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DECEMBER 26, 2017 • HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | 15 Free to lead Univ. of St. Joseph through year of major changes By Patricia Daddona pdaddona@HartfordBusiness.com T wo major changes University of St. Joseph President Rhona Free has made since landing at the school a few years ago will come to fruition in 2018. For the first time in the West Hartford private school's 85-year history, USJ will welcome in the fall its first class of male undergraduates, a move that aims to boost enrollment and change the dynamics of the state's only remaining all-women's college. The school will also be preparing to launch a Division III men's basketball program — part of its efforts to rebrand the school as a co-ed institution — with the help of UConn basketball icon Jim Calhoun, whose surprising decision to serve as a University of St. Joseph consultant grabbed national headlines. And if that wasn't enough, Free will take on a re- gional leadership role in 2018 when she becomes the chair of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Educa- tion, where her peers will be looking for her to help promote the Capital City as a college town for both cultural and business experiences. "A large part of what we're hoping to do is link the campus even more to the city of Hartford, the cultural activities and internships," Free said of her ambitious, evolving agenda. "That is a way to draw students from out of state. People may be a little bit down on Hartford, but it's such a draw. And the university is just so close to all that is going on in the city." Admitting male undergrads, Free said, should help boost USJ's enrollment, which has fallen from 2,525 students in 2012 to 2,408 pupils today. Another goal is to make the campus more of a social gathering place. "[Having] more men undergraduates will have a cultural impact," she said. "It will encourage more students to stay here on campus for the weekends and support more activities that are part of tradition- al college life — athletics, the arts, lecture series." Since USJ is adding undergraduate men (they're already part of the graduate student population), federal law requires the school to offer male sports, Free said. That's why the school is starting a men's basketball program that will be built with the help of Calhoun, whose consultant role also aimed at getting the word out that the school will soon be co-ed, Free said. Meantime, in 2019 USJ also plans to add a new pharmaceutical sciences master's degree program in downtown Hartford. Three other undergraduate programs are being de- signed to meet the needs of growing business sectors in bioinformatics and computer and data science, and could be offered both on campus and at the XL Center, she said. When Free becomes chair of the Hartford Consor- tium for Higher Education next summer, one of her tasks will be to promote cross-campus collaboration and to help extol the virtues of Hartford as a col- lege town, a move that was aided by UConn's recent downtown arrival. "We use the close proximity to Hartford and being close on this beautiful campus as one of our selling points," Free said. Some of the changes she will implement as head of the consortium include offering more professional development workshops for member schools' faculty, like the first one offered last year to support students with autism. She also will build on a model that exists at a five-member college consortium in Amherst, Mass., in which multiple colleges can advertise jointly for faculty. "So many faculty are in two-member households," she said, so relocation of a couple to a region with 11 colleges can be facilitated with such an approach. Finally, she plans to promote more cultural events in Hartford for college students like an "Art After Dark" program held in April at the Wadsworth Anth- eneum. The goal? "Helping students, especially from other parts of the country, appreciate that we have this fabulous city that is the capital of the state and that is a wonderful destination to go to college," she said. Rhona Free is the president of the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford. nearly $1.1 billion health system, which includes the 234-bed John Dempsey Hospital and a medical group, as well as UConn's medical and dental schools, con- tinues to battle economic headwinds. It's struggled financially over many of the last 17 years, posting major deficits that state taxpayers have been forced to shore up in a handful of bailouts. UConn Health has not had to go to the state for a financial rescue during Agwunobi's CEO tenure. The public will find out more about UConn Health's future in April, when the care provider is required to give state lawmakers a progress report on any affilia- tion prospects. "We're talking very broadly, very widely," Agwunobi said. "Obviously, a report will come out. … I think at that point we will be able to speak more specifically about potential partners and about the type of part- nerships that we would be entering into." It's been tried before. UConn Health proposed a merger with Hartford Hospital in 2009, but the deal fell through, partly due to concerns about the price tag of a proposed patient tower the partners wanted to build. However, that may no longer be an issue because since that time UConn Health has built a shiny new $326 million patient tower and hailed the state- backed arrival of Jackson Laboratory. Agwunobi also thinks UConn's leafy Farmington campus, which has room for more buildings, is a big draw. "I think we have the best campus in this region," Agwunobi said. He said UConn Health these days also runs itself with a keener eye toward financial efficiency. Though the system has budgeted for deficits in recent years, it has beat those financial targets for three years running, he said. It's unclear if Hartford Hospital's parent, Hartford HealthCare, which has acquired several hospitals since 2009 to form a statewide health system, might still be interested in a deal with UConn Health. HHC declined to comment for this story. Agwunobi said both UConn Health and the right partner could benefit from the deal. For a partner, tying its wagon to an academic med- ical center could be an image booster. It could also help with physician recruitment, he said. "Overall, it differentiates you from a community hospital, being a university or academic hospital," he said. UConn Health needs a partner to help build up its clinical operation, which, along with state aid, helps subsidize its academic endeavors. "It's an engine for the rest of UConn Health, and that engine is pretty small," Agwunobi said. Finding a way to grow specialty service lines, bring in more patients, and generate more revenue would be a win, he said. John Dempsey Hospital has posted surpluses in recent years, but it has room for improvement. Its average daily census (the number of patients in the hospital), while beating the prior year, missed budget- ed targets in fiscal 2017 by nearly 10 percent. One of UConn Health's challenges is the perception that it's a place that treats only complex conditions, not the common cold. Agwunobi said that has begun to shift thanks to marketing efforts. Another challenge is dealing with a $33 million cut from the state budget. It's big, but Agwunobi said UConn Health can manage it internally by reducing spending, curtail- ing hiring to only vital positions and looking at new revenue-generating strategies. When he's not pondering UConn Health's future, Agwunobi, who lives in New Haven and has a wife and two teenage daughters, likes reading classics and writing short fiction and also about healthcare management. He just published his first book, a 121-pager titled "An Insider's Guide to Physician Engagement."