Signaling a nationwide higher education trend, two New Jersey community colleges are exploring a potential merger to mitigate years of declining student enrollment and revenue and increase academic and economic opportunities for the region’s residents.
The potential merger between Cumberland County College (CCC) and Rowan College at Gloucester County (RCGC) is the latest case of the combined effects of disinvestment in higher education since the recession of 2008, and a move to increase efficiency of institutional operations, some scholars say.
“Public higher education faces a tough time in many states,” said Dr. Stephen G. Katsinas, director of the Educational Policy Center and professor of Higher Education Administration at the University of Alabama (UA). “State appropriations recovery following the Great Recession has been very slow. Without question, the disinvestment by many states is motivating mergers.”
While there is no central list of mergers of colleges and universities year by year, the federal government does keep track of “parent-child” institutional relationships and things such as name changes, Katsinas said.
A 2016 report from UA’s Education Policy Center showed that community colleges also have faced a “double-whammy” in that their dependence on tuition revenue means that cuts to federal student aid and Pell grants result in declining student enrollment, a loss of tuition revenue and lower graduation rates.
In the case of the potential merger between CCC and RCGC, Cumberland County Freeholder director Joseph Derella urged stakeholders in an open letter to consider the merger due to a 26-percent decline in enrollment at CCC since fiscal year 2013-2014 and declining revenue.
A potential merger also would open the possibility for the creation of a “corridor of education and medicine along Route 55” to serve both students and residents, Derella and Gloucester County Freeholder Director Robert M. Damminger said in a joint statement in March.
