UConn Area Developments

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-uconn...0,5211050.story

STORRS

[HartfordTycoon]

Hartford Courant

Courant.com

LANDSCAPING

At UConn, Lakes' Luck Looking Up

By GRACE E. MERRITT

The Hartford Courant

January 12, 2009

STORRS

When sludge became so thick that geese could walk across it to an island in the middle of Mirror Lake, UConn President Michael Hogan worried that the iconic lake on campus would become a marsh.

So Hogan is raising money to restore Mirror Lake, a picturesque pond along Route 195, as well as Swan Lake, which reflects the Chemistry Building next to it.

By selling "Save Our Lakes" T-shirts at the UConn Co-op and soliciting donations to a UConn Foundation fund, Hogan hopes to raise enough money to dredge, restore and landscape the two lakes.

Hogan, a historian, says the lakes are landmarks alumni recognize on a campus transformed by many new buildings.

"Generations of students have come and gone here and seen them," he said.

For the same reason, he recently brought back " The Rock," a triangular stone that students traditionally paint and repaint with messages nearly every day.

Cleaning up the lakes is just the beginning of Hogan's vision to improve the campus landscape along Route 195, an area he describes as UConn's front door.