How Maine’s New Chancellor Hopes to Fix the System’s Demographic Crisis

Dannel P. Malloy, the former Democratic governor of Connecticut, is set for a challenge as the next chancellor of the University of Maine system.

Maine, one of the country’s most rural states, is at the leading edge of what many believe is a looming demographic crisis for higher education. “We’re in the worst corner of the worst corner of the country for demographics” for traditional-age college students, Raymond J. Rice, president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, told The Chronicle last year.

Maine’s Board of Trustees said last week that Malloy was just the person to face that problem, taking over the system’s “One University” consolidation plan. “Under Dan’s leadership we will help lead Maine’s response to our work-force shortage and skills gap by connecting more of what we teach directly to a job,” said James R. Erwin, the board chair, in a written statement on Thursday. Maine cited Malloy’s past experience with government and higher-education reform.

Many of those accomplishments aren’t so straightforward, said Iris Palmer, a senior adviser for higher education and the work force at the think tank New America, and a former senior policy analyst at the National Governors Association.

Just after taking office, in 2011, the governor pushed through a merger of Connecticut’s higher-education system, combining the offices of the Connecticut State University system with the state’s community colleges and online college under a new Board of Regents. In theory, the move would save millions as the state faced a projected deficit of $3.67 billion. But the rollout was “scandal-plagued and messy,” Palmer said. The system presidency changed hands several times until steadying under Mark E. Ojakian, Malloy’s former chief of staff, who took over in 2015.

While some of the merger’s goals have been met, the tumult led to unrest among faculty members and community-college officials, and drew political fire from state Republicans, The Connecticut Mirror reported last year. The rollout, along with tax increases and other policies, helped make Malloy one of the least popular governors in the country.

Malloy will “command respect” as a former governor, but he’ll have a lot to learn, said Aims C. McGuinness Jr., a senior fellow at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems and a former aide to the first chancellor of the Maine system. A Maine spokesman pointed out that Susan Herbst, the departing president of the University of Connecticut (which is not part of the system Malloy created), recently called Malloy “the most sophisticated governor with regard to higher education that I have ever met, without question.”

Malloy believes he’s prepared. In an interview with The Chronicle, he outlined his goals to face Maine’s demographic crisis, his past experience with higher education, and Maine’s plans for reform. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q. The Board of Trustees looked for a chancellor who would make work-force development a priority. What does that mean to you?

A. Each state has demographic challenges. Connecticut is one of the oldest states in the nation. Maine is the oldest state in the nation, with an average age of 44.6 years. We know that a very large portion of our work force will retire in the coming 10 years. We know that we need to produce 158,000-plus credentialed employees. And credentialed means two-year, four-year, or some specific training that would allow a person to secure appropriate jobs.

One critical need is nursing. In much of Maine, our average age of a nurse is 55 years or older, which means that it’s crunch time for making sure we can grow a nursing population to meet the needs of the state in the future.

Q. What does that look like, in terms of the system’s programs?

A. It means a very large expansion of nursing-training opportunities and educative opportunities across the state. One of the things about Maine that you have to remember is that it’s just about the size of the rest of New England. So we have to meet students where they are. In some cases, that’s online, but in more cases than not — particularly in nursing — that’s offering the possibility of education and training in communities across the state.

Q. Maine’s at the leading edge of this demographic cliff that people talk about. Do you see a big expansion in online programs as one way to fix that?

A. The University of Maine at Augusta is a leader in that as we speak. We are in the process of gearing up those efforts. That’s part of meeting people where they live, as well. I had a conversation with a student last week at Augusta who is taking both live-lecture and online classes, even though they’re on campus. With our geography and with our demographics, that’s going to be more important than it is elsewhere.

Q. What other strategies could the system take on? Recruiting students from neighboring states, across the country, around the world? How do you solve this demographic problem over the long term?

A. The system itself has seen about a 44-percent growth in out-of-state students in a relatively short period of time. Clearly, we’ll look to continue that trend, understanding that when someone’s educated in the state, they’re far more likely to take their first job in that state. We need to further examine international opportunities, and strengthen those relationships. And we need to get the Maine story publicized and understood beyond New England. That will be one of our challenges. But we have a great system, a well-respected system, and we have a state that is anxious to welcome talent.

Q. Does that mean marketing? Where might you put budget dollars toward enrollment problems?

A. It’s all hands on deck. I think you need to do everything. I have not started in the position yet, so I’ll reserve pointing out where we’ll be assigning additional assets until such time as I have a better handle on what’s going on. But clearly, with a 44-percent increase in out-of-state students, they’re doing many things right.

Q. The mergers aren’t entirely comparable, but you drew a lot of skepticism in your first year as governor when you merged Connecticut’s higher-ed system. What have you learned from that experience that you might take to Maine?

A. If you don’t learn a lot every day, you’re probably not alive, or you’re not being honest. Connecticut and Maine are very different places, not the least of which is that the community-college system has a comparable position in the state to the chancellor’s position. One of the first things I did last week was to sit down with the head of that system, have lunch, and talk about our futures together.

Transfer agreements need to be addressed as rapidly as possible. We should fully recognize in our system that a substantial number of our students will be coming from our community-college programs. That’s particularly true of nontraditional students. And we need to make that path as easy to traverse and as clear to traverse as possible.

Q. One more question on the Connecticut merger. Part of it was a political question too, because whether or not the changes needed to be made, they were widely disliked.

A. Let’s put it in perspective. Not only was the system shrinking, the state was looking at a $6.7-billion biennial deficit. And operations were causing tuition to rise rapidly.

Affordability is a big issue. In a climate where state funding for higher education is on the decline, it is incumbent upon us to move ourselves and others outside of our comfort zone and focus on the needs of our students. And that includes their financial welfare. There is a reality that people like to do things the way they’ve always done them. But if that means that we need to raise our total cost in the next 25 years 400 percent, we won’t be open for business.

Q. What might some of those strategies look like? Increasing state funding, or fund raising?

A. It could mean a lot of different things. It begins by making sure that all of our students are accessing funds. We have to gear that up. We also need to attract people to areas of interest that match the state’s need for students, such as nursing.

Right now, about one in four students in our system is receiving an education at very little or no cost in tuition and fees. We want to continue the process of making ourselves available, particularly to first-generation college students. That comes at a cost. It also, by the way, reasonably predicts a stronger economy in the state in the long run. We know that we hang on to an extremely high percentage of students from Maine attending our university system, and we’ll begin more thoroughly tracking out-of-state students so that we can continue to justify that avenue to the legislature.

Q. You were an adjunct instructor for much of your tenure as the mayor of Stamford, Conn. What have you learned from being an instructor?

A. Obviously, shared governance is extremely important. We have an obligation to our students and our faculty to make sure that we are transparent, that we’re sharing information. But that also includes making sure that people understand the demographic challenges, the financial challenges, as well as hearing their own take on what we should and could be doing.

One of the reasons I taught while I was mayor was to stay in touch with how younger people were receiving and processing information. You don’t want to be isolated as mayor. You don’t want to be isolated as governor. And you certainly don’t want to be isolated from any point of view when you’re chancellor of a very large and robust system.

Follow Steven Johnson on Twitter at @stetyjohn, or email him at steve.johnson@chronicle.com.