Great post, and I agree with much of what you say. UConn certainly does have quite a lot of bureaucracy, wasteful spending, etc.

However, I do think we need to think about what these schools provide and who they're for. I say this as a former student of both CCSU and UConn.

• UConn's mission is to be a top-flight research and public university, attracting high-end students both locally and from across the United States
• UConn also wants to provide the "full college experience" in terms of dorms, Student Unions, people living on campus and having that whole thing.
• ConnSCU's have a similar-ish thing, but almost all of them are also commuter-first universities. Most kids don't live on campus, but in surrounding towns where they grew up, maybe with their friends or parents.
• Community colleges are often attended by people returning to education or working full-time and working on an education. They don't want or need on-campus leaving (afaik). They need a schedule that works for them and is flexible and also affordable.
• Ideally, you have flexibility to move between the different "tiers" of education in the system, though I prefer not to think of it that way since its not really better or worse, just different experiences.
• Community college is free in Connecticut now. That's amazing. Maybe we do need more funding but you have to admit this is a great step.
• Tuition is also much cheaper for ConnCSU -- 11K for SCSU right now, 18K for UConn, not considering room and board, other fees, etc.
• As far as bureaucratic waste, I mean... that's large scale academic institutions for you. I worked at Yale. Its not exclusive to UConn. I suspect this is a nationwide problem, if not even bigger.

I would like to see more equity for sure, though. I was more just explaining why I think there may be an "appropriate" divide in spending between different systems due to those different needs. And I think UConn should look out for the entire state education system, though its hard because institutions tend to look out for themselves.

Anyway, great post. Just wanted to add some thoughts.