20121022-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/19/2012
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$2.00/OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2012
VOL. 33, NO. 41
Enrollments drop at community colleges Reversal in years-long growth shifts focus on retention By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com
The economic meltdown led to recordbreaking enrollment surges at Northeast Ohio’s community colleges, but the slowly improving jobs climate is resulting in fewer people flowing through their doors. The economic recovery coupled with an expected decline in high school graduates due to Northeast Ohio’s stagnant and aging population has the region’s community colleges and university branch campuses adopting new ways to recruit students and, perhaps more importantly, keep the ones they already have. “Sometimes we lose sight of how we can impact retention,” said Karen Miller, vice president of enrollment management and
student affairs at Cuyahoga Community College, the region’s largest community college, which stomached a 3.83% decline in enrollment this fall. “If we really impacted retention and focused on that, we wouldn’t have an enrollment problem,” Ms. Miller said. “We wouldn’t have to worry as much about that front-end number.” Early numbers compiled by the Ohio Board of Regents suggest that enrollment at all the region’s community colleges and university branch campuses is headed south for the second straight year, with the exception of Stark State College of Technology in North Canton, which saw a slight uptick. On the flip side, enrollment at the region’s public four-year institutions is mixed, with Cleveland State and See DROP Page 18
HEADCOUNTS LARGELY FALL IN 2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
MARC GOLUB
The lunchtime crowd at the Student Services building on Tri-C’s metro campus last Thursday.
Firms heap on debt to pay out big dividends By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
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Three local companies are planning to borrow a total of $1.7 billion and give much of it directly to their shareholders. And they aren’t alone. Those three companies — content management software firm Hyland Software Inc. of Westlake, medical supplies distributor AssuraMed Holdings Inc. of Twinsburg and aircraft parts maker
TransDigm Group Inc. of Cleveland — are part of a wave of U.S. businesses that are borrowing money to pay big dividends, according to an investment banker and two lawyers who specialize in corporate deals. Aluminum products producer Aleris International Inc. of Beachwood also is raising $400 million in debt and might use some of it to pay dividends. “I will tell you, it is hot right now,” said Jay Alicandri, a partner in the See RECAPS Page 17
INSIDE
It’s all in the family for these businesses We ask 10 Northeast Ohio family businesses — including the crew at Allstate Hairstyling & Barber College, pictured above — what’s kept them running all these years. PAGE 11 PLUS: ■ More manufacturers investing in new equipment. PAGE 3
FitzGerald: New Inner Belt part of gov’s turnpike ploy ODOT: Kasich not out to play ‘political football’ By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald maintains that Gov. John Kasich is plotting to hold a fasttracked second Inner Belt bridge hostage to a plan to privatize, or otherwise monetize, the Ohio Turnpike. Asked about the governor’s plan
to move up construction of the second Cuyahoga River span and several other projects in other parts of the state, Mr. FitzGerald said he fears Mr. Kasich is holding the early completion of those projects and the potential of other road work in northern Ohio out as a carrot. “And then, surprise, he’s going to say, ‘None of those are going to get See TURNPIKE Page 10
TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Ad space closes in Crain’s SHALE Magazine NOVEMBER 1
Learn more at:
www.CrainsCleveland.com/Shale