UConn-AAUP Update
October 14, 2025
- Democracy School Invitation
- UConn-AAUP Fall Member Meeting!
- UConn Labor Coalition Letter to Leadership
- Responding to Threats to Academic Freedom Around the World
- Faculty First Responders- Peer-to-Peer Support for Academic Freedom
- (Repost!) -Basic Plan Members Cigna Dental Plans Update
- Childcare Reimbursement Process
Democracy School Invitation
️ Saturday, October 18 – 9:00AM – 1:00PM
CTFA Democracy School – Register now!
UConn-AAUP members are invited to attend the next session of CT for All’s Democracy School. Democracy School is where members take an active role in the coalition’s work and build solidarity across labor and community orgs. This is an event that will leave you feeling empowered and connected. Questions? Contact Valerie Duffy (valerieduffy1234@gmail.com) or Sam Sommers (smsommers@gmail.com)
Saturday, October 18 – 9:00AM – 1:00PM
CTFA Democracy School: Protecting our Communities with Money + Policies
Emanuel Lutheran Church, 311 Capitol Avenue, Hartford (across the street from the LOB)
Register here: ctfa.info/democracyschool-oct18
Join us on October 22nd for an all-member meeting!
Let us know you can make it! RSVP
The below letter was voted and approved by UConn-AAUP Executive Committee and sent on behalf of the UConn-Labor Coalition on October 3rd
Dear President Maric, Governor Lamont, Senate President Looney and Speaker Ritter,
We are writing to you out of grave and urgent concern for the future of our university, our state and our nation. Instead of “laying low” and remaining silent, we, the leaders of UConn’s unions, urge you to join with us in actively, vocally defending Connecticut’s values and protecting the core mission of our flagship university. Silence will not protect us.
The University of Connecticut is the state’s flagship university, excelling in STEM, nursing, education, law, business, athletics, arts and sciences, and is the home of the state’s only public medical school and academic medical center. We are a successful research enterprise with notable achievements in advancing treatments for leading causes of death and disability, including cancer, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and substance abuse. The NIH currently supports more than $130 million in annual research expenditures at UConn and UConn Health. We excel in numerous fields because we invest and uphold values in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and recruit faculty, students, and trainees from diverse backgrounds.
The Trump administration presents an existential threat to democracy and also the mission of our beloved institution, undermining science, medicine, and higher education. Research, DEI and healthcare for low-income residents are under attack. These attacks are part of a larger authoritarian movement which violates the Constitution, terrorizes and violently represses immigrants and other marginalized groups, punishes free speech and expression, consolidates power through gerrymandering and removing government checks and balances, and threatens public health by replacing experts in science and medicine with anti-science Trump loyalists. Disturbingly, this follows the same playbook used by other authoritarian regimes, past and present. To defend our democracy, we must learn from history that silence and compliance won’t protect our faculty, our students, our institutions, our state, or our nation against an aspiring dictator.
We call upon President Maric to sign the AAC&U letter and to work closely with Attorney General William Tong to fight back against the authoritarian agenda in all its forms. We call upon Governor Lamont and legislative leadership to commit that Connecticut will raise revenue and overcome the fiscal roadblocks to protect higher education, research and healthcare for low-income residents against the potentially disastrous impact of federal cuts.
Sincerely,
Officers, boards, councils, EDs of:
AFSCME Council 4, Administrative Clerical Bargaining Unit NP-3
UCPEA, AFTCT Local 3695
CEUI, SEIU Local 511
GEU-UAW, Local 6950
NEHCEU, District 1199, SEIU
UConn-AAUP/AFT Local 6746
UHP, AFT Local 3837
Responding to Threats to Academic Freedom Around the World
OCTOBER 28, 2025, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM (EASTERN STANDARD TIME).
Part of the Academic Freedom in an International Context Series. The series is co-hosted by the International Studies Association’s Academic Freedom Committee and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. The ability to teach, research, and speak on issues of public importance without fear of retaliation is a cornerstone of what academics do. Without academic freedom and institutional autonomy, universities cannot serve the common good. However, today the rise of authoritarian movements and governments around the world has included deliberate and sustained attacks on academic institutions as well as the silencing of students, faculty, and staff.
This webinar series initiates a conversation within the International Studies Association (ISA) about evolving threats to academic freedom around the world, how academic freedom is understood in different environments, and what can be done to defend academic freedom in an international context.
This first panel in the series examines the evolving threats to academic freedom around the world. Speakers will examine global trends, including the rise of the radical Right (Abrahamsen, Drolet, et al. 2024), while others speak to what attacks on academic freedom look like within particular countries. The panel will focus on understanding the underlying international contexts that give rise to current attacks on academic freedom around the world, as well as what resources exist to support faculty and how academics have fought back to preserve academic freedom.
Click here for session details and registration.
Faculty First Responders- Peer-to-Peer Support for Academic Freedom
Faculty First Responders – Peer-to-Peer Support for Academic Freedom
In recent years, many workers in higher education have experienced targeted harassment for statements they have made in their classrooms, through their research, on social media, or in organizing and activist contexts. Much of this harassment originates with articles published by a handful of media platforms or right-wing political organizations, yet these outrage stories can lead to a deluge of hateful messages and threats, doxing, and even workplace retaliation. These attacks can be scary, isolating, and traumatic, and administrations often respond badly.
When these outlets accuse a higher education worker of some outrage, Faculty First Responders reach out to the faculty member with resources and support. It is the hope that if these stories do result in online harassment, the organization can help workers to feel better supported by their professional community. It is also our hope that administrators cease adopting the right-wing media’s narrative and instead actively and publicly defend their workers from these attacks. Understanding where these attacks come from–and how to effectively respond–is necessary to better support higher education workers, their well-being, and their academic freedom.
SEBAC UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT
Basic Plan Members
Cigna Dental Plans Update
Contact UConn Benefits to change your plan or for additional information! See below
DENTAL BASIC PLAN-ONLY Open Enrollment EXTENDED Until October 31, 2025
If you are on the Basic dental plan with the State of Connecticut, you might have recently received a letter from the Office of the State Comptroller extending the open enrollment date to October 31st.
Don’t wait until it’s too late—review your dentist’s network status and your dental plan options before the October 31st deadline.
For those that have incurred surprise bills due to this change, Cigna has agreed to reimburse those affected before proper notice was sent (those on the Basic plan that visited their out-of-network dentist during the months of July or August).
If you would like to request a change in the plan DO NOT use the form provided in the last update. If you have already submitted the CO-744OE form to the Retirement Division with a dental plan change request, you are required to contact UConn Benefits to ensure the change is made. The contact is Benefits@uconn.edu this must be done prior to the above stated deadline.
Need Help with next steps?
- Contact UConn HR Benefits for next steps at Benefits@uconn.edu
- Use Cigna’s Find a Dentist tool to check if your dentist is in-network.
- Call Cigna Dental at 800-244-6224 with questions about coverage or providers.
Childcare Reimbursement Process
Applications for childcare reimbursement are open. The process will remain open until end of day November 6th. For process information and guidelines, please follow this link:
Childcare Reimbursement Application and Policy – UConn AAUP