CSU-AAUP members participate in the CT legislative session each year to demand what is best for our students, universities and communities.

The 2026 legislative session was a short session. The state runs on a biennial budget.

During this short session, we worked together to win a fair contract, as well as advocate for legislation that will support our system and our students.

• Fair contract: We won a fair union contract with raises and additional protections for faculty that was passed by legislators
• PACT funding: We restored funding for the PACT expansion we won in the last session. PACT is the scholarship program that covers leftover tuition and fees for students attending the community colleges, so they can avoid accruing debt. We won an expansion of PACT that allows community college graduates to take the scholarship with them to the CSUs. However, Gov. Lamont's initial budget cut funding for this newly expanded program in half. Through our lobbying work, we won back that full funding.
• Scholarship displacement: We advocated for legislators to ban scholarship displacement at public colleges and universities. Scholarship displacement is a practice where an institution will award a student financial aid but then later reduce the financial aid package if the student received an external scholarship award (such as a local award from a Rotary Club). This will greatly help our students who need sufficient financial aid to achieve their higher education goals.
• Prevented professional bachelor's degrees: We won against a campaign to create 90-credit "professional bachelor's" degrees at our institutions. A 90-credit BA would have significantly diminish the value of a BA.

We also worked with our coalition partners on several issues. Connecticut for All, a coalition of labor unions, community organizations and faith groups, continued to push for tax reform and other legislation that would promote equity in our state.

• Revenue: CTFA won $800 million in revenue outside the state's spending cap to go toward public services.
• Immigrant protections: We won protection for sensitive locations from federal immigration agents.
• Democratic protections: We won regulations for automated license plate readers that include consequences for agents who violate citizens' rights (see SB397).
• Health justice: We maintained the HUSKY for Immigrants Program, but did not win funding to offset potential federal cuts.