State Budget, Legislative Session

To the University Community:

I write today with an update on the state budget and its impact on UConn and UConn Health. The Connecticut General Assembly approved the budget earlier this week.

At the outset of the legislative session earlier this year, the University projected a combined fiscal year 2025 deficit of just over $150 million for UConn and UConn Health ($96 million for the Storrs and regional campuses and $54.7 million for UConn Health).

I am extremely pleased to report that additional funding was allocated to the University in the budget that passed the General Assembly. The shortfalls UConn and UConn Health will face next year will be substantially less than that original forecast at $29.2 million for UConn and $23.1 million at UConn Health.

In addition, the budget gives the state the ability to provide a second round of supplemental funding during the year under certain circumstances. If that additional supplemental funding is provided, our deficits would fall even further to $19.2 million for UConn and $13.1 million for UConn Health.

The budget also allows the Office of Policy and Management to reduce $129 million of funding to state agencies to achieve savings targets across state government. We will keep the community informed if any reductions are made for UConn and UConn Health, and how that will impact the forecasted shortfalls.

The budget approved this week unquestionably puts UConn and UConn Health in much better fiscal positions and the University is grateful both to the General Assembly and the governor for the additional support, particularly on behalf of our students.

We are augmenting this additional state support through revenue enhancements and spending reductions that will be needed to bring our budgets fully into balance for the next fiscal year. We are working to do this in a variety of ways for the next fiscal year and beyond, including through enrolling a larger student body, an ever-increasing focus on growing philanthropic giving to UConn in partnership with our new UConn Foundation president, and by slowing (but not freezing) hiring. And when hiring faculty, our focus will be on meeting the needs of our growing student body and on the research strengths that a potential new hire would bring to UConn. We will also need to continue to find opportunities to reduce costs in strategic ways.

On the capital side, I am delighted to share that the General Assembly also extended the UConn 2000 program and approved $625 million of UConn’s bond requests to be phased in over the next seven years, which the university requested that it do. This funding will support several critical projects, including completing the renovations to the Gant Complex, a new Life Sciences building (also known as Science 2), the demolition of the Torrey building, and renovations to athletic facilities.

On the whole, the session and the final budget and bond package voted on this week contain a great deal of good news for UConn and UConn Health and goes a long way to providing the level of funding necessary to support exceptional education, research, and patient care at our institution.

A special thank you to all of UConn Nation who participated in the legislative process, worked hard on behalf of UConn and UConn Health, and helped demonstrate how valuable UConn is to our communities, future workforce, and to the vitality of the State of Connecticut.

Radenka Maric

UConn President