The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn’s new president gets his Husky orders
STORRS — UConn’s new president has a long todo list.
At his first Board of Trustees meeting as president on Wednesday, Thomas C. Katsouleas was given a twopage list of goals that calls on him to focus not just on assembling a senior team including a provost, but working with the General Assembly to keep the budget balanced, grow research and keep the students coming.
“I am in complete agreement with the goals set out for me,” Katsouleas said, surrounded by trustees and others in the University of Connecticut community in the historic Wilbur Cross building, once the main library on the Storrs campus.
When he was named president in February, Katsouleas promised to keep students first, but also to focus on helping the state’s economy.
His responsibilities, largely set out for him when he was hired last February, include the formation of a Standing Committee for Research, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It was the legislature’s idea.
Katsouleas said the committee is key to achieving his goal of doubling research dollars that flow into the state’s flagship university. That money stands at about $265 million annually.
The committee is to be made up primarily of board members and professors to help develop strategy and help UConn work better with private firms, form partnerships and to develop inventions and licenses.
The new president has also been tasked with mitigating the effects of unfunded pension liabilities — something he said is linked to growing research dollars and is among his biggest concerns.
When UConn researchers go after grants, they are at a competitive disadvantage, Katsouleas said, when it comes to staffing costs.
“The staff fringe cost (here) is so much higher than peer groups,” Katsouleas said. Places where staff costs are lower are more likely to get grants. That, he said, could lead to the loss of key faculty.
“This is not something we can solve ourselves,” Katsouleas said. “We have to mitigate this.”
Were it not for the costs associated with unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liability, both UConn and
“He wants to make sure (UConn) is an institution that is very much involved in the full development and progression of our state.” Paul Mounds, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Ned Lamont
UConn Health would be running modest surpluses.
This year, UConn must pay $31 million toward the legacy unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liability, which built up statewide over many years. At UConn Health, the bill next year amounts to $53 million. There is $33.2 million in the next state budget to help offset that.
Strategic planning
UConn has experienced steady budget cuts over the past several years. The goals ask Katsouleas to establish a productive relationship with unions, top donors, and the General Assembly — rank and file as well as leadership.
“Be a presence at the State Capitol,” the goals state.
Another big goal is to start to develop a fiveyear strategic plan, work with the General Assembly to help UConn Health Center into public/private partnerships and to make it clear to students that
UConn is affordable. He is charged with developing a multiyear tuition schedule.
UConn educates more than 32,000 students on multiple campuses, including Stamford. Students will start moving onto campus on Aug. 23. The price for a fulltime, instate undergrad living on campus this year is $30,484.
Sitting along side Katsouleas at Wednesday’s meeting was Interim Board of Trustee Chairman Thomas Ritter, who is soon to be replaced in that role. He will remain on the board.
Paul Mounds, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Ned Lamont, said a new chair would be named by the governor by Sept. 1. The new chair is someone outside the board who has a strong understanding of the institution, Mounds said.
All of the goals for the new president are important to Lamont, Mounds said.
“He wants to make sure this is an institution that is very much involved in the full development and progression of our state,” Mounds said. “(UConn)
plays a very critical role.”
Mounds said Katsouleaus, before his title was official, worked behind the scenes on the deal that brought UConn sports back to the Big East Conference.
“They will have a great relationship,” Mounds, wearing a Husky tie, predicted.
New neighborhood
With two weeks officially under his belt as president, Katsouleas has found his way to student cafes on campus and said he and his partner, Anna Maria SiegaRiz, feel at home. SiegaRiz is the new dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The couple will live on a house that is part of the UConn campus.
Katsouleas took part in a student tour on campus with his daughter Kate, a high school senior, this summer. And the new president has found his favor flavor at the UConn Dairy Bar. It was the first one he said he tried: Lemon Ice Box Pie. Scoops of it were handed out during a break in the meeting.
While Katsouleas takes over as president, his predecessor, Susan Herbst has become president emeritus and after a sabbatical is expected to teach at the UConn Stamford campus.
A physicist and inventor, Katsouleas (pronounced KatsooLAY’es) comes from the University of Virginia, where he served as provost and executive vice president. He said Virginia had a research committee similar to the one UConn is developing but it was a temporary body.
He also taught for 14 years at the University of Southern California before becoming dean of engineering at Duke University. His two teenage children live in California.
The new president has a fiveyear contract with an overall annual cash compensation of $675,000 plus a car and housing. There are also performance bonuses and in subsequent years automatic 3 percent increase in his base pay of $525,000.