Nearly 30 faculty, students and staff at CT State Manchester held an informational picket on Tuesday calling for investment in higher education after years of underfunding at CT State Community College, which they say has resulted in cuts in courses, mental health counselors, administrative support staff, tutoring and full-time faculty positions.
Seth Freeman, president of the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (4Cs), SEIU 1973, and professor at CT State Capital, said decades of underfunding have “left our community colleges struggling to provide essential support like advising, tutoring and mental health services.
“We are not satisfied with this decade-long status quo of underfunding that manifests in 75% of faculty being part-time,” he said. “Colleges are canceling classes on campus to save money and students are having to take more classes online.”
Freeman said the cuts will have long-term impacts on students.
“This will manifest in our students not being prepared when they graduate to transfer successfully and not being prepared to enter the workforce,” he said. “That impacts our entire workforce.”
CT State Community College did not return an email for comment in time for this article.
Underfunding has also resulted in cuts to over 100 sections of courses, according to the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, SEIU 1973.
Wanda Reyes-Dawes, the sole mental health counselor at CT State Manchester, said there is a need for an additional counselor at the campus as the need for mental health services is growing there. She said while there are telehealth services available, it is not enough to meet the need.
CT State Naugatuck Valley and CT State Gateway each have two mental health counselors for its student body, she said.
CT State Manchester is the third largest campus in the CT State Community College system.
She said students are suffering from stress, anxiety and depression.
Above all, Reyes-Dawes said the biggest issue students are struggling with is a “deep-seated feeling of loneliness that I have never seen before.”
She said 60% of students feel technology gets in the way of their schooling.
“Because they are so involved with their technology, they have really not socialized outside of the home,” she said. “I think it could contribute to their loneliness as they are not socializing and connecting with others besides a machine. I go home with my heart and soul very heavy. The level of hopelessness — I go home with a broken heart and it hurts. I can only do so much for them.”
Other areas cut over the years have included sports, fitness classes, Saturday campus hours, mentorship programs, and academic degree programs.
Freeman said the union did not have figures available on how much the CT State Community College system has been underfunded over the years.
Marsha Ball-Davis, campus supervisor of enrollment services at CT State Manchester, said that she is fortunate to have the staffing as promised in her department but, she said, other community colleges are short staffed.
“My biggest concern is that we want to provide the best service that we can to students and we want to be able to offer the full array of courses that we are supposed to offer in order for them to enroll and get through their program in a timely manner,” she said. “Many of the One Stop Enrollment Centers at other campuses around the state are understaffed which negatively impacts enrollment and retention because these offices provide admissions, registration and record services to their campuses and are front-line student-facing offices that impact enrollment and retention.”