WESTCONN EXCHANGE – WEAVING OUR WAY FORWARD – DEI/CAMPUS CLIMATE PLAN: As we continue shaping WestConn’s path forward, you are invited to join a new series of forums — WestConn Exchange: Weaving Our Way Forward. These sessions are designed to be interactive, bringing together faculty, staff, and students for open dialogue and feedback as we refresh and finalize important strategies and decisions.

We are excited to offer each exchange in both in-person and virtual formats. You are encouraged to participate in at least one session for each topic. After each session, we will share insights and updates online for additional feedback and engage with shared governance bodies. Throughout the term, there will be numerous opportunities to provide your input through various formats.

WestConn Exchange Schedule

• Strategy

• Tuesday, September 16 | 1–2:15 p.m. | Virtual
• Monday, September 22 | 9:30–10:45 a.m. | Campus Center Ballroom South

• Finance

• Wednesday, September 17 | 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. | Virtual
• Wednesday, September 24 | 1–2:15 p.m. | Campus Center Ballroom South

• DEI/Campus Climate Plan

• Monday, November 3 | 2–3:15 p.m. | Virtual
• Wednesday, November 5 | 3–4:15 p.m.| Campus Center Ballroom South

• IT&I/Facilities Renewal Plan

• Monday, November 10 | 1–2:15 p.m. | Virtual
• Tuesday, November 11 | 9–10:15 a.m. | Campus Center Ballroom South

Register for Each Exchange at: https://wcsutickets.regfox.com/westconn-exchange#registrants

Brief Updates on Our Work

Strategy
Our strategy work is guided by Western Rising 2030 and seeks to integrate multiple planning efforts into one clear direction. I will propose that we center our efforts around three commitments.

• Distinctly WestConn – modernizing academics to ensure accessible, career-ready, and affordable pathways.
• Strengthen Our Foundations – securing long-term financial sustainability, modernizing infrastructure, and rebuilding trust.
• Regional Anchor and Opportunity Engine – positioning WCSU as Connecticut’s largest HSI and a hub for workforce, education, and community development.

Your feedback will be essential as we identify our direction. Together, we will identify the most critical strategies to advance these commitments, establish clear metrics to measure progress, and create structures that hold us accountable across the institution.

Finance
Our financial discussions will focus on mitigation strategies and efforts to close our structural deficit. While we ended FY25 with a $4.5 million surplus and $11.9 million in reserves, these results depended heavily on $24.2 million in one-time system support and temporary measures, meaning the University carried a $23 million structural deficit. Looking forward, our five-year framework projects only modest surpluses in FY26-27 sustained through continued one-time support, before recurring annual deficits of approximately $10.5 million in FY28-FY30 unless new revenues and deeper efficiencies are achieved. Addressing this challenge will require careful attention to personnel costs, vendor renegotiations, shared services, and revenue diversification through housing, dining, grants, philanthropy, and auxiliary ventures. As I have reviewed our finances more closely, I have found the situation to be more complex than I initially anticipated—an unsurprising reality in today’s higher education environment, but one that underscores the importance of transparent communication, difficult choices, and collective action. To move forward, we need everyone—faculty, staff, students, and partners—actively engaged in identifying opportunities for reallocation and investment, generating new revenues, and ensuring that decisions remain aligned with our academic mission and long-term sustainability.

IT&I/Facilities Renewal
We are finalizing a three-year renewal plan that outlines more than $54 million in proposed state bond funding to strengthen WestConn’s physical and digital foundations. This plan directly connects facilities and technology investments to our academic mission and student experience. Your engagement is essential as we refine these priorities and design strong advocacy efforts with state leaders and partners. Together, we can build the infrastructure and technology that will power WestConn’s future.

DEI & Campus Climate Plan
Our DEI Master Plan 2025-2030 builds on recent momentum — hiring new leadership, strengthening recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and staff, and expanding culturally sustaining supports for students. The plan emphasizes creating a more inclusive campus climate, improving infrastructure for Hispanic and other underrepresented students, and embedding equity as a design principle across academics and student life. A key part of this work is being transparent about our challenges while also recognizing and replicating our successes as leverage points. Together, these insights will guide strategies that are both honest about where we must improve and bold in building on what already works. At the forum, we will provide an update on the plan and seek your input on how best to advance strategies that foster belonging, equity, and accountability across the institution.

These forums are not simply updates — they are an exchange of ideas and perspectives. Your input will directly shape our efforts as we move into this next chapter of renewal and growth. I hope you will join the conversation or provide input in other ways.