University of Bridgeport
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| Established | 1927 |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| President | Neil Albert Salonen |
| Faculty | 200 |
| Undergraduates | 1,694 |
| Postgraduates | 2,324 |
| Location | Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA |
| Campus | Urban 50 acres |
| Athletics | 11 varsity sports teams 7 women's; 4 men's |
| Mascot | Purple Knights |
| Website | www.bridgeport.edu |
University of Bridgeport is a university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its campus is in the southern part of the city, on Long Island Sound. The university offers undergraduate programs and some master's and doctoral programs. It is the United States' most international university, according to the US News and World Report-America's Best Colleges 2006, with 16% of its undergraduates coming from overseas.
The university was founded in 1927 as the Junior College of Connecticut. It was the first junior college chartered in the Northeastern United States. It became the University of Bridgeport in 1947 and started awarding master's degrees in 1951. It added its first doctoral degree program, educational leadership, in 1979.
In 1991, the College of Chiropractic was established, the first chiropractic school in the United States affiliated with a university. In 1996, the College of Naturopathic Medicine was established, and Ph.D. degree program in Computer Science and Engineering started in 2006
University of Bridgeport enrollment has been climbing from a low of 1,383 students in 1992 to more than 3,627 in 2005. The profile of the students has been changing in the last several years because of the need for financial revitalization. The school stopped awarding generous scholarships to international students and instead focused on attracting more domestic students.
In 1992, the university suffered the longest faculty strike in the history of American higher education.
In an attempt to solve its financial problem, the university decided in that year to accept support from the Professors World Peace Academy, which is associated with the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. Since then, the university has received more than $110 million in support from the organization.
Neil Albert Salonen, former president of the Unification Church in the United States, is the university president.
By June 2003 the subsidies ended, and the University gained financial independence by balancing its budget. As a non-stock, non-profit Connecticut corporation the university is under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Higher Education and various accrediting agencies.
As of Fall 2006 the University has over 4,000 students enrolled.
Bridgeport has one of the six fully accredited naturopathic medical schools.
