Media Watch (Aug. 27 – Sept. 4, 2007)

“Media Watch” is a roundup 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 groundbreaking ceremony for University High School of Science and Engineering was covered by WFSB-TV Channel 3. University President Walter Harrison was interviewed along with a number of University High students. In addition, NBC 30 visited the construction site and did a story on the start of work for the new building. (WFSB-TV Channel 3, Aug. 31; NBC 30, Aug. 31)

Fox 61 and NBC 30 both sent news photographers to the University campus on Saturday, Sept. 1, to interview parents and freshmen, and to get video of students as they moved into the University’s residence halls. (NBC 30, Sept. 1; Fox 61, Sept. 1)

Darryl McMiller, assistant professor of political science in Hillyer College, was interviewed for a story on WFSB-TV Channel 3 about the International Association of Firefighters' decision to endorse U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd for president. McMiller said the endorsement will help Dodd, but that he still has a very long way to go to capture the Democratic nomination. (WFSB-TV Channel 3, Aug. 29)

Bill Thomson, associate professor of illustration in the Hartford Art School, is one of three finalists in the Children’s Illustrator category in the Connecticut Book Awards for his book, Building with Dad. The winners will be announced at an event at the Hartford Public Library on Sept. 23. The Connecticut Book Awards is a project of the Connecticut Center for the Book, an affiliate of the national center in the Library of Congress, with help from the state Commission on Culture and Tourism. (Hartford Courant, Aug. 19)

The Connecticut Jewish Ledger noted that the presidents and chancellors of 10 Connecticut colleges and universities, including University of Hartford President Walter Harrison, are among 342 of their colleagues to join a national effort denouncing the decision by the union representing British academics to promote a boycott of Israeli educational institutions. Harrison’s signature was one of 288 in a full-page advertisement placed in the New York Times on Aug. 8, which contained a statement from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger. (Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Aug. 23)

Jason Anick, a music and acoustic engineering student, now studying at the University of Hartford, was highlighted in the Boston Globe in advance of his performance of rhythmic, swing-like Gypsy jazz on Marlborough's Union Common with the Boston-based group Sinti Rhythm. “No one has to make me practice Gypsy jazz,” joked Anick, who has been playing the fiddle since he was 6. “I love the energy that it gives off and the energy it imparts on the crowd.” (Boston Globe, Aug. 30)

Ron Edwards, 21, who lives in Orleans on Cape Cod and studies trombone performance at The Hartt School, was profiled in the Cape Cod Times for his work picking rose hips and turning them into jelly. He learned about rose hips and jelly at the Cape Cod home of his grandmother, where the roses’ seashore location made rose hip jelly a Cape tradition for tourists to buy at roadside stands. (Cape Cod Times, Aug. 20)

Fourth-grade students at Congregation Shir Ami, a reform congregation serving Lower Fairfield and Westchester Counties, will be studying with Noah Axe, a 2004 graduate of the University’s Hartt School in Jazz Studies. In addition to teaching at Congregation Shir Ami Religious School, Axe teaches private lessons on drums and guitar, and plays percussion with several New York City based bands. (Greenwich Post, Aug. 20)

Tom Griswold, who is the owner and chief employee of The Horn Shop in West Hartford, was profiled in the “Open for Business” column in the Hartford Courant’s “Connecticut” section. Griswold, who has been in the business for 20 years, also teaches a course in emergency instrument repair to band directors at the University of Hartford. (Hartford Courant, Aug. 23)
The Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City opened its 2007-08 season with the world premiere of “The Everlasting Universe,” a new work by John Mueter, who works as a coach, accompanist and instructor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Mueter received a piano degree from The Hartt School, and a degree in composition from Washington State University. (KC Community News, Aug. 16)

John Tuozzo of Torrington, a standout baseball and basketball player for the Hartford Hawks in the mid-1980s, was profiled in a column by Owen McNally of the Hartford Courant. Tuozzo, who now serves as director of player development for the Rocky Hill Little League, is about to publish a series of instruction books. “I wanted to do these books to remind parents, coaches and kids that the most important part of sports is the fun that is derived from them.” (Hartford Courant, Sept. 2)

Other News

A Hartford Courant editorial said officials at Trinity College, Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University could use a course in basic ethics after they agreed in writing to place the College Board on their list of preferred student-loan agencies in return for discounts on computer software. Universities should know better than to accept inducements from lenders in exchange for giving them a preferred status, the editorial said. (Hartford Courant, Sept. 3)

Saint Joseph College has received its second grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation to support a new graduate certificate program in Latino community practice to help reduce the barriers that Latinos face in receiving quality health care by bilingual professionals. The grant of $27,126 will help establish a program to provide a specialized credential for bilingual, multicultural practice in health and human services. (Hartford Courant, Sept. 4)

The State of Connecticut Health and Education Facilities Authority has awarded Sacred Heart University in Fairfield a $240,000 grant to create a nursing education certificate program and to support current faculty pursuing doctoral degrees. The program aims to help reduce a shortage of qualified nursing instructors. (Hartford Courant, Sept. 4)

Richard L. Sanders, president of Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, has retired after 48 years as a professional educator. Sanders, 70, has spent the past 23 years as a community college president, beginning in 1984 as president at Mattatuck Community College in Waterbury. He stayed on as president of Naugatuck Valley after it was created in 1992 when Mattatuck merged with Waterbury State Technical College. (Hartford Courant, Sept. 4)

Charter Oak State College has extended an educational partnership with Aetna through 2011. The partnership allows Aetna employees to take Charter Oak’s online courses at in-state rates. Charter Oak assigns a full-time program adviser housed at Aetna and waives application and matriculation fees for Aetna students. Since the partnership began in 2001, more than 100 Aetna employees at sites across the country have graduated from Charter Oak State College. (Hartford Courant, Sept. 4)

A record number of black and Hispanic high school students in Connecticut and elsewhere are taking the SAT college entrance exam - but some are also looking for colleges that no longer require the test. More than 700 colleges across the nation have made tests optional, including 26 of the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the rankings compiled by U.S. News & World Report. (Hartford Courant, Aug. 29)

Fairfax County school officials determined that Seung Hui Cho, who was responsible for the tragedies at Virginia Tech, suffered from an anxiety disorder so severe that they put him in special education, but Virginia Tech was never told of the problem. A panel report concluded that Virginia Tech officials could have saved lives by warning students earlier that two students had been shot and that the killer had not been caught. It also said that a judge ordered Seung Hui Cho to be treated for mental health issues but that he never received it. (The Washington Post, Aug. 28)

From bigger guns for campus police to mass text-messaging systems to warn of emergencies, schools nationwide scrambled this summer to ramp up security and communications systems – part of the fallout from the Virginia Tech massacre in April. “The challenge is, how do you reach everybody?” said Joe Cardona, a spokesman at Rowan University, which held a full-scale drill to test new security procedures with a pretend shooter on campus. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 28)

College administrators across the nation are likely to pay close attention to the indictment of two Rider University officials in a case involving a student who died after drinking during a suspected hazing. The case could trigger changes in how schools deal with campus safety issues, including student drinking, because prosecutors are holding administrators more accountable for hazing. (Newsday, Aug. 28)

In a settlement of a case involving inaccurately scanned answers to the SAT test for college-bound students, the College Board and NCS Pearson Inc. will pay $2.85 million to some 4,400 test-takers and their lawyers. The case, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., involved the October 2005 SAT test. Some 4,400 students or 1 percent of those who took the test received incorrect scores that were lower than they deserved because of scanning errors, according to the College Board. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 28)

After a decade in which the amount of private loans exploded, consumer advocates say that families should first make sure they have exhausted federal loan options and financial aid and payment plans from their school before they take out private loans. Families took out $17.3 billion in private loans in 2005, up from $4.5 billion in 2000, said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst at the College Board and a professor of economics at Skidmore Collage. Although private loans were only 4 percent of student loan volume a decade ago, they are now 20 percent, she said. (Associated Press, Aug. 31)