On the day before the start of the spring semester, community college faculty from around the state called for the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities governing board to implement stricter COVID safety standards as they return to campuses in person. During the Thursday press conference, faculty asked for the CSCU administration to distribute more N95 masks to students and employees at the colleges, ensure social distancing is enforced, improve telework accommodations, allow faculty to move classes fully online for the first two weeks of the semester and require proof of vaccination fo ..read more

University of Connecticut Andrew Agwunobi University of Connecticut officials announced Friday that Interim President and CEO of UConn Health Dr. Andrew Agwunobi is resigning from the university next month. Agwunobi was appointed interim president in July 2021 following the resignation of former UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas last March. He is leaving his position as both interim president of the university and CEO of UConn Health effective Feb. 20 for an opportunity with the private sector health care company Humana, according to a statement released by UConn. “I had no plans to leav ..read more

Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. As multiple colleges and universities around Connecticut moved classes online and delayed students’ return to campus for the spring semester due to a recent rise in COVID-19 cases, the Connecticut State Colleges and University system announced that it will begin the spring 2022 semester as originally scheduled. The announcement sent out Thursday stated that state university students will move into residence halls as scheduled on Jan. 17 and 18, and in-person classes will start on Jan. 19. In-person classes at ..read more

Tyler Russell :: Connecticut Public Radio Educators around the state are grappling with rising COVID cases in the schools. A hallway of S.A.N.D Elementary in Hartford at the start of the school year. When Connecticut’s COVID infection rate peaked at over 8% last week, educators around the state had what one called “a real pause moment.” But while numbers like that a year ago might have alarmed officials into shutting down schools, this year they are better prepared. Confirmed cases in schools have risen steadily over the last several weeks. The state reported Thursday that 2,483 K-12 studen ..read more

Jessica Hill :: AP Govs. Dannel P. Malloy, right, and Ned Lamont both tried to shift a portion of municipal teacher pension costs onto cities and towns. Both failed.  (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) Two Connecticut governors have tried — and failed — to shift some of the massive cost of teacher pensions onto municipalities, arguing it’s inherently unfair for the state to foot the entire bill. Education equity advocates hope to resurrect that debate this year — with a big twist.  Rather than trying to bolster the state’s coffers, the Connecticut chapter of Education Reform Now (ERN) wants ..read more

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas :: CT Mirror file photo A trail that connects UConn’s campus with off-campus housing years ago was notorious for sexual assaults. It includes an emergency call station. In 2020 there were 34 reported instances of sexual assault on campus. At Virginia Tech, four sexual assaults were reported in one November week. At the University of North Carolina, one individual was linked to three sexual assaults in as many months this fall. And at Indiana University, school police have been investigating more than two dozen sexual assault cases on the flagship Bloomington camp ..read more

New college safety data revealed a 29% decrease in all crimes reported across Connecticut’s 10 largest four-year undergraduate institutions from 2019 to 2020, including a 42% decrease in sexual offenses. This 29% decline marks the steepest drop in recent years. Between 2018 and 2019, reported crimes among the 10 largest universities decreased by 11% and sexual offenses decreased by 17%. University of Connecticut spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said that the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted the spring semester and moved classes online in March of 2020, can explain that year’s dip in crime. “The co ..read more

As the pandemic has progressed, more school-age children sought out mental health support when they returned to in-person learning this school year, officials believe. An influx of students showed up in crisis either at school or in emergency departments to seek psychiatric care during the pandemic, and the trend  as the new school year began. The co-chairs of the state legislature’s Children’s Committee, Rep. Liz Linehan and Sen. Saud Anwar, hosted a children’s mental health panel at the end of October. Doctors, social workers and mental health experts said emergency departments are see ..read more

Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org A school bus arrives in the morning at Roger Sherman Elementary School in Meriden. A $1.5 million federal relief fund investment will be given to schools across the state, and students will get to decide how those funds are spent. Gov. Ned Lamont and state Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker launched the first-of-its-kind campaign on Wednesday at CREC Civic Leadership High School in Enfield, where a panel discussion was held with education leaders and local students. The plan is called Voice4Change. Students can propose how to spend the $20,000 for thei ..read more

Catherine Shen :: CT Public Patrick Lattuca, superintendent of TECCA Connections Academy in East Walpole, Massachusetts, speaks during a visit from Connecticut legislators about how the virtual academy works on Sept. 23, 2021. Connecticut legislators recently went on a field trip to a Massachusetts classroom that had no students. They walked into a physical school building, up a set of stairs and into an open space filled with cubicles. In those cubicles? Teachers who were conducting live virtual classes. Superintendent Patrick Lattuca was the tour guide. He said anything that a brick-and-m ..read more