News Announcement
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Columbus, October 2009

WHITE CASTLE SYSTEM, INC. HOSTS COLUMBUS KICK-OFF OF THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES' 2009-10 ANNUAL CAMPAIGN - GOAL SET AT $610,000

Edgar W. “Bill” Ingram III, Chairman, President & CEO, White Castle System, Inc., Chair of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) Columbus area annual campaign for the second year, hosted the campaign meeting and kick-off at the Columbus Club downtown on October 7.  Area corporate campaign volunteers were in attendance to receive solicitation training to 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.  The campaign goal for the Columbus area has been set at $610,000.

Ingram, an OFIC trustee since 1995, welcomed the volunteers and thanked them for their commitment.  He introduced Jordan Miller, President & CEO, Fifth Third Bank, and OFIC trustee, as his campaign vice chair.  Other Columbus area OFIC trustees at the kick-off were Mike Kehoe, AT&T; Kevin Lee, Anheuser-Busch, Inc.; and Bill Pohlman, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP.
 
Jeff Wolf, OFIC president, welcomed and introduced Ed Hartzell, Chair of the OFIC Board of Trustees.   Hartzell thanked the Columbus 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 Columbus region’s economic stability and to the state’s future in a changing global economy.

Rockwell Jones, President, Ohio Wesleyan University, stressed to the volunteers the positive impact that campaign funds have on both students and OFIC’s member institutions, particularly in view of the recent massive state budget cuts in student financial aid.  Ohio Wesleyan sophomore Tiffany Saultz from Columbus spoke of the impact that the scholarship provided by OFIC has had on her educational journey and her future.  Saultz, a Biology major, is the recipient of a Battelle scholarship through OFIC’s Ohio Scholars Program.  She expressed profound gratitude for the scholarship assistance and spoke movingly about fulfilling the college dream for her mother, who did not have the opportunity to further her education as she had wished.

All of the 98,000 students enrolled at OFIC member colleges, which include Capital University, Denison University, Franklin University, Otterbein College, Ohio Dominican University, and Ohio Wesleyan University, will benefit from funds raised through OFIC’s campaign. One hundred seventy-eight students at these six local institutions have directly received scholarships through OFIC’s Ohio Scholars Program for the 2009-10 academic year.   There are presently 13,283 students who live in the Columbus campaign area enrolled in one of OFIC’s 34 member institutions across the state.

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 98,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor’s degrees in the state. For 60 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 University, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Lourdes College, Malone University, Marietta College, Mount Union College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Muskingum University, 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.