This town's rural college closed, but its community created a new way to provide educational support

 Chatfield College grounds and chapel 
(Photo by Grace McConnell, Hechringer Report)

Chatfield College closed a year ago, but the farming village of Fayetteville, Ohio, pop. 241, is using the "assets left by the defunct college to help at least some local students continue their educations past high school," reports Jon Marcus for the The Hechringer Report, which covers education. "Advocates are trying to keep the proportion of rural high school graduates who go to college from falling even further than it already has."

When a small-town college closes, one of the more unfortunate things is the acute loss of opportunity. Even though Chatfield, which offered two-year associate degrees, had only 129 students before its closing -- and about half of them took classes online -- Amber Saeidi Asl, who grew up next to the campus, told Marcus, "It was the heart of the area." Marcus adds, "She took courses offered by Chatfield through a dual-enrollment program while she was still in high school, and eventually went there. Just having a college nearby inspired her to go, she said."

Nearly 13 million Americans now live in places, mainly in the Midwest and Great Plains, "where the nearest college or university is beyond a reasonable commute away, the American Council on Education reports. The nearest colleges to the Chatfield campus — a community college and a branch of the University of Cincinnati — are about 45 minutes away," Marcus writes. Anna Robertson, who attended Chatfield until it closed, told Marcus, "For a lot of college students living in rural areas, it's just not feasible to drive to one of the city universities."

When Chatfield closed, its educational community formed the Chatfield College endowment, called Chatfield Edge, Marcus reports. "It has provided volunteer mentors, career counseling, assistance with admission and financial aid applications and other help to 21 students, and scholarships of about $1,500 per semester to 19 of them, said David Hesson, director of programs, who was an associate dean at the college."

The scope of Chatfield Edge includes helping families afford trade school and certificate programs. "The target is low-income high school students who would be the first in their families to go to college and students who are older than the traditional age," Marcus writes. "Robertson, who now is finishing her bachelor's degree at Asbury University in Kentucky, is among the beneficiaries." Robert Elmore, Chatfield's last president, told Marcus: "We said we don't have to necessarily provide the education. But we could support them, and we know what that looks like, and we have the scholarship money to cover the gap."