Overheard
Here’s what some people who attended the grand opening celebration of the Cincinnati State Middletown campus had to say:
"Cincinnati State coming to Middletown is a sign that we are finally getting the momentum to turn our community around. A lot of people have been working very hard over the past several years to stop our community's decline, and now good things are happening." — T. Duane Gordon, executive director of the Middletown Community Foundation.
"This is more than just a school. It has the possibility to bring lots of jobs to the area and to create a better, a stronger workforce." —Bill Triick, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton.
"We all know that a high school diploma is not the end of the road, only the beginning. This gives our students another option on their yet path in life." — Greg Rasmussen, superintendent of Middletown City Schools District.
"This is a game-changer for downtown and possibly the community." —Judy Gilleland, Middletown city manager.
"This is a great day for Middletown and a great day for Butler County." — Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp.
"I'm excited about having Cincinnati State here. We've already talked with them about the possibility of health care providers. We're talking about expanding our in-home care program. To have the possibility of training in the area, instead of us having to do it ourselves." — Ann Munafo, Middletown Area Senior Center executive director
"We're excited that this campus is so close to our main library in Middletown. It opens up so many different partnerships." — Anita Carroll, MidPointe Library System executive director
"It's fantastic, not only for downtown but also for Middletown. It's a great thing and it provides another opportunity for education for people. And to have it right downtown, it's a real plus for the city." — Sam Ashworth, Middletown historian
Compiled by staff writers Rick McCrabb and Michael D. Pitman
In Sunday’s paper
Read Rick McCrabb’s column about how Alan Fugate went from a homeless man in Middletown to a college student at Cincinnati State.
A few year ago, former State Sen. Gary Cates told Cincinnati State officials that if they wanted to be a “player” in the eyes of the state legislature, they needed to open a downtown Middletown campus.
At the grand opening celebration Wednesday morning for Cincinnati State Middletown — which opened for classes Aug. 29 — Cincinnati State Technical & Community College President Dr. O’dell Owens told a crowd of a few hundred, “Today, we’re a player.”
“We’re here. Yes,” Cincinnati State Board of Trustees Chairwoman Cathy Crain said with a slight fist pump to the crowded lobby at Cincinnati State Middletown.
She said the celebration Wednesday recognized what the campus means to Middletown, but she said the campus is strategically important to the college.
“Our research shows that there is a significant demand for the programming we offer,” Crain said. “In other words, Middletown will help us grow.”
And Owens said it’s already has an impact. He said only two higher education institutions in the state have showed growth: Ohio University and Cincinnati State.
The campus, Crain said, helps the school tap into the northern Cincinnati and southern Dayton markets.
“Middletown gives us a basis for an eventual expansion of our wonderful nursing programs and other health care offerings,” Crain said. “Certainly that’s important for our growth and Middletown’s.”
Until the campus opened last month, Butler County was the largest county in Ohio to not have a community college, according to Cates, who is now the Ohio Board of Regents Senior Vice Chancellor.
“This is the eighth largest county in the state of Ohio, 365,000 people, and we’re continuing grow, and for a long time we’ve had our higher education assets underutilized, under appreciated and unnoticed,” he said.
But with Miami University in Oxford and its branch campuses in Middletown, Hamilton and West Chester Twp., and the career tech center at Butler Tech, Cincinnati State can fill the “missing piece of the puzzle.”
“Anyone who needs a GED to a Ph.D. does not have to go outside the county’s borders to get it,” Cates said. “Whatever you need, we have it.”
Cincinnati State and Middletown both took risks in committing to the project, school and city officials said.
Cincinnati State’s board of trustees told Owens he could open a branch campus in Middletown, but allowed him to spend none of the college’s capital dollars and to have it open in six months.
The city purchased multiple buildings downtown before Cincinnati State officials decided on the plan in Middletown.
And after years of planning, negotiating and waiting, two contracts were signed in April to consummate the deal that would give Middletown the county’s first community college. In early April, Middletown sold the building at 1 N. Main St. and donated the former senior center to Boston-based Higher Education Partners for $202,000.
Then a week later, and after months of review by the Ohio Attorney General, the contract was signed between Cincinnati State and Higher Education Partners, the project’s developer and financier.
The school has brought in hundreds of students, people that normally wouldn’t have a reason to be in downtown Middletown. And school officials have said in five years they believe the downtown campus could have thousands of students.
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