Professors warn cuts would affect Conn. college students
NEW HAVEN — Professors, students and two state lawmakers on Tuesday accused Connecticut’s Board of Regents for Higher Education of imperiling the academic accessibility of the state’s regional public universities with proposals to increase class sizes and cut salaries during contract negotiations with the faculty union.
Contract negotiations between the union, the Connecticut State University American Association of University Professionals, have been ongoing for nearly a year. On Tuesday, union members said the drawnout discussions threatened to force the two sides into a costly arbitration process.
The union, which represents roughly 3,000 faculty members at the state’s four regional universities, has been staunchly opposed to the proposals from the Board of Regents, which include removing caps on class sizes, more faculty transfers between campuses and making it easier to eliminate majors.
On Tuesday, union members described the contract negotiations as stalled and called on the regents and Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System President Terrence Cheng to accelerate the pace of those talks.
“We need the Board of Regents to enter into good faith bargaining and negotiations with our team to get as many of those proposals taken off the table before we go to arbitration,” said Sara Baker Bailey, a member of the union’s governing council and assistant professor at Southern Connecticut State University.
“This is a system that says we don’t have money, so why would we spend money on arbitration if we don’t need to?” Bailey said.
Cheng, who met with students and faculty on Tuesday regarding contract talks, said afterward that he has faith in the negotiating process, which he said would continue for the timebeing.
“We’ve worked very hard to try to come to the middle and get to a place of ‘yes,’ but if we need the assistance of an arbitrator, then that’s what will happen,” Cheng said.
Speakers at Tuesday’s rally on the quad of SCSU, however, described the regents’ proposals as ignorant of the needs of students, many of whom are lower-income or firstgeneration college students who benefit from smaller class sizes and professors who can spend more of their time in office hours.
State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, a graduate of SCSU, described how his own relationships with his college professors served as a springboard for his political career, which put him in direct contact with the regents during budget negotiations.
“Every time they come in front of us, they say, ‘We’ll do more with less, it’s OK that you’re giving us less money,’” Winfield said. “But then they do these things, and then they increase your tuition, so when they say they’re going to do more with less, what they mean is you are going to get less.”
Officials have cited declining enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic as the source of significant financial challenges for the state’s public colleges and universities. In March, the Board of Regents voted to freeze tuition at the state’s community colleges and four regional universities.
Enrollment at the four regional state universities — Western, Southern, Eastern and Central — was reportedly down more than 5 percent during the first year of the pandemic, creating a $52.5 million budget shortfall.
The University of Connecticut, the state’s largest public university, is governed by a separate board of trustees.
“We are in a place right now where there are certainly fiscal as well as enrollment pressures,” Cheng said. “The goal is to come to an agreement on a contract that treats our folks fairly and gives them the support that they need and ultimately is sustainable for our institutions and our system.”
At Southern, the union organizers on Tuesday inflated a 14-foot tall skunk named “Skunkzilla” that has become a staple of their demonstrations during the negotiating process.
Its message, spray-painted on a sign hung from the skunk’s neck: “Regents’ proposals stink.”