Like many other small, private colleges in the United States, Ohio Dominican University is struggling with a steep enrollment drop, heavy debt and years of red ink. University officials say they're making changes to fight the headwinds, but a group of recent alumni blames the president and wants him fired.

Like many other small, private colleges in the United States, Ohio Dominican University is struggling with a steep enrollment drop, heavy debt and years of red ink. University officials say they�re making changes to fight the headwinds, but a group of recent alumni blames the president and wants him fired.

The board of trustees is standing by the president.

Discontent regarding the 105-year-old Catholic university on Sunbury Road came to light in recent weeks after members of the alumni group put their concerns in writing, asking the trustees to remove Peter Cimbolic, who became president in 2010.

The alumni cite dire statistics: Between 2007 and 2013, the number of freshmen enrolling in the fall dropped by 40 percent. Federal statistics show that overall enrollment, despite being boosted by new graduate programs, fell by 16 percent from 2009 to 2015.

The university hasn�t been able to reduce much of its $40 million in debt, which stems largely from a building boom in the mid-2000s that included the Bishop James A. Griffin Student Center, a 25,000-square-foot science building and several dormitories.

According to board of trustees President Thomas Mueller, a restructuring of that debt is a primary reason why the college�s bottom line shifted from a $6.2 million surplus in 2007-08 to a $106,664 deficit the following year. Since then, the deficit mostly has grown. It was $2.5 million in 2012-13 and $1.7 million in 2013-14.

In a Forbes.com rating of the financial health of more than 900 private colleges, Ohio Dominican was one of only five to earn an F. (Ohio�s Urbana University was another.)

Cimbolic said Monday that none of those facts has been kept secret. �I�ve been talking about the problem regularly,� he said.

Ohio Dominican�s problems are the same as those many other small, private colleges face, Cimbolic said: Shrinking numbers of 18-year-olds each year lead to fierce competition for the relatively small number of Ohio-born students who don�t choose one of the big state schools or go out of state.

�It�s a challenging picture,� he said.

University leaders are looking to new graduate and adult-degree programs to help right the financial ship. Although virtually all Ohio Dominican undergraduates receive tuition discounts averaging more than 50 percent, graduate and adult students pay full freight. Programs such as an online and in-class MBA and a master�s degree in health-care administration have grown steadily. In all, the number of graduate credit hours has grown by 42 percent since 2012.

Alumni who signed the petition say they�re worried that the university they love won�t survive or won�t be the same for students who follow.

�It�s really at a boiling point,� said Eric Rauschenbach, a 2013 graduate and an organizer of the petition effort. �It�s bad enough that it comes up in our conversation.�

Mueller said he offered to meet with Christopher Liebold, a 2014 graduate and an author of the petition, but that Liebold answered with another petition making the same demand.

Mueller said other board members told him they support Cimbolic. He wrote to Liebold that �we therefore reject your request to remove the President in that he enjoys our full confidence and support. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I declare that this matter is closed.�

But supporters of the alumni group took the matter public, distributing copies of the petitions around campus, sliding them under doors and leaving them in common areas.

The dispute gained a higher profile on March 21, when Cimbolic sent a campuswide email taking issue with the claims in the petitions. In his message, Cimbolic said that one signer, who had written much of the first version of the petition, had sent him a letter recanting his claims and apologizing.

Justin Parrett, a 2015 graduate who just enlisted in the Air Force Reserve, confirmed Monday that he had a change of heart and wrote the apology to Cimbolic.

Cimbolic said Monday that he finds the personal criticism �perplexing and hurtful.�

Most of those lamenting the university�s financial crisis criticize Cimbolic�s salary and benefits, which started at $195,000 in 2010-11 and topped $500,000 in 2013-14. Because Cimbolic worked only six months during the 2010-11 school year, his first year's salary began at $395,000, but he was compensated $195,000 that year. The president said trustees set his compensation based on a comparison with similar colleges in Ohio.

Cimbolic said he has kept the trustees well-informed of enrollment and financial numbers and makes himself available to the campus community, including in a town-hall meeting each semester.

Most college presidents don�t regularly communicate with alumni about financial matters, he said. �I never particularly thought of (alumni) as a target audience.�

mcedward@dispatch.com

@MaryMoganEdward