As Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pushes ahead with a plan to consolidate Connecticut”™s state university system with its community colleges, a former chancellor warned of consequences for any decision by the new Board of Regents for Higher Education to stiffen admission requirements at two-year institutions in a bid to limit costs caused by skyrocketing enrollment and increase student success rates.
Marc Herzog, who had been chancellor of the Connecticut Community Colleges since 2000, submitted his resignation two days after Malloy signed a budget that consolidates the administration of those colleges with that of the Connecticut State University system. Malloy”™s choice to lead the new regents board is Michael Meotti, among the few holdovers from the tenure of former Gov. Jodi M. Rell who has been commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Higher Education.
In June, Malloy was one of three governors to take the New England Journal of Higher Education up on an offer to publish articles outlining the future of colleges and universities in their states. Malloy noted that more than one-third who enrolled at a Connecticut state university campus also took classes at a community college while they pursued an undergraduate degree. That is evidence, Malloy said, of students changing the way they attend college, disregarding traditional notions of two-year and four-year educations and so requiring stronger partnerships between two-year colleges and four-year universities.
Last month at an economic forum in Torrington, Malloy tacked the question of how community colleges can better match graduates to the needs of employers in Connecticut.
“Some of them have adapted very well; some of them have not adapted particularly well, nor have our four regional universities adapted particularly well,” Malloy said. “I think that in other states a stronger connection (exists) between the business community, community colleges and regional universities ”¦ than currently exists here. And so I think we need to work on making sure that ”¦ we make those contacts and that we make it easier for the students to get the kind of training, to build the kinds of jobs that are available in their backyard. For some reason we”™ve given that more lip service than we”™ve given it actual time in the classroom.”
In an online response to Malloy”™s New England Journal of Higher Education piece, Herzog noted comments by Meotti to the Connecticut Mirror that only students with a track record that suggests they can succeed in community college should be admitted.
“This new ”˜selective”™ policy for admission ”¦ would certainly limit the number of students entering public higher education,” Herzog wrote. “It would also most likely deprive those students who need help with developmental studies ”¦ any opportunity to succeed or to improve their lives and earning potential.”
That will be a major question for the board of regents, to which Malloy last month named two Fairfield County financiers among nine people to fill out his appointments. New Canaan resident Gary Holloway runs the Stamford-based hedge fund Five Mile Capital Partners L.L.C., and before that was chairman of Greenwich Capital Markets, which was subsequently acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland. Zac Zeitlin of Westport is a former partner of Silver Point Capital. Since retiring last year he has advised several education-focused organizations, including Domus, a Stamford-based charter school and community outreach organization.
The new regents will get to work putting together the two systems even as community colleges nationally are taking a hard look at their future after prodding this past spring by the White House. In June, the American Association of Community Colleges formed a commission of nearly 40 people to address the future of community colleges ”“ but did not include a Connecticut representative on its panel of nearly 40 people.
