The state's governor and the University of Connecticut's incoming president sought Wednesday to avoid further antagonizing Robert Burton, the multimillionaire UConn donor who made national news last week by angrily demanding the return of $3 million in donations and removal of his name from the Burton Family Football Complex on UConn's Storrs campus.
Neither Gov. Dannel P. Malloy nor incoming UConn President Susan Herbst had an answer at the State Capitol when reporters asked if the Greenwich businessman should get back the money he demanded in his pique over not being consulted when the school hired Paul Pasqualoni to replace the departed UConn football coach, Randy Edsall.
Both Malloy and Herbst, who takes over at UConn in July, tried to smooth things over rather than publicly oppose the Burton demand that many commentators have blasted.
"I would hope at some point in the not too distant future that we could resolve that issue to everyone's satisfaction," Malloy said when he and Herbst faced reporters outside the governor's office after meeting for a half-hour or so to discuss how the university can grow while assisting in state economic development efforts.