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UConn Receives $1M Gift and Match Challenge for Human Rights Institute

UConn Foundation
UConn Foundation

2 min read

Gary Gladstein and Phyllis Gladstein (Sonya Revell for UConn Foundation)

The Human Rights Institute (HRI) at UConn is kicking off a matching gift challenge with support from longtime donors Gary Gladstein ’66 (CLAS), ’08 (HON) and his wife, Dr. Phyllis Gladstein. The couple, whose generous giving spans the last 22 years, have committed $1 million as an outright gift plus an additional match to inspire giving by others. They will match gifts dollar for dollar to the Human Rights Institute, up to $1 million, over the next three years.

“How extraordinary that our family contribution in 1998 sponsoring a visiting professor in human rights would grow far beyond our expectation to become one of the premier human rights programs in the world,” Gary Gladstein said.

“We feel privileged to continue to support the Human Rights Institute with its dedicated faculty, motivated students, and most supportive administration. During this troubled time of pandemic and social unrest, the work of the Human Rights Institute is more important than ever,” he said.

Vice President for Global Affairs Daniel Weiner noted that the longstanding relationship between the Gladstein family and HRI is “a profound example of transformative giving that is having important societal impacts in Connecticut, the United States and around the world.” He underscored that this new gift and fundraising challenge is “an opportunity to further enhance UConn’s reputation as a global leader in human rights research, teaching and practice.”

The match campaign will enable HRI to continue to build its endowment, which has provided a sustainable resource for undergraduate and graduate student fellowships, support for experiential learning opportunities, and funding for programming and faculty research on cutting-edge issues related to human rights.

“We are tremendously grateful for the generosity of Gary and Dr. Phyllis Gladstein and their remarkable commitment to UConn, to scholarship, and to the cause of human rights. The Human Rights Institute is one of UConn’s signature programs, and its work has only grown more urgent since it was established,” UConn President Thomas Katsouleas said.

The gift will enable the Institute to amplify its research programs on economic and social rights, humanitarianism, and global health, as well as expand its program on human rights practice. HRI also will launch a human rights practitioner-in-residence program and provide funding for seed grants to faculty members who are applying their research expertise to projects that advance human rights research, monitoring, and reporting. The gift will sustain HRI’s continued partnership with the University to host a scholar, researcher, or practitioner through the Scholars at Risk program.

The Human Rights Institute is a national leader, with one of the largest interdisciplinary programs. In addition, UConn is the only public university offering a human rights major. The Gladsteins have supported programs across the University—at Hillel, the School of Business, the Division of Athletics, and UConn Health. Their gifts and match commitments to HRI have transformed research and academics at UConn and made an impact in the field of human rights globally.

“The generous support of the Gladstein family over the past two decades has enabled the institute to become one of the premier programs in the country,” HRI Director Kathryn Libal said. “We have attracted stellar faculty to contribute to the academic programs and our graduates are securing meaningful work in law and government, business, the health sector, and STEM fields. This gift and match challenge will allow us to deepen and expand our work at a critical time in the country.”

 

Gifts to support the Human Rights Institute can be made online.

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“The true differences around the world are not between different religions or races, but more about those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it.” – Gary Gladstein ’66

Philanthropist George Soros and UConn alumnus Gary Gladstein ’66 with his wife, Dr. Phyllis Gladstein, announced a $4 million gift to the UConn Human Rights Institute, the largest donation ever received by the internationally recognized program.

As part of the gift, Soros and the Gladsteins challenge you, UConn Nation, to raise another $2 million, which they will then match. Your gift of any size can go further than it would alone—and help propel the world-renowned UConn Human Rights Institute to new heights.

Bring clarity to the human rights issues of our time

Your gift will empower faculty to research the impact of human rights violations at home and around the world. In UConn Today, for example, UConn School of Law Professor Richard Ashby Wilson described the impact of recent rulings from the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal, which tried leaders accused of war crimes during the 1990s Balkans War.

“The verdict [in one of the cases] demonstrates that an international court can hold accountable a former head of state for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and issue a reasoned judgment that reasonably applies international criminal law to the facts of the case,” said Professor Wilson, a founding director of the Human Rights Institute, who is writing a book on the topic.

Show how the past can help shape the future of human rights

Your gift can illuminate how human rights law has shaped the past, affects cultural discourse, and can influence future policy—through projects such as one exploring the use of habeas corpus.

Sarah Winter, an English professor at UConn, is working with the Human Rights Institute to study the use of the writ throughout history and literature.

“It wasn’t just a judicial remedy for unlawful detention, but it also created a legal framework represented in narratives of the time, including literature, that began to give what were understood to be human rights to citizens and non-citizens alike,” said Professor Winter in another recent UConn Today article.

Empower UConn to put ideas into action

Thanks to your support, UConn faculty and students can offer their expertise to those who need it most. For example, a group from the Schools of Law and Social Work spent their spring break offering free legal and psychosocial assistance to female asylum-seekers from Central America being held at a federal immigration detention center in York, Pa.

Join George Soros and the Gladsteins in supporting the UConn Human Rights Institute

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Largest Human Rights Gift to UConn To Provide Scholarships, Build Endowment

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Grace Merritt

3 min read

Philanthropist George Soros and UConn alumnus Gary Gladstein ’66 with his wife, Dr. Phyllis Gladstein, announced a $4 million gift to the UConn Human Rights Institute, the largest donation to the internationally renowned program.

The gift, which requires the UConn Foundation to raise an additional $2 million in matching funds, would give the Institute a $6 million endowment and provide scholarships to undergraduates majoring in human rights.

“The vision and generosity of our donors continues to make an incredible impact on this program and is helping to make UConn a global leader in human rights education and scholarship,” said UConn President Susan Herbst. “We could not be more grateful to both Gary Gladstein and George Soros for their support and commitment to our university and the field of human rights.”

The Institute, with its interdisciplinary focus, is one of the top human rights programs in higher education worldwide. Faculty members are drawn from most schools and colleges across the university, including anthropology, political science, business, and law. The program has a strong focus on collaborative research and scholarship. The Institute has a rapidly growing student population and its graduates have landed key humanitarian jobs.

a photo of uconn students on an internship in guatemala
UConn Students on a human rights internship in Guatemala.

“I was a child in Hungary when the Nazis invaded. I then lived under Soviet rule, so I know what it is like to live under brutal regimes that deprive people of their basic human rights,” Soros said. “I am pleased to support UConn’s critical work in researching and promoting human rights. I am glad to partner with Gary to help build UConn’s program.”

Gladstein, who has been the Institute’s primary benefactor, is giving the Institute a gift of $2 million. Soros, a businessman, philanthropist, and political activist, has pledged to give a $2 million challenge grant. Soros’s grant is through the Open Society Foundations, his grant-making network dedicated to building democracies with accountable and open governments.

Soros’s grant requires the UConn Foundation to raise an additional $2 million in matching funds from donors. Once completed, the $6 million endowment will provide scholarships, fellowships, internships, and program support for signature programs, such as the Scholars-at-Risk Initiative.

Gladstein said he was pleased to partner with Soros, a friend and colleague who first raised his awareness of the vital importance of human rights.

“All civilizations must learn to share and respect the human rights of others,” Gladstein said. “The true differences around the world are not between different religions or races, but more about those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. We can all do much better when we work together.”

“These gifts are transformative because they provide us with a financial foundation that we haven’t had before,” said Dan Weiner, UConn’s vice provost for global affairs.

The Institute is a leader in human rights education and scholarship. It has the largest number of undergraduates studying human rights in the U.S. with 80 students majoring and 55 minoring in human rights. Another 35 participate in the Institute’s graduate certificate program.

“On Martin Luther King Day, as we celebrate a man who stood for civil rights and justice, it is a fitting time to announce a gift that will strengthen UConn’s own commitment to human rights,” said Joshua R. Newton, president and CEO of the UConn Foundation.

The Institute’s cross-disciplinary research teams of faculty and graduate students focus on three distinct areas: economic and social rights, humanitarianism, and global health and human rights.

“This gift will sustain cutting-edge, interdisciplinary scholarship on human rights at the University of Connecticut,” Institute Director Kathryn Libal said.

Program graduates have gone on to hold positions at leading universities and in the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International USA, AmeriCares, and Jewish World Watch.

“We are educating the next generation of human rights scholars, teachers, and practitioners,” Weiner said.

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UConn Stamford to Host Human Rights Forum (Westfair Online)

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Jennifer Doak-Mathewson

< 1 min read

Excerpted from Westfair Online (White Plains, N.Y.)

Lieberman bystander conference imageUConn’s Stamford campus will host a daylong forum titled “Beyond Bystander: Monitoring Human Rights in Conflict Zones” on Friday as part of the Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman Conference and Lecture Series on Human Rights Practice.

The program is supported by Stamford-based Point72 Asset Management, part of the company’s five-year commitment to raise human rights awareness through lectures and conferences. It is coordinated by UConn’s Office of Global Affairs in collaboration with the UConn’s Human Rights Institute, UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and the UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights, with assistance from the UConn Foundation.

“Sen. Lieberman was a tireless champion for human rights, as well as the state of Connecticut and the city of Stamford, during his 24-year tenure in the U. S. Senate,” said Doug Haynes, president of Point72 Asset Management, in a statement. “We are pleased to honor his leadership and advance the cause of human rights by sponsoring UConn’s Stamford-based Senator Joseph I. Lieberman Conference and Lecture Series on Human Rights Practice.”

 

 

 

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