Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • October 28, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com T he University of Hartford is planning to build a new $58-mil- lion, 62,000-square- foot academic building that will provide a state-of-the-art facility for two of the private col- lege's most in-demand and growing majors: engineering and nursing. But beyond the practicality of space dedicated to popular programs, this and other infrastructure projects UHart has planned, or recently com- pleted, represent President Gregory Wooward's vision to increase the school's prestige to a level he thinks it deserves. UHart alumni, Woodward said, are everywhere, including in leadership positions at some of the country's largest compa- nies, like Cigna (CEO David Cordani got his MBA there in 1994), Travel- ers and others; not to mention nationally known graduates of the Hartt School for performing arts. And yet, UHart doesn't seem to get much recog- nition. Wooward, who took over as the college's president in 2017, is trying to change that, while also putting his stamp on the 6,800-student university. "It's so funny to me that our schools and colleges and the alums from those schools actually have independently higher reputations than the Univer- sity as a whole," Woodward said. The new academic building is just a piece of Woodward's "Vision 2019" plan, which also includes a proposed $30-million wellness and recreation center, $10 million in classroom and residence-hall upgrades, as well as the launch of new academic pro- grams. All in, the various projects should amount to a $90 million investment, Woodward said. "What can we do to raise the physical reality of our school, raise the programmatic mix of our school, and raise the regional na- tional profile?" Woodward asked. University officials are working on a tight timeline for the new academic building, which will house colleges for engineering, technology, and architecture and education, nursing and health professions, said UHart Vice President for Finance and Operations Laura Whitney. The school is currently work- ing with Stan- dard & Poor's to get a bond rating so it can finance $50 million to pay for most of the construction, Whitney said. The bonds could go to market in early November. After that, con- struction of the yet-to-be-named academic build- ing must begin by next spring, so the university can open it for the 2021 fall semester. That's when the school's first cohort of nurs- ing students — a bachelor's degree program created last fall — will take interactive courses offered in the new building. "Everyone's a little nervous about the timeline," Whitney said. "But why drag it out when you can get it done?" Renderings show a sleek looking rectangular structure built into a small hill in the center of an unde- rutilized and expansive academic quad. It has two floors on one end, and three stories on the other. The technology and equipment proposed for inside the building, which includes simulation, robot- ics, 3D-printing and cybersecurity labs, among others, as well as R&D space, are the real selling point, said Woodward, who thinks the quality of UHart's buildings and equipment have fallen behind that of its instructors. Raising Expectations UHart President Woodward eyes $90M campus face-lift to boost university's profile University of Hartford tuition and fees Total cost of Year attendance* 2014-15 $46,962 2015-16 $48,098 2016-17 $49,780 2017-18 $51,256 2018-19 $53,170 2019-20 $55,150 * The total cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, room and board. Source: University of Hartford University of Hartford President Gregory Woodward says investing in state-of- the-art buildings and infrastructure is key to the institution's future. UHart's proposed $58-million academic building (shown above and right) would be built into a small hill in the center of the school's expansive academic quad. PHOTO | HBJ FILE RENDERING | CONTRIBUTED FILE

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