Could Connecticut learn from Alaska?

When visiting our daughter in Connecticut from the state of Alaska, I read with interest the response of the Uconn president to the governor’s proposed appropriation to the institution she leads. Frankly, it struck a familiar chord. When Alaska’s governor made a substantial cut to Alaska’s statewide university system, the chancellor of the largest school in the system didn’t hesitate to make highly unpopular cuts.

While all colleges at that branch of the university had to absorb cuts, including cancellation of several low-enrollment programs, the chancellor also imposed substantial cuts on the university’s athletic programs and moved the hockey program back to campus from a downtown venue. The cuts put three programs on an indefinite hiatus. Hockey and gymnastics

(the institution’s two Division I sports) and skiing were all told that they could achieved reinstatement only if they raised two years of program expenses in advance. Of the three, only hockey, which needed to raise $3 million, had the potential for attracting a large audience. All three programs managed to raise the required amounts and as of the current academic year, all three programs were competing with NCAA rivals.

The chancellor correctly recognized that the likelihood of quickly raising community funding was greater for athletic programs than for academic programs, particularly those programs that fall in the so-called “liberal arts,” despite the need for professional fields to build on the understandings gained in those liberal studies disciplines.

I sincerely hope that the Hartford legislators who are bemoaning the potential move of sports programs back to the very adequate facilities on the Uconn campus in Storrs will not give into the blackmail threat from the Uconn president. If three athletic programs located at the University of Alaska Anchorage can manage to successfully raise sufficient funding to save their sports, I see little reason that the much larger donor pool in the Hartford metro area (1,213,539 compared to total Alaska population of 773,391) should not kick in some help so they don’t have to make the drive to take in events on the Storrs campus.

And perhaps some of the funding denied to Uconn could be redirected to the regional universities within the Connecticut State University system. Those very credible institutions are being starved of support as the larger Uconn invades their territory with extension campuses that in large measure duplicate what is already available from those regional institutions. Just a thought from a retired faculty member who has seen a similar story.

Tina D. Delapp

The writer is Emerita Professor of Nursing, University of Alaska Anchorage