🔒Cheng leads CT’s state colleges through consolidation, greater focus on job-training programs

Terrence Cheng has work to do.

In July, Cheng started his tenure as president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system as its four universities and 12 community colleges undergo a period marked by change and challenges.

As head of CSCU, Cheng, 49, will oversee consolidation of its community colleges, a move that’s been controversial among some faculty who have expressed misgivings about merging a dozen institutions into a single entity. Meanwhile, enrollment numbers for fall 2021 reflect a continuing downward trend, despite expectations of a post-COVID bounce back. Add to that, pressure from state government and private industry to provide more training in Connecticut industries facing worker shortages.

“It’s going to take a significant all-hands-on-deck effort to really start to reconstitute the DNA of the institutions in our system to establish that 21st-century value proposition that resonates with students,” Cheng said. “We don’t have an option except to embrace that.”

For Cheng, that means maintaining and growing ties to Connecticut’s business community in designing new or expanding successful workforce training programs, and using community college consolidation to increase connectivity between CSCU’s campuses.

A 10-year veteran of the City University of New York system who most recently ran UConn’s Stamford campus, Cheng says he’s a believer in public higher education, and sees community colleges as an important workforce development engine.

Under Cheng, UConn Stamford secured a $1 million grant from quasi-public venture fund Connecticut Innovations for internship and workforce development programs. And since starting at CSCU in July, he’s been working closely with the Governor’s Workforce Council, the state Office of Workforce Strategy and the business community on initiatives to expand workforce development efforts at the community college level, he said.

Deficits, declining enrollment

Since Cheng’s predecessor, Mark Ojakian, spearheaded CSCU’s consolidation plan, the idea has been controversial — with some faculty vocally opposing it. Cheng said he understands concerns that the move could cause institutions in the system to lose their individual identities. But he also said the current situation is untenable.

Between consistent declining enrollments and budget deficits something needs to change.

“If we don’t make a big move, then we’re going to be facing greater danger than we are now, and I think that’s something that we have to be brutally honest about,” Cheng said. “The risk of doing nothing is that we die a little bit more every day.”

When Ojakian in 2017 first proposed the consolidation plan to cut out each institution’s president, budget staff and other administrative positions and form an integrated staff for all community colleges, CSCU had posted consistent budget deficits and falling enrollment numbers for years.

Full-time enrollment across CSCU schools fell 25% from the fall semester of 2010 to fall 2020, when just over 33,565 students were enrolled full time, data show. Enrollment dropped almost every year during that period, but CSCU administrators hoped the system would see a post-COVID bounce back in 2021, Cheng said. But in September, CSCU enrolled just 30,265 full-time pupils.

“At a certain point the legislature will turn to us and ask, ‘what exactly are you doing? Why should we continue to fund this operation if the student outcomes are not where we want them to be, if your enrollment continues to drop?’ “ Cheng said.

Projections based on a Board of Regents progress report in September indicate the possibility of a $32 million budget deficit this year. The board will discuss the matter and look at options during a meeting this month, but current numbers indicate Cheng may have to make some difficult budgetary decisions over the next year.

CSCU already named David Levison as the forthcoming Connecticut Community College’s interim president, and Cheng said officials will submit final consolidation plans to the regional higher education accreditation board, the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), by early spring. He expects a decision for approval before the summer.

If NECHE provides final approval, CSCU’s community colleges will operate as a single entity — Connecticut Community College — beginning fall 2023.

Private-sector partnership

From the outset, the consolidation plan was intended — in part — as a cost-savings measure, but Cheng said the new setup will also enable CSCU to bolster workforce development efforts with input from Connecticut’s business community.

Since around the time of the 2008 financial crisis, higher education institutions nationwide observed a shift in student demand away from classical liberal arts programs and toward ones providing training for specific jobs. That dovetails with Connecticut’s current labor market, which is hurting for skilled workers in fields like manufacturing, health care and IT. In fact, Office of Workforce Strategy Executive Director Kelli-Marie Vallieres has identified the state’s community colleges as a lynchpin to the state’s future workforce development efforts.

To this end, Cheng said he intends to expand community college programs for manufacturing, health care, IT, business services and life sciences — all sectors identified by state government as industries with growth potential in the Constitution State. As part of this effort, Cheng said he sees private sector actors as invaluable partners.

And the feeling appears to be mutual.

“I would like to see a strong partnership between the business community [and CSCU],” said Chris DiPentima, CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the state’s largest business lobby. “I also hope CSCU focuses on the current problem we have — we have a massive labor shortage,”

In August, Connecticut posted a 7.2% unemployment rate — higher than the national rate of 5.2%, and significantly above the 3.6% jobless rate Connecticut reported in Aug. 2019, according to state labor department data. Meanwhile, Gov. Ned Lamont recently said there are 71,000 open positions in the state and over 90,000 residents sitting on the sidelines.

DiPentima said he hopes CSCU under Cheng engages with employers, and allows them input on job-training programs so that students are learning skills employers need.

Jamison Scott, executive director of New Haven trade group ManufactureCT, is similarly bullish about working with CSCU on job training. Manufacturers have a long-running problem filling positions being vacated by retiring older workers, and he said advanced manufacturing training programs at community colleges are key to solving it.

“We are certainly heading in the right direction, the state [and CSCU] have been great partners,” Scott said.

CSCU Board of Regents Chair Matt Fleury said liberal arts education is still an important part of the system — and he sees some talk of demand shifting away from it as overblown — but he agrees with Cheng’s belief that educators should engage with employers more.

Fleury, who is also president of the Connecticut Science Center, said the CSCU board chose wisely when they hired Cheng, and that his initiative to work with employers — who could provide students with internships, apprenticeships and eventually jobs — could benefit enrollment and state employment figures

“An urgent challenge tends to bring people together for solutions, and I believe that employers and educators in Connecticut have become more aware of the need to partner,” Fleury said. “For higher education, we’re right there in the middle of employers with jobs to fill, and individuals looking for opportunity.”