Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 84.41
Liaison Patrick McKee
Submission Date March 26, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Connecticut
IC-1: Institutional Boundary

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete N/A Richard Miller
Director
Ofice of Environmental Policy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Institution type: Associate (i.e., short-cycle), Baccalaureate, Doctoral/Research, or Master's:
Doctoral/Research

Institutional control (Public, Private for-profit, or Private non-profit):
Public

A brief description of the institution’s main campus and other aspects of the institutional boundary used to complete this report:

The primary and original UConn campus is in Storrs, a division of the Town of Mansfield, 22 miles (35 km) east of Hartford, Connecticut's capital and bordered by the towns of Coventry, Willington, Windham, and Ashford.

The UConn campus at Storrs is home to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) run by the Department of Dramatic Arts. The theatre complex has three venues, the 486-seat Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, the 241-seat Nafe Katter Theatre, and the 116-seat Studio Theatre. CRT is a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the professional theatre. The Storrs campus also houses the William Benton Museum of Art and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, the only institution in the United States that offers a master's degree in puppetry.

Among the research facilities on campus is the George Safford Torrey Life Sciences Building, one of the primary sites of biology research and education at UConn. Built in 1961, in 1980 the building was named in honor of Torrey, former head of the university's botany department. Torrey, who came to Connecticut Agricultural College in the fall of 1915 to teach botany, became head of the Department of Botany in 1929 and served in that role until 1953. A collection of his papers, including notebooks, correspondence, memoranda, administrative records, reports, photographs, and various types of slides and filmstrips are housed in the Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The Torrey Life Sciences Building houses offices for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, and Biology Central Services.

Because it is situated in a fairly rural area, the UConn campus at Storrs has facilities that allow it to be virtually self-sufficient. All heat on campus is steam, and where possible sidewalks were laid over the underground connectors to keep the snow off. In 2005, a cogeneration plant was activated, which generates most of the electricity for the campus, and uses the exhaust steam for the campus central heating system. The university owns its own public water system and waste water treatment facility. With the support of a growing number of industry leaders based in Connecticut, UConn is at the forefront of developing clean, alternative sources of renewable energy using fuel cell technology. In April 2012, UConn commissioned a fuel cell power plant at its Depot Campus that will supply the campus with clean and efficiency energy, cooling and heating. The installation of a ClearEdge Power, former UTC Power, PureCell System is the latest step by UConn to reduce its carbon footprint and build a sustainable community. The fuel cell installation was made possible through a federal stimulus grant from Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority.

The University of Connecticut Police Department is a fully functional police agency with the same statutory authority as any municipal police department in the State of Connecticut. State and internationally accredited, the department is responsible for protecting lives and property at the University of Connecticut and all adjacent areas within the jurisdiction of the UConn Police Department. This includes the main campus in Storrs and the regional campuses. The UConn Division of Public Safety also includes the UConn Fire Department, and Office of the Fire Marshal and Building Inspectors. The UConn Storrs campus is equipped with a blue-light system which allows students to press an emergency button which will notify the police to come to that location.

UConn 2000 was a public-private partnership to rebuild, renew and enhance the University of Connecticut from 1995 to 2005, funded by the State of Connecticut. UConn 2000 was enacted by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1995 and signed into law by Governor John G. Rowland. The construction projects were overseen by President Philip E. Austin. The legislature renewed the construction investments through 21st Century UConn, the continuation of UConn 2000, which is another billion dollar construction investment by the state to upgrade facilities at the University of Connecticut. It passed the Connecticut General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor Rowland in 2002. By the time of the project's completion, every building on campus will be new or completely renovated. Money has also been put into the regional and satellite campuses, including the new School of Business facilities in downtown Hartford.

Next Generation Connecticut is a multi-faceted $1.5 billion plan to build the state’s economic future through strategic investments in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines (STEM). It passed the Connecticut General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor Dannel Malloy in June 2013. The funds will be used over a 10-year period to hire 250+ new faculty, increase undergraduate enrollment by 6,580 students, and upgrade aging campus infrastructure. Money has also been allocated to build new STEM facilities, construct new STEM teaching laboratories and to create a premier STEM honors college. NextGenCT has funded the construction of student housing and a digital media center at the Stamford campus, the relocation of the Greater Hartford campus back to downtown Hartford, and the addition of the Tech Park at the Storrs Campus, which includes the Innovation Partnership Building (IBP). The IPB is UConn’s premier center for cutting edge research and industry collaboration and innovation.


Which of the following features are present on campus and which are included within the institutional boundary?:
Present? Included?
Agricultural school Yes Yes
Medical school Yes No
Other professional school with labs and clinics (e.g. dental, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary) Yes Yes
Satellite campus Yes Yes
Farm larger than 5 acres or 2 hectares Yes Yes
Agricultural experiment station larger than 5 acres or 2 hectares Yes No
Hospital Yes No

The rationale for excluding any features that are present from the institutional boundary:

We are including the UConn Depot campus, which is the satellite to UConn's main campus in Storrs. However, we are excluding UConn's regional campuses, law school, and Health Center (medical and dental schools), which are located all around the state of Connecticut because they have very different logistics and institutional characteristics than the main campus at Storrs.


Additional documentation to support the submission :
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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