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Herbst Blasts Proposal To Turn UConn Into 'Entrepreneurship University'
A legislative committee is scheduled to vote on a bill Thursday that its supporters say would foster a culture and ecosystem of entrepreneurship at UConn, but UConn’s leaders say that, as written, it would undermine the university.
“One worried senior faculty leader called this bill an attempt to make us into Entrepreneurship University,” UConn president, Susan Herbst told the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee earlier this week. “He is right that this would have a dramatic effect on UConn.
“Turning UConn from a university into a tech school that primarily cares about — to be blunt — making money,” Herbst continued, “may impact our ability to attract students or faculty.”
Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the committee and bill’s sponsor, said he is not attempting to change the university from “its mission, which is to be a well-rounded university. No one here wants to do that. This bill does not do that.”
But he said the bills’ supporters “absolutely” are trying to make UConn into an “entrepreneurial university” because the state needs UConn to “embrace and to recognize its role of growing Connecticut’s economy. Up to this point, we never asked the university to do that.” The bill is before the finance committee because parts of the proposal will require funding.
“The University of Connecticut has to be at the heart of our revival economically,” Fonfara said.
The bill proposes myriad changes, all aimed at strengthening the role of entrepreneurship at the university, beginning with a revision of UConn’s mission, stating that the “objective” of the university shall be “to educate the population at large, with an eye towards current and emerging state, national and world economic dynamics and labor force trends.”
The proposal says the “secondary and supporting objective” of the university will be to facilitate “knowledge transfer of the academic insights of the faculty and student body into for-profit and nonprofit ventures, thereby promoting the growth and health of the state economy.”
A legislative committee is scheduled to vote on a bill Thursday that its supporters say would foster a culture and ecosystem of entrepreneurship at UConn, but UConn’s leaders say that, as written, it would undermine the university.
“One worried senior faculty leader called this bill an attempt to make us into Entrepreneurship University,” UConn president, Susan Herbst told the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee earlier this week. “He is right that this would have a dramatic effect on UConn.
“Turning UConn from a university into a tech school that primarily cares about — to be blunt — making money,” Herbst continued, “may impact our ability to attract students or faculty.”
Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the committee and bill’s sponsor, said he is not attempting to change the university from “its mission, which is to be a well-rounded university. No one here wants to do that. This bill does not do that.”
But he said the bills’ supporters “absolutely” are trying to make UConn into an “entrepreneurial university” because the state needs UConn to “embrace and to recognize its role of growing Connecticut’s economy. Up to this point, we never asked the university to do that.” The bill is before the finance committee because parts of the proposal will require funding.
“The University of Connecticut has to be at the heart of our revival economically,” Fonfara said.
The bill proposes myriad changes, all aimed at strengthening the role of entrepreneurship at the university, beginning with a revision of UConn’s mission, stating that the “objective” of the university shall be “to educate the population at large, with an eye towards current and emerging state, national and world economic dynamics and labor force trends.”
The proposal says the “secondary and supporting objective” of the university will be to facilitate “knowledge transfer of the academic insights of the faculty and student body into for-profit and nonprofit ventures, thereby promoting the growth and health of the state economy.”