Serving as UConn\u2019s president from 1962 to 1972, Homer Babbidge \u2013 who lends his name to the University\u2019s main library building in Storrs \u2013 was among the most transformative leaders in the institution\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Under Babbidge, the size of the faculty doubled, the number of volumes in the library went from 400,000 to over 1 million, the University opened a campus at Avery Point, more than a dozen new academic departments and programs were created, and the Honors Program, UConn Foundation, and Benton Museum of Art were all established.<\/p>\n
Popular with students \u2013 his birthday was informally celebrated on campus every year as \u201cHomer Babbidge Day\u201d \u2013 he presided over the University during the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when protests and building occupations became regular features of campus life. He also fought a losing battle against the establishment of tuition, which was sought by state politicians critical of the campus protests.<\/p>\n
After stepping down in 1972, he returned to Yale University as Master of Timothy Dwight College, a post he had occupied before coming to UConn.<\/p>\n
In this excerpt from the May 30 episode of the UConn360 podcast, Tom Breen ’00, Julie Bartucca ’10, and Ken Best look back on Babbidge\u2019s time at UConn and the legacy he left.<\/p>\n