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Media Watch (July 19–25, 2005)
Posted 7/26/2005
"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.
Richard Freund, director of the university’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, was featured in a Jerusalem Post story on the archaeological dig he is excavating in the Israeli coastal city of Yavne. The excavation, which has involved local school children from Yavne as well as Freund’s high-tech team, has uncovered items dating back to 70 CE and the time of the Sanhedrin, the first Jewish rabbinical court. Jerusalem Post, July 21) President Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Performance, was featured in a Washington Post, article and other news outlets, responding to comments from collegiate men’s basketball coaches who are upset with the NCAA’s new rules for making schools accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes. President Harrison was also featured in a Hartford Courant story reflecting on the positive and negative comments he’s heard about the NCAA’s reform effort. (Washington Post, July 20; MSNBC, July 20; Oakland Tribune, July 21; Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, July 21; Hartford Courant, July 25)
Warren Goldstein, chair of the history department in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, had a commentary article published in the Charlotte Observer about the overwhelming vote by the governing body of the United Church of Christ to “affirm equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender,” thereby becoming the first mainline denomination, and the largest Christian denomination in the world, to support same-sex marriage. (Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., July 25)
A Hartford Courant “Java” column focused on a Creative Cocktail Hour event held by Real Art Ways. Besides the music and dancing, there was an art exhibit by University of Hartford graduate Kevin Van Aelst, of what he describes as “a combination of complex, important ideas with banal and mundane subject matter.” One work on display was a picture of chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles. “You never know how well gooey doughnuts go with a creative cocktail until you’ve tried,” noted the Java columnist. (Hartford Courant, July 25)
The Hartford Courant’s “Cal” magazine featured a preview of a series of free performances of the Intermezzo Opera Festival in the university’s Millard Auditorium. Over the years, the festival has given young singers a chance to work with distinguished music and stage directors in adventurous operatic repertoire. (Hartford Courant, July 21)
Vanessa Golembewskiof New Bedford, Mass., who began winning essay contests and scholarship money when she was in the fourth grade, will be the first member of her family to go to college when she arrives at the University of Hartford campus next month. Golembewski, who plans to major in English and become a teacher, is one of thousands of young adults across the country to receive help from Scholarship America, an organization dedicated to helping students achieve higher education. (The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass., July 21)
The future of the annual ConnectiCon convention, which was founded by two University of Hartford students, Matt Daigle and Briana Benn, and which was held on the university campus for its first two years (2003 and 2004) is in jeopardy noted a story on the Amine-Cons web site. ConnectiCon, which caters to fans of Anime, Sci-Fi, Gaming, Fantasy and more, was called “one of the friendliest, most welcoming conventions in the Northeast” in the story. (Anime-Cons.com, July 19)
Other News
Although public college tuition in Connecticut no longer is rising at the double-digit rate of a few years ago, students will still be paying prices growing faster than the rate of inflation. The latest increase came on July 22, when Connecticut State University’s four campuses raised tuition and fees for next year by an average of 5.9 percent, about double the most recent annual inflation rate measured by the Consumer Price Index. (Hartford Courant, July 23)
Fairfield University officials will meet to review summer camp policies after eight counselors were fired for heavy drinking. The eight counselors include several Fairfield University students. They were replaced on July 12, which was the second day of a week-long Nike swim camp. Campus and town police found evidence that counselors had been drinking in a dorm lounge while the nine campers huddled in one room. (NBC 30, July 24; Connecticut Post, July 24; New York Times, July 23)
Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez announced an initiative to hook city children up with scholarships and financial aid for 17 exclusive college prep schools around the state. The program is part of an effort to increase enrollment of city children in four-year colleges by 25 percent. Of the Hartford freshmen who started in 1999, only two-thirds graduated from high school, and only 20 percent of the graduates enrolled in four-year colleges. (Hartford Courant, July 22)
A former media relations specialist at the University of Connecticut has filed a federal job discrimination lawsuit alleging that she was terminated because she is an African American woman. A 24-page lawsuit filed against the university last week contends that Skye Dent was threatened by her supervisor and was the subject of racial and gender discrimination and a hostile work environment, among other allegations. (Hartford Courant, July 21)
More than 400 people, mostly college students and some young professionals came to Yale University to take part in a conference to raise awareness about global development presented by Americans for Informed Democracy. Seth Green, executive director of the organization, is a Princeton graduate and a student at Yale Law School, who founded the group three years ago with the hope of increasing global understanding among young (Hartford Courant, July 24)
A Swiss-based foundation is giving $2.8 million to Trinity College to study the rise of secularism and its implications for politics, religion, and culture. Religion News Service reports that the grant comes from the Posen Foundation, which funded the American Religious Identification Survey in 2001. That survey found that the number of American adults who claimed no religion grew from 14 million to 29 million in the 1990s. (Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., July 23)
The new Hartford Job Corps Academy, a federally funded academy, the second in Connecticut and the ninth in New England, opened its doors on July 19 on the former Charter Oak Terrace housing project site in Hartford. It will eventually train up to 200 people at a time in manufacturing, carpentry, nursing, business technology, and hospitality jobs. (Hartford Courant, July 20)
Speaking to hundreds of university professors on July 18, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he's baffled more students don't go into computer science. Even if young people don’t know that salaries and job openings in computer science are on the rise, they’re hooked on so much technology—cell phones, digital music players, instant messaging, Internet browsing—that it’s puzzling why more don’t want to grow up to be programmers, he said in remarks on the first day of the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, which drew nearly 400 computer science professors from 175 schools in 20 countries to the software maker’s campus. (Associated Press, July 19; Boston Globe, July 19)
IBM is extending an academic outreach program to give universities access to some of its cutting-edge research free of charge. The company will license academics to use and distribute 25 software-development technologies hosted on IBM’s alphaWorks emerging-technology web site. (ZDNet News, July 18)
Upcoming
The University High School of Science and Engineering will be cited in a Hartford Magazine listing of “schools to watch.” The magnet high school will welcome its second class this fall and the magazine issue, listing some of the best schools in the region, will be published in August.
Richard Freund, director of the university’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, was featured in a Jerusalem Post story on the archaeological dig he is excavating in the Israeli coastal city of Yavne. The excavation, which has involved local school children from Yavne as well as Freund’s high-tech team, has uncovered items dating back to 70 CE and the time of the Sanhedrin, the first Jewish rabbinical court. Jerusalem Post, July 21) President Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Performance, was featured in a Washington Post, article and other news outlets, responding to comments from collegiate men’s basketball coaches who are upset with the NCAA’s new rules for making schools accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes. President Harrison was also featured in a Hartford Courant story reflecting on the positive and negative comments he’s heard about the NCAA’s reform effort. (Washington Post, July 20; MSNBC, July 20; Oakland Tribune, July 21; Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, July 21; Hartford Courant, July 25)
Warren Goldstein, chair of the history department in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, had a commentary article published in the Charlotte Observer about the overwhelming vote by the governing body of the United Church of Christ to “affirm equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender,” thereby becoming the first mainline denomination, and the largest Christian denomination in the world, to support same-sex marriage. (Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., July 25)
A Hartford Courant “Java” column focused on a Creative Cocktail Hour event held by Real Art Ways. Besides the music and dancing, there was an art exhibit by University of Hartford graduate Kevin Van Aelst, of what he describes as “a combination of complex, important ideas with banal and mundane subject matter.” One work on display was a picture of chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles. “You never know how well gooey doughnuts go with a creative cocktail until you’ve tried,” noted the Java columnist. (Hartford Courant, July 25)
The Hartford Courant’s “Cal” magazine featured a preview of a series of free performances of the Intermezzo Opera Festival in the university’s Millard Auditorium. Over the years, the festival has given young singers a chance to work with distinguished music and stage directors in adventurous operatic repertoire. (Hartford Courant, July 21)
Vanessa Golembewskiof New Bedford, Mass., who began winning essay contests and scholarship money when she was in the fourth grade, will be the first member of her family to go to college when she arrives at the University of Hartford campus next month. Golembewski, who plans to major in English and become a teacher, is one of thousands of young adults across the country to receive help from Scholarship America, an organization dedicated to helping students achieve higher education. (The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass., July 21)
The future of the annual ConnectiCon convention, which was founded by two University of Hartford students, Matt Daigle and Briana Benn, and which was held on the university campus for its first two years (2003 and 2004) is in jeopardy noted a story on the Amine-Cons web site. ConnectiCon, which caters to fans of Anime, Sci-Fi, Gaming, Fantasy and more, was called “one of the friendliest, most welcoming conventions in the Northeast” in the story. (Anime-Cons.com, July 19)
Other News
Although public college tuition in Connecticut no longer is rising at the double-digit rate of a few years ago, students will still be paying prices growing faster than the rate of inflation. The latest increase came on July 22, when Connecticut State University’s four campuses raised tuition and fees for next year by an average of 5.9 percent, about double the most recent annual inflation rate measured by the Consumer Price Index. (Hartford Courant, July 23)
Fairfield University officials will meet to review summer camp policies after eight counselors were fired for heavy drinking. The eight counselors include several Fairfield University students. They were replaced on July 12, which was the second day of a week-long Nike swim camp. Campus and town police found evidence that counselors had been drinking in a dorm lounge while the nine campers huddled in one room. (NBC 30, July 24; Connecticut Post, July 24; New York Times, July 23)
Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez announced an initiative to hook city children up with scholarships and financial aid for 17 exclusive college prep schools around the state. The program is part of an effort to increase enrollment of city children in four-year colleges by 25 percent. Of the Hartford freshmen who started in 1999, only two-thirds graduated from high school, and only 20 percent of the graduates enrolled in four-year colleges. (Hartford Courant, July 22)
A former media relations specialist at the University of Connecticut has filed a federal job discrimination lawsuit alleging that she was terminated because she is an African American woman. A 24-page lawsuit filed against the university last week contends that Skye Dent was threatened by her supervisor and was the subject of racial and gender discrimination and a hostile work environment, among other allegations. (Hartford Courant, July 21)
More than 400 people, mostly college students and some young professionals came to Yale University to take part in a conference to raise awareness about global development presented by Americans for Informed Democracy. Seth Green, executive director of the organization, is a Princeton graduate and a student at Yale Law School, who founded the group three years ago with the hope of increasing global understanding among young (Hartford Courant, July 24)
A Swiss-based foundation is giving $2.8 million to Trinity College to study the rise of secularism and its implications for politics, religion, and culture. Religion News Service reports that the grant comes from the Posen Foundation, which funded the American Religious Identification Survey in 2001. That survey found that the number of American adults who claimed no religion grew from 14 million to 29 million in the 1990s. (Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., July 23)
The new Hartford Job Corps Academy, a federally funded academy, the second in Connecticut and the ninth in New England, opened its doors on July 19 on the former Charter Oak Terrace housing project site in Hartford. It will eventually train up to 200 people at a time in manufacturing, carpentry, nursing, business technology, and hospitality jobs. (Hartford Courant, July 20)
Speaking to hundreds of university professors on July 18, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he's baffled more students don't go into computer science. Even if young people don’t know that salaries and job openings in computer science are on the rise, they’re hooked on so much technology—cell phones, digital music players, instant messaging, Internet browsing—that it’s puzzling why more don’t want to grow up to be programmers, he said in remarks on the first day of the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, which drew nearly 400 computer science professors from 175 schools in 20 countries to the software maker’s campus. (Associated Press, July 19; Boston Globe, July 19)
IBM is extending an academic outreach program to give universities access to some of its cutting-edge research free of charge. The company will license academics to use and distribute 25 software-development technologies hosted on IBM’s alphaWorks emerging-technology web site. (ZDNet News, July 18)
Upcoming
The University High School of Science and Engineering will be cited in a Hartford Magazine listing of “schools to watch.” The magnet high school will welcome its second class this fall and the magazine issue, listing some of the best schools in the region, will be published in August.
