Public Safety is tracking a significant snowfall that will be arriving in our area late Sunday morning (Jan. 25). It will snow heavily throughout the day and evening eventually tapering off Monday (Jan. 26) with 10-14 inches expected statewide. A sleet and freezing rain mix is also possible along the shore. Temperatures will be in the teens and twenties.
Due to this significant winter storm and the extensive campus clean-up operations that will need to take place, all in-person day and evening classes scheduled for Monday, January 26, 2026 have been cancelled. All scheduled in-person classes will transition to being held online or remotely. Additional information on the virtual format for each class will be provided by your instructor.
Faculty have been asked to prepare for Online or Remote sessions in the event of in-person meeting cancellations. These options will be determined by the Faculty member and all questions should be directed to the Faculty teaching each course section. Faculty also have been asked to be very understanding and accommodating of the individual situations of their students who may have difficulty managing these alternative online or remote class meetings on short notice.
Please note that only essential employees, as previously determined by their respective department leaders, should report to campus. All other employees should fulfill the requirements of their role remotely.
Campus operations for residential students, unless otherwise noted, will operate as scheduled, though hours may be modified or changed based on the conditions. Separate messages will be sent from the Peterson Library, the Beckerman Recreation Center, and Dining Services regarding any changes to their normal hours of operation. The Bergami Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation will remain open for residential students to use for study space and to participate in online classes.
Off-campus students that live in the City of West Haven should abide by the city’s parking ban during inclement weather to avoid having their vehicle tagged and towed. Please check the City of West Haven’s website for further information on their snow parking ban.
University News
University of New Haven President Steve Kaplan wrote about innovation and its impact on students as part of a special feature for Forbes.
February 12, 2017
A few years ago, I was in a meeting with students, getting their feedback on what the University should invest in to further enhance their educational experience. I expected that the students would discuss the need for new science facilities.
A mechanical engineering student who had just returned from an immersion program at Stanford that examined innovation and entrepreneurship stood up first. He said that the University needed a makerspace – a community space that brings people together to tinker and create. A little later in the meeting, a marine biology student said the same thing. The last student to speak, an engineering major, had, I learned, just come back from visiting her friend at MIT, where she visited its makerspace. She also said that we needed our own makerspace.
This enthusiasm, I soon found out, was just the tip of the iceberg. So we decided to shift our focus to developing a more interdisciplinary space aimed at fostering creativity, ingenuity and innovation. The more we probed, the more we found that this was an idea that resonated with students across the University.
New Innovation Center
Today, the development of our envisioned Innovation Center is the centerpiece of our Charger Challenge, the University’s first comprehensive campaign that endeavors to raise $100 million in time for the University’s centennial in 2020.
I believe that this new 40,000-square-foot facility will be a vibrant hub on campus for students to come together across disciplines to develop products and ideas. It is designed for students to pursue new interests and to deepen their many passions.
I’ve been in the makerspace at Yale, and it is a really wild grouping of spaces. In fact, the majority of the users at Yale are non-engineers and are students who are developing products and projects not necessarily related to their classes. They are inspired, perhaps, by their classes but are not necessarily doing class work.
It is amazing to go through these spaces and to see what’s happening. It really makes me want to go back to school.
This focus on innovation is hardly a new one for the University of New Haven.
We were founded in 1920 on the Yale campus to meet the engineering and business needs of the region. We were always focused on economic development and on generating new products and new ideas in an area of the country that – back then – was heavily engaged in engineering and manufacturing. There’s been a long history of entrepreneurship at the University of New Haven, and innovation is in our DNA.
Five years ago, the University was selected to join the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network, which features some of the best engineering schools in the country. The Kern Family Foundation has committed nearly $1 million to support the ongoing development of 20 academic modules that have been incorporated across the curriculum to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in our students.
I truly believe that entrepreneurship is the secret sauce of this country’s greatness. Going back to people like Edison and Ford – and straight through to Steve Jobs – it wasn’t about the product, it was about the application of a new idea and striving to be innovative.
Applying this educational approach at the University of New Haven has resulted in the development of cutting-edge concepts and groundbreaking ideas. For example, engineering majors in the Class of 2016 created, among other inventions, an automated firefighting robot, a remotely operated underwater vehicle used to collect samples in Long Island Sound and a pioneering approach to converting biomass to fuel to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
This creativity and ingenuity is being noticed by leading companies, such as Sikorsky, where more University of New Haven graduates are hired than from any other college.
This is a very savvy generation of students, and it gives me great hope to see the passion that they have for innovation. The possibilities for what they will create and discover are truly limitless.
University News
New University-wide council will advance strategic partnerships, immersive student opportunities, and innovative research, supporting the University’s strategic plan the development of its pioneering Center for Innovation and Applied Technology.
The Charger Blog
Entrepreneur David Sussman, Pompea College of Business Advisory Board Member and chief visionary officer of The Family Security Plan®, is collaborating with University of New Haven students, faculty, and staff to create a program and app that helps Chargers support each other to achieve academic, personal, and professional goals. It’s called Uccountability.
University News
Vice President for Innovation and Applied Technology Paul Lavoie will serve on the Board of Directors and as America’s Chief Manufacturing Officer for the newly launched American Manufacturing Futures Institute.