University of Bridgeport
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University of Bridgeport is a university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its campus is in the southern part of the city, on Long Island Sound. While the university offers primarily undergraduate programs, it also offers a limited number of master's and doctoral degree programs. It is the United States' most international university according to the US News and World Report, with 34% of its undergraduate student body 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 U.S. The Junior College of Connecticut transformed into University of Bridgeport in 1947. The university started awarding Master's degrees in 1951. In 1979, the university added the first doctoral degree program, Educational Leadership.
In 1991, the College of Chiropractic was established, the first ever chiropractic school in the United States affiliated with a university. Currently, the College of Chiropractic is a rarity sought after by students from all across the United States, in which the University takes great pride.
University of Bridgeport enrollment has been climbing from an all-time low of 1,383 students in 1992 to over 3,000 in 2003. This trend continues in 2004. The profile of the students has been changing in the last three years due to the need for financial revitalization. The school stopped awarding generous scholarships to international students and instead focused to enroll more domestic students. In spite of that, the university manages to hold a premium rank in the country for the number of enrolled international students.
The university has run into financial difficulties which nearly placed it out of business in 1991. In an attempt to solve them, the university has decided to accept support from the organization named Professors World Peace Academy which is associated with the Unification Movement of Sun Myung Moon. Since 1991, over the course of 13 years, the university has accepted a total of $110 million in support from the organization. Such connection with the Unification Church has resulted in bad publicity for the university. Neil Salonen, former president of the Unification Church in the United States, until this day holds the seat as the university president. However by June 2003, the university has managed to gain financial independence by balancing its budget. Even though that sets the university on a path to self-sufficiency and true non-sectarianism in accordance with its original mission statement, many question whether balancing a budget really means that. The school board allegedly still consists of primarily Unification Church members who also allegedly hold stake in ownership of the school.
External links
- University of Bridgeport (http://www.bridgeport.edu/)
- University Of Bridgeport To Report Balanced Budget (http://www.religionnewsblog.com/3437-_University_Of_Bridgeport_To_Report_Balanced_Budget.html)
- Mission Statement (http://www.bridgeport.edu/pages/27.asp)