Reduction of state government’s financial support for the University of Connecticut, from 44% to 30% of operating costs over the last two decades, is partly behind UConn’s decision to raise its price to students by 17% over the next four years. But the university shouldn’t be let off the hook so easily. University officials say they want UConn to become “a great research university.” As UConn President Susan Herbst told the Board of Trustees the other day, “When you do not have strong faculty numbers, you invent less and you create less. The university that will cure cancer will be one where there are cancer researchers hired. The university that will invent the cleanest forms of energy will be the one where engineers are hired.” That’s a high-minded way of saying that most university professors would prefer not to have to teach.
