UB facing end of its independence

BRIDGEPORT — Keep the campus, keep the name.

That was the recurring message delivered Tuesday from City Council members to the representatives of four private universities who are working to divvy up the University of Bridgeport.

“Do all it can to keep the name somewhere in there,” Councilman Ernie Newton said on a virtual meeting of the City Council’s Education and Social Services Committee watched remotely by at least 75 participants.

Guarantees were not offered.

The best that officials from UB, Sacred Heart

University in Fairfield, Goodwin University in East Hartford and Paier College in Hamden could do was reassure council members they would try their best. The name, they conceded, may be up to regulators to decide.

“It’s what I want to do,” said Goodwin President Mark Scheinberg, whose institution stands to swallow up the bulk of UB’s programs and buildings.

Scheinberg, who wasn’t firm on the name, seemed more certain on a timeline.

“UB will cease to be an independent institution at the end of this calendar year,” Scheinberg said bluntly, sitting on the call alongside Maria Ellis, chair of his board of trustees.

Most of the two-and-ahalf-hour Zoom session was spent explaining a deal,

announced publicly in June, that left city council members blindsided.

“We feel we were invaded,” said City Council member Jorge Cruz, whose South End district includes UB.

Cruz promised Tuesday’s meeting will be followed up with another for the public to ask questions. A date has not yet been set.

Acting UB President Stephen Healey apologized for the secrecy but said he was busy tending to a university facing hard decisions.

Healey took charge of UB in April. President Laura Trombley had abruptly quit. Enrollment and revenue were shrinking at the 97year-old institution. The pandemic was upending operations at higher education institutions everywhere.

“The university is relatively reasonably secure right now,” Healey said. “We can’t wait until things

are desperate.”

Word got out that UB was in bad shape: Healey said he started getting calls from other higher education institutions when he took over in April.

The three that rose to the top, Healey said, were Sacred Heart, Goodwin and Paier.

Scheinberg assured council members they learned of the plan only a few weeks after it was proposed. He called the talks still sensitive.

“It could still blow up,” Scheinberg said. “This is not simple. There is still horse trading going on. I am working to make it happen.”

Scheinberg said Goodwin serves the same kind of career-oriented, low-income students as UB. He called it smart for UB officials to find partners while it was still healthy enough to be attractive to potential partners.

“If they went out of business, it would be cata

strophic for everybody,” Scheinberg said. “We are not here to cherry pick .... or go down and sell off property to make money.”

The plan is for Paier College to take over UB’s Shintaro Akatsu School of Design.

Paier President Joseph Bierbaum, said his plan is to keep the design school at UB, tapping into a whole new market.

Sacred Heart officials say they are now interested in taking UB’s School of Nutrition and College of Chiropractic. Goodwin would take the rest, some 60 programs in all, including education and engineering.

Scheinberg said UB programs would stay in Bridgeport. He foresees little commingling between Goodwin’s Bridgeport and East Hartford student bodies.

Some UB staff have already been let go, such as UB’s entire undergraduate admissions office, he said.

Since UB won’t be recruiting a class for the fall, Scheinberg said there was no work for them to do. The new institutions will assume recruitment.

Council Member Denese Taylor-Moye, who also represents the UB district, asked what UB would be named if it ultimate is changed. The UB Campus of Goodwin University or Bridgeport University Park were two suggestions.

Some council members seemed satisfied by the exchange.

Council Member Jeanette Herron said it sounds like the programs Goodwin offers, including working with homeless populations, were amazing.

“We need that in Bridgeport,” Herron said. “I’m hoping this works through.”

Others remain unconvinced.

Council member Alfredo Castillo said he sought to work with UB officials and

seek federal assistance to save the private university before the partnership and still wants to.

“We know what is best for our city,” Castillo said.

Cruz called the virtual meeting the beginning of looking into how the merger plan happened.

“We are not done asking our question,” Cruz said.

The presidents still won’t disclose the financial arrangements of the deal. Scheinberg would only say his institution will spend tens of millions of dollars to make it happen.

Council members pressed about what role Mayor Joe Ganim played in the talks.

The presidents said to their knowledge Ganim played no role in the deal.

Ganim was not at the committee meeting. Cruz said he intends to meet with the mayor privately.