Media Watch (Nov. 21 – Dec. 3, 2007)

"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.

USA Today recently asked its readers, “What are you thankful for this season?” Timothy Chambers, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Philosophy, responded to that question with an answer that was published in the Nov. 21 issue of the newspaper. Chambers said that he was thankful to be a teacher. Chambers said that even though it is sometimes hard to be in this profession, he is exhilarated when he finds students who genuinely seek edification, who work tirelessly and who offer insightful, novel perspectives in class discussions. His entire contribution was also printed in the USA Today blog.
(USA Today, Nov. 21)

Zina Davis, director of the University’s Joseloff Gallery, was quoted in a Boston Globe article about artist Kurt Kauper and the artistic license he took by painting several hockey stars in the nude. Joseloff Gallery showed Kauper’s earlier nude portraits of Cary Grant as part of the “Charged Image” exhibition. Davis said, “This idea of his is not an ephemeral idea, it’s a serious idea of the way in which we respond to the naked body.” She continued, “What are the trigger points, and what are the things that move us from what our expectations are into another realm? It’s a high-concept kind of thinking.” (Boston Globe, Nov. 29)

Tom Condon, editor of the “Place” section in the Sunday Hartford Courant, wrote a column urging state officials who are attempting to buy the Second Church of Christ, Scientist near the State Capitol to make the building the permanent home of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He argued that a healthy symphony orchestra is critical to the vitality of the region. “Indeed, take the hundreds of thousands of people who attend concerts and the nationally popular music workshops of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and other venues, and music fills a not-insignificant stratum in the region’s economy." (Hartford Courant, Dec. 2)

President Walter Harrison was recently honored by the Trinity Club of Hartford as its Person of the Year. Harrison, a 1968 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, was honored for his service in Greater Hartford and on a national level. (Hartford Courant, Nov.27)

University of Hartford students will team up with students from the College of Charleston in a fact-finding mission in Dubai. This trip is the brainchild of David Desplaces, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the College of Charleston’s School of Business and Economics and a former faculty member at the University of Hartford. The students will work in teams to create economic development plans for local businesses in Hartford or Charleston that want to expand their reach into Southwest Asia. (Charleston Regional Business Journal, Nov. 28)

Esther “Esty” Stein was recently welcomed to the Hartford Hillel Foundation’s staff as coordinator of Jewish Student Life for the University of Hartford. Stein is a graduate of Goucher College in Baltimore, where she was an active member of the campus Hillel. She spent the past six months conducting research in Ghana as a World Partners Fellow. (Jewish Ledger, Nov. 26)

Josephine (DiPietro) Smith, an alum of the College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions was profiled in the Hartford Courant for her role as the principal at Betances Elementary School in Hartford. The story noted that “Betances, the lowest-ranked elementary school in Hartford two years ago, improved its Connecticut Mastery Test scores 8.1 percent last year in the first year of Smith’s leadership. The gain, the largest in the city last school year, spared the school from being closed down and redesigned and earned Smith the Outstanding First Year Principal Award by the Connecticut Association of Schools.” (Hartford Courant, Nov. 22)

Other News

A majority of Central Connecticut State University faculty supported President Jack Miller in a vote over his leadership. With about half of eligible faculty members voting, 52 percent backed Miller while 42 percent said they lacked confidence in his leadership, according to results released on Nov. 26. The vote — put forth by dissatisfied faculty — stemmed from issues over Miller's leadership style and his handling of certain events at the university. (Hartford Courant, Nov. 27)

Dozens of colleges, universities, and trade schools were ordered to turn over documents to government officials explaining why a single lender at each school handles the majority of federally backed student loans. The request, sent to 55 schools, comes amid concerns that some colleges might be steering students improperly to lenders who reward schools for the extra business The targeted schools include large public universities, private liberal arts colleges and career schools where students received at least $10 million in federal loans for tuition and fees during the 2006-07 school year, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Education by Gannett News Service under the Freedom of Information Act. Education officials selected the 55 schools from a list of 921, originally identified in June, where a single lender handled at least 80 percent of federally backed student loans. (USA Today, Nov. 30)

Online education — also known as “distance learning” — has become an increasingly convenient way to get a college education, especially for students with jobs and families to support. Nearly 3.5 million students enrolled in online classes during the fall of 2006–07, according to the 2007 Sloan Survey of Online Learning, which surveyed more than 2,500 schools and released results last month. Over the past five years, the survey found, online enrollments have grown by an annual average of 21.5 percent. (USA Today, Nov. 29)

Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they can take a university course. Cyber University, the nation’s only university to offer all classes only on the Internet, began offering a class on mobile phones on the mysteries of the pyramids. For classes for personal computers, the lecture downloads play on the monitor as text and images in the middle, and a smaller video of the lecturer shows in the corner, complete with sound. The cell phone version, which pops up as streaming video on the handset’s tiny screen, plays just the Power Point images. (Associated Press, Nov. 30)

Massachusetts' public colleges are aggressively lobbying lawmakers so they can be called universities, saying a simple name change would give them a stronger brand name and a springboard to greater status. Massachusetts college presidents are stumping for a state university system that would unite the state’s nine public colleges. They recently took their case to the state Board of Higher Education, which is mulling the idea. The change requires legislative approval. (Boston Globe, Nov. 27)

Columbia University’s controversial plan to expand into West Harlem was approved by the City Planning Commission during a raucous meeting before a crowd of hostile protesters. The commission approved Columbia’s planned construction of an arts, business and science campus on 17 acres in Manhattanville that the university maintains it needs to stay competitive, but some community groups insist will drive out longtime, lower-income residents and businesses. Although the university has acquired most of the properties in the project's footprint, it hasn't ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the rest. (Newsday, Nov. 28)