As University of Connecticut students protest a proposed tuition increase of 6.3 percent, a new survey of public records shows that the highest-paid state employees work at UConn.
The information, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, shows that basketball coach Jim Calhoun was paid $1.58 million, while football head coach Randy Edsall was paid $1.36 million in 2008. The women’s basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, received $1,050,000.
Overall, 13 UConn employees – including eight at the UConn Health Center in Farmington – were paid more than $500,000. The university president, Michael J. Hogan, received $616,000 in state funds that year.
The information was compiled from public records at the office of State Comptroller Nancy Wyman by the Yankee Institute For Public Policy, a right-leaning research group with offices on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford.
Fergus Cullen, the executive director at the Yankee Institute, said it took six months to create a web site and make the information searchable. The web site is www.CTSunlight.org.
Cullen’s group worked closely with the comptroller’s office on the large project that covers the salary of every state employee.
“They were very helpful, very cooperative,” Cullen said of Wyman’s office. “It was a cooperative and collaborative approach.”
Overall, 71 state employees were paid more than $300,000 per year, and more than 1,100 are paid more than the governor’s annual salary of $150,000.