Tuition and fees at the University of Connecticut will rise 2.5 percent this fall, the smallest one-year increase since 2000, the school's board of trustees decided Wednesday. Last year's increase was 5.66 percent.
Also Wednesday, reacting to recent news disclosures and criticism over high UConn salaries, the trustees agreed to do set up a compensation committee to look at administrative pay. Board Chairman Lawrence D. McHugh cited recent news disclosures in saying he believes that the school administration appears to have left the trustees in the dark about granting some big salary increases.
A March 13 Government Watch column in The Courant reported that UConn's two top police officials - Chief Robert Hudd and Major Ronald Blicher - were paid $246,961 and $193,616 last year, much higher than the salaries of many of their counterparts in big-city police departments and at other universities.
For example, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was paid about $212,000 annually as of two years ago to command a force of 34,000 that protects 8 million residents and countless office workers and tourists.