The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system whose main campus is in Storrs,Connecticut. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School,named after two brothers who donated the land for the school. In 1893,the school became a public land grant college,becoming the University of Connecticut in 1939. Over the following decade,social work,nursing and graduate programs were established,while the schools of law and pharmacy were also absorbed into the university. During the 1960s,UConn Health was established for new medical and dental schools. UConn is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
The University of Connecticut School of Law is the law school associated with the University of Connecticut and located in Hartford,Connecticut. It is the only public law school in Connecticut and one of only four in New England. In 2020 it enrolled 488 JD students.
UConn Health is the branch of the University of Connecticut that oversees clinical care,advanced biomedical research,and academic education in medicine. The main branch is located in Farmington,Connecticut,in the US. It includes a teaching hospital,the UConn School of Medicine,School of Dental Medicine,and Graduate School. Other community care satellite locations exist in Avon,Canton,East Hartford,Putnam,Simsbury,Southington,Storrs,Torrington,West Hartford,and Willimantic,including two urgent cares in both Storrs and Canton. The university owns and operates many smaller clinics around the state that contain UConn Medical Group,UConn Health Partners,University Dentists and research facilities. Andrew Agwunobi stepped down as the CEO of UConn Health in February 2022 after serving since 2014 for a private-sector job. Bruce Liang is UConn Heath's interim CEO and remains dean of the UConn School of Medicine.
Philip E. Austin is an American economist who served as the 13th president of the University of Connecticut from October 1,1996 to September 14,2007. He returned to serve as interim president in May 2010 following the abrupt departure of Michael J. Hogan. Prior to UConn,Austin served as president of Colorado State University (1984–1989) and chancellor of the University of Alabama System (1989–1996).
Michael J. Hogan is an American historian who served as president of the University of Connecticut (2007–2010) and president of the University of Illinois System (2010–2012). He subsequently became a distinguished professor of history at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
John Wallis "Jack" Rowe is an American businessman and academic physician,who served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc.,a large health insurance company based in Connecticut,titles he retired from in February 2006.
edgelab is an applied academic research lab,established in 2000 as a partnership between General Electric and the University of Connecticut.
Kevin Witkos is a Republican member of the Connecticut State Senate,representing the 8th District since 2009. He served as Deputy Senate Republican President Pro Tempore since January 2017 to January 2019. and previously served as Minority Leader Pro Tempore from 2014 to 2016 and Caucus Chairman for Outreach since 2013. Witkos served as the State Representative from the 17th district which includes Canton and part of Avon from 2003 to 2008.
Albert Edward Van Dusen was an American historian who served as Professor of History at the University of Connecticut from 1949 to 1983. He also served in the unpaid honorary position of Connecticut State Historian from 1952 to 1985. His research materials and personal papers are held in the UConn Library's Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
Homer Daniels Babbidge Jr. was an American historian who served as president of the University of Connecticut (1962–1972) and the Hartford Graduate Center (1976–1984). At age 37,he was the youngest state university president in the United States.
Thomas Drummond Ritter is an American lawyer,lobbyist,and retired politician from Connecticut who was the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1993-1998.
Shari Cantor is a Certified Public Accountant and politician from West Hartford,Connecticut. She is the Mayor of West Hartford.
Edwina Maud Whitney was an American librarian and educator who served as one of the earliest librarians at the Connecticut Agricultural College from 1900 to 1934. She also served as a German instructor from 1901 to 1926 and an assistant professor of German from 1926 to 1934.
Albert Nels Jorgensen was an American academic administrator who served as the seventh president of the University of Connecticut (1935–1962). Its longest-serving president and its youngest at age 36 at the time of his appointment,Jorgensen led UConn's transformation from a sleepy,unaccredited agricultural college to a major modern university. UConn came into existence via the renaming of Connecticut State College in 1939. Student enrollment rose from 844 in 1935 to 11,877 in 1962—an increase of over 1400%. Opened in 1955,the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on the university's Storrs campus was named in Jorgensen's honor. The Harriet Jorgensen Theatre is named after his wife.
Edward Victor Gant was an American civil engineering professor and academic administrator who served as provost (1965–1974) and three-time acting president of the University of Connecticut.
Charles Chester McCracken (1882–1957) was an American academic administrator who served as the sixth president of the University of Connecticut (1930–1935). Prior to assuming the presidency at UConn,he taught as a professor of school administration at Ohio State University from 1917 to 1930. President McCracken oversaw the changing of the college's name from Connecticut Agricultural College to Connecticut State College in 1933,following a long campaign by students,faculty,and alumni. During McCracken's tenure,the college shifted toward a more comprehensive liberal arts curriculum,doubling graduate studies and establishing the departments of music,government,philosophy,agricultural engineering,and psychology. The college joined the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the Association of State Universities in 1930 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1931. Enrollment grew and finances improved despite the economic impact of the Great Depression. Despite these accomplishments,McCracken quickly proved unpopular with faculty and lost the trust of the college's trustees and state legislators. He resigned in 1935 to become director of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.
Albert Edmund Waugh was an American economist and long-time academic administrator at the University of Connecticut (UConn) from 1924 to 1965. He served as provost from 1950 to 1965. Waugh's journal,which he kept daily from 1941 to 1974,gave unique insight into the history,academics,and life of the university and was an important primary source for historians such as Bruce M. Stave.
Andrew Chuma Agwunobi is an American physician and administrator. He served as the CEO for UConn Health from 2014 to 2022 and became interim president of the University of Connecticut starting on May 19,2021. He was the first non-white person to serve as UConn president.
Arthur Brough Bronwell was an American professor of electrical engineering who served as president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1955–1962) and dean of the University of Connecticut School of Engineering (1962–1970). A building on UConn's campus was named in his honor.
Radenka Maric is an Bosnian-American engineer and academic who became the 17th president of the University of Connecticut on September 28,2023. She was the first internal candidate to be named president since Harry J. Hartley in 1990 and is the institution’s second female president. She had served as interim president of the University of Connecticut since February 1,2022 and previously served as UConn's vice president for research and innovation.
