The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees discussed topics involving the university budget, regional campus housing, enrollment, new curriculum and more at a meeting yesterday.
UConn President Radenka Maric gave her president’s report at the meeting, which discussed budget cuts, increased enrollment, federal funding for research and more.
According to Maric’s presentation, UConn was able to decrease the fiscal year 2026 deficit by $25.3 million. The university was able to do this through “enrollment, philanthropy and cost cutting.”
UConn decreased the deficit by “retaining more students and increasing out-of-state mix,” [exceeding the UConn Foundation’s] fundraising goals” and “[identifying] expense reductions of $5M so far,” according to Maric’s presentation.
“We remain committed to financial sustainability while furthering our core missions,” Maric said.
Maric’s presentation talked about the increase in enrollment, with 7,455 new students according to Maric, a 49-student increase from Fall 2024.
UConn saw an increase in first-year students at the Storrs campus and transfer students at the regional campuses, but a decrease in transfer students at the Storrs campus and first-year students at the regional campuses, according to Maric’s presentation.
Maric’s presentation continued with the struggles that the university has faced in regard to federal funding for research.
“Universities have experienced an unprecedented level of disruption to federal funding for research in 2025,” Maric said. “The full impact of this disruption is not yet known and the disruptions are expected to continue.”
For UConn to remain “competitive and viable,” the university will be “aligning research with federal priorities that are areas of strength for [UConn],” according to Maric’s presentation. “Areas of strength” mentioned included artificial intelligence, national security and biosciences.
Maric’s presentation also talked about community programs that had been cancelled, including the Early Childhood Personnel Development Equity Center and SNAP-ED, achievements in technology commercialization, the Because of UConn campaign and the newly named Elizabeth DeLuca School of Nursing.
Provost Anne D’Alleva gave a presentation titled “Shaping the Future of UConn’s Regional Campuses.”
“In the past UConn’s regional campuses were often seen as feeder schools to Storrs,” D’Alleva’s presentation read. “That perception must change.”
According to D’Alleva’s presentation, the plans for the regional campus plans will be developed within the framework of the Envisioning 2034 plan, specifically the “Seven World-Class Campuses, One Flagship University” area of focus.
“Each campus has the opportunity to stand on its own — with a distinct identity, academic strengths tied to its region, and the ability to serve students and communities directly,” D’Alleva’s presentation read. “Our goal is for every campus to be recognized as a vital part of UConn, not as a branch, but as a destination in its own right.”
D’Alleva’s presentation listed strengths of the four regional campuses, including “coastal and marine sciences” for Avery Point, “strength in business, public policy, and healthcare” for Hartford, “regional healthcare hub with strong ties to community-based health providers” for Waterbury and “connected to financial services and media industries in Fairfield County and NYC metro” for Stamford.
D’Alleva’s presentation mentioned expanding four-year options, increasing housing, and advising and coaching as ways to grow the regional campuses.
The Sept. 17 Board of Trustees meeting was D’Alleva’s last before she starts as President of SUNY Binghamton.
“I have been here 26 years, and it truly has been the honor of a lifetime to service this university,” D’Alleva said. “I have to thank President Maric for taking a chance on me, an unconventional choice for provost.”
The meeting included a section for public participation.
State Sen. Catherine Osten, State Sen. Heather Somers and State Rep. Aundre Bumgardner spoke about the need for additional funding at UConn’s Avery Point campus.
Osten started by talking about how she feels that the Avery Point campus is being “neglected.”
“I wrote a letter back in February and said, ‘Hey listen, don’t forget Avery Point when you’re talking about housing, don’t forget Avery Point when you’re talking about majors,’” Osten said. “We have four majors at Avery Point right now. We need more.”
Currently, Avery Point offers four four-year degrees: English, general studies, marine sciences and maritime studies, according to their website.
A point that Osten, Somers and Bumgardner brought up was the need for housing at Avery Point.
“Right now, Avery Point is heading in the wrong direction, and I think they’re headed in the wrong direction not because Avery Point is a bad place to be, but because they are not receiving their due relative to building housing,” Osten said. “They need housing on Avery Point.”
Somers said that the Avery Point campus is “perfectly positioned,” since it sits right in the center of “emerging technologies” in Southeastern Connecticut.
“[Southeastern Connecticut] has innovative industries, marine science, environmental research; we have national defense, we have ship building, we have ship refurbishing, and now we have the emerging — hopefully — sector of offshore wind,” Somers said. “[Avery Point] is perfectly positioned to serve students, employers and the like through academic programs, hands-on research and workforce development.”
Bumgardner talked about the issues that the Avery Point campus faces by being the only UConn campus without student housing.
“If [students aren’t] living on-campus, they’re either living off-campus, which puts a greater strain on our local housing stock, which is a concern all of our communities are facing,” Bumgardner said. “But more importantly, we’re not recruiting the best possible students that could go there as a result of the existing programs.”
Robert Day, a professor in the School of Business and the chair of the University’s Senate Executive Committee (SEC), gave a presentation on the university’s new “common curriculum” and updates from the SEC.
The common curriculum has replaced the general education program for newly enrolled students in the 2025-2026 academic year, according to a UConn Today article.
The program “allows students to make choices in their studies, to make connections between different disciplines and ideas, and to explore their creativity by taking courses that fall into six Topics of Inquiry (TOIs) and three Competencies,” according to the program’s website.
Day’s presentation talked about the ongoing work with the new program, including “working with [the Office of Diversity and Inclusion] to integrate tenets of the Dialogue Initiative into the Common Curriculum” and the “establishment of a W Taskforce.”
Day’s presentation also talked about how the SEC is creating a new subcommittee focused on “shared governance,” that will look at “information flows between the Senate and Board of Trustees around financial governance, committees on IT/AI/Future of Learning and shared governance with Academic Affairs.”
The Board of Trustees heard reports from various committees, including the Student Life Committee, the Buildings, Grounds and Environment Committee and the Financial Affairs Committee.