Board of Governors for Higher Education

At a Glance

VALERIE F. LEWIS, Commissioner

Established – 1983

Statutory authority – CGS Section 10a-6

Central office - 61 Woodland Street,

Hartford, 06105-2326

Average number of full-time employees - 47

Recurring operating expenses (General Fund) –

Total System: $610.8 million; Board of Governors: $45.5 million

Organizational structure - Office of the Commissioner; three Offices for Academic Affairs, Finance and Administration, and Programs and Services.

Mission

The Board of Governors’ statutory mission, shared by the Department of Higher Education, is to: maintain standards of quality, ensuring a position of national leadership for Connecticut higher education institutions; assure the fullest possible use of available resources in public and independent colleges and universities; foster flexibility in the policies and institutions of higher education, enabling the system to respond to changes in the economy, society, technology and student interests; apply the resources of higher education to the problems of society; provide learning and training opportunities related to the state’s economic, cultural and educational development; protect academic freedom; and ensure educational opportunity for all qualified persons, regardless of age, sex, ethnic background or social, physical or economic conditions.

Statutory Responsibility

The Board of Governors’ statutory duties include review of public college operating and capital budget requests and expenditures, licensure and accreditation of academic programs and institutions (public and independent), coordination of programs and services throughout the system, establishment of systemwide policies and guidelines, review and approval of institutional missions and evaluation of institutional effectiveness.

Under the direction of the Commissioner of Higher Education, the Department of Higher Education carries out board policies and serves as its administrative arm. The department conducts licensure and accreditation reviews; prepares systemwide operating and capital budget requests; administers student financial assistance, alternate teacher certification and minority recruitment programs; maintains statewide data bases for budgeting and policy studies; prepares legislative proposals; monitors student attendance patterns; and oversees Connecticut’s 70 private occupational schools.

Federal responsibilities include serving as the State Approval Agency for programs enrolling veterans, and as the state’s lead agency for Americorps, the national service program. The department also administers the higher education portion of the federal Improving Teacher Quality Grant Program.

Students, teachers and taxpayers are the chief beneficiaries of the agency’s work to assure affordability, quality and accountability throughout the system. Legislators, federal and state policy-makers, colleges, business and community organizations also profit from the agency’s unique role as a provider of objective and systemwide coordination and information.

Public Service

Responding quickly to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Connecticut colleges and universities enrolled 171 students displaced from the South as a result of the storm’s destruction. Throughout the year, the Department of Higher Education continued its focus on meeting state needs for a highly-educated workforce.

Helping to address the state’s teacher shortage, the department conducted its summer and weekend Alternate Route to Certification (ARC) programs. The summer 2005 program prepared 125 teachers for certification in art, English, history/social studies, mathematics, music, science and world languages. The program continued to be housed at Middlesex Community College.

ARC’s 2005-06 weekend program prepared teacher candidates in art, middle school social studies, music, technology education and family and consumer science, and graduated 115 new teachers in May.

Across both ARC programs, 58 percent of the graduates were prepared to teach in shortage areas, and 15 percent are from minority groups.

The department administered the Minority Teacher Incentive Program which provided grants to 88 students, and loan reimbursement stipends to 67 minority students who are now teaching in Connecticut. In addition, the department secured private funds for this program to support minority students seeking to become math or science teachers.

Keeping college affordable continues to be the Board of Governors’ top fiscal priority. The Board successfully secured a $2 million increase in the Capitol Scholarship Program. This 29 percent increase will provide 500 more grants to needy students to serve a total of 5,200, the highest ever.

Next year’s higher education budget provides $632.6 million, an increase of $10.6 million, or 1.7 percent, over fiscal 2006, excluding funds which will be provided for settled union wage increases. In addition to more funds for the Capitol Scholarship Program, the budget creates two new loan reimbursement programs ($500,000) for doctoral graduates employed in STEM fields and newly-hired engineering graduates. It also adds $7.3 million for various initiatives including: faculty recruitment and a new Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Connecticut, funds to offset anticipated federal cuts to the Health and Professions Partnership at the UConn Health Center, an Institute of Crime and Justice at Connecticut State University, a math/science experience for 500 high school students at the Community Colleges and a new student information system at Charter Oak State College. The budget also designates $3.9 million of the fiscal 2006 surplus for the Higher Education Matching Grant Program to pay half of the remaining 2006 obligation.

The state continues to provide substantial investment in its campus facilities, authorizing nearly $505.6 million in bond funds over the 2006-07 biennium, including funds previously approved under 21^st Century UConn.

To broaden early awareness about college, the department’s Education & Employment Information Center (EEIC) published a series of new education guides, such as “Life After High School,” “Questions to Ask When Choosing a College” and “Teach in Connecticut.” In all, the EEIC steered more than 13,821 persons this year toward new careers and training through its toll-free hotline (800/842-0229), workshops, college and career fairs and publications. Log sheets documenting individual requests, correspondence from the public and workshop evaluations reveal high customer satisfaction with the EEIC.

As part of the department’s academic-year Baden-Württemberg Exchange, 49 Connecticut students attended college in Germany while 32 German students came to Connecticut for study. Another 25 students from Connecticut studied in Germany in summer 2005.

The department works with other organizations such as the State Department of Education; the Connecticut Employment and Training Commission; the New England Board of Higher Education; the Governor’s Jobs Cabinet; and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.

In one such partnership with the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, the Department invited nominations for the 2005 Medal of Science. This Medal was bestowed in September by Governor M. Jodi Rell to prominent physicist, Dr. William C. Stwalley, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Connecticut, at the annual Alliance for Connecticut Technology Award Dinner.

Improvements/Achievements 2005-06

Much of the department’s work focused on demonstrating the returns gained from the state’s investment in its higher education system. The department published the first employer survey which found high levels of overall satisfaction with the state’s graduates. It also developed a new “research intensity” performance measure which shows that Connecticut lags behind the region in the growth of its academic research activity.

The department unveiled a new executive summary and brochure to accompany its annual accountability report, “Higher Education Counts,” and co-sponsored a national conference on higher education accountability held in South Carolina.

The board’s Minority Advancement Program (MAP) continued to expand student diversity. In fall 2005, the number of minority undergraduates enrolled in state-supported colleges exceeded minority representation in Connecticut’s general population for the eighth consecutive year. These colleges enrolled 23,537 minority students, or 24.9 percent of their total student body. The number of degrees awarded to minority undergraduates in the public sector stood at 2,202 or 17.9 percent in 2004-2005.

MAP provided college preparatory counseling to nearly 2,000 high school students. Summer bridge programs, which ease the transition from high school to college, served another 400. With federal GEAR UP dollars, the department conducted college early awareness activities for nearly 6,000 low-income youngsters and awarded more than $1 million in federal scholarships to 241 needy youngsters.

To continue its GEAR UP activities, in September the department was awarded a 6-year $18 million federal grant to help thousands of youngsters in Bridgeport and New Haven middle and high schools prepare for college.

In the area of academic planning and evaluation, the Board of Governors, based on the department's review, reaccredited six Connecticut colleges and universities. The Board of Governors licensed a new institution of higher education in Connecticut, Bais Binyomin Academy in Stamford, which offers a Certificate in Talmudic Studies. The department also began work with four institutions seeking to become new colleges in Connecticut. Two out-of-state institutions gained approval to continue offering programs in Connecticut, and two out-of-state institutions were authorized to place students in field experience and clinical practice placements in Connecticut’s K-12 schools.

The board approved 93 academic degree programs: 14 certificate programs, 17 associate programs, 30 bachelor’s programs, 27 master’s programs and five doctoral programs. Of these, 39 programs were at public colleges and 54 were at the independents. Many are offered through distance learning.

As part of its program approval responsibility, the board accredited 54 programs, enabling them to graduate students and award degrees for the first time. Responding to state economic needs, the board approved 15 programs in business; 15 in health-related fields; 18 in engineering, computer science, and the natural and physical sciences; and 11 in education and teacher preparation.

The department launched its review of the board’s academic quality standards for the state’s public and independent colleges and universities, holding several statewide forums, and completed recommendations for standards governing faculty, and library and learning resources.

The department also organized a statewide Textbook Summit which brought together colleges, legislators, publishers, and bookstore owners to discuss recommendations made by last year’s taskforce on the cost of college textbooks.

To encourage more high school students to enroll in college-level courses, the department recommended several steps, including scholarships and academic advising services that were approved by the board in May.

In addition, the department prepared two reports on the education content of the Connecticut Education Network, and on the state’s workforce needs and supply in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) for the state CONNvene initiative. In response to legislation, the department is preparing various curriculums to advance nanotechnology education.

The department continued to promote transfer and articulation agreements, focusing on expanding and simplifying transfer agreements between the Community Colleges and the University of Connecticut in allied health and business.

Overseeing private occupational schools, the department approved four new schools, re-approved 20 existing schools and addressed 16 formal complaints. Two schools closed.

As the State Approving Agency (SAA) for veterans' benefits, the department processed 107 applications from institutions enrolling veterans, conducted 41 training and supervisory visits to schools and colleges and made bi-monthly presentations to newly-separated service persons regarding their educational benefits at the Groton Naval Base. The SAA received a continuation grant from the federal Troops to Teachers Program to encourage veterans to become teachers. The department held a statewide conference on awarding credit for military education training as part of this outreach effort.

The Connecticut Commission on Community Service, supported by the department, provided intensive community service opportunities for more than 320 persons. The Commission sponsors AmeriCorps, the national service initiative, by awarding federal AmeriCorps dollars to nonprofit groups to respond to local needs. In exchange for service, AmeriCorps members receive an education award of up to $4,725. Since 1994, more than 5,000 Connecticut residents have qualified for nearly $16.3 million in AmeriCorps Education Awards. In April, the Commission awarded its annual Higher Education Community Service Awards to a college student, student group and faculty member.

Working with school and college representatives, the department awarded $838,681 in Teacher Quality Partnership Grants to seven teacher professional development projects in mathematics, science and history. The projects are operated by partnerships of schools of education, colleges of arts and sciences and high-need school districts to strengthen teacher quality and raise student achievement. The activities will serve more than 200 teachers of 15,300 students in 21 districts. Previous teacher participants have rated projects highly, based on a statewide evaluation conducted jointly by the Department of Higher Education and the University of Connecticut.

Information Reported as Required by State Statute

The Department of Higher Education provides comprehensive, timely information on student enrollment, degree and graduation trends and other educational policy issues.

Overall, a record 174,273 students attended Connecticut public and independent colleges and universities in fall 2005, the fourth straight year of an all-time record, and the eighth consecutive year of growth. The new total is just 0.9 percent or 1,533 higher than the previous fall and reflects slowing growth in the state’s pool of high school graduates. Enrollment at public institutions reached 110,808 up 0.9 percent. Independent college enrollment also rose 0.9 percent to 63,465.

The latest graduation statistics show that Connecticut colleges and universities awarded 34,582 degrees and certificates in 2004-2005, up 2.7 percent from the previous year. This is the fourth consecutive year of growth. Degrees were up in fields important to the state’s economy such as engineering (up 14 percent, and the biological sciences (up five percent) and physical sciences (up 23 percent) but fell two percent in computer science. The five most popular disciplines were business, education, health professions, social sciences and history and the liberal arts and sciences. To meet state workforce needs, the reports concludes more graduates are needed in high demand fields such as nursing, health and technology, as well as teachers in the state’s nine shortage fields.

In August, the department reported that an increasing number of Connecticut high school graduates elect to remain in-state for college. The retention rate of 58 percent, based on 2004 data (the most recent available), is the highest proportion since the data have been collected and continues an upward trend begun in 2000.

New research by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, commissioned jointly with the Connecticut State Departments of Education and Higher Education, revealed that student performance on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) is a strong indicator of student’s readiness for future academic and professional success. The ground-breaking findings were released at the first-ever joint meeting of the State Board of Education and Board of Governors for Higher Education in January.

Overview

The Board of Governors for Higher Education is the state coordinating and planning agency for Connecticut's 47 colleges and universities. The board is responsible primarily for policy-making for the state’s public higher education institutions: the University of Connecticut, Connecticut State University, the 12 community colleges and the Board for State Academic Awards (Charter Oak State College). The board also considers the state's 28 independent colleges and universities in policy development.

The board has 11 members, seven of whom are appointed by the Governor and four who are named by the highest-ranked members of the General Assembly who are not members of the Governor's political party. As of July 2006, members are Harry H. Penner,Jr., Guilford, chair; Frank W. Ridley, Meriden, vice-chair; William A. Aniskovich, Branford; William A. Bevacqua, Trumbull; Dorothea E. Brennan, Fairfield; Brian J. Flaherty, Watertown; James H. Gatling, Southington; Ross H. Hollander, Bloomfield; Jean E. Reynolds, Danbury; Albert B. Vertefeuille, Lebanon; and Patricia McCann Vissepó, New Haven. The board, which meets monthly except for July and August, has an advisory committee of 22 college representatives.