Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Updated Feb. 4, 2019
A former intelligence school previously supported by Wright State University is dissolving, a board member for the closing school confirmed Tuesday to the Dayton Daily News.
The Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) for Human Capital Development — a spy school in Beavercreek created a decade ago with heavy government investment — has shuttered its doors and is sold its high-tech building, property records show.
“Everything is being shut down… (ATIC) is dissolving,” said Tom Lasley, chief executive of Learn 2 Earn Dayton, who sits on ATIC’s volunteer governing board.
Lasley declined to comment further, saying the board would determine who should speak at length to the media about the organization’s fate. This story will be updated once that person provides further comment.
ATIC drew the attention of auditors of Wright State in 2017. The center became a division of the Wright State Applied Research Corp. in 2016.
WSARC Executive Director Dennis Andersh told the Dayton Daily News in 2017 that ATIC was valuable to the university because it was accredited to handle the highest level of top secret government information.
“It gives the university and the community access to a facility that is pretty unique in the country,” Andersh said at that time.
But ATIC struggled financially and in 2014 all of its employees were put on Wright State’s payroll under a management agreement that had the university billing WSARC for the labor.
Auditors in 2017 found that Wright State underbilled by at least $410,000 — money the university would not be able to recover, according to the audit.
ATIC’s financial struggles were known to Wright State officials, according to the audit, but the school wanted to preserve its ties to what it considered to be a community asset. “Therefore, they agreed to hire ATIC’s employees under the management agreement,” the audit said.
Former Wright State president David Hopkins was listed on tax documents as being chairman of ATIC’s board of trustees in tax years 2011 through 2014.
