UConn students at Capitol protest Lamont budget amid fanfare of marching band, stiltwalkers, #SaveUconn shirts

Hundreds of University of Connecticut students walked out of classes Wednesday, arriving en masse at the state Capitol to urge lawmakers to fill the more than $350 million gap between the university’s requested funding and Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed budget for fiscal years ‘24 and ‘25.

The steps of the Capitol included all the fanfare of a Gampel Pavilion game as members of the UConn band played the Huskies’ fight song and stilt walkers hovered above the crowd. Students flashed UConn gear and wore bright red #SAVEUCONN T-shirts while chanting for more funding.

“Today is not just about the budget shortfall here today that we’re facing at UConn but a broader issue of lack of funding for higher education,” said Jonathan Heiden, one of the chief organizers of the protest led by UConn’s Undergraduate Student Government.

Heiden directly called out Lamont as he spoke to the crowd of roughly 700 protesters.

“When the governor released his budget, he set the focus around inclusive opportunity and I think it’s clear from everyone here today that he missed his mark,” Heiden said. “For the people of Connecticut, public institutions, especially public institutions of higher education are vitally important. They represent the opportunity for so many of us that so many of us do not have. And the more you move the needle away from that, the harder it is for us to reach and attain that opportunity.”

The student-led and funded rally received support from the University Senate as well as UConn’s provost, who encouraged professors to “exercise flexibility for students who plan to participate in the rally,” by recording lectures or offering assignment extensions for those who miss class, in an email sent to faculty last week.

Regional and Storrs campus student leaders and faculty members gave impassioned speeches at the protest, as did Sen. Mae Flexer, Rep. Greg Haddad and Sen. Derek Slap.

Flexer, Haddad and Slap criticized the governor’s budget proposal and attempts to “rightsize” university budgets. The legislators vowed to turn around what they see as a decades-long divestment in higher education.

“Thirty years ago, the state of Connecticut paid 50 cents on every $1 for the cost of tuition. Today that number is 26%, and under this proposal, it will be less than 25%,” Flexer said. “At what point does UConn stop being a public institution if there is not public investment?”

UConn’s Undergraduate Student President Mason Holland responded to comments Lamont made earlier in the day that UConn students had received “misinformation” about the budget. Lamont said that the state’s fiscal contribution to the university has increased this year and argued that UConn’s loss of millions in federal pandemic aid allocations is not a cut.

“I could definitely understand his point about things that could be framed in different ways, but at the end of the day, we know we have less money to work with,” Holland said. “I could also make the argument that he’s making certain misleading comments as well, saying that he’s increased funding to UConn and the only thing that we’re losing is COVID [funding] and that’s not necessarily true. We have less money to work with now than we did a couple years ago, and that’s the bottom line.”

UConn’s administration has pointed to a rise in employee fringe benefit “legacy” costs due to a state-negotiated contract between Connecticut employees as one of the factors weighing down the university budget.

Kathy Fischer, president of the UConn Professional Employees Association which represents over 2000 university employees, addressed the legacy costs while discussing aspects of Lamont’s budget plan that she said would propel UConn into further financial precarity.

“Continuing to shackle UConn with unfunded, mandated legacy costs that the state covers for all other state agencies is unfair to say the least, and an excessive burden to the university,” Fischer said. “The game of pretending to cover the costs and then take that funding out on the back end by reducing our block grant is sneaky and disingenuous and has been going on for decades.”

Fischer also called the proposed combining of UConn and UConn Health budgets a “ploy.”

“That will negatively impact the ability for us, not only to maintain exceptional health care and education that we currently provide, but for our ability to procure grants to expand research, increase health care services and recruit and retain the highest quality of students,” Fischer said. “It is a set up.”

UConn has not concretely said what mitigation efforts it will take if the legislature passes the governor’s budget proposal as is.

Suggestions include shrinking staff, reducing building and operations costs, increasing the out-of-state student ratio and raising tuition.

Although UConn President Radenka Maric has said, “The last thing that I want to do is increase tuition,” at the forefront of students’ minds was an email from Maric saying that UConn’s price tag would rise $3,000 if the university chose to use tuition to cover the shortfalls.

At the rally students chanted “We are the mission, drop the tuition” and “Tell Ned Lamont to drop tuition.”

When asked to explain their concerns with the governor’s budget, students resoundingly answered that the biggest worry was a tuition increase.

“Even though I have five scholarships, it can only go so far. Even though I’m working and everything, it’s not enough to pay and I might have to transfer if it gets too much for me,” said Alexia Williams, a UConn freshman.

As Storrs students lined up to board buses to Hartford, members of UNCHAIN, a student activist organization that describes itself as “a socialist mutual aid and education group,” held signs criticizing tuition and fee increases that UConn’s administration already greenlighted.

Nell Srinath, the president of UNCHAIN, and other members said they chose not to attend the rally after seeing UConn funnel money into new construction projects while ignoring student pleas to increase mental health funding and address sexual assault on campus.

“We’re just not convinced that that use of student funds warrants us lobbying on their behalf,” Srinath said. “[The threatened tuition increase] being so alarmist is really valuable for the university. To an extent, it doesn’t matter what the truth is if they can get students out and go to bat for them as soon as possible. … It’s essentially trying to use that big number to distract us from the reality of how its finances actually work.”

Mixed feelings on UConn’s spending priorities were also evident in the crowd of protestors. While students agreed that the state should provide UConn more funding, they also agreed that the university could do more to clean up inefficiencies.

Alexa Udell said that she went to Hartford in part because she has “more faith that the state will fund UConn than faith in the administration to make budget changes.”

“It is very telling that the UConn administration’s email to the student body threatened a $3,000 increase to tuition, but in a meeting the very next morning, pointed to staffing costs and equipment costs as their ‘main cost saving measure,’ ” Udell said.

During the protest Udell temporarily interrupted the rally’s scheduled speaking order to display a banner stating “UCONN. DO BETTER. Support BIPOC and Queer,” in front of the podium.

“Our communities have already been facing these budget issues, the possibility of not being able to continue schooling, and have already been organizing to self-advocate. This is nothing new to us. Low-income, queer, and black and brown students at UConn have already overcome societal barriers to attend this institution, and it is unacceptable for the UConn administration to strike fear into them to mobilize them for their own purposes,” Udell said.

Tae’niajha Pullen, chief diversity officer of the Undergraduate Student Government, told protestors that after the rally the organization would continue to advocate for students, recognizing the demands that students have outside of UConn’s administrative goals.

“The [financial] burden should not be on the backs of students,” Pullen said. “Our fight does not end here. We acknowledge that the University has mishandled money in the past, refuses to handle the truly vile and rampant rape issue, neglects to properly support marginalized students and support it’s mental health. … Change takes time and we will not stop till it is done.”

Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.