Anger and frustration understandably permeate the campuses of Eastern Gateway Community College in Youngstown and Steubenville after a string of troubling developments has culminated in a temporary closure of the institution beginning summer semester.

In fact, if we were handing out grades on fiscal responsibility, prudent campus oversight and transparency to the public, EGCC would deserve straight F’s.

The 56-year-old community college has allegedly failed to play by the letters of the law of federal loan and grant programs. It has failed to ensure responsible leadership, most notably in former President Jimmie Bruce’s tainted administration. And it has failed miserably to adequately communicate to students and taxpayers the severity of the publicly funded campuses’ financial and other problems.

Of course, the shocking announcement last week that EGCC would “pause” enrollment and registration beyond this spring semester did not come without warning signals.

In 2020, the board of trustees, today led by Chair Jim Gasior of Canfield, fired Bruce for dereliction of duty during his tenure that began in 2015. The board then rewarded Bruce with an outrageous agreement awarding him his full $250,000 salary for an additional year. Bruce and another member of his administration were later indicted on felony theft charges. Though the charges were dropped last year, they could be refiled amid a continuing investigation of the campus.

Then in 2021, the Higher Learning Commission placed EGCC’s accreditation status on probation over concerns about “assessment, human resources recordkeeping and data collection and analysis.” That probation remains intact today.

In recent years as well, a dubious tuition-free program largely for union members and their families more than doubled EGCC enrollment to about 45,000 without adequate preparation for such meteoric growth. Then the U.S. Department of Education accused the program of being illegal, and the college terminated it last year. Enrollment plummeted.

Clearly, as the recent pause illustrates, EGCC’s troubles are not going away anytime soon. That’s why EGCC leaders owe it to its students, its hundreds of employees and the community candid answers to a litany of questions

Will the short-term halt to student registration extend beyond this year? Are there contingency plans to reopen as a fully functioning campus? What is the college planning to do right by its students and employees?

On its website, the college does give some clues to the future by leading students to other colleges and directing its workers to unemployment compensation resources.

Still, the EGCC board of trustees should make it a point at its meeting Tuesday morning to provide a full accounting of the depth of the college’s chaos and a tentative outlook on its future.

In the meantime, students who invested their time and money in an EGCC education are left in the lurch.

But in one of the few bright spots in this ongoing turmoil, other institutions of higher learning — led by Youngstown State University — commendably have sprung into action.

“YSU cares deeply about the people in our region, and we are honored to work with Eastern Gateway and the Ohio Department of Higher Education to support students,” YSU President Bill Johnson said.

We hope part of that work could involve a one-time lessening of the higher tuition at YSU for EGCC’s victims because of the unprecedented series of events that students played no role in causing.

As the fallout continues to play out, students must remain the primary focus of all involved.

But students, faculty and staff are not the only hapless victims. Any permanent closing of the growing community college campus in Youngstown would deal a severe blow to successful urban renewal downtown.

For the past decade, the sprawling Thomas Humphries Hall and other EGCC properties have been the prime anchors of the revitalized east end of Central Square. City leaders would be well advised to work proactively on contingency plans to ensure the bustling campus does not become a source of blight and abandonment.

For the short term, though, we urge YSU and other smaller institutions of career education to continue to reach out to EGCC students to make their transfers as seamless as possible.

For the long term, we hope EGCC officials can heal the many wounds surrounding its past operations and make a fresh but perhaps downsized restart.

For despite all of its recent troubles, EGCC has succeeded in providing tens of thousands of students viable options to pursue higher education at an affordable price. Its disappearance would leave a distressing educational void throughout the Mahoning Valley and eastern Ohio.