The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Slashing UConn budget ‘hangs over us all’
State lawmakers say more funds could be on way for education
As faculty and students at Connecticut’s public colleges raise alarm about coming budget cuts, top state lawmakers say additional funding may be on the way.
At a news conference Wednesday, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, DHartford, said both the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system are likely to receive significantly more state money that what Gov. Ned Lamont offered in February as part of his initial budget proposal.
“They both will be taken care of,” Ritter said.
Ritter said higher education will be a top priority for legislators — along with non-profits, children’s mental health services and municipal aid — as they seek to allocate surplus funds before the legislative session ends May 8. He said he anticipates CSCU will receive enough money to avoid the 5 percent tuition hikes administrators are set to impose next fall.
Earlier this month, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee announced it would not adjust the second year of Connecticut’s biennial budget, defaulting to spending levels lawmakers agreed on in 2023. Still, legislative leaders said they hope to add $300-400 million to higher education and other priorities by allocating unspent federal money and shifting dollars around within the existing budget.
Cathy Osten, DSprague, who co-chairs the Appropriations Committee, cited higher education, non-profits and mental health services as areas that “we believe the limited state dollars that may be available should be invested in.”
Higher education funding has been a source of contention throughout
the current legislative session, with the schools asking for more money than Lamont has been willing to agree to. The situation has grown only more complicated in recent weeks due to a pending agreement, negotiated by Lamont’s office, that will grant 2.5 percent raises to unionized state employees, including those at public colleges and universities.
At a Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, UConn administrators reported that given the proposed raises, the university would face a $96 million deficit at the level of state support Lamont has proposed, while UConn Health would be short an additional $54.7 million.
“We’ll see where we end up,” said Andy Bessette, vice chair of the board’s financial affairs committee. “It should be an interesting session between now and May 8.”
During the public comment portion of the Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, faculty members and students harshly criticized the university’s plan to close budget gaps by cutting broadly across departments and programs.
Mary Beth Allen, a French professor, told the board that the proposal to slash budgets “hangs over us all.”
“Faculty meetings are no longer about education,” Allen said. “They are doomsday gatherings where we wonder privately who among us will lose their job first and which graduate programs will be phased out or immediately terminated.”
Claire Nieder, a graduate student in UConn’s chemistry department said she is “barely scraping by” on a stipend she receives from the university and that she fears what cuts will mean. She questioned how UConn can reduce key programs even while paying seven-figure salaries to basketball and football coaches.
“I know you guys have enough money, I see it in the fancy buildings that are put up every year and the salaries of multiple sports coaches,” Nieder said. “Put the money that UConn students gave to you back toward those students.”
In the CSCU system, faculty and students have similarly questioned both the state’s commitment to their schools and administrators’ willingness to fight for more funding.
John O’Connor, Central Connecticut State sociology professor and union leader, said Wednesday that CSCU requires significant state investment, beyond just what would restore an “ugly status quo” to the system.
“We would like not just to have the holes filled in,” O’Connor said. “We want our institutions fully funded, the way they really deserve to be funded.”
Earlier in the legislative session, CSCU administrators asked the legislature for an additional $47.6 million to balance its 2025 budget, but the system says its projected deficit now stands at $62.9 million after the newly negotiated employee raises.
Inane mail Wednesday, spokesperson Sam Norton said the CSCU community was “grateful” to lawmakers for “recognizing the important role public higher education plays in Connecticut’s growth strategy.”
“Through additional funding, CSCU can continue to serve as a primary engine for economic and social mobility and workforce in the state, helping to train students for careers in high-demand sectors such as teaching, healthcare, manufacturing, science, business and much more,” she said.