A rewarding 11 years leading UConn

President Austin reflects on his leadership
during a time of change

In all likelihood, this issue of UCONN magazine will be the last before the Board of Trustees names my successor as president of the University.

Photo by Peter Morenus

Thus I would like to take this opportunity to offer some thoughts about UConn’s opportunities and challenges and, more specifically, how our 170,000 alumni can help advance this institution we care so much about.

When I arrived in Storrs in 1996 the University was poised for the major transformation that would very shortly take shape: a strong Board of Trustees was committed to moving us into the front ranks of American public higher education, the first UCONN 2000 projects were well underway and the infrastructure for an exponential expansion of private fund-raising was in place.

The operating budget provided by the state was not as forward-looking as we would have liked (as it almost never is) and, on a more fundamental level, we were still regarded by many as a good, solid “safe school.”

I suspected then, and I know for sure now, that our major task, more important by far than any budgetary, curricular, or construction challenges, was to change that perception. 

University presidents have multiple responsibilities, but the job essentially comes down to this: We create a climate in which talented people — faculty, staff, students and supportive alumni and friends — can do their best work.

The progress UConn has made over the past 11 years has been substantial by any measure. 

To the extent that I made a contribution, it was because UConn had large corps of extraordinary individuals who shared a common commitment to the University’s success.

To those who were here when I arrived, we added many exceptional academic leaders (several lured by endowed chairs and distinguished professorships, funded in large measure by generous alumni) and many more promising junior faculty who saw UConn as the place to build their academic careers.

Slowly at first, and then at a rapidly accelerated pace, we attracted outstanding students, doubling our applications and increasing SAT scores of each year’s entering class. 

We still face challenges, of course, but I can safely say that universally UConn is rightly seen as a University characterized by academic rigor, exciting campus life, physical beauty, and a continuing ambition to be even more than what we are.

The “perception problem” is a thing of the past. 

Everyone associated with UConn can take pride in what has been achieved, including our alumni.

Many of this magazine’s readers were here for at least part of the UCONN 2000 era.

They not only witnessed our transformation but also contributed to it by their participation in planning and, frankly, their good humor in putting up with the inconveniences of the construction required to building a first-class, statewide institution.

Alumni from earlier decades contributed in different ways: financially, of course, and also by continuing advocacy and political support.

Without these efforts, UCONN 2000 would never have come into being or been extended with the $1.3 billion addition approved in 2003.

Just as important, our alumni of all generations held us to a high standard, reminded us of our traditions, and let us know that as we built a University for the 21st century, we were standing on the shoulders of extraordinary students, faculty, and institutional leaders who came before.

As this is written, a search committee led by Dr. John W. Rowe, chairman of the Board of Trustees, is working to select a new president.

Whomever that may be, I know that he or she can count on the support of a wide network of UConn friends, both on and off campus.

Your guidance, advice, and continuing generosity will be even more important in the years to come than it has been in my 11 years.

I know you will join with me in wishing my successor an enjoyable tenure at the University of Connecticut. If the next president enjoys this job as much as I have, he or she will have a very rewarding time here indeed.