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www.HartfordBusiness.com • January 30, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 29 EDITOR'S TAKE Desperate times call for vast gov't restruc- turing OTHER VOICES Gender investment gap another challenge to tackle That's why we are applauding Mark Ojakian, president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system, for his efforts to tackle the financial constraints of our state's higher-education system. Last week Ojakian proposed a bold, sweeping consolidation plan for the state's CSCU system that would save $41 million annually by centralizing leadership and administrative services of the state's 12 community colleges. The plan would consolidate administrative functions like IT, human resources, and purchasing and contracts, while also uni- fying community colleges into a centrally managed organization, leaving open all 12 main community college campuses, at least for now. Ojakian says the changes are necessary as the college system, which also includes the four regional state universities and the online Charter Oak college, continues to lose student population and state financial support, both of which make up the majority of its funding sources. Since 2015, state appropriations for the $1.2 billion CSCU system have fallen 12.4 percent, and there is a projected $35 million deficit for fiscal 2018. Meantime, the student population is also shrinking as our high schools graduate fewer pupils. Hiring freezes and cost cutting have been used as temporary stop-gap measures in recent years, but won't be able to keep pace with the system's structural deficits. Ojakian's proposal is only a framework right now and will certainly receive a thorough vetting, although it doesn't require legislative approval. That lack of oversight is concerning. We ex- pect many objections to be raised, as any threats to layoff admin- istrators will be met with intense opposition. At least one critic -- liberal advocate Jonathan Pelto, who's been a Malloy administration nemesis -- wrote in a blog post that Oja- kian's plan "would undermine Connecticut's community college system and remove important independent functions of Con- necticut's State Universities." He also lamented that a centralized system would impede locally driven education programs that have been crucial to developing students employers need. We too would also like to see more details of the plan before we give it a rubber stamp of approval. It is true that our community colleges each have their own unique missions, many of which have been shaped in conjunction with the private sector. In recent years, for example, many of our of community col- leges have adopted advanced manufacturing programs to help fill a worker shortage hindering one of our state's most important industries. We need to ensure that a centralized administrative system is able to quickly and efficiently respond to the needs of students and the business community. In his rollout, Ojakian described the consolidation plan as "Stu- dents First," because cuts are expected to spare student services and teaching faculty. That's good news, but again the devil will be in the details. Of course, another issue, as Ojakian himself pointed out, is that the college system has few areas to trim expenses given that 80 percent of total spending is dedicated to personnel costs and 95 percent of full-time staff is represented by bargaining units. The power of unions to impede necessary change in state government, particularly cost cutting and restructuring of the state's vast bureaucracy, has always been a problem. We respect workers' rights, but Connecticut's fiscal crisis requires drastic measures to right our ship. This symbolic gesture got me thinking about what we could do as women to take matters into our own hands, so that we do not have to wait for big corporations to make space on their executive boards for women. Many of us speak about the gen- der wage gap, but few have heard of the greater gendered shortfall: the investment gap. Women on average have 50 percent less in their retirement ac- counts than men do. By not invest- ing at early stages, women miss out on thousands of dollars from compound interest lost over time. So, while it's great for a woman to make an equal salary to her male counterpart, he will presumably continue to be much wealthier if he invested even 10 percent of that salary, while a woman puts hers into a traditional savings account. For example: Let's say Joe and Mary are both 25 years old and both earn $100,000 a year. They make the same salary in the same position. Joe adds $10,000 of his sal- ary into an investment account and it grows at a hypothetical 8 percent per year with annual compounding. By the time Joe retires in 45 years, he will have saved approximately $4.17 million. Meanwhile, Mary who simply put away $10,000 annually in her savings account ends up with $450,000 in 45 years, roughly $3.7 mil- lion less than Joe. Of course, wages and investment are not a zero-sum game. The purpose is not neces- sarily to outperform your male colleague, but rather, to achieve financial independence. Until women are financially equal to men, we cannot be discnering in our job choices, in our familial and reproductive choices, and in our relationship choices. Most importantly, as the age-old saying goes "money is power," and until women reach a similar net worth to men, we will be hard-pressed to see an equal amount of women land C-suite positions. You might ask yourself why more financial professionals aren't speak- ing directly to women about the investment gap. The fact is, the industry has been dominated by men, with women representing only approximately 15 percent of financial advisors in the United States. Like at many other points in his- tory, we as women must carve out our own space within the financial world. Women need more representation in the industry. Women often approach investing dif- ferently: We are more goals-oriented rather than simply looking to "beat the market." We often must take a leave from our ca- reers to care for children or aging parents. We are our family's planners, wanting to leave a nest-egg behind for future generations. Just think of where all of us defiant women and girls can be if we carve out our piece of financial power and hold it in our own hands. Magdalena G. Johndrow is an associate financial advisor at Farmington River Financial Group. She recently joined Farmington River Financial Group from Wall Street, where she most recently worked at JPMorgan. T rue government restructuring is never easy to propose, let alone implement and accomplish, even during times of crisis. Dealing with impassioned interest groups, par- ticularly those backed by powerful unions, often leads to intense political fights that can scare away reform-minded leaders from making necessary changes. Magdelena G. Johndrow Guest columnist "Until women are financially equal to men, we cannot be discnering in our job choices, in our familial and reproductive choices, and in our relationship choices. " – Magdelena G. Johndrow, associate financial advisor, Farmington River Financial Group Greg Bordonaro HBJ R ecently the internet has been flooded with news coverage about the bronze "Defiant Girl" statue placed in front of the iconic bull on Wall Street in honor of International Women's Day. Being a woman in finance I must admit that I was excited that attention is being called to the gen- der disparity both with regards to wages and C-suite executive positions OF NOTE John Lahey, president of Quinnipiac Univeristy, was honored at the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy's Anniversary Gala with the first ever Edward Netter Award for Business and Industry for his contributions to the organization and the community. Lahey was recognized for leading a strategic planning process at Quinnipiac that has resulted in student-enrollment growth from 2,00 to nearly 10,000 students. he also expanded Quinnipiac from a college to a university, which now offers morfe than 100 programs in its nine schools and colleges. Quinipiac University President awarded first-ever Edward Netter Award