The career public employee with a reputation for lowering the temperature in heated situations hopes that quality will help him resolve the underlying fiscal, labor and educational issues that plagued his predecessors.
College
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Let’s not gut Connecticut’s public universities
Almost all of the recent Board of Regents for Higher Education’s negotiating points aim at gutting the idea of a public university.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Stop running universities like corporations
With capitalism driving higher education, we’re headed in the wrong direction and it’s time for students and the public alike, to turn it around.
Posted inPolitics
This Week in Washington
Congress moved at the 11th hour to avert a government shutdown, but it’s only a short-term fix — with a new budget deadline of Dec. 11. Access Health CT CEO James Wadleigh defended the operations of Connecticut’s health exchange to skeptical GOP lawmakers. Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini’s plans to merge with Humana were also scrutinized by a House panel this week.
Posted inMoney
CT continues to lead nation in income, but wealth poorly distributed
WASHINGTON – Connecticut continues to lead the nation when it comes to personal income, federal economists say, but other reports show the state is also No. 1 when it comes to the uneven distribution of that wealth between the very rich and everyone else.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Two tiers in Connecticut higher ed: UConn and everyone else
I have the hard-earned privilege of being a professor at Southern Connecticut State University — a major regional educational institution whose research and teaching provide an immediate and enduring benefit to New Haven and the whole state. I am proud of my students, colleagues, and school; at the same time, I am disappointed with system politics and Connecticut’s willingness to construct a two-tiered system for its students in higher education: The University of Connecticut and everyone else.
Posted inEducation
For the interim, Ojakian can just say he’s ‘president’
“Notwithstanding the interim nature of this appointment, the President shall not be required to reference ‘interim’ in connection with his title as President of the CT Board of Regents,” Ojakian’s four-page contract reads.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House approves bill to restrict tax exemption for colleges, hospitals
The House of Representatives approved a measure early Friday that would end a portion of the municipal tax exemption long possessed by private, nonprofit colleges and hospitals.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Hey, CSCU Board of Regents: Enough is enough!
The Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education needs to take heed: Students at Manchester Community College and many other Connecticut State Colleges and Universities are livid at how their tuition has increased and critically important programs, many of which are required to graduate, are being cut.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Frustrated UConn graduate assistants want fair contract, lower fees
If the University of Connecticut can afford to pay more in administration costs than almost any other university, surely it can afford to reduce graduate student fees to a level comparable with peer universities. Graduate students at UConn want a fair contract, including a fee reduction, so they can afford the local cost of living and continue to provide the university with the quality education and research we’ve all come to expect.
Posted inEducation
Faculty leaders pitch no-confidence vote in president
Faculty unrest at the state’s four regional universities and community colleges is once again rising, and faculty leaders are asking the staff at each institution to consider taking a vote of no-confidence in the system’s president, Gregory Gray.
Posted inEducation
Closing a Meriden campus just the beginning of college cuts
As public protests mount against the unexpected announcement that Middlesex Community College’s Meriden campus will close this spring, students and the public can brace for many more sudden cuts at the state’s community colleges and four regional universities.
Posted inEducation
CSCU leader asks for contract concessions; faculty unions balk
Updated at 3:39 p.m.
With plans to cut spending by $22 million, the president of the state’s largest public college system is asking union leaders for concessions. But the presidents of the two largest unions representing employees at the community colleges and Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Connecticut state universities say they aren’t interested.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: Connecticut should try performance-based funding for colleges
Two weeks ago, statewide newspapers reported the governor’s proposed budget for public post-secondary education is nearly $50 to $80 million less than needed to support the operations at the University of Connecticut System and the Connecticut State College and University System.
Posted inEducation
CSCU officials recommend students pay 4.8 to 5.3 percent more
Officials of the state’s largest public college system have recommended to its governing board that community college students be charged between 4.8 and 5.3 percent more in tuition and fees next school year. They also recommend charging students attending the four regional Connecticut State Universities 4.8 percent more.