Media Watch (Dec. 17, 2007 – Jan. 7, 2008)

"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.

Darryl McMiller, assistant professor of political science at Hillyer College, offered his analysis of the results of the Iowa presidential caucuses and their impact on the New Hampshire primary. He was interviewed by WFSB-TV Channel 3 News and the “Dan Lovallo Show” on WDRC-AM. McMiller was also quoted in a Bloomberg.com story about state insurance regulators not providing enough oversight of health insurance companies.
(WFSB-TV Channel 3, Jan. 2; WDRC-AM, Jan. 4; Bloomberg.com, Dec. 27)

University President Walter Harrison was a guest on Connecticut Public Radio’s (WNPR-FM) “Where We Live” show for a discussion of the efforts to reform college athletics and improve student-athletes’ academic performances. Listen to President Harrison’s interview with host John Dankosky.
(WNPR-FM, Jan. 4)

David Pines, chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Biomedical Engineering, CETA, and student members of the University’s Engineers Without Borders chapter, were interviewed for a story on NBC 30 about their plans to travel to India and install a solar-powered pump for a well in a small village and thereby provide the villagers with access to clean drinking water.
(NBC 30, Dec. 28)

Bharat Kolluri, professor and chair of the Economics, Finance and Insurance Department at the Barney School of Business, was prominently featured in an article in the Economic Times about how it is becoming more difficult for students from India to attend a university in the United States. “The rising number of Asian applicants has increased the competition for college admission. Government is cutting down financial support and making visa rules difficult. However, the Indian students are still the second-largest community among foreign students,” said Kolluri.
(Economic Times, Jan. 2)

An article about Bloomfield High School junior Raymond Clark III and his talent as a musical composer included a mention of a performance of Clark’s for University President Walter Harrison. “He has three gifts,” Harrison said of Clark, “He can compose, play and reflect. He’s a one-in-a-million kid.” The performance for President Harrison was arranged by alumnus Joseph Olzacki (’85, '86, A&S; '94, HARTT; '01, ENHP,) the Bloomfield school district's director of visual and performing arts.
(Hartford Courant, Jan. 1)

Steven Rosenthal, professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, was profiled in the New Haven Independent on the occasion of the closing of his Turkish rug shop in New Haven. The shop had been in its current location for 15 years. Rosenthal said he became interested in the rugs when he was a graduate student in Istanbul in the early 1980s, working in the prime minister’s office.
(New Haven Independent, Jan. 2)

Richard Freund, director of the Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, was a guest on WTIC-AM’s “Face Connecticut” show. Freund discussed his archaeological endeavors in Israel and what his finds tell us about life in Jesus’s time.
(WTIC-AM, Dec. 23)

Michael Crosbie, chair of the Architecture Department in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, was quoted in a story about the revival of arts and spirituality in church architecture.
(Raleigh Biblical Recorder, Dec. 27)

Renwick Griswold, assistant professor of sociology in Hillyer College, had a letter about his family’s holiday traditions published in a collection that the Hartford Courant shared with its readers just before Christmas. Griswold’s family holiday tradition involved time spent on the Connecticut River.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 22)

Roger Desmond, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Communication, was quoted in a Hartford Business Journal story about the folding of CT Slant magazine. The magazine didn’t live up to the hype that surrounded its launch nine months ago, Desmond said.
(Hartford Business Journal, Dec. 24)

Susan Brooker, chair of the Dance Department of The Hartt School Community Division, was named to the team of academic advisors for the American Ballet Theatre’s new national training curriculum. Her appointment was noted in the “Education Briefs” column in the Hartford Courant.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 18)

In its editorial “wish list” for the City of Hartford’s economic development, the Hartford Courant said one of the goals for 2008 should be “Getting Westbrook Village right. The aged housing project near the University of Hartford needs renewal. If it were developed as a multiuse university village, it would be a boon to the school and the Upper Albany/Blue Hills neighborhoods.”
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 30)

In its “Education Briefs” column, the Hartford Courant noted that “the law firm of Rogin, Nassau, Caplan, Lassman & Hirtle LLC has established a scholarship at the University of Hartford in memory of its late senior partner Jerome E. Caplan. The scholarship will provide financial help to students majoring in Judaic Studies.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 25)

Chuck Obuchowski, director of jazz programming and a DJ at WWUH-FM, wrote a column in the Hartford Courant about his top 10 jazz recordings released in 2007. Among his top picks were recordings by Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus, and the final recording from Michael Brecker.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 30)

Luann Rice, a well-known author and Connecticut native, wrote an article for the Hartford Courant that included reminiscences of listening to Helen Hubbard, who was an opera singer and former head of the voice department at The Hartt School. “One of my favorite memories was waking early to the sound of her singing scales down the hill, across the street. The notes would rise and fall and mingle with sounds of nature—gulls, migratory birds, the breeze, waves breaking on the rocks,” Rice wrote.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 23)

WellPoint, Inc. announced the appointment of John Langenus as senior vice president and president and CEO of its Anthem National Accounts division, effective Feb. 25, 2008. Langenus, who received his MBA from the University of Hartford, joins Anthem National Accounts from Coventry Healthcare, where he served as president of Group Healthcare for more than two years. Prior to his role at Coventry, he held leadership positions at Evolution Benefits and Cigna Healthcare.
(CNN Money.com, Dec. 19)

In its “Alumni Watch” column, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that “There are numerous local players who are competing a long way from home. The University of Hartford has attracted two of the best players from Marin County in recent years: junior Michael Turner (Marin Catholic-Kentfield) and freshman Morgan Sabia (Drake-San Anselmo). The duo has combined to average 15 points per game.”
(San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 5)

Other News

Michael Meotti, a former Democratic state senator and president of the United Way of Connecticut, has been named Connecticut’s next commissioner of higher education. Meotti, 54, will succeed Valerie F. Lewis, who plans to retire next month after seven years as commissioner. A lawyer, Meotti served as president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Connecticut since 2005. Before that he served as president of the Connecticut Policy and Economics Council, a nonprofit public policy group, and spent four terms in the state senate, where he represented Glastonbury and served as assistant majority leader and vice-chair of the education committee. (Hartford Courant, Jan. 7)

Regina Barreca, an English professor at the University of Connecticut, and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, former president of the University of Hartford and The George Washington University, will be two of seven academics around the country who will write a blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education three times a week. The writers are featured in a column called “Brainstorm, Lives of the Mind,” and will appear on the Chronicle’s website and in its daily news update. Other “Brainstorm Bloggers,” as the Chronicle calls them, include Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University; Laurie Fedrich, a painter who is director of the Comparative Arts and Culture Graduate Program at Hofstra University; Dan Greenberg, an observer of science policy and politics; Stan Katz, director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School; and Bob Zemsky, chairman of the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania.
(Hartford Courant, Jan. 1)

Glenn W. Ferguson, who served as president of the University of Connecticut during a period of fiscal constraint, student sit-ins and an administrative shake-up in the 1970s, died from cancer on Dec. 20 at the age of 78. Ferguson, who also headed three other universities, was an ambassador to Kenya and the first director of Volunteers in Service to America, among other leadership roles He served as University of Connecticut president from 1973 to 1978.
(Hartford Courant, Jan. 4)

President Jonathan Daube, who is retiring in June after more than 20 years at the helm of Manchester Community College, was profiled in a story in the Hartford Courant. His colleagues say that among Daube’s greatest accomplishments are the diversity of the faculty, the construction of a new building for the Great Path Academy magnet school, and the improved campus.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 30)

A veteran housing director from The Ohio State University has been named executive director of residential life at the University of Connecticut. Steve Kremer, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of university housing at Ohio State, will join Uconn on Jan. 18. He was selected after a national search. At Uconn, Kremer will oversee a student housing program with 11,700 beds. Uconn houses about 70 percent of its undergraduate student body and has one of the largest student housing programs in the United States.
(Hartford Courant, Jan. 1)

Eastern Connecticut State University’s Organization of Latin American Students was recently awarded the "Outstanding Student Organization Award" by the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute at the Eighth Annual Northeast Latino Student Leadership Conference. The group was honored for the work it has done on campus and in the Willimantic community. Psychology professor Margaret Letterman, along with Eastern students Jose Sanchez, Jose Maldonado and Timothy Dancy, accepted the award on behalf of Eastern and the group.
(Hartford Courant, Jan. 1)

The Quinnipiac University School of Business is launching the Family Business Center in Hamden to offer educational programs for family businesses. Membership, which costs $1,800 annually, entitles business owners to attend forums featuring experts in such areas as effective communication techniques, conflict resolution, legal issues, wealth management and transfer, business planning and development, insurance and estate planning, and information technology. Members also are eligible to participate in faculty-supervised student consulting projects in several areas.
(Hartford Courant, Dec. 25)

In his annual address to the Legislature on Jan. 9, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will propose establishing an endowment for the state’s higher education system and adding 2,000 faculty members, according to a person with knowledge of the speech. The proposals are part of an effort by the governor to put New York’s public universities on a par with those in states like California and Michigan. But it remains to be seen how much the administration would be willing to spend initially, as the state already faces a budget gap of more than $4 billion.
(New York Times, Jan. 7)

Virginia Tech announced that the second floor of Norris Hall, where 30 students and faculty members were slain in the nation’s deadliest college campus shooting, will be used in part to create a Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. The floor that gunman Seung Hui Cho terrorized in the spring will also be used to enhance engineering education, officials said. The decision on the use of the space was made after months of deliberation by a task force.
(Washington Post, Dec. 21)

Students may be less likely to attend religious services while in college than they were as high school students, but that doesn’t mean they’re not wrestling with spiritual and ethical issues, a study suggests. An increasing number of undergraduates express a desire to explore the meaning and purpose of life as they progress through college, it says.
(USA Today, Dec. 20)