THE SMALL PRICE of SURVIVAL Alums Took to Court and Field at Ventable
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MAGAZINE UCONNSEPT 2016 14 MISSION TO MARS: IT’S MORE THAN JUST ROCKET SCIENCE 26 A PEOPLE’S MUSEUM: 50 YEARS OF ART AT THE BENTON THE SMALL PRICE 32 ARE DEAF CHILDREN LOSING THEIR LANGUAGE? OF SURVIVAL 38 What Doug Casa Wants FIRST THERE WAS SHIRLEY CHISHOLM Every Parent to Know p.18 SEPTEMBER 2016 SNAP! Living Large UConn’s newest residence hall opened its doors to more than 700 undergraduates last month. The eight-story Next Generation Connecticut Hall (NextGen Hall) is the first new on-campus housing in 13 years and is one of the tallest buildings in Storrs, with a commanding view on all sides. Innovation and creativity are built into the design of the 210,000-square-foot residence hall: On the first floor is an Idea Lab tailored for students to learn together and work in teams to solve problems and an Innovation Zone, or ‘maker space,’ complete with a mobile white board, a textile station, laser cutter, and 3-D printer. For more on NextGen Hall and to see a photo gallery of campus housing through the years, go to s.uconn.edu/dorms. UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SEPTEMBER 2016 CONTENTS | SEPTEMBER 2016 VOL. 17 NO. 3 SEPTEMBER 2016 | CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR In the video, you see her, a 17-year-old girl playing one of the last games of her high WEB school volleyball career, serve the ball, take a step back and then, inexplicably, drop to EXCLUSIVES the floor. Out cold. People rush to her aid, try to revive her with CPR, to no avail. Her magazine.uconn.edu parents watch. Two long minutes pass. The people who rushed to her aid hook her up to a machine and follow its prompts. You hear those machine’s prompts on the video, as the packed gym is utterly silent otherwise. After nearly three minutes with no breath NAME THAT ARTIST! and no pulse, the student’s heart starts to beat again. Fifty years worth of paintings, The girl, Claire Crawford, suffered sudden cardiac arrest. The team that saved her sculpture, photos, and more from included an athletic trainer and an administrator from the school’s Code Blue team, The William Benton Museum of which had trained and practiced for such a scenario. The machine that shocked her Art. Click to reveal the artist. heart back was, of course, an AED (automatic external defibrillator). s.uconn.edu/benton. Does my daughter’s school have an athletic trainer, I wondered watching the video. Does it have AEDs? Are they close enough to every field and gym and auditorium to DECADES OF DORMS make a difference? As a parent you can’t help but wonder about every worst-case Take a look at campus housing scenario. After all, as writer Elizabeth Stone said, having a child “is to decide forever to through the years. have your heart go walking around outside your body.” s.uconn.edu/dorms. Professor of Kinesiology Doug Casa ’97 Ph.D. wants parents to ask these questions and he wants us to challenge our kids’ schools and athletic organizations to have the 14 18 26 32 A HYDRATION MONITOR right answers. Director of the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) at UConn, Casa works at THAT WORKS? all levels — the military, the NFL, NCAA, etc. — to prevent and treat sudden death in Everyone knows you need to stay athletes. What’s different at the high school level is that there is no national governing FEATURES SECTIONS hydrated when exercising, but body that can make and enforce policy. So the fight to spread awareness happens state hydration monitors are not always by state, school by school, parent by parent. accurate. UConn’s Korey Stringer MISSION TO MARS 4 “Doug is out there knocking on doors across the country,” writer Colin Poitras ’85 14 Institute tests a new one that re- Getting to the red planet is a lot more than just rocket UCONN NOW (CLAS) told me when we first discussed the story that begins on page 18. “He’s talking veals hydration levels in real time. science. Management Professor John Mathieu ’80 (CLAS) Hip-hop in the fall course to people in backyards and at tiny PTA meetings. He’s tireless.” s.uconn.edu/casaksi. is working with NASA on the human mechanics. catalog; a penguin trainer and “I’m driven by my own experience, the good fortune of surviving, and I want to pay it her family; what it’s like to forward,” says Casa (that story is on page 25). But, he says, the biggest thing that keeps see your name in lights; why UCONN IN RIO him and his team motivated is this: “Nearly all the deaths that happen in sport are pre- 18 THE SMALL PRICE OF SURVIVAL Alums took to court and field at ventable. It’s just unbearable to live with the fact that a death could have been prevent- What Doug Casa ’97 Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and you should eat your walnuts; how climate change could be the 2016 Summer Olympics. ed with just some simple policies. Our slogan is, Do whatever you can before they die.” Director of the Korey Stringer Institute, wants every s.uconn.edu/rio. Sadly, not every family is as fortunate as Claire’s was. Not every school is as prepared. parent to know. affecting our fall colors, and much, much more. Whether you’re a parent or not, I dare you to read Poitras’s article “The Small Price of TOM’S TRIVIA Survival: What Doug Casa Wants Every Parent to Know” and come away unaffected. As 26 50 YEARS OF THE BENTON Find out how your UConn knowl- a parent, I want to say thank you to Casa and everyone at KSI for that tireless work they Highlights from the permanent collection and popular 41 edge stacks up against Tom’s. are doing. I’ll do my part to spread the word. visiting exhibits, in honor of the Museum’s fiftieth. UCONN NATION s.uconn.edu/septtrivia. Field reports from alums in Paris, Rio, Geneva, and 32 THE CASE FOR BILINGUAL DEAF CHILDREN more. Odes to the bard from Cover and Snap! photographs by: Early access to language can be a pivotal point in the alums across this country. Peter Morenus intellectual development of deaf and hearing children. Four questions for UConn’s new(ish) Athletic Director Table of Contents Photo/Illlustration David Benedict. And Class Credits, clockwise from bottom left: FIRST THERE WAS SHIRLEY CHISHOLM Daniel Baxter, Daniel Fishel, Peter 38 Notes, of course. U.S. presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm paved a Morenus, courtesy The William Benton path for today’s politicians in many ways says Associate Museum of Art, Peter Morenus. Professor of Political Science Evelyn Simien. The University of Connecticut complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, age or other legally protected characteristics in all programs Vice President for Communications Tysen Kendig Assistant Vice President for Brand Strategy Patricia Fazio ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA Director of Strategic Marketing and activities and supports all state and federal laws that Claire Crawford, with promote equal opportunity and prohibit discrimination, Communications John Morawiec Editor Lisa Stiepock Art Director Christa Tubach Photographer Peter Morenus Interns Nicole Haiber ’17 (CLAS), Megan including the provision of reasonable accommodations for mom Lisa and dad Eric, persons with disabilities. To request an accommodation at her graduation party Krementowski ’16 (CLAS) Student Workers Emma Casagrande ’18 (CLAS), Crystal Mastrangleo ’17 (CLAS) Contributing Writers Julie (Stagis) Bartucca ’10 (BUS, or for questions related to the University’s non-discrimi- nation policies, please contact: Title IX Coordinator, Office this year. Early in the CLAS), Christine Buckley, Kenneth Best; Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS); Sheila Foran ’83 (BGS) ’96 Ph.D.; Kim Krieger; Pete Nelson; Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu; Colin Poitras of Institutional Equity; 241 Glenbrook Rd., Unit 4175; Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-2943; equity@uconn. same school year, Claire ’85 (CLAS); Grace Merritt; Jesse Rifkin ’14 (CLAS); Jeff Wagenheim; Lauren Woods Copy Editors Loretta Waldman, Gregory Lauzon Web Designers Christine edu (non-discrimination policies); ADA Case Manager, Department of Human Resources; 9 Walters Ave., Unit 5075; collapsed in sudden Ballestrini ’03 (SFA); Yesenia Carrero. Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-3034; [email protected] (accommodation requests). cardiac arrest during a UConn Magazine is produced three times a year (January, May, and September) by University Communications, University of Connecticut. Email: uconnmagazine@ volleyball game. uconn.edu. Letters to the editor and other comments are welcome. Send address changes to The University of Connecticut Foundation, Records Department, Unit 3206, 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269. 2 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU SEPTEMBER 2016 3 UCONN NOW CHECKING IN WITH... JACKIE BURNS ’02 (SFA), STAR OF THE NEW MUSICAL “IF/THEN” UConn Magazine caught up panic attack, left, and gave up I read that your alternate “Sweeney Todd” at UConn, with Burns mid-tour at the on auditions. Two years later career would have some- the opener from “Wicked,” Smallpoint Café a few blocks Rachel made me go to an au- thing to do with animals. and “What’s the Use of from the Providence (R.I.) dition for “Broadway Revue” Yes! Totally. I think I would Wond’rin” from “Carousel.” Performing Arts Center. at Tokyo Disney Sea. I got it. be a pet groomer. I have a dog That changed everything. Tabitha and I’m always giving Share your highest, lowest, You started in this role on her baths and cutting her and weirdest Broadway Broadway as Idina Men- You have two minutes hair.