Excerpt from the Ohio Capital Journal
A number of private colleges and universities in Ohio benefited from forgivable federal small business loans and retained thousands of local jobs.
Public institutions were not as lucky. Unable to receive the millions of public loan dollars which flowed to private campuses this spring, many have announced deep cuts in recent months. The coronavirus pandemic has added further budgetary strains to public universities already reeling from state funding declines.
More than two-dozen private campuses in Ohio received funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, data released by the federal government on Monday shows.
The program is administered by the Small Business Administration and offers low-interest loans to businesses, nonprofits and other entities to keep workers on their payroll. The loans can be forgiven if the funds are used for payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent or utilities, according to the SBA.
The government provided a list of recipients on Monday, giving a general range of money received by each rather than a specific dollar amount. For example, Marietta College in Southeast Ohio received an unspecified amount between $5-10 million.
In total, these private institutions in Ohio received between $47 million and $110 million.
The list did provide a specific number of “jobs retained” through each loan. Combined, the loans have retained about 8,300 jobs at these private campuses.
