Another casualty at CSCU. General Counsel out, will serve as “senior fellow advisor.”

More upheaval at the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system. Veteran General Counsel Ernestine Weaver is out. She will be replaced for now by Vita Litvin, who has been associate general counsel.

On Thursday, Daily Ructions reported that Benjamin Barnes, the system’s chief financial officer since 2018, has also left CSCU.

Terrence Cheng, now called the 43,000 student system’s chancellor, made the Weaver announcement and conceded there have been many high level changes but no one should worry. No one but Cheng. He earned many detractors at the legislators with his ham fisted attempt to strong arm them into increasing the amount of money in Governor Lamont’s February budget proposal. Legislative leaders were surprised Cheng offered little appreciation for the $50 million they added to the CSCU budget as the schools continue to be flummoxed by falling enrollment.

The CSCU Board of Regents and Governor Ned Lamont may want to shed some sunlight on what is beginning to look like a crisis. They could begin by engaging in frank exchanges of views with Barnes and Weaver.

Published July 17, 2023.