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No location has been chosen, but the state would look for a public-private partnership to create residential options for students, Malloy said. He said he has been looking for ways for students to live near the University of Connecticut campus since he was mayor of Stamford. It is the only city in the state with more than 100,000 residents not to have a residential college campus, Malloy said.
The housing plan for the Stamford campus would include renting apartments, hotels and houses in the short term, and evaluating options to lease, buy and/or build in the long term, a statement from UConn said. The school would also have to look at other student needs such as food and social programs, the statement said.
In addition to the housing improvements, the campus would also expand its business program and add more digital media undergraduate and graduate degrees, UConn President Susan Herbst said. The programs were designed to help businesses in the area find qualified employees without leaving the state, Malloy said.
“It’s the kind of thing in our business courses we would teach our students to do,” he said during a news conference at the Stamford campus on Wednesday.
The proposed growth would increase undergraduate enrollment by about 1,500 students, degrees offered by more than 300, and faculty by 35, a statement said. The state’s operating request is for $2.3 million and UConn would commit $3.6 million, the statement said.
The Next Generation Connecticut proposal would call for the state to invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years, beginning in 2014 at the earliest, to support expansions at UConn in an effort to bring more companies to the state because of a better trained workforce.
“We need some very big ideas to get us there,” Herbst said of making people in the state better qualified for jobs.
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