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32 Hartford Business Journal • decemBer 28, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com BOOK OF LISTS 2015-2016 Education Developing Hartford's future workforce By Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, Superintendent of schools of Hartford Public Schools H artford Public Schools (HPS) is fortunate that the richness of our partnership with the business community is outstanding. We have a strong foundation to build upon: the student internship program, a public-private partnership linking our career-focused secondary schools to internship opportunities. As superintendent of schools, my goal is to provide the Greater Hartford region with a workforce ready and able to make strong contributions, meeting the talent needs of employers as Baby Boomers retire. I believe demo- graphically Hart- ford could be a major provider of future talent and the cascading out- comes could impact the city and its residents in many positive ways. HPS' vision is that our students will trans- form their world. But Hartford Public Schools cannot achieve this alone. Our partnerships are extremely important in the task of strengthening the future workforce. This effort requires strong and consistent collaborations, including Hartford Pub- lic Schools, the city of Hartford, Capital Workforce Partners, the MetroHartford Alliance and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Last spring, over 200 HPS students, mostly 11th graders, engaged in meaning- ful internships. In summer, an additional 115 stu- dents had opportunities to acquire hands-on experience. These are not your typical "photocopy help" intern- ships. Working with our partners, we are able to place students in a variety of industries with exposure to insur- ance and financial services, health and manufacturing. It will be a priority for Hartford Public Schools to build even closer relationships with our partners. The student internship program plan calls for an expansion in the number of 11th-grade students engaged in school- linked internships to over 700 in 2016. Our students must be ready to succeed in college and life. That is why at Hart- ford Public Schools we need to increase access to career pathways, work-based learning opportunities and college. n 2016 EDUCATION OUTLOOK Balancing budgets amid state budget cuts By Mark Ojakian, President of the board of regents of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system I n general, revenues of the Connecti- cut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system, which includes four state universities, 12 community col- leges and Charter Oak State College, are not keeping up with the cost of operating our system. The state's budget difficul- ties are having a significant, detrimental impact on higher education in the form of steadily declining funding needed to operate colleges and universities. To put the funding trends in perspec- tive, the CSCU system received virtually the same funding in 2015 as was allocated to our universities and community colleg- es in fiscal year 2007, and even less fund- ing in 2016. And yet, since 2007, the cost of administering the 17 colleges and universi- ties has risen dramatically each year. Ris- ing costs, including utilities, information technology services, and food services, have increased in the intervening period. And our big- gest cost — employee salaries and benefits — has also increased substantially dur- ing that time. In fact, state-negoti- ated salaries for CSCU's collective bargaining unit employees have risen at a rate of 5 per- cent for each of the last two years, based on the current contracts (negotiated in 2011), and the cost of fringe benefits over that time has increased at an even higher rate. Our challenge moving forward is to effectively balance our cost strategies while providing the best services pos- sible to our students. At the same time, we also are experi- encing declines in enrollment at several of our community colleges due to: fall- ing high school graduation rates across the state — currently down 1.8 percent per year, a trend that is projected to continue for the next eight to 10 years; the impact of unemployment on enroll- ment — fewer potential students seek retraining opportunities at community colleges when employment increases; and reduced availability of financial-aid incentives for part-time students. As a result, our projected tuition rev- enues during the last two academic years have fallen well short of our expectations. Compounded by state funding that does not keep pace with rising costs and sub- stantially higher operating costs, we have felt substantial upward pressure on student tuition and fees. The resulting "vicious circle" risks put- ting higher education out of reach of many of our students. n Controlling higher-education costs By Walter Harrison, President of the University of Hartford A n enormous amount of attention is being paid to higher-education costs. When politicians do polling, concern over the cost of higher education always ranks near the top of voter con- cerns. Virtually every candidate for the presidency in 2016 has a plank in his or her platform on this issue, and approaches vary widely, from free public college to decreasing guaranteed student loans. Those of us who lead colleges and uni- versities must devise our own thought- ful and targeted approaches, and in my view we must come up with two systemic approaches: one for public universities, and one for pri- vate colleges and universities. Pub- lic universities are faced with grow- ing reluctance by taxpayers to fund the subsidies that make them less expensive to the consumer, while privates — which do not, in the main, receive public subsidies — need to find ways to reduce costs while still paying competitive salaries to faculty and staff. I suggest we take a long look at re-imag- ining the guaranteed student loan pro- gram in order to make it more of a mix of grants and loans, tied in some way to tuition. Another issue is technology. In an age when technology is rapidly changing all of our lives, higher-education leaders must balance the rapid advances in edu- cational technology with American uni- versities traditional role in socializing our students: teaching them to live and learn in communities with differences in backgrounds and philosophies but with common democratic values. n Diversity and campus climate By Susan Herbst, President of the University of Connecticut C olleges and universities are in a unique position to facilitate frank, productive dialogue right now on the important issues of diversity and inclusion facing our nation. As I told guests at a recent UConn board of trustees meeting, it's important for our institution and others to be open and progressive, with our actions and discussions based on respect. We have made great strides in recent years with our undergraduate student population: About a third of our recent incoming freshmen classes have been minority students. We'll build on that success, and push to increase diver- sity among our faculty and staff. Last year we established the Task Force on Diversity, whose report was com- pleted in August and whose recom- mendations have all been accepted. When we talk about diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination in higher education, we're not rattling off buzzwords for public relations value. We're talking about human beings and the lives they lead. Knowing that, one of the best and most important things we can do at UConn — and higher education can do as a whole — is to make sure our cam- puses reflect the diversity of the nation. That doesn't happen by accident; we have to bring it about. And we have an obligation to reach out to people who may not be reaching out to us. Because a diverse classroom, residence hall or office is a richer, more vibrant, more rewarding place than one that is not. n Beth Schiavino- Narvaez Mark Ojakian Walter Harrison Susan Herbst