Connecticut’s State Colleges and Universities are currently facing an existential crisis.
For over a decade, state funding for our institutions of higher education has not kept pace with inflation; in turn, as our schools have continuously been expected to “do more with less,” faculty and students have watched courses, programs, and services offered on our campuses gradually evaporate.
Now, Gov. Ned Lamont is urging for a state budget that reduces the CSCU system to a skeleton of its former self. Under the proposed budget, Connecticut’s State Universities (Central, Eastern, Southern, and Western) and CT State Community College have no choice but to close a $140 million budget deficit through a combination of mass faculty layoffs and a 5% system-wide tuition hike.
Still, Lamont insists we need to be “right-sized.”
I believe we all want to right-size higher education. We just have wildly different visions of what that entails.
When Gov. Lamont says we need to right-size higher education, he means he wants our schools to be run like businesses. His vision entails minimizing costs by exploiting faculty and passing the bill on to students, nickel and diming us for a quality education the system will no longer be able to provide. That “quality education” will be reduced to job training — no opportunity for critical thinking, no broadening your horizons — just a herd of students on track to receive a piece of paper that will secure them a job, likely in an industry rife with exploitation itself. Our colleges and universities will be reduced to assembly lines manufacturing dutiful, compliant workers. True higher education will be a luxury only afforded to those who have access to Connecticut’s elite private institutions.
This is no right-sizing at all. In our vision of higher education, to right-size our schools means to ensure all Connecticut residents can access public higher education if they so choose; the working-class and the marginalized cannot be priced out or denied the services they need to succeed. It means robust course offerings and a wide variety of programs that encourage the full human development of students of all interests and passions. It means funding the many student-led organizations, clubs, and services on our campuses that work hard to create safe, supportive, accommodating spaces for students of all backgrounds and walks of life. It means ensuring our graduates leave with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the workforce, and simultaneously, ensuring they have been given opportunities to grow as people, to pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake, to build rich relationships and seek fulfillment in unexpected places.
On Tuesday, Feb. 20, hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, and staff from Connecticut’s state colleges and universities packed the Legislative Office Building until late into the night to testify before the Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. We did so to convey to our legislators, those with the power to save our institutions of public higher education, that Lamont’s vision is “wrong-sizing.”
If our politicians wish to truly right-size higher education, they must approve a budget readjustment and provide our schools with sufficient funding to ensure quality working conditions for faculty and quality learning conditions for students.
Should these budget cuts not be prevented through emergency funding, those who rely on the CSCU system as their golden ticket to higher education will lose access to these institutions that guide many on the path of full human development. The chance to explore oneself and gain a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit will once again become a privilege reserved for those with access to Yale, Wesleyan, Quinnipiac, and the other extremely competitive (and expensive) private universities in our state. Working-class, marginalized, and non-traditional students will receive woefully insufficient job training if they aren’t priced out of higher education altogether.
As a newly employed Connecticut resident and a proud graduate of Central Connecticut State University, I want my tax dollars to fund public higher education in our state. I want to live in a state where those around me are knowledgeable, skilled, and passionate about what they do. I want our working professionals across all industries to be competent in providing the many services I rely on in my day-to-day life. Furthermore, I want to live in a state where everyone has the opportunity to engage in continuous learning and self-betterment.
In one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country in the world, I believe accessible, quality higher education should be guaranteed to all who seek it. I know I’m not alone.
These institutions are our institutions. Those legislators who have demonstrated a commitment to defending our public higher education system have made a prudent choice to invest in their people. I hope the rest follow suit.
Xander Tyler lives in Coventry.