The plan to consolidate the 12 community colleges in Connecticut into one college with 12 campuses is called “Students First,” which is ironic because it does not fund students first. It funds a new administration in a new, statewide bureaucracy.
The Board of Regents (BOR) and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system office presented the “Students First” plan in April 2017 with an aim to reduce administration and save $46 million annually.
Three and a half years later, the plan has added dozens of new administrators, cost tens of millions of dollars, and there is more spending to come.
The BOR may still contend they are saving money, but to make that claim they have to keep moving the goal posts. Table 1 compares the BOR’s forecasts of expenditures with the consolidation plan versus “doing nothing” for fiscal year (FY) 2021.