Advocates Rally Against Higher Education Budget Cuts, Urge Fiscal Flexibility

by Hudson Kamphausen CTNewsJunkie

Advocates, faculty, and students from public institutions of higher learning from across the state gathered at the Capitol Tuesday in protest of what they view as cuts by Gov. Ned Lamont, and to ask for Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails to be loosened. 
Advocates representing Connecticut State Colleges & Universities, the American Association of University Professors, and others from the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, said public education is not receiving enough money from the state and that they can no longer depend on insufficient, one-time funding. They were joined by Rep. Gary Turco, D-Newington, to ask for $250 million to completely fund higher education in the state.
Seth Freeman, a computer science professor at Capital Community College who also serves as president of the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, said that colleges are facing resource and staffing cuts, and that although the amount of state money that public colleges are receiving has increased, they do not account for new costs such as increased fringe rates and administrative costs. 

“Gov. Lamont doesn’t seem to understand the severity of the crisis that we’re in,” Freeman said. The lack of understanding, from his perspective, is that while Lamont is remaining steadfast on the amount of funding allocated in his budget, colleges are evaluating the services they are being forced to cut as a result of different factors. 
Community colleges are not the only ones, however, facing cuts. 
The University of Connecticut is set to see 15% cuts across the board, as well as significant cuts to UConn Health. In response, they are asking for $47.3 million toward the original block grant, as well as an additional $16.9 million for UConn Health. However, there is still an impasse as to whether cuts are actually occurring. 

Lamont and his office have remained insistent that there has been no cut to the higher education budget, and that colleges are receiving more funding now than at any point in history. 
Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, a professor of history at UConn and president of UConn-AAUP, said that while the raw numbers have increased within the budget, the real numbers that institutions are working with have dropped drastically. The block grants from the state, he said, do not account for the rate of inflation. At a time when Connecticut seems to be flourishing financially, the fiscal guardrails have those in higher education feeling as those they have hit a recession. 
“It seems unwise and borderline unethical to refuse to adequately support higher education in a moment when we have so much in the way of resources,” he said. “The economic distress does not exist, but we are being forced to act as if we are in some great recession.” 

In a press conference earlier this month, advocates from CSCU were joined by Senate President Martin Looney in asking the governor to allocate $160 million for public universities and community colleges to avoid faculty and resource cuts. The additional $90 million that is being requested would be for UConn, in order to attempt to make up for the 15% cuts that are happening across all departments, as well as impending cuts to UConn Health. 
Looney suggested that the funds could come from outside the spending cap, and said that the state must fund the engine of higher education. Turco agreed with that suggestion Tuesday, and said that he found it frustrating that in a time of surplus in the state budget, tuition costs across the state are being increased. The legislature, he said, needs to get creative about using the surplus and getting around the guardrails. Turco said the reduction of federal funding, largely found in ARPA money, has contributed to the feelings of cuts while state funding has increased in recent years. 
Grace Easterly, a doctoral student in history who is the president of the Graduate Employees Union at UConn, said in a phone interview that there needs to be a long-term investment in higher education in the state, and that the costs of providing a good public education should not be passed off to students. The value of public higher education, she said, is that it provides equity. Research is important, she said, and tuition should be affordable. 

Republican Senate Leader Stephen Harding said in a statement Tuesday morning that he thinks there are still many questions that should be answered before the state allocates more money for public higher education. Large raises being given to senior staff while tuition hikes increase, he noted, is something that should be explained. 
“Finally, with regard to all public higher education agencies, we must hear about systemic efficiencies that are being created and implemented in order to safeguard taxpayers’ dollars now and in the future. Those efficiencies will ensure students are getting the education they are paying for,” Harding’s statement read. 
Turco, who serves on the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, said that the state needs to do right by its students, and not let tuition costs get to the point where they are unaffordable. 

An expected 80 students, both graduate and undergraduate, were expected to appear for the Appropriations Committee public hearing that immediately preceded the press conference.