CSCU Outlines Impact of Proposed State Budget on Students, Institutions, Communities

Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Office Building, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) President Terrence Cheng today outlined the steps CSCU would be forced to take if the state budget as it is currently proposed is enacted. In recent weeks, CSCU and individual colleges and universities have been working on identifying actions they would need to take in the event of the passage of a budget that does not meet the system’s basic operating needs. 

Those actions include the following items:

• More than 650 full-time faculty and staff layoffs
• Nearly 3,000 part-time positions eliminated
• Five-percent tuition increase per year at the community college for the next two years and 5 percent increase at the universities for the 2024-25 academic year
• Elimination of high-subsidy programs, most of which are those which meet the state’s greatest workforce need

“The proposed state budget would harm students, the state's workforce, and communities,” President Cheng said. “CSCU is an incredible system with amazing institutions that are the lifeblood of the communities they serve. We serve students from each of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns with locations providing access in every corner of the state and online. We are an inclusive system, providing opportunities for some of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the state to pursue higher education and create social mobility for themselves and their families. We are the state’s most important workforce pipeline with in-demand programs in everything from nursing and allied health, to bioscience and innovation, to IT and computer engineering, to business and manufacturing. Our students are Connecticut residents, and they stay here to live and work. This would all be at risk without adequate state funding.” 

As it is currently proposed, the state budget would leave CSCU with a projected $335.1 million budget deficit over the 2024-25 biennium. 

“We understand the need for fiscal restraint,” President Cheng continued. “But it should never come at the expense of opportunity for our most disadvantaged students – especially at a time when our state’s resources are more than sufficient to address students’ needs.”