Media Watch (Feb.14-21, 2005)

"Media Watch" is a round-up of recent stories in the media about the University of Hartford, as well as significant stories about other local and peer institutions and news about trends and issues in higher education.

The university entered into an agreement to place up to 136 upperclassmen in new housing at the redeveloped Sage-Allen property in downtown Hartford. The university is interested in the project for several reasons, University President Walter Harrison told the Hartford Courant: It makes sense to give upperclassmen an off-campus environment in which to live; the university is committed to bringing new life to downtown Hartford; and the university’s demand for student housing exceeds its supply. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 15; Hartford Inquirer, Feb. 17)

The cover story of the Hartford Advocate looked at the history of Hartford College for Women and the dramatic changes under way as the university undertakes efforts to preserve the college’s legacy. The article included quotes from President Walter Harrison about the university’s plans to leverage the college’s assets to support the Career Counseling Center and establish a fund to give grants in support women’s education initiatives. (Hartford Advocate, Feb. 17)

Warren Goldstein, associate professor and chairman of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History, was interviewed by WDRC’s Beth Bradley for her “Town Talk” show about presidential history for President’s Day. (WDRC-AM, Feb. 21)

T.J. May, a 1999 graduate of the university who is a special education teacher, was profiled in the Boston Herald. He had teamed up with his brother Jason to form SUMM Publications with an initial investment of $2,000 and to publish 350 copies of a horror-themed, 28-page black-and-white one-shot, “Ill Conceived.” According to May, the comic has received solid reviews, went into a second printing of 1,000 copies, and a publisher in Italy recently purchased reprint rights. (Boston Herald, Feb. 18)

The Hartford Courant featured a news article and an editorial about the Goodspeed’s launch of a new program, called Goodspeed’s Musical Theatre Institute, that gives aspiring artists an opportunity to learn from seasoned professionals in the theater industry about the many challenges associated with creating and staging musicals. As part of the program, New York University student writers and faculty were scheduled to join acting students from The Hartt School for a workshop on the staging of new musical works. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 16; Hartford Courant, Feb. 15)

A feature story on the Fuller Brush company and the place it holds in U.S. history featured comments about the company’s founder, Alfred C. Fuller, and his place in Hartford’s history. “Fuller was active in Hartford society. He created scholarships and helped establish the University of Hartford’s Hartt School in the Alfred C. Fuller Music Center,” wrote Courant writer Susan Campbell. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 17)

A news item appeared in Connecticut Life about the new Harry Sukman foyer in the Fuller Music Center next to Millard Auditorium and its dedication on Sunday, April 17, with musicians from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. The collection was donated by Susan Sukman-McCray, daughter of the composer and a corporator of the Hartford Art School. (Connecticut Life, February ’05)

The announcement that Demetrios Giannaros, a six-term state legislator from Farmington and a professor of economics at the Barney School of Business, was named deputy majority leader of the Connecticut House of Representatives was featured on the Hellenic News of America web site. (Hellenic News of America, Feb. 17)

The announcement that university alum Nicholas Galluccio had pledged $250,000 to endow a scholarship for students in the humanities or politics and government programs was noted in the monthly Business Times publication. (Business Times, February ’05 issue)

Megan Close of Silver Spring, Md., a senior at the university, was quoted in a story in the Orlando Sentinel, which was reprinted from an earlier story in the Hartford Courant, about how millions of the nation’s college students are now planning their spring break, one of the few travel sectors that that remained strong after Sept. 11, 2001. (Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 19)

Other News

Despite a record number of applicants and a growing reputation as one of the nation’s top urban liberal arts schools, Trinity College is under orders from its new president to close a $10 million deficit and adopt a new sense of financial discipline. President James F. “Jimmy” Jones Jr., has ordered a campus-wide effort to control expenses in everything from buildings and grounds to the admissions office. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 16)

Public college officials are opposing Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed tuition freeze, saying it would strain classes and services. University of Connecticut officials testified against a tuition freeze during a budget hearing held by the legislature’s Appropriations Committee. UConn officials said they do not have the $7.8 million in reserves that would be needed for Rell’s plan. (Associated Press, Feb. 21; Record-Journal, Meriden, Feb. 21)

More than 100 Yale University graduate students marched to President Richard Levin’s office to protest inequitable treatment of women there. The students criticized Levin for not joining the presidents of Stanford, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in denouncing comments made last month by Harvard President Larry Summers. (Associated Press, Feb. 18; Newsday, Feb. 18)

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. has long looked to Yale University and its pool of graduates for help running city hall and energizing his campaigns. He’s counting on them again as he repackages himself as a progressive Democrat with higher ambitions. He also wants to tap the Yale network for it energy, idealism and national ties as he pitches his small-city turnaround story to a wider audience. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 21)

Sharon D. Herzberger, vice president for institutional planning and administration of Trinity College, has been selected to become the 14th president of Whittier College in Whittier, Calif. She will assume her new responsibilities on July 1. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 15)

Yale University is being criticized for its connection to Compton Petroleum Corp., which wants to drill for natural gas on the outskirts of Calgary, Canada ― a project that environmentalists claim could expose hundreds of thousands of people to poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas. Canadian activists are asking Yale to help stop the drilling project. (Hartford Courant, Feb. 20)

The latest edition of Connecticut History, the first scholarly professional journal to be housed at Central Connecticut State University, is an issue on the theme “Native Americans and the Law,” developed from a forum held at CCSU, at which Native American scholars delivered papers on legal interaction between Native peoples and Euro-Americans. (The Herald, New Britain, Feb. 17)

More minorities than ever are going to public colleges in Connecticut, but they’re still under-represented at the state’s four-year universities. Overall, 31.5 percent of community college students are minorities, compared with 17.6 percent of students at the University of Connecticut and 17.3 percent at the Connecticut State University System, which includes Eastern, Western, Southern and Central. (Waterbury Republican-American, Feb. 17)

John Latino, of Franklin, Mass., a former University of Connecticut student, is suing UConn’s vice president of student affairs John Saddlemire over the way the university held a disciplinary hearing in response to rioting after the men’s basketball championship win last April. In a federal lawsuit, Latino says the hearing process was misleading and violated rules in the student handbook. (Newsday, Feb. 18; Associated Press, Feb. 18)

The U.S. State Department and Homeland Security Department have reduced from months to weeks the time it takes foreign students and scholars trying to travel to the United States to clear a key visa review, according to a new government report. The findings are welcome news for education leaders, though they have cautioned that streamlining the visa process will not, on its own, reverse the trend of declining interest among foreigners in attending American colleges and universities. (Associated Press, Feb. 18; Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 18)

Frances Fergusson, Vassar College’s president of nearly 20 years, announced that she would step down in June 2006. Fergusson, one of the country’s longest-serving college presidents, oversaw a soaring endowment as well as several major expansion projects on the school’s campus in Poughkeepsie, about 70 miles north of New York City. (Newsday, Feb. 17)