The state of CSCU

Connecticut’s higher education system chancellor addresses budget fight, financial challenges

HARTFORD — Terrence Cheng has had an eventful two and a half years as chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.

He arrived in 2021 as the system managed the COVID-19 pandemic and prepared for the merger of the state’s 12 community colleges into one school, eventually finalized last year. The system’s finances were, and remain, on shaky ground, leading to concern that Western Connecticut State could shut down permanently.

For two straight years, CSCU has fought a highstakes budget battle with Gov. Ned Lamont and state legislators, who have increased funding for the system — but not enough to cover the loss of expiring pandemic relief funds. In anticipation of a budget shortfall for the coming year, Cheng has administered tens of millions in cuts across CSCU, while the system’s Board of Regents

recently voted to increase tuition 5 percent next fall.

Along the way, Cheng has faced sharp criticism from students and faculty, who blame him, at least in part, for the system’s financial state. Earlier this month, the university senate at Eastern Connecticut State declared their disapproval through a no confidence vote.

CT Insider spoke with Cheng in his Hartford office Friday about the state budget, his relationship with faculty and what regrets he has about his tenure so far. The conversation has been condensed and edited lightly.

CT Insider: You have told the legislature you need $47.6 million to avoid deeper cuts in the CSCU system. What happens if that money doesn’t come through?

Terrence Cheng:

Unfortunately, if we don’t get more support from the state, we will be forced to enact even further reductions. And that will hit almost every single component

of the institutional operations. It’ll be academic. It’ll be student support. It’ll be student services. It’ll be in class offerings. The impacts would be enormous. We would have to make even further reductions to our parttime staff, and we would have to start looking at our full-time staff and our academic programs. I think we would be forced to look

at even more tuition increases.

At the end of the day, what makes that so painful and so tragic is that it hurts students. When you’re not able to offer the appropriate number and level of courses to students, it slows down their graduation, and ultimately it slows their ability to get into the workforce. When you don’t give them

the mental health counseling that they need, when you don’t give them the career counseling that they need, the academic advising — when you don’t give them the things that 21st century students need, it hurts students.

The Lamont administration has basically said: ‘Enrollment is down, state block grant funding is up. Why can’t

the system make this work?’ What has been your response to that?

The first thing I’ll say is that our enrollment, spring to spring, is actually up this year. It’s the first time in several years where we are seeing an uptick in enrollment. So we are stabilizing.

What I would say about the resource levels is that

Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media CSCU chancellor Terrence Cheng, pictured on May 7, 2021, has fought the Lamont administration for more higher education funding but faced criticism from faculty and students frustrated with cuts.