COLUMBUS — A conservator is set to assume control of Eastern Gateway Community College today to “oversee the dissolution and closure process.”

Late Wednesday, Gov. Mike DeWine said he’d appointed Fred Ransier to fill the conservator position.

“Our first priority was making sure that all of the affected students were taken care of,” DeWine said. “We worked with Eastern Gateway and other institutions to ensure students could transfer as smoothly as possible. As we move forward with Ransier as conservator, and eventually shift to a governance authority to manage this closure, I have full confidence that all parties will proceed in a thoughtful way.”

Ransier, a retired partner from the Columbus legal firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and an experienced Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney, has served as a bankruptcy trustee for the Southern District of Ohio since 1988 and has represented numerous clients in commercial and real estate matters during his career.

A Franklin County resident, Ransier earned his law degree from the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University and his bachelor’s degree from Central State University.

EGCC’s board of trustees voted earlier this year to formally withdraw their accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission and dissolve the college following their final semester — initially planning to start the process June 30, but pushing that date to Nov. 1 so students could continue their schooling.

Students not eligible for graduation have been given what DeWine described as “significant transfer options” through negotiated agreements with multiple academic institutions.

By statute, he said management of EGCC’s dissolution and closure process must transition from a conservatorship to a five-member governance authority within 30 days.

DeWine’s appointments to the governance authority, also announced Wednesday, include Thomas D’Anniballe, the Steubenville CPA who has served as the finance chair of EGCC’s board of trustees, and Kimberly Bates-Bozich, former co-owner of Bozich Food Services and corporate secretary at Bates Amusement Inc.

Also appointed to the governance authority were Kimberly Murnieks, chair, who serves as director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management; Gregory White, a former Lorain County prosecutor, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and former U.S. magistrate judge; and Columbiana County Commissioner Mike Halleck.

DeWine said the governance authority will assume the responsibilities of the dissolution and closure process effective Aug. 29, with the advice and consent of the Ohio Senate.

“While every effort was made to avoid closure, I believe that this was the right decision and that the best interests of the students and taxpayers of Ohio were properly served,” said state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee.

State Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Township, chair of the House Higher Education Committee, said it’s “unfortunate that Eastern Gateway Community College is closing its doors, but we must put the best interests of the students first.”

“Fortunately, Ohio has many great public institutions to assist in this transition,” Young said. “I especially want to thank Youngstown State University, which has helped students transfer programs and continue their higher education goals. We must move on from this unfortunate situation with the best interest of these students above all and a willingness to support them.”

Eastern Gateway had come under fire, financially and academically, in recent years.

The college’s financial problems were spawned by a long-running court battle with the U.S. Department of Education over how the college was using federal Pell grant funds meant to help income-eligible students pay for their schooling. DOE had claimed the money was being misdirected to help pay for EGCC’s Free College Benefit Program. EGCC discontinued the controversial program in July 2023 and two months later dropped its lawsuit against DOE.

In November, trustees asked the state for a $12 million cash advance, telling the state controlling board the DOE continued to reject the college’s requests for reimbursement for the program “due to deficiencies in the applications for those reimbursements.”

On the academic side EGCC has been on probation with the Higher Learning Commission since November 2021 over “core concerns centered on assessment, data collection and analysis and human resources record keeping.” In November, after the commission’s board voted to continue the probation designation, the EGCC Education Association announced its members had “no confidence in the board or administration.”

Then, in December, EGCC announced it had taken steps to address academic and financial issues raised by higher education oversight agencies, but a month later state and local law enforcement raided the Steubenville campus, seizing computers and files. Around that time, indictments were dismissed that had alleged misuse of college credit cards by former EGCC President Jimmie Bruce and former Vice President and Chief of Staff Jim Miller. The indictments were dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges could, if prosecutors choose, be refiled at a later date.

DeWine pointed out during the 2023-24 academic year, the state Controlling Board approved three state subsidy advances that allowed EGCC to finish the academic year without a mid-academic year shutdown.

He said the appointment of a conservator and governance authority “will allow for an orderly dissolution and closure of the college.”