UCONN 2000, coupled with several affiliated capital projects, spans the entire University. Since 1995, 101 construction and renovation projects have been completed and 57 are currently underway. A pedestrian core was put in place, featuring a new central mall with plazas and major crosswalks that grace the heart of the Storrs campus. Less visible, but critical improvements to the University’s backbone infrastructure, roadway, transportation, utility and information technology networks are completed or underway. Completed this year on the main campus, the spectacular South Campus residence and dining complex integrates the academic and social experience. The advanced technology of a new 200,000-square-foot chemistry building is facilitating teaching and research. The fully renovated and state-of-the-art Homer Babbidge Library has become a resource center for the 21st century. The landmark building program has been described in a 1999 article appearing in The New York Times as “a building boom . . . that would be the envy of most university presidents.”

More than 60 classrooms have been renovated, new Biology/Physics building and the Agricultural Biotechnology building are nearly completed. Ground has been broken for the new School of Business Administration building, and planning and design for a new School of Pharmacy building is also underway.

Similar transformations are taking place at the University’s other regional and professional school campuses. In Stamford, Torrington and Waterbury campuses are in the mists of planning and design changes. The School of Law has been greatly enhanced. And the new Marine Sciences and Technology Center building is underway at Avery Point.

UCONN 2000 is also helping to spur increased private giving by alumni and other benefactors to the University through its endowment matching program—encouraging and rewarding private donations by matching them with public dollars. The initial three-year $20 million matching grant initiative was fully subscribed in only 18 months. Annual gift receipts have risen from $8.2 million in 1995 to a record-breaking $25.6 million in 1999.