nothin Mr. Gray, Meet Ms. Walker | New Haven Independent

Mr. Gray, Meet Ms. Walker

Paul Bass Photo

“I am the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee,” Walker (left) told Gray (right).

The new chief of Connecticut’s troubled public-college system brought a rescue pitch to New Haven — and left newly informed about some of the help and the information he may need to pull off his plans.

The pitch came during a Monday visit to Gateway Community College’s downtown campus.

State Board of Regents for Higher Education President Gregory Gray made the pitch to Gateway students, faculty and staff and then to some two dozen community leaders. It was stop Number 14 for Gray on a tour of all 17 campuses (12 community colleges, four four-year universities, plus an online system) that he oversees statewide. He took over the job in July with the mission of turning around a 100,000-student system plagued by financial and management woes and enrollment declines. (Click here to read a document Gray prepared listing his 23 goals” for improving the system.)

Gray with city human services chief Althea Marshall Brooks.

Speaking to business and political leaders shortly before noon, Gray asked for help in building a world-class system of higher education” in Connecticut. He asked their help, for instance, in convincing legislators to increase state spending on community colleges. The state spends $10,500 a year on University of Connecticut students, he said (UConn is not under the Board of Regents’ purview). It spends just $6,900 on students at other four-year colleges (such as Southern Connecticut State University), and less than $6,000 on community-college students. He’d like to see public high schools identify by students’ junior years whether they’ll need remedial language or math help to enter community college, so the students can get that help sooner than they do now (often just months before freshman year begins).

Gray fielded questions from, among others, New Haven state Rep. Toni Walker — who as co-chair of the Appropriations Committee is one of the key legislators he needs to convince.

He didn’t show any sign of recognizing her, so she approached him afterwards.

I am the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee,” she told him.

On almost everything,” she added, I’m right there with you.”

Walker later said she especially wants to see support for community-college students increased. Would that money come at the expense of UConn, legislators’ educational favorite? I’m not trying to take any money from them,” Walker said, but perhaps the state should slow down some of the aggressive” support plans it has for the university.

To get there, Walker said, urban legislators need to work together to push for support for a system that especially helps people in cities.

Walker also seconded Gray’s call for focusing the community-college system on five main career clusters”: allied health, finance, information technology, advanced manufacturing, and hospitality.

If we want to bring more businesses to Connecticut, we have to provide them with a workforce,” Walker argued.

An aide later said Gray had yet to meet Walker before Monday. That’s one goal of his statewide tour — to meet, among others, the legislators with whom he’ll need to work in the 2014 legislative session. After Gateway he went to another session, at Southern Connecticut State University. There he met with, among others, the other co-chair of the Appropriations Committee: New Haven state Sen. Toni Harp. (Whether she’ll still have that job in 2014 depends on the outcome of the Nov. 5 New Haven mayoral election; Harp is the Democratic candidate.)

SUNY-Like

Yale’s Diane Turner with Gray at Gateway Monday.

Fundamental to Gray’s plan is merging all the community colleges and four-year universities in his system more closely together, forming a more centralized system of campuses akin to the State University of New York (SUNY).

At present those campuses go their own way,” he said. He’d like to see them have similar curricula; a common academic calendar; common transfer evaluations; a common registration process that enables students to take courses at multiple campuses, and have those courses count toward their degrees.

The different campuses should also learn from each other, to see what works well, he said.

He learned Monday that Gateway may have lessons for other campuses about enrollment.

In his discussion with administrators and staff, he spoke, as he does at other campuses, about how enrollment is down. Overall enrollment statewide has dropped for four straight years, for a total of 4.3 percent.

An administrator corrected him: Gateway’s enrollment has in fact steadily risen, helped by, among other factors, flexible class hours (early in the morning, later at night), staff guidance for students entering the system, and community outreach. The college this year has a record 8,320 students.

I was rightfully told I was wrong,” Gray said later. I stand corrected.”

As he wound up his New Haven visit, he was asked what has enabled Gateway to grow, unlike Connecticut’s other community colleges.

I don’t know the answer,” Gray responded. I will find out.”

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