Lessons from a Lockdown

 

A police vehicle blocks an entrance to the University of New Haven's parking lot during a Dec. 3 lockdown. Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

A version of this op-ed was first published in the Connecticut Post on Dec. 12.

Although the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary are undoubtedly on all our minds at this time of year, I never expected to have the situation those people experienced come as close to home as it did for me on a recent Tuesday.

Yet there I found myself, in a closet with my classmates at the University of New Haven after police werealerted to a Fairfield student making his way onto campus with a gun, merely ten days before the anniversary of that horrible attack.

We were fortunate: police responded swiftly, and there were no injuries. Fear and inconvenience is a small burden to bear compared to what could have been. We had plenty of time while we were in hiding to consider the full range of possibilities.

Most schools have adopted protocols for emergency lockdowns, and some practice them on a regular basis. Practice, though, has its limits. It cannot replicate the emotional turmoil of those first moments after the realization strikes: this is real.

My classes may have been canceled that day, but I learned some valuable lessons about the ways that our systems work to foster or undermine safety. Here are a few of those lessons:

- Don't Panic: It's the best advice anyone can give. Our classroom had glass walls and doors that provided little protection, so we had to take alternative action. Within a minute of receiving the alerts from UNH's emergency notification system, we had hidden our belongings, turned off the lights, and locked ourselves into a large closet inside the classroom. Our professor was swift and direct, and no one hesitated. If any of us had panicked, it would have delayed our retreat and broken up the group, possibly putting us in greater danger. We continued to watch out for and reassure one another throughout the afternoon.

- Be Vigilant: The woman who first called police is a hero, and became one by paying attention to her environment. One of my professors wondered aloud afterward whether someone walking down the street while staring at a smartphone or wearing ear buds might have been too ensconced in her encapsulated world to have noticed the gun. I wonder, too.

- Tech is Your Friend: Aside from the obvious advantage of the initial warnings from the notification system, many of us brought our phones with us when we filed into the closet, allowing us to follow Twitter feeds, local media, and updates from the university. We stayed connected even while isolated. Because of this, we found out when the suspect had been arrested and that the immediate danger had likely passed. We could make an informed decision to move back into the classroom while we waited for the "shelter in place" order to be lifted.

- Tech is Your Enemy: During the height of the crisis, someone on campus posted to Twitter saying exactly what room she was in. If I could read it, a potential shooter could as well. It can be tempting to talk about what's happening during an emergency, but you have to keep in mind that social media are public forums. Be careful about what you say.

- Policies Can Conflict: The day after the lockdown, one of my professors pointed out that some teachers have a policy requiring students to turn their phones off. "If everyone had turned everything off," he asked the class, "would we have known about the alerts?" The answer, of course, is no. Fortunately, few students actually follow "phones off" policies. What may seem to be a needless distraction at one moment can become a life-saving tool the next.

I learned all these things and more that Tuesday. I sincerely hope that no one who reads this will ever have to make use of these lessons. Unfortunately, the recent trend of school threats has tempered my hope with a pessimistic realism.

Commencements Carry Long Histories Forward

The commencement ceremonies program from 1930, when UNH was known as New Haven College.

Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

The university commencement ceremony is a truly ancient tradition.

According to April L. Harris's “Academic Ceremonies: A Handbook of Traditions and Protocol,” the first commencements were held in Paris and Bologna in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. At that time, Harris writes, universities were training grounds run by local guilds and trade associations. After a student had mastered a craft, “the new master of arts was permitted by his superiors to commence teaching the craft, thus the term 'commencement.'”

Modern commencement ceremonies retain some of the vestiges of ancient traditions in the symbolic colors of the hoods and robes, the delivery of speeches, and other basic components. Despite their age, however, there are few agreed-upon rules for how to conduct a commencement. Every commencement is a unique blend that reflects an institution's own history, beliefs, and circumstances.

Past commencements at the University of New Haven tell a great deal about the university's genesis. When it opened as the New Haven Y.M.C.A. Junior College in 1920, UNH was a second-chance institution aimed at providing job skills for veterans of World War I. The college consisted of three departments: the School of Commerce and Finance, the School of Engineering, and the Preparatory School.

In addition to being experience-oriented, the college was progressive, admitting women for the first time during the 1922-23 school year. According to a historyof UNH written in 1995 by Joseph B. Chepaitis as part of the university's 75-year anniversary, the first commencement, held on June 24, 1924, served as a chance for the 13 graduates to display this forward-leaning attitude.

“The graduating class displayed their spirit at graduation,” he writes. “The male members stepped aside to allow the only woman in the class, Bella Cohen, to be the first to graduate.”

In its early years, UNH struggled to maintain its mission of service to the community. The Great Depression and other factors placed the fledgling college on uncertain ground, and limited the number of students who enrolled. In 1930, a full ten years after its inception, the graduating class still only consisted of 16 people, two of whom were women.

The program from that day's ceremonies is the earliest one available today in the UNH archives. Despite being over 80 years old, though, the format of the ceremony would be familiar to anyone who has attended a modern commencement.

A string quintet played “Pomp and Circumstance” during the opening processional. There was an invocation followed by a commencement address. The candidates for degrees were presented that year by Ellis C. Maxcy, who was head of the Commerce and Engineering Departments at the time. Next, New Haven College Director John Brodhead conferred the degrees. Finally, the group recessed as the quintet played the “Coronation March.”

In 1930, the only note of protocol listed in the program stated, “The audience will remain seated until the procession has left the auditorium.”

Not much has changed since 1930. When asked what protocols today's students need to know, Director of University Special Events Jill Zamparo echoes the recommendation from a century ago.

“Students shouldn't get up and leave until the ceremony is over,” she says.

Some things about commencement have changed significantly since UNH was founded. One significant milestone occurred in 1958, when New Haven College (UNH's name at the time) received provisional authority from Connecticut's General Assembly to award bachelor of science degrees in business and engineering.

By the time the college received accreditation for its baccalaureate programs in 1966, the number of students receiving four-year degrees outnumbered those receiving two-year degrees by two to one. At that year's commencement, 186 business and engineering students got their bachelors degrees, while 92 received an associates degree.

As UNH expanded into its current size and shape, it also adapted its commencement ceremonies to incorporate more ancient traditions. A pair of maces conveyed by the marshals leading academic processions were donated in 1976 by former Chairman of the UNH Board of Governors Norman I. Botwinik. The maces, which reside under glass in the university library for most of the year, were designed after those used by fifteenth century academies in London, according to the UNH commencement pageantry guide.

Maces are used to symbolize authority, according to the guide. They became a symbol of power during the Middle Ages in Europe because they could break plate armor that was impervious to the sword.

A second ancient symbol was given in 1995 by the University of New Haven Alumni Association and incorporated into the ceremonies: the collar of authority. The collar is worn by the president of a university and contains symbols significant to that institution. In UNH's case, the collar contains a pendant with the university seal, as well as eight links with symbols representing UNH's foundation and historical connection to Yale University and the Y.M.C.A.

Other changes are bound to occur over time, as well. Zamparo says that she is finding that policies are needed to handle all kinds of minutia, such as who can and cannot wear honor cords. She expects a set of written policies to be in place by 2013.

Yet the traditions from which Zamparo is drawing her ideas for new practices are sometimes profoundly old. Books like Harris's “Handbook of Traditions and Protocol” are guiding guide the development of these practices. What emerges will be another adaptation of ancient traditions to meet modern needs.

HCC and UNH Partner for First Transfer Tour

The main campus at the University of New Haven. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

A group of 22 students from Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport got a first-hand look Friday at the University of New Haven experience.

The students, accompanied by HCC Counselor Marilyn Wehr, boarded a bus at 10 a.m. and made the half-hour trip to West Haven, where they were shepherded to the second floor of Bartels Hall for a presentation about UNH by Nikki Cardillo, assistant director for transfer admissions at UNH, who led the tour.

Aided with slides, Cardillo gave an overview of the programs and facilities available at UNH. She explained the transfer process, including the scholarships available to transfer students and the dates by which they would need to apply in order to qualify for financial aid or housing.

Cardillo also spent time talking about some of the successful people who have graduated from UNH, such as David Beckerman, who founded the Starter athletic apparel company in New Haven in 1971.

Most of the students were learning about UNH well before they were ready to finish at HCC. When Cardillo asked how many of the students were interested in transferring for the Fall 2012 semester, four raised their hands.

The students posed tough questions for Cardillo at the end of her presentation. Several asked about part-time enrollment, which had not been covered in the presentation. According to HCC's Institutional Research Office, 4,248 out of 6,132 of the college's students this semester are enrolled part-time, accounting for over two-thirds of the student population.

One student asked Cardillo if she could estimate UNH's ability to place students in jobs. Cardillo said it was difficult to tell.

“Some students go on to Master's programs. Others get jobs that are not in their specific majors,” she pointed out.

After the presentation, the students were given meal cards so they could buy lunch in the cafeteria, where they were joined by professors who talked to them about academic life at UNH.

Several students had already formed positive impressions of UNH before arriving on campus. Rob Nerkowski, a computer sciences major at HCC, had heard about the computer engineering program at UNH from a friend who attends the College of Engineering.

Nerkowski said that everyone he had met on campus seemed kind and had said 'hi' to him.

“There's nothing I didn't like,” he said.

HCC Criminal Justice major Alex Antuna, Jr., said that he was excited to see the Henry C. Lee Institute.

“I wanted to come today because this is one of the best schools for criminal justice and forensics,” he said.

Antuna was a little intimidated by the idea that he would be living on campus by himself, however, saying he had “living on your own anxiety.”

Carolina DeLeón, another criminal justice major at HCC, was not at all intimidated. She said that she was looking for a small campus with nice people, adding that she wanted to go somewhere with the same feeling of community that she enjoyed at HCC.

She was, however, reserving judgment until she had heard more about UNH's part-time programs. She said she has a 14-year-old son, and would not be able to manage a full-time course load.

Wehr said this was the first time HCC and UNH had worked together on such a tour. She and Cardillo worked together to coordinate the trip because they felt that HCC and UNH are near one another and have numerous programs in common, including criminal justice and accounting.

Cardillo said that, since starting as an admissions coordinator in the summer of 2011 she has made it a goal to build closer relationships with Connecticut's community colleges, as well as some in New York and Massachusetts.

“I think that having students come visit, and having our counselors visit their schools multiple times per month gives that personal touch on which UNH prides itself,” she said.

           

Cardillo said she is currently planning a trip for engineering students from Naugatuck Vallley Community College in Waterbury to visit the Tagliatela College of Engineering.

Donation to WNHU Spurs Renovation of Studios

Renovations have begun on WNHU's future talk studio. With the former music library moved, the room will allow enough space for roundtable-style shows and other more elaborate productions.
Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

The University of New Haven's award-winning radio station will soon be getting an upgrade.

WNHU 88.7 FM has received a $6,000 donation to renovate its studios from Barrett Outdoor Communications, a West Haven-based outdoor advertising company.

Barrett Outdoor Communications owner John Barrett donated the funds after his son, Patrick, became involved with the station, says WNHU General Manager Bryan Lane.

“There's currently only one room for producing,” says Lane. “His (Barrett's) son was getting shut out a lot.”

The station, which is housed in the basement of Maxcy Hall, sold off the bulk of its physical music library several years ago, after digitizing some of its collection. When Lane was hired in January 2009, there were about 20,000 CDs and 5,000 vinyl albums. Most weren't being used anymore, and there was no reason to keep more than a few thousand around.

Reducing the size of the library opened more space to expand other activities. “The only problem was that we didn't have the funds,” says Lane.

Lane says the elder Barrett came to him with the offer after learning about his son's experiences. They began discussing what could be done with the configuration of the studios if the money was available.

With the donation, the station will be able to turn the room that formerly housed the library into a full-fledged talk studio, complete with a table and multiple microphones for guests. What is left of the music library is being relocated to a walk-in closet down the hall.

Other moves will also take place. The Charger Stream studio, for instance, will be taking residence in Lane's own office, which he says is too large for his needs.

The renovations are likely to last throughout the summer.

There are other changes that Lane would like to see for the station over the next few years. His biggest goal is to train more students to take on more production and management responsibilities at the studio.

“This is the fourth crew that I'm employing,” he says. “We're getting closer and closer to having the students run things.”

Aside from simply learning how to do more on their own, Lane says that putting students in charge will give them more opportunities to interact with the wider community.

“There's a perception that WNHU is a community station,” he says, “because we have so many people from outside the university here.”

The "Hidden" Wellington Wang Collection

Many of the interesting stones donated over the past few years by collector Wellington Wang to UNH are packed away on shelves in a storage room in the library.

Photographs by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

If you've ever walked into the MarvinK. Peterson Library at the University of New Haven, you've probably noticed a set of glass display cases with shelves of strange-looking rocks prominently displayed along one wall. If you've taken the time to look inside those cases, you probably know that the rocks are part of a collection donated to UNH by the famous Chinese collector Wellington Tu Wang.

What you may not have realized, though, is that UNH's Wellington Wang collection comprises many, many more pieces than the ones on display.

Some of the pieces are scattered throughout campus, on the desks of administrators and staff members. But the vast majority are tucked away in a locked storage room on the upper floor of the library. A number of them are still in boxes or bubble-wrap.

UNH actually has two collections from Wang, explains Director of University Special Events Jill Zamparo. The first, donated in 2009 when Wang was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from UNH, is called the “Scholar's Rocks” collection, and contains 115 stones that were originally from China, but were scattered around Europe and North America after Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

The other collection is made up of soapstone carvings ranging from the sixth century to the twentieth century. Soapstone, also known as steatite, is a metamorphic rock composed mainly of talc, making it easy to carve. Soapstone carvings from China's Fujian Province have been prized for well over a thousand years. That collection was donated to UNH in 2011.

Zamparo has become the de facto curator of the collections since the recent departure of former Seton Gallery director Kerry O'Grady. She keeps records of the collections, including a listing of where the various pieces are located.

After Wang gave the collections to UNH, Zamparo says she could not find places to put them all.

“I chose the ones to display in the library based on whether they would fit on the shelves,” she says, laughing. Many of the Scholar's Rocks were much too large. Indeed, one piece sitting in its box in the storage room is listed as being 66 centimeters - more than two feet - tall

Some administrators offered to keep pieces they liked from the collections in their own quarters. A portion ended up in President Steven H. Kaplan's office, where they line the shelves or sit on stands on the floor. A few, including a gigantic bloodstone, are located in Associate Vice President of the Institute of Forensic Science Henry C. Lee's office.

A few of the stones are in Zamparo's own office, arranged on a plate lined with faux lettuce to resemble a meal of meat and potatoes.

Zamparo says that she and Kaplan would like to eventually display the collections in multiple locations on campus, but they worry about the stones being mishandled, broken or stolen. They would have to install glass cases with locks first.

In the meantime, the pieces remain in the darkened storage room, waiting for the day when a new generation of people can once again enjoy their ancient and intricate beauty.

See selections from the "hidden" collection below!

Though Crucial, UNH Science Building Has a Long Way to Go

In this historic 1966 image, laboratory technician Russel Carver, was shown seated at his U.V. microscope, while in the background is a projection of a fluorescent-stained photomicrograph. Photograph courtesy of CDC.gov. Public domain image.

Steven H. Kaplan has thought the University of New Haven needed a building dedicated to the sciences since he first became president of the university in 2004.

Last month that goal came closer to reality when an anonymous donor gave the university $3 million toward the building.

As generous as the donation was, however, it was only a small step in a process that began several years ago and will likely take several more to complete.

Kaplan says the project is in part a response to a desperate need for space on campus.

“We can meet students' needs right now in the classroom, but we have very little space for students to do projects, to do research, and for faculty to do research. That's the real tight spot,” he says.

Right now, the chemistry and biology departments are spread out among the various buildings, with parts of them housed in Dodds, Buckman and Maxcy halls. That arrangement, says Kaplan, prevents the expansion of non-science departments, too.

“We just need more space, and the best way to accomplish that is to have one central place for science,” says.

Pauline Schwartz, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, says that even on a small campus like UNH's, the distance between the science departments causes inefficiencies in the use of space, equipment, resources and instruments. She also says it does not foster collaborative research between the departments.

Schwartz says that there are two major problems when it comes to space. “First, we are at our very limit for running lab courses during the week; it is absolutely essential to restrict the number of students in our lab classes for safety reasons,” she explains. “Second, we have limited space for conducting research. More faculty and students wish to engage in independent projects that require use of space and equipment that is not available when classes are in session.”

Even for routine classwork, there are problems with being divided between different buildings. For instance, Schwartz says, classrooms in Dodds or Kaplan do not have Periodic Tables that are easily accessible for classroom demonstrations.

When Kaplan presented his proposal to build a new science building about two years ago to the Board of Governors, the group of alumni and local leaders who oversee UNH's fiscal and governance policies, they agreed that with him on the need for such a project. Chair of the Board Sam Bergami, Jr., who is also president of the Milford-based precision manufacturing company Alinabal, says he sees broader reasons for embarking on the project.

“Science is at the root of everything we do, whether we realize or not,” he says. “It should be the intellectual hub of the college community, and everything else should come out of that.”

Bergami also notes that most of the better schools have their own buildings dedicated to the sciences.

He explains, however, that there is a lot of work that goes into such a project. First and foremost is the cost.

“It's a huge amount of money. To expect one or even a few benefactors to provide all of the funding is unrealistic,” he says.

Kaplan, who leads the fund-raising effort, estimates that he will need to raise anywhere between $30 million and $35 million in private gifts for the project. The university would then borrow another $10 million, putting the entire project in the $45 million range.

“That's the ideal amount,” he adds. “We'll do a science center no matter what.”

The anonymous donation that came at the end of January is the only money he has gotten so far. He says, however, that he is talking to three other potential donors who have expressed an interest in giving large sums toward the project, though he could not reveal their names.

“I am very optimistic that we will get the funding in the next year or two,” he says.

If the university is able to procure enough funding to meet its target, Kaplan says the proposed building would contain 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of space. Two spots on campus are currently being considered for the building: where South Campus Hall is, or next to the Tagliatela College of Engineering.

Other facets of the construction have yet to be determined. As more money is raised over the next few years, the university will hire an architectural firm to draft a design plan. At that point, Kaplan says, the Board of Governors would approve the design, the Facilities Department would get involved, and Kaplan would work closely with the science faculty to get their input on how their specific needs can be met by the new building.

Schwartz says she and her colleagues are excited to be involved in the project.

“Although plans have yet to be designed, we are very hopeful that our input will encourage space for faculty research and for core resources for new instruments,” she says.

Throughout the process, the Board of Governors would continue to receive regular progress reports on the project through its Physical Resources Committee, which is responsible at a high level for handling major construction projects on campus. Bergami says they would have little involvement in day-to-day operations, however.

Kaplan says that given the time it takes for fund-raising and gaining various approvals with the university and the city of West Haven, he hopes to break ground on the building in the next two to two-and-a-half years.

Once it's finished, though, Kaplan says UNH will be poised to expand its regional contribution to cutting-edge scientific pursuits.

“I expect science, the life sciences in particular, along with chemistry, to play a very large role at the university,” he says.

New Challenges, Opportunities as UNH's International Student Population Grows

The International Services Office, adorned with objects from cultures around the world, is a reflection of the University of New Haven's growing cross-cultural student body.
Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

It took Fahad Almutairi 16 months to learn English well enough before he was ready to go to college in the United States.

Almutairi, a 20-year-old native of Saudi Arabia, wanted to earn a bachelor's degree in fire protection engineering. He looked at several colleges in the U.S. that offered the program, including the University of Maryland. He chose the University of New Haven, he said, because it was the best.

“Fire protection is popular in Saudi Arabia, but they have no schools with bachelor's [programs],” he said. “There are petroleum companies and oil companies there, so they need fire protection.”

Almutairi began at UNH in the fall 2011 semester. He said the college is perfect for international students, whether they are “African, Arabian or South American.”

Other international students apparently also feel that UNH is perfect for them. According to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of International Education, UNH had the fourth-highest number of international students in Connecticut in 2011, ranking it behind only the University of Bridgeport, Yale University, and the University of Connecticut.

The international student population at UNH reached 773 in 2011, accounting for more than 12 percent of the university's overall enrollment of 6,385 for the year. International students accounted for just over 10 percent of the total in 2010, or 602 out of 5,949 students enrolled.

The growth rate for international student populations at colleges in Connecticut was 9.4 percent for 2011, nearly double the nationwide growth rate of 5 percent, according to the IIE's report. Overall, there were 10,137 international students at colleges throughout the state.

Karima Jackson, the director of UNH's International Services Office, said that international students bring benefits that domestic students can't get any other way.

“They have something that the American students usually don't have – experience with studying abroad,” she said. “They also bring business and diversity. When we mix, it creates a more whole student.”

The IIE report also emphasizes the economic benefit that international students bring. In 2011 alone, estimated foreign student expenditures in Connecticut reached approximately $300 million. That money is not just spent in the universities. Students spend at local businesses on food, clothing, entertainment, and more.

Jackson only joined the ISO in September, but said she has noticed the increase in students from other countries over her short time there. She said it may be because of several factors, including the recruiting agencies that UNH uses and the trimester schedule that allows some students to graduate more quickly.

The most important factor, she said, are the high-quality programs that the university offers, such as electrical sciences, engineering and MBA.

The ISO's main goal is to help international students maintain the F1 visas they need to attend college in the U.S., but Jackson said they end up helping with all sorts of other issues. Students may need to get drivers licenses. They may have confusion about where to go for academic needs. They may want advice on navigating some uniquely American institution outside the university.

“The list can go on,” she said. “Every day, it's something new.”

One of the difficulties is that there are over a hundred countries for international students to come from, all with different cultural expectations and practices. For instance, Fahd Jadoon, a second-year graduate student in UNH's MBA program who works in the ISO, said that when he first moved to Minnesota from his home of Pakistan, he had trouble finding food that was kosher.

“There were not a lot of international restaurants in the area,” he said.

He later discovered that Minneapolis had a much more diverse offering of foods. He said he feels comfortable now living in the New Haven area, which has a similar wealth of diversity.

Jackson thinks that one of the biggest current challenges for the university is figuring out how to bridge gaps between the international students and their American counterparts. She said she has been working on several outreach efforts to bring different groups of students together, partly by involving other faculty and staff to encourage cultural exchange.

“They [international students] are not being acclimated to the university as well as they should be,” she said.

Jadoon, on the other hand, said that the teachers at UNH do a good job of fostering interaction between students. As an example, he pointed out that teachers will often assign groups of students to work together, rather than allowing them to choose their own groups and self-segregate.

Jackson also has high hopes. She said her office is preparing for more growth, and is looking forward to putting on the International Festival in April. The event will be a chance for groups from all over the world to share their cultures with other students.

Meanwhile, Almutarai says he is already happy to be making new friends. For him, being an international student at UNH is one of the most positive things he's done.

“It's a great experience that you can learn a new culture, learn a new language, and get a bachelor's,” he said.

Changes to Liquor Laws Unlikely to Impact UNH

Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

A proposal by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to ease Connecticut's restrictions on alcohol sales would be unlikely to have much of an impact on campus life at UNH.

Currently, stores in the state cannot sell alcohol at all on Sundays or later than 9 p.m. on other days. Bars and restaurants must stop serving alcohol at 1 a.m.

If adopted by the state legislature, Malloy's proposed changes would allow stores to sell alcohol until 10 p.m. every day, including Sunday. Bars and restaurants would be allowed to continue serving alcohol until 2 a.m.

Connecticut is one of one of only two states in the U.S., along with Indiana, that does not allow off-premises sales of alcohol on Sundays. Georgia had a state ban on Sunday sales until last year.

Several UNH students are in favor of Malloy's proposed changes. “I've always found it incredibly backwards that alcohol isn't sold on a Sunday,” said UNH student Kathleen Sandin, who grew up in New Hampshire. “I don't drink personally, but to me, Sunday is just another day.”

For the people Sandin knows who do go out and drink, she didn't think much would change. “They usually are home by midnight anyways,” she said.

UNH Student Chris Griebert also favors the proposals. He referred to the current laws as “puritanical,” and said that the state should not be restricting activities that were both “safe and for adults.”

When asked if he thought the later hours at bars might lead students to drink when they should be resting or doing homework, he pointed out that “limiting access doesn't necessarily change peoples' habits.”

UNH policies allow students who are 21 or older to possess and consume alcohol in some areas of the campus. According to the student handbook, however, there are multiple restrictions. Students in residence halls and apartments cannot have alcohol if anyone else in the living space is below drinking age, unless they are assigned roommates. Open containers are not allowed in public areas. Drinking contests are prohibited, as are “common source” containers, such as kegs.

Alcohol is generally not allowed at on-campus and athletic events, though the handbook does allow exceptions at some events and provides guidelines for obtaining permission to serve alcohol.

In addition, students of any age are violating the university's conduct policy if they are found intoxicated.

UNH publishes an annual security report that includes information on alcohol violations. In 2010, the last year for which statistics are available, there were three liquor law arrests. All occurred in residential facilities. There were also 304 liquor law violations that were referred for disciplinary action. Of those violations, 275 occurred in residential facilities.

IBM strategist advocates ‘new mindset’ for corporate communications

IBM Communications Strategist and former business journalist Steve Hamm talks to UNH gathered students in the Vlock Center for Convergent Media Dec. 7 about the new opportunities that global communications are opening for businesses and media. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Corporations are shifting away from talking about themselves toward sharing ideas with people around the world, IBM Communications Strategist Steve Hamm on Dec. 7 told a class of University of New Haven students in the Laurel Vlock Center for Convergent Media in Maxcy Hall.

Hamm spoke to communications majors taking a copy editing course taught by adjunct Professor of Communications Mike Bazinet about his view that both journalism and public relations in the U.S. are broken at a time when a flood of disorderly information has created a great need for writers’ narrative talents. He urged the students not to be pessimistic, saying that there are also more opportunities than ever for positive change in both fields.

“The landscape has been utterly transformed in just a matter of years,” he said. It’s shocking – just shocking.

Hamm should know. He worked in journalism for decades before joining IBM two years ago. He wrote for the Bristol Press in Bristol, Conn., the San Jose Mercury News, and Businessweek. He has written several books, most recently publishing a book honoring IBM’s centennial anniversary. He also writes for IBM’s “A Smarter Planet Blog.”

Hamm witnessed the decline of Businessweek firsthand, from being the top business publication in the world in the late 1990s to when it “essentially went out of business” in 2009. He said he changed roles because he knew that journalism was struggling and he wanted to work with a large organization where his writing would have more influence.

Hamm said, though, that there are also problems emerging in corporate communications, precisely because of its relationship to journalism.

“The old model was: you strategize around finding a journalist interested in telling your story, invest time to develop a relationship with them, understand the market, build stories, pitch them, and then they’d be published,” he said.

Increasingly, Hamm said, journalism has lost its emphasis on explanation and narrative. He said that stories on business news websites like Marketwatch.com are a jumble of sometimes-contradictory snippets without any kind of depth.

“In a world of tremendous complexity, we’ve got news in tiny bits,” he said.

One of the things that Hamm and his colleagues at IBM have been working on to overcome the collapse of in-depth reporting is to recreate deep conversations about ideas through newer media, such as social networking sites. To do that, corporations are expanding their focus of constituents as shareholders and customers to include governments, universities, other companies – and employees.

That is one of the aims behind “A Smarter Planet Blog” and its related Facebook page, “People for a Smarter Planet.” Both sites include discussion with writers and researchers who work for IBM, but also bring in perspectives from all over the world.

One recent innovation was to have “Smart Fridays,” during which people studying interesting phenomena explain their research through a series of posts on the Facebook page. In one recent series, a researcher showed that the height of high-heeled shoes fluctuates with the economy. In hard times, heels tend to get higher, while in prosperous times they get lower.

The conversation, while not specific to anything that IBM does, generated about 1.4 million hits in a few hours.

Hamm sees these types of crossover conversations as a positive step for corporate communications. “One thing corporations must do is say, ‘here’s our knowledge,’ and become a hub around networks to create a feedback loop of learning and influencing. These are the most valuable things in the world, where value can be created.”

Hamm said that no one, including IBM, has quite figured out how to take full advantage of the explosion of information technologies available. That is why it is vital for people from different walks of life to share ideas with one another and try new things.

“Communication is not the frosting on the cake. It is the cake now,” he said. “It is part of the core of what societies need to advance.”

Tips on Arguing: Primary and Secondary Sources

When you’re conducting research for an essay, a debate, or a report, you will often come across multiple sources of information about the same event or topic. How can you tell which of these to use?

One of the most tried-and-true methods for “ranking” information is to distinguish between primary and secondary sources.

A guide to research published by the University of Maryland says that primary sources “are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based.”

Examples of primary sources include things like eyewitness accounts, photographs, newspaper articles from the time and place you’re researching, and physical objects (bones, pottery, coins, and so forth).

Primary sources are considered the gold standard in all academic research, as well as in journalism. The reason is simple: if you get your facts second-hand, you have no way to be sure that they’re accurate.

Secondary sources do have uses, though. Encyclopedias like Wikipedia are considered secondary sources; they pull information together from primary sources to give an overview of a topic. In this way, secondary sources can help someone to learn the basics of a new subject.

These kinds of sources are also great places to get commentary and analysis, because they often draw from multiple viewpoints or discoveries and make connections between ideas.

The quality of a secondary source can be tough to judge, which is why citations are so vital. If there are references, then the reader can go back and look at the primary sources that were used to find out whether or not the secondary source is accurate.

A simple example is Wikipedia’s entryfor “primary source.” The first sentence of the entry says, “Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied.” After that, there appear two citations: one links to the University of Maryland’s definition. You can go to the original definition, and see that although Wikipedia’s wording is slightly different, the idea is accurate. You can be confident in this case that Wikipedia didn’t just make it up or leave out important information.

As the entry goes on, it offers more citations – 31 in all, plus links to other outside sources, similar entries, and so on. This robust suite of references is what makes Wikipedia a valuable tool, because you can find hundreds of primary sources collected in one place.

Teachers have probably warned you against citing Wikipedia. They’re right to do so, but not because Wikipedia is deceitful or inaccurate (it does occasionally make mistakes, but so does everyone). The reason you shouldn’t cite it is that it is academically lazy not to read the primary sources for yourself.

Community Colleges Benefit Everyone: Letter

A painting in the HCC cafeteria celebrating the college's diversity. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

I wrote this letter to the editor in response to an opinion piece by Housatonic Community College President Anita Gliniecki arguing that cutting funding for community colleges is a proposition that is "penny wise and pound foolish." My letter appeared in the Oct. 26 edition of the Connecticut Post:

Housatonic Community College President Anita Gliniecki should be applauded for her defense of community college funding.

I worked my way through HCC, paying for classes out of pocket with the money I earned at a full-time job. It was only because of HCC's low cost that I was able to afford to go back to school.

This spring I graduated with highest honors, a 4.0 GPA and a broad range of new skills. My efforts paid off in the form of scholarships and awards that allowed me to afford to transfer to the University of New Haven.

My experiences at HCC also instilled in me a strong connectedness with the wider community. Community colleges may be better equipped for this than private colleges, because nearly everyone enrolled comes from surrounding municipalities. They share a common stake in the region.

HCC has grown by thousands of students in the past five years. During every year in that same period, state block grant funding has stayed flat or been cut.

An economic impact study completed in 2008 showed that the college contributes $283.9 million each year to the economies of Fairfield and New Haven counties, far more than it receives in state funds.

Having HCC in downtown Bridgeport has made a huge difference in revitalization. Recall what it was like in 1997, the year that HCC relocated to Lafayette Boulevard.

We should all be grateful for the opportunities offered by community colleges. Short-term cuts will only lead to long-term losses for everyone.

More: Read Anita Gliniecki's letter.

Reporters talk tech changes in news at UNH

 

Professional journalists speak to students in the Vlock Center for Convergent Media Wednesday about the ways that their work has been changed by the Internet and mobile technologies. From left to right: Hartford Courant reporter Christine Dempsey, Connecticut Post columnist MariAn Gail Brown, Madison, CT Patch.com editor Patricia McNerney. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Three veteran journalists from around Connecticut visited UNH Wednesday evening for a panel discussion with students about the challenges and opportunities that new technologies have brought to their field.

Hartford Courant reporter Christine Dempsey, Connecticut Post columnist MariAn Gail Brown, and Madison, CT Patch.com editor Patricia McNerney shared their experiences and fielded questions from a packed audience in the Laurel Vlock Center for Convergent Media in Maxcy Hall.

The two-hour discussion was titled “News Writing and Editing for Traditional and Social Media,” and was hosted by Adjunct Professor of Communication Michael Bazinet as part of the copy editing course he is teaching this semester. Students from other journalism courses also attended.

Dempsey described how the process of reporting had changed dramatically in the 25 years she has been doing it. She said that when she used to arrive on the scene of a breaking story, she would have to look around for a pay phone to call her editor.

“Now they have these smart phones that can do anything but slice bread,” she said.

McNerney, whose publication exists entirely online, agreed that mobile devices had altered her reporting practices. She said she had “the most amazing experience in journalism” during Hurricane Irene this summer, because she was able to report on what was happening in her hometown of Madison while staying at a friend’s house in Wallingford by using information other residents posted or sent her.

Volunteers are key information sources for McNerney. “The readers start to tell you what to report,” she said.

Brown pointed out that the Internet had “invigorated” print newspapers, too, by helping them to keep up with television and radio.

“Because of the Internet and our websites,” she said, “we’re constantly updating our stories, which is rejuvenating our papers.”

The panelists warned, however, that not all of the changes brought about by new technologies have been positive. Brown noticed a disturbing pattern while covering the trial of Steven Hayes, who was given the death penalty in 2010 for a brutal home invasion and murder in Cheshire. Whenever reporters heard something they thought was newsworthy, they would tweet it, often in unison. She said the furious tweeting of reporters could send a visual signal to jury members to pay more attention to certain parts of the trial, possibly affecting the way they thought about the case.

For Dempsey, the increasing pressure to get news out as quickly as possible sometimes makes her uncomfortable that she might not have checked her facts thoroughly enough first. She said she had not made any major blunders she knew of. But, she added, “I’ve felt like I was walking a tightrope sometimes.”

McNerney said that, in the face of a faster news cycle, reporters need to continually remind themselves that they have a mission beyond entertainment as society’s watchdogs.

“Are we fulfilling our traditional role as the fourth estate?” she asked.

Despite all of the changes, the panelists agreed that many of the fundamental aspects of their profession remain the same. Dempsey said that strong writing skills were still absolutely essential. McNerney concurred, noting that Patch.com requires prospective reporters to take a writing test, just like traditional newspapers.

She recommended that journalism students avoid focusing only on print, broadcast or web content.

“Don’t think of yourself as a one-dimensional reporter,” she said.

Around UNH: Parrot Carving

This carved wooden parrot is from the Upper Sepick river region of Papua New Guinea. The 12-inch bird, painted with red, white and black pigments, is on display in Dodd's Hall at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Ranking UNH

U.S. News & World Report placed the university on its list of “tier one” colleges for the second year in a row. But are the numbers all they’re cracked up to be?

If you believe the hype, UNH may have entered a new era of prestige.

U.S. News & World Reports has ranked the university 110 among regional colleges in its 2012 listing of “Best Colleges,” landing it a spot for the second year among the “top tier” in the “Regional Colleges – North” category.

The category includes colleges that offer a full range of undergraduate programs, but few doctoral programs. Colleges with doctoral programs are listed in a separate national category.

Just what do the rankings say about the quality of the institution, though?

In a press release for UNH Today, President Stephen H. Kaplan reasoned that UNH's rise in the U.S. News rankings was due to “substantial investments toward expanding academic programs, enhancing student life and creating state-of-the-art campus facilities,” which have “helped us attract more high-achieving students and world-class faculty.”

Alice Aleksandrovich, a senior who is double majoring in English literature and political science, has noticed some major improvements during her tenure at UNH. “It’s more technologically advanced than when I started,” she says. “The bookstore, health services, tutoring and other student services are also much better.”

Aleksandrovich still thinks there’s room for improvement, though. She says she would like to see more housing built, especially for sororities and fraternities. She also says that too much of the material in the library is outdated.

UNH’s sustained presence on the “Best Colleges” list is certainly beneficial for the university. U.S. News is the most popular resource in the nation for comparing colleges. Being in the top tier means greater exposure among students and parents researching prospective colleges.

Perhaps more importantly, it means greater exposure within the community of academic institutions. There’s an irony to making the list: since 25 percent of a regional college’s ranking is determined by the assessment of other college presidents, simply being on the list makes it more likely that a president who has never actually seen the campus will have a favorable view of UNH.

U.S. News has come under increasing criticism in recent years for the ways in which it judges schools. In February, New Yorker Staff Writer Malcolm Gladwell slammed U.S. News for using prejudicial criteria. He called the reputation factor a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“When U.S. News asks a university president to perform the impossible task of assessing the relative merits of dozens of institutions he knows nothing about,” wrote Gladwell, “he relies on the only source of detailed information at his disposal that assesses the relative merits of dozens of institutions he knows nothing about: U.S. News.”

Gladwell pointed out that other proxies for quality U.S. News uses to measure the success of a college - such as professor salaries or admissions selectivity - have little to do with student engagement, the single most important predictor of a student’s success at college.

Gladwell also noted that U.S. News omits some criteria, such as cost, in its rankings. He writes: “at a time when American higher education is facing a crisis of accessibility and affordability, we have adopted a de facto standard of college quality that is uninterested in both of those factors.”

The U.S. News rankings have led people astray in the past. “Most students and parents think the rankings are important,” says Victor Rios, a double major in English and journalism in his second semester at Quinnipiac University in Hamden. “For me, I fell into that spell when I applied.”

Quinnipiac has ranked well in U.S. News. It took the number 11 slot this year. Rios says, however, that some professors allow too much leniency with assignments and due dates. He feels that the college hasn't done as much to foster his intellectual abilities as he had expected.

Rios and Gladwell aren't the only ones who have problems with the U.S. News algorithm, and a few organizations have even attempted to assess college quality on their own terms. In 2009, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a nonprofit education group, launched its “What Will They Learn?” survey. It measures whether colleges require students to take courses in seven “key subjects:” composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural or physical science. A grade from A to F is assigned to the institution.

If Rios had used ACTA's rankings instead of U.S. News's, he would have gotten an entirely different impression. There, UNH gets a grade of B and Quinnipiac gets a grade of C.

In addition to his academic dismay, Rios, who was born in Mexico, says that he has been uncomfortable with some of the unintentional prejudices he's encountered.

“People I’ve talked to who work there say that the school understands the problem, and is trying to mitigate it,” he says. Nevertheless, he felt unwelcome when he first came to the campus.

Diversity is often an important piece of college life, especially if you happen to be in a minority group. Only 1 percent of Quinnipiac's population consisted of international students last year. At UNH, on the other hand, these students comprised 7 percent of the student body. U.S. News lists this information, but does not weigh it as part of a college's rank.

Professor Karen Isaacs, who teaches journalism and English at UNH and Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, warns against placing too much emphasis on rankings.

“In any school, you're going to have exceptional departments and weaker departments. And you can get outstanding students anywhere,” she says.

She says that students need to find what they're comfortable with.

Regardless of whether U.S. News is an accurate guide or not, UNH seems poised to continue its ascent. According to UNH Today, the class of 2015 has higher SAT scores and GPA's than previous years. “The average GPA has continued to increase over the last six years,” says the press release.

Isaacs has been teaching at UNH off and on for about 20 years, and she agrees that the university is on a positive track. “I've seen enormous increases in the quality of the students,” she says.

This article originally appeared in The Charger Bulletin.