CT State Colleges and Universities union warns of cuts: ‘Cutting the faculty will diminish … essential supports'

Yahoo

4 days ago

Anticipating faculty layoffs and up to 750 course section eliminations Connecticut State Colleges and University faculty are calling on leadership to use its reserve funds in the millions to stave off potential cuts.
Members of the CSU-AAUP urged the CSCU Board of Regents Wednesday to leverage the funds and protect faculty and students.
Cindy Stretch, an English professor at Southern Connecticut State University and vice president of CSU-AAUP, said the legislature expects the money accumulated by the System Office to be used for teachers.
'Instead the Board's Finance Committee is channeling Scrooge McDuck and stockpiling our funding in so-called reserve accounts,' she said.
CSU-AAUP members argue that the potential cuts would result in fewer course options, a reduction in faculty, larger class sizes, a heavier course load for faculty and fewer opportunities to work individually with students to help them excel.
But CSCU officials say that the CSCU reserves are dependent on the funding allocation from the state, which has yet to finalize its budget and that the Board has no authority on how the money is spent, with any cuts made to programs or faculty done at the individual college or university.
'CSCU's colleges and universities plan to use more than $130 million in institutional reserves over the next biennium,' said Samantha Norton, director of communications for Connecticut State Colleges & Universities. 'At this point we do not know how much funding the CSCU system will receive. Our reserve plan is dependent on our funding allocation from the state.'
CSCU requested $555.4 million in each year of the biennium, according to Norton. In fiscal year 2026, this is $83.7 million more than what Gov. Ned Lamont proposed in his budget; and in fiscal year 2027, it is $70.3 million more than what the governor proposed in his budget, Norton said.
CSCU is a system of four state universities – Central, Eastern, Western and Southern – one community college with 12 campuses and Charter Oak State College, the state's only public online college.
Madeline St. Amour, director of communications for the CSU-AAUP, said that the Board of Regents is planning potential cuts of at least $12 million at the four CSUs in fiscal year 2026 and 2027.
Guay told the Courant that no number has been finalized yet.
'We are waiting for the budget to be finalized in June,' he said. 'That will dictate what the ask is and what the cuts could be. A lot of the reserves sit at the institutional level and the institutions get together in a shared governance process to agree to how to move the institution forward with their fiscal constraints and reserves.'
Adam Joseph, vice chair for external affairs at CSCU, said putting together a budget is like putting together a puzzle.
'We are trying to adapt to what the state funding will be,' he said. 'Each year our institution is operating within the budget that is available to them.'
Joseph acknowledged that this has resulted in cuts in some cases over the years.
Wearing red shirts that read 'Opening Minds, Opening Doors,' the union members, all faculty members of CSU, attended the board meeting and went directly to Guay, wanting assurances that investments would be made in education.
But they said they were not given those assurances, and instead left with no answers.
Wendy Wallace, part-time faculty member in the English department at SCSU, said she believes the Board could allocate the funding from its reserves.
'They have the money,' she said. 'It is that simple. They need to allocate it.'
But Norton said the vast majority of the reserves at $89 million at the System Office are held for debt service and deferred maintenance and are not readily available.
'It is not required for the state to fund those reserves first as the money is in our accounts,' she said in an email.
The state has flat-funded the CSCU system for years, CSU-AAUP members say, leading to cuts over the years that have already left the CSCU system with fewer staff, with increased enrollment.
At Southern Connecticut State University, Provost Julia Irwin has proposed a $750,000 cut in the adjunct faculty for the 2025-26 year, which amounts to a 5% cut in part-time faculty across the university.
'I am very concerned about part-time faculty losing jobs, myself included, and I am concerned about how this would impact student learning and resources for students and their opportunity to get an effective education,' Wallace said.
Wallace went on further to say that with an evolving society changing so fast and the impact of COVID on learning, students need a lot of 'individual attention and they need to be cared for.
'They need the help, care and support that we as faculty provide,' she told the Courant. 'The value of that can't be understated. Cutting the faculty will diminish our ability to provide those essential supports and essential education that they require.'
Michael Brelsford, part-time faculty member in the English department at SCSU, said the cuts will have a huge impact on students, explaining that their whole college career and retention is at stake if they don't have a meaningful experience, also increasing the drop out risk.
St. Amour said the potential cuts will not only hurt students because of the limited course offerings but it may affect their ability to graduate on time because of a reduction in services and tutoring.
Wallace said, 'It is a matter of do we want to have a world class education in this state or are we going to sacrifice that for dollars?'
Stretch told the Courant the English department at SCSU is down a third since she has been there.
'There are a lot of people in our department that don't know if they are going to have a job in the fall,' she said.
She also spoke to the reduction in part-time faculty in her department, explaining that 20 years ago they had 80 teaching composition. That number is now down by half to 40.
'There is nothing else to cut without making significant impacts on things like class sizes,' she said.
'What I am concerned about is the Board of Regents does not seem to have a plan or a vision on how to get the reserves and make it possible for us to do the important work we have been doing and continue to do. Give us the resources to meet the needs of the students.'
She said students do not want large class sizes.
'They don't want that experience,' she said. 'They want faculty members that know their names.'
Fiona Pearson, CCSU sociology professor and chair, said in 2017 the department had a budget of $13,000. Now they are operating on $6,000. They are now expected to do more with less, she explained, with enrollment increasing and full-time faculty dropping in the department from 11 to nine. The department has doubled its part-time faculty, she said.