Community College
Posted inEducation

CSCU regents adopt tuition hikes, consolidation framework

Avatar photo by Kyle Constable

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’

Avatar photo by Mark Pazniokas

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 inPolitics

Electric Boat plans major hiring, expansion to tackle sub ramp up

Avatar photo by Ana Radelat

WASHINGTON — The man in charge of developing and acquiring the Navy’s weapons systems said it’s going to be “a tough ramp up” to get Electric Boat’s shipyards and another at Newport News, Va., ready to meet the nation’s need for submarines. The decline in the U.S. manufacturing base and the retirement of skilled tradesmen pose key challenges.

Posted inEducation

What cuts loom at your community college or regional university?

Avatar photo by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

“This is a very challenging budget that we are looking at,” said Mark Ojakian, the president of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system. “Times of crisis are a time of opportunity. We are going to have to do business differently. We are not going to be able to sustain even this level of funding in the future. It’s going to be tough.”

Posted inCT Viewpoints

On Connecticut’s campuses, administration is not a dirty word

by Vicky Greene

During a budget crunch It’s easy to blame administrative bloat and the regional office for a college system’s ills, but can we afford independent college infrastructures or do we need a system or regional infrastructure to provide economies of scale? How important is local decision-making and in particular academic control? How do we maximize teaching resources when current funding is simply not sufficient to meet both student demand and overall organizational operating needs?

Posted inCT Viewpoints

Right fervor, wrong focus. More than Meriden campus at stake

by Terry McNulty

The potential closing of Middlesex Community College’s Meriden Center is terrible news. Nevertheless, there is one very good thing that has come from the decision to close the campus: attention. Ultimately, the conversation that needs to happen is not about the Meriden Center; rather, it is about the necessity — and obligation — to properly manage and adequately fund Connecticut’s state colleges and universities.

Posted inEducation, Politics

Senate moves to rebuke Gray, stop Meriden campus closure

Avatar photoAvatar photo by Mark Pazniokas and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

The Senate moved swiftly Wednesday to stop a surprise plan to close a community college satellite campus in a district represented by the co-chair of the legislature’s committee on higher education. On a unanimous vote, the Senate stripped administrators of the right to close any campus without legislative approval.

Posted inEducation

CSCU leader asks for contract concessions; faculty unions balk

Avatar photo by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

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.

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