The University of Connecticut’s Stamford campus has admitted almost 1,000 first-year students this year and roughly 100 transfer students, making it their largest undergraduate enrollment ever.
To accommodate the influx of students, Stamford has added new classes and housing. According to Campus Dean and Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Orlikoff, the additional classes are mainly general education requirements such as math and English to allow for more first-year students to fulfill these requirements.
In terms of housing, Stamford added a short-term lease of units at Harbor Point, obtained more units at Prospect Avenue and leased a newly constructed building with seven townhouse units that will house 44 students. Orlikoff said that housing on campus increased by 30% with these new additions, increasing from 480 beds to 677.
Stamford held a breakfast for first-generation students, who make up about half of UConn Stamford students, according to a UConn Today article. Erica Granoff, the director of Student Services at Stamford, put together the committee to organize the breakfast. According to Orlikoff, it was designed to help first-generation students navigate a process that can be very intimidating when it is unfamiliar.
“It was an opportunity to recognize their successes to get here, their accomplishments and to make sure they understood that they were partnered with us on this journey, that they weren’t doing this on their own, that we’ve got lots of resources for them,” Orlikoff said.
The breakfast connected first-generation students with one another and informed them of campus resources, according to Orlikoff.
“We have academic support resources, but also personal resources, and we just wanted to make sure they felt connected with each other and that they knew that they had people to call on if they had any questions or concerns or confusion about things,” she said.
The campus held a convocation that hosted guest speakers such as Caroline Simmons, Stamford’s mayor, who spoke about what it meant to be a college student in Stamford. Other speakers included the president of Stamford’s student government, Karima Hamada, who discussed making friends during their freshman year, and local artist Weverson Ponte, who created original art for the campus that involved affirmations and positive thoughts that Stamford students suggested in the spring of 2024.
The convocation also included a ceremony where students received tea lights from faculty representing each of the different colleges on campus. Orlikoff said that “the transition ceremony was really special” for the students, as it represented the potential paths students could take during their time at Stamford.
Orlikoff said the increase in students is a “great success” for UConn Stamford as a regional campus.
“I think it’s a great marker of this transition in the concept of the regional campuses,” Orlikoff said. “We’re all working very hard at becoming destination campuses, and we want students to choose to come to our campus.”
Orlikoff said she was confident that students who enthusiastically chose to attend UConn Stamford will “persist to graduation because it’s where they wanted to be.” She also said that the first week was a very positive indication for the large new class on campus.
“This week was just an exciting, invigorating, exhilarating week on campus with so many people. It was great,” Orlikoff said. “The energy was really high, so it’s a good time to be a UConn Stamford Husky.”