University of Bridgeport charts a new course
The theme of December’s University of Bridgeport commencement — its 112th since its 1927 founding — was reinvention.
“UB is about being made new,” Interim President Stephen Healey told graduates at a virtual ceremony broadcast online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a theme that befit more than just those sitting at home in caps and gowns, newly minted with certificates and degrees.
By all indications, next fall UB will have the same name but will be a different university than the one the winter class of 2020 is leaving.
UB, once again, is changing.
It started out as a junior college, rose to become a doctoral degree-granting institution that beckoned more than 9,100 students by 1969, only to nearly go broke before being saved by a more than $100 million investment from the controversial Unification Church. Now, UB finds itself once again in the market for a savior.
This time, the help is coming from East Hartford.
With approval from the New England Commission of Higher Education in hand, Goodwin University President Mark Scheinberg said he also now has approval from Citizens Bank to pay off what UB debt the bank had not forgiven and set a new course for this 93-yearold institution that occupies more than 50 acres along Long Island Sound.
The deal
Scheinberg insists the deal is in a good place even though deadlines keep shifting. He would only say a closing is weeks away.
“I am 100 percent confident this is moving forward,” Scheinberg said.
UB owed more than $60 million, he said. Of that, he said $30 million has been written off by the bank. Goodwin has a letter of intent to take on UB’s remaining $32.5 million in debt, plus invest another $20 million in the venture.
“No bank wants us to buy something unless they are sure there is enough extra money there to take care of turnaround,” said Scheinberg.
The closing is to take place once new surveys of UB property are complete. Then, the land purchase will be filed with the city.
UB is to be a separate nonprofit running as a subsidiary of Goodwin University — not unlike Goodwin’s land trust in East Hartford, its foundation or its East Hartford magnet schools.
Goodwin can take on all this new debt because it has little of its own. According to Goodwin’s 2017-18 Internal Revenue Service filing, it took in $16 million more than it spent. That same year, UB lost $6.4 million, and the following year, $8.3 million.
With the NECHE approval in hand, students can continue to qualify for federal financial aid and have their degrees recognized.
The new UB still has 13 program accreditations to go through. Most are sorted out, according to Scheinberg.
Goodwin is posting jobs for a vast majority of the positions at UB on Goodwin’s website. UB is said to have roughly 360 full-time employees. All have to reapply for their jobs, Scheinberg said, for UB to be recognized as a new corporation.
That said, it is expected most people working for UB now will be hired to do their same jobs at the new UB. Faculty under the new UB, however, will not have tenure.
UB will have a president, a chief financial officer, and a new board, although Scheinberg says it is possible some existing UB board members will remain.
It is not yet clear what role Healey, who has been with the university for two decades, will play in the new UB. Scheinberg will only say he has worked incredibly hard.
Healey continues to put a positive spin on enrollment, which he said recently stood at about 4,000 for the spring. The budget, he added is “stabilized.”
Gone glory days
UB moved to its campus along Seaside Park in 1950. It is home to the nation’s first school of dental hygiene and a host of graduate programs including a College of Chiropractic Medicine. In the late 1960s and early 1970s UB was teeming with students, but even then there were signs of financial trouble. Enrollment began falling. Deficits were reported. Calls for faculty pay cuts led to bitter strikes.
Nearly bankrupt and down to 1,383 students in 1991, UB the following year entered a deal with the Professors World Peace Academy, funded by the Unification Church. The church pumped millions into the university in exchange for the right to name 60 percent of UB’s trustees. The intent, never realized, was to use UB as a hub for a network of universities across the globe.
The funding kept UB alive, but at a price. Many viewed the church as a cult. Alumni and donors turned away. Neil Salonen, a church member, became UB president in 1999. By the time he retired in 2017, he had won most members of the community over by helping the university slowly increase enrollment, live within its means and grow a modest endowment.
Salonen left as the Trump travel ban took hold, cutting deeply into UB’s reliance on international students who tend to pay full tuition. His successor, Laura Trombley, tried to steer UB toward a more liberal arts focus. She lasted at UB 18 months, leaving for a new job as the pandemic pushed classes online.
By the time Healey took over in April 2020, UB was burning through its operating cash and unrestricted cash reserves. A number of options were considered to put the university back on solid footing, Healey said.
“We were considering staying independent and operate that way,” he said.
But then calls came from potential partners.
In June, a plan was announced to split UB between Goodwin, Paier College in Hamden and Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. That idea would have meant the end of UB.
Then Sacred Heart backed out, based on UB enrollment projections they said were less than they expected.
That gave Scheinberg a straighter path forward.
NECHE President Larry Schall, who issued a Dec. 2 statement confirming the substantial change proposal that will result in Goodwin “buying” UB, said each collaboration is different. NECHE, he added, has approved a number of complex ones.
Since its inception, the accrediting body has overseen 108 mergers, closures or withdrawals of accreditation of New England higher education institutions — among them Marlboro College which a year ago was considering merging with UB.
Salonen said he feels good about Scheinberg and his plan for UB.
“It is a slightly different model than UB, but he has a business plan that makes sense,” Salonen said.
He called Scheinberg realistic. “That is what UB needs,” he said, adding, UB may reach 100 years yet.
Not everyone is convinced
Bridgeport City Council member Alfredo Castillo, D-126, said he wants to see UB survive, too. But he and several other council members, as well as Stanley Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP, say Goodwin is not the answer.
Reminiscent of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens that formed after UB became affiliated with the Unification Church in 1992, this group is upset that the council was kept in the dark about merger plans. Castillo said he wants the university to continue serving the city’s minority population. He said he does not think UB Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Berchem or Mayor Joseph Ganim have the city or UB’s best interests at heart.
City Council member Mike DeFilippo, D-133, said he does not like that someone from the outside is gaining control of one of the city’s finest assets. He insists there are investors trying to get the capital to buy UB’s debt from Citizens Bank before Goodwin does.
He won’t say who, or what the plan is for running the university if they were successful.
“I’ve heard no such thing and, if true, would have,” said Berchem of any attempt to cut ahead of the Goodwin deal.
State Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport, a lawyer who has been in conversations with upset community members, said he is not a party to any legal action concerning the deal but agrees the arrangement got off on the wrong foot.
There are strong reservations, Bradley said, that stem from a fear that Goodwin is really only after UB’s land.
While Goodwin has a university in East Hartford, it also has a lot of taxable property. Bradley worries the UB campus will not be used solely for educational purposes — regardless of any accreditation it receives or promises made — and that Goodwin programs are not of UB’s caliber.
“We want to see UB flourish and thrive,” said Bradley. “We will be watching to make sure they do what they say they will do. If this goes through, we will monitor it.”
Scheinberg has said his only interest in UB is as an educational institution. He agrees Goodwin and UB are different kinds of universities. He plans on keeping it that way.
He said he is disappointed he has not been able to win some council members over.
“We are a nonprofit putting ourselves at some risk,” Scheinberg said. “The opportunity to do this is astounding.”
The new UB
Scheinberg describes a new UB that will have most of the programs it has now: strong graduate level and undergraduate programs that will include more opportunities to succeed.
“If someone takes a risk to get a bachelor’s degree, why not give them an associate’s after two and a certificate after one?” said Scheinberg. “Some credential so they can get a job while on their way to bachelor or masters degree.”
As for campus life, sports are to return. Jack McFarland, a high school baseball coach whose daughter is on UB’s softball team, has his fingers crossed.
“Coaches are doing Zoom calls to communicate,” he said.
“The hope is to start practicing when we return for second semester,” said McFarland, calling it a very positive sign.
There is a transition team working to shape the new UB. Scheinberg said the plan will succeed where other plans for UB have failed because money will be spent more wisely.
“We found lots of places where the budgeting was puzzling,” he said. “There was a lot of administrative duplication.”
At the new UB, admissions inquiries will be met with a response in 15 minutes or less, Scheinberg pledged.
When the pandemic ends, Scheinberg expects a large number of people seeking retraining for new jobs. Enrollment, he said, will increase.
“Our fall of 2021 will be larger than (UB) was in 2020,” Scheinberg said. “If we do our work right, post pandemic, there will be a groundswell of students seeking to be students in areas that lead to careers.”
Will this time work?
Ricardo Azziz, author of “Strategic Mergers in Higher Education,” said UB is doing what perhaps 30 percent of the nation’s 4,300 colleges, should do in merging.
Azziz said it is not unusual for acquired colleges to keep their names or become self-standing subsidiaries of other institutions.
Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, said she doesn’t see additional mergers of the independent colleges in Connecticut taking place in the near future, rather more partnerships and collaborations aimed at cutting costs.
The best chance for success, according to Azziz, is if UB has good leadership, a compelling vision, an appropriate sense of urgency, strong management and sufficient resources.
His advice to the community at large is to consider whether the deal will benefit students and produce more opportunities.
And in some ways, UB is doing just what Azziz recommends: making the move while it still has life.
“The biggest mistake is waiting too long,” he said.