Governor Lamont appoints Massachusetts resident to lead Board of Regents.

Speaker of the House Matthew Ritter complained in May that he and other leaders struggle to find the best people to serve on state boards and commissions. Ritter’s bemoaning the quality of hundreds of volunteers was a stinging admission of failure by the Hartford Democrat.

Governor Ned Lamont signaled his agreement with Ritter on Wednesday when he elevated Massachusetts resident Martin Guay to serve as chair of the Board of Regents of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system. Lamont nominated Guay to the BOR in March. Guay’s nomination referred to him as a resident of Bedford, Massachusetts.

Guay is an executive at Connecticut-based Black and Decker.

This is the first time a governor has felt no Connecticut resident was qualified to serve as the head of a higher education board of trustees or regents. Chancellor Terrence Cheng is said to spend much of his time at his New York home.

Guay’s first task will be to explain why Cheng did not inform regents and others in a timely way of the “Notice of Concern” issued to Western Connecticut State University in March by the New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE). The ominous letter appears not to have roused the regents, dominated by a supine majority, out of their torpor.

Published June 13, 2024.