‘It’s important to show up and shout out’
Hundreds of UConn supporters rally in Hartford over Lamont’s budget proposal
“The UConn administration’s insistence that the state continue covering this federal aid now that it is no longer available is not a fiscally sustainable solution.” Gov. Ned Lamont
HARTFORD — The marching band played. The crowd cheered. Students on stilts hobbled around with University of Connecticut flags slung around their shoulders, and at least one dog circled the grass dressed in a red “Save UConn” shirt.
It wasn’t a football game or pep rally that brought the UConn supporters to the steps of the State Capitol on Wednesday. The contingent was in Hartford to protest Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget proposal, which school officials said left the state’s largest public university $195 million short of the funding it received in fiscal year 2022.
“Our legislators work for us,” UConn senior Eli Collins. “We vote here. We pay taxes here. We live here. It’s important to show up and shout out and raise our voices for those who might not be able to.”
Collins and hundreds of other UConn students and faculty arrived on buses and by car from campuses across the state with concerns about how the budget will impact their college experience.
The governor is proposing to provide UConn with $776 million in the next two fiscal years, on top of an additional $110 million the school would receive in pandemic funds.
That’s up from the $753 million two-year allocations UConn received in fiscal year 2022. The school also received state budget surpluses and $200 million in federal pandemic money for a total of $1.1 billion in the two-year period that ends on June 30.
But UConn officials say Lamont’s budget proposal leaves the school $195 million short of the funding the university received during the previous year due to COVID-19 relief funding — money lawmakers knew was not designed to last forever.
“What are you guys doing to step down from the (American Rescue Plan Act) money?” state Rep. Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, said at a hearing with UConn President Radenka Maric following the rally. “I know the governor does include another $150 million in ARPA money over the next two years in this budget. How is UConn resizing and readjusting without this federal money?”
The options for closing the $195 million funding gap include combining UConn and UConn Health, increasing the number of research grants, upping class size, more fundraising, accepting more out-of-state students and increasing tuition, according to UConn Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Geoghegan, who also spoke at the hearing.
UConn supporters, who packed the hearing room at the Legislative Office Building following the rally, shared increasing tuition as their biggest fear about the smaller budget. Maric reported tuition would increase $3,000 annually for each student if the university turned to that revenue stream to close the gap.
“It’s really upsetting because a lot of low-income students in particular will have to make up the increase in tuition,” said Aanya Mehta, a junior health policy major at UConn.
Ella Fawole, a freshman pharmacy studies major, fears the budget will disproportionately affect students of color at UConn’s satellite campuses.
“Help us, especially the ones in regionals, to fund our education,” Fawole said. “Education is a really important thing. Tuition at the regionals is lower, but many people can’t pay for it. Increasing the tuition will mean people aren’t able to go to college anymore.”
Other rally goers brought up other issues. Some held signs protesting the cost of higher education, and one group had a hand-written sign that read “UCONN DO BETTER,” demanding the school support
LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) communities.
Another sign, crafted by Collins, read: “I campaigned and voted for Ned Lamont twice and all I got was this lousy budget.”
In a statement released by his office as protesters were gathered, Lamont defended his budget proposal, saying it included “the largest block grant ever proposed for UConn in state history.”
“I am a strong believer in UConn’s contributions to the economic growth of Connecticut, and that is why I’ve proposed increasing the state block grant funding for the university every year since taking office,” Lamont said. “Our proposal provides UConn with funding to support wage increases and brings pension and retiree health costs onto the General Fund to enhance their competitiveness in obtaining grant funding.”
But the governor said federal COVID-19 relief money was “intended to be one-time in nature” and was not intended to pay for ongoing costs.
“The UConn administration’s insistence that the state continue covering this federal aid now that it is no longer available is not a fiscally sustainable solution,” Lamont said.
“I am immensely proud of the accomplishments of our UConn students, faculty, and alumni,” the governor added. “UConn must remember they are accountable to the taxpayers of our state and must maintain fiscal controls, like every other part of state government.”
Inside the appropriations hearing before the rally, Terrence Cheng, president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System, described a dire funding situation at state schools across Connecticut fueled by inflation and declining enrollment.
“Our students, our faculty, our staff have been doing more with less for several years,” Cheng said.
Sam Somers, a UConn professor on the executive board for the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, attended the rally and called funding UConn “the best investment in the state.”
“The students are our future and the state is nothing without our public universities,” Somers said.
Several rally attendees and UConn officials who spoke at the hearing emphasized the number of UConn students who go on to work in Connecticut businesses, hospitals and schools as a reason to use any budget surpluses to fill the $195 million gap.
Maric reported that 70 percent of UConn students are Connecticut residents and 77 percent of the students stay in the state after graduation.
“Is University of Connecticut an economic and social engine of this state?” Maric asked the appropriations committee. “I believe that it is.”