Students and higher education officials continued to plead their case for more funding Tuesday at a legislative public hearing as both the University of Connecticut and Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system prepare for life without federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The situation is the most dire for the CSCU system, which comprises four regional universities, a community college system that has 12 campuses and online Charter Oak State College and is anticipating a $140 million shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.
The CSCU system presented a deficit mitigation plan in November, preparing for layoffs, to cut services at its campuses and hike the cost of tuition, but officials say they still need $47.6 million to balance the budget.
[RELATED: CSCU Board of Regents OKs 5% tuition hike despite opposition]
“I want to be clear that the $47.6 million that we’re asking for is literally just to cover the deficit. … I don’t want to give the impression that the $47.6 million will make all our concerns or problems go away. It absolutely will not,” Chancellor Terrence Cheng told the Appropriations Committee Tuesday morning.
“Our students deserve the best. They deserve a heck of a lot better than what we give them, and at the end of the day, we are on the same team when it comes to trying to provide the best education for those students that cannot go to the flagship, who cannot go to the privates,” Cheng said. “We’re here to advocate for our official ask, but we are certainly in a position to make it clear that without long-term sustainable, reliable funding, our system will continue to be in a very dangerous, precarious position.”
Gov. Ned Lamont and his administration argue that base funding will grow from $423 million this fiscal year to $440 million in 2024-25, but overall aid for the CSCU system would drop from $647.5 million this year to $516 million next year as pandemic relief expires.
[RELATED: Lamont, CT legislature appear headed for a showdown over education]
Lamont has remained adamant that higher education systems should have been preparing to live without the temporary money. Those systems, and many legislators, counter that all state officials knew these funds were needed for ongoing expenses, including large pay raises the governor negotiated with state employee unions. The governor and unions negotiated general wage and step increases two years ago that boosted most workers’ pay by about 4.5% annually.
UConn is also expecting a $70 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, which begins in July. The university’s current budget is roughly $1.6 billion.
“We are looking at how to generate new revenues and increase the number of students coming to UConn,” UConn President Radenka Maric said. “We have a record high of applications of 58,000 … [and] we are looking how to accommodate more students without compromising the quality of education.”
[RELATED: UConn budget cuts would ‘destabilize’ university, staff say during protest]
But Maric said there may still be a cut to several student services.
“The things that are important to students are advising and mentoring, quality of education, mental health support and housing. We have the priorities, and what students said to us [through a survey] is important to them, but if there is no additional support from the state, the reduction has to happen on all these levels,” Maric added. “One is academics, that we are doing a 5% reduction each year for the next three years. The other one is looking at athletics. … There are many things that we are planning, but nothing will happen overnight.”
Advocacy for more state funding into the public higher education realm has remained ongoing for over a year and continued well into Tuesday evening as hundreds of students were expected to testify at the public hearing before the Appropriations Committee.
“When deliberating funding allocations, please remember that you’re not just affecting line items — you’re shaping the trajectories of staff, students, faculty and the future of our state,” said Victoria McCarthy, a sophomore psychology student at UConn Hartford. “UConn is not merely a collection of figures and spreadsheets, it’s a fiber tapestry of the voices, aspirations and dreams of each individual before you today. UConn is us, the staff, students and the faculty. UConn is the voice of the future. We serve the state and the people who inspire growth, strength and passion. Be part of the future that chooses to keep funding that passion, those voices and that future.”
Taylor Doyle, a junior strategic communications major at Central Connecticut State University, testified that CCSU was the only school she could afford paying out of pocket for and that it’s helped her navigate her early career “while facing housing, food, financial and transportation insecurity.”
“I’ve been able to do so with the guidance, support, encouragement and resources provided to me by the Connecticut State College and University faculty, staff and peers. … I cannot express enough that without them, I do not know where I would be, in both the most literal and figurative sense of the phrase,” Doyle said.
“My testimony is one of the many that demonstrate the resilience and resourcefulness of Connecticut students who will find a way to strive for excellence in even the most trying circumstances, the same resourcefulness and resilience that the state should be proud to uplift as the next generation of the workforce,” Doyle continued. “My story, like any other’s, is proof of what can be if a student is provided with the support and resources needed to thrive in higher education settings. Increasing the cost or reducing the funding to our state institutions is actively working against students like me and directly undermining the purpose of public higher education institutions.”
During the public hearing, advocacy and union groups Connecticut for All, SEBAC and SEIU State Council held a rally in another room at the Legislative Office Building and continued to call for the legislature and Lamont to properly fund higher education.
“Our message to Gov. Ned Lamont is simple. We will not allow Gov. Lamont’s fanatical adherence to the fiscal guardrails to destroy our higher education system. We will not sacrifice our students for the spending cap,” said 4Cs president Seth Freeman. “We are here because it’s time for our legislators to do right by our students. We’re here to remind our leaders what is not the answer. Austerity is not the answer. … Tuition hikes are not the answer. Proper funding is the answer.”