Mar 4 2021. noon. HIGHER ED COMMITTEE HEARING. sign up to give testimony HERE. View the hearing HERE.

on the agenda: HB 6402- A Study of Higher Education Issues in the State HB 6404- Funding for Debt Free College (PACT)

**The Faculty Advisory Committee to the BOR has endorsed recommended substitute language for HB 6402 and encourages others to recommend it in their own testimony. Just indicate that you would like to request substitute language for the bill and then read it/include it in your testimony.

Mar 4 2021. 4pm. HIGHER ED APPROPRIATIONS PUBLIC HEARING. sign up to give testimony HERE

Feb 18 2021. NORTH EAST PROGRESSIVE REVENUE TEACH IN hosted by WFP Register here: https://mobilize.us/s/tBhGnM

March 6 2020, Press Conference Legislative office building room 1-C

The coalition of labor unions representing faculty and professional staff in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) is organizing a press conference to highlight our shared legislative priorities. We need you to help show unity and solidarity in the face of attempts by system leadership and some on the Board of Regents to divide us:

WHAT: CSCU Unions Coalition Press Conference

WHEN: Friday, March 6 from 10:30 to 11:00AM.

WHERE: Room 1-C in the Legislative Office Building (LOB), located at 300 Capitol Avenue in Hartford (free, easy access parking is available in the adjacent garage).

HOW: Click here to RSVP online: http://bit.ly/36press

I hope you can join us Friday morning in Hartford to demonstrate that we are not a "lone voice in the wilderness" and united in demanding better choices.

Feb 21st, 2020:

Joint Lobby Day 4Cs, AFT, AFSCME, and CSU-AAUP 8:30-1 at the Legislative Office Building (click for details)

---------------2020------------------

What you can do now:

Continue the effort to return oversight of Community Colleges to the Legislature

Use this link to find your legislators: https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/cgafindleg.asp

and let them know you support SB 749

here's an example of what you might say:

Dear

Please vote in favor of SB 749 AN ACT REQUIRING LEGISLATIVE APPROVAL FOR THE MERGER OR CLOSING OF INSTITUTIONS WITHIN THE CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

The Legislature needs to be responsible for the Connecticut community colleges and not defer to a bureaucracy like the Board of Regents that does not answer to voters.

Please pass SB 749 and again start providing oversight of the community colleges. Please do not permit the Board of Regents to make massive changes without your input.

Thank you,

Your Constituent,

xxxx

Friday, March 8 at 11:30-12:30 in Legislative Office Building (LOB) hearing room 1C, titled "Rep. Slap: Press Conference: Opposition to Community College Consolidation." What we need:

1. A big crowd! The most important thing we need is a large crowd of people to attend this press conference. Our room fits about 100 or so people, and we need to have the room so full that people are spilling into the corridors.

Our turnout will determine in some significant ways how seriously our work will be taken by the press and by legislators.

Small turnout: ho hum.

Large turn-out: Serious “optics” = We need to take this seriously.

If there is one thing you can do this week to help us it would be attending—and getting other people to attend—this event. Please also encourage students to attend.

2. We have set a goal of 150 confirmed, guaranteed, “come hell or high water” attendees. We have established a Google site for people to sign up so we can track our numbers for confirmed attendees. We can’t leave this to chance. We need to guarantee we have 150.

Here is the Google site to sign up:

https://goo.gl/forms/O8cOzgX35irdBGG53

3. We need diversity. We’d like to have the room full of all kinds of different people, representing the full range of citizens who benefit from and depend on our community colleges. Young and old, short and tall, students, faculty, alumni, parents, etc. Please help us fill the room with a diverse group of students and supporters.

4. We need a few poised, well-spoken students and alumni to talk about what the community college has given them and why they oppose consolidation.

Professor Elle Van Dermark, Professor of History & Political Science at Asnuntuck, will open the event, reading a short official statement from our group. We then plan to follow Elle with 3-4 community college students and alumni speaking about their community college experience and against consolidation. We plan to keep all of this brief, probably around 10-12 minutes or so. This will be followed by a question and answer period with the press.

Let Matt know if you have a student in mind, so we can put together our program. Again, we are looking to have a diverse set of student speakers if possible.

5. We need volunteers to speak with the press after our brief official presentation has been completed.

If you would like to serve in any of these capacities or know of anyone who would, please let Matt Warshauer know.

warshauerm@ccsu.edu / 860-832-2803

6. Parking. There is a parking garage in the rear of the LOB which is open to the public.

Drive in front of the legislative office building with the State Armory on your left. In back of the LOB there is the parking garage. The parking is free.

Legislative Office Building Public Parking Garage

300 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT 06106

(860) 240-0100

7. Directions to Legislative Office Building

https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/drivingdirections.asp

Directions to the Connecticut State Capitol Complex - C G A

www.cga.ct.gov

The Connecticut General Assembly offers the Google Translate™ service for visitor convenience. In no way should it be considered accurate as to the translation of any content herein.

https://www.cga.ct.gov/html/citizen/Directions.pdf

Directions to the Connecticut State Capitol Complex

www.cga.ct.gov

• Take Exit 48, Capitol Avenue, get into the right lane of the exit ramp. • At the end of the exit ramp turn right onto Capitol Avenue. • Take the first right past the Legi slative Office Building, proceed to the back of the

The Legislative Office Building is located at 300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.

Traveling on I-84 East

• Take Exit 48, Capitol Avenue, get into the right lane of the exit ramp.

• At the end of the exit ramp turn right onto Capitol Avenue.

• Take the first right past the Legislative Office Building, proceed to the back of the garage and take a right to enter the garage using the left hand lane (employees) or the right hand lane (visitors).

Traveling on I-84 West

• Take Exit 48, Asylum Street, at the end of the exit ramp turn right at the light onto Asylum Street.

• At the YWCA turn left onto Broad Street, proceed through two stop lights, immediately after the Armory building take the first left and then another left at the end of the short access road.

• Follow this road around the garage to the back and take a right to enter the garage using the left hand lane (employees) or the right hand lane (visitors).

Traveling on I-91 North or South

• Take Exit 29A, Capitol Avenue, proceed through the Pulaski Circle at the end of the long exit road.

• Take a right on Elm Street and turn left at Trinity Street.

• Go past the Capitol building and the I-84 entrance ramp, all on your right.

• Take the first right past the Legislative Office Building, proceed to the back of the garage and take a right to enter the garage using the left hand lane (employees) or the right hand lane (visitors).

Bus Transit:

CT Transit provides local bus service though out Hartford with local bus routes making frequent stops, typically every 2 to 3 blocks, linking neighborhoods with urban centers and providing connections within and between communities. Several bus stops are within a short walk to the Capitol and Legislative Office Building. Click here for more information on routes and stops: https://www.cttransit.com/

Plan your trip, see schedules, read system alerts and news | CTtransit - Connecticut DOT-owned bus service

www.cttransit.com

CTtransit is the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT)-owned bus service.

CTfastrak provides direct bus service to and from Waterbury, Cheshire, Southington, Bristol, Plainville, New Britain, Newington, West Hartford, Hartford and Manchester with routes that take advantage of the bus-only CTfastrak roadway. Click here for more information on routes and stops: https://www.cttransit.com/services/ctfastrak

*****

Thank you for supporting this incredibly important event. It is not an overstatement, as you know, to say that the future of community colleges in Connecticut hangs in the balance.

******Date has passed

Public hearing on SB 749 on Thursday February 21:

AN ACT REQUIRING LEGISLATIVE APPROVAL FOR THE MERGER OR CLOSING OF INSTITUTIONS WITHIN THE CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

To require legislative approval for the merger or closing of institutions within the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities.

We support SB 749

[view the bill here ]

[some history and context, via Charlene Lavoie here ]

On Thursday, February 21^st, the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee will hold a public hearing at 12:30 PM in Room 1E.

Sign-up for the hearing will begin at 11:30 A.M. in Room 1E of the LOB.

• Please submit 30 copies of written testimony to the Committee staff at 11:30 A.M. in Room 1E of the LOB. Testimony received after the designated time may not be distributed until after the hearing.

• Please email written testimony in Word or PDF format to HEDtestimony@cga.ct.gov. Testimony should clearly state testifier name and related Bills

• Live testimony will be difficult since it is a long agenda, you are allowed only 3 minutes, and the first hour of the hearing is reserved for Legislators, Constitutional Officers, State Agency Heads, Chief Elected Municipal Officials and Students with a valid student I.D. card. (3 minutes = 500-600 words, if you read it fast)

So it is recommended that you submit written testimony via email to HEDtestimony@cga.ct.gov. Indicate it is for SB 749.

[*****please note: There is another bill on the agenda: HB 7120. It only addresses closure of institutions in the CSCU system. We need to voice our opposition to HB 7120 as it does not address what is occurring right now.*****]

Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee

REVISED PUBLIC HEARING AGENDA

*****Date has passed*****

Thursday, February 14, 2019 2:30 PM in Room 1E of the LOB.

Sign-up for the hearing begins at 1:30 p.m. in Room 1E of the LOB. Please submit 30 copies of written testimony to Committee staff at 1:30 p.m. in Room 1E of the LOB and also email written testimony in Word or PDF format to HEDtestimony@cga.ct.gov.

Testimony must state your name and SB 817.

SB 817 is Agenda item #8 on a 15 item agenda. Live testimony will be difficult since it is a long agenda, you are allowed only 3 minutes, and the first hour of the hearing is reserved for Legislators, Constitutional Officers, State Agency Heads, Chief Elected Municipal Officials and Students with a valid student I.D. card.

So it is recommended that you submit written testimony via email to HEDtestimony@cga.ct.gov. Indicate it is for SB 817.

This is the language of the Bill, which is proposed to put the brakes on the Board of Regents "Students First" consolidation plan to allow for study, examination and analysis.

AN ACT CONCERNING HIGHER EDUCATION.

To require the Office of Higher Education to study issues relating to higher education.