More than 30 Connecticut State University faculty members, all CSU-AAUP union members, went to the Board of Regents on May 28 to ask the regents if they will use reserve funds to invest in university classrooms.
The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System has hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves. Meanwhile, faculty members are asked to do more with less each year as campuses cut part-time faculty members and overload full-time faculty members with classes and obligations. The Board of Regents is planning mitigation efforts of at least $12 million at the four CSUs in FY26 and FY27. That could mean up to 750 course section eliminations, which would impact close to 19,000 students.
The faculty union wants the System to do the right thing and invest in our students. This means investing in faculty members and student services.
“The Legislature has made it clear that they expect the money accumulated by the System Office to be used for teachers and teaching,” said Cindy Stretch, an English professor at Southern Connecticut State University and vice president of CSU-AAUP. “Instead, the Board’s Finance Committee is channeling Scrooge McDuck and stockpiling our funding in so-called reserve accounts.”
When Stretch asked Regent Ira Bloom to commit to using reserve funds to maintain services and faculty positions, he refused.
Kelly Coleman, a professor in athletic training education, spoke with Board Chair Martin Guay about the reserves. Guay called the situation “complicated” and said that while he is asking the System Office to release some reserve funds, the Board has no authority over the way the money is spent.
Sen. Derek Slap has called the size of the reserves “eye-opening.”
The state has flat-funded the CSCU System for years, and has provided one-time funding deals instead of creating a stable and sustainable funding plan for public higher education. CSU-AAUP members will continue to lobby legislators and the governor to invest in the future of our state. CSU graduates stay and work in Connecticut, contributing to our economy and becoming our state leaders.
But we cannot let students suffer while we wait for funding solutions. The System must use its reserves to hire and keep faculty members, and maintain student services. We cannot provide the education our students deserve with more cuts.
Just at Southern’s campus, the provost is proposing a $750,000 cut in the adjunct faculty budget for the 2025-26 academic year - about a 5% cut in part-time faculty across the university.
“We are the ones in the classrooms, we are the ones talking with students every day,” said Wendy Wallace, a part-time faculty member in the English department at SCSU. “We know what our university communities need and what our students need to succeed. They don’t need more cuts. The best way to fund teaching and learning is to fund teachers and learners.”
