STEUBENVILLE — Faculty members at embattled Eastern Gateway Community College got the letter Friday they knew was coming — formal notice that their contracts would not be renewed.

The unsigned letter from the human resources department, dated Thursday, informed faculty their teaching obligations will be fulfilled after graduation and their contracts would not be renewed when they expire July 31.

It blamed the decision on the “financial constraints of the college” — the same reason members of the board of trustees had cited when they announced that, without a significant influx of cash by May 31, they’d have to dissolve the school.

“It’s not a surprise,” said Jim Corrin, president of the EGCC Education Association, who noted it’s more a procedural matter. He said while it probably was a jolt to some faculty, “I think most of us have come to terms with everything.”

Much of the school’s financial problems stem from a dispute with the U.S. Department of Education, which withheld millions in student aid cash reimbursements after raising questions about how the school was using them. The EGCC board scrambled in recent months to make payroll, turning to the state Controlling Board for a multi-million-dollar cash advance to get through the spring semester.

But while the financial problems played out, EGCC’s administrative offices were raided and computers and a multitude of records — including minutes from board of trustee meetings dating back to the 1960s — were confiscated, and trustees announced a pause in enrollment while administrators tried to repair the finances.