To the UConn Community:
As the semester draws to a close, students take their final exams, and we prepare to honor and celebrate the Class of 2024 during Commencement, we not only look forward to a bright future for our students, graduates, and our university, we also reflect on some of our points of pride from of the 2023 – 2024 academic year.
Each highlights UConn’s strength as a vibrant, evolving, forward-thinking place of learning as well as our enormously talented and hard-working students, faculty, and staff:
- UConn received its largest-ever philanthropic gift: $40 million for our School of Nursing combined with $30 million in support from the State of Connecticut, which will help transform the profession through “scholarships and programmatic support for a dynamic nursing education that includes patient-centered practice, interdisciplinary research, and technology-based innovations.” It will also support the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility for the school.
- UConn was recognized as among the national leaders in the Fulbright U.S. student program with 10 students named to the program during this academic year, a record for us. Since 1952, a total of 143 UConn students have received awards to 53 different countries.
- We were once again recognized by the Princeton Review as one of the greenest universities in the nation, at #21, reflecting our ongoing commitment to sustainability both today and in the years ahead.
- The university received well over 50,000 applications for the fall 2024 semester from prospective students – the most ever. This unprecedented interest in attending UConn reflects our exceptional reputation, the world-class education our faculty provide our students, and the vibrancy of student life on each of our campuses statewide.
- Graduate education at UConn soared in new national rankings across a range of disciplines and specialties.
- Ten UConn students earned prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.
- Our thriving academic medical center, UConn Health and its John Dempsey Hospital, earned numerous accolades, including an ‘A’ rating for patient safety excellence. It was also recognized as one of America’s Best-In-State Hospitals and as one of the World’s Best Hospitals.
- Finally, I doubt anyone has forgotten our men’s basketball team winning its first back-to-back championship, or our women’s team successfully making it to a record 23rd Final Four appearance. We remain incredibly proud of our outstanding student-athletes and coaches! Thanks to all of you for cheering them on.
These are just a handful of the positive highlights that helped define our year. We look forward to a great summer and to the fall semester.
Like many institutions across the nation, we have faced our fair share of challenges this year as well, most especially revolving around the issues and events that members of our community feel most passionate about and in which they feel the most invested. We are reminded again and again of the necessity of treating others with respect and compassion and the importance of trying to learn from one another to better promote understanding, reflecting our common humanity. We must always be a place of open, civil discourse that reflects the best in all of us.
Our goal is to continue to thrive as a world-class research university with a distinctive commitment to teaching, clinical service, innovation, and entrepreneurship for our undergraduate and graduate students. We will consistently work to ensure the development of skills in those areas as well as in creativity, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence to help prepare them for the next chapter of their lives as responsible world citizens.
Once again, please join me in congratulating all those who will earn their UConn degrees in the coming days and weeks!
President Radenka Maric
