Frustrated that the University of Connecticut hasn’t made quicker progress to build student housing at the Avery Point campus, nine state legislators are campaigning to get the Bond Commission to come up with $40 million to pay for it.
Lawmakers from southeastern Connecticut have been pressing UConn for more than two years to create dorms or a public-private partnership for apartments at the campus in Groton.
Despite a hiring surge at nearby Electric Boat and the rise of private apartment buildings in New London, the small Avery Point campus still has no student housing — and no assurance that any improvement is on the way.
Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said the region is tired of waiting, and she’s concerned that UConn leadership may be looking to phase out Avery Point.
“I’ve been talking about doing more for Avery Point for eight years. I think they’re trying to get rid of it,” she told The Courant on Thursday.
UConn officials have said that coordinating a residential facility at Avery Point is part of the university’s long-term strategic plan. But Osten is skeptical, and results of a highly publicized effort last year to find a developer apparently fell through.
“Everybody talks about housing, but it’s only convenient to put money into housing in certain areas of the state. That’s not fair. It’s taking away a significant part of higher education in eastern Connecticut,” she told Josh Wojcik, Gov. Ned Lamont’s new budget secretary, at a meeting of the Appropriations Committee last week.
Osten, co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, this week led eight colleagues from the region in filing a bill calling on the state Bond Commission to approve $40 million for student housing at Avery Point. As currently written, the bill would direct the money to UConn itself to arrange and oversee construction.
Ultimately it will be up to Lamont to decide if that idea goes forward, since he controls the Bond Commission agenda.
The 453 students at Avery Point are all commuters, and its advocates note that the university has spent tens of millions of dollars to add housing at its branches in Waterbury and Stamford as well as the main Storrs campus.
UConn leadership said last year that it was in talks with a potential developer for an Avery Point dorm, but never produced a construction plan, budget or time schedule, and didn’t publicly identify the company. A university spokeswoman this week acknowledged that plan is no longer advancing.
“The university previously sought proposals from the private sector to construct student housing at Avery Point that would be cost-neutral for UConn. No viable proposals that would accomplish this were received,” she said. “As part of its overarching strategic plan, UConn is developing strategic plans for each of the regional campuses. Once final, these plans will be presented to and discussed with UConn’s Board of Trustees.”
The university declined to comment on Osten’s bill.
In September, Osten and other lawmakers from the region told UConn’s board of trustees that Avery Point needs investment in student housing and academic programs. They warned that the school is losing potential students to competing colleges where living arrangements are easier.
So far, talks about a $50 million dormitory have focused on property near the athletic building. The goal would be housing for 250 students with a dining hall as well as health care facilities for students.
It’s important to Groton and surrounding towns, local leaders say.
“Avery Point is the only state school in southeastern Connecticut. We want it to do well,” Groton Mayor Jill Rusk said Thursday. “The campus is very significant and we support housing there. We’d hope it would be on campus.”
As Electric Boat has already begun expanding staff, the tight housing market in her town has grown tougher, Rusk said.
“There’s been a push for student housing for a while. We have very little housing right now, and some residents in the vicinity are struggling because the costs are going up,” she said.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat operation has projected adding thousands of jobs in Groton as well as Rhode Island, and the campus has specialized programs in marine sciences and maritime studies.
“With the hiring surge at the Groton shipyard speeding up and the historic demand for submarine design, engineering, and construction not letting up in the coming decades, the value of UConn’s Avery Point campus cannot be overstated,” U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney told The Courant on Thursday.
“UConn’s Avery Point campus is uniquely situated to be an academic hub for southeastern Connecticut’s submarine industry,” Courtney said,, calling Defense Department-funded research at UConn’s National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology “critical to maintaining U.S. Navy undersea supremacy.”
Until a decade ago, UConn had an additional regional campus in the opposite corner of the state.
Northwestern Connecticut leaders in the ’80s and ’90s fought to save UConn’s Torrington branch, saying it provided invaluable opportunity for students from that region who couldn’t afford or didn’t want to go to Storrs. State leaders at the time wanted to close the campus, but relented.
However, enrollment gradually dwindled and in 2016 UConn closed the campus.