STORRS, Conn. (AP and WTIC) - President Joe Biden plans to visit the University of Connecticut Friday for the dedication of a human rights center named after former U.S. Sens. Thomas and Christopher Dodd.
The Dodd Center for Human Rights serves as an umbrella home for the school's human rights programs and archives. Those include the Human Rights Institute, which houses the largest undergraduate and graduate human rights program at a public university in the U.S. and Dodd Impact, which focuses on community-based human rights initiatives.
UConn's Board of Trustees voted in August to change the name to the Dodd Center for Human Rights to recognize the work of both Democratic senators and their family.
"I'm deeply grateful to UConn for recognizing me and my family by dedicating The Dodd Center for Human Rights, and I'm honored that my good friend President Biden is joining us to mark this occasion,'' said former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who is Thomas Dodd's son.
He served as a senator from 1981 to 2011, gaining a reputation as a human rights advocate for his work to end abuses in Central America.
Biden and Christopher Dodd will be joined at the dedication by guests including Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and members of the state's congressional delegation.
"I'm really happy that President Biden is coming back to Connecticut," Lamont said. "I think he likes Connecticut."
Biden will be visiting a child care facility in Hartford before heading to the Dodd Center, Lamont said.
According to a White House press office statement, the president will be promoting his "build back better" agenda while in Hartford and will talk about investing in child care as a way to keep costs down for working families.
The ceremony at the Dodd Center will be by invitation only, but will be streamed online by the university.
The last visit by a sitting president was in 1995, when Bill Clinton was on hand for the original dedication of the center.