The teachers’ pension fund – which has been one of the state’s fastest growing expenses in recent years – will not cost the state quite as much next year. Independent financial experts informed the state this week that its required contribution for the upcoming fiscal year will decrease by $8.5 million. It’s the first time […]
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Keith M. Phaneuf
Posted inEducation
Citing state cuts, UConn to raise tuition 6.5 percent next year
Facing a $46.2 million deficit for next school year, The University of Connecticut plans to exercise a provision in the four-year tuition plan it adopted in 2011 that allows the school to increase tuition more than 26 percent over the four years if state funding decreases.
Posted inEducation, Money
How Malloy wants to pay for his higher education plans
While the governor spent a good part of his speech Thursday discussing his higher education initiatives, details of his $60 million plan don’t appear in the college and universities’ spending plans. This is because Malloy is using a budget loophole to get around the state’s constitutional spending limits.
Posted inEducation
Glitch in 2011 Malloy/union pact rips hole in CT public colleges’ budgets
Dan Livingston, chief negotiator for state employees in 2011, "This was not part of the discussion. That was not the deal." The state employees’ union is calling on state legislators and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to fix a glitch in the 2011 concessions deal that forces the public colleges and universities to spend millions of […]
Posted inEducation
Legislative report: UConn has become ‘less affordable’ for poorer students
Brett Calash, whose family lost its home in Milford in Hurricane Sandy last year, will likely graduate from the University of Connecticut with nearly $50,000 in student loans. “A lot of things I am going to want to do will have to be put on hold,” the economics and political science major said Thursday, the […]
Posted inEducation
UConn taps reserves to close budget shortfall
University of Connecticut officials plan to significantly draw down the system’s emergency reserves this fiscal year to close a $30.8 million budget gap. “This is the first time we have had to deplete this fund to this extent… It’s a sign of the times,” said Lysa Teal, UConn’s vice president of finance and budget. This […]
Posted inNews
After missteps, lawmakers move for more oversight of state’s universities
Legislators have asked the governor to sign into law two bills that would increase their oversight over the state’s public colleges and universities — their reaction to a series of problems revealed at the state’s largest public college system last fall. “The genesis of this bill is really [from] some of the concerns around salaries and commensurate […]
Posted inEducation
What brought down Kennedy and Meotti?
Gov. Malloy announcing Robert Kennedy as the college system’s president Reorganizing the state universities and community colleges may have been Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s idea, but handpicking who would lead the merged, 100,000-student system wasn’t his call — at least not according to the legislators who crafted the merger bill. That didn’t stop the governor, […]
Posted inEducation
A closer look at Connecticut’s higher education salaries
The Malloy administration insists that the $410,000 compensation package it awarded in 2011 to the former president of the state’s college system was competitive. “This was very moderate in comparison” to other public college systems, Mark Ojakian, the governor’s chief of staff, said recently. Robert A. Kennedy resigned as president in October after a series of […]
Posted inEducation
How Kennedy spent his time during his ‘professional development’
The Board of Regents for Higher Education on Wednesday released the daily schedule of Robert A. Kennedy, who spent nearly nine weeks away from the central office this summer. Last week he told reporters he spent six weeks over the summer working remotely — though his contract specified that time be used for professional development […]
Posted inEducation
Embattled Board of Regents chief resigns
Robert A. Kennedy, the embattled president of the Board of Regents for Higher Education, announced his resignation Friday morning, effective immediately. Kennedy, who was recruited last year by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to lead the new consolidation of the higher education system, bowed to mounting pressure for his resignation after disclosures he unilaterally approved executive pay […]
Posted inNews
Bipartisan legislative call for resignation of higher education president
Pressures mounted Thursday for the chief of the state’s merged public college system to resign as leaders of the legislature’s Higher Education Committee issued a bipartisan call for the embattled administrator to step down. Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, and Rep. Roberta Willis, D-Salisbury, co-chairwomen of the committee, and the two ranking Republicans, Sen. Toni […]
Posted inNews
Higher education official forfeits $49K raise, senator wants all hikes canceled
The second-highest ranking official in the state’s merged public college system will forego a controversial $49,000 pay raise, the system announced Tuesday morning — one day after The Mirror disclosed the pay increase. Michael P. Meotti, executive vice president for the Board of Regents for Higher Education, will continue to earn $183,339, forfeiting the 27 […]
Posted inEducation
Higher education chief ‘mistakenly’ ordered 21 executive raises without board approval
The state’s merged public college system backpedaled Tuesday as its top executive announced that 21 raises he “mistakenly” authorized during the past 10 months would be reassessed by its governing board. That includes the $49,000 increase granted recently to Michael P. Meotti, the executive vice president of the Board of Regents for Higher Education. Meotti […]
Posted inEducation
Double-digit raise goes to top higher ed official
A top administrator in Connecticut’s merged public college system received a nearly $49,000 pay increase last week — a move that members of its governing board could not explain Monday, even as most state employees remain under a wage freeze. And while top administrators for the Board of Regents for Higher Education failed to return […]