The University of Connecticut is the only unit in the State's system of public higher education authorized by the Constitution of the State of Connecticut to offer the Ph.D. degree. Graduate education and research have been designated as its primary missions. The main campus of the University of Connecticut at Storrs is located in a rural area which, besides the University, contains mostly individual residences and small scale agriculture and retail commerce that addresses the needs of the local community. Much of the land in surrounding Eastern Connecticut is undeveloped and richly forested. Hiking trails through undeveloped forested land pass near and over University property, and public nature preserves are within a few minutes drive from campus. Interstate highways connect Storrs with Hartford (25 miles), New Haven (70 miles), Boston (90 miles) and New York (130 miles). But, in spite of its proximity to major urban centers, Storrs is in a pocket of relatively low population density. Students either live in University dormitories, in nearby low-rise garden-type apartments, or in lodgings they rent in surrounding communities. The University maintains a variety of comfortable residential facilities specifically designated for graduate student. Graduate students with families generally prefer off-campus housing near campus. Information about off-campus housing can be obtained by writing to
The Department of Residential LifeInformation about housing is available on the Residential Life website at
Wilbur Cross Building, Room 107, Unit 4022
233 Glenbrook Road
Storrs, CT 06269-4022.
http://www.drl.uconn.eduStudents will be sent information about how to secure dormitory housing at the time they are admitted to the graduate program.
The University of Connecticut offers a significant cultural program both through its own professional School of Fine Arts, which includes performance arts programs in music and drama, as well as by hosting a wide array of visiting artists who perform in one of the University's concert halls or theaters. Many of these performances are free, and relatively low-cost tickets are available for others. The William Benton Museum of Art, on the University campus, features frequent traveling exhibitions as well as its own permanent collection. A wide array of athletic facilities, and a variety of intramural and intercollegiate sports programs are also available.
Mansfield, the town in which Storrs is situated, is rich in historic traditions. The town was incorporated as a political entity in 1702, and some of the significant events of the American Revolution took place nearby. A number of restored structures, first built in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, are still in use. In spite of modernization, and the substantial influence of the University community on the surrounding area, much of the original character of the region survives today.