The University of Connecticut’s marketing sponsorship with the New Haven-based airline Avelo Airlines has continued after Avelo entered an agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in April 2025 to begin deportation flights for the agency.
In email correspondence with The Daily Campus, UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz did not respond to the question of whether the university would end its relationship with Avelo.
According to Reitz, “Learfield (UConn Sports Properties) and Avelo are partnered in a UConn Athletics sponsorship agreement to provide Avelo with asset placement.” This includes signage, promotion contests, PA announcements and airline ticket contests for UConn students at several UConn sporting events. This promotion has continued throughout Fall 2025.
UConn Athletics’ partnership with Avelo began in 2022, according to a press release from Avelo.
This partnership “does not include any travel by UConn teams or personnel,” according to Reitz.
Although it is not a part of the agreement, “[UConn Athletics has] flown with [Avelo] in several postseasons with various athletic teams,” Avelo Communications Manager Courtney Goff wrote in an email.
This includes the UConn men’s basketball team, who flew with Avelo following their championship in the 2023 and 2024 NCAA basketball tournament, according to press releases from Avelo in 2023 and 2024.
When asked if Avelo would be considered as a transportation option for stand-alone events as they were in 2023 and 2024, Reitz did not answer.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Daily Campus received university emails regarding UConn’s partnership with Avelo in light of their agreement with ICE.
On Sept. 9, Brandon Murray, UConn’s director of organizational and staff development, emailed Reitz and Kyle Muncy, UConn’s director of brand partnerships and trademark management, asking if the university had a response he could send to people who wrote to the board of trustees about UConn’s relationship with Avelo.
Muncy responded, saying “Unless it is a member of the media, I am not aware that we have been providing any responses to anyone.” Muncy added Vice President for Communications Michael Kirk to the email chain and said that he would defer to Kirk on what to say.
Kirk said he “would prefer not to respond.”
On April 10, Patrick Eaton-Robb, a sportswriter for the Associated Press, emailed President Radenka Maric asking her to sever ties with Avelo.
“As someone who covered UConn in the media for 40 years and proudly sent my daughter to the school, where she earned both bachelors and masters degrees, I know you care about your students, including foreign students, DREAMERS and others,” Eaton-Robb wrote. “Therefore, I would urge you to make a clear statement on the university’s position and sever ties with Avelo.”
On August 18, Murray forwarded Kirk and Reitz two emails that the University Board of Trustees received from UConn alumni Nicole Lotko and Catherine McSweeney urging UConn to end its relationship with Avelo.
“I recently learned that the University has a partnership with Avelo airlines,” Lotko wrote. “[I]t looks very bad for the University to continue this partnership. I am asking that you end the partnership and issue a statement to publicize the ending of the partnership.”
McSweeney echoed Lotko’s sentiment, calling for UConn to “end the partnership with Avelo” and to “let the public know why [they] are ending it.”
“Please take a stand for what’s right and don’t give in to what’s happening to our country,” McSweeney wrote.
According to Murray, the board of trustees received a third email on August 18 from an alum calling for UConn to end their partnership with Avelo.
Lotko emailed again on Sept. 3, saying “I am a UConn alumnus, and am writing to find out if UConn still has a partnership with Avelo airlines or not.”
Maric and Reitz also received emails from Madeline Dennis Raleigh, a member of Indivisible Bridgeport, asking “do you plan to continue this relationship in light of Avelo Airlines deportation of CT residents?” on August 19 and 21.
The Daily Campus is unaware if the university responded to these emails and did not receive any responses as part of the FOIA request.
In preparation for the Sept. 17 board of trustees meeting, Murray and Muncy created a cover note to give the board of trustees’ members context on the topic in case members of the public spoke about it during the public participation portion of the meeting, as discussed in an email on Sept. 10.
The cover note clarified that UConn’s relationship with Avelo is “strictly a marketing arrangement,” and said, “The Board of Trustees and President’s Office have received a few communications from members of the public urging the University to end its relationship with Avelo.”
The board of trustees’ members were provided with the communications, according to the cover note.
The cover note did not say what the university’s stance on Avelo’s agreement was or what the university’s response would be.
Emails also show Reitz sharing a press release from Connecticut Attorney General William Tong about Avelo’s agreement with ICE to Muncy.
“The State of Connecticut has an obligation now to review this business decision and to consider the viability of our choice to support Avelo,” Tong said in the press release. “State and local governments have both worked to support Avelo’s expansion into Connecticut in recent years, including granting an exemption on the aviation fuel tax and upgrading airport infrastructure. However, if a business makes a policy decision which endangers innocent, law-abiding parents, children, and students here in Connecticut, our state has the right to decide whether that business should continue to receive tax breaks and subsides.”