Gateway Greets Its New President

by Allan Appel The New Haven independent

Roughly 200 staff, faculty, students, and community friends gathered Wednesday at CT State Gateway — formerly known as Gateway Community College — to welcome the school’s new president, Dr. Shiang-Kwei Wang, and to hear about an increase in enrollment, higher student-retention rates, and the hiring of new instructors and janitors alike.

The crowd gathered to hear the inaugural ​“State of the Campus” address by Dr. Wang, who took the helm in June.

Significantly, she is Gateway’s first ​“campus president” in the school’s new configuration as part of a consolidated, if far flung, single state community college. 

Dr. Dorsey Kendrick was the longtime president of Gateway Community College, when it was a distinct and independent college. She retired in 2017 and, beginning then and culminating in 2023, the state organizationally consolidated all of its 12 community colleges into one Connecticut State Community College (CT State) where students can take courses at any campus.

As part of that reorganization, each campus initially was led by a CEO, not a president. However, over the years, presidents have gradually replaced CEOs, with Gateway’s the most recent arrival.

That was a major reason for the good vibes in the school’s balloon- and streamer-festooned Curran Community Room, near the entry at Church and George streets, as students and staff lined up to fill out name tags and to get in to hear the words and to enjoy the treats prepared by the school’s culinary arts majors.

“A CEO is functionally a middle manager and traditionally not a role at a college,” said Dr. Miguel Garcia, a librarian and professor of Spanish, and the son of one of the founding professors at the school back in 1992.

“A president more accurately reflects the true needs of a school,” said Garcia. For the needs of an urban flagship school like Gateway, he suggested by way of example, are different from those at more rural campuses like Quinebaug Valley, Three Rivers, and Tunxis. 

“There was a recognition that all the campuses have different and unique needs and one size does not fit all.”

That’s why the original unified model has evolved and the position, which Dr. Wang is filling, more accurately reflects the recognition of the true priorities of each school.

And that’s why the good vibes were evident Wednesday.

One small example: Among the recent positions announced was a new staffer dedicated to coordinating wraparound services for the not inconsiderable number of Gateway students juggling their education, applications for financial aid, and their work lives with challenges of homelessness.

Click here for Dr. Wang’s remarks of welcome and priorities that include striving for stronger connections to New Haven’s business community and to community organizations.

Why? Because they provide internships, career opportunities, and sources for scholarship and financial aid, the needs for which are only growing.

By the same token Gateway’s giveback is that its skilled graduates — in nursing, radiology, other medical specialties, in automotive crafts, among many others — fulfill the needs of local industries and business.

Or, as Garcia put it succinctly: ​“When I go into a doctor’s office and I ask, ​‘Did you go to Gateway?’ the answer is frequently, ​‘Yes.’ We have the only diagnostic medical sonography program in the state.”

Gateway remains very much part of the sprawling, statewide, consolidated single multi-campus community college, in which students increasingly take courses online and bop from one campus to another to fulfill requirements. And the campuses compete with each other for resources.

Therefore, neither Dr. Wang, nor attendees during the Q and A that followed remarks, shied away from challenges. The first among priorities, which she wrote about in a previous campus communication, was better communication in the form of a comprehensive and detailed regular newsletter; town halls; and regular hours when the president’s door will be open for visits.

She announced better communication to the central office and, citing a symbolic torch that Dorsey Kendrick has passed to her, Dr. Wang announced the creation of a center on the campus for equity and social justice, that bucks national trends.

Also in the works to address are improvements to the ​“framework for scheduling,” that is, making sure that courses that are offered are not cancelled at the last moment for want of a threshold of students enrolling — situations that are very negative for both students and faculty.

There were several more questions that raised versions of problems resulting from not focusing on this priority for the new president. That is, to laser-focus, as someone phrased it, on ​“aligning marketing, enrollment and class availability.” 

“I am aware of these and already brought some of these concerns already to the provost,” Dr. Wang replied. And the result is, in part, that Gateway has permission to have more courses offered on its campus.

Of course no discussion about education — or any other issue in New Haven — fails to touch on parking, which is basic to students as well as instructors, coming from all over the region to learn or teach at Gateway.

One longtime English instructor asked how come her parking tags at the Temple Street Garage (where Gateway has an indispensable longtime contract for 600-plus spots) were questioned by security!

She was assured that while new tags are being issued, old tags are indeed being honored. ​“Any old Gateway ID is still compatible at Temple Street,“ the head of security assured the professor.

“But I was stopped three times!”

“Have the guard call me.”

Dr. Wang concurred, in response to a passionate appeal from Dr. Garcia, that another priority should be revitalizing the college’s important automotive technology program at the campus in North Haven. 

“But do you know it involves the bond commission and mayors [of at least two towns]. We have mountains to move. And I have to be diplomatic,” she said candidly. ​“All I ask is to give me some time, and if I need you to go to the legislature, you will come.”

A biology professor said she noticed Dr. Wang had invited her family and friends to the gathering and that was an excellent sign of her commitment to Gateway and ​“that we have a bright future with you.”

“I like all the passion on this campus,” Wang concluded. ​“I look forward to becoming a part of the family.”

Gateway’s budget this year is $6.5 million and there are 6,297 students taking courses on the campus; with online courses included, this year the school will be serving nearly 9,000 students.

Gateway Prof. Miguel Garcia and Jennifer Vorel, from the financial aid office.