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8 Hartford Business Journal • December 12, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com students in an effort to offset declining enrollments, which is a challenge faced by higher-ed institutions across the state. Asnuntuck is appealing to Bay State residents, while Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, or WestConn, is wooing students from seven New York state counties. Both are part of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system, which includes 17 state colleges and universities that enroll 92,000 pupils. So far the strategy appears to be working — although WestConn's policy doesn't take effect until the fall semester of 2017. Asnuntuck has seen a 34 percent increase in students from Massachusetts this past fall semester — 102 students compared with 76 the semester prior out of a total student body of more than 1,900. That increase is the highest in recent history, said Gennaro DeAngelis, Asnuntuck's interim dean of administration. At WestConn, as of Nov. 23, with only 20 percent of the total student body applying for the 2017 fall semester so far, 155 applicants from the seven-coun- ty New York region are seeking enrollment, compared with 87 this past year. Total undergradu- ate full-time students number 4,195, said Jay Murray, West- Conn's interim associate vice president for enrollment services. In the face of declining enroll- ment at some Connecticut col- leges — which makes competi- tion for students fierce — Mark E. Ojakian, CSCU president, says the need for creative solutions to filling seats leads naturally to looking for out-of-state students. "We need to stop thinking of geographic borders as walls, but as commuter patterns," Oja- kian recently wrote in a Hart- ford Business Journal column. "We have to start thinking differently because other states are recruiting our students," added CSCU spokeswoman Maribel La Luz. National trend Offering in-state tuition to out-of-state students is not uncommon in the United States, but pressure is intensifying in some parts of the country to adopt or increase the practice, says George Pernsteiner, presi- dent of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Association. "Pressure is growing right now, particularly in New England and the middle West, where you don't have a growing number of traditional-age students and won't for a while," Pernsteiner said. "In order to sustain their institu- tions, [educators] have to find students from somewhere." In New England, unlike the South or West, enrollment at four-year and two-year colleges has slowed in the past few years, said Andy Carlson, SHEEO's principal policy analyst. The University of Maine has perhaps the most visible and concerted effort to woo out-of-state students. The approach is different than Connecticut's, but based on similar concepts for comparable reasons, said the uni- versity's provost, Jeffrey Hecker. When examining the changing demographics causing declining enrollments in Maine, the university looked at applicants who chose to go elsewhere, and found 20 per- cent of students, most from out of state, were going to other public land grant research universities in New England. "We got to thinking: What could we do about that?" he said. In the fall 2016 semester, the University of Maine launched its "Flagship Match" program. It provides academically eligible students merit scholarships that lower the net cost of tuition and fees to a level equal to what the student would pay at the flagship university in their home state — a cost that's invariably thousands of dollars cheaper, Hecker said. UMaine's in-state tuition is about $10,000 a year and its out-of-state tuition is $29,000 a year, he added. In the first year, UMaine extended the program to all New England states except Rhode Island, and also included Pennsylvania and New Jersey. For the 2017-18 academic year, the program will include Rhode Island, as well as California and Illinois, whose state schools have higher in-state rates, he said. While neither Asnuntuck's DeAngelis nor West- Conn's Murray could provide an exact number of "empty seats," both say declining enrollments are driving their creative tuition push. WestConn considers the arrangement a natural fit and had been asking for it for years, Murray said. The difference in the tuition rate is almost $13,000 annu- ally, with in-state tuition at $10,017 and out-of-state tuition at $22,878. "Westchester and Putnam counties are within 15 miles of the [New York/Connecticut] border, yet the moment students come here, it costs them twice as much as what it costs a student from Danbury. And they con- sider themselves local," he said. Pernsteiner likened Con- necticut's situation to Southern Oregon University, which has had a similar long-standing arrangement with nearby coun- ties in California. "It is not uncommon for com- munity colleges in a lot of places to charge in-state rates particu- larly for students in abutting districts or states," Pernsteiner said. "That's part of how they view their mission to serve the community, and if the commu- nity crosses state lines, so be it." Local factors WestConn's student popula- tion has dropped steadily from 4,750 full-time equivalent undergraduates in 2011 to 4,116 in 2016, Murray said. "All across the state, high school enrollments are down, and in Connecticut, they're going to be down for the next decade and they're not going to rebound to prior levels," Murray said. "As enrollment grows, the increased revenue helps facilitate programs for all students on campus." In Asnuntuck's "Dare to Cross the Line" program, most of the out-of-state students would have paid about $6,000 annually in tuition, and now will only have to pay about $4,000 annually, DeAngelis said. (Tuition for the advanced manufacturing program is less expensive.) "Our research showed us students with Massa- chusetts addresses essentially lived nine miles from campus," he said. "We wanted to take advantage of the natural geographic circumstances we find ourselves in." Asnuntuck's enrollment has fluctuated between 990 and 1,118 students over the past six years, but the goal is to grow those numbers, DeAngelis said. "Being as close as we are, Massachusetts has always felt like an extension of our service area; it's felt really natural," he said. Some state leaders have questioned the tuition adjustments. In one published report, Board of Regent chair Matt Fluery, who is CEO of the Connecticut Sci- ence Center, asked whether subsidizing out-of-state stu- dents with Connecticut taxpayer money was fair. But DeAngelis, whose sets enrollment strategy, says the long-term impact is more important, especially as Connecticut faces budget shortfalls in the years ahead. "It puts us in a much better position than we would be if enrollments were down," he said of the tuition breaks. "It's not going to make things easy, but it gives us a fighting chance to maintain the academic and student support services we have in place." n Q&A Higher-ed takes on corporate, regulatory compliance Q&A talks with Robert C. Bird, professor of business law, Ever- source Energy chair in business ethics at UConn, about the school's new certificate program in corporate and regulatory compliance. Q: The UConn School of Business and School of Law have partnered to create a certificate program in corporate and regulatory compliance. What does the program involve? A: Compliance is a rapidly growing domain. Firms are struggling to manage complex regulation from state, federal and international authori- ties while at the same time remaining via- ble in a competitive global marketplace. UConn's cer- tificate in corporate and regulatory com- pliance provides the tools and resources to not only stay on the right side of ever- changing regulation, but also how to build a culture of compli- ance and integrity that pervades the organization. Certificate graduates will learn how a firm that understands compliance will not only respect the rules, but generate opportu- nities that build a competitive advantage for their organization. Students will complete four graduate-level courses. For most students, two of the four courses will come from business faculty who teach about compliance and legal rules from the perspective of the organization and its ethi- cal values. The other two classes will be taught by law school fac- ulty skilled at unraveling the key regulatory challenges that orga- nizations face in compliance. The certificate is open to busi- nesspeople, business students, law students and attorneys. Q: Why the partnership between the schools of law and business? A: Compliance is too often pre- sented as just a business problem fixed by culture change or a legal matter delegated to attorneys. Nei- ther model works. In these classes students will learn how firms man- age legal issues in a business envi- ronment and be given tools on how to implement compliance initiatives and promote an ethical culture of integrity. Then students take two courses in the law school where they learn about pressing legal and regulatory compliance challenges facing the modern organization. Businesspeople learn how lawyers think, how rules are inter- preted, and how to smoothly man- age regulations to meet required standards. Lawyers get a deeper understanding of how businesses function, the organi- zational impacts of compliance, and how compliance can posi- tively influence the strategic goals of the enterprise. Q: What's driving the growing demand for risk-avoidance expertise? And, with a new adminis- tration focusing on cutting regulations, does that demand decrease at all? A: Rapid changes in regulations do not nec- essarily make compli- ance easier. Firms will have to pivot quickly to adjust to their new regulatory reality. That may mean reevaluating established compli- ance systems and processes in a short period of time. This takes the time and expertise of compliance professionals who can manage regulatory shifts in either direction. Firms also cannot let their guard down even if regulatory obli- gations decline. If a firm relaxes its compliance standards in anticipa- tion of a new rule, that rule may return in a different form either by the same or a different author- ity responsible for monitoring that conduct. There are 50 states with regulatory bodies in addition to federal regulatory authorities. Sud- den changes in legal rules create turbulence for the organization, which demands a steady hand of a compliance expert to manage. Firms that fail to remain vigilant will pay the price when the winds of policy change again. Q: Which industries are active in compliance-offi- cer hiring? A: Compliance is big business, and the demand for it is significant. A Wall Street Journal article called compliance a 'dream career' and a field that employers are engaging in a 'hiring spree' to fulfill. Banks of course have significant demand for compliance personnel. Other indus- tries hiring compliance personnel include insurance, manufacturing, law firms, health care, government and tech companies. n ROBERT C. BIRD Professor of business law, Eversource Energy chair in business ethics, University of Connecticut CT colleges target NY, Mass. from page 1 BY THE NUMBERS $6,000 Asnuntuck Community College's approximate annual out-of-state tuition. $4,000 The approximate annual tuition Massachusetts residents now pay at Asnuntuck under the school's "Dare to Cross the Line" program. 102 The number of Massachusetts students enrolled at Asnuntuck this past fall semester, up from 76 a year earlier. FOCUS EDUCATION