Gregg Haddad

Rep. Gregg Haddad, House chairman of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, issued the following statement Monday after US News announced that the University of Connecticut is now ranked 22 on the list of top public universities in the nation.

“We should be proud that UConn remains a top 25 rated public university. Connecticut residents can get a world-class education at a relatively affordable cost.

“Unfortunately, those of us who believe strongly in our public colleges had to fight off deep reductions in the general fund resources the legislature provides to help UConn students. While we were able to defeat those deep cuts, the compromise budget included bigger reductions than Democrats had proposed. Now we see the consequences of those cuts.”

UConn was ranked 18 last year, but slipped to 22 in the new national ranking of American colleges and universities. US News measures how colleges and universities perform in several categories: Undergraduate academic reputation, graduation and retention rank, graduate rate performances, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Each category is weighted.

UConn’s performance in most categories was either largely stable or an improvement over the previous year. According to an analysis by the university’s Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (OIRE), the primary reason UConn lost ground in this year’s ranking was a drop in the category of “financial resources” compared to peer institutions. This is mainly due to UConn’s reduced state appropriation. Also likely contributing to this drop was a change in what US News counts as part of this category.

A secondary factor was a decline in the category of alumni giving. This category measures the number of alumni donors who are giving, not the total amount raised. So even though the UConn Foundation has raised more money in recent years than it ever has before, it is coming from fewer donors. According to the Foundation, this is a national trend.