(WFSB) – The I-Team continues to try and get answers about what one of the highest paid state employees is doing with your money. Former Connecticut State Colleges and Universities chancellor Terrence Cheng is now a special advisor to the Board of Regents. That board oversees Central, Western, Eastern and Southern and all the state’s community colleges.
Terrence Cheng’s time as chancellor ended after a year of controversy. A state audit found thousands of dollars in questionable spending on things like meals and entertainment.
However, Cheng stayed on the payroll as special advisor to the board of regents, continuing to make his chancellor salary of more than $400,000 a year. CT open payroll estimates his annual earnings are $442,187.
In September 2025, the I-Team first reported that Cheng was not attending board meetings. At that time, Governor Lamont told us attending board meetings was not required.
In September, Lamont said, “My instinct is we’ll probably have something clear in the next, you know, five, six months. Let him, you know, finish that. That’ll still give him a few months to answer questions.”
It’s been more than 7 months without any sort of report from Cheng to the board, so to find out more about what Cheng has been working on, the I-Team requested a month’s worth of his emails. Because the I-Team made the request in January, we asked for all emails sent by Cheng during December 2025.
There were 48 emails. When the I-Team showed what we found to students at Central’s campus, the students Cheng’s work is for, that number didn’t sound high enough for them.
“That’s lowkey not that many,” said senior Matt Macsizza.
“I feel like maybe for their position that seems like a little low for the email amount. I feel like they’d be sending a lot more emails in the position that they’re in,” said sophomore Jannayanti.
However, some students give him the benefit of the doubt.
“You know, maybe he sends very long, efficient emails, and maybe he doesn’t count forwarding,” said senior Mickel Martin.
What are in those 48 emails? The I-Team read through them all.
40% of the emails weren’t about him doing this job. Instead, Cheng was searching for his next job. 40% of the emails were him reaching out about getting teaching positions across the state.
Five emails were about setting up a meeting to discuss his contract to become a tenured professor at Western after his special advisor position ends in July.
Three emails were about being someone’s reference for a job.
That leaves 21 emails for the month.
Those emails include setting up meetings with the provost at Quinnipiac and movie producer Bob Eick. The emails do not make clear what either meeting was about.
There were 2 emails about travelling to a higher education conference in DC.
Senate minority leader Stephen Harding and other state republicans have been calling for Cheng’s removal. We shared our findings with Harding.
“I have basically sensed that this is a sham job. And we’re now finding through your work and others that this is truly a sham job. When you’re sending out a few emails over a course of many months in a position getting paid half a million dollars a year, I mean, what else can you call it?” said Harding.
The I-Team also shared the findings with Governor Lamont.
The I-Team asked, “There were 48 emails. For a $400,000 a year position, do you think 48 emails is enough?”
Governor Lamont responded, “I don’t think you can measure the difference that somebody makes by how many emails. Just talk to the board of regents. Talk to Marty, see, you know, the strategic help that Terrence is bringing to the table. We’re making big changes to the CSCU population. The student population is going up in our community colleges for the first time in a long time. Some of that groundwork was laid a year or two ago. We’re making progress.”
The I-Team has repeatedly asked to speak to Cheng about his special advisor role since he started the job in July, but those requests have been denied by CSCU staff.
Instead, a CSCU spokesperson sent the I-Team this statement.
“Mr. Cheng is in regular communication with the BOR chair and work on his report is ongoing. His report is expected to be completed by the end of his contract term, June 30th.”
The I-Team found 3 emails Cheng sent to BOR chair Marty Guay during December. Two of them were about attending the higher education conference in DC. The third was setting up a meeting.
While the I-Team hasn’t been able to talk to Cheng, we do know how he defines his own role because we have his resume. It was included in one of the emails he sent about other teaching positions.
We showed that resume to senator Harding.
“I mean, I noticed this says he’s analyzing and reporting to the board of national best practices, but where’s the evidence of that? I mean, if you were truly advising the board, you’d be showing up to the meetings, and you’d be sending emails to the board about national best practices,” said Harding.
While Cheng keeps making his chancellor salary, the semester continues for the students.
“Don’t get me wrong. We do have a lot of good resources here, but I feel like there’s a lot of students that might be dealing with other struggles or other things that they might not be, like, supported with, and $400,000 a year could really make or break somebody’s life and change it for the better,” said sophomore India Wooding.
Just this month republicans proposed redirecting Cheng’s more than $400,000 a year salary to meals on wheels. It didn’t pass.
Governor Lamont tells the I-Team he will be reaching out to the board of regents to see about getting out Cheng’s report sooner rather than later.
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