During a town hall meeting on March 18, UConn Chief Financial Officer Richard Gray said that a modest tuition and fee increase of 2.5% will help UConn close an anticipated budget deficit of more than $45 million next year. Should the UConn Board of Trustees approve the increase at their March 23 meeting, it would generate $9 million for the university. Gray said the remaining deficit would be closed through spending cuts, cost-savings and enhanced revenue elsewhere. A video of the meeting is available here.
The board is responsible for setting tuition and fee rates at the university and can increase, reduce or accept the recommendation.
The university requested a $326.3 million appropriation from the state for fiscal year 2012, which will begin on July 1. In the face of a $3.5 billion state budget deficit, Governor Malloy recommended a $326.3 million appropriation for UConn, a reduction of $35.3 million. Gray estimated that UConn would also face roughly $10 million increased costs, bringing the total anticipated deficit to $45.7 million.
In his budget address earlier this year, Malloy asked the state’s public colleges and universities to keep any tuition or fee increases to the rate of inflation, which is 2.5% according to the Office of Policy and Management.
Some questioned whether a 2.5% increase was sufficient considering the size of the budget gap.
“If I believed we could not run the university properly without a larger increase, I would have recommended it,” said Gray, who added that he is sensitive to the financial situations faced by students and their families.
UConn continues to be less expensive to attend for in-state students than Penn State, the University of Vermont, the University of New Hampshire, Rutgers, UMass and URI and is leaps and bounds less expensive than many private institutions in the region.
As part of offsetting the deficit, Gray said he will be examining several areas in search of savings, including contracts and personal service agreements, plant renewal and equipment purchases as well as student support services and central administrative support levels. He said the university would continue to evaluate academic programs through already established sunset policies and could possibly save through negotiated concessions on the part of state employees. The university is also undertaking a financial review using McKinsey and Co. in an effort to identify millions in additional savings.
Gray stressed that protecting the academic core of the university and hiring strategically are among his top priorities.
“We are an academic, research institution,” he said. “We are absolutely committed to faculty recruitment and associated research on an ongoing basis. We’re not backing away from that one bit.”
The board will meet on Wednesday, March 23 at 9:00am in the Rome Commons Ballroom in Storrs.
