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I, like many Jefferson County residents, am appalled with the developments at Eastern Gateway Community College. You may ask yourself how did the college get into this predicament?
And, the answer is greed, pure and simple greed.
Our little community college which has sat proudly on Sunset Boulevard since 1966 and has educated so many, is crumbling before our eyes -- all because some "carpetbaggers" came in, cooked up a scheme to use federal financial aid dollars and let greed consume them and destroy our "Jeff Tech."
The college quadrupled its enrollment during a three-year period, and this was driven by online free college. Students from all over the country could take online courses without ever stepping a foot in Ohio, and Ohio taxpayers would be on the hook to subsidize their education. If you question this observation, contact the administration at other Ohio two-year colleges who watched their subsidy dollars being reduced while Eastern Gateway's enrollment subsidy increased. In fact, at one time there were 774 students from California and 1,043 students from New York enrolled at EGCC.
Did the administration not think this would raise a red flag and eventually catch up with them?
It's obvious they were blinded by money and believed their little scheme would continue to work.
Three presidents prior to Jimmie Bruce ran the college successfully and made us proud to call Jeff Tech ours. The county community supported the institution by passing the levy six times because they believed in Jeff Tech and thought it would always be there to serve our community. Now, the college will no longer be as we have known it. The Gator has become a Penguin.
Longtime employees who worked under Presidents Edward Florak and Laura Meeks who saw things they knew were wrong and questioned what was happening, were either moved to another position or terminated. Eighty employees have been terminated or resigned since 2015 when the Bruce administration began, and now the Ohio auditor is requesting those human resource records. This stinks of wrongdoing -- I believe the term is wrongful termination.
The residents of the community await the findings of the state auditor's Jan. 4 raid, but obviously the findings will come too late to save our little college. The board of trustees paused enrollment for the summer and fall terms and the administration has laid off 40 employees with more layoffs to come. Someone, or perhaps many, must be held accountable for this mess and punished to the fullest extent of the law. I hope and pray the truth will come out.
There is no time left for local officials and residents to rally and develop a plan of action to save our beloved Jeff Tech, as planning has been ongoing for months with Youngstown State University to take over, all the while continuing to tell the community, "Things are going to turn around."
Residents, students, faculty and employees were like mushrooms -- kept in the dark and fed manure. Now, we wait and see what happens with YSU.
This entire situation sickens me and when I think it cannot get any worse, new information comes to light making it worse. I beg state Auditor Keith Faber to expedite this investigation, give us some answers and punish those involved.
(Tedreau is a resident of Steubenville)