The University of Connecticut directed all academic and administrative units, last year, to reduce their operating budgets by 15% over the upcoming five years, according to University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz.
These units include academic units, UConn Athletics, administration and support services.
Since then, deans and administrators have met to discuss how departments will move forward with these budget cuts and several steps have been taken.
According to Reitz, UConn’s provost and budget team met with the deans of each school and college, who then worked with department heads to reduce expenses. Some deans proposed using “cash balances that their schools and colleges had held in reserve and had not yet spent, totaling about $10.1 million.”
Chris Vials, president of the UConn American Association of University Professors (AAUP), stated that he believes another step departments will take is to reduce their payrolls.
“You know, their biggest expense is payroll. There’s no way you could do that without cutting people, right? And that could be graduate students, teacher assistants or adjuncts,” Vials said.
He stated that professors without tenure might face the brunt of this.
“A lot of faculty here at the university now are lecturers or their adjuncts, they’re not on the tenure track. They’re on renewable contracts. So, you could just not renew their contract right at the end of the term. The easiest things for department heads to cut would be just not renewing contracts,” Vials said.
This will lead to less classes being offered and bigger class sizes, which is something UConn is aiming for, according to Vials.
In a testimonial at the State of Connecticut Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, UConn President Radenka Maric confirmed this when asking the state to reconsider the state budget.
Maric stated that UConn has worked to reduce spending by “increasing efficiency in the delivery of education through higher student to faculty ratios, class size and more online vs. in person class offerings.”
Vials explained that no one at UConn wishes to make these cuts and they are being put in a tough position. He believes that each department head might respond differently.
“None of the department heads want to make these cuts, and I don’t think any of the deans really want to make cuts. Some of them probably will just refuse to cut anything. Some will and then probably have cuts made for them. Some will probably, or most will probably offer cuts that are short of what’s being asked for,” Valis said.
He also stressed that some of the UConn departments don’t even have enough finances to cut the amount UConn is asking for.
One unit of UConn that is already facing the ramifications of these cuts is the School of Fine Arts.
Department Head of Art and Art History, John Richardson, stated that in January he was instructed to tell “department faculty that a visiting assistant professor position in photography/video will not be replaced when the current faculty contract expires at the end of this academic year.”
He said he was advised to tell faculty that there would not be adjunct faculty teaching replacements for the classes that the visiting assistant professor taught.
This means that going into the Fall 2025 semester the overall number of full-time faculty in the department will decrease and fewer classes will be offered, according to Richardson.
The department will also admit a smaller class of freshmen.
Richardson stressed that due to these cuts he does not know how the department will offer its photography and video concentration.
Due to students needing to fulfill their requirements in their art concentrations, Richardson explained that “course substitutions will be offered where needed and all students will be supported and will be able to graduate on time.” He stated that these classes may be different from their initial plans.
Richardson expressed his frustration with these changes but hopes to minimize the effects these changes will have on students.
“As an artist and an art teacher, I am always saddened by the ways in which creative practice is limited within our institutions and by our society. I hope that government and university leadership can come to an agreement that will better support UConn students and faculty, so that all academic programs can flourish, including the one I facilitate,” Richardson said.
At the Appropriations Committee hearing last week, many department heads and students gave testimonies representing their departments and majors, reflecting on the importance of a well-funded UConn education.
Richardson was one of these people and stated that his “preference is that the State of Connecticut stabilize funding for higher education for the benefit of our people.”
To hear the concerns of other UConn community members about the budget, watch the Higher Education Subcommittee Public Hearing Livestream on the Appropriations Committee’s YouTube channel.