Ten years ago UConn alumni advocates and supporters had a vision to rejuvenate the University. This is the story of how their actions helped propel UConn into the top ranks of public higher education.

The sky on the afternoon of Thursday, June 22, 1995 was dark and overcast, not the kind of day for a celebration. The Homer Babbidge Library, wrapped in scaffolding and plastic, loomed large behind a table where a crowd began to form, looking more like a forbidden zone than a welcoming center of scholarship. The library had become a symbol of the neglect of the University of Connecticut.

But later as a crowd of UConn students, faculty and administrators gathered for the scheduled festivities, the sun broke through the clouds. Gov. John G. Rowland sat down at the table, surrounded by UConn President Harry J. Hartley, House Speaker Thomas Ritter ’73 J.D., House Minority Leader Robert Ward ’74 (CLAS), Senate Deputy Minority Leader Kevin B. Sullivan’82 J.D., Rep. Denise Merrill ’88 (BGS) of Mansfield and other legislators.

“We have a first-class university at the University of Connecticut, and it’s about time that state government recognizes that,” the governor said before picking up a pen and signing the authorization for UCONN 2000 — a $1 billion plan to rebuild the crumbling University of Connecticut infrastructure and transform it into a world-class center of learning and scholarship.

“We have committed the resources to bring the University of Connecticut into the 21st Century,” Ritter told the crowd. “We’ll all be watching to see how you handle this project. Let’s come back in 10 years and see it all done.”

Today, a decade later, the work started by UCONN 2000 and the dramatic changes throughout the University of Connecticut are plainly visible — from the state-of-the-art classroom and research facilities to the variety of housing options offered to students and the national reputation enjoyed by UConn as the top public university in New England and among the top public institutions of higher learning in the United States. And now with 21st Century UConn—a $1.3 billion, 11-year continuation of the landmark building program—the University will continue for another decade to build on the success of UCONN 2000 as it attracts top students and faculty to its campuses.

But in 1994, all of this was not much more than a dream for UConn, which had seen its financial support from the General Assembly dwindle for many years. Since 1984, state bond authorizations and facility projects for the University had declined to less than 2 percent of all state bonding. The state’s allocation as a percentage of the UConn operating budget had dropped from 50 percent in 1991 to 43 percent in 1995. Since 1989, tuition had increased by about 129 percent. The last major expansion of UConn’s main campus facilities had occurred in the 1950s, as G.I.s flocked to college campuses after returning home from World War II. The buildings were built quickly and poorly, and the University lacked the funding to adequately maintain them.

As the 20th century drew to a close, the campus was literally falling apart as the state of Connecticut faced a major budget crisis. Former U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker, who won election as governor as an independent candidate and battled the state’s financial crisis by introducing the state income tax, had proposed in 1991 to cut $18 million from the UConn budget.

Alumni, students and the unions representing UConn faculty and staff worked together to restore the proposed cut by mounting a campaign of letters and phone calls directed at legislators.

“We did these mailings and the reaction was instantaneous,” recalls Jonathan Pelto ’84 (CLAS), who at the time was a state representative. “Legislators were bombarded by letters and phone calls, saying put the money back in. And all the money was put back.”

Senate finance committee chair William Nickerson, center, talks with UConn’s Scott Brohinsky ’76 J.D., second from right, during the General Assembly debate over UCONN 2000 legislation in early 1995.

The response from friends of the University in restoring the operating budget provided legislators with a new sense of UConn’s importance to voters as the state’s symbol of public higher education. It was the second time UConn had achieved an important victory in Hartford. UConn had earlier pursued another critical objective—the independent responsibility to manage its own budget, which reduced the lengthy processes of hiring personnel, purchasing equipment and developing construction projects.

Those two legislative successes set down the foundation and strategic guidance for the effort to build support for UCONN 2000. Over the next two years, several independent events unfolded that would come together in early 1995 to make it possible for UCONN 2000 to become a reality.

In 1993, Ritter, a Democrat, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, placing a UConn alumnus in one of the top legislative positions in the General Assembly. Another alumnus, Ward, a Republican, was elected deputy minority leader and in 1995 he would become minority leader. Sullivan, a Democrat, was the deputy minority leader in the Senate. Their efforts in building bipartisan support for UConn would be critical in helping legislators to recognize the importance of building a first-rate flagship university as a key element to improving the state’s lagging economy.

Early in 1993 the University also began work on a long-range strategic plan that would address its academic and capital requirements for the new century. UConn officials were confident that such a plan would improve academic quality and University facilities and provide the impetus to reverse Connecticut’s “brain drain” as the state’s best and brightest sought their education elsewhere. From 1991 to late 1994, UConn’s undergraduate enrollment had dropped by more than 3,400 students. A Hartford Courant editorial published in September of 1994 said, “The infusion of dollars to repair the damage of neglect and bring UConn up to par is essential if it is to attract top scholars and remain competitive with other schools.”

The final blueprint for infrastructure repair would be far-reaching, touching every part of the University. The strategic plan was scheduled to be ready in early 1995. As work on that plan progressed through 1994, the cost of the capital needs proposal totaled nearly $2 billion. Hartley, who had worked to improve UConn’s standing with legislators over the past four years, was concerned about gaining wide support for such an unprecedented proposal.

“I lagged behind my staff when I heard a price tag of $2 billion,” Hartley said. “It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in our concept ... [however] I believed my staff had gotten away from what would be politically feasible.”

During the summer of 1994, Scott Brohinksy ’76 J.D., UConn’s director of government relations and the former legislative liaison for the state Department of Education, had met with House Speaker Ritter, who indicated he would be willing to support a “significant” project for UConn in the 1995 legislative session. Their discussion moved toward a long-term plan to renew the University’s crumbling infrastructure, the most visible symptom of the need for urgent action and a major factor in the recruitment of top scholars and students. For the rest of the summer and early fall, Ritter’s staff and UConn representatives began weekly meetings to develop an agreement on the scope of a plan to create a strategy to gain legislative support for what was then called Project Hope.

The gubernatorial race in November 1994 ended with the election of Rowland, a Republican, who was the only candidate to visit UConn during the campaign, when he met with Hartley.

“During our private conversation, we focused on how UConn could be a partner to the state in economic recovery and also how UConn needed more money from the state to be an effective partner in job creation and job retention,” Hartley recalled about his pre-election meeting with Rowland.“We did a walking tour of the campus. He realized that my request for better facilities was based on real needs.”

Responding to candidate questions published in the University’s faculty-staff newspaper, Rowland proclaimed his support to provide help for UConn. “There is no excuse for the state’s flagship university to have a library that is falling apart. The condition of some other buildings at the university constitutes a disgrace,” he said. “We need to develop a reasonable capital facilities budget that will be implemented.”

The week after the 1994 election, a group of more than a dozen UConn alumni and supporters met at the Hartford Club. Among those who attended were Lewis B. Rome ’54 (CLAS), chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees; Patrick Sheehan ’67 (CLAS), — chair of the UConn Foundation —who had high visibility as a television news anchor; businessman Roger Gelfenbein ’65 (BUS), vice chair of the UConn Foundation; and Pelto, who had since left the legislature. The group’s objective was “to address ideas for defining a long-range strategy for funding the capital and operating needs for the University.”

“The plan must be radical enough to get attention, yet realistic enough to get support,” Pelto told the Hartford Club group before unveiling a draft of a strategy that would build on the grass roots initiative that proved successful in restoring the UConn budget in 1991. UConn alumni, friends, faculty and staff would be asked to join together to support the plan to transform the University.

The document outlining the strategic plan for rebuilding UConn, with copies of brochures that were mailed to alumni as part of the effort to gain support for UCONN 2000.

By late January of 1995, plans to publicly announce UCONN 2000 — formerly Project Hope — were being finalized just as the legislative session was beginning. In a fortuitous coincidence of timing, both the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams were ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time ever, igniting Huskymania and enthusiasm for UConn across Connecticut.

Hartley led a delegation of UConn supporters to the Capitol in Hartford on Jan. 30 to formally announce the plans. At a news conference, Hartley shared the podium with legislators and announced their support for the proposal to help UConn. The group included Senate President Pro Tempore M. Adela Eads, a Republican, and many UConn alumni legislators, among them Ward and Ritter. The group held similar sessions in Storrs and the UConn campuses in Stamford and Avery Point. The plan called for $1.75 billion over 10 years to rebuild the UConn infrastructure.

“I’m ready to work to make UCONN 2000 a reality,” Ward told reporters during the Capitol news conference. “We’re telling high school students all the time: If you work hard, you’ll get ahead. But there’s another part of the puzzle—we should be able to tell them: If you work hard, we have in this state a top-notch university waiting for you.”

Ritter recalled later that he wanted to make the 1995 legislative session “the year of UConn.”

“We agreed that we wanted to try and get some kind of bipartisan press conferences in the beginning of the session so at least some people in the Capitol building would begin to take the initiative seriously,” he said. “Bob Ward really deserves a lot of the credit for this ... He had just been elected minority leader ... He had a Republican governor he needed to consider, but he really spoke positively about the UConn project ... That press conference got us a lot of mileage.”

Over the next 12 weeks of the 1995 legislative session, UConn supporters in the Capitol worked to guide the UCONN 2000 proposal through the General Assembly. Opposition to the plan was voiced, but there was no overwhelming cry against it.

“There was no organized opposition from the private colleges and universities or from Connecticut State University,” Ward said. “Some people suggest that the high profile that the University had in athletics (turned the tide). I am sure with some members that probably helped. I think it was more that people saw what was on campus and realized the deteriorating state of a number of buildings.”

As the work continued in the committee rooms and halls of the Capitol, the effort to demonstrate grass-roots support for UConn moved into high gear. Alumni and parents of students were mailed brochures with photos of the crumbling facilities with a message to help provide Connecticut’s children with the promise of a quality education in the future. A return postcard that could be sent to legislators was included. Television ads were also developed and broadcast statewide.

Many alumni chose to write personal letters to their legislators, including Claire Ellen Egan ’85 (ED), who wrote to State Rep. Lawrence F. Cafero Jr.’79 (CLAS) of Norwalk on behalf of her infant daughter, Cara Ann Egan, whose photo was included: “My grandpa [Ralph Viola ’53 (ED)] went to UCONN ... My mommy went to UCONN. Please let me be able to go to UCONN too! Support UCONN 2000 and let a family tradition live on.”

The tally board in the Senate chambers announces the voting for the proposed UCONN 2000 legislation on June 3, 1995, the next to last day of the legislative session.

More than 9,100 postcards and letters were delivered to members of the General Assembly. Legislators could not recall any other issue that generated such an overwhelming appeal for support from throughout the state. At the same time, alumni legislators from both sides of the political aisle met together and signed onto a letter from Ritter asking for broad-based support. Soon UConn alumni from throughout the state were invited to meet with their state representatives and hear about UCONN 2000.

“The reason alumni were so important is because the plan called for using that person’s strength not only as an alumnus but in their own particular world,” Pelto said. “All of the cards were written and distributed to constituents who happened to be alumni, not alumni who happened to be constituents.”

Another element that was considered crucial was to enhance the University’s ability to raise private funds through an endowment program that would include state matching funds. The endowment was a $20 million program separated from the direct state funding of the building plan.

Rowland, who had not yet announced his support for UCONN 2000, decided to do so on Husky Day, the annual celebration of UConn in Hartford, when members of the UConn basketball teams visit the state Capitol. The date was set for April 26, three weeks after the UConn women’s basketball team had won the NCAA championship for the first time by beating Tennessee and the men’s team had narrowly missed going to the Final Four in a loss to UCLA.

The governor was hoping to keep the entire UConn plan to $1 billion, which meant the critical endowment fund would be eliminated. Ritter was pressing to keep the endowment program. Weeks of wrangling over the issue had passed, and now Husky Day had arrived without a compromise. Ritter had told the governor he would not attend the scheduled press conference without Rowland’s support for the endowment fund.

Husky Day was on a Wednesday, the day of a regularly scheduled weekly meeting between the governor and legislative leaders. Shortly after 9 a.m., Ritter met privately with Rowland, who had received a message earlier the same day from Hartley urging him to resolve the issue.

“John and I were in the room. The position I had was that I wanted $1 billion to go to UConn, not including debt service and the $20 million endowment,” Ritter said. “He said he did not want anything over $1 billion. So we agreed—that we would make the endowment $20 million but the construction and everything else $980 million. It was typical of the way the governor and I could compromise.”

Standing in the legislative meeting hall later, Hartley addressed the politicians and praised the governor’s support for the proposal, concluding his comments by saying: “I’ve been at UConn for 23 years ... I can’t think of a more historic day in the history of UConn.”

The UCONN Advance, the faculty and staff newspaper, announces the General Assembly’s approval for UCONN 2000.

On May 10, the House approved UCONN 2000 overwhelmingly by a vote of 138-10. On June 3, the next to last day of the 1995 legislative session, the Senate voted 35-0 for UConn. Some noticed that the Senate vote matched the unbeaten record of UConn’s championship women’s basketball team.

Ten years later, Brohinsky is one of the few remaining senior administrators working on the UConn campus who participated in the UCONN 2000 effort. As he makes his way around the campus for meetings and events, he passes by the tangible results of what some characterized as“a naive dream,” even as the sights and sounds of 21st Century UConn construction move ahead. And visitors to his office may notice that on the corner wall adjacent to his desk hang photos from the 1995 governor’s signing ceremony.

“There was a great sense of excitement and accomplishment that day—a level of enthusiasm that had no previous history at the University,” he recalled. “There was also a pervasive sense of optimism that it was a new day for UConn. Looking back today a decade later, the entire University community — especially its alumni — can take pride in what they helped to accomplish. Today we are continuing to build together on what they made possible through UCONN 2000.”

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