The University of Connecticut has been undergoing tremendous growth recently — partly evidenced by the $1.3 billion budget officials adopted last week. Here, in graphical form, is a historical overview of where the public university gets and spends its money, who it enrolls, and how many it employs.
University of Connecticut
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A dissenting voice in UConn Alumni Assoc. dissolution vote
I have never believed that the University of Connecticut’s interests in seizing control of the Alumni Association was about its assets. But if this is not the case, why has the university worked so hard in recent days to ask alumni to vote yes when it already has assumed responsibilities for alumni activities?
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Revised forecast bleak: New federal data bursts CT’s economic bubble
The University of Connecticut’s economic think-tank predicted Thursday that the state’s job growth this year and next probably will stall or even decline — a dramatic reversal of its forecast of robust job growth issued just four months ago.
Posted inEducation
UConn trustees adopt $1.3 billion budget with no public discussion
With no discussion in public, the University of Connecticut’s governing board Wednesday adopted a nearly $1.3 billion budget that increases the school’s spending by $103.7 million — almost 9 percent.
Posted inPolitics
Congress tackles issue of Puerto Rico’s status
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives will hold a hearing Wednesday on Puerto Rico’s status, the first time Congress has tackled the issue since the GOP takeover of the House in 2010. But critics say there may be more smoke than fire.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Behind The Numbers Podcast – Episode 6: Charter schools, state aid and UConn in a lean budget
Connecticut Mirror budget reporter Keith M. Phaneuf and education reporter Jacqueline Rabe Thomas discuss the new $40.3 billion, two-year state budget legislators sent to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and its impact on every level of education from preschool to colleges and universities.
Posted inEducation
State funding boost helps, but still leaves UConn with deficit
The University of Connecticut informed students and faculty Friday that, despite $10.9 million in increased support in the state budget next year, cuts will still be needed to close an $18.3 million deficit in the university budget.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut two steps closer to educational equity
On May 19, the Connecticut legislature took two important strides in an attempt to achieve educational equity. On that day the Senate passed bill SB 398 and the House passed HB 6844. If these bills pass and are signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy, it would continue to pave the pathway toward educational equity of two disenfranchised groups in Connecticut—undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) students.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
UConn is working for you, Connecticut
The University of Connecticut provides Connecticut’s knowledge infrastructure. As with our underfunded transportation infrastructure, failing to provide base adequacy funding now will not only have immediate harm but will produce cascading consequences. Deep cuts in the current biennial budget (and perhaps the next) will impair UConn for the next decade. To the taxpayers and General Assembly of Connecticut, I urge: Maintain UConn’s state funding.
Posted inEducation
Unexplained exit of CSCU provost prompts ban on non-disparagement agreements
State senators have approved a bill forbidding state officials from demanding that employees sign non-disparagement agreements when leaving their state jobs — a move directed at the state’s largest public college system.
Posted inEducation
Feds, investigating conflict of interest, freeze $4.6 million in UConn grants
A federal research agency has suspended $4.6 million in grants it awarded to the University of Connecticut while federal officials investigate the university’s use of grant money to buy equipment from a tech company owned by two UConn professors. State auditors charged that the public university failed to notify their office of the investigation, as state law requires.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Frustrated UConn graduate assistants want fair contract, lower fees
If the University of Connecticut can afford to pay more in administration costs than almost any other university, surely it can afford to reduce graduate student fees to a level comparable with peer universities. Graduate students at UConn want a fair contract, including a fee reduction, so they can afford the local cost of living and continue to provide the university with the quality education and research we’ve all come to expect.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut pension reform: Step one
How will it be possible to reform the state’s pension system when the people who are supposed to be representing the public share in all the benefits they confer on the unions? A first step would be to freeze benefits for all participants in the plans who are not covered by union contracts, and offer them 401k-type defined contribution plans for future service.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Basketball is enough. UConn should de-emphasize football, sharpen academic focus
A lifelong UConn Husky basketball fan and taxpayer argues that the since the University of Connecticut’s major football aspirations don’t seem to be panning out, it might make better sense to back down, rejoin the Big East and direct the financial savings toward strengthening the academic programs.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: Connecticut should try performance-based funding for colleges
Two weeks ago, statewide newspapers reported the governor’s proposed budget for public post-secondary education is nearly $50 to $80 million less than needed to support the operations at the University of Connecticut System and the Connecticut State College and University System.
