Terrence Cheng

Terrence Cheng served as chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system from 2021-2024. From 2024-2025, he served as Special Advisor to the Board of Regents for CSCU. CSCU is comprised of 12 community college campuses, four state universities and Charter Oak State College, and serves more than 85,000 students. Previous to CSCU, Cheng served as campus director of the University of Connecticut Stamford campus from 2016 to 2021, where he also served as a faculty member in the English department.

Cheng has also held several academic and administrative leadership and faculty roles which include associate provost/assistant vice president, Academic Programs at Brooklyn College; and associate dean, School of Arts and Humanities, and chair, Department of English at Lehman College. Both institutions are part of the City University of New York.

Cheng is a first-generation student. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Binghamton University and an MFA in fiction from the University of Miami, where he was a James Michener Fellow. He is the author of two novels: Sons of Heaven (2002), and Deep in the Mountains (2007), as well as numerous published short stories and essays. In 2005, he received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is currently a professor of English and Writing at Western Connecticut State University.