University of Connecticut faculty have expressed concerns about the communication from the university regarding the current budget cuts.
Professors have been receiving their information through their department heads, although different departments receive different information depending on how heavily the cuts will affect them.
“We’re really struggling to understand the scope of the effects of this budget plan because it’s being enacted department by department,” said Sam Sommers, an assistant professor in residence in the English Department at UConn Waterbury.
According to Sommers, graduate students are already seeing the effects of the budget cuts, such as graduate students being unable to present their research at conferences. Sommers predicted that undergraduate courses will be disappearing by the upcoming fall semester.
University spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said in an email that the university is working to keep the UConn community informed during this constantly changing situation.
“The university will continually share updates about our appropriations and our budget as information becomes available. There are a variety of actions the university can take to manage our budget based on the resources available to us; at this point, it would be too soon to speculate on specific actions it may take,” Reitz wrote.
Reitz also said that the university was sending videos and messages from UConn President Radenka Maric, as well as holding multiple town hall meetings to keep the faculty and students informed about changes in the budget situation.
The university will continually share updates about our appropriations and our budget as information becomes available. There are a variety of actions the university can take to manage our budget based on the resources available to us; at this point, it would be too soon to speculate on specific actions it may take.
Stephanie Reitz
“The Provost and her budget team have also held multiple meetings with academic deans, campus deans, department heads, and associate deans, and the University Senate has been kept apprised of the status of the budget discussions,” Reitz said.
Two virtual town halls took place on Jan. 24 and Feb. 21 to answer questions about the budget. According to Reitz, four more town halls are scheduled to take place in person in March. Two will be held at the Storrs campus and the other two will be held at the UConn Health Campus in Farmington. The first in-person town hall held in Storrs will be on March 4 at noon.
“The university is continually communicating with the community about our budget situation and will continue to do so,” Reitz’s statement said.
Faculty and staff also pushed back against a recent message from President Maric’s office saying that “it is a good time to be a Husky.” The message outlines the bond-funded infrastructure investments authorized in the governor’s budget proposal.
An email from the UConn Labor Coalition asked staff and faculty to write and call in to the president’s office to protest the message and request a retraction. The email called the message “offensive and false.”
“This statement showcases that the administration’s priorities are not with their employees or students even though time and again they push the message that ‘investing in UConn and our students is an investment in Connecticut, its people, and its future,’” the email said.
Contending with budget challenges is never desirable, but the goal is always open transparency about them and to work together to manage them as well as possible, while continually advocating for UConn as a vital asset for the State of Connecticut and its future.
Stephanie Reitz
According to Sommers, no official retraction or follow-up occurred after the response to the message from staff and faculty.
Reitz said that UConn leadership was passionate about ensuring UConn’s success, just like the university community.
“Contending with budget challenges is never desirable, but the goal is always open transparency about them and to work together to manage them as well as possible, while continually advocating for UConn as a vital asset for the State of Connecticut and its future,” Reitz said.
Some departments are now being informed that the cuts to their budgets could be as high as 19%. According to Sommers, the university formed the current budget plan with the assumption that the school would receive more money from the state than initially proposed by Governor Ned Lamont’s state budget for the next fiscal year. The final budget must be signed into law by the governor by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
In an open letter to the governor published in the Hartford Courant, faculty expressed their alarm over the proposed budget. The letter was written by Manisha Sinha, the Draper Chair in American History at UConn, and was signed by 48 other endowed chairs and distinguished professors at UConn.
“The proposed budget cuts would destroy graduate programs and high-level research and scholarship in nearly all departments in the university and eventually its well-known sports programs. That in turn will have a direct impact on students of all levels,” the letter said.
The vast majority of students are not sports majors. It shows a lack of consistency to suggest it is just sports. These are games people not ways of life.
In an economic downtown people attend higher ed as it is a way to shelter themselves. Well it’s been a long while since the covid recession. Where did all the “extra” money come from? All the basketball championships, where did the money go. All the grant money, where did it all go? where is all the money for all the empty buildings being built left and right? It’s not like enrollment has increased significantly. It’s not like historical buildings are being preserved (they aren’t).
UConn’d is more like it.
I’m still wondering what cut the president will take to her salary. Can you please look into that? Additionally, the lack of comments about what will happen to balance the budget by the President is telling that the officers of the university are unfit and incompetent. They had years of warnings that the covid relief funds would expire. In fact, if we cancelled athletics as a whole, the $40 mil gap would go away entirely (that’s how much the university subsidizes athletics after considering their revenue).
It’s definitely a bit reductive to say “cut athletics” because it neglects the benefits that athletics has on recruiting students. However, if the goal of a university is to educate and athletes are allowed to profit on their likeness and image (which they should be able to do), we really need to consider whether we have a university or a sports and construction business. Where’d the money go? Why is the administration hiding behind opaque budget reports? I think you guys need to FOIA the crap outta the school and expose all their lies.
Paying the President $300,000+ to lie to us is a scam.