Media Watch (Dec. 1 – 10, 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.

Emily Jane Taubl, a freshman at The Hartt School, was profiled in the New York Times as part of a story on the eighth annual van Rooy Competition for Musical Excellence held last month. Taubl, a cellist, won the Grand Prize in the competition and will make her Hartford Symphony Orchestra debut on Jan. 24 and 25.
(New York Times, Dec. 9)

“Fresh Eyes on a Colorful Movement” was the headline of a New York Times review of the Post Dec: Beyond Pattern and Decoration exhibition currently on display in the University’s Joseloff Gallery. The review notes that Zina Davis, the exhibition’s curator and director of the Joseloff Gallery, brought together the works of several original members of the Pattern and Decoration movement and contemporary artists who share the same love of color, pattern and decoration.
(New York Times, Dec. 9)

Will Volet, an intern with the Hartford Courant’s editorial board and a senior majoring in history at the University of Hartford, wrote an opinion article as part of a series the board did on the different methods of getting to and from work. Volet’s article, which was published in the Dec. 9 “Commentary” section, focused on his efforts to get back and forth from the University to the Courant’s office in Hartford by city bus.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 9)

Lou Manzione, dean of the University’s College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, has been named chairman of Connecticut's new Broadband Internet Council, noted an item in the Hartford Courant’s “Education Briefs” column. Manzione was appointed by Connecticut Speaker of the House James Amann and state Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. Manzione served as chairman of a Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering committee that drafted a comprehensive report for the state legislature calling for an advanced communications infrastructure in the state.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 4)

Margery Steinberg, associate professor of marketing in the Barney School of Business and executive director of the Center for Customer Service, was featured in a photograph in the “Accolades & More” section of the Hartford Business Journal. Steinberg was a co-chair of the opening concert gala celebrating the 64th season of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Steinberg was also scheduled to be a guest on WNPR’s “Where We Live” show this morning (Tuesday, Dec. 11) at 9 a.m. for a discussion of online shopping.
(WNPR, Dec. 11; Hartford Business Journal, Dec. 10)

The Hartford Courant published an article about the recent death of artist Alan Tompkins, former director of the Hartford Art School, who had an exhibition of his paintings in the Silpe Gallery to celebrate his 100th birthday. “Alan seemed to be a force that would not end,” HAS Dean Power Boothe told the Courant. “He was always planning his next painting and working on his next exhibition.”
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 7)

In its “Around Connecticut” column, the Connecticut Jewish Ledger noted that University President Walter Harrison was recently named one of the nation’s 10 most powerful people in college sports by the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Harrison has come out swinging to ensure that college athletic programs keep their student-athletes up to academic standards and on track to graduate,” said the Ledger.
(Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Dec. 6)

A small fire in a wastebasket in the University’s Crandall House residential building caused the sprinkler system to be activated, which extinguished the fire but caused water damage that forced students in that A Complex to be dislocated for one night.
(WFSB-TV Channel 3, Dec. 6 and 7; NBC 30, Dec. 6; WTNH-TV Channel 8, Dec. 6)

Four University of Hartford students were highlighted in a cover story in the December 2007 issue of CT Slant magazine. The students, who share their diverse decorating styles in an apartment on Oxford Street in Hartford, are: Jason Tragni, a business major; Ross Fredella, a photography student; and Phil Feinman and Jamie Martini, both audio engineering technology students. The students discussed the pieces they’ve collected that other people were throwing away.
(CT Slant , December 2007 issue)

Aurora Nowak, identified as the vice commodore of the Hog River Yacht Club, a student environmental organization at the University of Hartford, had a letter to the editor in the Hartford Courant, which argued that bottled water is a waste of money and a waste of natural resources. Nowak noted that the club had conducted an experiment to determine whether the campus community could tell the difference between bottled water and tap water, and half of those polled could not taste the difference.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 1)

The story of how the University of Hartford acquired the anchor that is now near its front entrance and how it came to be painted and decorated by many groups of students was outlined in the “Ask the Experts” column in the December 2007 issue of Hartford Magazine.
(Hartford Magazine, December 2007 issue)

Michael J. Crosbie, who is an architect and chairman of the Department of Architecture at the University of Hartford, had an opinion article published in Newsday about a proposal to build twin towers at the Nassau Hub. “The memory of what happened to the Twin Towers in Manhattan is still fresh, despite everything we’ve heard about ‘getting over it.’ Like it or not, the image of two towers, side by side, mirror images, still makes us queasy,” he wrote.
(Newsday, Dec. 2)

PGA Tour pro and former Hartford Hawk standout Jerry Kelly weighed in on the Heisman Trophy debate in an interview during the Merrill Lynch Shootout tour event in Naples, Fla. “Tebow’s done stuff nobody else has done,” Kelly said of sophomore Florida Gator quarterback Tim Tebow, who was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 8.
(Southwest Florida News-Press, Dec. 6)

Kelly is being inducted into the Wisconsin State Golf Association’s Hall of Fame this week. “It would be difficult to come up with a better example of great Wisconsin values,” wrote a sports columnist for the Capital Times in Madison, Wisc.
(Capital Times, Dec. 4)

Other News

In a heated dispute that reached the governor’s office and the university president, a member of the University of Connecticut’s construction committee has accused the University of Connecticut of breaking state law because it failed to report audit findings which showed that the university shifted construction money between accounts without approval. Charles Urso, a member of the oversight committee that monitors construction, has called for an independent audit to look into UConn’s past practice of transferring costs between projects.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 5)

More than 5,000 high school students throughout the state are taking part in UConn Early College Experience, a program that gives students the chance to earn college credits and thus save thousands of dollars in higher education costs. Although UConn has been giving high school students a chance to earn college credits for decades, the program has grown dramatically of late, with participation increasing by 600 to 800 students in each of the past four years.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 10)

Lust for power is merely ambition. Lust and power together, however, can make trouble. The question is whether that potent cocktail cost taxpayers $1 billion this year because of a secret relationship between a high-ranking legislator and a Connecticut State University System (CSUS) vice chancellor. Jill Ferraiolo, the state university system’s associate vice chancellor for government relations and communications, and State Sen. Thomas Gaffey, (D-Meriden), a chairman of the Education Committee and vice chairman of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, became allies in the quest for that billion. E-mails between the two show that their entanglement extended beyond the halls of government as the legislature shaped policies on CSUS.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 4)

American teenagers have less mastery of science and mathematics than their peers in many industrialized nations, according to scores on a major international exam. Education experts say results of the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment highlight the need for changes in classrooms and in the federal No Child Left Behind law. The average science score of. 15-year-olds lin the U.S. lagged tbehind those in 16 of 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. U.S. students were further behind in math, trailing counterparts in 23 countries.
(Washington Post, Dec. 5)

The Connecticut Board of Education has endorsed a proposal that would require high school students to pass end-of-course exams, complete an independent study, and take at least 24 credits in specific courses to earn a diploma. The board’s approval clears the way for a yearlong effort to solicit public comment. A final proposal, expected this month, would be submitted to the legislature. Changes could be implemented in the 2011–12 school year.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 6)

Louis Bayer, a game warden and a conservationist, collected about 3,000 artifacts in the fields and streams of southeastern Connecticut, including one that dates back 9,000 years. He also collected arrowheads while working for the state. With the help of then-University of Connecticut graduate student Kathy Hoy, he cataloged and documented the collection before his death in 1997. He left the collection to his son, Jon Bayer, and his two grandsons, who recently donated it to the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 9)

A physician's saddlebag, used to carry medicines by doctors who made house calls on horseback, is among a collection of historical medical artifacts that will move to the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington this spring. The Hartford Medical Society is moving the collection of medical books and journals as well as the saddlebag and an anesthesia machine from 1946 from its Scarborough Street spot in Hartford’s West End to a 2,500-square-foot space next to the Lyman Maynard Stowe Library at the health center.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 4)

For three months now, Middle Georgia College has blocked students from using Facebook and MySpace, two popular social networking sites, in academic buildings across campus. Students had been using library and lab computers to look up their friends' latest relationship status or interests while other students waited to do academic work, said Mary Ellen Wilson, vice president for academic affairs and chair of the Academic Council, which requested the blocking. Wireless and land access to Facebook and MySpace have been blocked in many academic buildings, although wireless access is not blocked in the library and no access is blocked in the residence halls.
(Macon.com, Dec. 5)

The Virginia Tech shootings and other tragic incidents on campuses this year have shown that many colleges and universities are reluctant to reach out to parents when there are signs of trouble, such as a missing or potentially suicidal student. Citing a federal law meant to protect student privacy, many schools do not release young people's records to parents or authorities. But in one area, administrators are increasingly exploiting an exception in the law that allows them to reach out: drinking and drugs. A growing number of colleges, such as Texas Tech and Ohio University, are deciding to call Mom and Dad about underage drinking and illegal drug use, often at the very first signs of trouble.
(Wall Street Journal, Dec. 7)

Boston College is pursuing a 10-year, $1.6 billion expansion plan it says will help propel the university into the top tier of colleges in the country and transform it into the world’s leading Catholic university. The plan includes adding up to 100 new faculty members, building four new academic buildings, a recreation complex, more than 600 new beds for undergraduate students, a fine arts district, and new athletic fields and facilities. It also calls for creating more than a dozen new centers and institutes within the university.
(Associated Press, Dec. 6)

Upcoming

Richard Freund, director of the Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, will be taping an interview for WTIC-AM’s “Face Connecticut” show. The show will be broadcast on Sunday, Dec. 23, at 6 a.m.

President Walter Harrison is scheduled to tape a promotional spot for Connecticut Public Radio, WNPR-FM, that will air in January.