Investments in housing and new academic programs at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton are necessary to supply the growing manufacturing and energy industries in the region with a much-needed workforce, lawmakers from Southeastern Connecticut told the university’s board of trustees on Wednesday.
Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, told the board that the campus was being “neglected.”
She said Avery Point needs to expand its majors to include engineering and studies related to energy, and that the school needs to invest in housing.
“These are things that I would say need to happen, and not in a strategic plan that is going to happen in 10 years, because it’ll be too late. Then you’ll have successfully starved our satellite campus,” said Osten.
Discussions around building housing at Avery Point have been occurring for over a year. In July 2024, UConn announced that it had issued a “Request for Expressions of Interest” for companies who could build housing for 150 to 250 students at Avery Point. The location identified is across from the athletic facility and would include dining and health services.
“Avery Point students and their families consistently tell UConn how much they love the campus, but the lack of housing has been a barrier to increasing its enrollment — especially since rentals have become more expensive and scarce in the region amid hiring booms at major employers,” the announcement read.
The new dorm is expected to cost $50 million.
UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz told CT Mirror that the University was in discussions with a “preferred developer” about the project but that nothing had been finalized yet.
Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, said at the Wednesday meeting that she’d met a man years ago on a plane who said he chose to send his son to the University of Rhode Island rather than Avery Point because of the lack of housing. According to data from UConn, roughly 200 to 250 student applicants who meet target demographics choose a regional competitor annually over UConn-Avery Point.
Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, added that the lack of housing for students put pressure on the local housing stock, where there was already a shortage. He mentioned the investments that UConn had put into building housing on its other regional campuses, particularly Stamford.
UConn has been purchasing apartment buildings to house students at the fast-expanding Stamford campus, at times displacing local residents as a result. And this year, UConn began for the first time to lease apartments in Hartford for students at its campus in the state capital. In a July letter to the board of trustees, lawmakers mentioned recent investments in the other three regional campuses, including $10 million to expand the campus in Waterbury and a $3.5 million grant for housing in Hartford.
In June, the board of trustees met to discuss appropriating $3 million toward the project but ended up postponing the vote, they said, until the university is able to draw up a full strategic plan for the campus.
The decision greatly upset lawmakers from the region, who in their July letter to the board of trustees said they were “disheartened and concerned” by the delay.
But the Groton campus’ finances are on shaky ground, and it’s not clear whether the state is willing to foot the bill for an expansion.
UConn’s only regional campus without significant housing options, Avery Point’s enrollment has plunged by 40% over the past decade, dropping to 409 students this fall. And it’s projected to fall further, to 393 by 2027.
Correspondingly, the branch campus’ operating budget has lost an average of $13 million annually since 2022.
According to a presentation for state lawmakers in August, the addition of new pathways in engineering and business, as well as academic support for students at the campus, will cost UConn about $9.5 million annually.
The Lamont administration was noncommittal when asked about new state investments — beyond what’s already provided — to make the Avery Point campus competitive.
“The administration has not had discussions regarding the addition of housing at Avery Point,” said Chris Collibee, the governor’s budget spokesman.
Collibee added that UConn has the option to issue its own bonds and borrow funds for a new dormitory, which it then could repay through housing, dining and other student service fees.
But to encourage more students to attend Avery Point, UConn must be careful setting fee levels. University officials warned fees may not be enough even to cover the full cost of running the dormitory, dining and other services, adding there could be an annual loss ranging from $274,000 to $1.35 million.
Rep. Gregory Haddad, D-Mansfield, co-chairman of the legislature’s Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, said that Connecticut could scale back its savings efforts very modestly and make significant investments in public colleges and universities. The state currently has surpluses that have averaged more than $1.8 billion, or 8% to 9% of the General Fund, over the past eight years.
“I think Avery Point is a gem of a campus,” Haddad said, adding that “I think we need a greater commitment from the [Lamont] administration to higher education writ large.”
Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-Branford, told CT Mirror it made sense to look at funding for housing at Avery Point but said he didn’t want to change the state spending caps, which regulate what percentage of the budget the state is required to set aside. He said the board of trustees could make decisions about how it used its state block grant and what it wanted to invest in and that it already had a structure for investing in capital projects through the UConn 2000 bond program.
Somers said she believed it wouldn’t be necessary to even discuss modifying the state’s fiscal guardrails. She said smart investments in Avery Point, including investments in the dormitories, would pay for themselves. She noted that every other satellite campus had received state investment, and those investments had resulted in higher enrollments.
Lawmakers also commented on the vast workforce demands on the eastern side of the state and how Avery Point could fill those needs.
Osten pointed out that Eastern Connecticut was home to General Dynamics Electric Boat, among the largest private-sector employers in Connecticut, which employs roughly 24,000 workers between its main site in Groton and its fabrication facility in Quonset Point, R.I.
She underscored that the employers in the area provide blue-collar jobs that pay a living wage. Electric Boat, for example, offers jobs with a starting annual salary of $60,000 plus benefits.
“It’s very important for us to recognize that more than 400 subcontractors are in Connecticut, with more than 100 being in the eastern part of the state. And those people need workers that you all will be graduating,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, told CT Mirror that the need for housing on the Groton branch campus is “blindingly obvious,” particularly in light of recent defense contract awards for fast-attack submarines that are projected to drive Electric Boat’s employment to nearly 33,000 workers by the early 2030s.
“There’s a slew of new engineering projects that are already part of the Navy’s shipbuilding plans,” said Courtney, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.
In a letter to UConn President Randeka Maric last January, Courtney underscored a tri-country partnership among the U.S., Australia and the U.K. focused on security and advanced technologies.
“Expanding the engineering, business, and other four-year degrees offered at Avery Point will enable more young people in our region to fill these critically important job positions,” Courtney wrote.
Somers said that she’d like to see Avery Point expand its offerings not only to engineering but to business and hospitality, since Eastern Connecticut is home to Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos.
“We can’t hire people in that industry, whether it’s hotel management, business application, restaurant entrepreneurship — there’s nothing available for that,” she said.
She said the university needed to recognize Avery Point’s unique assets, including its location on the Long Island Sound, and to align its offerings with the needs of local industries and the community.
“ I encourage you, I actually implore you, to view Avery Point not as a cost center but as a high potential asset that has been undervalued and underinvested,” she said.
Emilia Otte and Keith M. Phaneuf are reporters at the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).