Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville sits nestled on a hilltop overlooking the Ohio River Valley. During a July recent visit, the campus sat empty: no students, no faculty, just the sound of a busy road nearby, insects and bird song.
But summer is not the reason the campus is quiet. The school closed last year after serious issues with operations, amid allegations of mismanagement. Most critically, the college's enrollment plunged starting in 2023 after the college's accreditation was paused and it was forced by the U.S. Department of Education to drop a signature program providing free tuition to union members and their families.
Tens of thousands of students attended the college from the time it opened in 1968 until it closed its doors in 2024. It served eastern Ohio area as one of the main community colleges in the region.
While Eastern Gateway's situation was unique, colleges and universities across the country have been closing or facing the threat of closure as birth rates dropped and fewer students see the value of a college education. Eastern Gateway was one of two significant college closures in Ohio in 2024. The other was Notre Dame College in South Euclid.
Jefferson County Commissioner Eric Timmons said Eastern Gateway's closure has hit the area hard, in a recent interview after a county commissioners' meeting. The loss means fewer students, pursuing in-demand careers like nursing and welding, graduating and working locally. It also means fewer customers for local businesses.
"It (local economy) was all about mills, steel for decades, and that went away through the 80s and 90s. We're still trying to recover from that," said Timmons, who took classes at the school previously. "You know, we want to attract jobs, we wanna bring in economic development... So it seems like sometimes every time we take a step forward, we take two steps back."
About 400 employees lost their jobs when Eastern Gateway closed. Jim Corrin, former head of the faculty union, who headed the criminal justice program, says he's found a new job in the field since the college closed. But many faculty have not been so lucky.
"They have attributed their lack of ability to obtain employment because of the fact of the black eye and the black mark that Eastern Gateway has left on their reputation," Corrin said.
A state board formed to wind down operations said in a July statement that it’s sold the college’s buildings in Youngstown to Western Reserve Port Authority, and is in the process of selling one of the Eastern Gateway buildings in Steubenville. But the rest of campus sits empty, more than a year after it closed.
The messy aftermath of a college closing
More than 120 miles northwest of Eastern Gateway, the green, tree-lined campus of Notre Dame College is also very quiet. The college closed in 2024, saying it had too much debt and enrollment had fallen too far.
During a visit in late July to campus with South Euclid Council President Justin Tisdale, the Notre Dame alum pointed out where he once played basketball and dormitories where students once lived. He and two other former college employees are suing the college’s former leaders, alleging they did little to save it and even profited from the closure.
He said it’s been a big loss to the community.
"Even for our sports, I mean, Notre Dame College was the only Division II program in this area," Tisdale said. "And so you had kids that were getting opportunities to play at the collegiate level at Division II and getting scholarships, and they no longer have those opportunities."
The college’s closure is costing South Euclid about $200,000 a year in lost income taxes. Michael Love, South Euclid’s planning and development director, said that’s not the biggest issue, though.
"I think the bigger impact is the fact that we have this 50-acre site not being put to productive use," he said.
Tisdale said the loss of a thousand students and 400-plus staff also means a loss of vibrancy in the community.
"We had trick-or-treating in the dorms, we had our band concerts here, there were plays that were put on in Regina (Hall)," he said. "So a lot of that stuff is gone and we don't have it anymore."
There are multiple lawsuits facing the college's former administrators, board and even a company involved with winding down operations. The first two lawsuits filed by Tisdale and former college employees Len Barker and Peter Corrigan in Cuyahoga and Geauga counties have been dismissed, but they have appealed.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has also sued the college, accusing it of illegally spending money from its endowment fund to try to cover part of its deficit. And the college's creditor, Bank of America, has filed for a receiver to be appointed in order to sell the property. The attorney general has filed a motion opposing that.
All of the litigation has slowed the process of selling the property, Love said. He added the city stands ready to help find a new use for the property.
The college's three remaining board members did not respond to a request for comment sent to their attorney.
Litigation is still ongoing against Eastern Gateway Community College, too, including former businesses that worked with the college alleging they're still owed money. Meanwhile, little has been shared by the state on its findings after the Ohio Auditor of State and other investigators raided the college in January 2024.
Community resiliency, and building what's next
Steubenville High School Principal Aaron Newman grew up in Steubenville, returning to the community recently after living in Cleveland and elsewhere. He said the city losing its community college, where friends and relatives attended school, was a tough pill to swallow.
"I don't wanna paint this as a dying rust belt community, because it is not," Newman said. "This is a resilient community with hardworking, tough people that adjust and adapt to the conditions on the ground, and best believe we're doing that."
He said Steubenville High School is one of the biggest users of the College Credit Plus program in Ohio, with more than 250 students who took college-level classes through Eastern Gateway Community College before it closed. The sudden closure of the school caused panic for school officials, but Belmont Community College, about 40 miles south, stepped in to provide those classes. It was mostly a "seamless" transition but not a one-to-one replacement for Eastern Gateway's exact course offerings, Newman said.
Plus, some students who graduate want to stay close to home when they go to college or don't have a car to drive to Belmont or other area colleges and universities, Newman said.
"Some prospective students, their circumstances are such that they needed to be close to home," he said. "They needed to be (at) a school that's in their community. And that's just, you know, the reality is that's not available right now."
When they announced the schools' closures, administrators at Notre Dame College and Eastern Gateway Community College secured agreements with other institutions to transfer students' credit hours, sending students to colleges in other communities. Youngstown State University saw its first enrollment increase in roughly a decade and a half with the influx of Eastern Gateway students, and Notre Dame's celebrated rugby teams headed to Walsh University.
Meanwhile, new ideas for the dormant campuses are materializing.
A new women’s soccer league group has expressed interest in using Notre Dame College's campus for a training facility for its Cleveland team, Love said.
In Steubenville, tired of waiting for action from the state, the Jefferson County Commissioners in late July announced they would sue to take back control of the Eastern Gateway property. They cited a "reverter" clause in the original deed issued by the county, which states the property would return to the county if it was no longer being used for "educational purposes." The Eastern Gateway Community College Governance Authority, the board appointed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to oversee the college's wind-down, said in a statement that it has been working diligently to find a new use for the property.
"While significant work has been accomplished, some matters remain, including final determinations related to the EGCC main campus in Steubenville," the statement reads. "The campus continues to operate and to address educational matters, including student records. The Governance Authority is actively working with all partners and with the Ohio Department of Higher Education and regional institutions to ensure continuity of educational opportunities in the area. The EGCC main campus is a key hub in the region’s future."
The three Jefferson County Commissioners each said they hope Youngstown State University, or another university, could bring its offerings to the campus, something YSU has expressed interest in doing for more than a year.
"A lot of people were benefiting getting education through that (Eastern Gateway) facility," Commissioner Eric Timmons said. "People are going to want to move to areas with good education, you know, the more the better. We'd love to have more people moving into this area."
Youngstown State said it's "committed" to serving Steubenville and the region in a July 31 statement, but "we are waiting on some court proceedings to be completed before we can move forward" with any plans to bring programming there.
"They (YSU) have been doing a lot of work, changing curriculum, changing prices to kind of meet what was offered here at (Eastern Gateway Community College)," said Commissioner Tony Morelli.
As more colleges and universities face the threat of closing their doors, what happens next in Steubenville and South Euclid could provide a model for how communities can overcome those losses.
