{"id":129591,"date":"2017-09-21T01:01:48","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T05:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=129591"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:07:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:07:07","slug":"students-rally-saveuconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/09\/students-rally-saveuconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Rally to #SaveUConn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 1,200 UConn students, faculty, and staff rallied at the Hugh S. Greer Field House on Wednesday, Sept. 20, to protest a budget approved by the state legislature that would cut $309 million from UConn\u2019s budget over two years. The unprecedented 30 percent reduction in state funding would lead to closed campuses, higher tuition and fees, fewer majors, and other harmful consequences, University leaders have said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A student holds up a #SaveUConn sign during a rally at the Hugh S. Greer Field House in support of the University on Sept. 20, 2017. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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A student holds up a #SaveUConn sign during a rally at the Hugh S. Greer Field House in support of the University on Sept. 20, 2017. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"A<\/a>
A line of students, faculty, and staff members snakes around the block in front of the Hugh S. Greer Field House. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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A line of students, faculty, and staff members snakes around the block in front of the Hugh S. Greer Field House. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"The<\/a>
The Field House was filled to capacity with nearly 1,200 students, faculty, and staff who rallied in support of the University on Wednesday, holding up signs that showed their opposition to the legislature's budget. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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The Field House was filled to capacity with nearly 1,200 students, faculty, and staff who rallied in support of the University on Wednesday, holding up signs that showed their opposition to the legislature's budget. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"A<\/a>
A student holds a #OneUConn sign during the rally. Speaker after speaker warned of the risks to financial aid, academic life, the University\u2019s ability to serve as an economic growth engine for Connecticut, and the national reputation that UConn has won for itself and its state. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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A student holds a #OneUConn sign during the rally. Speaker after speaker warned of the risks to financial aid, academic life, the University\u2019s ability to serve as an economic growth engine for Connecticut, and the national reputation that UConn has won for itself and its state. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Undergraduate<\/a>
Undergraduate Student Government President Irma Valverde '18 (BUS, CLAS) opens the rally. \u201cThis is just the beginning, she said. "Get ready to fight.\u201d (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Undergraduate Student Government President Irma Valverde '18 (BUS, CLAS) opens the rally. \u201cThis is just the beginning, she said. "Get ready to fight.\u201d (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Sebastien<\/a>
Sebastien Kerr '20 (CLAS) speaks about the importance of student financial aid. "These budget cuts send the message that yes, we may be students today, but we might not be Huskies forever,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is unacceptable.\u201d (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Sebastien Kerr '20 (CLAS) speaks about the importance of student financial aid. "These budget cuts send the message that yes, we may be students today, but we might not be Huskies forever,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is unacceptable.\u201d (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"\u201cPublic<\/a>
\u201cPublic education is, and always will be, an investment that any rational government should make,\u201d said Steven Manicastri, president of the graduate student union. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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\u201cPublic education is, and always will be, an investment that any rational government should make,\u201d said Steven Manicastri, president of the graduate student union. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Haley<\/a>
Haley Hinton, USG external affairs chairwoman, who juggles multiple part-time jobs while being a full-time student, said, \u201cComing to UConn was a blessing to me. I did well in high school, but I struggled financially. UConn helped me.\u201d (Bret Eckhardt\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Haley Hinton, USG external affairs chairwoman, who juggles multiple part-time jobs while being a full-time student, said, \u201cComing to UConn was a blessing to me. I did well in high school, but I struggled financially. UConn helped me.\u201d (Bret Eckhardt\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Sophomore<\/a>
Sophomore Jonathan Reyes said \u201cUConn has given me and many other students the opportunity to change our lives for the better. ... We will lose a large part of our community if we do nothing\u201d about the budget. (Bret Eckhardt\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
Rally-Reyes<\/div>
Sophomore Jonathan Reyes said \u201cUConn has given me and many other students the opportunity to change our lives for the better. ... We will lose a large part of our community if we do nothing\u201d about the budget. (Bret Eckhardt\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Anthony<\/a>
Anthony Patelunas, a Ph.D. candidate and the UConn Foundation Student Director, told the crowd how he had founded a biotechnology startup thanks to support from the UConn School of Business, highlighting UConn\u2019s role as a driver of innovation in the private sector. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Anthony Patelunas, a Ph.D. candidate and the UConn Foundation Student Director, told the crowd how he had founded a biotechnology startup thanks to support from the UConn School of Business, highlighting UConn\u2019s role as a driver of innovation in the private sector. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Rally170920a446\"<\/a>
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Undergraduate Student Government President Irma Valverde '18 (BUS, CLAS) speaks during a rally at the Hugh S. Greer Field House on Sept. 20, 2017. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"The<\/a>
The UConn Marching Band performs Husky favorites, including the Fight Song, at the rally. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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The UConn Marching Band performs Husky favorites, including the Fight Song, at the rally. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

During the hour-long assembly, participants heard speakers express their fears about the greatly weakened University that would exist after 30 percent of its state funding is cut.<\/p>\n

Speaker after speaker warned of the risks to financial aid, academic life, the University\u2019s ability to serve as an economic growth engine for Connecticut, and the national reputation that UConn has won for itself and its state.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate Sebastien Kerr \u201920 (CLAS) spoke movingly during the rally of how merit scholarships had enabled him to fulfill his dream of attending UConn. Roughly 80 percent of UConn undergraduates receive some form of financial aid, which would be endangered by the budget adopted by the legislature. Kerr warned that would make UConn inaccessible even for some students currently enrolled.<\/p>\n

Graduate student Steven Manicastri, president of the graduate student union at UConn, told the rally that the proposed $309 million cut to UConn\u2019s funding would be felt not only in the University, but in the state as a whole. In addition to its ranking as one of the top public universities in the country, UConn is a major factor in Connecticut\u2019s economy, generating more than $3.4 billion a year for the state.<\/p>\n

Wrapping up, USG President Irma Valverde ’18 (CLAS, BUS) said,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really important to show our state legislators that we\u2019re not going to be silent. We\u2019re going to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 1,200 UConn students, faculty, and staff rallied at the Field House on Wednesday to protest a budget approved by the state legislature that would cut $309 million from UConn\u2019s budget over two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":129614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2234,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1931],"class_list":["post-129591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-life","category-university-news","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 13:54:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129591"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129625,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129591\/revisions\/129625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/129614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129591"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=129591"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=129591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}