A partnership with a Massachusetts real estate company will allow Cincinnati State Technical & Community College to expand into Middletown.
The college unveiled the proposed deal to trustees Tuesday, with Higher Education Partners of New Bedford, Mass., taking the $5 million financial risk and Cincinnati State designing programs for several hundred students.
“This will allow us to draw from a wide circle around Middletown,” President O’dell Owens said.
Cincinnati State trustees approved the letter of agreement with Higher Education Partners.
The final deal still is to be negotiated, but Higher Education Partners has agreed to cover Cincinnati State's costs that aren't filled by tuition, plus an extra 5 percent.
HEP would keep profits as enrollments expand.
It will buy several buildings in downtown Middletown from the city and lease them to Cincinnati State as the campus expands, spending at least $5 million overall, Chief Financial Officer Jon Muller said.
"I think itÂ’s time that we had a community college presence in Butler County," said former state senator Gary Cates of West Chester, now senior vice chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. "I think weÂ’re on the edge here of doing something tremendous."
Most of the courses will be a hybrid of classroom and online instruction, a less expensive model that makes the project work financially. The project will start with the former Cincinnati Gas & Electric building and a former senior citizensÂ’ center.
It probably will not include the Manchester Inn after a study showed that renovation costs in the now-closed conference center would be prohibitive.
"Higher Education Partners funds the entire process," said Mike Geoghegan, vice president of finance. "All decisions are made in collaboration with the college."
Cincinnati State has been searching for a way to expand into Middletown for nearly a year, but trustees had demanded that the project should break even financially. It already gets about 15 percent of its students from Butler County who travel to the main campus in Clifton.
Higher Education Partners said it would cover operating losses for several years until enough students enroll but would make money if enrollment reaches projections of 3,000 students in four or five years.
It has done several projects with community colleges in Massachusetts and is talking to several Ohio community colleges.
"We like to invest in downtowns," said Bill Luster, vice president of development. "We look at this not only as an academic experience but as an economic development experience."
Students want strike to end
More than 100 students at Cincinnati State Technical & Community College lined up Tuesday to vent their concerns over a faculty strike to the collegeÂ’s board.
Wearing T-shirts reading "Give me what I paid for. I want my real teachers back," the students said many classes are cancelled or nothing more than taking attendance is done.
"We have chemistry classes being taught by English teachers," said Lindsay Valentino of Mount Lookout, a graphic design student who was handing out buttons for the American Association of University Professors before the meeting. "We have IT classes being taught by art teachers. The administration at this point is messing with my future."
The strike by about 200 full-time teachers started last Friday and the AAUP has said teachers will return Friday morning, but without a new contract.
Cathy Crain, chairwoman of Cincinnati StateÂ’s Board of Trustees, said full-time teachers handle about 40 percent of the total course load, with the rest by adjunct professors. She said the proposal by the AAUP would cost $2.8 million over the next three years.
There is little resolution in sight for the first faculty labor dispute in Cincinnati StateÂ’s history. Once full-time teachers return to work, they would have to issue another 10-day notice before striking again.
Other students werenÂ’t taking sides in the dispute but said they just wanted it to be over.
Source:
