Connecticut
Kevin Rennie: Secrecy in CT plays an outsized and destructive role in a process
Eastern Connecticut State University President Elsa Nunez announced her retirement after 17 years leading the public liberal arts school. “[N]o amount of love can stop the passage of time, and, for me, the time has come to embrace the next phase of my life,” Nunez wrote in a statement notable for its grace in these fractious times.
Nunez has presided over many improvements in ESCU, expanding its offerings to students who would often see a four-year college education as out of reach. She has been faithful to ECSU’s mission to provide a liberal arts education in an era of growing emphasis on narrow vocational training. Under her leadership, the school’s finances have improved.
These achievements would stand out at any time but Nunez has guided ESCU as the state’s population of college-age students continues to decline. She has provided a stark contrast to the mess at Western Connecticut State University which has been unable to come to terms with falling enrollment among Connecticut students.
CSCU Board of Regents OKs 5% tuition hike despite opposition from students, faculty
The January 2 deadline for applications to replace Nunez has been preceded by months of preparation for a complicated and secretive process that will end in the announcement of a new president on March 1, according to a target timeline released by the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities administration in June.
CSCU has engaged WittKeiffer, an executive search company that declares its purpose as “improving quality of life through impactful leadership.” We’ll never know how or if WittKeiffer fulfills its mission because secrecy plays an outsized and destructive role in a process that would benefit from some sunshine.
“This search will be conducted confidentially; no candidate will appear on campus,” one CSCU explanation of convoluted process declared. The ECSU Senate, comprised of faculty and administrators, saw the danger of secrecy and did what university senates do: It passed a resolution condemning the poisonous concentration of power at the top of the CSCU bureaucracy, it believes the best candidates come forward if guaranteed secrecy. That’s not the sort of candidate who should lead a public university.
The resolution makes vital points about the selection process. The most salient is that past presidential searches have “required the finalists to visit campuses to meet faculty, staff, and students prior to being offered the position.” Those campus visits have “only helped, and not hindered, the search process.” The outstanding example of this is Nunez. When she retired, Gov. Ned Lamont praised her service not only to ESCU but also to the state. CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng wrote, “Under [Nunez’s] able leadership, the university has grown stronger, cementing itself as the state’s public liberal arts institution. She has also been an invaluable asset to the system in her role as vice president for universities.”
Transparency in choosing the head of a public university benefits everyone. Secrecy alienates. It also leads to calamitous results. We need look only to former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, now chancellor of the University of Maine System. Malloy and calamity appearing in the same sentence is a phenomenon painfully familiar to Connecticut residents. Leaders in Maine chose to ignore our experience and picked him to run their university system.
In 2022, Malloy failed to disclose that the successful candidate for the presidency of the University of Maine Augusta campus, Michael Laliberte, had been the subject of no-confidence votes by the faculty the State University of New York at Delhi while Laliberte was president. Malloy knew of the faculty votes but kept them from the Maine search committee.
One of the complaints against Laliberte was the lack of transparency at the Delhi campus. He withdrew from the position but not before negotiating a sweet deal with the public university. It would pay Laliberte $20,000 a month, up to $700,000, until he found a job. Secrecy is expensive. Malloy’s expensive blunder prompted one of several no-confidence motions in him. The University of Maine board of trustees is larded with politically connected figures who have declined to acknowledge their own mistake in hiring Malloy in 2019 and extending his contract this year.
University presidents often become prominent figures in their communities and beyond. A successful one requires the ability to speak in public in a manner that reflects his or her fealty to our common values of freedom under the rule of law.
The two months since Hamas inflicted its barbaric instincts on Israelis have emboldened murderous antisemites to break cover on, among other places, American college campuses. The embrace of genocide by some students and the failure of some prominent university presidents to confront and condemn it is one of the most important events of this year.
The finalists for the ECSU presidency might face some hostile encounters with students who do not embrace the spirit of a liberal arts education. How those candidates react and the values they deploy to refute antisemitism could be the most revealing moment in the search for a president. It is a test that must be conducted in public.
Connecticut
Library in South Windsor wraps up 14th annual Gingerbread House Festival
Some people found a sweet escape from Sunday’s frigid winter temperatures. A chance to step outside the cold and into a different snowy environment.
It just made it feel like Christmas,” said Michael Mizla, of Manchester.
“We try to do this every year,” said Susan, Mizla’s wife.
Sunday was the last day to check out a festive, holiday tradition at the Wood Memorial Library and Museum in South Windsor – The 14th Annual Gingerbread House Festival, which organizers say is one of the largest gingerbread house festivals in New England.
“People have made this their tradition,” said the library’s executive director Carolyn Venne. “We see the same large Vermont family every year the day after Thanksgiving on opening day. So, as people come in to see family locally, this becomes part of their tradition, and that makes it all meaningful for us.”
These gingerbread houses are on display in multiple rooms and floors throughout the library for weeks, from late November to just before Christmas.
“We probably range from about 75 to 150, and I think one year we topped out around 200,” said Venne.
Venne says behind these intricate candy creations are bakers, students, and community members.
At the end of the day, the gingerbread houses went to some lucky raffle winners or were donated to a nursing home in the area.
Those who needed to do some last-minute holiday shopping, were covered – just like the icing on these graham cracker homes – as people could visit the library’s ‘Ye Old Gingerbread Shoppe’ and take some of the magic home with them.
“The holidays are full of things you remember as a kid, so it just feels like the kind of tradition you will remember as you grow up.”
While Sunday was the last day to immerse yourself in these festive, edible villages, there are more holiday traditions coming up at the library, including a Christmas concert next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Connecticut
Connecticut farmers to benefit from federal disaster relief package
Funding to help farmers impacted by disaster is on the way for those who have been seeking help.
That’s one aspect of what came out of a vote in Washington D.C. that in part prevented a government shutdown.
A 13 minute hailstorm in August destroyed William Dellacamera’s crops and cost him $400,000. He was only able to receive a little less than half of that from programs already in place.
“From that day on, basically everything I had grown for the season was destroyed,” said Dellacamera of Cecarelli’s Harrison Hill Farm.
He’s become known locally for driving his tractor from Connecticut to Washington D.C., advocating for more state and federal funding for farmers like him.
In his travels, he landed meetings with the USDA and Connecticut’s delegation.
“I think they’re taking it seriously, and they did. They took it seriously,” said Dellacamera.
President Biden signed a disaster relief bill into law, advocated for in part by Connecticut’s delegation.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro says Connecticut has lost 460 farms over the last five years, primarily related to weather events that put their livelihoods at stake.
“I am pleased that we have an agreement on $100 billion in disaster aid,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, who advocated for the bill.
As part of that, Connecticut farmers like Dellacamera will be able to tap into $23 million of relief from crop losses, according to Representative John Larson.
“Now knowing this is going to make a difference is a big deal. And I hope it does, I hope it does make a difference,” said Dellacamera.
Also part of the bill, DeLauro advocated for a block grant of $220 million that’s only for small and medium-sized farmers who have lost crops in 2023 and 2024.
All of New England would fit in the parameters for the grant, allowing farmers to get help without crop insurance or a national disaster declaration.
“We came to a conclusion that these were all of the pieces that were needed to move forward,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, about the bill as a whole.
DeLauro’s team tells us that disaster relief funding will go from the USDA to the states to get payments out.
Dellacamera says he’s grateful, and there’s more work to be done. He hopes this block grant and general disaster relief funding will be able to live on.
“It takes the red tape out of it a little bit,” said Dellacamera of the block grant. “Hopefully it could be funded into the future, you know, as it might be needed more and more,” he said.
In the meantime, the state of Connecticut will be identifying which farmers experienced disasters in 2023 and 2024 to see who would benefit from block grant funding.
Connecticut
Gifts of Love provides for Connecticut families in crisis
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