Office of the President

May 19, 2026

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
 
As we close another academic year at CT State Community College, I want to thank our students, faculty, and staff across all of our campuses for your dedication, resilience, and commitment throughout this year.
 
This year marked continued momentum for our college and meaningful progress in strengthening Connecticut’s largest and most affordable public institution of higher education through our open access mission.
 
I also want to personally thank our campus communities and foundations across CT State for the warm welcomes extended to me throughout my first year as your president. I deeply appreciated the opportunity to visit our campuses, learn more about what makes each location special, and engage in thoughtful and candid conversations about how we continue building our institution together.
 
Together, we continued strengthening student success and access across our campuses. CT State experienced continued enrollment growth and achieved the highest fall-to-spring retention rate since consolidation, reflecting the extraordinary work happening every day to support students.
 
Across our institution, we also saw tremendous examples of innovation, partnership, and community impact. This year, CT State launched new workforce-focused programs, including a Dental Assistant program at Gateway and a new Practical Nursing certificate program at Norwalk, helping expand pathways into high-demand healthcare careers. We also celebrated students serving as legislative interns at the Connecticut Capitol, demonstrating CT State’s commitment to civic engagement, public service, and leadership development. At Middlesex, an alumna helped lead efforts to provide the campus with a fully vegan food option, highlighting the creativity, passion, and community-driven leadership of our students and graduates. And these are only a few examples of many, many others.
 
We also expanded partnerships that connect education directly to opportunity and workforce success. This year, CT State and the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System launched a landmark statewide partnership to strengthen college and career pathways for technical high school students across Connecticut, creating expanded opportunities for dual enrollment, workforce alignment, and student advancement.
 
At the same time, we continued shaping the future of our institution through the development of CT State’s first comprehensive strategic plan, engaging students, faculty, staff, community leaders, and workforce partners from across the state. I look forward to presenting a draft of the plan to our community when we return in the fall, behind the tremendous work of our strategic planning steering committee.
 
And recently, CT State’s Affirmative Action Plan was approved, reflecting our continued commitment to access, opportunity, and belonging across our statewide institution. Through these efforts, we saw continued progress in building a workforce that better reflects the students and communities we serve, including increases among employees of color, with 52 percent of those increases represented by women. Faculty and professional hiring also continued to move our institution forward in meaningful ways.
 
Most importantly, this year once again demonstrated the strength of our people.
 
To our students, thank you for trusting CT State with your education and your future. To our faculty and staff, thank you for your professionalism, compassion, and unwavering commitment to students and one another.
 
Like any year marked by transformation and growth, this year also brought moments of challenge, uncertainty, and broader issues across our system. I recognize those moments and the impact they had on our work. Yet through it all, our community remained focused on what matters most: serving students and continuing to advance our mission.
 
As we look ahead, I remain incredibly optimistic about the future of CT State Community College while recognizing that there is still a tremendous amount of work ahead of us. Thank you for everything you contributed this year, and I wish you a restorative and well-deserved summer.
 
To our graduating students, congratulations! I look forward to seeing all the incredible things you will accomplish as you carry your CT State education forward.

Sincerely,
 
Christina Royal, Ph.D.
Interim President