University of Bridgeport

The University of Bridgeport (UB) is an international, doctoral-intensive comprehensive university, with award-winning academic programs. Its more than 4,000 students earn degrees in a variety of innovative undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

The university’s programs are offered through the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Continuing and Professional Studies, Education and Human Resources, Engineering, Fones School of Dental Hygiene, International College, and the Colleges of Chiropractic and of Naturopathic Medicine. Classes are held at its Seaside Park campus in Bridgeport and at satellite branches in Stamford and Waterbury, as well as through Internet distant learning courses that enroll students from around the world.

A UB Fones School of Dental Hygiene student checks a patient's oral health in the school's outpatient clinic.

The university traces its birth to the vision of the late E. Everett Cortright, a former superintendent of schools in Bridgeport and professor of education at Columbia University. Cortright in the mid 1920s saw the need for higher education in the Bridgeport region because the nearest colleges were in New Haven. A charter for the newly formed Junior College of Connecticut was obtained in November 1927 by Cortright and Dr. Alfred Civillion Fones, along with a number of other visionary citizens. It was the first junior college chartered by a legislature in the Northeast.

Cortright’s hope was to develop in students "a point of view and a habit of mind that promotes clear thinking and sound judgment in later professional and business experience." His success determined the development of the present University of Bridgeport. The university’s mission is directly linked to his vision. UB offers career-oriented undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees and programs for people seeking personal and professional growth.

The university promotes academic excellence, personal responsibility, and commitment to service. Distinctive curricula in an international, culturally diverse, supportive learning environment prepare graduates for life and leadership in an increasingly interconnected world. The university is independent and non-sectarian.

The present university brims with a vibrancy found in major cities around the world. It is among the most diverse, international and cosmopolitan universities in the country. One can hear a discussion about saving rain forests with a student who comes from the Himalayas. Or talk with a Ukrainian who grew up in the shadow of Chernobyl. Or listen to Indian and Pakistani students debate their countries' policies and then watch them playing a pick-up game of cricket together.

The university's international character is rooted in the years after World War II, when the first students arrived from abroad. U.S. News & World Report ranks the university among the most "international" of doctoral universities in the United States. Further, the University of Bridgeport, according to U.S. Department of Education data, is the fastest growing four-year college in Connecticut.

On the twentieth anniversary of the Junior College of Connecticut in 1947, the governor of Connecticut chartered the institution as a four-year university with authority to grant the baccalaureate degree. By that time, the P.T. Barnum estate at Seaside Park had been purchased and the ensuing growth was swift. The Junior College of Connecticut was retained and the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Business were established at once. The Schools of Nursing, Education and Engineering, the Fones School of Dental Hygiene and the addition of Arnold College in the School of Education followed soon after. .

By 1950, the university had moved all of its operations from its Fairfield Avenue location to the campus at Seaside Park. There it occupied 22 acres of choice land that now has grown to 52 acres. An enrollment of almost 3,500 students in the early 1950s included the first influx of international students.

UB awarded its first master's degree in 1951, and in January 1979 inaugurated its first doctoral degree program. In the fall of 2006, it added a doctorate in computer science and engineering — unique in that its students can pursue their studies on a part-time basis.

The university is also the only college in the United States to offer a fully academic degree program in the martial arts. And it has one of the best student-teacher ratios at 11:1, assuring individual attention to students.

Today, the university is financially independent, in large part due to the support and contributions of its many alumni and friends.

With students from more than 80 countries and a minority enrollment of 35 percent, the university prides itself in being a real world "experience in globalization." The university and its 200 full- and part-time faculty members provide academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities, which support its commitment to promote global citizenship and public service. 

University of Bridgeport & United Way of Eastern Fairfield County Partnership

University of Bridgeport faculty, staff and students have long been involved in the United Way Day of Caring conducting service projects and neighborhood improvement efforts. To expand upon their Day of Caring activities, a contingent of students regularly provides volunteer services at day care and senior centers throughout the region. Their volunteerism has become a year-long commitment through service efforts launched in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Students and staff also commit their time to a variety of other projects to help those in need. For example, during last year’s spring break a team of students, faculty and staff traveled to Alabama, Mississippi, and New Orleans to work in recovery projects in the aftermath of damages from Hurricane Katrina.

This year, the University of Bridgeport’s Bernhard Center was the setting for United Way of Eastern Fairfield County’s annual Day of Caring. University of Bridgeport President Neil Albert Salonen, who serves on the United Way of Eastern Fairfield County Board of Directors, welcomed participants to the event, which focused on the sort of yearlong commitment to volunteering demonstrated by UB students. At the event, attendees learned 15 ways to positively impact a child’s life through mentoring, tutoring, coaching sports and other volunteer activities.

Another alumnus of the University of Bridgeport, Mark A. Fries, serves on the United Way Board on Directors. UWEFC’s President and CEO Merle Berke-Schlessel is a graduate of the university’s law school.

The U niversity of Bridgeport holds its annual employee United Way campaign during the month of January. "The University of Bridgeport is proud to be a partner with United Way," UB President Neil Albert Salonen said. "The University was created to serve the people of the region, just as United Way and the agencies it supports do. The future of Bridgeport and its suburbs depends on all of us fulfilling our mission, and building a stronger region that offers its people the education, care and opportunity they need to make the most of life."

United Way of Eastern Fairfield County thanks and recognizes the investment that University of Bridgeport faculty and administration make to the community.