Guiding Principles

  1. Primacy of The Academic Plan. It is important to state at the outset that our thinking must guided by the vision for the University that is set out in the Academic Plan. Recall that the Plan articulates goals and strategic steps that will advance the University’s standing in five interrelated areas. As stated in the Plan, it is important to remember that in each of these areas, the goals articulated must also guide the way resources are allocated or reallocated. In other words, the goals pursued and the resources available must be aligned with each other, rather then at odds, or the plan will not succeed. The five interrelated areas are:
    • Undergraduate Education
      Engage our undergraduates in an intellectually challenging and diverse learning environment that combines excellent opportunities in the liberal arts and sciences with strong pre-professional education, co-curricular activities, and research collaborations with members of the faculty.
    • Graduate and Professional Education
      Sustain and develop select graduate and professional programs of national and international distinction.
    • Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
      Enhance the benefits to the state, nation, and world from faculty, staff, and student research, scholarship, and creative activity by increasing productivity, building on our existing strengths and focused areas of excellence, developing a stronger extramural funding portfolio, and expanding the infrastructure that supports research and strengthens our ability to translate new discoveries into practical applications, including our capacity in the area of technology transfer.
    • Diversity
      Ensure an enriched learning and work environment by creating a more inclusive community that recognizes and celebrates individual differences.
    • Public Engagement
      Enhance the contributions of UConn faculty, staff, and students to the state, nation, and world through appropriate collaboration with partners in both the public and private sectors.
  2. Academic Priorities. As the CORE group considers priority areas related to academics, we must focus on programs, units, and activities that are of the highest quality and that are central to the core mission and culture of the University. We expect such programs, units, and activities to be characterized by:
    • Sustained high-levels of demand from undergraduates;
    • Ability to address workforce needs within the State of Connecticut;
    • A strong upward trajectory toward national and international prominence in the quality and quantity of faculty research, scholarship or creative work;
    • Outstanding graduate and/or professional students who are able to compete successfully for extramural fellowships and awards and obtain tenure-track positions in academia, competitive post-doctoral positions or highly sought employment in public or private sector organizations upon timely completion of their degrees;
    • Visionary leadership that demonstrates strategic fiscal stewardship;
    • Potential to generate extramural funds through grants, contracts or philanthropy;
    • Capacity to contribute in concrete ways to multiple strategies articulated in the Academic Plan.
    • In making cuts and reductions, all other activities of the University, as worthy as they might be, must be considered as ancillary to the academic functions. Budgetary allocations or reductions should be imposed in a manner that protects the University’s ability to move forward in execution of the Academic Plan.
  3. Income Generating Potential. In making all of its recommendations, the CORE group should consider the following:
    1. In making budget reductions, the availability of alternative external funding for various programs should be considered. Programs that can support themselves by securing contributions, seeking grants, or charging fees (insofar as those fees do not simply come out of other unit’s budgets) might be expected to absorb larger budget reductions than other programs.
    2. At the same time, if a program or activity is asked to take on a larger part of the burden of funding itself, it should be given significant support in developing a plan for reaching that goal. The UConn Foundation should be asked especially to provide assistance and fundraising opportunity for programs that are asked to raise private support. The Foundation should be flexible enough in its policies and practices to provide assistance for programs that may not previously have participated in Foundation activities.
    3. To the extent possible, phasing in reductions over 2-3 year period may be appropriate for units that are asked to find more of their own support. In addition, it is important to recognize the ability that some units may have to generate revenue for the institution. To the extent that this happens, consideration should be given to the wisdom of reducing allocations to such a unit.
  4. Evenhandedness. Reductions and reallocations should be thoughtfully considered across all levels and units of the University and consideration of reductions and reallocations should remain mindful of the long-term (a) impact on the mission of the University, (b) well-being of its constituencies, and (c) quality of its programs.
  5. Diversity. Our commitment to being a diverse and inclusive institution should not be compromised as we consider budget reductions. Our budget priorities should reflect our core value to form a richly diverse and intellectually stimulating community. Adversely impacting our diversity efforts on campus ultimately weakens our institution of higher learning.
  6. Effectiveness. Recommendations for budget cuts should be made with attention to avoiding cost shifting. Recommending that a particular program or unit cut its costs does not do any good if that program or unit simply shifts those cuts by taking steps to impose higher costs on other units.
  7. Structural changes to save costs. The Task Force should be considering the possibility of cost savings that may be secured by broad policy decisions, including such things as a) consolidation of related services that are provided at multiple points within the University, b) hiring freezes or campus-wide furloughs, or c) structural changes in retirement and benefits policies.