Union: State’s threat to close WestConn ‘egregious’
DANBURY — The possibility that Western Connecticut State University could close this summer as a budget cut was characterized by its president as a worst-case scenario that “will not be reality.”
But with rumors spreading on WCSU’s two Danbury campuses this week that spring 2023 could be the last semester for the struggling 120-yearold institution, students and faculty are concerned, leaders said.
With good reason. “Anybody is going to be concerned to hear something like that,” said Paul Beran, the interim president who was imported from Arkansas in 2022 to rescue the university from the enrollment slide and undisciplined spending that has plunged WCSU into a what a report called a “serious financial crisis.”
“We have to move forward and do our jobs to convince the state of the vitality and the importance of this institution.”
While WCSU and the rest of the state-run universities and community colleges in Connecticut were put on notice this week about the possibility of hundreds of full-time faculty layoffs, several thousand part-time teaching layoffs, significant tuition increases, and “the potential for campus closures,” the Danbury university was not mentioned by name.
But in a closed-door meeting with Connecticut education executives and state-level union leaders, WestConn was mentioned by name as the first institution to close if push comes to shove, said Rotua Lumbantobing, a professor of economics and president of the WCSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
“I was devastated of course — even saying that (closing WCSU) is a possibility is egregious,” said Lumbantobing, who was not in the room when WCSU was singled out but was told about it by a union leader who was. “Where are our priorities?”
The state’s response is that Gov. Ned Lamont has increased funding to Connecticut’s system of universities and community colleges every year since he’s been in office to the point that per-student spending has nearly doubled since 2019 from $7,400 per student to $14,200 per student.
“[H]is budget proposal for the next biennium increases this funding once again,” chief spokesman David Bednarz said on Friday. “These funding increases … will allow (the state university and community college system) to continue operations at all of its campuses.”
Lamont’s budget czar explained the governor’s position this week that “Simply asking for ever-increasing operating subsidies is not sustainable.”
“Before looking to the taxpayers and students for additional funding, (institutions) must get their costs under control and in line with the current and expected future demand for students, which has decreased by 36 percent in the community colleges and 21 percent at the regional
Western Connecticut State University Student Center Plaza on the university’s Midtown campus in Danbury. President Paul Beran characterized the possibility that WestConn could close this summer due to budget cuts as a worst-case scenario that “will not be reality.”
state universities,” said Jeffrey Beckham, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management. “The students and taxpayers deserve value for their dollar.”
The interim WestConn president agreed.
“I was hired to come in (to) address the organizational and financial problems of the institution and that is what I am doing. We are looking at merging programs, merging departments, cutting down the costs of management, and increasing efficiency in how we do things,” Beran said Friday. “What I am sharing with (the state) is all the things we are doing to reorganize and to create long-term saving that doesn’t effect the quality of our instruction.”
‘Economic hole’
One year ago, a study found that Western was facing “serious financial difficulty” and had to “reevaluate staffing, structure and programs to curb
spending,” because the university operated on a “structural deficit,” and depleted its reserves.
Two months after the report was publicized, John Clark, the embattled president, earned a “no confidence” vote from the faculty and stepped down.
On Friday, the president of the state university and college system told Hearst Connecticut Media that it was premature to single out any one institution such as WestConn for closure “as the Board of Regents would need to assess the particulars of the budget and determine on a case-by-case basis which institutions and campuses have the resources to sustain these levels of funding and which do not.”
“We have been clear about the potentially disastrous impacts of the proposed budgets on (state) institutions and students, the communities we serve, and the state’s workforce,” said Terrence Cheng, president of the Connecticut
State Colleges and Universities system, or CSCU. “[W]e remain hopeful that our state partners, at a time of fiscal plenty, will put forward a final budget that keeps pace with the (State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition) wages and benefits that were negotiated by the state on our behalf but haven’t been fully funded in any of the proposed budgets.”
The next step is negotiations between Connecticut State Colleges and Universities and Lamont’s budget staff.
At stake in Danbury is a college education for scores of students without the means to attend private colleges, Lumbantobing said.
“The students are devastated, and the students are worried,” said Lumbantobing, who is rallying support to attend two lobbying events in Hartford in May — the first on Wednesday to encourage lawmakers to keep Western funded. “What are (state
Paul Beran, Western Connecticut State University president
leaders) saying about our students and the people who live and work in the western part of Connecticut?”
Beran agrees.
“I have done an analysis of the financial impact of Western, which has a $350 million yearly financial positive impact on our community,” Beran said. “There is a significant impact if you start cutting back on how we do our job. There will be an economic hole if you take away the vitality of the institution.”