In This Section:
Health Center receives largest gift
Rell makes first visit to Storrs as governor
UConn's growing reputation
Serving up campus food service
Trustees approve proposal for 150 new faculty
Huskies well represented in Olympic Games
Campus construction update
Ooh, that smell!
UConn's third national title in 2004

Neag donation establishes UConn Comprehensive Cancer Center

Two long-time University donors have made the largest gift ever to the UConn Health Center. The $10 million gift will be used to establish the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Carole and I have long been impressed by the phenomenal care and groundbreaking research taking place at the UConn Health Center,” says Ray Neag ’56 (CLAS). “We’ve seen first hand the advances that are occurring daily within the cancer center and understand the tremendous implications for those whose lives are affected by this disease.”

The gift to the UConn Health Center will support the recruitment of clinical and research faculty for the cancer center and will help improve research and clinical space, purchase new equipment and fund program expansion.

The Neags say their latest investment in UConn was given because of the transformational impact their previous gifts made. In 1999, UConn received $23 million, including $21 million to the School of Education, which was renamed the Neag School of Education, and $2 million to the Health Center to establish the Ray Neag Distinguished Chair in Vascular Biology. The $23 million is the largest gift by an individual ever given to a public university in New England.

Neag says he and his wife hope their latest gift will contribute toward finding a cure for cancer in their lifetimes.

“Ray and Carole Neag share with us the vision of what private support can mean to a great public university,” says University President Philip E. Austin.“Their generosity speaks for itself. Our role as a center of research, teaching and public service, already enhanced by prior support from the Neags, will now be strengthened further. It is impossible to overstate the value to the University of Ray and Carole’s commitment to our institution.”

Gov. M. Jodi Rell made her first visit to the Storrs campus as Connecticut’s top official when she delivered the Myles Martel Lecture in Leadership and Public Opinion on Oct. 14. She was welcomed to campus by Myles Martel ’65 (CLAS), the political communications consultant who established the lecture series in 2002.

Photo: Peter Morenus

U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges 2005 places UConn among the finest public universities in the nation.

UConn’s reputation among the nation’s top public universities continues to grow, with an increasing number of high-achieving students from across the United States seeking undergraduate admission and improved rankings for UConn’s professional programs.

Applications for this fall’s freshman class totaled 18,465, nearly twice as many compared with 10 years ago, even as the University is more selective in admitting students. This year a third of new freshmen ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and 250 freshmen admitted to the Honors Program had SAT scores averaging 1382.

U.S. News & World Report moved the School of Business up 21 places, to 55, and listed the Neag School of Education at 31st in the ranks of the nation’s top individual schools and colleges.

The UConn School of Law’s Class of 2004 performed well during the July bar examination, with a 94 percent first-time pass rate, which topped results by graduates of Connecticut’s two other law schools, Yale (92 percent) and Quinnipiac (76 percent).

UConn’s innovative approach to providing a diverse range of dining options for students was recognized in June when Food Management magazine, the institutional food service industry’s leading publication, published its five-page cover story about UConn's campus food service. The story details the improvement of food services that has matched the University’s overall transformation.

The magazine’s coverage included descriptions of the new marketplace-style dining halls, the gourmet coffee shops located in academic and administrative buildings around the campus and the Towers Nosh kosher food service.

The cover photo featured Gerald Weller, director of dining services, and Dennis Pierce, associate director of dining services, in the Towers Dining Hall.

The UConn Board of Trustees has endorsed a proposal that would result in the hiring of 150 new professors within the next five years. New faculty are essential for UConn to enhance academic quality, offer additional class sections, reduce student/faculty ratios and expand its research capabilities, says Fred Maryanski, interim provost.

The proposal follows the University’s academic plan, emphasizing science and technology programs, where half of the new faculty would be assigned, Maryanski, says. These fields will directly support the state’s economic and workforce development priorities. Another 57 professors are proposed for the fields of health and human services, and 17 are for the arts and humanities. All five regional campuses would add positions.

Thirty new professors would be added annually for five years, starting in September 2005, allowing more students greater access to required classes and helping students graduate on schedule. Additional faculty would also lower the student/faculty ratio to as low as 15 to 1.

“The proposal is designed to focus us very intensely on the future,” says Lenworth Jacobs, chairman of the academic advisory committee of the board of trustees. “We are here to serve our students and to hire the best faculty we can attract to serve those students. This proposal keeps us on track.”

Nine current or former UConn student athletes participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, with four basketball medalists returning home.

Photo: AP/Worldwide

Geno’s Golden Girls: Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and Sue Bird show off their gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

A reunion of three Huskies from the 2002 NCAA women’s championship team — Diana Taurasi ’05 (CLAS), Sue Bird ’02 (CLAS) and Swin Cash ’02 (CLAS)—helped Team USA win a gold medal, and Emeka Okafor ’04 (BUS) was a member of the USA men’s bronze medal team.

Cash, a leader of the 2003 WNBA champion Detroit Shock, became the first UConn student athlete to complete basketball’s triple slam by winning an NCAA title, a professional championship and an Olympic gold medal. Even more impressive, she achieved the trifecta in successive years from 2002-2004. Bird quickly joined her former UConn and Olympic teammate when she returned from Athens to lead the Seattle Storm to the 2004 WNBA championship.

UConn student Rashidat Sadiq ’06 was a member of Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, and swimmer Abed Kaaki ’08 represented Lebanon’s men’s swimming team.

Two former Huskies represented the host team, Greece. Relief pitcher Peter Soteropoulos ’03 (BUS), currently in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, was a member of the baseball team, and goalie Maria Yatrakis ’02 (CLAS) was a goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team. UConn track and field All-American Dudley Dorival ’97 (CLAS) represented Haiti in the high hurdles.

The University’s master plan continues to be refined as construction projects are completed and buildings open (see photos), while projects for 21st Century UConn — the $1.3 billion program to continue the transformation of the University and its campuses — begin to draw closer to reality.

Two long-time classroom buildings will be razed and rebuilt. The Arjona Humanities Building and the Monteith Social Sciences Building will be rebuilt near their current sites.

Plans are underway to replace the existing Torrey Life Sciences Building with a new facility. Parking on the main campus in Storrs will be improved with plans for construction of a new parking garage on the South Campus.

Work continues on the new Pharmacy-Biology building, the next phase of the Student Union, and the Medical Arts and Musculoskeletal Institute at the UConn Health Center. Ceremonial groundbreakings for The Burton Family Football Complex and The Mark R. Shenkman Training Center (above right) took place this fall.

Photo: Peter Morenus	Students start on their popcorn before enjoying a movie inside the new Student Union movie theater.
Right: The new 20,000 square-foot wing of the Charles B. Gentry Building adds wireless technology, new classrooms and offices to the home of the Neag School of Education.	Photo: Dollie Harvey
Photo: Melissa Arbo	The pathway to classes is as easy as strolling down the recently completed section of the Academic Way, which stretches from South Campus to the core of the campus.
The Mark R. Shenkman Training Center, an 85,000 square-foot intercollegiate, intramural and recreational center that will serve the entire University community will be named for Mark R. Shenkman ’65 (CLAS), a member of the UConn School of Business Hall of Fame whose $2.5 million gift will help build the facility. The Mark R. Shenkman Training Center will be used for student recreation and intramural activities and provide the UConn football team with the most technologically advanced training equipment. The facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2006.	Photo: Bob Weber
Photo: Jerry Goodstein	The Nafe Katter Theatre at the School of Fine Arts, shown during a dress rehearsal for Julius Ceasar, features a thrust stage design.

Jeff Kern of Mansfield holds up his son, Martin, to let him smell the corpse flower in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Greenhouse.

Over the course of nearly a month, more than 22,100 visitors stood on line at UConn’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Conservatory, and another two million jumped online to the department’s Web site to await a botanical phenomenon: the blooming of the titan arum, or corpse flower, and its mighty stench. The event finally occurred on July 6—the first time a corpse flower has opened in the Northeast since the 1930s and the first time ever in New England.

Gardeners, botanists and curiosity seekers from throughout the United States arrived in Storrs to see the handiwork of Clint Morse, UConn’s plant growth facilities manager and the researcher who obtained and planted the corpse flower 10 years ago from a seed the size of a lima bean. The UConn corpse flower grew to about 5 feet tall and the plant’s bloom, or spathe, opened for a day to produce the foul odor that is universally described as being powerful and revolting, with a smell akin to old socks, dead fish and rotten vegetables.

Photo: Bob Weber

Jennifer Rego '05 (CANR) performing atop UC Buckingham during the National Vaulting Championships in Lexington, Va.

UConn’s third national championship of the year was captured in July when the vaulting team earned first place in the 2004 National Vaulting Championships in Lexington, Va. Vaulting is a competition featuring gymnastics performed on the back of a moving horse. UConn took the top honors for Preliminary 2-Phase Team, one of two levels in the national competition. Leading UConn to first place in three team competitions were Stephanie Harris ’04 (CANR), Jae-Lyn Hecht ’07 (CANR) and Jennifer Rego ’05 (CANR). Harris also had top 10 finishes in three individual events.

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