Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Central Connecticut State University students and professors staged a rally Monday against a proposed tuition increase for all four Connecticut state universities and 12 community colleges.

The proposed increases would be between 4 and 5 per cent.

In-state commuters would pay about 9 thousand dollars a year and In-state residents about 20 thousand a year. Out of state students would pay about 30 thousand.

Student fees would also increase to 1000 dollars for in-state and close to 2500 dollars for out of state students.

This year, Governor Malloy proposed bonding another $1.5 billion for  the University of Connecticut while he cut funding for Connecticut State University and  community colleges by 14 million dollars.

The Board of Regent’s Finance Committee will review the proposed tuition increases on Thursday.  

But UConn students will also be paying tuition increases. A four-year, 6 percent tuition hike was approved for UConn in December 2011. And UConn’s budget was cut by10 million dollars in December. 

Governor Malloy gets high marks from voters in Tuesday’s Quinnipiac University poll, which found the governor’s approval rating at an all-time high of 48 percent.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,144 voters shows they approve of how Malloy is handling his job and gun control issues 48 to 39 percent, but 45 percent of those polled don’t believe he should be re-elected while 42 percent believe he should be re-elected.

Meanwhile, 76 percent of voters approve of how he handled the Newtown shootings and 80 percent approve of his response to the February blizzard

But fifty-seven percent of voters disapprove of how Malloy is handling the budget, while just 33 percent approve.  

Malloy has yet to announce he’s running for re-election even though he’s hinted at a second term. 

 Veterans who are students at Gateway Community College in New Haven had a chance to learn about higher education and employment at a  jobs fair on Monday. WPKN's Melinda Tuhus has more:

Connecticut Dept of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwarz put the fair in context. She herself is a Vietnam veteran who served as a nurse and couldn't get a nursing job stateside without starting over. She and others are trying to make things easier for today's veterans, who need all the help they can get.

Young veterans chatted with people staffing tables from Yale, Southern and Quinnipiac universities, and employers like the New Haven Police Department.

Charles Kim is a Marine veteran who served in Bosnia and Haiti, and then was called back for duty in Iraq in 2003.  He already has an anthropology degree from Southern Connecticut State University, but says that hasn't helped him in the job market.

Veterans benefits cover tuition and books, but the addition of "fees" that are equal to tuition means many vets still must apply for grants or loans.

Melinda Tuhus, WPKN News. 

The Town of Huntington is partnering with the City University of New York in an initiative to streamline the solar permit process for home and business owners throughout New York State.
Huntington is one of 30 municipal partners in the "New York Solar Smart" application for a federal grant being submitted by CUNY.  

Nassau and Suffolk County Planning Commissions and LIPA launched a unified solar permitting process in 2011. Previously, each municipality in Long Island had a different set of regulations, creating confusion, delays and extra costs.
The Town of Huntington was ahead of the curve, adopting the Solar Fast Track program four years earlier. The Town currently expedites solar permits and does not charge a fee.

Under CUNY's New York Solar Smart initiative, municipalities will communicate regularly to formulate codes governing solar energy products so everyone is on the same page.