NCCC Legislative Breakfast: Rooke: Bleak outlook for college

WINSTED —  Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC) held its annual legislative breakfast on Friday, March 3 at its Draper Conference Center.

NCCC President Michael Rooke was one of the main speakers at the event.

At the beginning of the event, Rooke spoke to the audience about the state of the college.

“I’m going to share with you the good and not so good,” Rooke said. “There are not so good parts which is what we don’t like talking about, but we really have to. The purpose of a legislative breakfast is to advocate for this institution and for young people.”

Issues facing the college

Rooke said that the general fund allocation to NCCC has decreased 14 percent since 2009.

“The fringe benefit costs have skyrocketed in recent years due to pension liability costs passed on to the college,” Rooke said. “Student tuition unfortunately has increased by 31 percent since 2009. This has priced many middle income students out of an education, and that is a major concern. Our Learning Resource Center in the library is now only open two nights a week for students.”

Rooke said the center previously was open four nights a week.

“We’ve already had to lay off two full time staff members in this fiscal year,” Rooke said. “One of the things I want to say that is really personal to me is that for the last 10 years that I have been working [in the state’s college system], every year we’ve had to cut the budget over and over again. We’ve cut it down to the bone and probably beyond that.”

Rooke said the college has five positions it “urgently” needs to fill.

Rooke said the college needs a learning disabilities specialist because, as stated in his presentation, “the one disabilities person who was serving the NCCC student population left in January. This position is critical to comply with the Americas With Disabilities Act.”

Another position the college needs to fill is a position in the nursing facility which Rooke said is critical to fill in order to remain compliant with its nursing program accreditation.

In the English department, one position has been held vacant and there has been one person who has retired, which means that only 50 percent of the full-time English faculty remains on staff.

Other positions NCCC needs to fill includes positions in admissions and student activities due to the retirements of both staff members, who were the only ones who worked in their respective departments.

Rooke went on to comment on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s (D) proposed budget for the state, which includes a 4.4 percent budget reduction for NCCC.

“That equates to about $283,000 to the college,” Rooke said. “That is the equivalent of two to three positions at the college. If the negotiations with the unions do not come through it will be more like a 10 percent budget cut. Then we would be looking at cutting four to five full-time positions here at NCCC. Maybe even more. It is pretty bleak. We are doing great things, but on a very small amount of money. One thing we are good at is doing a lot with a very small amount of money.” 

College’s achievements

In his speech, Rooke spoke about various achievements made in the past year by NCCC, including being ranked as the the best community college in the state by the website www.wallethub.com.

“We’re very proud of this,” Rooke said. “I don’t particularly brag, but I think this is a perfect opportunity to do so. We were ranked based on cost of attendance, career opportunities and a variety of things.”

Rooke spoke about how the college has partnered with local manufacturing companies to develop National Science Foundation-funded manufacturing programs.

The programs include machining classes taught at Oliver Wolcott Technical High School.

Rooke added that the college’s new building for its Allied Health and Veterinary Technology programs is scheduled to be completed on June 1.

Plans for the building have been in the works for several years.

Rooke added that the college’s new Entrepreneurial Center is scheduled to open on Wednesday, March 15.

The state of colleges

The next speaker at the event was Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) president Mark Ojakian.

“I’m usually the voice of gloom and doom these days,” Ojakian said. “Michael, thanks for taking some of that from me.”

Ojakian said that he has attended several legislative breakfasts across the state starting at the beginning of the year.

“One thing that strikes me about this institution as I look around here today is the partnerships that exist in this part of the state,” Ojakian said. “This institution is the hub for a lot of activities that happen in this part of the state, whether it is in manufacturing or business chamber activities. This place is a force to be reckoned with.”

Ojakian told the audience that “these are not the best of times.

“The governor’s budget, which includes a 4.4 percent cut across the [state’s college system], equates to about a $33 million deficit in the first fiscal year. If there is no agreement with the labor unions that represent state employees, that $700 million in labor savings that is assumed in the budget gets cut. Each agency gets cut by a percentage, which is another $31 million cut. Plus fringe benefits would equal a $92 million cut. When you talk about these tens of millions of dollars of cuts you see people’s faces go blank because they really don’t understand what it means. But it means a lot to our system. Even if there is a labor agreement I would imagine that there would be wage increases built into that route. I’m not here to say we should or shouldn’t have wage increases. I think people deserve to be paid for their work.”

Ojakian emphasized that the state’s college system is in a tough situation.

“We have to be a partner with the legislature in coming up with different scenarios under which we can exist in the future and be sustainable and predictable,” Ojakian said. “The thing that drives me crazy the most is seeing the [Learning Resource Center] cut to two nights a week. It’s a necessary budget cut, but is that what we’re about? Is that what we need to do to keep students first in our minds? It’s not. We need to do a better job and remember that this is all about students.”