Ben Barnes, who has overseen Connecticut’s state finances for eight years as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s only secretary of policy and management, was named Monday as the chief financial officer for the state’s sprawling system of community colleges and regional state universities.
Board of Regents for Higher Education
Posted inEducation
CSCU likely to seek boost in state aid, explores tuition policy options
Connecticut’s public college and university system may need to seek additional state funding next year to maintain the programs it currently offers students, administrators warned Wednesday. At the same meeting, administrators explored potential new tuition and fee policies in an effort to incentivize students to complete their degrees.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Ben Barnes under consideration for higher-education post
Ben Barnes, who has overseen Connecticut’s budget as the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management from the first days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration, is on a short list of candidates interviewed for the vacant post of chief financial officer at the state’s system of community colleges and regional universities.
Posted inEducation, Money
Merged public college system needs major boost in state funds
Faced with mandated pay hikes and surging pension costs, Connecticut’s public college and university system may need an 11 percent increase in state funding over the next two years to maintain current programs, according to a preliminary analysis from system administrators.
Posted inEducation, Money
Proposed CSCU budget would tap reserves to avert another tuition hike
A key panel within Connecticut’s consolidated higher education system endorsed the framework for a new budget Wednesday that maintains the tuition schedule but would reduce dangerously low emergency reserves.
Posted inMoney
Regents: Extra state funds not a cure-all for a system in crisis
A last-minute boost in state funding won’t stave off a looming fiscal crisis for Connecticut’s public colleges and universities, the Board of Regents for Higher Education reported Thursday.
Posted inEducation
Merging CT’s community colleges is controversial. Here’s why.
In pursuit of cost savings, a merger of all the state’s community colleges is being proposed. But some are skeptical those savings can be achieved without impacting students’ education. The Mirror explores the controversy and the experiences of other states that have tried college mergers.
Posted inEducation
Regents to consider plan for consolidating community colleges
A controversial plan to consolidate Connecticut’s 12 community colleges into a single accredited institution would shed nearly 190 people in top administrative positions by 2021.
Posted inEducation
CSCU regents adopt tuition hikes, consolidation framework
Updated at 8:13 p.m.
The Board of Regents for Higher Education adopted tuition increases that will eliminate more than half the $35-million budget deficit the state’s largest public college system is facing in the next fiscal year. The board also adopted the framework of a plan to dramatically consolidate the administrative and operational structures of many of the system’s colleges.
Posted inEducation
Ojakian pitches sweeping consolidations to keep CSCU ‘viable’
The Board of Regents for Higher Education will be asked Thursday to endorse a framework for saving at least $41 million annually through the administrative and operational consolidations of institutions that have remained autonomous since the merger in 2011 of the state’s 12 community colleges, four regional state universities and the online college, Charter Oak. The system’s president, Mark Ojakian, said the present structure no longer is viable.
Posted inEducation
Higher ed board gives Ojakian 3-year extension as president
Mark Ojakian, who took over as the leader of the state’s largest public college system amid turmoil last year, has won something his predecessors were unable to achieve – a contract extension from the system’s governing board. The extension brings no raise in his $335,000 salary.
Posted inEducation
Steep tuition hike pitched for many community college students
Updated at 7:13 p.m.
Tuition and fees would increase next semester for community college students who take more than 12 credit hours, and the regional Connecticut state universities would stop offering students health insurance under two proposals to balance a difficult budget for the state college system.
Posted inNews
Malloy directs agencies to save $130M to balance new CT budget
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy assigned nearly $130 million in total savings targets Thursday to dozens of state agencies to help balance the new state budget that begins Friday. Although legislators assigned limits in some cases to spread the burden out among as many agencies as possible, the cuts fell heaviest on social services and education.
Posted inEducation
After contract storm at state universities, relative calm in community college talks
The Board of Regents is seeking cost savings from community college faculty and staff, whose response has been notably less confrontational than that of faculty at the regional Connecticut state universities when asked for givebacks last November.
Posted inEducation
Board of Regents gives final okay to tuition hikes
The Board of Regents for Higher Education approved 3.5 to 5 percent tuition hikes for the 17 schools in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system with only one dissenting vote.