President's Message

Dear Student,

At the University of New Haven, we provide world-class career preparation in all of our programs, but our overarching goal is to prepare students to lead meaningful lives.

Through our courses in the arts, humanities, and sciences we cultivate our students' humanity; and by integrating experiential learning in our academic programs – through such areas of emphasis as community service, internships, student-faculty research, and student self-governance – we prepare our students for leadership in their careers and as members of a democratic society.

The technological and economic complexity, as well as the great cultural diversity of the world in which we live and work, will require our graduates to be exceptionally flexible, compassionate, and tolerant human beings. I hope the UNH experience will lead our students and alumni to measure their personal success not just by the dollars they earn but primarily by the positive impact they will have on the lives of others. For this reason, I encourage students – regardless of their major – to explore UNH for courses that will enrich their sense of social justice and societal responsibility.

The faculty at UNH has impressive academic and professional credentials, in many cases bringing with them national and even international reputations in their field. They are committed in unrivaled ways to the success of each and every one of our students, allowing for the establishing of relationships which extend beyond their experience at UNH.

One of my favorite quotations is from the late Ernest Boyer, a former president of the Carnegie Foundation, who once warned that the "crisis of our time relates not to technical competence, but to a loss of the social and historical perspective, to the disastrous divorce of competence from conscience." As UNH students focus on their studies, I encourage them to also allow some time to question their values as well as prevailing societal values and look for ways to improve the world that they will help form as a member of a global society.

I wish all our students success in their studies and personal enrichment through their experiences at the University of New Haven.

Sincerely,

Steven H. Kaplan
President