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    University of Connecticut
    University of Connecticut
    University of Connecticut
    Ebook192 pages1 hour

    University of Connecticut

    By Mark J. Roy

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    In a 50-room building that housed Connecticut's Civil War orphans, the University of Connecticut began in the fall of 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School. From this beginning comes a rich history of change that continues through the billion-dollar program known as UConn 2000. In these pages are many previously unpublished and many long-unseen images that chronicle 120 years of that transformation. Each era in the university's history has seen growth and change: the 1890s, when faculty and administration squared off in the "the war of the rebellion"; 1908 to 1928, when President Charles L. Beach changed the curriculum and fought for "the needs of the college"; the 27-year administration of Albert N. Jorgensen, which saw a small college become a major research university; the 1960s, when, under Homer Babbidge Jr., the university made great academic advances while facing the sociopolitical challenges of the times; and today, when unprecedented changes are rebuilding and enhancing Connecticut's flagship university.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 10, 2001
    ISBN9781439628096
    University of Connecticut
    Author

    Mark J. Roy

    Author Mark J. Roy, Class of 1974, writes a regular series on the history of the university for the UConn Advance, the weekly faculty and staff newspaper. Drawing on that series, plus the manuscript and photographic collections of the University Archives in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, he takes us through each era in the growth and continuing development of UConn.

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      University of Connecticut - Mark J. Roy

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      INTRODUCTION

      It was at the annual convention of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in December 1880, held in New Haven, that Connecticut’s farmers were officially told of a proposal for a school of agriculture.

      Brothers Augustus and Charles Storrs offered 170 acres of farmland with buildings, and $5,000 to establish the school. Augustus Storrs offered the property and Charles Storrs, who added another $1,000 a few months later, offered the cash. After a study by a three-member legislative committee, the Connecticut General Assembly accepted the gift on April 21, 1881, and established the Storrs Agricultural School.

      The Storrs school opened September 28, 1881, eight days after Pres. James Garfield, the victim of a shooting 11 weeks earlier, died of his wounds. A formal opening of the school was held on October 7 in the Storrs Community Church, attended by Mansfield residents, representatives of farming interests, trustees, and others.

      The school in Storrs was only 12 years old when, on April 21, 1893, the General Assembly changed its named to the Storrs Agricultural College, allowed for the enrollment of women, and made it the beneficiary of the federal Land Grant Act of 1862. Yale University, which had been the land-grant institution, won a damage suit, but the little college retained the federal funding.

      Under its first president, Benjamin F. Koons, the college grew in stature and in enrollment. The student newspaper, the Lookout, began in 1896, and many student organizations and sports teams were organized during the 1890s. The college name changed to Connecticut Agricultural College (CAC) in 1899, just as a faculty revolt known as the War of the Rebellion debated Pres. George Flint’s preference for classical over agricultural education. Flint resigned over the dispute in 1901, but as most of his opponents also had left the college, Pres. Rufus Stimpson was able to make changes that would move the college toward a more classical curriculum.

      Charles L. Beach persistently stressed the needs of the college during his presidency, from 1908 to 1928, and the campus began to go through a transformation, with new facilities that replaced outdated and cramped buildings. During the Beach years, traditions such as the Freshmen Banquet and the Rope Pull formalized class rivalries. Fraternities and sororities began to flourish on campus and, with the curriculum changes of 1911, the college replaced its certificate program with a four-year degree curriculum.

      Having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1931, CAC became Connecticut State College (CSC) in 1933. No longer able to call athletes Aggies, CSC students chose the Husky as the college mascot. An alumni contest selected Jonathan as the mascot’s name.

      The college entered a new era with the appointment of Albert Nels Jorgensen as president in 1935. The General Assembly approved Jorgensen’s plans to improve and expand the college in 1937 and, in 1939, legislators voted to change it to the University of Connecticut (UConn). Trustees approved a reorganization that created schools and colleges out of divisions. The Graduate School and Schools of Nursing and Social Work were established, and the university acquired the Connecticut College of Pharmacy and the Hartford School of Law.

      World War II brought significant change, and UConn became involved in training military officers and worked with Connecticut farmers and employers to provide additional support for war production. When the war ended, UConn saw its student population explode with the influx of former GIs. Temporary housing was constructed in Storrs, and regional campus programs were offered in Hartford, Waterbury, and at Fort Trumbull in New London. Expansion and changes in the curriculum complemented a major construction program in Storrs. Doctoral degrees were first awarded in 1949, and the University Scholars program was launched in 1952 to recognize the academic accomplishments of undergraduates.

      Further evidence of the rapid growth in the 1950s was the establishment of new regional campuses in Stamford in 1951, Torrington in 1957, and Avery Point in 1967.

      Changes in American society––protest movements over the struggle for civil rights and opposition to the growing military presence in Vietnam––came to campus at nearly the same time as a new president, Homer D. Babbidge Jr. Research programs were expanded and new research centers and institutes began to join continuing programs of the university. A health center and schools of medicine and dental medicine were also established. After protest and dialogue, the university created an urban semester program, a women’s center, and cultural centers for students of African, Puerto Rican, and Latin American descent.

      The 1970s and 1980s were years of retrenchment for the University of Connecticut as it faced a still increasing student population while state funding became static. The first graduates of the medical and dental schools received their degrees in 1972, and two years later, the John N. Dempsey Hospital opened at the campus in Farmington. The University celebrated its centennial in 1981 and, in 1991, the 100th anniversary of the enrollment of women was observed. Along with these celebrations, a cultural center for Asian-American students was established in the 1990s.

      Another milestone occurred in 1995 with passage by the General Assembly of the program known as UConn 2000. The 10-year, $1 billion program to rebuild and enhance the university infrastructure was enacted, as UConn spirit soared over the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championship of the women’s basketball team. In the same year, Pres. Bill Clinton dedicated the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, launching a yearlong examination of human rights issues, called 50 Years after Nuremberg: Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

      A new South Campus residence hall complex in 1998 and a state-of-the-art chemistry building in 1999 were the first completed projects under UConn 2000. At the dawn of the new millennium, the university could take pride in its renewed infrastructure, renewed emphasis on undergraduate education and key research areas, as well as NCAA basketball titles for men in 1999 and women in 2000.

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      IT BEGAN WITH A GIFT: THE FOUNDING

      The agricultural school that opened in 1881 was started in a 50-room building that had once been an orphanage. The yellow four-story building was known as Whitney Hall for Edwin Whitney of Stafford. Whitney had been persuaded by Charles Storrs to move to Mansfield in 1861 and to start a school for boys. After fire destroyed the school in 1865, Whitney began rebuilding. At the same time, the General Assembly chartered an orphanage to be built in Cornwall. The new school building in Mansfield was nearly complete, and Whitney offered it as the Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphans Home. The state accepted, and the orphanage opened in October of 1866.

      Whitney died on August 26, 1867, leaving a pregnant widow and a one-year-old daughter

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