of students and the slow growth of staff,” he said.
The last state audit completed for Eastern Gateway was for 2022. Ransier said the auditor’s office is working on the 2023 and 2024 audits.
The other governance authority members are Thomas D’Anniballe of Jefferson County, a CPA and former EGCC trustee; Gregory White of Lake County, a former Lorain County prosecutor, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and former U.S. magistrate judge; Mike Halleck of Columbiana County, a Columbiana County commissioner; and Kimberly Bates-Bozich of Jefferson County, former co-owner of Bozich Food Services and corporate secretary at Bates Amusement Inc.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
