These options flow from a list of colleges and universities that are truly impressive, starting with Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the University of Akron with their many colleges and graduate schools.

Both these universities are research institutions as well and are spawning centers for high-tech companies and further academic and industrial research in all kinds of medicine, biotechnology, and engineering as well as materials, sciences, and industry.

Complementing these two universities in the area is John Carroll University with its Muldoon Center for Entrepreneurs, a unique center designed to specifically help young entrepreneurs in the region grow and prosper.

All three universities can point to research history that has changed the world for the better. Case Institute of Technology, for example, was the site of the famous Michelson-Morley experiment on the speed of light that gave Albert Einstein key data for the Theory of Relativity. CWRU was also where much of the research that led to the discovery of the neutrino was done and, in fact, related research continues in Cleveland offshore in special tanks in salt mines deep under Lake Erie.

The University of Akron has researched and invented much of the modern plastics industry and continues to rapidly develop as one of the world's leading materials research universities.

John Carroll is famous for its seismology research center. The highly reliable Earthquake Studies and Reactions building boasts the first seismograph capable of long-distance tremor registration.

The area's undergraduate colleges contribute an array of options to students from all over the world. Cleveland State University in downtown Cleveland, with its many outreach programs for businesses, and its neighbor Cuyahoga Community College add the color and excitement of modern student life to the downtown area of Cleveland.

In neighboring Berea is the excellent liberal arts college Baldwin-Wallace and its nationally recognized Bach Festival. Somewhat farther out in Lorain County is the world-famous liberal arts college and its equally famous music school, Oberlin. Nearby is Lorain County Community College, and across the area in the other direction are Lake Erie College and Notre Dame Academy.

Southeast of Cleveland is Kent State University and Youngstown State. Both of these schools have been expanding rapidly with major construction projects on campus and several new degree programs just recently added to the curricula.

Complementing these fine institutions are various schools of dentistry, podiatry, law, medicine, engineering, art, music, business, and other fields.

The options are legion, and the levels of excellence are world-class. In fact, numerous students from overseas attend all of these institutions, and some decide to settle in the area that has not only provided them with top-notch educations but entrepreneurial and business opportunities as well.

Northeast Ohio's high schools and middle schools are among the very best in the Midwest. A nationally renowned educator, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, runs Cleveland's system. The Cleveland schools have registered significant improvement in test scores and graduations since her tenure began two years ago.

Education and Business

Higher education is a sizeable industry in the Northeast Ohio region. More than two dozen colleges and universities are in the area. The number of colleges and graduate schools within the universities adds considerably to that total, bringing it up to as many as 50 separate higher education institutions in the area. There are more than 10,000 faculty members in all of those schools, as well as more than 2,000 administrators and some 16,000 others in work ranging from safety forces to maintenance, accounting to law, and construction liaison. The combined budget of all of these schools is more than $2.5 billion. They all serve 160,000 degree-seeking students throughout Northeast Ohio.

Academic Incubators

Business leaders and government officials in the region are keenly aware of the symbiotic relationship between academic excellence and liveliness, and regional attractiveness - as well as the "incubator" effect of research universities - and a region's economic success. "We were enthralled by University Circle," says John Nottingham, co-president of Nottingham & Spirk, a Cleveland product invention, design, and development outfit that says the area has been directly responsible for $10 billion - at least - in sales during the 30-year life of the 50-member firm.

The Amazing Square Mile

Two graduates of the Cleveland Institute of Art, which is also on the Case Western Reserve University campus, formed the company after graduation, and "we never left," says co-president John Spirk. "This is the greatest square mile of brainpower in the world," says John Nottingham. Some of that $10 billion-plus was created with plastic toys for Little Tykes, the electric toothbrush that eventually went to Procter & Gamble and the yellow duck campaign for Manco duct tape. Look for plastic paint cans next.

University of Akron President Luis Proenza, Ph.D., points to the extraordinary growth of the plastics and polymers industry in the region as another example of how the research university can be a successful catalyst for innovative, entrepreneurial business development. "At the University of Akron, we plan to double the size of our polymer activity and continue to fuel the engine of growth that the university can be in an economy," Proenza says.

Higher Education Is Critical

"Why are we staying here?" asks Stephen A. Di Biase, Ph.D., vice president, emulsified products, Lubrizol in Wickliffe. "We're in the knowledge business, and we needed access to highly educated people. So we think the Cleveland area is right for us," he answers. Other company leaders add that it's the remarkably large number of excellent colleges in the area that tipped the balance in the region's favor as far as staying or going.

"One thing that is really critical is higher education," adds Alexander (Sandy) Cutler, chairman, president, and CEO of Eaton Corp. He and most other corporate leaders in the region point to the area's large number of excellent higher education institutions as one of the biggest draws for corporations considering the region as a headquarters or for those who are considering expanding in the area.

The CWRU-University Circle complex continues to offer local companies one of the most fertile centers for new ideas in terms of technology, particularly biotechnology. Besides CWRU and its own medical colleges, University Circle also hosts two of the nation's leading teaching hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital. Research in biomedical fields is rich within those three institutions, and the ever-increasing number of companies they work with and help grow.

A new group created out of the three is BioEnterprise Corp. It has already announced successes in terms of attracting companies who wish to participate in the enormous potential of the three institutions in cooperative research.

Also within University Circle are two other leading educational/cultural institutions, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Orchestra. Both of these world-famous organizations offer extension classes for children and adults, and are resource centers for numerous companies, groups, and individuals in the region.

The Ohio State system campuses in the area add another dimension to the region's very rich academic life. Cleveland State University's downtown campus is alive with undergraduates during the day who will bring their own excellent academic preparation to the business scene in the area. Cleveland State, for example, is offering a new software engineering graduate degree and has been focusing on a nursing shortage issue as well.

Two of the region's most well-known liberal arts colleges are continuing to enrich the area's cultural and business life as well. Oberlin and Baldwin-Wallace are both located in the southwest area of the region and have been bringing top- level liberal ed-ucation to the region for generations. Oberlin, known for its world-famous music school, is also home to thousands of undergraduate students from all over the world. Baldwin-Wallace continues to turn out very well-prepared graduates while hosting one of the most well-attended Bach festivals in the Midwest.

Striking New Architecture

Master of Business Administration programs are now well-developed at CWRU's Weatherhead School of Management as well as at John Carroll and other colleges in the region. "There are great institutions here that can be engines of economic progress," says Weatherhead's Dean Mohsen Anvari. "We now have a joint program here with Case School of Engineering that we expect great things from. This school, this university has tremendous potential. Through the generosity of Peter Lewis (sponsor of the school's new Frank Gehry building), we are poised to become one of the top business schools in the country."

From GI Bill to Now

The Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE) is a group that can actually trace its history back over 50 years to the early years of the World War II GI Bill of Rights.

The mission today of NOCHE, explains Executive Director Charles W. Hickman, is to promote alliances among higher education institutions and related entities in Northeast Ohio to yield mutually synergistic efforts, which contribute significantly to improving the quality of life and economic growth in the region. The Board of Trustees of NOCHE is composed of the presidents of all of the member schools and another elected set which brings nonacademic sector insights and concerns to the group.

NOCHE works in concert with another regional group, the Regional Business Council. Working together, the two groups are dedicated to the cause of higher education in the region. These two groups may offer a model of regional planning for the rest of the country.

As Proenza and other educational leaders in the area note, higher education now focuses much of its effort on preparing young people for the knowledge-based economy that is emerging here and elsewhere throughout the modern world.

One of the areas of interest of NOCHE is to identify topics that might attract further research funding from the federal government or which might mean more successful technology transfer. The group's plans also call for conferences addressing issues that confront the region's educational needs. Clearly a long, long way from 50 years ago when you could count the higher education institutions in the region on one hand.

Helpful Web Sites

Baldwin-Wallace

www.bw.edu

Case Western Reserve University

www.cwru.edu

Cleveland Institute of Art

www.cia.edu

Cleveland State University

www.csuohio.edu

John Carroll University

www.jcu.edu

Kent State University

www.kent.edu

Lakeland Community College

www.lakelandcc.edu

Lake Erie College

www.lec.edu

Lorain Community College

www.lorainccc.edu

Oberlin

www.oberlin.edu

University of Akron

www.uakron.edu

Youngstown State University

www.ysu.edu