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May 13, 2021

UConn President Katsouleas to resign; interim leader to be named May 19

Photo | HBJ File UConn President Thomas Katsouleas says budget cuts will likely be inevitable as the college deals with the financial fallout from COVID-19.
By Sean Teehan

University of Connecticut President Thomas Katsouleas plans to resign his position by June 30, according to a letter he submitted to the school’s board of trustees chair in March.

Sources say his relationship with UConn’s Board of Trustees has deteriorated but called his resignation voluntary. The conflict had several causes, sources said, beginning with an unexpected announcement at his inauguration to provide free tuition for lower-income households. More recently, he announced the university would cut slated tuition increases by half without consulting with trustees.

His contract with the university has a provision that allows him to transition to a tenured faculty position.

"For reasons we have discussed at length over time, I have made the difficult decision to resign my position as President of the University of Connecticut," Katsouleas wrote in the March 13 letter addressed to UConn Board of Regents Chair Dan Toscano. "I appreciate your understanding of my decision."

UConn Board of Trustees Chair Daniel Toscano said the school plans to name an interim president next week. 

"Looking forward, as a board, we are committed to ensuring a smooth leadership transition that allows UConn to maintain its forward momentum while minimizing any disruption," Toscano said. "The continued success of our students, faculty, and staff is our highest priority, along with high-quality patient care at UConn Health and active engagement with our many alumni."

The resignation comes just about three years after UConn hired Katsouleas to helm Connecticut's flagship state university after former President Susan Herbst stepped down after serving eight years in the executive position. 

As president of UConn, Katsouleas led the state’s flagship public research university, and was a key figure in the state's efforts to boost workforce development and entrepreneurship.

When Katsouleas became UConn's president in 2019, he was mostly concerned with significantly ramping up the school's research funding (to $500 million a year over the next decade), boosting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives and returning UConn athletics' to the Big East conference.

Then COVID-19 hit.

The pandemic last spring forced UConn to close its campuses, which contributed to a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall — mostly due to evaporating housing and dining service revenues. However, UConn reopened its campuses last fall and has kept on-campus COVID transmission rates lower than many similarly-sized institutions across the country, thanks to strict restrictions related to social distancing, mask-wearing and testing for students and faculty.

The pandemic and revenue downturn have forced Katsouleas to make some difficult cost-cutting decisions, including canceling the 2020 football season, and cutting several sports programs. UConn also paused a program Katsouleas started that would have provided last-dollar tuition funding for students whose parents earn under $50,000.

However, the school made some significant strides toward Katsouleas' goals of expanding innovation and entrepreneurship last year, despite COVID’s challenges.

For example, new research awards at UConn and UConn Health reached $286 million in fiscal year 2020, a 7% increase over the previous year, Katsouleas said. UConn and UConn Health faculty also spent nearly $250 million in expenditures for research and other sponsored activity, the highest combined annual amount in the school’s history.

Meantime, startup companies in UConn's Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington and Storrs raised a record $420 million in 2020, Katsouleas said. That nearly equals funding TIP companies raised over the previous four years combined.
 

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