9.4 -- Can SET ROLE be fired upon connection to engine?

[masinger]

We are migrating from 7.3 to 9.4 and doing a little tightening up in the process. I'm not real familiar with the enhancements to 9.4 so I was wondering if there might be a way to get the SQL "SET ROLE name_of_role;" to fire upon connection to the engine (or at the establishment of a session) other than from the client-side application?

Thanks,
M.A. Singer