Welcome from the Director
It is indeed a pleasure and a privilege to introduce you to Urban and Community Studies Program at the University of Connecticut. Urban and Community Studies (UCS) is a dynamic program which engages undergraduate students and faculty in the study and improvement of our cities and communities. With the fall of 2009 we’re beginning our ninth year, though Urban Studies has a long history at UCONN. It started in 1974 and reached its heyday a decade later. Now the program is taking off again, due to changes in the major. First, the program was expanded to include the three regional sites (at Greater Hartford, Waterbury, and Torrington) as well as Storrs. Second, we renamed the program Urban and Community Studies in order to reflect a dual emphasis on cities and communities. Now we’re more in tune not only with student and faculty interests but also contemporary needs and concerns. Third, we revised the curriculum to make it fit better the needs of students and the expertise of faculty.
I am proud to report that over the years we have created at the Greater Hartford, Storrs and Waterbury sites, and to a lesser extent at the Torrington campus, an attractive and practical, student-centered, interdisciplinary B.A. program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Because we are meeting a need at both the Regional Campuses and Storrs of students interested in a liberal arts education focused on urban issues and social change, and of students interested in careers in public and community service, we have grown remarkably, both in numbers of student majoring in UCS and the number of students enrolled in our classes. We have also begun to establish a presence in the communities we serve as a new and dynamic representative of the University of Connecticut. Alumni of our program have gone on to careers or graduate school in social work, law, business, and education. Our goal is to become the center for UConn education and initiatives on urban issues and a critical site for UConn initiatives in civic engagement. We are excited by the potential of UCS—what it has to offer students and faculty as well as the communities we serve - and we welcome your interest in our program.