From President Dan Lugo
Gaining momentum in our pursuit of excellence
While we are still in the early days of the fall semester, I am incredibly optimistic for what this year will bring, as we are seeing signs of notable progress across the College, including encouraging results in enrollment and fundraising, significant facility improvements, and impressive student outcomes.
Our newest Bantams—572 of them, a 20 percent increase in the number of new students over last year—arrived on the Long Walk this September full of anticipation and ready to explore all the opportunities that Trinity College has to offer.
As we welcome our new students, we are already thinking about future classes and how we can enroll the most talented students. With that in mind, the College recently announced the launch of a multifaceted marketing and financial aid initiative that positions the College to compete for the best students from Connecticut, who in recent years increasingly have not seen Trinity as their top-choice college.
The Hometown Hartford initiative will help ensure that Trinity is on the application list of every outstanding student in our home city. The program more clearly articulates our existing financial aid offerings, letting every admitted student from Hartford know that Trinity will provide them with a full scholarship.
Similarly, the College strives to be the top choice for students in Central Connecticut and will clearly offer half-tuition grants to all admitted students with primary residences in Hartford County and its adjoining counties of Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, and Tolland. This program aims to make Trinity an even more desirable option for the region’s highest achieving students.
And to ensure that we attract and retain the best employee talent at the College, Trinity will provide full-tuition remission to all admitted children of employees with three or more years of continuous, full-time service to Trinity.
These exciting financial aid offerings are among several investments we’re making across campus, including physical upgrades to academic and residential spaces, athletics facilities, and infrastructure. During the summer, historic Seabury Hall and McCook Auditorium classrooms were refurbished, and the first half of a two-summer plan for renovations to all first-year residence halls took place. In addition, construction began on a new marquee facility on campus, the Elting Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; to read about what will happen in this space, set for a fall 2027 opening, turn to page 34.
Not far from the Elting Center, the Cornelia Center’s one-of-a-kind wall drawing by renowned artist Sol LeWitt breathed new life, the result of a summer restoration project. A photo of the revived installation, originally painted by Trinity students, faculty, and alumni following LeWitt’s written instructions, graces this issue’s cover. To learn more, including the unique ties that LeWitt had to our neighborhood, please see page 12. Elsewhere on campus, courts at the Paul D. Assaiante Tennis Center were fully rebuilt with a new post-tensioned concrete foundation, and new lighting was installed on the softball field. Repairs were made to the Chapel tower, and less glamorous but perhaps the most essential, progress on the College’s ongoing heating and cooling master plan was made.
We are also excited about the strong early outcomes, indicators, and results that Trinity is experiencing. We all felt great pride as we said farewell to the Class of 2026 with the confidence that they are on the path to successful futures. And we know this thanks to our Career and Life Design Center’s first destinations survey, which showed that 98 percent of the Class of 2025 have secured jobs, enrolled in continuing education, or found other meaningful “first destinations” within six months of their graduation.
As you all already know so well, the transformative power of a Trinity education continues to yield tremendous results. This fact was once again acknowledged by LinkedIn as the networking platform’s Top Colleges ranking named Trinity as the No. 5 liberal arts college in the nation for career outcomes. In addition, Trinity was ranked No. 36 in the nation in LinkedIn’s Top 50 when measured against career outcomes for all higher education institutions, including large elite universities.
Our strong showings in the LinkedIn rankings and our exemplary student outcomes are fueled by the dedication of our expert faculty and staff and the ongoing commitment of alumni. We have much more work to do as we strive to build positive momentum for the College, and I look forward to working with each of you in our ongoing pursuit of excellence.
For more on the College’s new financial aid initiative, please visit the Financial Aid Office website.
