College merger plan offers a few lessons

THE ISSUE: Connecticut community college system President Mark Ojakian has inspired students and faculty members to act — to oppose his proposal to create a single accredited body of the 12 campuses to sustain them during Connecticut’s deep fiscal crisis. With more than 52,000 students, the Community College of Connecticut would be the fifth-largest community college in the United States.

WHAT WE WROTE: “These are no days to be resisting consolidation, reimagining and compromise. In Connecticut, that caveat reaches to the top of the structure, the state legislature and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and should be embraced by every other unit of government, including the state’s 169 municipal entities ... and its state community colleges . ... We agree with Barbara Brittingham, president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, who described the Ojakian plan as ‘... a bold and dramatic move to improve services to students.’” — Editorial, Oct. 22.

WHAT’S NEW: As we anticipated in that editorial, many students and faculty members are experiencing an identity crisis over the proposal and raising voices in opposition. They are mobilizing to persuade the Board of Regents for Higher Education to reject or slow down the process. In addition to sacrificing their individual and community identities, they say, funds raised through individual foundations would be diminished because donors would not want contributions to be reallocated.

As members of a family of newspapers, we know a thing or two about trepidation in the face of consolidation, particularly regarding community image. But economic realities cannot be ignored in Connecticut, and sharing resources can be mutually advantageous in some areas.

WHAT’S NEXT: Ojakian has dismissed fears of foundation resources, saying local money would stay local. The Board of Regents should allow time to build support for the plan and detail potential benefits while identifying more of them. For example, paperwork regarding everything from financial aid to enrollment should have been made common years ago, and this should enable more fluid transitions from one campus to another. Additionally, new fundraising efforts can be created to address needs shared by all the campuses.

As with any consolidation, resistance can be expected to start at the top, since staff reduction is an obvious source of savings. In this case, the plan calls for a single vice chancellor to be in charge in place of 12 individual presidents. The 36 college administrative positions will be hacked to 16. That number should suggest the state of the economic climate.

Officials at other state agencies would be wise to monitor how this plan is executed, and whether it yields the desired benefits. The alternatives are obvious: Tuitions will rise sharply and/or campuses will close.

We appreciate that students and staff campuses are embracing the past. History is, and should be, a foundation of any school. But math lessons lack the emotions of their history counterparts, and are ignored at great peril.