Looking back, toward the future

It seems that this is the season for anniversaries.

This fall, a series of events brings our 125th anniversary year to a close, and it has been gratifying to see students, faculty, staff and particularly alumni focus their thoughts on UConn’s inspiring past.

The cover of the fall 1996 edition of Traditions introduces Philip E. Austin as UConn’s 13th president.

The words engraved on the National Archives in Washington, D.C., tell us that “the past is prologue.”

Clearly, for our own University, our history gives us great reason to believe that there are greater things to come.

On a more personal level, on the first of October, I marked my tenth anniversary as president of the University.

I came to Storrs in 1996 convinced that no public university in the country offered a more exciting set of opportunities than did UConn.

A farsighted Board of Trustees had already committed the University to the goal of becoming an example of public higher education at its best.

The state of Connecticut had approved a billion-dollar construction program that promised to help translate that goal into reality. An excellent faculty was already here.

Private fund-raising was moving into high gear, and our women’s basketball team had brought home a national championship.

It was clear to me that very soon the sense of excitement would spread out across Connecticut and beyond.

Over the past decade, I have had the satisfaction of seeing every one of our important hopes fulfilled.

The pages of this issue of Traditions offer multiple examples of outstanding achievements in research, community service and instruction.

As always, the editors had to choose from among hundreds of possible story ideas to present a representative sample, so the list is far from complete.

But the list tells an important story nonetheless.

An equally important story came this fall, as in falls past, with the entry of several thousand new freshmen to the UConn community.

Ten years ago, about 10,000 young men and women applied to come here.

This year, nearly 20,000 applicants sought 3,200 places at Storrs and another 1,200 vied for the regional campuses.

By the start of the term, we had our student body, with an average freshman SAT score of 1195 (up from 1113 10 years ago), 98 valedictorians or salutatorians (up from 42 in 1996), and 19 percent from minority backgrounds (up from 14 percent in 1996).

Private support has pushed our endowment above $300 million, and for the last two years, the UConn Foundation has reported more than $50 million in contributions.

Our academic reputation has never been stronger, and we now boast 78 faculty on endowed chairs.

Credit for these achievements belongs to Connecticut’s elected leaders and to all segments of the University community: a deeply engaged Board of Trustees; faculty, who are at the heart of any institution of higher learning; students, whose engagement and enthusiasm propels the institution; a dedicated, engaged staff; generous donors; and, of course, a large and growing number of actively engaged alumni.

Through Traditions and in other ways, we seek to keep you closely connected to the University’s present and future, knowing that you are a vital part of a history that laid the groundwork for the strides of the recent past.

Whether we talk of 125 years or just 10, past is, indeed, prologue.

What came before is indeed notable. I believe that what lies ahead is nothing short of extraordinary.