WARREN, Ohio -- Dr. Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College, will visit the White House tomorrow for a conference celebrating efforts by colleges, universities and community colleges to graduate their students.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to attend the event, Meeks said Tuesday. It is Meeks’ second invitation to the White House in two years.

“We’re capturing national attention,” Meeks said during a press preview of Eastern Gateway’s new Warren Center. “Our goal isn’t just to get new students. It’s to have graduates also. [The White House is] celebrating colleges that are well on their way to do that and we were selected as one of them.”

The White House conference will focus on colleges that have made a commitment to make sure its students graduate and succeed. Eastern Gateway was among 164 institutions chosen to attend, Meeks said. 

Eastern Gateway recently reported its fall enrollment is 3,195, up 10% from last fall, the largest among community colleges in the state. EGCC’s Valley Center in downtown Youngstown experienced an enrollment increase of 26% from fall 2013.

“We are the fastest-growing college in Ohio and we’re also one of the top 12 fastest-growing colleges our size in America,” Meeks said.  

Contractors were busy Tuesday afternoon converting the former Mickey’s Army-Navy store, 239 Main St. SW, in time for the new Warren campus’ planned opening Jan. 12, when the campus relocates from the Atrium Building.

“We’re very cramped where we are,” Meeks said. “We’re working fast and furiously to have total occupancy by Jan. 12 when our spring semester starts …  Based on the satisfaction levels we’ve had so far with our contractors and all the [subcontractors], we’re going to be ready.”

The $5 million project is being completed in three phases, the first of which is about 6,500 square feet, about triple the Warren’s Center’s current space, she reported. The new building will open with four classrooms including one large classroom with 45 computers.

The initial phase will also include a bookstore that won’t be completed for the Jan. 12 opening, said Dante Zambrini, Eastern Gateway’s interim vice president, Mahoning Valley.

An elevator planned for the building won’t be added until the building’s lower level space is needed and renovated for use. “We build out as we grow,” Zambrini remarked. 

The Warren Center now has 89 students enrolled, and Meeks said she expects that number to grow to 200 for fall. Course offerings will expand to 52 and include business, accounting, education and criminal justice. Evening classes also will be offered.

Total enrollment of Trumbull County residents is 309, many of whom attend classes at Eastern Gateway’s Valley Center in downtown Youngstown, Meeks noted. The number of Trumbull County residents enrolled is up 36% from 227 in 2013, she added. 

During the press preview, Meeks thanked several individuals involved in the project:  Mayor Doug Franklin; U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Howland, who recommended downtown Warren for Eastern Gateway initially; and Martin Cohen, former owner of the building.

Coming into the building now under renovation was “a little strange,” Cohen said. “My first walk-though was a little daunting,” he said.

Still, Cohen said, “I realized a long time ago the only key to making Warren a better place is raising the level of education” so when the opportunity came to help bring a college here he took it. 

Eastern Gateway’s growing presence offers both hope and opportunity, Franklin said, providing access to higher education that students might not otherwise be able to afford and potential for additional business downtown as retailers stay open to accommodate the evening students.

“It’s a win-win all around for the city of Warren and the community college,” he said.

Pictured: Dr. Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College.

Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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