Eastern Gateway Community College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior s ...

with its main campus in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a ...

, and a second campus in Youngstown. Although the college is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...

, its accreditor placed the college on probation in 2021 for concerns about "assessment, HR record keeping and data collection and analysis."

History

The school was founded in 1966 as Jefferson County Technical Institute, opening its doors for the first time in 1968 to serve the residents of

Jefferson County, Ohio Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,249. Its county seat is Steubenville. The county is named for Thomas Jefferson, who was vice president at the time of its creation. ...

. It later changed its name to Jefferson Technical College in 1977. In 1995, the technical college became a community college and the name changed once more to Jefferson Community College. In 2009, the college expanded its service district to include three Ohio counties in addition to the original Jefferson: Columbiana, Mahoning, and Trumbull. This resulted in a further name change and the college became known as Eastern Gateway Community College in October 2009. The college briefly drew national attention in 2020 when its board of trustees fired the college's president. He had been placed on administrative leave and was subsequently fired by a unanimous vote of the board for "dereliction of duty and inappropriate management." In late 2021, the college was again the focus of national attention when its accreditor, the

, placed the college on probation due to concerns about a new relationship with a for-profit company that focused on increasing student enrollments in online courses. Through its relationship with the

Student Resource Center A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or element ...

, EGCC nearly doubled its class sizes in online courses and eliminated textbooks in those courses. These new enrollments came primarily from union members or their family members as the program was largely aimed at allowing them to attend the college for free. In a November 2021 news article,

Inside Higher Ed ''Inside Higher Ed'' is a media company and online publication that provides news, opinion, resources, events and jobs focused on college and university topics. In 2022, Quad Partners, a private equity firm, sold Inside Higher Education to Tim ...

reported that "43,890 of the 46,606 tudents enrolled at the collegeare union members or family of union members." The Student Resource Center received 50% of the profits from these new enrollments which was "slightly more than $7 million" in the 2020 fiscal year. Concerns about the quality of teaching at the college during this rapid expansion prompted the college's accreditor to place it on probation because "there is no evidence Eastern Gateway’s free-college-for-union-members business model provides a high-quality education." Two months later, these same concerns led the U.S. Department of Education to open its own investigation into the use of federal financial aid at the college.

Admissions

The college uses

open admissions Open admissions, or open enrollment, is a type of unselective and noncompetitive college admissions process in the United States in which the only criterion for entrance is a high school diploma or a certificate of attendance or General Educat ...

Academic programs

Eastern Gateway Community College offers 60 majors in the areas of business technologies, information technologies, engineering technologies, health and public services. The degrees offered are Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, Associate of Applied Business, Associate of Applied Science, Associate of Technical Studies, and Associate of Individualized Studies.

Tuition and fees

Tuition for in-state students enrolled during the 2017–2018 academic year was $117 per credit hour. Tuition is waived for students living in Jefferson, Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana counties.

References

External links

Eastern Gateway Community College
{{Coord, 40.376334, -80.672077, display=title, region:US-OH_type:edu, format=dms Educational institutions established in 1966 Community colleges in Ohio Education in Jefferson County, Ohio Education in Mahoning County, Ohio Education in Columbiana County, Ohio Education in Trumbull County, Ohio 1966 establishments in Ohio