Charter Oak faculty urge Board of Regents to use reserves for pay parity; oppose proposed AI reserve spend

Public comment at the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents focused largely on compensation at Charter Oak State College, where multiple faculty and union delegates asked the board to prioritize raises over a proposed AI investment.

Dr. Frank Valier, identified by the meeting host as representing Charter Oak State College, said teaching faculty have endured pay that "lags far from similarly situated colleagues" and asked the board to "stand with us" in support of a $4,000-per-course compensation floor to bring Charter Oak faculty in line with peers. Valier told the board the college holds "over $12,000,000 in reserves."

Professor Ashley McCollum said Charter Oak serves working adults (about 87% Connecticut residents, she said) and recounted 12 years without raises that she said has damaged recruitment, retention and instructional continuity. McCollum told regents she was "concerned" to learn the finance committee had a plan before it to allocate a portion of reserves toward an AI initiative while compensation inequities remain unresolved.

Dr. Erica Butcher, an adjunct faculty member and union delegate, asked the board to vote no on the current Charter Oak fund balance action plan, saying the proposal to use reserves for an AI engagement conflicts with stalled bargaining talks and sends a message that the institution does not value its faculty. Several public commenters echoed that claim; one speaker (Dr. Ruth McDonald) said Charter Oak's unrestricted reserves are "12,100,000."

Speakers repeatedly framed faculty working conditions as student learning conditions and urged the board to prioritize salary reinvestment to sustain program stability and student success. The public commenters requested specific allocations (Dr. Kishana Hector Levy urged $1.4 million be allocated to salary adjustments) or asked the board to set a clear policy priority for compensation parity.

Board chair and committee members responded later in the meeting that the finance committee had approved an AI engagement of up to $2,000,000 as part of a Charter Oak spend-down plan to align reserves with the system's fund policy; board members also said they would continue discussions on compensation and noted collective bargaining is ongoing.

The meeting record shows the board did not vote directly on a faculty pay allocation during this session; the public comment period was one record of faculty concerns the board said it would consider in future finance committee work and collective bargaining processes.

The next procedural step noted at the meeting was that the finance committee will continue to review Charter Oak's reserve action plan and that the board would not appropriate recurring raises from one-time reserves without a longer-term approach.