Community colleges get accreditor approval for consolidation

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) has announced that it received approval from the New England Commission of Higher Education to combine the state”™s 12 community colleges into a single entity to be known as Connecticut State Community College.

The consolidation of the schools will require a change to state law before it can go into effect. The state”™s Higher Education Committee held a public hearing on Tuesday to weigh the pros and cons of the proposal, which seeks to achieve consolidation by July 2023.

In a joint statement, CSCU President Terrence Cheng and Connecticut State Interim President Michael Rooke called for the consolidation to be completed.

“All of us within this system take great pride in our 12 unique colleges in every corner of the state, each of which is a cultural, educational, and economic hub,” Cheng and Rooke said in a joint statement. “But the merger is responsive to the harsh realities that community colleges face ”“ a steady enrollment decline, lagging student success metrics, and an unsustainable financial trajectory. The plan takes material steps to address those core challenges, while maintaining the uniqueness of each of our current campuses and ensuring we have the resources to continue operations with sustainability and quality.”

However, Sam Freeman, president of the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, the union for staff and faculty members, warned that the consolidation plan was a bad idea.

“I resoundingly still feel that this is going to harm community college students across our state and that Connecticut State is not the answer to the real problems that are being faced in our system,” said Freeman in an interview with Inside Higher Ed.

Enrollment at the state”™s community colleges has been on the decline for more than a decade and the situation was made worse by the pandemic ”“ there were 37,116 students for the fall 2021 semester compared to 58,253 one year earlier. Freeman argued that creating a single entity would only create a “really bloated, statewide management” system that would be out of touch with the individual needs of each school.

“The colleges are losing our autonomy, our individuality, and what we have been seeing is this big kind of monolith, kind of one-size-fits-all system is being designed,” he said.

Photo: Norwalk Community College