Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

How the ‘Students First’ college consolidation affects students

  • Education
  • by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
  • March 9, 2018
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

The state’s dozen community colleges are headed for a fiscal iceberg – and officials say there are few options to keep them afloat over the next few years.

One option is to close one of the regional schools.

CT Mirror file photo

Students on campus at Manchester Community College

“There are four community colleges within 12 miles of Hartford. We are asking one of those to be closed,” said state Rep. Terrie E. Wood, R-Darien. She was speaking late last year — shortly after the General Assembly passed a Republican budget that cut funding for the state’s community colleges by about $10 million next fiscal year.

The state budget ultimately signed by the governor retained that $10 million hit, a 7 percent cut – the latest reduction in state aid over the last several years. Declining student enrollment has not been adequate to compensate for the loss of revenue.

And so with the next fiscal year just four months away – and little hope that state funding will be increased as legislators grapple with a fiscal crisis of their own – the Board of Regents for Higher Education today approved a plan that rejects closing a campus and instead dramatically downsizes administrative staff. The move to consolidate 12 individually accredited community colleges into one accredited college with 12 campuses is projected to save $28 million.

“Given the cutbacks in support for these institutions in our state – particularly in the last budget – I don’t think there’s a lot of leeway,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told reporters on the eve of the vote. “Efficiencies are going to have to be found, and I think this is a set of proposals designed to effect those efficiencies.”

The college system’s president has repeatedly said his proposed reorganization and administrative consolidation – dubbed “Students First” – is the only alternative to closing a campus or further slashing library hours and other services students rely on.

In releasing his 82-page plan last week, President Mark Ojakian told reporters, “This is an attempt to stop the bleeding. It prioritizes shrinking resources… If we don’t do something, the only chance you have left is closing a campus.”

Faculty leaders aren’t pleased with the changes, however, and hope the New England Association of Schools and Colleges rejects the plan when it comes before them for consideration April 18. The community college system needs the organization’s accreditation so its students can receive financial aid.

So what exactly is being changed in this plan? Here’s a rundown of the changes most likely to affect students.

No more department chairs

When students have a problem with a grade they received or other aspects of their education, department chairs at many of the colleges are tasked with trying to remedy the situation. Faculty rely on their department chairs to help them when problems arise and also to be their voice to college administrators.

Ojakian’s plan does away with these positions beginning in July 2020, replacing them with a handful of associate deans.

Related links

Merging CT’s community colleges is controversial. Here’s why.

Major consolidation pitched for CT community colleges

Currently, the teaching load on department chairs is reduced so they have the time to take on their added responsibilities. The time chairs are exempted from having to teach amounts to the course load of 62 full-time faculty, officials say.

“That reassigned time removes our most talented faculty from the classroom, increasing our reliability on adjunct faculty to educate our students,” Provost Jane McBride Gates explained during an interview.

By getting rid of chairs, more than 100 faculty members would begin teaching more courses – a change that would lead to an estimated 623 additional three-credit courses being taught by faculty.

Currently there are 800 full-time faculty scattered among the 12 community colleges. That figure, Ojakian promises, will not change with this plan. However, many of the additional courses that group will be expected to teach will be offset by the planned reduction of 29 part-time, adjunct faculty – a 1.2 percent reduction.

The proposed elimination of these department chair positions is upsetting to faculty. That’s because many view these chairs as their advocates who understand the nuances and challenges they face — problems that may be unique to their departments. And so doing away with these dozens of positions and replacing them with no more than four full-time associate deans at each campus is worrisome to them.

William Lugo of Eastern Connecticut State University, the faculty representative to the Board of Regents and a former department chair himself, told members of the governing board’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee this week that such a change will create more problems for them.

That’s because when faculty have a problem, “the department chair almost every time will solve it… If that department chair were not there, I can promise you, you are not going to go to the dean and you are not going to go to [human resources]. You are going to go to your union to get those issues resolved [through a grievance]. And so I worry that we are opening up the pandora’s box here.”

During a Faculty Advisory Committee last week, faculty leaders from around the state decided to look into whether the regents are violating their contract with the union by doing away with the department chair positions.

Common courses across the colleges

Very few community college students take courses at more than one campus. While it’s unclear whether there is much demand for that among students, the plan aims to test that by better accommodating students’ wish to take courses anywhere in the system they want. By doing so, leaders say, students can take courses that can fit better into their work schedules and other demands on their time. It also will help if a course they need is not available at the campus they typically attend.

The linchpin of this approach are the so-called “common courses” that will count toward meeting degree requirements no matter which campus they attend.

Where the state’s community colleges are located, and the new regions that will be overseen by a new administrative setup

But blending the curriculum standards for similar courses so that they fulfill degree requirements across campuses is messy – and time consuming – work.

It took a decade to ensure that the courses students took to earn  26 various associates degrees met the curriculum standards for earning the first half of a bachelor’s degree at a regional Connecticut State University. Currently, just 5 percent of community college students are on the path to benefit from that curriculum alignment.

The plan the regents plan to vote on Friday has an aggressive timeline.

It promises that faculty and college leaders will have reached agreement and voted by October on the common courses students will be able to take at any campus to earn a General Education Degree.

Faculty doubts that can be accomplished so quickly and still preserve high standards of educational quality. “It’s not going to be done by October,” said Robert Brown, a faculty member at Tunxis Community College in Farmington.

Developing common curriculum for up to 700 remaining courses will need to be accomplished over the next two years. “The goal is to streamline as many courses as possible,” Ojakian said.

Professors are skeptical. “This is a mess,” said Stephen Adair, a professor at Central Connecticut State University. “This doesn’t comprehend what’s being asked.”

“We feel like we are on the Millennium Falcon here. We are moving at light speed,” said ECSU’s Lugo.

College administrators say the deadlines can be flexible – even though the plan proposed to the accrediting body outlines firm deadlines.

Provost Gates  said the General Education course alignment is almost ready because of work that was done to ensure community college credits can transfer to the state universities.

“So the remaining are manageable,” she said.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas is CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter and an original member of the CT Mirror staff. She has won first-place awards for investigative reporting from state, New England, and national organizations. Before joining CT Mirror in late 2009, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. She has also worked for Congressional Quarterly and the Toledo Free Press. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
What we’ve lost, what we’ve learned during our year of COVID
by CT Mirror Staff

On March 6, 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been detected in Connecticut, and within weeks, life as we knew it was a memory. Schools were shut down, universities emptied, businesses shuttered. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be able to work from home set up shop at our […]

1,500 Hartford school staff to be vaccinated this week at pop-up clinic
by Adria Watson

Vaccinations are taking place Thursday and Friday. A second round will be scheduled in coming days.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

As the push to reopen schools intensifies, Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden travel to Meriden to show how this town did it
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson

Cardona said getting the nation's schools reopened is priority No. 1.

Bill would create sexual misconduct climate surveys for Connecticut’s colleges
by Adria Watson

The surveys would be conducted every two years.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Opinion Students need more resources, fewer officers
by Tenille Bonilla

"School resource officer" is just a nice way to say cop. But what students really need is more resource and less officer.

Opinion The Board of Regents’ changes must not shortchange its students or faculty
by Carrie Andreoletti, PhD

As a university professor and a lifespan developmental psychologist, I tend to approach my work from a developmental perspective. This means I aim to foster a lifelong love of learning and to help others find a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as confidence in their ability to reach their goals. My approach to higher education is shaped by my desire to provide the best possible education for my students. This is why the recent Board of Regents’ proposed changes at the four state universities have me worried.

Opinion How to close schooling opportunity gaps created by the pandemic
by Carol Gale

We ask school district leaders to trust your public servants whose daily work life involves assessing student needs and planning or modifying instruction to meet those needs. Listen to their voices, as we have, and allocate precious resources on interventions that will offer increased opportunities for Hartford students to succeed.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO