The University of Connecticut heard public comment on its new budget models during two town hall events on Tuesday.
University faculty, staff and the campus community were welcomed to the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center for Human Rights on the Storrs campus to hear about the new model, called “Budget Linked to University Excellence,” or “BLUE.”
The initiative, announced in 2025, is aimed at simplifying the university’s budget and making the process more transparent. The initiative “guides the allocation of current funding; it does not increase or reduce overall university funding, tuition rates or fee rates,” according to UConn Today.
The BLUE model moves the university into a “decentralized budget model,” said UConn’s Chief Financial Officer Anthony Rini at Tuesday’s 3 p.m. town hall.
“We are a comprehensive land, sea and space institution” with many different programs and disciplines, Rini said. “Some things are taught in small sections, some things are taught in big sections, some things are lab-intensive, some things are not. So the cost of delivery is different.”
The decentralized budget would, in part, allocate revenues to academic units like schools and colleges, rather than giving them a permanent budget.
The goal of the new budget model is to better understand the different needs of each course and program and provide more transparency for how money is used by and for them. It also provides incentives for program growth and efficiency.
“The new model will encourage innovation, such as the creation of new programs and entrepreneurial activity, and provide incentives around enrollment growth, spending efficiency, and other institutional priorities,” the initiative’s website says.
At the town hall, the project team, which includes Rini, Provost Pamir Alpay, outside consulting firm Kennedy and Company and others, emphasized that the initiative is not intended to be a cost-cutting measure or to change the university’s budget at all.
“Our budget is our budget, but then BLUE is basically a filter on the same numbers to really look at our units — the ones that generate revenue and the ones that don’t generate revenue — to understand revenue and expenses [and] central costs,” Rini said.
UConn’s budget in fiscal year 2027 for its main and regional campuses is $1.9 billion, according to the budget presentation at the town hall. Its revenues mainly come from tuition and fees (56%) and grants and contracts (18%). The main expenses are salaries and fringe benefits (54%) and financial aid (19%).
BLUE wouldn’t change any of this — it will only provide “transparent formulas to incentive funding changes over time,” according to the presentation.
BLUE is expected to be fully implemented by fiscal year 2028, which begins July 1, 2027, according to the BLUE website. More information about the budget can be found on the initiative’s website. Viewers can also give feedback to the initiative through the website.