Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com January 9, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 15 from page 1 Free said in an interview last week. The school is rolling out the incentive for business students because administrators want to reverse recent enrollment declines in the modest-sized program. Free said peer colleges have 25 percent of their total stu- dent population enrolled in business pro- grams, while USJ only has 5 percent. The incentive also coincides with the 40th anniversary of USJ's economics/ business major. While business educa- tion isn't new at USJ, the nonprofit college is best known for its nursing and educa- tion programs. "I don't think we emphasized our busi- ness programs enough in the past," Free said. She said USJ can claim a number of suc- cessful graduates in the business world, including executives and managers at Trav- elers, The Hartford, IBM and other compa- nies. USJ recently convened a new group of area business leaders to advise faculty on employer needs. USJ plans to hire three new full-time business faculty over the next two years to accommodate what it hopes will be an influx of new students. Free said training students for profes- sions that meet social needs, such as nurs- ing, will remain USJ's identity, but the school is also looking to diversify. Free has convened a taskforce to study whether USJ should admit men, who are cur- rently only allowed in the school's graduate and adult learning programs, into its under- graduate programs. The gender discussion remains ongoing, but Free said it's "the most important decision" USJ is weighing right now. Other changes under Free's watch so far include the creation of a criminal justice pro- gram and four new concentrations in the under- graduate management program — targeted at nonprofits, health care, sports and marketing. All of those changes have been part of the same broader discussion about the school's future, she said. How '4+1' works USJ's new offering for business majors, ten- tatively named "4+1," will launch with freshmen who enroll in the fall semester this September. The school has not yet decided whether already enrolled students will be eligible for the program. Meanwhile, certain trans- fer students would be eligible for a partial tuition discount. The incentive is designed to attract mainly full-time undergrad- uates to the mas- ter's program. It's technically a fifth year without tuition, though there will still be some fees. Most students can only complete the master's program in a calendar year if they attend full time, Free said. But USJ will make accom- modations for some students who need to attend part time. Such arrangements will be made upfront in a plan of study. As long as a quali- fying student follows the terms of that plan, they will get the tuition break, she said. Competitive landscape For those looking to attend or return to college for a business degree, Connecticut has no shortage of options. In the most immediate vicinity, USJ com- petes with the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business, which offers both a man- agement master's degree and MBA programs, which USJ does not offer. Also offering MBAs, a degree that typically takes longer to com- plete, are UConn, Central Connecticut State University, and a number of others. One of the goals of USJ's new incentive is to draw associate degree graduates from Capital Community College and Manchester Community College, Free said. Free said she hopes the incentive will help the school double the number of undergraduate accounting and master's management majors within two years. Those programs currently enroll 47 and 33 students, respectively. Finding new ways to attract students is a broader trend in higher education, espe- cially as Connecticut's student popula- tion shrinks. At least several schools have offered incentives similar to USJ, including Clark University in Worces- ter, Mass., and the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Wisconsin. But free tuition for a graduate degree is rare in most areas of study. Free said she's unaware of any Connecticut schools offering such a program. At Clark, a simi- lar program offer- ing an accelerated, free fifth year was launched in 1994, said Kevin McKenna, Clark's senior asso- ciate dean. Clark's program is broader than USJ's, offered to an array of undergrads in majors ranging from biochemistry to finance. There are approximately 100 graduating seniors enrolled in the program, McKenna said. State government has also tested out some education innovation. Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury are offering in-state tuition rates to out-of-state students in an attempt to woo students from nearby Massachusetts and New York. And in 2014, state legislators approved the "Go Back to Get Ahead" program, which provid- ed free tuition for three course credits to entice Connecticut residents who hadn't completed their degree to return to school. The program ended in 2015 and enrolled more than 1,400 stu- dents, according to its overseer, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities. n Free focuses on enrollment Rhona Free meets with USJ students after being appointed president in March 2015. USJ's undergrad programs are female-only, but the school is considering admitting men. ▶ ▶ ' All colleges and universities are looking at innovative changes to meet student needs and make college and master's degrees affordable.' Rhona Free, president, University of St. Joseph P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D What 'repeal- replace' could mean for your employer health plan By Arielle Levin Becker CT Mirror I f you're like most Connecticut residents and get your health insurance through an employer, chances are the future of Obam- acare doesn't have nearly as much bearing on your coverage as it does for the nearly 300,000 people in the state whose coverage can be directly tied to the Affordable Care Act. But that doesn't mean there's nothing at stake for you as federal lawmakers look to repeal and replace the health law. Say you went to the doctor for a routine annual visit or got a prescription for birth control filled — and paid nothing for it. That's probably the result of an Obamacare provi- sion requiring health plans to cover certain preventive services at no cost to members. Parents of young adults probably are well aware of another element of the Affordable Care Act, which allows those under 26 to be covered through their parents' health plans. Another provision of the law that applies to those with employer-sponsored coverage: Health insurance policies can't set limits on how much they will spend covering "essen- tial" benefits for a customer. Experts say it's not yet clear what will happen to those benefits; it depends on exactly how Congressional lead- ers and President-elect Donald J. Trump plan to dismantle the health law and what goes into any potential plan to replace it. Some elements, like coverage of young adults through their parents' plans, could be relatively easy to include in a replacement, experts say. And some are required under Connecticut law, although many employer- sponsored plans are not subject to state regu- lation and so would not be covered. To be sure, experts say any changes are unlikely to significantly alter the employer- sponsored insurance system. "[If] you've got a generous employer plan already, you were fine in the pre-ACA world and you're going to be fine in the post-ACA world," said Matthew Rae, a senior health policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The health law had more of an effect on people whose employers' plans had been less generous, Rae added. The free preventive care has been particu- larly helpful to people with employer-sponsored coverage, since many plans had been shifting toward requiring members to pay a larger share of the bill when getting care, said Demian Fon- tanella, the state's acting healthcare advocate. Many employers might end up keeping those benefits even if the law changes, pre- dicted Brian Driscoll, regional managing principal for OneDigital Northeast, a health and benefits advisory firm. That's because many have come to rely on them to encourage employees "to take advantage of preventive care to promote good health and wellness overall," he said. Driscoll had a similar prediction for the pro- vision allowing young adults to stay covered by their parents' plans until they turn 26. Republi- can leaders have cited it as one of the pieces of Obamacare they would seek to keep. n

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