Dr

Dr. Ulysses J. Connor, Jr.

Born in New Orleans to Estelle T. and Ulysses J. Connor Sr., Dr. Connor graduated from Adelphi University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Syracuse University College of Law with a Doctor of Jurisprudence. He worked in higher education at Syracuse University of New York and the University of Maryland before coming to Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Connor began his 15-year tenure at Kutztown University in the fall of 1993 to direct the newly awarded Student Support Services Program. This first TRiO Federal Grant program for low income and first generation college students at Kutztown University was and continues to be extremely successful, earning the 1999 Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award. The same year Dr. Connor received a grant to begin the Upward Bound Program serving high school students. In 2000 he was awarded a TRiO Dissemination Partnership Grant to aid in the establishment of a Student Support Services Program at Lehigh Carbon Community College. A third TRiO grant awarded in 2003 to Kutztown University was for the Upward Bound Math/Science Program serving high school students. In the same year, he provided new leadership and direction in the reformation of the Kutztown Academic Alliance, a partnership with Allentown School District. The Academic Alliance serves Allentown School District high school students. In 2006 Dr. Connor received a fourth TRiO grant for Educational Talent Search, a program serving 600 middle school and high school students in the Allentown School District. During his 15-year tenure, Dr. Connor brought more than $10,000,000 in grant-funded programs to Kutztown University to serve an underrepresented population of students in higher education. Additional programs in development included a Reading Academic Alliance and an EBEST Program for high school foster care students in conjuction with the Children’s Home of Reading. Dr. Connor was loved by his students and staff and highly respected by his colleagues in and beyond TRiO and Kutztown University. He was truly devoted to the mission of TRiO programs and carried the torch for the disadvantaged student. He was a warm, wise, honest, and understanding gentleman. The TRiO community mourns the loss of a colleague and a true friend… His vision will continue… Dr. Ulysses J. Connor Jr., we say THANK YOU!