29-5 defines what a "Commitment To UConn" really means.

[tzznandrew]

For comparision sake - based on info on the uconnfoundation website - the endowment for the university in 1995 was $45million.

Holy fuckstick! That was all the school had accumulated almost into the 21st century!

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Its also kinda funny how you all seem to enjoy being taxed to death under the rouse that this might get UCONN invited into a real football conference. Pretty short sighted and rather pathetic.

It is much easier for me to have that stance since I haven't been a CT resident for almost 8 years!

 

[tzznandrew]

The state legislature spending another 1.5 billion dollars when they cant even balance the budget tells me less about Herbst being a "rockstar" and more about how irresponsible the the state leaders are. Its also kinda funny how you all seem to enjoy being taxed to death under the rouse that this might get UCONN invited into a real football conference. Pretty short sighted and rather pathetic.

Investment into the school has real long term, non-sports benefits to the state's economy. The list is long, but an obvious one is combatting brain-drain.

 

[UConn Dan]

BAck to the topic at hand.

The support of the state legislature, is an essential part of maintaining the level of success of a state flagship university.

Still got to get through the House, so contact your state reps. Here - it's easy, and it takes less time than bitching about the AAC.

http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/CGAFindLeg.asp

I emailed my rep. Hope it makes a difference.

 

[Nostical]

Its also kinda funny how you all seem to enjoy being taxed to death under the rouse that this might get UCONN invited into a real football conference. Pretty short sighted and rather pathetic.

Actually, it's all about spending priorities. While spending on academics has the potential to influence future conference affiliation, it is mostly about UConn becoming a first rate academic institution, gaining AAU status and with it, the potential for huge self sustaining grants. It's about the State having the foresight to do the unexpected in these fiscally tough times. Just as Herbst hired more professors in a counter-intuitive move, these STEM funds allow UConn to be the academic incubator of a more highly skilled workforce, providing a future source of tax revenues for the state. Everybody wins.

 

[HobokenHusky]

Rutgers endowment is in the $600 million range and they got into the B1G. Coincidence? I think not.

Few items of note here: Delaware gets a ton of money from DuPont, their Phil Knight basically, which skews the Endowment #'s quite a bit.

Rutgers enrolls almost double the students we do, as do almost all of the B1G schools. This puts us at a disadvantage right out of the gate, as there are significantly less alumni. On a per student basis, we are still behind, but not as far as if you do not take this into account.

 

[buggsy]

Rutgers endowment is in the $600 million range and they got into the B1G. Coincidence? I think not.

Rutgers endowment $694 million.... and it goes up to $876 million on July 1, when the UMDNJ medical schools are officially integrated into Rutgers.

 

[The Funster]

The state legislature spending another 1.5 billion dollars when they cant even balance the budget tells me less about Herbst being a "rockstar" and more about how irresponsible the the state leaders are. Its also kinda funny how you all seem to enjoy being taxed to death under the rouse that this might get UCONN invited into a real football conference. Pretty short sighted and rather pathetic.

I would say the thought that UConn is spending 1.5B under the "rouse" (sic) that this might get UConn invited into a real football conference is pretty shortsighted and rather pathetic.

Who are you again?

 

[BoatShow]

A couple nights ago a buddy of mine (a UConn grad) was saying the one and only reason for UConn's growth and improving academic standing is the recession pushing people who would be going to New England private schools to UConn. Like he was adamant that it was the only thing. It was really really really frustrating to talk to him.

It may be true but I think that plays a very very small role in the incoming SAT scores and acceptance rates. If anything I'd say the recession probably pushes UConn type students to CSU schools and community colleges.

 

[The Funster]

A couple nights ago a buddy of mine (a UConn grad) was saying the one and only reason for UConn's growth and improving academic standing is the recession pushing people who would be going to New England private schools to UConn. Like he was adamant that it was the only thing. It was really really really frustrating to talk to him.

It may be true but I think that plays a very very small role in the incoming SAT scores and acceptance rates. If anything I'd say the recession probably pushes UConn type students to CSU schools and community colleges.

A lot of kids with financial issues in this economy are/were going community college for two years and then to a 4 year school for the balance.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

I have to say the endowment stuff confuses me a little and I don't understand its importance in terms of CR, etc. Like, I know that it's important but it seems like a bizarre metric. I mean, I paid a significant amount of money to go to UConn and I still have another 20 years of loans to pay off. I'm not really in a financial situation where I can really dump a lot of money into a school I'm already indebted to. Furthermore, what money I do have I often prefer to give to charity, etc. I guess I'm sort of part of the problem, but it's always struck me as odd.

Do you think endowments come mostly from many small donations made by relatively middle class people or mostly enormous donations made by the very wealthy?

 

[CTMike]

Do you think endowments come mostly from many small donations made by relatively middle class people or mostly enormous donations made by the very wealthy?

In high school I worked summers and such for Wesleyan, processing gifts/donations. Different school entirely, but it was across the whole spectrum. No donation too small or too large... if I had to guess, more or less a normal distribution with a bunch of outliers in the big dollar amounts. Of course a lot of focus was on the folks who could make larger contributions in one fell swoop, and it only takes a few of those to equal hundreds/thousands of smaller donations.

Your situation is not uncommon, and it's tough to sell the "value prop" of contributing back to UConn in that regard. You paid tuition, you pay your taxes that fund UConn 2000 and other continued investments... you buy season tix or a few here and there, maybe contribute to the Athletic fund... and yet yes, UConn could still benefit from more of your money to improve it's programs and attract strong faculty.

 

[huskypantz]

A large endowment is nice to have. But is it worth more than a state legislature that is willing to invest heavily in your university? UConn gets $1.5 billion over 10 years. That's 150 million a year. You can get that from a 10% return on a 1.5 b endowment if you're not reinvesting. On top of that, we're fundraising and investing in things like our basketball facility - with $28m pledged of $35m.

 

[CTMike]

A large endowment is nice to have. But is it worth more than a state legislature that is willing to invest heavily in your university? UConn gets $1.5 billion over 10 years. That's 150 million a year. You can get that from a 10% return on a 1.5 b endowment if you're not reinvesting. On top of that, we're fundraising and investing in things like our basketball facility - with $28m pledged of $35m.

It's a fair question. It's all investment in UConn, just coming from different pockets really. Though a large enough endowment becomes self sustaining... government investment can't always be counted on.

 

[upstater]

The state legislature spending another 1.5 billion dollars when they cant even balance the budget tells me less about Herbst being a "rockstar" and more about how irresponsible the the state leaders are. Its also kinda funny how you all seem to enjoy being taxed to death under the rouse that this might get UCONN invited into a real football conference. Pretty short sighted and rather pathetic.

This statement is full of ignorance--a product of the short-sightedness of people who don't seem to realize how much the space race, Cold War spending, DOD research, all had on the technological innovations responsible for the incredible rise in productivity and wealth that we've seen over the last 25 years.

When you look at what NY did with U. Albany, seeding the school with a couple billion for public-private partnerships, you realize how fruitful this can be. $14 billion in private investment followed the first outlay already. Albany now has one of the top chip manufacturing concentrations in the entire world.

The article in this link is also misleading. It conflates the hiring of new STEM faculty with the $1.5 billion. I bet you the details are a little different. 200 STEM faculty would not cost billions. No way. That money is there for the development of private-public partnerships (it's not exactly the kind of thing that will improve the school's standing with the AAU, though it will definitely improve perceptions--look at U. Albany, they are not AAU but used billions to make billions). The money for the STEM jobs is coming from higher tuition, as Herbst has already stated. And that move WILL help when it comes to the AAU. That being said, the $1.5 billion is going to be a huge draw for top notch researchers in those fields.

 

[upstater]

Actually, it's all about spending priorities. While spending on academics has the potential to influence future conference affiliation, it is mostly about UConn becoming a first rate academic institution, gaining AAU status and with it, the potential for huge self sustaining grants. It's about the State having the foresight to do the unexpected in these fiscally tough times. Just as Herbst hired more professors in a counter-intuitive move, these STEM funds allow UConn to be the academic incubator of a more highly skilled workforce, providing a future source of tax revenues for the state. Everybody wins.

Hmmmm... Agree to a large extent, but the rise in tuition is at breaking point now. Almost unconscionable. If you do the math, there's a level at which Pell Grants plus max Subsidized student loan plus 35 hours summer work and 15 hours school year work yield you about $20k a year in funding for education and living expenses. UConn is about to break through the level at which a really poor student can afford it. I'm not in favor of public institutions breaking through that ceiling, even though schools like PSU, Michigan, etc. already have (and that's why these schools are so white bred and upper middle class). It would be so easy for other schools to take the same route (like the SUNY's for instance, with tuition below $6,000 a year) and become academic powerhouses as well. It's not for lack of will. It doesn't take state money. All it takes is saying yes to charging students $5k more a year. Voila. Huge increase in research.

 

[upstater]

A couple nights ago a buddy of mine (a UConn grad) was saying the one and only reason for UConn's growth and improving academic standing is the recession pushing people who would be going to New England private schools to UConn. Like he was adamant that it was the only thing. It was really really really frustrating to talk to him.

It may be true but I think that plays a very very small role in the incoming SAT scores and acceptance rates. If anything I'd say the recession probably pushes UConn type students to CSU schools and community colleges.

Applications are up everywhere, even non-sports schools like certain SUNYs. It's largely a function of more and more schools moving to the common app. I see this as a recommender for grad school, because I'm forced to send my recommendations online to corporations representing the schools. Ironically, while this has cut down on labor for students and made it immensely easier to apply to schools, the days are now gone when a recommender can write a single letter, print it out 10 times, stick it in envelopes and be done with it. Now we're the ones filling out the forms individually!

I applied to 4 schools out of high school. Many today are applying to 12 or more. That's a huge difference (not to mention the demographics).

 

[freescooter]

She knows what she's doing and she's probably doing it with some input from some bright minds in the midwest. I hate this process as much as anyone but I stand by my stance that this will all turn out very well for us.

Don't buy that part about the midwest for a minute. this is something she should be doing for UConn. I've said from the beginning that I like what she has in mind and the direction she wants to go with the University. I just wish she was including athletics in her plans. But in my view, she is as likely to want to go down to 1AA as she is to want to get us into the Big or the ACC. i think it is more and more clear that UConn was th eACC's first choice but we were totally out-maneuvered by Louisville, and I lay that at the feet of Susan Herbst as much as I do at Manuel. As far as this being the result of some brilliant marketing job by Herbst, give it a rest. This should be looked at as essentially Phase III of the effort that began with UConn2000, then was followed up with 21st Century UConn. Part of this effort has been pushed by a number of people associated with the University going back almost 5 years. I've been talking to legislators about it in various iterations for at least that long. That it has become more refined and focused, as programs often do over time is a tribute to the UConn leadership for sure, but this didn't emerge last January from the mind of Susan Herbst. It has been in the process for some time. One problem it faced was that there was a lack of political will for the effort from the governor's office under Connecticut's favorite grandmother. She was a nice lady, but wouldn't spend a nickle to to bring about world peace. She had a small town politician's world view, largely because she was a small town politician who never in her wildest dreams wanted or expected to be governor. When earlier versions of this plan came up in the Rell Administration, there was zero support. Lest I be accused of being "political" the current governor's Bioscience Connecticut initiative, which is also related to this, was nothing particularly new either. It is really a refinement of an effort to develop and expand bioscience in the state in 2 or 3 clusters ranging from New London to New haven and then up the 91 corridor. That effort was sensible in concept but ran into several problems in implementation, not the least of which being that Governor Rowland selected an untrustworth partner in Pfizer. They talked a good game but seldom actually stepped up and delivered when asked and after demanding and getting the destruction of Fort Trumbull in New London (something they publicly denied but at private meetings officials made it clear that Pfizer was "not relocating to a slum" and "leveraging their investment in smaller companies to get them to locate to the Fort Trumbull Penninsular to replace the slum housing being taken"), they decided to buy another large pharma company rather than invest in New London.

 

[freescooter]

A couple nights ago a buddy of mine (a UConn grad) was saying the one and only reason for UConn's growth and improving academic standing is the recession pushing people who would be going to New England private schools to UConn. Like he was adamant that it was the only thing. It was really really really frustrating to talk to him.

It may be true but I think that plays a very very small role in the incoming SAT scores and acceptance rates. If anything I'd say the recession probably pushes UConn type students to CSU schools and community colleges.

You buddy is simply wrong. Applications are up at lots of schools, particularly the small private colleges in New England. I believe every single NESCAC school had record applications yet again after many years of record applications. Several have been caught over the past few years with higher yields that have resulted in larger than planned for classes. I know Colby has its largest class ever coming in in September because they had more exceptances than they anticipated. Middlebury faced that problem this year I believe. What is happening at UConn is that the results of 15-20 years of investment in infra-structure, and a consistent long term marketing effort to attract higher caliber students has been paying off. It has been a long term effort that has transitioned the University from a solid mid-level public institution to the cusp of becoming a highly respected one.

 

[John Greene]

I have not read all the posts in this thread but, at the risk of being a 'nattering nabob of negativism' do you all realize that all the state senate did was allow UConn to borrow up to $150 M per year for 10 years. Unless I missed something we, UConn, will have to service the debt. It will not serviced by the general fund even though the general fund will be the pass through mechanism. Hopefully I am wrong on my reading.

 

[Nostical]

UConn was the ACC's first choice but we were totally out-maneuvered by Louisville, and I lay that at the feet of Susan Herbst.

As far as this ($1.5B) being the result of some brilliant marketing job by Herbst, give it a rest. This...this didn't emerge last January from the mind of Susan Herbst.

So, let me get this straight. Because (in your view) she didn't pursue the ACC opening with enough zeal and aggressive promotion you give her the dunce cap, but when she pushes hard for (and gets!) the STEM funding (that others let languish) you give her no kudos-- because it wasn't her original idea?

Give me a break.

 

[UConn990411]

Why do people still bother arguing with freescooter? Is it just boredom?

We have a lot of trolls who visit this board regularly, but none of them are as blatant about it as free. He doesn't even attempt to hide it at this point.

 

[auggie22]

I have not read all the posts in this thread but, at the risk of being a 'nattering nabob of negativism' do you all realize that all the state senate did was allow UConn to borrow up to $150 M per year for 10 years. Unless I missed something we, UConn, will have to service the debt. It will not serviced by the general fund even though the general fund will be the pass through mechanism. Hopefully I am wrong on my reading.

I think you are wrong on your reading. Uconn will throw about 300m in the kitty, on top of the 1.5b - this will come from the remaining 21st century uconn funds. They will also throw in another 180m over ten years for non-stem classroom, faculty buildings and add'l student housing. This will be funded with the add'l student tuition/board payments.

 

[junglehusky]

Promo video:



NextGenCT info page

Letter from Pres. Herbst:

Dear University Colleagues, Students, and Friends ~
As you may have heard, the Next Generation Connecticut initiative was approved by the Connecticut House of Representatives today, following approval in the Senate this past weekend. The legislation received broad, bipartisan support during every step of the legislative process and will now go to Governor Malloy for his signature.

Next Generation is a transformational investment in the University of the sort most academic communities only dream of; it is a $1.5 billion project that will enable us to build more laboratories, classrooms and dorms, enroll many more students, secure advanced scientific equipment, create an outstanding campus in Hartford, enhance our operations in Stamford, and attend to deferred maintenance needs across all campuses.

Critically, it includes operating funds to hire hundreds of additional faculty – over and above our existing faculty hiring program – provide many more scholarships to outstanding undergraduates, boost support for graduate and postdoctoral students, and, in general, provide the support our faculty need for instruction and research across many disciplines. Please visit this page for more detail about Next Generation Connecticut.

This investment is particularly remarkable as it arrives at a time when most flagship public research institutions are struggling in the face of eroding state support. But this has not happened in Connecticut. This initiative will launch UConn into the very top tier of international universities not only in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, but in every single discipline in this modern age, where disciplines are increasingly intertwined.

Thoughtful work went into designing this plan – much more will be required to implement it properly. Planning for Next Generation will be thoroughly integrated into academic planning for the entire University, as it must be, in the months and years to come. Leading this effort will be the University Academic Vision Committee (UAVC), headed by Professor Richard Schwab, which is working through the summer on our new Academic Plan as our individual schools and colleges also develop their own plans.

Our thanks go to Governor Malloy, Senate President Donald Williams and House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, their colleagues in the legislature, the UConn Advocates, our alumni and the many leaders from a coalition of business, industry and labor leaders in Connecticut who worked so tirelessly to pass this legislation.

This is a day for gratitude, celebration, and for envisioning all that this great University will become in the time before us. As with so many of our successes, we are reminded that we “stand on the shoulders of giants,” such as President Albert Jorgensen, who led UConn for more than 25 years and was among the first to truly conceive of the University as a comprehensive research institution. As we shape the university the next generation will inherit, we build on this legacy.

Through our dedication to this and every undertaking at the University, we will continue to earn the pride and respect of our governor, our legislature and the citizens of Connecticut as we plan for one of the most comprehensive expansions in higher education.

Sincerely,

Susan Herbst
President
University of Connecticut

 

[HuskyHawk]

I have to say the endowment stuff confuses me a little and I don't understand its importance in terms of CR, etc. Like, I know that it's important but it seems like a bizarre metric. I mean, I paid a significant amount of money to go to UConn and I still have another 20 years of loans to pay off. I'm not really in a financial situation where I can really dump a lot of money into a school I'm already indebted to. Furthermore, what money I do have I often prefer to give to charity, etc. I guess I'm sort of part of the problem, but it's always struck me as odd.

Do you think endowments come mostly from many small donations made by relatively middle class people or mostly enormous donations made by the very wealthy?

I'm with you. No law school loans left for many years now, and parents paid for UConn. But, I have a ten year old daughter, and no realistic way to put her through college without taking out significant loans. I make too much money to get any financial aid. So I take the view that I can't afford to help put somebody else's kid through college when I've got to do it for my own. Plus, between my wife and I, we have four institutions of higher ed asking for money. So I give my money where I think it will do more good helping those whose needs are greater than getting a college degree.

I don't think it makes sense for most people, especially recent grads, who probably paid too much as it is. If I had received money from the school however, scolarships or tuition reduction, then I think I would feel like I should donate that back in to the endowment. I think we will see giving drop now that the costs are so high. Played golf with a Harvard law grad at a charity event Monday. He paid about $3000 a semester. Those people can pay back in. But folks with undergrad degrees who paid $30k to over $50k a year more recently? That's a hard sell.`