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.”

UNH Developing Plans to Firm Up Networking Access

A newly wired electrical substation. Photograph courtesy of Mark Klimek. Some rights reserved.

In August 2011, Tropical Storm Irene knocked out power to the University of New Haven's campus for days. In October, an unprecedented snowstorm knocked the university's Internet services out for the entire weekend.

Since then, the Office of Information Technology and the Facilities Department have both been developing plans to shore up the university's access to online services.

According to Director of Networking/Systems Operations Greg Bartholomew, UNH learned a valuable lesson from the one-two punch of 2011's storms.

“Just because you haven't had an outage for ten years doesn't mean you won't have one,” he says.

Bartholomew and Associate Vice President of OIT Vincent P. Mangiacapra are looking at a number of different solutions in case of another outage.

The best short-term solution, Mangiacapra says, is to put generator hookups into Echlin and Maxcy halls, the two main sources for the university's data networks.

Director of Facilities Louis Annino agrees. Right now, he says, the only extra source of power for the department is a type of battery-based backup called an Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS.

The primary purpose of a UPS, says Annino, is to make sure that a data center has “clean power” - that is, to protect the system from voltage dips.

“Voltage dips happen all the time,” he says. “You see it when the lights in a room dim for a second. It could just be a squirrel or a bird on the power lines, or a tree that touches them. If you filter your power through a UPS, though, you won't see those dips.”

The other function of a UPS is to generate power for enough time to allow a controlled shutdown of a data system if there is an extended loss of outside power. But the UPS can only do this on a scale of minutes - not the hours that an emergency generator can provide.

An emergency generator hookup installed on the exterior of Echlin Hall would give the OIT the ability to rent a generator and have it running within a few hours of an outage, says Annino. However, it would not do much for anyone who had lost power in a different building.

Another plan OIT hopes to implement over the coming months involves moving the web servers and other critical servers to a “safe harbor” in Springfield, Mass. Mangiacapra says the department would probably make the move in incremental steps.

“The first step would be to really plan out how network connectivity will happen in that location,” he says. “Once that's straightened out, we will move our web server there. That will ensure that everyone will still be able to access newhaven.edu as normal from outside the university even if there's a problem here.”

Next, he says, OIT would develop a plan to move a secondary Microsoft Exchange server to the site that will mirror the current on-campus server. “If we do have an issue here it will fail-over to that location for (staff) email,” he says.

After that, OIT would consider doing the same for Blackboard. Mangiacapra is not sure whether the move could include Tegrity, the multimedia platform, because it takes up so much storage space.

Bartholomew says that the maintenance costs after the move would likely only include a $400 monthly charge for electricity. Other costs would be negligible because the Massachusetts site is already used by the Connecticut EducationNetwork, a consortium to which UNH currently belongs.

“We're finalizing the hardware costs now for how much storage we would need to replicate what we have here,” he says.

Bartholomew thinks that the move could begin as early as May, after the equipment has been bought and tested. The process would continue through the summer.

Mangiacapra says that the plan has already been informally finalized, but that he still needs to bring to it to President Steven H. Kaplan and the other administrative officers for their final approval.

“I don't think there will be any opposition to it, because it's not very costly,” he adds.

The move, says Mangiacapra, is becoming especially important because of the growth of online classes as part of UNH's course offerings.

“Someone in another state, another country, another continent is maybe not going to know that we had a snowstorm,” he says.

The Facilities Department and OIT have also begun early discussions for a long-term project that would move the data centers to a centralized location on the main campus. It would be a costly and complicated move. But Annino says that it fits with a larger goal that he has of integrating the campus electrical grid.

The cut-off of power that Echlin experienced in October was a reflection of how UNH has been built up. It began with only two main buildings: Maxcy Hall and the Gate House. As each new building was erected, it was connected to outside power by a single, separate line.

“The buildings are by and large fed directly from the street,” with few exceptions, says Annino.

In the case of the October snowstorm, the separation of these lines meant that even though the rest of UNH's main campus still had power, Echlin remained in the dark. And as long as Echlin remained dark, the rest of the campus had no connectivity to online services.

Annino says he would like to include a dedicated data center in the design of a future building. He would also like to get an electrical substation for the campus and re-feed electricity across the campus, including the data systems, through that. A substation, he says, would take in power from two outside feeds.

“That way,” he says, “if you lose the feed from Campbell Avenue, the alternative feed could handle the load.”

Annino acknowledges that the large scale and cost of these projects means that they probably will take a number of years to implement. However, he says, they are becoming more and more important as UNH expands.

“This is a small but growing campus, and now we're pushing medium-sized,” he adds.

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.