Community leaders fight UB merger

 

BRIDGEPORT REPORT

                          

   By Reginald Johnson 

 

   BRIDGEPORT ---- A group of local activists and elected officials are trying to head off  the takeover of the University of Bridgeport by Goodwin University, saying the merger may not be in the best interest of the city or the minority community.

    The group, which includes the president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP, a state senator and members of the city council, are complaining that community leaders like themselves have been kept out of the deliberations for arranging the merger, and the process has not been transparent.

  The group also questions whether Goodwin, a smaller college than UB which specializes in technical-career-oriented courses aimed at landing people jobs quickly, is not up to the task of running UB, a larger and more established university.

   There’s also fear that tuition rates at the new college may be too expensive for  lower-income minority students to enroll.

   The critics also voice suspicions that Goodwin, based in East Hartford, is not really interested in acquiring UB for academic reasons, but instead wants to buy up valuable waterfront property on Long Island Sound and then sell it off for high-priced housing development.

  The group has talked about various ways of stalling the Goodwin deal --- including legal action to block the merger, trying to get state leaders to consider the possibility of making UB part of the state’s public university system, or using finances from wealthy alumni to pay off UB’s debts and keep the university independent.

  But no definite course of action has been settled upon.

  The president of Goodwin University, Mark Scheinberg, has pushed back hard against the criticism and said the merger is going to be a positive development for both the city and the South End, where UB is located.

  “This is such a win for Bridgeport, and because it is our mission, a win for us, too,” he said.

   The plan for Goodwin to take over UB is far along, with a closing on the purchase of the university property expected within a matter of weeks, said Scheinberg. Once all accreditations are gained, Scheinberg said, the merger would be completed by July. UB would then become a nonprofit institution owned by Goodwin. Paier College, an art school in Hamden, would also be part of the new university.

   The move towards a takeover of the University of Bridgeport began last year, after several years of worsening financial conditions at the 94-year-old college. Scheinberg said he was contacted in June by city leaders, including Mayor Joseph Ganim and members of the higher education community, to see what Goodwin might be able to do to help.

   Then began a period of several weeks of work to hammer out a deal to essentially save UB through a merger. Initially a proposal was devised to have Goodwin, Paier and Sacred Heart University jointly merge with the University of Bridgeport. Later, however SHU officials dropped out of the deal, saying they were concerned about enrollment projections.

  By the fall, several members of the city council and others were expressing concern that the negotiations for finalizing a new arrangement for UB were being done behind closed doors and without adequate input from the council or the minority community.

   Councilman Jorge Cruz, who represents the South End, charged that officials from UB and Goodwin and the mayor were negotiating secretly on a matter that is critically important to the community, without getting any community or council input.

  “They’ve shown us total disrespect,” said Cruz.

The Rev. D. Stanley Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP, said minority involvement in the process was not being taken seriously enough.

  “If they were really concerned about Bridgeport as a whole, they would’ve had a community conversation,” he said. “We don’t want somebody coming in here and just say ‘we’re going to do what we want with you,’ without talking with us.”

   State Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport, the spokesman for the group, (which doesn’t have a name), said  “So the issue is, there’s a lot happening behind the doors, behind the scenes and I think that’s not good … I think for something to be done right, whether it’s a private business or public business, specifically if it’s public, it should be done openly and transparently when it affects such a large entity like ourselves.”

   Scheinberg acknowledged that in the early stages, there wasn’t much outreach to anyone outside of the people directly involved in planning a merger. But he maintained that now, lines of communication are much better.

  “We were contacted in June by city government and members of our association to see if there was some way we could step in to help an ailing University of Bridgeport so we had about three weeks to put together a basic shell of a deal and other than my attorney, I didn’t talk with anybody and that’s a screening fact process and it takes years to do this stuff,” he said.

 “So when we did the initial announcement the only person I had talked to in the government in Bridgeport was actually the mayor to make sure I wasn’t mis- stepping and so you do the proper thing --- you check into the local government administration supporting this, so that’s what I did,” Scheinberg said.

  “After that day it was apparent to us that there were some people in the community that didn’t feel as though we were well enough in touch with them before the announcement took place. We took that the heart,” he said.

  At that point, Scheinberg said, he began calling Councilman Cruz “every couple of weeks whenever anything new was happening, I made sure to give him a call.”      

   Goodwin officials also met with the entire Bridgeport state delegation to give them input. They’ve also met with different church leaders, with local and private schools and with a council committee.

  “So there’s nothing that we’re trying to hide,” Scheinberg says, “it was simply a situation where things happen so quickly we hadn’t dug deeper into every layer of the government down there…Nothing is being held back, it’s just we didn’t have time to get to as many people as we would’ve liked.”

  Critics in the community are also worried about whether Goodwin will have a positive effect on the minority community. Bridgeport is a majority minority city and the South End’s population is heavily Black and Latino.

Bradley, an attorney in Bridgeport, said key issues for the group include minority involvement in the university, linking the university with the minority community and making the tuition structure accessible for minorities.

 “Universities have been priced out for a lot of students and I don’t personally believe that the university should be only available to the sons and daughters of the rich or that people in my situation should be burdened with astronomical levels of debt,” he said.

  Bradley added, “the University of Bridgeport for better or worse has always been an institution or one of the few institutions that allows for first-time college kids to come in and pay reasonable rates to get a degree and offer up robust programs of a four-year institution. So yeah, we want to make sure that continues.”

  In response to the issue about tuition, Scheinberg first noted that the University of Bridgeport historically has offered a lot of programs with the city and city residents to provide a substantial amount of institutional financial aid to those students to make sure they could start and finish at UB.

  “They have been very generous to the Bridgeport community. And the question is what will Goodwin do. Goodwin is about the lowest price private college in Connecticut and one of the lowest in the region. We have not raised our tuition in years, our students are very heavily supported by lots of institutional aid as well as other aid; we are a main trainer for SNAP recipients; we are main trainer for Department of Children and Families. Our contracts are hugely supportive of lower income people,” he said.

  On tuition levels, the Goodwin official said, “We will do our best. For any private college you have to do the best you can when you’re in a situation where you don’t get any state support.”  

 Unlike the state community college system or the state university system, Goodwin doesn’t get “tens of thousands of dollars for every student they serve,” he said. “For us we don’t have that and we are still trying to make our programs accessible to local residents.”

   On the issue of involvement by the university in the community, members of the critics' group, including Cruz and Bradley, say they want to make sure that Goodwin continues with the kinds of helpful programs UB has in the schools and in the community, such as providing interns for nonprofits, running computer camps and a health clinic.

Scheinberg said, “I don’t know if they get credit for the many things they (UB) already do and that’s just the beginning. For us, when we get there we will run many programs in addition to that in support of the community.”

 Another concern that has been raised by the community group is whether or not Goodwin has a high enough academic caliber to be taking over the much older and more established University of Bridgeport.

  “I think it should be pretty obvious that I don’t know what will qualify Goodwin college operating a four-year institution and I don’t see what’s in their repertoire or in their assets that it’s a model that I find to be a model of one of higher learning,” said Bradley.

  Rev. Lord also voiced concern about Goodwin’s academic credentials and taking over UB.

   “The University of Bridgeport is known to have one of the best engineering schools in the nation,” he said. “Given Goodwin’s repertoire, Goodwin does not cover that area academically. So what are they going to do with that component?”

  Scheinberg said later that Goodwin will retain the Engineering School.

   Goodwin, begun in 1999, has 3317 students and an endowment of about $9 million. Some 1,027 degrees, both associate and bachelor’s degrees, were conferred in 2019-20.

  The University of Bridgeport has 3152 undergraduate students and 2282 post graduates. UB’s endowment is about $34 million.

  The Goodwin website advertises the East Hartford college as a “Career Focused University in CT.”

   The curriculum emphasizes training in a number of technical oriented fields, many not requiring a four-year instruction and with almost no liberal arts courses.

  Bachelor Degree programs include APRN, advanced manufacturing, business administration, childhood study and others.

  There are several master’s programs, including APRN, public health, and education.

 Two-year associate degree programs are offered in nursing, dental hygiene,  manufacturing, funeral service, criminal justice, early childhood education, health science, CNC Machining and other fields.

 Certificates are offered in medical billing, welding and other areas.

 Scheinberg said that a key mission of the college is to get people into paying jobs.

 “At the end of a degree program here, one should expect that as part of our mission people are able to gain a living wage… As a general rule if any of our programs don’t have a 80% placement rate within 90 days they are put on a watchlist because our job is not to create education for its own sake. We don’t have a philosophy major. We don’t have a lot of majors which would be nice in a liberal arts setting but we want to make sure that our graduates can expect to be working when they finish,” he said.

 Scheinberg added, “So we make no bones about it. That’s not to say we don’t have lots of liberal arts or general education courses but in addition to that we want to make sure that they have enough of an emphasis that they are able to come out and get a job, too.”

   The most controversial charge made by critics of the Goodwin takeover has been the claim that real estate development may be a key motivation behind the acquisition.

  Cruz is outspoken on this issue.

  “Their interest here is the land --- it’s prime land. You got the university and the beach there, you got Seaside Park there and that’s prime land and I’m concerned they’re going to gentrify the place. Gentrification is going to spread and the next thing you know the minority population is going to be powerless. We have to stand up to these people,” he said.

  Others, such as Rev. Lord of the NAACP and Councilman Alfredo Castillo echoed Cruz’s concern about a possible “land grab.”

  Scheinberg is clearly upset by the allegation.

 “I’m sort of slack-jawed actually. So on what basis is that assertion being made?” he asked. “That question came up at the city council meeting as well and I was astounded by the question because I never even thought of that is being an option… There is nothing in what we do that would ever, ever suggest that what we’re doing is a land grab down there…What I’ve heard is astounding to me. We’re such good community members.”

 Scheinberg went on, “We’re not asking anybody for money. We’re not asking anybody for a handout. We’re spending about $50 million --- $50 million! This is the kind of thing that is so rare that I don’t expect to be canonized, but you know, for Pete’s sake, people should be appreciative before they start assuming we’re doing anything nefarious.”

   On the issue of financing, the Connecticut Post reports that Goodwin has an agreement with Citizens Bank whereby the bank is writing off $30 million of UB’s $60 million debt. The Post said Goodwin has a letter of intent to take on UB’s remaining $32.5 million in debt, plus invest another $20 million in the venture.

    But the community group is trying to find other options to keep Goodwin from taking over.

   Without giving many details, Cruz said there has been some contact with two wealthy alumni who are willing to put up the financing to absorb all of UB’s debt and keep the university independent.

  “They are alumni and they don’t like what they heard was being discussed and they called to help. They don’t want to see this institution go to somebody outside of Bridgeport and they want to maintain it as an institution to benefit the minority community,” Cruz said.

Bradley and Lord have expressed the desire to get the state to take over UB and put it into the state university system.

   “My view is that the government step in and specifically the governor’s office step in and make UB part of what is a thriving state system of higher education,” said Bradley. “I think that would be the ideal model. I think UConn and the rest of the state schools have a high degree of prestige and a good reputation.”