News Announcement
For further information please contact
Cheryl L. Kight - Vice President, Marketing

Columbus, September 22, 2008

FIFTH THIRD BANK, NE OHIO HOSTS AREA KICK-OFF OF THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES’ 2008-09 ANNUAL CAMPAIGN

Todd Clossin, Ohio Regional President & CEO, and Nancy Huber, Market President, Fifth Third Bank, NE Ohio, Co-Chairs of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) 2008-09 Cleveland area annual campaign, hosted the campaign meeting and kick-off on September 11 at the Fifth Third Bank offices. The co-chairs welcomed the area campaign volunteers in attendance and introduced Ed Hartzell, Vice Chair, OFIC Board of Trustees and Chief Executive Officer, Antares Management Solutions in Strongsville. Hartzell is a longtime OFIC volunteer and former Cleveland area campaign chair.

Hartzell thanked the Cleveland representatives for their service and commitment to this campaign to help provide career choices and college access for students enrolled at OFIC member independent colleges and universities. He emphasized the importance of independent higher education in Ohio to the Cleveland region’s economic stability and to the state’s future in a changing global economy.

Michael Victor, President, Lake Erie College, stressed to the volunteers the positive impact that campaign funds have on both students and OFIC’s member institutions. Lake Erie senior Harry Konrad from Mentor, Ohio spoke of the impact that scholarships provided by OFIC have had on his educational journey and his future. Konrad, a student in Business Administration, is a three-year recipient of an OFIC Ohio Scholars Program scholarship through Diebold, Incorporated.

More than 97,000 students enrolled at OFIC member colleges, which include Baldwin-Wallace College, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Lake Erie College, Notre Dame College, and Ursuline College, will benefit from funds raised through OFIC’s campaign. One hundred fifty students at these six local institutions have directly received scholarships through OFIC’s Ohio Scholars Program for the 2008-09 academic year.

Teresa Coughlin, member of a team of campaign volunteers from CHASE, was presented with an OFIC Volunteer of the Year award. This is Coughlin’s third year to serve as an OFIC campaign volunteer. Corporate volunteers, known as ambassadors, call on current and prospective donors to educate them about and encourage their support of OFIC’s mission to support independent higher education in Ohio. Approximately 50 representatives of area corporations have volunteered their time to this year’s campaign.

OFIC is the primary corporate and foundation solicitation organization for 34 independent Ohio colleges and universities and operates one of the largest, most comprehensive and diverse scholarship management services in the state. OFIC member colleges collectively enroll more than 97,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor’s degrees in the state. For 58 years OFIC has worked to highlight the leadership, value and excellence of independent higher education and has provided unrestricted operating funds and scholarship commitments through funds raised in annual solicitations of businesses and foundations, thereby assuring continuation of excellence in private higher education. OFIC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of Ohio’s corporate leaders, as well as presidents of the 34 member colleges.

The member colleges are: Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bluffton University, Capital University, Cedarville University, University of Dayton, Defiance College, Denison University, The University of Findlay, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franklin University, Heidelberg College, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Lourdes College, Malone College, Marietta College, Mount Union College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Muskingum College, Notre Dame College, Oberlin College, Ohio Dominican University, Ohio Northern University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Otterbein College, Urbana University, Ursuline College, Walsh University, Wilmington College, Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster.