Merger plan unveiled

HARTFORD — The state’s 12 community colleges would become one accredited institution under a plan that will be reviewed Thursday by the Board of Regents for Higher Education.

The Community College of Connecticut, with more than 56,000 students, would become the fifthlargest community college in the nation, promising to make it easier for students to navigate and less costly to operate, officials said.

System President Mark Ojakian pledged Tuesday that a projected

$28 million saved in overhead costs by the time the new system is in place in July 2019 would be fed back into students services such as advisers and career counselors.

“It will make us much more competitive,” Ojakian said of a plan.

In the spring, Ojakian announced intentions to merge the college administrations while keeping all campuses open and institutional identities intact. He said that made sense even without the state’s financial challenges.

“This was all about making it easier for our students to stay in school, to complete their education and ultimately get a job,” Ojakian said.

Under the proposed system, students would only have to enroll once, fill out one financial aid form and take one placement test. About 2 percent of students now attend more than one campus. More would likely do that under the new structure, said Michael Rooke, president of Northwestern Connecticut Community College, who led the planning process.

“It is somewhat unprecedented,” Rooke said.

The Student First project involved more than 100 people and six planning committees.

Under the plan, the system would go from 12 presidents to one vice chancellor, and would shrink 36 college administrative positions into 16, with the elimination of campus financial and academic officers. Each existing community college would be governed by a vice president and would be clustered into three regions headed by a regional president.

Housatonic, Gateway, Norwalk and Middlesex, for instance, would be grouped into the same cluster overseen by a regional president.

Already, Ojakian has taken advantage of some presidential departures to begin a process of sharing leadership between the institutions. Paul Broadie, president at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, has also been at the helm of Gateway Community College in New Haven since August. The two colleges also share other key administrators.

The full consolidation process is still about two years away and would require additional work and approval from faculty, regents and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the regional accrediting agency who has been kept in the loop about the plan.

After the plan goes to the Board of Regents on Thursday, Ojakian plans three town hall meetings, one in each of the proposed college cluster areas, before returning to the regents in December for approval.

“This is not going to happen overnight,” Ojakian said. “But it should result in a much more sustainable and resilient system that will benefit students and withstand fiscal challenges.”

Ojakian