President Joe Biden to visit UConn this week

On Friday, Oct. 15, President Joe Biden will come to UConn to mark the dedication of the Dodd Center for Human Rights. The event — titled “Human Rights for the Next Generation” — is invite-only, but will be live-streamed for public viewing.

Biden will join Connecticut Senator Christopher J. Dodd, governor Ned Lamont, UConn Interim President Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, and others alongside UConn students and faculty.

The Dodd Center for Human Rights was previously known as the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center since its opening in 1995, but the UConn Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename the building in August. It will now serve as the umbrella home for UConn’s human rights programs, which include the Human Rights Institute and Dodd Impact. According to UConn, the Dodd Center will also remain home to UConn’s own archives and the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life.

“We are deeply honored that President Biden is joining us as we dedicate ourselves to extending the Dodd family legacy,” Agwunobi said in a statement.

Biden’s visit to Storrs will mark the fourth time a president has come to campus, and the first time a president has done so this century. In 1995, sitting president Bill Clinton visited to dedicate the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, and returned 20 years later to receive the Dodd Impact Prize in International Justice and Human Rights. President Gerald Ford visited UConn in 1986 and spoke at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, and George H.W. Bush came to UConn in 1998 as the university’s keynote speaker at commencement.