Martin M. Looney

Senate President Pro Tempore

Martin M. Looney

An Advocate for Us

October 23, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

SENATE PRESIDENT LOONEY BACKS UCONN PROFESSORS IN EVALUATION PROCESS DISPUTE

HARTFORD – Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven) today issued the following statement following a week of news reports about the University of Connecticut’s review of and possible elimination of as many as 70 majors due to low student enrollment.

“UConn is proud of its ranking as a Research 1 university, which only three percent of American colleges and universities achieve. Therefore, it is incongruous that Connecticut’s flagship state university is adopting a Wal-Mart-like approach to some of its less-popular majors, to the extent that majors graduating only 100 or so students over five years could be put in some sort of academic ‘close-out’ bin. Many of these courses serve as class options for undergraduate students looking to fulfill their core requirements needed for graduation. Eliminating them would be short-sighted and ultimately have a negative impact on UConn’s reputation and appeal.

“My hope is that the Provost’s office will find – perhaps through administrative savings – a way to maintain these courses and programs, in much the same way the General Assembly has year after year found a way to maintain or increase UConn’s funding, even as we contend with state budget spending caps and the end of pandemic federal funding.

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