The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn cuts sports programs
STORRS — The University of Connecticut announced the elimination of several sports programs on Wednesday but will wait until September to determine how cuts forced by the COVID-19 shutdown will impact academic programs.
A clearer picture of the damaging impact is expected once UConn knows for sure how many students it will get and what kind of revenue will be generated.
For now, the best case scenario for the 2020-21 academic year shows a shortfall of $47 million. If things worsen, the spending plan could be off by as much as $129 million, university officials said.
Athletics will shoulder some of that burden with the elimination of men’s cross country, tennis, swimming and diving as well as women’s rowing after the upcoming academic year. Students in those sports will get to keep their scholarships.
Board Trustee Andy F. Bessette remarked that it was a brutal decision.
“The whole university is going to bleed a little bit,” Bessette said during Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting.
University President Tom Katsouleas said he recognizes the power and impact of athletics to UConn but said there remains widespread uncertainty so programs need to become more efficient and focused.
He called the decision to eliminate some sports programs painful but in the best interest of the long-term viability of UConn athletics. He also said a review of UConn athletics began long before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.
The university athletics department was directed to cut its university subsidy by 25 percent. That amounts to about $10 million a year.
UConn has a $1.532 billion operation plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Student tuition and fees pays for about 40 percent of that. The state block grant to its flagship university is roughly 26 percent. The rest comes from grants, research funds, contracts and auxiliary enterprises.
Other options being considered to close the projected budget gap include:
⏩ Reviewing academic programs to see if larger class sizes are possible without compromising quality — even though the fall plan calls for classes to run at 30 percent capacity.
⏩ Cutting or reducing programs with low enrollment.
⏩ Seek new revenue through entrepreneurial programs and auxiliary services.
⏩ Cut labor costs by possibly postponing pay raises or instituting furloughs, layoffs or some combination. UConn spends 57 percent of its operating budget on staffing costs.
Earlier this week, Katsouleas announced that there would be furloughs of one or two days a month for managerial staff, including himself.
Talks with unions are ongoing. More than 90 percent of its employees are under collective bargaining agreements.
Tom Bontly, president of the UConn AAUP chapter, said the union is fully committed to protecting the high quality and affordability of public higher education and was awaiting more information.
“UConn AAUP stands ready to work with our colleagues in the administration to advance the university’s mission,” Bontly told trustees on Wednesday. “We need to work together on win-win solutions both long and short term.”
He called for cost cutting measures that won’t pass the buck to students or faculty and staff and asked that the state’s rainy day fund be taped to help UConn weather its current storm.
State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, co-chair of the legislature’s Higher Education Committee, said he was saddened that student-athletes on the four affected teams have had their university athletic careers cut short.
“UConn’s Athletic Department has run a serious deficit for a number of years,” he added. “It is unfortunate that these four teams have been singled out for elimination when the financial problems are departmentwide. The Huskies football team, alone, ran a deficit of $13.3 million in 2019.”
The four sports cut impact 124 student-athletes and four coaches.
Trustees Chair Dan Toscano said in addition to more than a dozen speakers — most of whom pleaded with the board not to cut their respective sports — he received numerous emails from UConn alumni and others asking that sports be spared.
The board, which met for more than 5 hours Wednesday before approving the spending plan, was told that much of the COVID-19 loss can be tied to revenue lost when students were sent home last spring. There is also a big hit in NCAA revenue distributions.
Katsouleas told trustees that so far student deposits for the fall are good.
UConn plans to bring students back to campus in the fall but will fill its residence halls to only 70 percent capacity. Who gets to live on campus depends on desire and need, said Dean of Students Eleanor Daugherty.
Students will move in two weeks before the start of classes, will be tested for the virus and, according to Daugherty, essentially “live in a bubble.”
That doesn’t mean they will be confined to campus but encouraged to do so and would be expected to follow the same public health safety guidelines they would if at home.
“We can have a residential experience on campus,” Daugherty said. Apartments and suites will be almost fully occupied. Traditional dorms is what will have a 50 percent occupancy rate.
The rules will apply to both students who live in residence halls in Storrs and Stamford.
Student housing assignments will go out in July.
Space will be set aside in student housing should any students need to be quarantined.
Dining halls will be open for takeout service only. Should the university allow dine-in service at some point during the semester, seating and tables would be spaced to allow for social distancing.
The UConn Health budget also took a deep hit because of the pandemic, with a $115 million gap to fill in the new fiscal year.
On the capital side, UConn is still on target to receive $260 million in state bond money to support its NextGenCT Science program and other building projects.