Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 29, 2024 19 FOCUS: HIGHER EDUCATION • $139 million UConn Hartford campus, which includes 215,000 square feet of new space over three buildings, completed in 2017. • $95.8 million Werth residence hall, with 730 beds and over 212,000 square feet, completed in 2016. • $92.5 million Engineering and Science Building with 115,000 square feet, completed in 2017. • $23.7 million Monteith mathematics building renovation, completed in 2016. Enrollment boost Another key focus area of Next- GenCT was boosting enrollment. According to the school, since fiscal year 2013, undergraduate enrollment in STEM fields has increased 41% at UConn's Storrs campus and 61% at UConn's regional campuses in Hart- ford, Stamford, Waterbury and Avery Point. The number of STEM-related undergraduate degrees awarded has increased by 28%. Increased interest in UConn, which recently gained national attention for winning its second consecutive men's college basketball championship, was reflected in the record number of applications the school received — 56,700 — for the Class of 2028. "Although the number of high school graduates has decreased in the state and region, UConn is drawing an even larger component of that shrinking pie — without compromising on its high academic standards and admission requirements," the annual report said. At the graduate level, STEM enrollment since 2013 has increased by 30% in master's programs and 26% in doctoral programs, UConn said. STEM-related master's and doctoral degrees conferred have also increased by 16% and 34%, respec- tively, according to the university. More UConn graduates are staying, living and working in Connecticut, and using their skills in key growth industries like biotech- nology, engineering and health care, which is critical to growing the state's economy, Ritter said. Meantime, more than half of the engineers in Connecticut are UConn program graduates, according to state Sen. Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford), a former Senate minority leader and Higher Education Committee member who said the NextGenCT investment has been worth it. Another key part of the program was establishing industry partnerships. The school said it has obtained $300 million in partnership funding from various new programs, many of which are located at the school's new Inno- vation Partnership Building, a $132 million, 115,000-square-foot facility located in the UConn Tech Park. Some of those partnerships include the $25 million UConn Thermo Fisher Scientific Center for Advanced Micros- copy and Materials Analysis; $59.7 million Eversource Energy Center, focused on researching and mitigating storm hazards; $12.8 million Pratt & Whitney Additive Manufacturing Center; and $7.5 million Comcast Center of Excellence for Security Innovation, focused on cybersecurity. The school has also worked on commercializing more of its research, a key focus area for major research universities. The number of compa- nies that are in UConn's Technology Incubation Program has grown from 29 in fiscal year 2013, to 59 in fiscal 2023, according to the school's annual report. TIP companies raised $146 million in capital in 2023 vs. $29.1 million in fiscal 2013. Ritter said the NextGenCT price tag was large, but overall, he sees the investment as money well spent. Going forward, he believes the success of the program will help support further capital projects. "I'd like to see more kids admitted, see more dorms built," Ritter said of UConn. "I think we can grow by a couple thousand students." Funding shortfalls Despite those gains, UConn's annual report does highlight challenges in achieving some NextGenCT goals. For example, while the school continues to increase its annual research expenditures, the percentage change over the past five years has lagged other peer institutions. UConn in fiscal year 2022 reported $367.6 million in research expen- ditures, which was a 52% increase from fiscal year 2013. UConn's peer institutions (including Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana and the universities of Utah, Georgia, Kentucky, Kansas and Delaware) experienced an average of 78% growth in research expendi- tures during that same time period. Those peer institutions, on average, are also well ahead of UConn in other key research cate- gories, like invention disclosures, patents issued, startup companies formed and licensing revenues. Limited state operating funding support has also led to "significantly lower" faculty hires than originally planned, according to the annual report. UConn has received the full $1.5 billion NextGen commitment through bonding, but additional annual operating funds were supposed to support the effort, particularly around faculty hires. "But fiscal constraints at the state level have proven challenging," univer- sity officials said, and only $15 million in operating support was provided during the first year of the program, with no additional operating funding provided in the remaining years. "This reduction in operating funds is specifically a reduction in the capacity to hire new faculty, and it creates significant challenges for the Univer- sity in meeting the operating goals of NextGenCT," the annual report said. UConn has funded 174 new Next- GenCT faculty hires between fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2024, with 98 of those hires in STEM fields, the school said. Full-time STEM faculty increased by 28% during that same time period to 857. Kelly, the Republican lawmaker, said the operating funding shortfalls have been the result of state budget negotiations beyond UConn's control. "We should not equate the success of a program based on the number of professors hired, but more so on the students attracted and retained, then sent out into the workforce," Kelly said. What's next? UConn President Radenka Maric said initiatives like UConn 2000 and NextGenCT have made the univer- sity a top choice for students within Connecticut and throughout the U.S. That's reflected in the record number of student applications and national rankings, such as the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked UConn as the 26th best public univer- sity in the nation, and No. 58 overall. However, she said more work still needs to be done to address Connecticut's workforce challenges in key STEM fields, such as manufac- turing, health care and life sciences, which face long-term shortages. To address those needs, UConn has requested $420 million in addi- tional capital funding for current and future STEM projects on its Storrs campus, including demolition of the 1960s-era Torrey Life Sciences Building, which would be replaced by a new $320 million, 200,000-square- foot science building. The funding would also pay for $100 million in renovations to the school's Gant Science complex. The legislature's Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee recently endorsed the funding request, Maric said, and it now awaits action in the House and Senate. UConn President Radenka Maric said she is pushing for additional state investment in STEM programs and facilities. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 $400M $350M $300M $250M $200M UConn's research funding expenditures TOTAL FUNDING Source: UConn

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