EGCC experiences a boom in enrollment this fall

Staff report

jefferson, ohio

Enrollment is booming at Eastern Gateway Community College.

Fall headcount surged past the 2,400-mark for the first time in college history.

The 10-percent growth from last fall sets the student population at 2,435 with 56 percent of the students from Jefferson County, 18 percent from Mahoning County, 6 percent from Trumbull County and 5 percent from Columbiana County.

The new-student count grew by 17 percent, the Board of Trustees learned at its September meeting.

Enrollment in online classes continues to grow at Eastern Gateway. Nearly 35 percent of all students take at least one online class.

Another positive note from this historical growth is the number of classes being taught at the career centers and the college’s Warren Center, said President Laura Meeks.

“The growth of these classes was slow at the start, but the schedule and locations are catching on with the residents,” Meeks said. “This is great news for the college and our partners.”

The registration of Mahoning Valley residents is doubling from fall to fall and spring to spring.

In order to handle the growth, Eastern Gateway trustees voted to support the administration’s efforts to continue to develop a partnership with Higher Education Partners LLC of New Bedford, Mass.

The partnership development will be done with the guidance and review of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. HEP would work to secure a stand-alone facility for the college in the Mahoning Valley.

Currently, the college operates the Valley Center at the Northside Medical Center on Gypsy Lane, Youngstown. That center will be moved in January to the Choffin Career and Technical Center, Youngstown.

Class demand is overflowing at the Valley Center so the college must rent classrooms in the Jewish Community Center on Gypsy Lane.

Eastern Gateway’s partnerships with the Choffin Center, Columbiana County Career and Technical Center, Mahoning County Career and Technical Center and Trumbull Career and Technical Center will remain active, Meeks said.

“We value our partnerships and our work with the career centers,” she said. “Also, we are happy to bring college-level classes and articulated college credit to career center students and graduates.”

No selection has been made for a location of a college facility in the Mahoning Valley. That work will continue over the next few months.

“The college has been reviewing sites for more than a year in a quest to find a facility to meet the college’s growing needs and a location that will be attractive to students,” said Meeks.

HEP provides start-up capital to build/acquire a facility necessary to implement the college’s programs and assists with the development of cutting edge technology so that courses and programs can be provided in a hybrid or blended fashion.

In other business, the board reviewed the college’s course completion rates as compared to other two-year colleges in the state. Eastern Gateway’s rate of 81 percent course completion is above the average for community and technical colleges, which is 76 percent.

A water/wastewater partnership is being developed with Operator Training Committee of Ohio (OTCO), Tracee Joltes, work-force development director, reported to the board.

“Through the partnership, we will serve the education and training needs of current and future water and wastewater professionals in the college’s service area,” he said.

OTCO provides OEPA-approved training for water and waste-water operators working in Ohio.

Through the partnership, OTCO will establish its first satellite office at Eastern Gateway’s Pugliese Center on the Jefferson County Campus. The first classes will begin this fall at the center, she said.

“The long-term objective is to establish Eastern Gateway as a U.S. EPA-approved provider of water and wastewater training,” Joltes said. “We will have short-term and stackable noncredit and credit certificate programs and eventually develop an associate- degree program.

“Cities, small and large, as well as companies will need this training for current operators and for the future work force as retirees leave the system,” she said.

The board will consider adding programs to the college’s curriculum.

They are an associate of applied science degree in health professions and a licensed practical nursing to registered nursing associate-degree transition program.