The Early Days: 1925-1950 

The Connecticut College of Pharmacy (CCP), now known as the UConn School of Pharmacy, opened its doors for the first time on October 20, 1925 in New Haven. The opening of the school followed years of Connecticut Pharmaceutical Association (CPA) suggestions and considerations, with the first official meeting to establish a Connecticut State Pharmacy School taking place on March 26, 1923. This meeting followed an increase in urgency to establish a college of pharmacy, after a Connecticut State Law passed in 1921 that mandated all individuals must experience a college graduation after 1925 to enter the pharmacy profession.

In 1925, CCP offered one degree, a Graduate of Pharmacy (Ph.G.), received after completion of the two year program. The inaugural 1925-26 class was made up of 86 students, 4 of which were women. Tuition for the program totaled to $200.

On May 25, 1927, the first commencement ceremony was held at Sprague Hall of Yale University, where 56 candidates received their Ph.G. degree. In this same year, the school switched from a two-year to a three-year program to overcome inadequacies in the curriculum. However, in 1932, the Colleges’ Board of Trustees voted to adopt a minimum four-year course, after which a Bachelor of Science degree would be granted. In 1936, the first of the Bachelor of Science graduates received their degrees.

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy admitted CCP into its membership in 1935, and in 1940, CCP was granted accreditation by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education following a careful inspection.

On July 1, 1941, by act of the General Assembly, the CCP became the College of Pharmacy of the University of Connecticut under the University presidency of Albert N. Jorgensen, followed by the first Storrs-hosted commencement in May 1942. The college continued to hold classes at its original New Haven campus, until a 1947 request to relocate to the Storrs campus was approved. In that same year, the College of Pharmacy changed its name to the School of Pharmacy. By 1952, the School of Pharmacy had fully relocated into the newly constructed Storrs Pharmacy Building on Fairfield Way.

Life at Storrs: 1950-1975 

Following the transition to Storrs, the School of Pharmacy began working to strengthen their contributions to graduate pharmaceutical research by requesting permission from the University Graduate School and Board of Trustees to offer advanced degrees. Upon approval, the School awarded their first Master of Science degree in 1951 to Varro E. Tyler. In 1953, Tyler also became the first individual awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the School of Pharmacy.

The research endeavors of the School of Pharmacy continued to flourish throughout the decade, allowing them to be awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to construct a Pharmacy Research Institution devoted exclusively to graduate research in pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy, and pharmacology. By 1974, over 165 students had received advanced graduate degrees from the School of Pharmacy.

Prior to 1965, the Bachelor of Pharmacy was a four-year degree. However, starting in 1965, the School transitioned to requiring a five-year program for the baccalaureate degree. This program requirement would remain in effect until 1997, when the School transitioned yet again into requiring an entry-level, six-year Pharm.D. degree.

In 1972, the School, in partnership with the John Dempsey Hospital’s Department of Pharmacy (now UConn Health), founded a Drug Information Center at the Newington Health Center. Here, staff from the School of Pharmacy and John Dempsey Hospital Department of Pharmacy held dual clinical appointments together.

Life at Storrs truly marked exceptional growth and development for the School of Pharmacy, as diversity within the program flourished, scholarship standards heightened, extracurricular and post-graduate involvement soared, and the UConn School of Pharmacy became a distinguished place on the map.

The Growth Years: 1975-2000 

Leadership in the School’s third quarter focused their attention on further developing the academic and research roots that they had established in the past fifty years.

During the beginning of this quarter, the School of Pharmacy expanded their medicinal garden, which was referred to then as the Drug Garden. While building renovations on Fairfield Way continued to occur during this time, the seeds of a new pharmacy building construction project were being planted.

Until the 1980s, the clinical pharmacy program and administration had called the UConn Health Center in Farmington its home base. However, due to limited space and small patient populations, the clinical program administration relocated their base to Hartford Hospital. Then, in 1997, the program again moved to the Institute of Living of Hartford.

All the while, the didactic curriculum and administrative organization of the pharmacy program continued to adapt as the role of the pharmacist progressed within society. The curriculum, in what is described as a bold and innovative departure from normal educational methods, transitioned its instructional approach and reconstructed its disciplinary areas to more effectively progress students from fundamental pharmaceutical sciences to clinical practice.

Students were first introduced to the physiochemical properties of drugs and the body, followed by drug formulation and dosage forms. Then, students would be introduced to the dominant curricular portion, consisting of biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, clinical pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pathobiology, and toxicology. During this portion, students would also participate in various clinical experiences as well as learn about socioeconomic aspects of pharmacy practice. These changes went hand-in-hand with the changing notions of the profession at the time, which believed that placing pharmacists in closer proximity to other health care professionals and creating a patient counseling responsibility was the future of the pharmacist.

Fittingly, in 1994, Dean Michael C. Gerald reorganized the School to oversee two distinct departments: Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Growth of the program did not stop there, however, as the School transitioned to an entry-level Pharm.D. degree program in 1996. This move transformed the School of Pharmacy into the upper division program that we now know it to be, requiring an application, an interview, and readmission into the program during the second year of university. In 1997, the first Pharm.D. class would be admitted into the upper division program; the first Pharm.D. degrees at UConn were awarded in 2001.

Following this, under phase II of a plan known as UConn 2000, the construction of a new pharmacy building was initiated. UConn 2000 was a $1 billion, ten-year program set forth to rebuild and improve the Storrs and regional campuses. The new building, known as the Pharmacy-Biology Building (PBB), was envisioned to allow for a collaboration between pharmacy, biology, microbiology, and physiology and neurobiology. This new construction was fully completed for occupancy beginning in 2005.

The Turn of the Century and Forward: 2000-2025 

The start of the new century continued to see exponential growth for the School of Pharmacy, which took leaps forward to become one of the nation’s top pharmacy schools.

With its rapidly growing success, the School further established its student opportunities and redrew the boundaries of a pharmacy program. Partnerships with international universities opened new doors for students to pursue study abroad programs; dual degree tracks were established to allow students to expand their studies to include business (Pharm.D./MBA program), public health (Pharm.D./MPH program), or research (Pharm.D./Ph.D. program); and four specialty pharmacy tracks were developed to allow students to explore niche areas of pharmacy (LEADERS, Urban Service, Pediatric Pharmacy, and Pharmaceutical Sciences).

The Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT) became a requirement for application to the professional pharmacy program in 2009, and remained a requisite and admissions factor until 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges for testing that outweighed the additional benefits and insights that the test may have presented to the admissions board.

In 2018, 13 years after the School officially transitioned to the Pharmacy-Biology Building, a new medicinal garden was planted adjacent to the School. The Garden now serves as a teaching resource about drugs derived from medicinal plants, strategically designed to mimic the structure of salicylic acid, one of the first pharmaceuticals isolated from plants in the modern pharmacopeia. The garden is now maintained by Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Kathryn Wheeler.

2020 brought with it the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed setbacks to education within the School of Pharmacy. Nonetheless, as classes moved to online platforms and students’ only connections were through a screen, faculty continued to provide exceptional pharmacy education. Students, with their expertise in immunizations and health services, persevered through the tumultuous times to serve their communities through immunization clinics and training. Students banded together to host virtual extracurricular events, holding club meetings through Zoom and Facetime, and even began producing informational health-related YouTube videos for the public. The pandemic, while an incredibly unfortunate and challenging period for all, reflected the distinction of UConn pharmacy students as they persevered through hardship and overcame barriers to provide for their communities in times of need.

This precedent of unwavering determination, service, and scholarship reflects the underlying basis of the School of Pharmacy standard today. Our future endeavors include advancing the use of artificial intelligence in medicine reconciliation and the remodeling of the professional pharmacy curriculum to ensure that UConn School of Pharmacy graduates remain at the top of their licensure upon completion of the program.

As we cross our centennial mark, we reflect on the tenacity of our past administration, faculty, staff, and student bodies to build the School brick by brick, allowing us to continue to test the limits of what it means to be a pharmacist today. Said best by Dean Emeritus Karl Nieforth, “The history of this School is the people who have served in it, and those who have been served by it, and therein rests its future.”