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MAGAZINE UCONNFALL 20172017FALL

FALL 2017 SNAP!

UConn Class of 2021 The 5,230 freshmen who make up UConn’s Class of 2021 include 3,650 who will make Storrs their home. This class includes a record-breaking 184 valedictorians and salutatorians, and 54 percent of these newbies were in the top 10 percent of their graduating high school classes. Outside Storrs, one-third of incoming freshmen chose to attend regional campuses. UConn Stamford saw a 50 percent increase in enrollment thanks in part to its new student housing so close to New York City. Meanwhile, a move downtown for UConn Hartford drove its enrollment up 14 percent. Congrats to all of this year’s freshmen, who were competing in a field of some 36,900 applicants.

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 SNAP!

Welcome Back, Coach

Randy Edsall is back on the UConn sideline. Edsall is the most successful football coach in UConn history with 74 wins in 11 seasons, from 1999 through 2010. He led the team from NCAA Division I-AA to Division I-A to full Division 1 status. UConn’s three bowl wins all came under Edsall, who also oversaw consistent academic success. During his tenure the University regularly posted Academic Progress Rates well above the national average and at one time led all Division I-A public schools in graduating more than 90 percent of its student-athletes. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to rejoin and lead the UConn program,” says Edsall. “It is my goal to get us back to that level of success, and I hope that all of the Husky fans out there will be along for the ride.”

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 CONTENTS | FALL 2017 VOL. 18 NO. 3 FALL 2017 | CONTENTS

FROM THE EDITOR

WEB EXCLUSIVES magazine.uconn.edu

STAMFORD VIDEO Campus dorms just made life at UConn Stamford even better. Get a student’s-eye view of the action on campus and in the city that’s so close to The City. s.uconn.edu/stamfordvid

BIRDS OF STORRS

Our eight pages this issue Sean Flynn couldn’t begin to contain all that we hoped to share from the mind LOCAL HEROES of ornithology professor Margaret 18 30 34 42 Rubega. So we added more Peter Morenus (above) is the magazine’s photographer. But that job title doesn’t even photos, more links, and more begin to cover his secret-weapon status here. He seems to know everyone on campus, on Rubega wisdom on our site. all campuses in fact, and can tell us exactly where anything is and what it will look like FEATURES SECTIONS s.uconn.edu/birds before we get there. I guess that’s not surprising since he’s been University photographer for 22 years and counting, through at least four iterations of this magazine. 18 UCONN: THE HEART OF HARTFORD 1 IT ALL STARTED He’s also the soul of the place, always ready with an anecdote or a backstory that Restoring the grand Hartford Times building is just the UCONN NOW WITH A SQUID makes our work more exciting and more meaningful. We joke that “he knows where beginning of what having UConn in downtown Hartford Exciting news at UConn Find out how to connect scien- all the bodies are buried.” But, it turns out, he does not. Or did not until we sent him on will do for the city. By Rand Richards Cooper Stamford; an alum who tists and schoolkids with Skype assignment to the Storrs Cemetery this issue, tasked with taking a landscape shot for the turns garbage into gourmet; a Scientist and see the incredibly Birds of Storrs piece that begins on page 34. 26 SKYPE A SCIENTIST teaching history via baseball; cute bobtail squid that started He went at the end of the day “when the light would be shining on the trees on the How one UConn graduate student connected thousands students who build Formula it all. east side of the cemetery,” he told me. “I meant to start at the top and walk down looking of scientists and schoolkids. By Kim Krieger One-style race cars; a student s.uconn.edu/skype for the right view to show bird environment.” But he quickly became distracted by the who sends scholarship mon- cemetery environment, starting with the Storrs family obelisk at the very top. Seeing the GETTING PAID TO TRAVEL ERIK HINES ey to girls in Jamaica; lizards names “Charles” and “Augustus,” he says made him giggle a little when “Chuck and 30 THE WORLD This education professor is on a mission to help black in New Zealand; rockets in Augie” popped into his head. Then he noticed the “Augustus Brundage” stone. “The Olivia Balsinger ’14 (CLAS) men graduate — and succeed. By Julie (Stagis) Bartucca Florida; and more. pool at the Field House is named in honor of two of his sons who were killed during recounts her journey to travel WWII,” recounts Pete. “And then I saw ‘Waugh’ like the sundial and right near ‘Waugh’ ’10 (BUS, CLAS) blogging and the journeys it’s is ‘Gentry,’ the name of the building next to the Waugh sundial. There was Carolyn Ladd 46 taken her on. Widmer, the first dean of nursing who we just named a new nursing wing after. A few FLOCKING TO STORRS 34 UCONN NATION s.uconn.edu/olivia steps away is George Safford Torrey who the Life Sciences building is named after. And Ornithology professor Margaret Rubega told us “birds Former coach Dee Rowe’s photographer Jerauld Manter, in many ways my predecessor. By this point I’m regretting are everywhere.” Then she proved it. By Lisa Stiepock big Hall of Fame honor; the calling the founders by nicknames they surely never were called. I realize I’m walking Cover photo by: Peter Morenus alum who’s UConn’s top through the history of the university.” A CUBAN EXCHANGE cop; married alums who are Snap! photography by: Sean Flynn and 42 Peter Morenus As he moved downhill he found more recent stones, including “latter-day heroes” he’d Biostatistics professor Tania Huedo-Medina is working Jonathan XIV’s new vets; a Table of Contents, clockwise from photographed, like soccer coach Joe Morrone, engineering professor Marty Fox, and with medical professionals in Cuba to better the health first job at Sony Music. Plus bottom le„: Kailey Whitman, Peter political science professor Howard Reiter. prevention strategies in both our countries. By Amy Class Notes, Tom’s Trivia, Morenus (2), Mark Szantyr, Courtesy of “There was John Tanaka, professor of chemistry. I met his son, Peter, then a Sutherland and more. Huedo-Medina and team UConn police officer, on my first day of work while lost near the Gentry Building. And cloning pioneer Xiangzhong (Jerry) Yang — I’m here at UConn because of him.” The University of Connecticut complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination, equal That story is too convoluted to relay here, but I guarantee Pete will be happy to share opportunity and armative action and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, it if you see him around campus (he’s the one with the UConn cap and the cameras). Re- Vice President for Communications Tysen Kendig Assistant Vice President for Brand Strategy Patricia Fazio ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA Editor Lisa Stiepock age or other legally protected characteristics in all programs and activities and supports all state and federal laws that turning to the office from this assignment, he reminded me of the spiritual role he plays Art Director Christa Tubach Photographer Peter Morenus Production Coordinator Steve Criss Student Worker Emma Casagrande ’18 (CLAS) Contributing Writers promote equal opportunity and prohibit discrimination, including the provision of reasonable accommodations for Julie (Stagis) Bartucca ’10 (BUS, CLAS), Kenneth Best, Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS), Kristen Cole, Rand Richards Cooper, Claire Hall, Kim Krieger, Kevin Markey, Grace persons with disabilities. To request an accommodation here when he talked about his walk downhill and admitted to being “misty-eyed” by the or for questions related to the University’s non-discrimi- Merritt, Catherine Newman, Elizabeth Omara-Otunnou, Colin Poitras ’85 (CLAS), Stephanie Reitz, Bill Reynolds, Jesse Rifkin ’14 (CLAS), Robert Stiepock, Amy nation policies, please contact: Title IX Coordinator, Oce end. “I was just very much in awe to think a lot of these people are there not because of of Institutional Equity; 241 Glenbrook Rd., Unit 4175; Sutherland, Susan Twiss, Jeff Wagenheim Contributing Designer John Bailey ’84 (SFA) Contributing Photographer Sean Flynn Copy Editors Sheila Foran ’83 (BGS), Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-2943; equity@uconn. any church or religion, but because of their affinity to this place. It made me feel like I edu (non-discrimination policies); ADA Case Manager, ’96 Ph.D.; Gregory Lauzon Web Designers Christine Ballestrini ’03 (SFA); Yesenia Carrero. Department of Human Resources; 9 Walters Ave., Unit 5075; was part of something,” Pete said, then added: “I also felt like I’d been here a long time. Storrs, CT 06269; Phone: (860) 486-3034; [email protected] UConn Magazine is produced three times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall) by University Communications, University of Connecticut. Email: uconnmagazine@ (accommodation requests). But I’m not done yet. I still have a lot of pictures to take!” 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.

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LETTERS

Much of this issue’s mail either lauded the UConn Health Rebecca Lobo doctor seeking a cure for the rare GSD disease or lambasted Congratulations to a wonderful, talented us for the headline “In Russia, you simply couldn’t be a athlete and an unparalleled role model. writer if you were Jewish.” The fact that the headline was A well deserved honor! in quotes did not make it clear to all that it was Litman’s David Bostic ’83 (CAHNR) personal point of view. See her response below along with a Granby, Connecticut, via our website sampling of the letters we received on many subjects.

Have something to tell us? We’d love to hear it! Email the Dispatch from Iraq editor at [email protected] or post something on Great article. I hope that the author our website at magazine.uconn.edu. took proper care to ensure that Gibreal or his family could not be targeted from Free to be Imperfect the information in this article. It was Thank you for this article and Gayle — if you read this, thank you for persevering and probably unnecessary to insinuate that getting Dr. Weinstein to Connecticut. My son is 6 and has GSD 1a, and this gives me so Gibreal was doing anything other than much hope that there will be a cure by the time he is a teenager. his duty as far as his relationship with US forces. Tara Marchetti Deptford, New Jersey, via our website Joel Angle ’09 (CLAS) Washington, D.C. area, via our website Thank you for this great article. We have a grandson who is 1 year old and has GSD 1a. U.S. Marine Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael We would love to see him get in to see Dr Weinstein at UConn; he is on a waiting list now. Zacchea replies: The reason we included What can we do on the West Coast to help with the cause? Gibrael’s picture is he was killed in com- Robert Ford, via our website bat in Nov 2004 on the way to Fallujah. We remain in contact with several of Morenus Peter Editor’s Note: To inquire about seeing Dr. Weinstein, call his program coordinator: the other Iraqis featured and have taken Traci Resler at 860-837-7800; to donate to the cause, visit www.GlobalCenterForGSD. ON CAMPUS great care to hide their identities. com or www.AlyssasAngelFund.org. ECLIPSED “In Russia, you simply couldn’t be a writer if you were Jewish” Days before students returned to campus for the fall semester, community members flooded Horsebarn Hill and the area around the That is so biased and so not true! No one cares if you are Jewish in Russia. Actually, it Dairy Bar to watch the solar eclipse on August 21. Physics professors shared four high-powered solar telescopes, handed out safety is quite the opposite. There were and are so many accomplished Jewish scientists and ON CAMPUS glasses, led workshops where kids crafted cardboard box pinhole viewers, and shared knowledge in traditional lecture formats as well artists in USSR and now Russia. I don’t agree with the points made on migration and as with live to-scale demonstrations with local kids playing the parts of the planets. the discrimination of Jewish people. No one has his/her nationality stamped into their passport. Kirill Karpenko ’19 MBA #ONEUCONN Hartford, Connecticut, via our website At convocation, freshmen wore shirts Associate Professor of English Ellen Litman replies: It seems that the comments are with “#oneuconn” on the front and on about life/conditions in the present-day Russia, whereas my experience dates back to the back this Nelson Mandela quote: No the eighties and early nineties. In those days, one’s nationality was absolutely recorded one is born hating another person because in one’s passport. I am glad to hear that this is no longer the practice now. On the point of the color of his skin, or his background, about discrimination of Jews. Once again, I’d like to believe that the commenter is refer- or his religion. People must learn to hate, ring to the present-day conditions and that the discrimination my generation experi- and if they can learn to hate, they can be enced is a thing of the past. While he is correct that there are and have been prominent taught to love, for love comes more natu- Jewish writers, artists, and scientists, the path was by no means clear or obvious, at least rally to the human heart than its opposite. in my experience.

I would like to suggest one of the books mentioned to my book group. Are they available There were classes today for sure, but at Barnes & Noble in Storrs or through Amazon? there was also ice cream--thank you Dairy Bar! Great way to start the year. Kathy Pepin (SFA) Springfield, Massachusetts, via our website #uconnstamford @uconnstamford Editor’s Note: Litman’s books are in the Storrs Center Barnes & Noble, on BarnesandNobe.com, and on Amazon.

UConn Nation I read the article on “UConn Nation Giving Back” and want to be involved next year. Correction: Rick Leino ’64 (CLAS) It is the 75th, not the 50th, anniversary Fairfax, VA, via email of the UConn School of Nursing. Peter Morenus, Jack Templeton ’18 (CLAS) Jack Templeton Morenus, Peter

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CHECKING IN WITH... JOEL GAMORAN, HOST OF FYI’S “SCRAPS” For chef Joel Gamoran ’07 was like, ‘But it’s super-hacky the best in the chefs he works help him do that. So he pulled During a July episode of “Scraps” (CLAS), scrappiness is a state and understandable and with — they can’t seem to together a hodgepodge of Gamoran and longtime friend Sally of mind. “Why does cooking completely digestible for peo- help being infected by his classes and made his own Hiebert foraged along Sonoma, always need to be so perfect?” ple — and it will save them vibrant good humor. Mostly, major. “I learned how to craft California, roadsides to prepare he asks. “The best meals at money.’” Eventually FYI bit. though, he just makes them something out of nothing. a found feast for locals there. home aren’t when you buy “We got the order to make laugh and laugh. It’s clear And they supported it. I the expensive cut of meat. It’s the show on February 1,” that they adore him. Every- graduated with a degree in the pasta with the leftover says Gamoran, “to deliver 10 body does. restaurant management and anchovy oil and some chili episodes on May 21st. We had Gamoran’s day job is Na- a minor in communications. flakes. Not having the fancy no guests, no cities, no plane tional Chef for Sur La Table, It was my first win! The first ingredients — it forces you to tickets, nothing. We filmed the kitchenware retailer and time I got to get scrappy.” get inspired.” the whole thing — 10 cities cooking-class giant based Gamoran has moved his The charming, affable — in six weeks. We decided in his hometown of Seattle. Sur La Table gig to Brook- scrap-proselytizer has just to embrace it, get scrappy, This seems more cushy than lyn, where he lives with his parlayed his lifelong passion and really make it part of the scrappy to me — in a good wife and rides a little Vespa for imperfection into a cook- show!” This meant cooking in way — although Gamoran is around. ing show, “Scraps,” which the rain if it rained. It meant quick to point out that it’s “What’s next?” I ask. debuted on the FYI network sticking with the original a job he invented himself “What’s the dream?” in May. plan, even if an ingredient and pitched to the company, “I think when people cook, Each half-hour episode of turned out to be a little bit which I have to admit is pret- it really enhances their life,” “Scraps” follows Gamoran in yum-resistant. ty scrappy after all. he answers. “Cooking builds his 1963 VW bus to prepare “That spent grain!” Gamo- It’s the same resourceful connection and draws us a meal with a local chef, ran reminisces about some mentality he brought to together and draws us to using their favorite typically particularly stubborn waste UConn, after he was recruit- the table. I want to motivate tossed kitchen scraps. As he gleaned from an Asheville ed as a tennis player. In short and inspire people to cook. I says over the show’s opening brewery, which he turned order he realized first that want to be known as the guy credits, “I see flavor where into biscuits he describes as a he wanted to be a chef, and that made the kitchen a little the world sees waste.” “major fail at first.” Eventual- then that UConn didn’t offer more accessible.” Take pickle juice, shrimp ly, though, they got it right. a course of study that would —CATHERINE NEWMAN shells, and broccoli stems “I stand for the bruised, for example. Chicken thighs the forgotten, and the back of soak in that briny pickle juice the fridge!” is the tag line of before being fried, drizzled the show, and it seems to be with honey, and showered Gamoran’s ethos in general. with cilantro (just the stems, When I ask him about his fa- natch). Shrimp shells become vorite aha moments, he says, a rich sauce for oysters that “I had so many moments Gamoran has inexpertly and where I was like, ‘I can’t comedically chiseled from believe you can even do this!’ the South Carolina shoreline. Like in episode two, when the Broccoli stems are shredded guest tosses the scallion roots into a sweet and crunchy right into the dish. Now I’m slaw. obsessed with them.” But given that it’s such a I bond with him over our zeitgeisty moment for sus- shared love of celery leaves tainability and reducing food (“A free herb!” I say, and he waste, the show was a sur- says, “I know, right?”) and prisingly tough sell — even ask him about his favorite with co-executive producer everyday scrap: “I don’t peel (and huge Joel Gamoran fan) my garlic! I really think the Katie Couric on board. outer paper is really special “Networks just didn’t think and it’s the unsung hero of there was a place for food the garlic.” waste to be interesting to Gamoran himself is Le and above: Stowell as Francis Gary Powers in people,” Gamoran says, with self-effacing, excited, quick To see how Gamoran’s 1963 VW bus becomes “Bridge of Spies” nearly comical disbelief. “I to laugh. And he brings out a modern kitchen, go to s.uconn. edu/gamoran

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UCONN TALKS On comparing measures On removing Confederate statues: each state is taking to prevent sudden death in school sports: “These Civil War monuments are not On being the first legal historical artifacts. They were primarily advocate to testify in “If these rankings court on behalf of an can get more kids erected during the Jim Crow era to abused animal: home for dinner reestablish the historical social order in the face of Blacks attempting to gain “It showed instead of to a equal rights.” the animals do hospital or morgue, then we have have a voice.” Monnica T. Williams, associate professor of psychological succeeded.” sciences, in Psychology Today, Aug. 17, 2017

Taylor Hansen, UConn Douglas Casa, director of Law student, in UConn’s Korey Stringer On why drivers in Smithsonian, June 6, 2017 Institute, in The New York On why most of us Europe are nicer: Times, Aug. 8, 2017 should just drink water to rehydrate: “The philosophy “Virtually no that emanated On getting breast cancer from street lights: studies have from the US was shown benešts that we needed “Electric light is one of the signature of sport drinks to separate inventions of an inventive species. or carbohydrate- people and But its overuse has caused an containing machines, which obliteration of night in much of the beverages unless gives priority modern world. The loss of night has COLLECTIONS IN GOOD HEALTH you’re exercising to vehicles consequences for all forms of life, continuously for and makes the POINSETTIAS IT MAY TAKE ONLY A LITTLE EXERCISE TO MAKE including us. And the mounting As the holidays approach, more than 50 or environment YOU A LOT HAPPIER evidence for a connection to breast UConn’s Floriculture green- 60 minutes.” less friendly houses fill with hundreds of You don’t have to spend hours at the gym or work up a dripping sweat to improve your mood and flowering poinsettias sold to feel better about yourself. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle — spending large parts of your day sitting cancer is alarming.” Lawrence Armstrong, for people.” faculty, staff, and commu- at home or at work — simply getting out of your chair and moving around can reduce depression director of UConn’s nity. The deep red ones are and lift your spirits, says Gregory Panza, an exercise physiologist at Hartford Hospital and a doctor- Human Performance Norman Garrick, most popular, but you’ll find al candidate in UConn’s Department of Kinesiology. Laboratory, in Time, associate professor Richard G. Stevens, professor of Community as many as 90 varieties. For “What is even more promising for the physically inactive person,” says Panza, lead author of July 26, 2017 of engineering, in The Medicine and Health Care, in The Associated Press, the past 20 years, the Col- a new study on the subject, “is that you do not need to exercise vigorously to see these improve- Guardian, May 24, 2017 Aug. 18, 2017 lege of Agriculture, Health, ments. Instead, our results indicate you will get the best bang for your buck with light- or moder- and Natural Resources ate-intensity physical activity.” Light physical activity is the equivalent of taking a leisurely walk has served as a trial site, around the mall with no noticeable increase in breathing, heart rate, or sweating. Moderate-inten- On the UConn Hartford campus moving from West Hartford to downtown Hartford: growing new breeds for a sity activity is equivalent to walking a 15- to 20-minute mile with an increase in breathing, heart season to test a plant’s har- rate, and sweating, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. diness and popularity with The study found that people who led sedentary lives and engaged in light or moderate physical “I think it’s true of “The campus is going to connect parts of Hartford that consumers. A fave is retired activity showed the greatest improvement in overall sense of well-being. Connecticut that we have have been disconnected for many years, and I think horticulturalist Robert “The ‘more is better’ mindset may not be true when it comes to physical activity intensity and Shabot’s “Cinnamon Stick,” subjective well-being,” says Panza. “In fact, an ‘anything is better’ attitude may be more appropri- not always cared for our it’s a critical piece of the puzzle to making our city the with light-gold leaves and ate if your goal is a higher level of subjective well-being.” Broader studies are in the works. “If it doesn’t make us feel good, we don’t want to do it,” says cities. Those days are over.” vibrant, active downtown that we all want it to be.” pink and red specks. —EMMA CASAGRANDE ’18 (CLAS) Beth Taylor, associate professor of kinesiology and a member of the research team. “Establishing the link between different types, doses, and intensities of physical activity on well-being is a very Dannel Malloy, governor of To see Cinnamon Stick important step in encouraging more people to exercise.”—COLIN POITRAS ’85 (CLAS) Connecticut, in the Wall Street Luke Bronin, mayor of Hartford, in The Associated Press, and more, go to s.uconn. Journal, Aug. 23, 2017 Aug. 23, 2017 edu/poinsettia. For more on this study’s results, go to s.uconn.edu/reps.

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Wisensale spent the spring semester as a a curriculum about baseball that wouldn’t the sport. And journalism students “who CLUBBING Fulbright Scholar in Japan where he taught be a softball. think in terms of writing stories about “Baseball Diplomacy in Japanese-U.S. Rela- tions.” He visited all 13 of Japan’s major league Wisensale puts prospective students current events,” says Wisensale. “I try to ballparks, including the Chiba Lotte Marines’ through a screening process in which they get them to read Roger Angell’s stuff and stadium in Chiba City. answer questions about their goals for the John Updike’s essay about Ted Williams’s course. They also must write an essay on last game, things like that.” what baseball means to them. And Wisen- But that changed once he was promot- sale checks out every applicant; typically Why We Want to Take It Ourselves: ed to full professor. “I felt like I had more there are 180 to 200 for the 50 spots. Three strikes and four balls. Nine freedom,” said Wisensale, “and as I began “I don’t want slackers in the class,” innings, each with three outs. Baseball to think about what I wanted to do inside he says. has a rhythm to it, one that harkens the classroom, I decided I wanted to back to what we tend to reminisce teach a course on baseball.” Wisensale’s Teaching Style: about as simpler times. But were BUILDING A Wisensale had heard of baseball-relat- “Baseball news! Anybody have any base- they really? BETTER RACE CAR ed courses at around 20 other universi- ball news?” Baseball and Society delves into some ties. Harvard and Tufts offered courses This is how Wisensale begins each dramatic twists and turns that the game What’s the best part of being a member of that were quantitative in nature. Stanford class. A discussion of current events takes and its surrounding culture shared. Race UConn’s Formula Society of Automotive and San Francisco State had courses up just the first 5 to 10 minutes of class. comes up in discussions of the Negro Engineers (FSAE)? For many it’s a day in that focused more on baseball in society, Then the professor digs in at the plate Leagues and Jackie Robinson breaking mid-July. which was what Wisensale was after. “I and starts swinging. The connections he the color barrier. Most of the year, the student club toils wanted to delve into history,” he says. draws aren’t always obvious. An example: Gender is at center stage when the away doing everything you could imagine baseball’s steroids scandal. All-American Girls Professional Baseball goes into designing and building a For- Class Description: “Maybe I’m the only one who thinks League comes on the scene during World mula-style race car — except driving it. Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, this way, but I believe that what the War II. And then there’s the steroid era. Just one member gets behind the Race and Gender explores the connec- ballplayers did is the same as what Bernie “That last item generates the most discus- wheel for the club’s two competitions, in tions between historical events and the Madoff did,” he says, referring to the sion in class,” says Wisensale. Michigan and Canada, at the end of each history of baseball. A discussion of labor financial advisor who cheated investors If putting historical events into spring semester. relations, for instance, digs into the evolv- (including the New York Mets ownership) context isn’t enough of a draw, how about But, after all the races are done (this ing business of baseball as it runs parallel with a Ponzi scheme. the opportunity to have your own baseball past spring UConn’s car ranked number to the ever-changing circumstances “They all basically conned the system card? During the enrollment process, 22 out of 109 teams in Michigan and surrounding the U.S. workforce in general. and made a lot of money, with so-called Wisensale instructs students to create number 8 out of 25 teams in Canada), “I hit the Curt Flood story pretty hard,” regulators not regulating. There were their card. “It can be a childhood dream the engineering students get together for says Wisensale, referring to the ballplayer so many people making so much money come true for some,” he said. a team drive day, in which all members Chris Moore who in 1969 refused to abide by a trade, within a corrupt system — why police it?” That includes the professor himself. get to take their baby for a spin. “It’s a lot instigating a contractual challenge that The challenge in teaching this course, He creates a Wisensale card before each of excitement because we get to see the COVETED CLASS made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme for Wisensale, stems from the diverse semester, a reminder that for him this car from nothing but some metal tubes Court and led to player free agency student enrollment. “Students come for course represents a second wind after all the way to a race car that competes. throughout the game. The drawing of different reasons,” he says. There are ac- many years of teaching and writing. Then comes the next wave of excitement HDFS 3042: BASEBALL AND historical links goes all the way back to the counting students “who want to work for “This really has energized me,” he says. where you realize you’re going to get to origins of baseball. Billy Bean” and understand all the saber- “It has taken me back to my youth.” drive the car and kind of feel the power SOCIETY: POLITICS, ECO- “A lot of students would prefer that metrics — or statistical analysis — but may Who wouldn’t want to be in a class- behind something you’ve built,” says the we get right to the current day or recent have no interest in history. Then there room with a professor who feels that way? club’s lead powertrain engineer Kenneth NOMICS, RACE, AND GENDER history,” says Wisensale, “but they’re sur- are the history majors, who are deeply in- —JEFF WAGENHEIM Brown ’19 (ENG). —EMMA CASAGRANDE prised by how rich the dead-ball era was.” terested in the origins and development of ’18 (CLAS) The Instructor: It was the time of World War I, which is Steven Wisensale remembers listening to the 1952 Republican National Convention on when baseball became directly connected the radio. He was 7 years old. “Growing up, I always had an interest in politics,” says the with its time in history. THIS JUST IN professor of public policy in UConn’s Department of Human Development and Family “When the war broke out,” says Wisen- Studies. “My parents engaged my interest at an early age.” sale, “baseball owners were nervous: The ’52 convention was where Dwight D. Eisenhower became the GOP presidential Do I want my right fielder being hit by a A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE COULD MEAN A LOWER RATE OF CHILD NEGLECT candidate on his way to winning the White House. That same year, the New York Yankees landmine? They had to figure out how to Increasing the federal minimum wage by just one dollar could decrease the number of reported cases of child neglect per year in defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games to capture their fourth straight World protect their assets.” So the owners cut a this country by nearly 10%. A new study by Kerri Raissian, assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy, and co-researcher Series. Baseball was no less a presence on the Wisensale household radio. deal under which players could remain in Lindsey Rose Bullinger at the University of Indiana found that the number of child neglect cases would decline by 9,700, or 9.6 per- The diamond interest of young Steven Wisensale ramped up in 1954, when the St. baseball as long as, during the offseason, cent. The team looked at maltreatment reports from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System for 2004 to 2013. Within that Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, not far from where his family lived in southeastern they worked in a defense plant or in some period, more than 30 states had minimum wages exceeding the federal requirement by an average of $1, so the team was able to track Pennsylvania. Five decades later, he remains a devout fan of the Baltimore Orioles. way contributed to the wartime effort. the effect of those wages on the number of child maltreatment reports to child protective service agencies. For many years, as he was pursuing his studies and establishing himself in the world of “This is going to be fluff,” was the con- “Policies that increase incomes of the working poor can improve children’s welfare, especially younger children, quite substantial- academia, Wisensale kept his interests separate. His scholarly interest was in family pol- cern Wisensale heard when designing the ly,” wrote Raissian and Bullinger in their report summary published in the Children and Youth Services Review earlier this year. icy, particularly as it relates to aging and family leave. His baseball fandom was curtained course for its 2012 debut. He understood off for his leisure time. the reluctance, so he took pains to design Read more at s.uconn.edu/wage.

12 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU club FSAE of the UConn Courtesy FALL 2017 13 UCONN NOW

THIS JUST IN

ARE E£CIGS JUST AS BAD AS TOBACCO?

“From the results of our study, we can conclude that e-cigarettes have as much potential to cause DNA damage as unfil- tered regular cigarettes,” says Karteek Kadimisetty, a chemistry postdoctoral re- searcher and lead author of a new study published in the journal ACS Sensors. Using a new low-cost, 3-D printed test- ing device, UConn chemists found that e-cigarettes loaded with a nicotine-based liquid are potentially as harmful as unfil- tered cigarettes when it comes to causing DNA damage. They also found that vapor

from non-nicotine e-cigarettes caused as Morenus Peter much DNA damage as filtered cigarettes, Kadimisetty with the 3“D printed sample chamber of his genetic toxicity testing device. possibly due to the many chemical addi- tives present in e-cigarette vapors. Cellu- genotoxicity, in environmental samples “I never expected the DNA damage lar mutations caused by DNA damage can in the field, the researchers say. from e-cigarettes to be equal to tobac- lead to cancer. The team targeted three known co cigarettes,” he says. “I was shocked Kadimisetty and his team decided to carcinogenic chemicals found in tobacco the first time I saw the result, so I ran look into whether the chemicals in e-cig- cigarettes. They then loaded their de- the controls again. I even diluted the arettes could cause damage to human vice’s microwells with specific enzymes samples. But the trend was still there — DNA while testing a new electro-optical that would convert those chemicals into something in the e-cigarettes was Demi Rice ’21 (CLAS) makes use of the screening device they developed in their metabolites. If these chemicals were in definitely causing damage to the DNA.” new dorm’s second ™oor lounge during lab. The small 3-D printed device is the sample, the test gave them a reading —COLIN POITRAS ’85 (CLAS) the second week of classes. Peter Morenus Peter believed to be the first of its kind capable for genotoxicity. The results caught For more on this study, go to of quickly detecting DNA damage, or Kadimisetty by surprise. s.uconn.edu/ecigs. THIS JUST IN

UCONN STAMFORD OPENS DORMS

FIELD NOTES UConn Stamford’s first residence hall while creating community with others hall will connect hundreds of students to opened this fall. The six-story, 116-unit who live in the hall. their campus, internship opportunities, building at 900 Washington Blvd., just “With an array of internship oppor- and cultural experiences right here in two blocks south of UConn Stamford, tunities, cultural offerings, prominent downtown Stamford,” he said. will house almost 300 students annually employers, and the unique aspects of UConn has had a presence in Stamford and will operate in the same way as the city life right outside their front door, since 1951, when it began offering ex- Storrs residence halls, with resident the students who choose to live here can tension courses in the former Stamford assistants and study lounges. It is half- enjoy a dynamic urban university experi- High School. UConn Stamford moved to way between the main campus and the ence,” says Herbst. its current downtown location in 1998. Stamford Transportation Center. “This experience will pay dividends —STEPHANIE REITZ It is the culmination of several years long into the future for our alumni, the of work that responds to student demand University, and the city,” she added. at that campus, which is UConn’s largest Governor Dannel P. Malloy, a former regional location, with 1,700 undergrads Stamford mayor, has been a strong and 600 graduate students. Although the supporter of UConn’s plans for student campus has been growing, the vast ma- housing there. jority of students had to commute from “With leading programs in digital other communities because they could media and business, a location in a Above: Brian Martel ’19 (CAHNR) spent part of the summer in New Zealand working not afford Stamford apartment rents. vibrant city, and access to an established with this endangered lizard, the tuatara. “The tuatara needs constant protection from President Susan Herbst said at the transportation hub linking students predators like possums, weasels, ferrets, stoats, hedgehogs, feral cats, and rats,” he says. opening that the housing also will help to the entire eastern seaboard, it is no Right: Rafeed Hussain ’17 (CLAS) was one of a select few college students invited to students have a genuine urban univer- surprise UConn Stamford is growing and For more photos from Hussain’s NASA For more photos and a 360-degree visit NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and post about it. “Words and even pictures can’t experience and Brian’s internship, go to sity experience, in which they can take thriving,” said Malloy. video of a dorm room and more, go to effectively depict how gargantuan the inside of the Vehicle Assembly Building is,” he wrote. s.uconn.edu/FallFieldNotes. advantage of Stamford’s many offerings “We are thrilled this new residence s.uconn.edu/stamfordvid.

14 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 15 UCONN NOW

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE can’t be hacked or stripped. We divvied could all bond over this.” But everyone can to the monetary award my grand- up the labor. Jeremy is a computer else was like, “No, not really. We’re all mother puts together. I work on campus science major, so he was technical. I han- grown-ups.” in the Admissions Office, and I don’t dled the business development end and really spend much, so there’s a little BRITNEY REYNOLDS ’19 (BUS, CLAS) put together a plan for the product. Do you ever visit Jamaica? left over from my paycheck. A new U.S. citizen, this psychology and business major still has a scholarship in her name in Jamaica. I visited in May to present the Top Girl What’s something most people don’t scholarship at my old school, Victoria Any other great ideas in the works? Why did you choose UConn? know about you? Primary in Linstead, St. Catherine. I pre- I’m an RA, and my current thing is fig- I came to Bridgeport from Jamaica in I’m a fan of WWE. The first time I passed sented the first scholarship in 2013, but uring out ways to get my residents more 2009. I was 12. I never knew anything the corporate headquarters in Stamford since then I’ve just sent the trophy and engaged with floor programs. My first about college, just that it was something on the highway after moving here from the money, so this was a little different. floor meeting last spring, I said, “Come to I wanted to do. So when the time came I Jamaica, I was like “Whoa!” I thought I the Community Center.” Nobody came. applied to Connecticut colleges. When could go over and meet the wrestlers. I Wait, you send the scholarship So next time I made it easier: “Come to I got into Southern my mom was so was so disappointed when I found out money yourself? the second floor lobby.” I could capture excited; she was like, “Oh, you’re going they didn’t stay there. I was the Top Girl when I graduated, everyone as they went to their rooms. there!” Then I got into UConn and she Last summer WWE was offering in- so my grandmother, my mother, and I Then I realized people might already was like, “No, you’re going to UConn!” ternships and I seriously thought about thought maybe this was something we be in their rooms and not ever pass One great thing UConn has going for it is applying. I thought maybe they’d give me could do to give back to the school. We through the lobby. So for the next one, that as a first-generation college student a free ticket to SummerSlam. But I had started the scholarship my sophomore I knocked on doors. And I always offer I was able to live on campus the summer already accepted an IT internship with year of high school here in Connecticut. snacks. I’ll keep trying different things, before freshman year to transition to Travelers in Hartford. During my orien- mixing up locations and times and incen- college and to begin earning credits. The tation at Travelers, a woman from the Does it have a name? tives, until we get a formula that works. counselors are great and help with every- leadership group mentioned that she’s The Britney Reynolds Top Girl That’s part of being an entrepreneur, I thing. I became a U.S. citizen this year, a fan of the wrestler Sheamus. I said, Scholarship. Inflation in Jamaica is think. You test an idea, find out where and they helped me get my passport. “Sheamus?” She said, “Yeah, he used to very difficult. Every little bit helps a the errors are, and keep modifying it work in IT. I love him.” I thought, “We struggling family, so I add whatever I until you get it right. —KEVIN MARKEY As a freshman you lived in Innova- tion House. Have you always been entrepreneurial? I like the idea of having my own business. UCONN READS When I was little, I wanted to be a fash- ion designer, and my friends and I would draw collections. Later, I became inter- ested in teaching. But if I was going to be a teacher, I wanted to plan the school, create the curriculum, and make every- thing exactly how I thought it should be. Eva Lefkowitz is the new head of the Human Development and Family Studies When I have an idea, I always think, “I’ve department, having recently moved to UConn after 18 years at Penn State. She says she

got to own this thing!” So Innovation Morenus Peter does her reading via hard copy (bedtime, beach time) and listening to audiobooks House was immediately interesting to Reynolds at Blue State Cošee, a Hartford café across the street from Travelers insurance company, where (while driving, walking, or exercising). she worked as a summer intern in Information Technology Services. me. Just šnished: Currently reading: On deck: Where does psych št in with learns sign language at age 10 won’t up. This was when it really hit me that I entrepreneurship? ever be as fluent as someone who learns was in college. Freshman year was pretty The Red Tent by The Hate U Heroes of the If I want to be a business owner one day, it at age 5. Which is just like a spoken chill, first semester sophomore year was Anita Diamant Give by Angie Frontier by I’ll want to know the psychology of my language. American Sign Language is my pretty chill. But spring semester? No. I Thomas Dave Eggers employees. How are they going to play minor, so that means I’ll never be as good was like, “Mm-hmm, now I know I’m in One of those together? For my research project, I as a child. Nice to know! college.” books I always I read a lot of YA I don’t know decided to study impulsiveness. Because My other favorite was a coding class meant to read and [young adult], much about this I really don’t understand it. It sometimes with Alex Tung. Not because I did well in You won a First-Year Excellence in finally did when because I have book, but I love boggles my mind when I see people mak- it, because I didn’t really, but because I Innovation Award for work on a it got assigned at middle school- this author so ing impulsive choices. Your life is going learned a lot. One of the things I learned phone app. my book club. I ers and because want to read to be terrible if you keep doing that! I was that when a professor gives you 10 Yes, as part of the Innovation House pro- loved it. It looks my research his latest. He’s want to know how the brain works. days for an assignment, you need all 10 gram, students pitch an idea that could at the Bible from is on young around my age days. The instructions for a coding proj- be developed as a start-up. I joined with the perspective of Dinah and the other people and sexuality. I think this book is so I tend to identify with his characters What’s been your favorite class ect might only be a couple of lines, but to a student named Jeremy, who had the women. It was particularly interesting amazing. So much about race and class. and circumstances. And I love the way he so far? execute those two lines requires a lot of idea for encrypting personal data on your to read around Passover when you’re The dialogue is very well written. Even writes about families and relationships; I have two favorite classes. I really liked thinking and trial and error. On our first phone. When you download certain free reading the Haggadah. Same stories. though it’s about someone whose expe- it’s funny, sometimes satirical and over Psychology of Language. One thing we project, my group finally left the Business apps, they strip your data. We worked on Very different perspectives. rience is vastly different from mine I feel the top, but it also feels real. talked about was how someone who School at 5:59 a.m. The sun was coming a security app to protect data so that it like I can totally relate to the character.

16 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Jason Raish by Illustrations FALL 2017 17 U C O N N: T H E H E A R T O F

H A R T F O R D Restoring the grand Hartford Times building is just the beginning of what having UConn back in downtown Hartford will mean for the city. The energy these students bring will be “a complete game changer.”

18 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU By Rand Richards Cooper | Photos by Peter MorenusFALL 2017 past half-century has not Hartford Public been kind to Connecticut’s Library capital. Against a fading Main Wadsworth memory of Hartford in UConn Atheneum Travelers T H E its heyday — a cultural building Tower and commercial center that drew visitors from all over New England — the city languished. Connecticut Thriving cities exert a gravitational force on communities around Convention Center them, pulling people in. But in Hartford the force dwindled. City Constitution Connecticut planners razed old neighborhoods, laid down highways to facilitate Plaza Science Center suburban access, and built gleaming o¦ce palaces. Over time the city center became a place that emptied out at 5 p.m. Fewer people came in at night and on weekends. Downtown e§ectively died. Front Street

Anyone hoping to revitalize a city’s A C O L L E G E T O W N downtown faces a stubborn paradox. To “The UConn campus is a game changer get people there, you need amenities. To for the city,” says Matt Ritter, a Hart- justify and attract amenities, you need ford state representative and the House people. How to break into that cycle and Majority leader. “Adding thousands of restore a city’s gravitational force? young people downtown will bring an In August a key piece of the puzzle energy we haven’t seen in some time.” clicked into place, with the opening of Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin says the the University of Connecticut’s Hartford move is crucial to the city’s “long-awaited campus. UConn’s former West Hart- revitalization; the new students will be a happened in one fell swoop, Hartford signed the iconic Travelers Tower across Hartford Times building as a treasure, because they give us a sense of our past ford branch now occupies a stretch of big part of making Hartford a more lively, has been assembling a higher-education the street, salvaged granite columns, and shuddered at the thought of its and tie that past to us,” says Sara Bronin, Prospect Street, parallel to Main Street, vibrant place.” corridor at its center, one piece at a time. massive oak doors, and marble steps from demolition. Its importance is more than an architect and UConn Law professor reaching from the Hartford Public To get why Hartford is so excited, you Trinity College is moving a graduate pro- the Madison Square Presbyterian Church mere architectural beauty. Buildings who chairs Hartford’s Planning and Zon- Library north to Constitution Plaza and have to understand the special, galvaniz- gram to Constitution Plaza, partnering in Manhattan. He redeployed these ele- like this are a city’s “good bones.” They ing Commission (and is the wife of Mayor the UConn School of Business. The move ing role colleges and universities play in with Capital Community College, located ments in the Times’ monumental portico, carry the city’s stories in them, forming Luke Bronin.) installs some 3,400 students, faculty and boosting a city’s dynamism. Students are in the refurbished G. Fox building just up conferring a sense of the sacred. The high enduring points of civic reference. Four From the start, Susan Herbst was staff in the heart of downtown’s Front often the first wave of an urban renais- Main Street. The University of St. Joseph committed to saving the Times building, Street district, alongside the Wadsworth sance. Visit any number of thriving medi- has its pharmacy school nearby. There’s viewing it as a way for UConn to honor Atheneum, City Hall, the Public Library, um-sized cities across the country, from Rensselaer Polytechnic’s Hartford cam- the state’s history while situating the the Travelers, and the Hartford Club. Providence to Asheville to Boulder, and pus. And now, capping it off in a big way, university’s new campus in the cultural, For University President Susan Herbst, you instantly see and feel the vitality sup- is UConn. “WE WANT THAT 7-YEAR- governmental, and business nerve center the decision to relocate was a no-brainer. plied by students and recent graduates. UConn students, a large majority of of the city. Herbst also perceived an “When I came to UConn and heard that Where they pop up, restaurants, galleries, them from Connecticut, represent the institutional continuity with a newspa- the Greater Hartford campus was actual- and entertainment venues soon follow. next generation of homegrown profes- OLD TO BE ABLE TO GO UP, per whose offices lauded “Insight” and ly in West Hartford, I was surprised and, And eventually companies do, too. sionals — exactly the people a city like “Inspiration.” frankly, disappointed.” With the campus “Bringing UConn into Hartford is an Hartford needs to attract. In this sense, HANDS PRESSED AGAINST “The building is very high-minded,” experiencing dilapidation and facing a obvious and necessary thing to do,” says the downtown campus represents an she says with obvious enthusiasm. “It re- multimillion-dollar overhaul, the time Bruce Becker, an architect and devel- urban field of dreams: If you build it, ally fits with our own public mission as a was right for a move. Herbst knew exactly oper who converted the former Bank of they will come. And if they like it, they THE GLASS, AND SEE WHAT university dedicated to making citizens.” where UConn needed to go. America building into apartments at 777 will stay. Preserving it was not simple. The “We really wanted to bolster our Main, a short walk from the new campus. THAT STUDENT IS DOING.” renovation involved shearing off the old connection to the city and be part of the Becker is currently in discussion to relo- structure’s facade and wings, then joining resurgence of Hartford,” says Herbst. She cate a suburban company to retail space M A K I N G C I T I Z E N S them to a roughly 140,000-square-foot points out that before opening the sub- in his building. “The only reason they’re The centerpiece of that field of dreams is UCONN HARTFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY new building. To do the job, UConn hired the remarkable new building UConn has RAMSA, the renowned New Haven and urban campus in 1970, UConn had been thinking about it is the growing reputa- DIRECTOR MICHAEL HOWSER in Hartford, occupying several different tion of Hartford as an attractive place to created from the former Hartford Times Manhattan based firm headed by Robert locations, going back nearly a century. “So work,” he says. offices. The Times was a daily paper that A.M. Stern, former Dean of the Yale this is really a homecoming for us.” For years, Hartford residents have operated, in fierce competition with the School of Architecture, whose resumé The project was a big push, Herbst glanced peevishly at Providence or New Courant, from 1817 to 1976. Built in 1920, walls of the portico’s arcade are decorated U.S. presidents spoke from the terrace includes Yale’s recent $500 million admits. “Let’s face it, people don’t like Haven and said, “Well, if you took a the Beaux-Arts building that housed it with murals depicting allegorical figures of the Times building — including John expansion. “Stern is a really talented de- to move. But I have been stunned by the world-class university and put it down for the last half-century of its run was for Poetry and Prose, Time and Space, F. Kennedy, who gave the final speech of signer,” says Sara Bronin. “He’s known for gush of positivity and enthusiasm for in the middle of our city, we’d look itself already a novel reclamation project. Insight and Inspiration. his 1960 campaign, one day before he was neo-traditional institutional buildings, doing this.” pretty good too!” And while that hasn’t Its architect, Donn Barber, who also de- Preservationists have long viewed the elected. “We preserve historic buildings and that’s why he was the right choice for

20 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 21 benefit hotels and restaurants in the vicinity. “We can do the catering for small-group functions, faculty meetings, and the like. That’s the key thing about the new campus — it’s not an island. It’s integrated with the community, and we’ll get the benefit.” The new campus has been planned and designed to maximize connection to the “THE neighborhood in a host of ways. Students use the same parking garages everyone CITY HAS else does. Ground-floor retail spaces in the main building open both to the street and to the atrium. At the campus’s south- A LOT TO west corner, a grand plaza welcomes the Hartford community and links diagonally OFFER ... THIS to the landscaped courtyard, also publicly accessible. The Barnes & Noble UConn, the first bookstore in downtown Hartford BUILDING in many years, occupies the ground floor of the Front Street Lofts across the street. UConn President Susan Herbst and UConn Hartford Director Mark A new CVS is in 777 Main, a few blocks REPRESENTS Overmyer-Velázquez in a fifth floor meeting space. The orange through away. Lectures and perhaps classes will the window is the iconic Alexander Calder “Stegosaurus” statue. be held in the Atheneum across the A BIG street. Large-scale events can use the Infinity Hall concert venue or the Science and Convention Centers just down the INVESTMENT this project. It’s a super flashy project for a soaring building, bright with natu- street. And discussions are underway for our city.” ral light. Says James Libby, UConn’s a plan whereby students can use Husky The building, with its bold neoclas- Design Project Manager for the campus: Bucks at neighborhood businesses. FOR UCONN sicism, offers plenty of wow factor. “We’re setting a new standard for how The emphasis on community is Students entering from Prospect Street these buildings look.” Architect Bruce especially fitting for the School of Social AND FOR ascend one of two winding staircases Becker agrees. “This is a flagship type of Work, which moved into a stately brick and pass through giant arched doors to building,” he says. “It brings a whole new building at 38 Prospect Street early this an interior that matches the facade for educational institution not of the scale of summer. “Being in downtown Hartford THE STATE. grandeur. At the center is a three-story Yale, but of the quality.” will make it really easy to connect with high atrium, naturally lit via a steel-and- organizations,” notes Lauren Chapman, a glass facade to the south, with massive 23-year-old graduate case-work student IT’S WORTH square limestone columns girding the T A K I N G I T T O from Hebron. Chapman believes that the space and adding to its imposing beauty T H E S T R E E T S campus’s setting makes it more than a IT. AND IT’S and strength. Mezzanines look down When you tour the new building, with mere commuter school. “People will stick over a student collaboration area, on an all its gleaming amenities, you’ll notice around and use the area, both between elevated platform beneath circular halo something that is not there: a place to eat. classes and after. You couldn’t do that at FOREVER.” lights, to the terrazzo floor below, where This omission-by-design is intended to West Hartford. Here people can go into a students will hang out. “It’s equipped in send hungry students out into the neigh- restaurant or cafe or bar and socialize, UCONN PRESIDENT state-of-the-art ways that reflect how borhood, and reflects lessons learned in or get some work done. It’s conducive people learn,” says Herbst, adding with other, similar relocations. to that.” SUSAN HERBST a laugh, “let’s just say that there are a lot “We don’t want our building to be a These sentiments are echoed by of outlets!” vault,” says Herbst. “I decided early on, Chapman’s teacher, social work pro- The five-story building houses class- no food service in the building. We must fessor Lisa Werkmeister-Rozas. “It was rooms and labs, meeting and work areas, have students out on the street!” always strange for us to be in a suburban and faculty and administration offices. Students out on the street: the phrase setting,” she observes. “Our students are The atrium opens to a south-facing court- surely has a different valence than it dealing with urban populations, and now yard, landscaped with trees and grass. would have had fifty years ago, and its they can see the everyday situations that Oversized windows in the science labs significance is not lost on Jamie “The their clients talk about. I think it will offer views so enticing, one worries about Bear” McDonald, the barbecue impresa- be a really important learning experi- experiments gone awry. Faculty offices rio whose five Hartford-area restaurants ence.” The move is practical, Werkmeis- on the top floors boast panoramic vistas include two in the Front Street business ter-Rozas says, since many social-work of city and countryside. A wood-paneled zone adjacent to the new UConn campus. internships are based in the city. “And conference room overlooks the atrium McDonald says that the new building’s From top: the building facade; students in a bio lab on the first day of from a pure advocacy perspective, being through floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s lack of food and function spaces will classes; the Barnes & Noble UConn bookstore across the street. able to participate in the renewal of

22 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 23 From left: Bronin in The William no gatekeeper,” says Howser. “We want The demoralizing departure of the city’s Jane Jacobs in her influential 1961 book, and Alice Mortensen Courtyard; to be open and welcoming.” Anyone with only major-league sports franchise, the The Death and Life of American Cities, NHL Whalers, and the subsequent sorry “contain the seeds of their own regener- students studying in the Zachs a Hartford Library card can borrow from UConn’s books. The new layout offers attempt to lure the Patriots. The ouster ation.” Jacobs insisted that restoring a Atrium; the building’s rooftop joint study areas and classrooms; there’s of a mayor charged with corruption. The city’s gravitational pull means building sign with the Travelers Tower. a conference room with glass walls on city’s designation, at one point, as the on what is already there — developing For more pictures and information, both sides, making it totally transparent. second poorest in the U.S., after Browns- precious resources, rather than trying including a list of donors, go to “We want people to see the students ville, Texas. to obliterate them and start anew. That s.uconn.edu/uconnhartford. in action,” says Howser. “We want that Amid such slings and arrows, hope has effort is the essence of the new Hartford “THE NEW STUDENTS WILL 7-year-old to be able to go up, hands always persisted, and we have eagerly campus. It represents the state’s commit- pressed against the glass, and see what reached for Mark Twain’s celebrated line ment to deploy the knowledge economy Howser. Brenda Miller, who heads the that student is doing.” In addition to the about reports of one’s death being greatly in boosting its capital city’s vitality while BE A BIG PART OF MAKING Hartford History Center at HPL, lists the many tangible benefits, the UConn pres- exaggerated. Now, at last, the quip seems building on its tradition. contributions UConn has already made, ence will offer a standing role model for apt. Hartford faces significant ongoing The benefit promises to be mutual. HARTFORD A MORE LIVELY, from a baby grand piano for the library’s urban kids from non-college-educated challenges, but signs of a downtown re- For UConn students, Hartford provides popular jazz series, to support for a backgrounds. surgence abound, reflected in rising rents another option, one that will excite Learning Lab, to a new storage unit to “Hartford Public Library is a cor- and real-estate values, new residences those eager for an urban experience VIBRANT PLACE.” house the library’s historical collection. nerstone of democracy, open to any- with high occupancy rates, flourishing and all it involves. “The city has a lot to The partnership will enable a broad array one,” observes the library’s Director of restaurants, and the success of citizen offer,” says President Herbst. “We HARTFORD MAYOR LUKE BRONIN of events and programming, like a recent Communications, Don Wilson. “But the initiatives such as Riverfront Recap- needed a stronghold there.” Anchoring series of discussions on the founding one segment we haven’t had en masse is ture. Months ago the historic Goodwin that stronghold is a building she calls a documents of American democracy, de- college students. There’s an ecosystem Hotel re-opened after nearly a decade. metaphor for excellence. Hartford is a good thing.” veloped with UConn’s Public Humanities here, and when students are introduced Come next year, true commuter rail will “This building represents a big invest- No feature of the new campus better illustrates the town-gown symbiosis than the Institute and the Wadsworth Atheneum. into that, both sides will benefit. I’m very connect the city efficiently to New Haven, ment for UConn and for the state,” she arrangement with Hartford Public Library, where a $4 million renovation will facilitate Already the library has hosted a drop-in excited to see what happens.” and by extension New York. Meanwhile, says. “It’s worth it. And it’s forever.” use by as many as 1,000 students a day, with classes taking place in several new class- writing workshop conducted by a UConn painters and sculptors, designers, pho- rooms. UConn students will enter via the Arch Street entrance, passing a massive 1870 professor, where city residents could G O I N G U P tographers, and other arts and enter- Rand Richards Cooper’s writing has ap- Colt’s Universal Platen Press. Inside, they’ll find an impressive array of more contempo- bring in a poem, resume, or application And so are Hartford residents — excited tainment entrepreneurs are incubating peared in Harper’s, Esquire, The Atlantic, rary information technologies, like a video studio where professors can record lectures letter and get help with it. not merely about the library, but about small-business ideas and energies. From and The New York Times. Cooper, who is a using a virtual blackboard, or the Digital Scholarship Studio, where up to 12 screens can The new spaces in the library have the overall impact of UConn. Those of Coltsville to Dunkin’ Donuts Park, a contributing editor at Commonweal, lives be mosaiced together so that research teams can compare data dashboards. been configured to spur interaction us who have lived here over the last 20 rejuvenation is underway. UConn’s new with his wife and daughter in Hartford Library staff on both sides are thrilled about the joint effort. “We’ve been focused between UConn students and the general years can recite a litany of losses and campus puts a gleaming seal on the deal. and writes a monthly column, “In Our on collaboration from day one,” says UConn Hartford Public Library Director Michael public. “There’s no bouncer at the door, failures, indignities and dashed hopes. “Lively, diverse, intense cities,” wrote Midst,” for Hartford Magazine.

24 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 25 This program, which has grown in 8 months from one graduate student in one lab at UConn to thousands of scientists across 12 time zones and all 50 states isn’t the answer to all the world’s woes — or is it?

“As a community, we were realizing that people view scientists as aloof and cold,” says McAnulty. “Even suspecting we had ulterior motives for sharing our data!” She says this with shock, as if com- he first thing she showed them instead of other planets. paring scientists exchanging data sets was a large, stuffed fruit fly. In other classes in other places, other to Big Tobacco manipulating medical This impressed them. Then she scientists discussed the social lives of ants trials is unthinkable. And until seven or flashed test tubes full of living with middle schoolers, introduced fourth eight years ago, it was. But something flies. Fascination ensued, for she graders to the extreme environment of a has changed in the public’s perception of was obviously no ordinary per- Yellowstone geyser, and talked with high scientists. son but rather someone with a deep grasp schoolers about the environmental con- “There’s a feeling that for U.S. science of what was important in life: stuffed sequences of war. The researchers hailed to survive, we really need to get people animals and bugs. from all over this country and the class- trusting scientists again,” says McAnulty. Later she told them she was a micro- rooms from as far away as Kyrgyzstan. But She’s chatting with me near the en- biologist who studied the germs living in in every case they had been introduced by trance to her lab in the Storrs biophysics the flies’ stomachs. That was when the McAnulty. building. Right next door is where she questions started. raises the bobtail squid. Bobtail squid “Where did you grow up?” are adorable, as cute as an invertebrate “Why do moths eat clothes?” can be. Only a few centimeters long, with “Do aliens really exist?” big eyes and eight short little legs, they The teacher of these kindergarteners McAnulty spends most of her time can even glow in the dark, thanks to the says she has never seen them as engaged studying bobtail squid in Associate colonies of bioluminescent bacteria that as this, when they got to Skype a scientist. Professor Spencer Nyholm’s biology lab. live symbiotically inside them. Nyholm’s Her kindergarten class is in Venice, She loves science and is, in Nyholm’s lab focuses on the relationship between Florida, and the scientist was Nichole words, a phenomenal graduate student, a symbiotic bacteria and their hosts. Broderick, an assistant professor of self-starter who raises money and bobtail McAnulty’s part of the research zooms molecular and cell biology, who was squid with the same dedication, for the lab in on the squid’s immune system and why Skyping from her UConn Storrs office depends on a steady stream of both. Late it tolerates the glowing bacteria. Bacteria 1,300 miles away. Broderick is one of 497 last year, McAnulty began thinking about live in our guts, too, although they don’t scientists who talked with schoolchildren politics, too. Because politics had begun to make us glow in the dark. Studying the last semester through a project called impinge on science. squid’s relationship with their symbionts Skype a Scientist, started by a third-year The country was divided like never be- could tell us more about ours. McAnulty graduate student at UConn named Sarah fore in her lifetime. Anti-intellectualism has become an expert at drawing blood McAnulty. seemed to be on the rise, and even truth from the little mollusks. She says she Aliens loom large in kindergarteners’ itself seemed under attack. Academic doesn’t mind it nearly as much as she did minds, and Broderick was pleased to use research in the U. S. depends on public when she worked with mice. the alien question to introduce the kids to funding, and public funding depends on “I felt bad doing experiments on mice. invasive species, which, she explained, are the goodwill of the people. And somehow, Something about their red blood. I don’t just like aliens but from other ecosystems that goodwill seemed to be eroding. feel as bad with squid. And they usually

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 27 a relationship. And you don’t want it of truth is a political act,” she explains. gion. She chatted with some of the locals. to be a dog and pony show, you have to But how does she, or anyone in sci- She knows that any national distrust of make connections between the kids and ence, know they really are on the side scientists is part of a much bigger malaise. the science,” she says. That real person of “truth”? Science corrects itself and “I don’t think this is the problem helps tremendously, she adds, even if reverses course constantly. Bubbles burst. with the U.S. But this is a problem. I feel they are only on a screen. Fadden had Paradigms shift. It’s an intrinsic part of equipped, and I’ll try to fix it,” she says. two scientists Skype her class, one from the scientific endeavor that science is And with a little luck, these Skype Rutgers University and the other from self-correcting. But this also is part of sessions will make an impression. And UConn, a graduate student in the Klassen what makes the general populace distrust some school kids in West Virginia and Lab for molecular and cell biology named scientists; one day something is heralded Missouri and Florida and Vermont and Emily Green. She has kept in touch with as empirical truth that we should all heed. all the other classrooms will grow up with both researchers and plans to Skype them The next, it’s contradicted again next year. by a new piece of evidence. And it’s true that even though Skype a Scientist has national reach, one scientists who study bobtail squid unless could argue it’s not reach- you’re already interested in squid. Most Fadden and Francis were early adopters, ing kids who need it most. people are firmly ensconced in their own part of the first wave of teachers who Just to start, you need to little bubbles. simply answered Facebook inquiries. have a science-positive McAnulty would manually match them teacher who’s comfort- with a scientist in the right discipline and able bringing a scientist time zone. The requests kept coming. And “into” the classroom. One then a teacher mentioned Skype a Scien- teacher admitted that But kids are different. Before grad school, tist publicly at a conference in Texas and her colleagues and school McAnulty spent a year working in a the Google sign-up form McAnulty had administrators regularly diabetes biology lab in the Max Delbrück slapped together “just blew up,” she says. discuss what they would do Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. Overnight, 200 classrooms signed if a parent questioned what The university hosts a “Long Night of up. Scientists showed equal enthusiasm. they were teaching. But come right back,” swimming off into as I know!” Science” each summer, when it opens up One would tell another, who would tell she’s never seen anything their tank, leaving nothing but a vial of She says she enjoys the back-and-forth the labs to the public and families partic- another, and by the end of July McAnulty from students but love for bluish-green blood behind. with readers, and her answers are always ipate in science activities until late in the had more than 1,740 classrooms signed science. And just because Wait — squid have blue blood? informed by her own experience. evening. The kids were always curious up and 1,755 scientists, with participants you can’t help everybody “It’s because of the hemocyanin,” she McAnulty has spent a lot of time talking about everything. What if she could talk to hailing from 17 countries and all 50 states. doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tells me. Like hemoglobin in our red blood to colleagues about the public perception school-aged children, children who were More press followed, including a feature try. A Vermont parent put it very bluntly: the knowledge that science is a quest for cells, hemocyanin uses a metal to bind of science. The problem seems clear: How probably apolitical and just interested in on NPR’s “Science Friday.” “This town is in the thick of the opiate truth about the natural world. It’s done by oxygen. But where we use iron, squid’s can scientists remake their public image cool ideas? UConn scientists continue to be major epidemic. Three people died down the real people just like them. And because of hemocyanin uses copper. As she explains from aloof to approachable? Many scien- One day she was chatting with a bunch players. CAHNR graduate student Mauri street from me this year. We’re a very that, science is imperfect and can always this, the Pharmacy Building looms behind tists aren’t all that great at talking about of biologists on Twitter when the idea Liberati did a total of nine sessions with rural school. Kids need to see there’s a be worked on. If the kids believe it, they’ll her. Its copper roof has oxidized to a their work with nonscientists. Sometimes of reaching out to classrooms via Skype one school. Three UConn biology profes- big bright world out there.” People might grow into adults who support it. rich bluish green color from exposure to it’s because they think no one else will be came up. “We just decided to do it. What’s sors — Nichole Broderick, Susan Herrick, distrust scientists as elitist, she continued, Maybe they’ll participate in the rain and air. A similar chemical reaction interested in hearing about it. Other times the worst that could happen? We make and Ken Noll — have participated, signed but people also want their kids to expand research enterprise, or use the scientific accounts for a squid’s blue blood. they’ve been holed up in their lab talking some teachers mad at us,” she recalls. And up for more sessions, and involved more their horizons. method in their daily lives. Or maybe only to colleagues for so long they’ve for- so Skype a Scientist was born. professors for this fall. They all say it’s fun, McAnulty gets it. One summer she they’ll just remember that day in fourth gotten how to communicate with regular McAnulty began reaching out to teach- and it’s easy. Broderick says she enjoyed worked surveying bat populations in grade that they got to ask a real scientist folks. Get two researchers from the same ers through Facebook. Would you like her Skype session with the kindergart- Pennsylvania and West Virginia, scoping whether squids fart, and that she laughed McAnulty put up a Tumblr page when she subfield talking to each other excitedly, to have your class talk to a scientist? she eners as much as Francis did. “Having to out the site of a proposed wind farm. She with them, not at them. And that might be joined Nyholm’s lab. She posts about her and even other scientists from another asked. She aimed especially for teachers explain concepts to 5- and 6-year-olds saw the economic challenges in the re- the best outcome of all. research, science books she likes, marine field can quickly lose the thread as the two in geographic areas that might be pretty really makes you think,” she says. biology in general, and loads of cute specialists descend into a rarified dialect remote from real-life scientists, but she Can it really be this easy to change the squid pictures. She also has an “Ask Me of Deep Geek. replied to any teacher who inquired. It public’s perception of science? Other sci- Anything” section. Readers ask all kinds McAnulty, however, likes talking about quickly became apparent that making entists are running for political office, or of questions, as earnest as “How do you her research with nonscientists. She also teachers mad was not going to be an issue. demonstrating in political rallies like the Sarah McAnulty is a Ph.D. candidate ethically source cuttlebone” or “How do has an intuitive grasp of marketing and “I can’t wait to do it again! I’d recom- March for Science last April. McAnulty in molecular and cell biology. you pick the animal you want to study outreach. She’d started the Tumblr so she mend it to anyone in the school,” says attended the march. She says she wasn’t for the rest of your life?” and as ridiculous could share her work more broadly, and Cathleen Francis, the kindergarten and sure how she felt about it going in, but For more pictures of Sarah as “Do squids pass gas?” Sarah replies to she’d picked Tumblr because it reaches first grade teacher in Venice, Florida thought it was important to attend. and the bobtail squid she works that last with, “Well, yes and no. They do a younger, more female audience than whose class asked about aliens. “Finding truth is impartial, as far as left with, as well as to nd links to her get air trapped in their mantles when other social media favored by scientists. “Skype a Scientist is great for me,” says and right. But as long as the government Tumblr page and to the Skype a they swim over a bubble, but they don’t Still, she knew that her Tumblr page was Trudy Fadden, a middle school science funds science, and you have a political Scientist program, please go to pass gas from their digestive tracts as far preaching to the choir. You don’t seek out teacher in Vermont. “You have to build system opposed to truth, being on the side s.uconn.edu/skype.

28 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 29 Staying in “All “AllI think I think aboutabout now now is issolutions solutions College to for improving the for improvinggraduation rate the Help Others graduationfor black males.” rate Graduate for black males.”

Mentors and guidance counselors rik Hines is passionate about help- helped Hines, an ing black male students succeed at assistant professor UConn. The assistant professor in E the Neag School of Education says of educational he is on a mission to help attract and retain African-American male students. psychology, nd his As faculty director of the new learning community ScHOLA²RS House, Hines path. Now he is hopes to gain a deeper understanding paying it forward. of the variables that influence positive academic and career outcomes for black males, the subject at the heart of both by Julie (Stagis) Bartucca ’10 his day-to-day counseling work and his (BUS, CLAS), photos by Peter academic research. (ScHOLA²RS stands Morenus for Scholastic House of Leaders in Sup- port of African-American Researchers & Scholars). “He is all in,” says Sally Reis, the former associate provost who brought Hines in to work on the newest of the University’s learning communities. “He is completely dedicated to these young men, focused on their graduation from UConn and their success in graduate school and work. He is passionate, committed, and a remarkably strong mentor.” Born and raised in Tampa, Hines decided to become a school counselor while attending community college there. He went on to earn his bachelor’s in social science education at Florida State Univer- sity, his master’s in education for school

30 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 35 counseling at the College of William & Q: You proved her wrong, didn’t you? Mary, and his Ph.D. in counselor educa- “We want Hines: Yes, I did. Yes! Even at times from tion at the University of Maryland. He my bachelor’s to master’s, she told me I joined the UConn faculty in August 2014. needed to get a job. Don’t think she didn’t Hines says he is doing the work he set to cultivate all say that. “You’re going back to school out to do at age 19. “My career feels pur- again? You need a job!” poseful, fulfilling, and empowering. All I I thought about my strengths, I thought think about now is solutions for improv- of our students about what I could do, I thought about ing the graduation rate for black males, what I would be fulfilled by doing. I was recruitment of black males in STEM and helping in my local church at the time as career fields in which they are underrep- to be the best a Sunday School teacher. And I was like, resented, and how we help first-genera- oh, I like kids. And then I really thought tion and other vulnerable populations be about my life and what I felt I didn’t get successful, too.” and brightest.” or I needed more of [growing up]. I think We caught up with Hines over the in high school, if I really had more people summer in his Gentry Building office, to push me, or I knew about more of the which overlooks a grassy, tree-lined programs available to me, I could have knoll next to The Benton. been more successful. the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil My junior high school counselor, Mr. Q: You work with graduate students, Rights Data Collection website to look at Robert Davis, stands out though. He was preparing them to become school a local school district. They look for gaps, always trying to provide opportunities. He counselors. How has educating them disaggregating the data by factors such as was very engaged with students. He took changed with new challenges, such as race, socioeconomic status, and gender. students on field trips to New York, for social media, cyber bullying, and climb- Say an AP algebra II class has 20 stu- instance. Remembering that helped me ing rates of suicide in adolescents? dents, and 5 are female. There’s obviously think, “I want to be a school counselor.” Hines: Counselors’ goals still are variations a gender imbalance. So students try to of making sure students get their needs figure out why: they can interview teach- Q: Was it a straight path? met socially and emotionally, even outside ers and students and look at the process Hines: I started by going through computer Hines teaches his students how to use data to identify areas that need improvement and discover the school walls, and accountability — en- by which students are chosen to take the science and business as majors, thinking ways to make those improvements. He says he does the same thing when developing programming suring that students not only understand class. We discuss best strategies for how I wanted to make a lot of money. Then I as faculty director for ScHOLA’RS House, a living-learning community for black males. what they need to know to get to the next to advocate for all students to be eligible realized what I really wanted to do was grade, but also think long-term: What will for these types of programs and courses, help students develop their potential. life be like post–high school? maybe advertising the course to girls, or I would say school counselors are need- encouraging the school counselors to talk Q: Who do you consider your biggest ed now more than ever. When we were in to students about it. Maybe the teacher mentors? graduation rate at the time, 2012–2013, at that rate and think, “UConn may not be Q: Our University spokesperson the space race, after Sputnik, the federal needs more culturally responsive training Hines: At Florida State University I met was at 83 percent. They decided that a a viable option for me to complete.” That’s said she was so shocked by some of mandate came to put in school counsel- to understand how to promote equity in two of my mentors, Dr. Lee Jones, who black male learning community could be problematic. the nastiness that you heard from ors to identify the best and brightest in the classroom. has since passed away, and Dr. James L. instrumental in helping black men. I was naive to the fact people would be people on the internet. But she said science and math [Title V of the National Imagine an educational pipeline from Moore III. [Moore is now interim vice Currently, at any given time, there’s concerned about black men living together. you weren’t shocked by it. Defense of Education Act, 1958]. Now, we pre-K all the way to graduate school. We provost for diversity and inclusion and between 450 and 500 black males on Hines: I’m not. I live and breathe want to cultivate all of our students to be are trying to make sure that we close all chief diversity officer at The Ohio State campus, from freshmen to seniors, and Q: What were some of the things you being an African-American man every the best and brightest. the leaks in the pipeline. The leaks can be University.] there’s 18,000 to 19,000 students on the heard after it was announced? day. Sometimes I do get those looks; I under-resourced schools, teachers not ad- Because of them, I was in the Brothers Storrs campus. So you can imagine, the Hines: Some students were hesitant; some have been searched unlawfully; I have Q: Neag’s school counselor program equately helping students get their needs of the Academy, an academic organiza- population is that small, and only half of wanted to see what it was about. Of course been questioned about my intellect. I emphasizes working with underrepre- met academically, and so on. We want to tion for black men who aim to be ten- them were graduating. Something needed there was some racist propaganda, some stick with data and I look at the bigger sented students. What are some of the partner with teachers to help them best ure-track faculty or academic administra- to be done. students who were African-American who picture: How do we as a community, tools that you teach to specifically work work with students, and vice-versa. tors. That helped me think about how we thought it was segregation. I had to combat how do I as a professor, a father, a with those populations? best help African-American students, and Q: When you first heard about it, did the stereotype. What is problematic with teacher, a mentor, an African-American Hines: We train students to look at the Q: What sort of pipeline got you to students in general who need help. you think a learning community was black men living together? We have other male, help other young men be success- data, as well as how to collect data of their where you are? a good idea? groups living together on campus [WiMSE, ful, transcend some of these issues, own through observations in classrooms, Hines: I am forever grateful for the educa- Q: How did the idea for ScHOLA²RS Hines: Yeah! I was focused on the academic or Women in Math, Science, and Engineer- and not get too bogged down? I’m not surveys, reading articles. We teach them tion I received in the great state of Flori- House develop? achievement part. So I was like, “Oh, this ing, is an all-female learning community, saying ignore it, because I’m not doing to find literature that supports what they da. I went to mostly public schools. I went Hines: Administrators looked at the data is great!” Because it was crazy that the for example.] that, but sometimes you have to be want to do and to address what the data is to a community college. And I think being — when we talk about advocating, again, graduation rate was 55 percent. Nation- To me, [if that’s seen as a problem], then the bigger person to challenge it. telling them. in community college helped me really re- we have to look at what the data is saying. ally for black males, it’s 34 percent, so we need to challenge our paradigm of what I believe the University of flect on my life, because I didn’t do so well And the data told them that the gradua- we’re actually doing better because our we think about black men. This should be Connecticut is on the verge of doing Q: Can you share an example of how that my first semester, but it encouraged me tion rate for black males at UConn was 55 institution is more selective, and a lot of something that — and I applaud the Uni- something very innovative and I believe works? to think about what I really wanted to do percent, where our other populations — our black men are coming from the top of versity of Connecticut — we have to jump we can be pioneers in improving the Hines: In my School Counseling Devel- that could be impactful as a job or career. men, women, Asian, Latinx, white, black their high school classes. Still, imagine that on, be at the forefront. We have graduation rate of black men, and show- opment and Evaluation course, students Of course, my mother was on top of me women — they were hovering in the high you graduate salutatorian or valedictorian to take on some of these challenging issues ing our fellow institutions how to do do a mock advocacy project. They use saying, “You can’t be in college forever.” 70s and low 80s. And UConn’s overall from your high school, and then you look that may not make everyone happy. that as well.

32 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 33 FIELD GUIDE FIELD #birdclass #RedbelliedWoodpecker The red belly on this Red-Bellied Woodpecker is usually hidden against the tree. A Red-headed Flocking to Storrs Woodpecker’s WHOLE head is red. A BIRDER’S TOUR of CAMPUS

Ornithology professor Margaret Rubega told us #birdclass #RedwingedBlackbird A Red-winged Blackbird is a mating machine; “birds are everywhere.” en she proved it. By Lisa Stiepock he’ll have as many as 15 mates, if he can defend enough territory for all the nests.

statements. And there’s no question that it is possible to be trivial ardcore birders like to get out into the world early, which H at great length.” is how this magazine’s art director and I found ourselves meeting What counts, she says, is what you do with the medium at hand. associate professor Margaret Rubega for the first of a series of “And what I see students doing with Twitter is experimenting and campus bird walks at precisely 6 a.m. at a Storrs Center café. then reporting to the rest of the world. What more can we ask from All three of us clutching extra-large coffees, we students whom we hope will turn into scientists?” stepped into the parking lot at 6:06 just as a mag- Enough Twitter talk, it’s time now for the three nificent red-tailed hawk swooped over street and of us to get moving. Six a.m., it turns out, is for ama- sidewalk some 10 yards across the parking lot and #birdclass #BarredOwlchick teurs. “All the birds start singing before sunrise,” says Barred Owls are active during twilight hours, so at eye level — as if on cue. you’re more likely to see or hear one during the Rubega, who is about to show us her favorite birding day than other owls. “That’s amazing,” I said. To which Rubega Twitter posts like spots. Though birds are indeed everywhere, there replied, “No it’s not. Birds are everywhere.” those at right and are places where the number and variety of birds is If there’s one message this 20-year UConn on the following bigger and better, which is why we are headed first to professor is trying to impart to her students and, pages are indicative what Rubega calls “the big Kahuna” of Storrs campus as Connecticut State Ornithologist, to the com- of the tweets Rubega birdwatching: Horsebarn Hill. munity at large, it’s this one: Stop to look, and not and her students post incidentally to listen, and you will find birds, liter- about birds they ally, everywhere. discover on campus A breakthrough teaching moment came for Horsebarn Hill and elsewhere. Other Rubega when she decided to take the technolo- Punctuated by the snorts and whinnies of horses gy that was keeping students from observing the schools have gotten in anticipating breakfast we hear a cacophony of shrill world around them, aka their cellphones, and turn on the act and red-winged blackbird whistles and shrieks. The birds it into a weapon for her side, the side of good, of you can, too — at are, says Rubega, “on territory” in the grasses of a nature, of looking out and up. #birdclass. small wetland at the base of the meadow that is the She decided to give her students a graded assign- largest UConn horse field. ment to find birds in their day-to-day lives and to tweet about “Look at me, check me out,” chirps Rubega channeling a male what they see. “At first they think the assignment is boring and I’m with particularly brilliant red and yellow epaulets who has just a crazy lady,” says Rubega. But about four weeks into the semester #birdclass #NorthernFlicker flown past and perched on a nearby fence, unseating another male she gives them a pop quiz asking whether having this assignment A Northern Flicker is the only woodpecker that redwing. “Check me out,” she says continuing to channel the bird. you’ll see on the ground. They like ants, and has changed anything in their day-to-day lives. they aren’t afraid of grass! “Sooo sexy, look at my epaulets. Hear my cry: I’m a man and this “Overwhelmingly the response comes back, ‘Now I see birds corner is my territory.” everywhere!’” she says, with a smidgen of smugness. “They’ll post Rubega points out a female redwing, which is shorter, squat- how they never noticed how little a gull flaps while in the air or ter, and all spackled brown with no epaulets. To us, it looks more that the feeding behavior of turkey vultures is fascinating. They like a sparrow than a relative of the red-winged blackbird. In this turn into observers and that’s the whole point.” species the female has no need for flash, explains Rubega. She is Rubega chose Twitter not because of its bird-friendly brand- looking for a space for youngsters and to have food. She’s looking ing, but because it appeals to this age range and the 140-character limit forces students to really think about how they are describing birds, to focus on the characteristics that are key. Deep in the woods behind Discovery Drive lies a pair of wooden “People deride Twitter for being 140 characters as if the con- platforms protruding into wetlands that are home to the barred owls, tent itself must be trivial because it’s brief,” says Rubega. Every red-bellied woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, and northern ickers good writer knows it’s much harder to pack meaning into short pictured at right, among many others. Bird Photos by Mark Szantyr 34 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU Landscape Photos by Peter Morenus FALL 2017 FIELD GUIDE FIELD #birdclass #EasternBluebird The blue of an Eastern Bluebird is an optical trick,not pigment; the feathers reflect blue light, so that’s what you see.

#birdclass #AmericanKestrel American Kestrels are North America’s smallest falcon: at their heaviest, they weight about the same as your IPhone 6.

#birdclass #RockPigeon Pigeons can find their way home blindfolded. While flying. You have trouble even with a GPS unit. #whosdumb?

#birdclass #BarnSwallow A Barn Swallow might stick mud to your barn, and poop on your horse; it also eats hundreds of bugs like flies a day #tradeoffs

#birdclass #Killdeer Killdeer say kill-deah! It would have been more descriptive to call them grass plovers – they hang out on lawns and fields.

Horsebarn Hill is “the big Kahuna” of birding on Storrs campus, says Rubega. Besides the barn swallows, bluebird, kestrel, pigeons, and kildeer shown here, you easily can nd various warblers, starlings, sparrows, cardinals, robins, jays, wrens, nches, doves, crows, grackles, snipe, ickers, catbirds, phoebes, nuthatches, hawks, and more.

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 #birdclass #CedarWaxwing Cedar Waxwings eat fruit all winter, and can peel the skin off a berry AFTER swallowing it, then throw it up #trythat FIELD GUIDE FIELD

#birdclass #AmericanGoldfinch Birds can’t make the bright pigments in their #birdclass #EasternPhoebe feathers; this American Goldfinch is the boss of finding carotenoid-rich food. Heard a bird musically sing “pheeee beeee”? Not the Eastern Phoebe: it says “fee bee”, nasally, like it has a head cold. #tweetid

#birdclass #GreatBlueHeron Great Blue Herons are regal but not choosy; they’ll eat fish, plus anything they can catch #birdclass #Mallard and swallow, including other birds. Mallards aren’t picky: they’ll mate and hybridize with at least 10 other species of duck

“For a student to come out here and see an enormous for signs of vigorousness in a mate, proof he can hold the territory Mirror Lake is rich bird habitat any time of day, any time of year, says for her — the brighter the epaulets the healthier the male. Rubega. In addition to the phoebe, mallard, cedar waxwing, goldnch, and great blue heron shown here, a quick lunchtime stroll can turn up woodpecker with a bright red head? It blows their mind An iridescent bird swoops low in front of us. “That’s a barn black-capped chickadees, nuthatches, tued titmice, egrets, herons, all swallow and it is fabulous,” says Rubega. “Everybody who does not manner of ducks, geese, or gulls, and even a passing-through osprey. because it’s not somewhere else. It’s right here!” care for bugs in their eyes and ears should be fans of swallows.” We are moving toward the barns and the Horsebarn Hill Are- na parking lot, because a few days prior I had seen what I thought “Kestrels are a pretty good farm bird,” says Rubega, “They eat winged blackbirds, sweet-singing Carolina wrens, and of course was a kildeer on the tarmac there and a bluebird on the telephone For instance, “they are not just sitting on the building, they can nothing except for small rodents and insects — and what else ducks. wires nearby. Neither would be unusual, says Rubega. Why would hear it,” says Rubega of the flock that has just landed on a silo. could a farmer possibly want a bird to do?” “This is a very birdy place. Mirror Lake is well worth a circuit a kildeer crouch at the curb of a parking lot that’s surrounded by Pigeons hear infrasound, too low-pitched for humans to hear She spies one atop the tallest branch of the tallest tree in the at any given time,” says Rubega, watching a duck preen. “Ducks grassy fields? It likes ground that’s sufficiently disturbed, says (the opposite of high-pitched ultrasound), and that includes the field, just below the ridgeline “just sitting up there waiting for spend a good deal of their day preening to stay waterproof. Birds Rubega. This plover species has bold black neck bands that serve sound of air hitting buildings. These wayfinding superheroes also a mouse or a big juicy grasshopper to go by.” Before we’ve had a are always dry, even though they’re touching the water, they’re as what is called disruptive coloration, a trait that breaks up an use magnetic fields and celestial landmarks like stars to navigate. chance to train our binoculars on the kestrel, Rubega turns our dry. If you see a water bird that’s wet it’s about to be dead,” she animal’s coloring so that a predator’s eye doesn’t perceive it as an And, like all birds, they have extra cones in their retinas so they attention further skyward. “And here comes a great blue; he’s big says in the matter-of-fact way of a scientist. actual animal. “So they don’t dislike edges of paving or places that see colors that humans cannot. and molting — see the break in the wing,” she says of a great blue Elegant gray-and-white birds are performing aerial gymnastics used to be paved and are now all broken up.” “People look at the sky and try to imagine themselves as a bird, heron who looks like little more than a far-off silhouette to our above the lake as we talk about ducks. They are phoebes catching Though she confirms the ID by looking at a picture on my right” says Rubega. “You imagine birds seeing the world the way untrained eyes. bugs right off the surface of the lake, Rubega tells us, pointing out phone, the kildeer itself does not appear for us. Which is too bad, you would if you were up there. They are completely not expe- “a pile of them” in a tree behind us. These are juveniles trying to because it is nesting season now and kildeer are known for dra- riencing the world the way you are; the world looks completely get fed, she says. “Listen. It’s ‘feed me-feed me-feed me.’ Not un- matic “broken wing displays” in which they pretend to be easy different to them.” Rubega pauses, then lets her binoculars drop Mirror Lake like college students, they’re trying to extract as many resources prey to lure predators away from their nests. It’s a display Rubega and says, “If you want to contemplate your existence, to just come from their parents as they can before they get kicked to the curb seeks out to show appreciative students. down here and look at pigeons would be enough. But UConn is The heron may well have been on its way to or from Mirror Lake, for good. It’s a stable phenomenon in the animal world.” Meanwhile, however, an accomodating bluebird has landed on blessed with so many good bird spots.” where you can often see them statue-still amid the cattails, obliv- Just then we get a glimpse of a bird that makes everything else a telephone wire just above us. Amid describing the “exceedingly This is a direct result, she says, of getting its start as a land grant ious to the the cruising mallard ducks, patiently waiting to spear we’ve seen, even the bluebird, pale in comparison. “That is a beau- pleasing nature” of the bird’s red and blue hues, Rubega interrupts University. There remain swaths of grassland habitat and open a trout or carp. tiful cedar waxwing,” says Rubega. “They are the most incredible herself with an exclamation of “Oh, look — pigeons!” She follows space you might otherwise not have. As she says this, we are walk- A succesful reclamation project that included digging out inva- looking birds. They are so freaking gorgeous.” Indeed the red, yel- this with a laugh and then a serious declaration: “People should ing toward the cow barns with fields full of starlings and grackles sive plants and adding fountains for aeration has brought the cat- low, and green colors and the Zorro-style eye mask are stunning. not disdain pigeons. Pigeons are a fine example of what I mean to our left and barns alive with house sparrows and barn swallows tails back and, along with them, some beautiful birds and insects. “The subtlety of their color scheme, if you could reproduce that in when I say birds are everywhere. People overlook them because to our right. There’s a nesting box along the fenceline here that’s “It provides a really nice band of habitat for the sort of things textiles you would be so rich,” says Rubega. they’re common, but there are always really interesting things go- home to a family of kestrels, smallish hawks. The University lets a that need a little bit of vegetative intensity to build a nest and not Incredibly, this bird is not uncommon and is here year-round. ing on in the bird world and even pigeons are fascinating.” local enthusiast install boxes for the endangered bird. be right out where predators can see them.” This includes red- “They’re an excellent example of the kind of bird that once you get

38 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 39 #birdclass #ChippingSparrow Chipping Sparrows are common breeders in CT, but migrate south for the winter, so you won’t see them at your feeder in December. #birdclass #BlueJay You can thank Blue Jays for those volunteer

FIELD GUIDE FIELD oak trees in your lawn: they bury acorns for later use. students to actually look at the bird, they get an eyeful, put down your cat goes out and kills 10 birds a week and then comes home their binoculars, and say, ‘That bird was not here all along.’ But, and gets fed an artificial diet and gets taken to the vet, there’s no yes, it is that fancy and, yes, it has been here your whole life!” control valve. If I were Emperor of the World, I’m not sure there The first year Rubega did the Twitter assignment, a student would be housecats, but there certainly wouldn’t be any out- turned in what is perhaps still her favorite post: “Holden Caufield doors.” once asked where the ducks go in winter and never really got his We are at the edge of the woods now and bird noises are plenti- answer. He should have walked by Mirror Lake at UConn today.” ful. Birders seek edges because it’s easier to see birds where habi- “I looked at that and said to myself, ‘There it is — a liberal arts tat changes. Right now Rubega says she can make out the sounds education in 140 characters,’” she says. of crows, blue jays (“the rusty hinge”), mourning doves, catbirds, #birdclass #NorthernMockingbird Northern Mockingbirds attract mates by the redwings, chipping sparrows, a distant northern flicker, catbirds, diversity of sounds they make, and mimic other

downy woodpeckers, a red-bellied woodpecker, and, far in the dis- birds, cell phone tones and car alarms. e Platforms tance, robins. A nearby bird seems to be making a number of sounds in a row. It is another early morning for civilians and we are traipsing “That would be a mockingbird,” says Rubega. Every semester through knee-high grass and weeds, serious tick territory, behind she lectures about mimicry in birds and mockingbirds are excel- #birdclass #WildTurkey Discovery Drive. This is no barrier to Rubega’s birding. “Get some Look up! Wild Turkeys are some of the biggest lent mimics. She tells us about a lecture in which she talked about birds you’ll see on the ground, but they roost up tickproof clothing and get out there,” she says. “There are plenty hearing a mockingbird that was on territory in a campus parking in trees at night. of hazards to staying indoors!” lot. The bird had car alarms and cell phone tones in its repertoire. This territory is much less daunting at other times of year, but “The whole point for a male mockingbird is to pick up every novel even now in early summer our trek proves worthwhile when we sound that it can because female mockingbirds find novelty and come to the first of two wooden platforms built over wetlands and size of repertoire sexy.” see, within seconds, a pileated woodpecker. This is the real-life One of her students was so taken with this information that as Woody Woodpecker, enormous and brilliant. soon as class was over, he went down to the lot and tested a theory. “I think the pileateds are very exciting,” says Rubega. “My stu- “Within an hour and half of class he had posted: ‘Taught a dents were beside themselves when we came out here and there mockingbird the Jet Whistle in around 8 minutes.’ He stood in the was a pair of them actively courting — displaying and calling.” parking lot making “the Jet Whistle” until the bird started making These are the moments Rubega hopes will jostle students out of it back to him. what she calls “the BBC effect.” A student I had not given an assignment to went and did an ex- While televison has gotten people excited about wildlife, periment on his own and then reported it to the world at large — Rubega believes that the proliferation of animal shows has had in his own backyard! a negative impact as well. “People love to watch the type of show And I said to myself, ‘My work here is done.’” with the British announcer intoning while the eagle takes down #birdclass #RedtailedHawk some big piece of prey and it does create interest in wildlife,” says A Red-tailed Hawk is a truth-in-advertising bird. Except when they’re young, the tail is brown Rubega. “But it also gives people the idea that natural history is above and banded below. #tweetid taking place somewhere else, in some exotic place not near you. So for a student who goes back and forth from classes all day to come out to a place like this and see an enormous woodpecker with a bright red head and this specatacular black-and-white pattern on #birdclass #EuropeanStarling You gotta give European Starlings credit: 100 its body drilling big holes in a tree? It blows their mind because it’s released in Central Park produced enough not somewhere else. It’s right here!” more to occupy all of North America.

e Loop: W Lot and the Cemetery

A short walk from the W Parking Lot we’re ensconced in woods and the baritone sounds of bullfrogs. Rubega often takes students on a loop that begins here and winds behind Charter Oak Apart- ments, past the cemetery and back to the lot. We’ve been stalking what turns out to be a wild turkey with two chicks. Two doesn’t seem like much of a brood. #birdclass #NorthernCardinal There’s a lot of mortality in the early life of chicks, says Rubega, The conical bill of Northern Cardinals is good at in part due to the number of feral and nonferal cats here. It’s a sore cracking open tough seeds, and drawing blood from bird banders who handle them. subject for this ornithologist, who says that nonferal cats in Con- Margaret Rubega, here with starlings in the Biodiversity Research Col- necticut are decimating bird populations. And do not make the lections Room, is an associate professor and the curator of ornithology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She also is mistake of suggesting that it’s a natural process. the Connecticut State Ornithologist. “People argue that the cat is a natural predator. No. A natural predator is one who, when it eats too many of the prey base, its For more on Margaret, the birds of Storrs, and an incredible starling story, go to s.uconn.edu/birds. Want to join fellow population naturally gets cut back because there’s not enough alums and associate professor Morgan Tingley in May 2018 for a food to go around. So there’s a built-in control valve to keep the “Birding in the foothills of the Himalayas” trip? Find out more predator from driving the prey all the way to extinction. When at uconnalumni.com/birding.

40 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 AA CUBCUB EXCNGEEXCNGE By Amy Su rl

When Tania Huedo-Medina, associate professor of biostatistics (below in UConn shirt), went to Cuba for the first time in November 2015 she had one goal — to study the island nation’s well-respected public health system. That quickly proved to be a more challenging undertaking than she expected. Still, during multiple visits over the next two years — documented in these photos taken by her and her team — Huedo-Medina and others from the UConn research community have forged relationships with Cuban health workers that promise to improve data collection and overall healthcare in both countries.

UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 43 Coabn During each visit, Huedo- Medina connected with more Cubans and recognized more opportunities for other UConn faculty to get involved. Last spring, she and a team from UConn met with Cuban scientists in Havana. They brainstormed collaborative research projects around the modeling of data for efficient health policies and promotions. One project they hope to get under way soon in- volves the prevention of alcohol and tobacco abuse.

Go to s.uconn.edu/cuba to watch a Science in Seconds video about UConn’s work in Cuba and to see more photos from Huedo-Medina and her team.

Cnecs During her first visits to Cuba, Huedo-Medina spent much of her time forging connections. The longtime rocky relationship between Cuba and the U.S. presented a challenge in that arena. The decades-old U.S. embargo of the country made some Cubans understandably uneasy about working with a U.S. institution. People were friendly, though, and Cuban academics and researchers got the necessary permissions from higher-ups in their organi- zations to work with her and the UConn team. A shared desire for finding and communicat- ing better preventive health care strategies put them on the same page.

Dr To Dr Huedo-Medina’s persistence slowly began to pay off. She finally got a first-hand look at how Cuban health care workers knew so much about the country’s citizens when she was invited to go door to door with them in Vedado, a middle-class neighborhood in Havana. Health workers routinely visit Cubans in their homes to gather information and address any medical concerns they have, a practice that seems unthinkable in the comparatively privacy-obsessed U.S., she says. But in Cuba, as Huedo-Medina saw, people readily open their doors to doctors and answer all of their questions.

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Connecticut and Connecticut Boston. Now retired, he lives construction group, where is earning her master’s in College. Since retiring, I have in Fox Chapel, Pa. he focuses his practice on school counseling, was on the taught at the Harvard School construction and surety UConn track and field team. of Public Health and have law, including transactional Their son, Tommy Myers been an adjunct professor work and litigation. He ’17 (CLAS), graduated with at Yale. My book on the 1970s has more than 35 years a communication degree history of statistics, The Lady of experience handling and is currently on the Tasting Tea: How Statistics complex construction football team. He plans to Revolutionized Science matters involving contract earn his master’s in sports in the Twentieth Century, ➼ Ed Nusbaum ’70 procurement, negotiation, management. has been widely used as a (CLAS), of Weston, Conn., financing, and commercial- ➼ Pamela Hackbart- supplemental text in high has been selected an related dispute resolution Dean ’87 MA, director school and college statistics America’s Top 100 Attorneys and litigation. of the Special Collections courses.” ➼ Perry Zirkel Lifetime Achievement Research Center at ’68 MA, ’72 Ph.D., ’76 member for Connecticut. Southern Illinois University JD, professor emeritus of Less than one-half of a Carbondale, was inducted education and law at Lehigh percent of active attorneys in 1980s as a Fellow of the Society of University, was honored the United States will receive American Archivists (SAA) with the 2016 Steven this honor. He is principal during a ceremony at the SAA S. Goldberg Award for and co-founder of Nusbaum ➼ Susie Bisulca Beam annual meeting in Portland, Distinguished Scholarship in & Parrino P.C., a family law ’80 (CLAS) wrote a book, Ore., in July. The distinction Education Law, given by the firm based in Westport, He’s Not My Husband, of Fellow is the highest honor Education Law Association. Conn. ➼ Steve Maguire published by Xlibris bestowed on individuals by Zirkel’s research currently ’75 (CLAS), ’76 MA, has Publishing. ➼ Everyone the SAA and is awarded for focuses on empirical just released a Vietnam War in the Myers family is a outstanding contributions and practical studies of novel, Mekong Meridian. Husky through and through. to the archives profession. special education law, with Much of the story is drawn Peggy (Walsh) Myers Hackbart-Dean, who earned secondary attention to more from Maguire’s experience ’86 (CLAS) played on the a master’s degree in history general education law and as an Airborne-Ranger women’s basketball team, and archival management labor arbitration issues. Infantry officer with the 9th and her husband, Norm at UConn, was nominated ➼ Bill DeWalt ’69 Division in 1969. ➼ Tom Myers, 1985 (CLAS), was for distinguishing herself (CLAS), ’76 Ph.D. was Morganti ’76 (CAHNR), a football player at UConn. as a thoughtful leader and a named chair of board of a veterinarian living and Their daughter, Kelly skilled teacher. trustees of the Pennsylvania working in Avon, Conn., has Myers ’15 (CLAS), who ➼ Marikate Murren

University of Connecticut Archives Archives of Connecticut University chapter of the Nature just published a first novel, earned her undergraduate ’89 (CLAS), ’96 MA Conservancy. During his Totenkopf, a thriller set in degree in psychology and was recently named vice Alumni Day Then and Now long and distinguished Germany in the final days of academic career, DeWalt WWII. ➼ Richard Boch authored or coauthored ’76 (CLAS), who was the For information on this In 1946, students and alums spent Alumni Day lounging in the sun on the hills and bleachers sur- many books and articles bouncer at the notorious year’s Huskies Forever rounding the UConn baseball diamond to root on their team. Today, Huskies Forever Weekend is about the relationship Mudd Club, a new-wave club Weekend Oct. 20-22, visit the closest event UConn has to this old tradition. While the Homecoming football game still brings between humans and in New York’s Greenwich uconnalumni.com/events. students old and new together for a day in the sun, this Husky Pride celebration is now a three-day natural resources, advised Village during the late ’70s, event. Over the years, alumni have come from as far as Hawaii and Israel to reconnect with old many Ph.D. students, and reports that his memoir roommates over Then and Now tours around campus and wine and beer tastings from alum-owned won teaching and research on the club was published vineyards and breweries. There are events centered around 40th and 50th reunion celebrations, awards at the University of this summer. The book, The Kentucky and University Mudd Club, describes his life but also a number of happenings, such as a 5K race, that invite all alums to join the fun. —EMMA of Pittsburgh. He served as two years after graduating CASAGRANDE ’18 (CLAS) director of the renowned from UConn when he lived Center for Latin American in Greenwich Village and Studies at the University of worked at the door of the Pittsburgh, where he was famous club with its eclectic CLASS NOTES earned a master’s degree at civilizations, he recently and Lies: How to Tell the Yale University, then worked presented an article he wrote Difference, the first in a also Distinguished Service core of regulars, including for Hughes Aircraft Co. in on the use of the pendulum planned series on statistical Professor of Public and Johnny Rotten, Frank Culver City, Calif., where in the creation of a number reasoning in science and International Affairs. He Zappa, Talking Heads, and he designed satellites for of measurements during society, sponsored by then became director of the John Belushi. The ultra- 1950s

communication, navigation, the Aerospace Systems and the American Statistical Carnegie Museum of Natural hip club attracted no wave Morenus Peter and weather observation. Technology Conference. Association. Salsburg shares History and, in 2007, he and post-punk artists, After leaving Hughes in 1973, that upon graduation, “I was was founding president and along with musicians, OFF CAMPUS ➼ Roland Boucher ’54 he obtained a patent for an the first statistician hired by director of the new $250 filmmakers, and writers. (ENG), who bought his electric-powered aircraft Pfizer, Inc., and was involved million Musical Instrument ➼ Robinson+Cole lawyer 1960s Jonathan’s new vets are married alums first plane in 1952 when he and developed both the first in the development of new Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Dennis C. Cavanaugh ’78 was still a sophomore at electric-powered battlefield drugs for almost 30 years. In 2014, he became executive (CLAS) has been named the Veterinarians Heidi (Claus) Morey ’05 and Scott Morey ’06 UConn, reports that he is still drone aircraft and the Before that, I taught at the vice president and museum Best Lawyers 2017 “Lawyer (both CAHNR) examine Jonathan XIV at their Fenton River flying and is now a retired first high-altitude, solar- ➼ David S. Salsburg ’67 University of Pennsylvania director of the Edward M. of the Year” in Connecticut Veterinary Hospital in Tolland. engineering manager in powered, electric aircraft. A Ph.D., recently released a and, while at Pfizer, taught Kennedy Institute for the for construction law. He Irvine, Calif. After college, he fan of the study of ancient new book, Errors, Blunders, courses at the University of United States Senate in is a member of the firm’s For more, visit s.uconn.edu/vets.

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UConn Police Chief Hans on campus. best shooter in the depart- duck who appears placid on renovations to their 1840s-era Rhynhart at Wilbur Cross Rhynhart was so laid back ment, not the fastest runner, the surface while paddling house or barn, or tinkering just before the start of the that the students he was in- he says — but, “if there’s one madly out of sight below the with an engine, or seeking out fall semester. vestigating assumed he was an thing I believe I am good at, water — but it’s his gravitas bargains to appease his frugal amiable stoner and welcomed it’s putting people in the right that stays with those who nature. nest and honest person he met him into their fold — and to positions to succeed, not only meet him. He certainly won’t be idle. at Goodyear and with whom this day, colleagues never tire for themselves but also for the “Even as a student in my In fact, these days, you’re he later roomed in New Lon- of teasing him about the long organization and the commu- classes, he was steady and certain to find him with text- don Hall and that memorable hair, scraggly goatee, and ratty nity we serve.” he had a presence. He stood books and meticulous notes red house on King Hill Road. clothes that made him appear Even through the hardest out as a solid individual, from the classes he’s taking to “The best way I can so convincing, even as he days — notifying parents of and that is the same kind of earn his master’s degree in hu- describe Hans is that he’s a counted down the days until a their children’s unexpected person he is today,” says John man resource management at stand-up guy. He has your return to his clean-cut self. deaths, manning the front “Jack” Clausen, a professor the UConn School of Business. back as a friend, and he has lines during Spring Weekends, in the UConn Department of Like his other endeavors, he’s integrity in his work and his Unru¦ed training to guard against acts Natural Resources and the jumped in wholeheartedly. life,” Busch says. His talent helped him move of terrorism — Rhynhart is Environment. “Being a student again, I’m Part of that work included quickly up the ranks over the consistently calm, rational, “At one point when he taking it all in like a sponge,” several summers with the coming years, earning him and unfailingly reliable in was the police department’s he says. agency now known as the a spot in the FBI National the eyes of those who depend spokesperson, I saw him on And while he’s come a long Connecticut Department of Academy professional devel- on him and his public safety TV one night and said, ‘Oh, way from his undergraduate Energy and Environmental opment program in Quantico, personnel for the safety of the wow, he’s doing an amazing days in that ramshackle red Protection. That’s where his Virginia, in 2009, and he campuses. job — he’s so composed and house on King Hill Road, respect for law enforcement eventually became second “Police work on a college well spoken.’ At that particular Rhynhart is still the person transformed into admiration in command at the police campus requires a special moment, I had a feeling of who impressed his professors — and the start of a career as- department in 2011. He later set of skills and sensitivity, pride that he came through with his maturity, cultivated piration — as he worked close- was appointed deputy chief, and Hans has always had our program.” countless friends with his ly with officers in the state’s and held that job until his the ability to build those sincerity, and jumped at the Environmental Conservation interim appointment as chief kinds of trusting relation- All Blue chance to serve the alma (EnCon) Police. in May 2016. ships throughout the UConn Those who know Rhynhart mater he loves.

Peter Morenus Peter Rhynhart worked as an “The people I’ve worked for community,” President Susan say that off duty, you’re most “UConn has given me a environmental analyst in at UConn have always looked Herbst says. “His UConn roots likely to find him spending chance to be part of something ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Vermont and Connecticut toward the future and consid- run deep, and we’re incredibly time with his 15-year-old that makes a positive differ- after college until 1998, when ered how to bring people along fortunate and grateful to have daughter Emma, 13-year-old ence and has lasting meaning,” HANS RHYNHART ’93 (CAHNR) he decided to pursue his law to cultivate the next genera- him here.” son Hans, and his wife, first- Rhynhart says. “The police enforcement ambitions. He tion of leaders. I consider that Several people who work grade teacher Beth (Swen- department and the UConn With a slight crane of the panionable undergrad whose been one of the best returns was hired at the Department to be a very important part of with Rhynhart say that even son) Rhynhart ‘95 (CLAS), community as a whole fit neck, peering from the corner engineering aspirations had on investment I’ve ever made of Motor Vehicles and went this job, too,” Rhynhart says. in the midst of stressful situ- who he met in the Homer really well with who I am as of UConn Police Chief Hans given way to an interest in in terms of the education I through the Connecticut He jokes in his self-depre- ations, his demeanor is calm Babbidge Library when both a person, and I’m grateful for Rhynhart’s second-floor office natural resources manage- received as a student and the Police Academy, working as a cating style that he’s not the and authoritative. He jokes were UConn students. He’s the opportunities I have here.” window affords a sliver of a ment. He never imagined opportunities I’ve been able to vehicle safety inspector until best at anything — not the that he is like the proverbial also likely to be working on —STEPHANIE REITZ view of an empty lot atop King that more than two decades pursue in the police depart- he applied for a UConn police Hill Road, bounded by vegeta- later, his admiration for law ment,” Rhynhart says. job at the encouragement of a enforcement would lead him DMV supervisor who recog- tion and parking spots. FIRST JOBS Generations of UConn to the top spot at the UConn In the dorms nized his potential. students came and went Police Department, which A Woodstock native, Rhyn- From his first few days on Walk This Way over the decades as renters he’d walked past regularly as hart spent his freshman year the job in June 2001, the in a two-story red house that a student heading to and from at Johnson State College in UConn Police Department Maggie Quackenbush ’17 (BUS) jumped at the offer of a job at once stood — or, some would his modest digs. Vermont before transferring has felt like home. Sony Music as an opportunity to leverage her degree in manage- say, tottered — on that lot. Its Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR) to UConn and moving into ment information systems. And if the members of her favorite unbeatable location and the was named to UConn’s top Goodyear Hall, where some Undercover bands, Aerosmith or AC/DC, happen to walk through the doors of warmth of roommate friend- police job in January after of his closest friendships were Rhynhart’s familiarity with the Manhattan record company, that will be a bonus. ships easily compensated for serving in the interim role forged over the family-style the campuses and the ease “I’m very excited to be joining Sony Music,’’ says Quackenbush. its grungy floors, bare-bones for seven months. He is also dinners that were served with which he interacts with “I enjoy constantly learning new things, and I think that’s what is kitchen, and the broken door, interim director of public there before meals were con- others has benefited UConn great about the music business. There are always new genres, new whose missing lock allowed safety, a position in which solidated into the Northwest time and time again — includ- artists, and new ways of producing music.’’ genial strangers to wander he also oversees the UConn complex’s main dining hall. ing a 2002 undercover stint Sony Music, the world’s third-largest “record’’ company, just in for a bathroom break after Fire Department, Office of Bryan Busch ’93 (ENG), when he posed as a graduate launched a two-year rotational program for recent graduates in- closing time at the nearby Emergency Management, and ’98 MS, who remains one student as part of a team of terested in information systems and technology, and Quackenbush bars. the Fire Marshal & Building of his close friends, says the officers who apprehended 13 is one of the first two accepted. She expects to be working in the Among those renters: Inspector’s Office. Hans who wears the chief’s people who were using and Manhattan and New Jersey offices for 18 months, before spending Rhynhart, a quiet but com- “Coming to UConn has badge today is the same ear- selling heroin and other drugs six months abroad, most likely in Munich. —CLAIRE HALL Photo courtesy of Maggie Quackenbush courtesy Photo

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president of human resources at MGM Springfield in Springfield, Mass., which is due to open in September 2017. ➼ Attorney Michael I. Flores ’89 (CLAS), of Orleans, Mass., was elected president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Massachusetts Chapter, for a two- year term starting in September. The national organization has about 1,200 of the most distinguished divorce and family law attorneys in the United States.

1990s

➼ Vladimir Coric, MD ’92 (CLAS) rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on May 9, 2017, after the company he founded, Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., went public. He reports that Biohaven raised $195 Courtesy of UConn Athletics, Peter Morenus Peter Athletics, of UConn Courtesy million in its IPO and was the largest Rowe, le‰, coaching a ’77 game against UMass and, above, in biotech IPO at the time. ➼ Jennifer

August in the Gampel oŽce he still works from at age 88. The Athletics of UConn Courtesy Kaysen Rogers ’93 MA was photo shows 1980 Team U.S.A. with Rowe as assistant coach and promoted to associate director of Dave Gavitt as coach. Though the team boycotted the Moscow Tony Hanson played for Rowe from 1973 to 1977 and calls him a “father gure” and employer relations at the University Olympics a‰er Russia invaded Afghanistan, they played a num- a “hero.” Hanson will be one of the speakers at the “Donald ‘Dee’ Rowe: Celebrating a of St. Thomas Career Development ber of exhibition games against NBA players and others. UConn Legend” event in Hartford at The Bushnell on October 20 at 8 p.m. KUDOS Center in St. Paul, Minn. ➼ Leighangela (Byer) Brady office at Gampel, and often attends men’s countless people he has touched in his life ’94 (Neag) ’95 MA was selected ROWE GETS TOP HALL OF FAME HONOR and women’s basketball practices. and what he has meant to his family and as superintendent of the National the game of basketball; but the John Bunn School District in San Diego, Calif., starting in the 2016–’17 school year. The thing about Dee Rowe, this man who the prestigious John W. Bunn Lifetime Gavitt [founder of the Big East confer- Legend Award comes close. ➼ Rob Carolla ’94 (CLAS) was “Dee is a man who I admire as much long ago became a sort of living legend Achievement Award by the Basketball ence], you can make a case that we might Those of us to whom he has passed on named president of the College both at the University of Connecticut and Hall of Fame. The news delighted many. not have gotten into the Big East in the the love of the game discovered there is as anyone and he has been a tremendous Sports Information Directors of in the larger world of college basketball, “He was a surrogate father figure,’’ first place. And without that everything justice in the basketball world when Rowe ambassador of the game and of UConn America (CoSIDA) for the 2017–’18 is that if you played for him for one day or says Tony Hanson, a standout player for turns out differently.’’ was named to receive the prestigious Hall for as long as I can remember. He has academic year at the organization’s for eight seasons, you became one of his Rowe’s Huskies from 1973 to 1977. “He of Fame award. supported me since I arrived on campus annual convention in Orlando. guys forever. was one of the first people who opened up Ambassador Just how big an honor is this? as a young coach 32 years ago and he is CoSIDA is a 3,000-plus-member I found that out one night in my senior my eyes, who told me there was a bigger Calhoun recognizes the breadth and Past winners include John Wooden, still there for me now. I will be forever association for college athletics year at Brown. There he was in the locker world out there beyond basketball, who depth of Rowe’s accomplishments: “Coach Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Dave Gavitt, grateful for his guidance and I am thrilled communications professionals. room after a game, there to say hello, promised me that he would make sure I Dee Rowe is a true basketball lifer. Dee’s Pat Summitt, and the Harlem Globetrot- that he is being recognized with this Carolla had served as an officer there for the past three years. ➼ there to give me a hug, there to symbol- graduated.” world has always been, and will continue ters. That’s how big. prestigious award. I know he is very proud William Rice ’94 (ENG) has and we are proud that he is ours,” said ically say that I was still one of his guys, He pauses for a second. to be, about family and the game of bas- And I know this: it’s well deserved. The been appointed assistant executive even if I had only played one year for him “He wouldn’t let me get away. He’s a ketball. In his own special New England innumerable people he’s coached, the le- Auriemma. —BILL REYNOLDS, A COLUM- director for schools and curriculum at Worcester Academy, and it had not hero to me.’’ region of Worcester, the Cape Cod area, gions of people he’s mentored, the people NIST AT THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, IS at Area Cooperative Educational been the easiest year for me. “Dee Rowe is the greatest ambassador and UConn, Dee Rowe has always been he’s tutored at all levels of the game, and WRITING A BOOK ABOUT ROWE. Services (ACES), a regional Is there any better message a coach the state of Connecticut has ever had,’’ the ultimate ambassador. Through the the countless people he’s touched in his educational service center in New can send, any better message anyone can says Tim Tolokan, former UConn associ- years, Dee has expanded his impact and life outside basketball would surely agree. UConn honors Rowe’s award on Friday, Haven, Conn. He oversees ACES send? This is Rowe’s great gift, always ate athletic director. “There’s no one else influence nationally and around the globe Coach Auriemma recently expressed October 20, in Hartford at The Bushnell schools and programs and works has been his great gift, this ability to stay like him, not even close. This is his 49th as a superb teacher and mentor. But above his gratitude to Dee, his recognition of Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. closely with ACES administrators Speakers include Auriemma, Calhoun, and teachers to support innovative connected to people, whether it’s a note, year at UConn, and his legacy goes way all, we continue to pay him the highest Dee’s continuing contribution to UConn, and Hanson, as well as emcee Bill Raftery learning initiatives. Prior to ACES, a phone call, a drop-in at their son or beyond basketball. He’s got an amazing honor by calling him ‘Coach’” and his belief that even this award isn’t of CBS Sports, UConn men’s coach and Rice was the director of mathematics quite big enough for the likes of Dee daughter’s junior high basketball game. ability to relate to people. Dee Rowe loves to say that he was former player Kevin Ollie, former players for Hartford Public Schools. “And Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriem- “captured by the game’’ in the third grade Rowe. Dom Perno, Bob Staak, Robert “Snake” ➼ Jasmine Alcantara ’95 Hero ma? I don’t think they would have been of his Worcester childhood. He coached “There is no award existing today or Taylor, and former Big East commissioner (CLAS), ’99 MBA, owner of JLA Just after this magazine goes to press here without Dee Rowe. Because without the Huskies from 1969 to 1977 and at age that could be created that is going to Mike Tranghese. For more information and Group, was awarded the 2017 U.S. in September, Rowe will be awarded Dee and his close relationship with Dave 88, he is still on the roster, still goes to his do justice to what Dee has meant to the tickets, visit s.uconn.edu/roweevent. Women’s Chamber of Commerce

50 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU FALL 2017 51 UCONN NATION | ALUMNI

SHARE YOUR Pharmacists and recently in June 2017. Baby Nora chief resident of internal NEWS WITH received the National weighed in at 6 lbs., 6 oz. medicine at Morristown UCONN NATION! Community Pharmacists and measured 17 ½ inches Medical Center in N.J. Upon Your classmates want to Association Leadership long. Mom and baby are both completion of his residency, know about the milestones Award. She lives in Durham, healthy, and Papa is happy to he intends to pursue a in your life. Send news about N.C., with her husband, be outnumbered two to one. fellowship in hematology/ weddings, births, new jobs, Eric Ferreri ’95, and their ➼ Kate Moran Connolly oncology. ➼ Jesse M. new publications, and 9-year-old twins. ’03 (CAHNR) is a Krist ’08 (CLAS) and more to: ➼ John O’Hara ’97 physician’s assistant in the Kimberley A. Sadowski ➼ alumni-news@ MBA has joined ProHealth Burn Unit at Bridgeport ’09 (BUS) celebrated uconnalumni.com Physicians in Farmington, Hospital. After graduating their one-year wedding or via snail mail to Conn., as a finance director. from UConn, she worked anniversary in Alumni News & Notes Previously, he had been as a registered dietician April. They were married in UConn Foundation director of Medicaid financial at Bridgeport Hospital Siena, Italy, in April 2016. 2384 Alumni Drive and business performance for several years. She ➼ Alphie Aiken ’08 Unit 3053 at Tufts Health Plan in earned her master’s in MBA was honored at Storrs, CT 06269 Watertown, Mass. ➼ Lynn physician assistant studies the Women in Business Submissions may be edited for M. Patarini, BGS ’97, at Philadelphia University Summit on April 21, 2017. clarity or length. released her fifth novel, in 2010, recently became She is president of Junior Uncle Neddy’s Funeral, in a mother, and just spent Achievement Jamaica and May under the pseudonym a year as Bridgeport previously spent 15 years L.M. Pampuro. ➼ Aimée Hospital’s Employee at General Electric Co. Allaire ’98 (CLAS) reports of the Year. ➼ Niamh Most recently, she was an Innovation & Performance that she recently passed the (Cunningham) Emerson eBusiness Leader, overseeing Award at the National Small halfway mark of an intensive ’06 (CLAS) recently $600 million in online sales Business Federal Contracting study on the importance of joined the Yale School of annually. She has led the Summit in Washington, D.C., motherhood in the modern Nursing advancement GE Women’s Network for on March 30, 2017. world. Her work has been team as associate director Greater Hartford, as well as This prestigious award indirectly sponsored of development and the GE African American recognizes female small by various Connecticut alumnae affairs. She was Forum in the Northeast. business owners who exhibit companies, including UTC most recently employed outstanding innovation Power and, currently, in Yale University’s and/or performance on Bauer, Inc., in Bristol. She Office of the Secretary 20 a key contract that will lives in Mystic with her as assistant secretary for 10s significantly bolster their husband, Keith Brainard corporation affairs, where ability to secure future ’98 (ENG), and their four she was responsible for the opportunities. children.➼ Steven R. logistics of all aspects of ➼ Kerry (Co¤ey) JLA Group provides a Jenkins, CPA, ’99 JD, Yale Corporation (board Welton ’10 (CLAS) wide range of consulting and ’12 MBA, ’15 MA has been of trustees) and University and Je¤rey Welton advisory services — such appointed as a trustee to Council meetings and was ’08 (BUS) are proud to as strategic planning and the Connecticut Laborers’ the staff liaison for the announce the birth of their communications, project Pension, Health, and Annuity Corporation Honorary daughter, Madeline Dina,

management, change and Funds. He is general counsel Degrees Committee. in March 2017. “Born a of Olivia Balsinger Courtesy performance measurement, and compliance director for ➼ Dr. Ryan Denley ’06 Husky fan!” say her parents. acquisition strategy and regional construction firm (CAHNR) graduated from ➼ Brien Buckman JOB ENVY execution, and proposal Manafort Brothers Inc., the School of Allied Health ’12 (CLAS) and Alicia and grant development — headquartered in Plainville, with a BS in diagnostic (Kruzansky) Buckman to government clients and Conn. genetic sciences in 2006. ’12 (CLAS) were married At 24, Olivia Balsinger ’14 (CLAS) has a passport with 75 nation stamps in it and a job as deputy editor and journalist for the travel commercial industries. He worked as a cytogenetic Nov. 20, 2016, in West website Oh the People You Meet. Her office spans the planet. She has lived in an Amazonian eco-lodge with the closest grocery store a ➼ Stefanie (Pratola) technologist for five years Hartford, Conn. They now three-and-a-half-hour canoe ride away, ridden an elephant in Thailand, rappelled down a 350-foot waterfall in Ecuador, eaten salted Ferreri ’97 (PHARM) after graduation, then live in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. grasshoppers in Japan, gone on safari in the African bush, celebrated the new year in an Ethiopian village, laid under the gleaming 2000s was recently promoted to graduated from the New ➼ Nicole Lavoie aurora borealis in Yukon Territory, and hobnobbed with camels in the Masada Desert in Israel (above). clinical professor at the York Institute of Technology ’12 (ENG) and Jordan Balsinger credits another “Yukon” territory for her success: the University of Connecticut. Her journalism courses included UNC Eshelman School of College of Osteopathic Smith ’12 (ENG) were Environmental Journalism with Professor Bob Wyss, a class she credits with her first “press trip” to the Florida Everglades reporting ➼ Pharmacy in Chapel Hill, Michael Boecherer Medicine in 2015. He married June 4, 2017, in on ecological issues. She credits a job as campus tour guide for prospective students with improving her ability to ask good questions. N.C. She is also the current ’00 (CLAS), ’02 MA and married Dr. AnnaMaria Bolton, Conn. surrounded And not one, not two, but three study-abroad opportunities gave the former homebody — who’d never flown on a plane until a ninth- president of the North his wife, Victoria, welcomed Arias in May 2016 and, by a large group of UConn Carolina Association of Nora Johnston Boecherer most recently, was selected friends. grade trip to Disney World — the curiosity to travel. —JESSE RIFKIN ’14 (CLAS)

For more of our interview with Balsinger, go to s.uconn.edu/olivia.

IN MEMORIAM

Please visit s.uconn.edu/octobits to find obituaries for alumni and faculty. And please share news of alumni deaths and obituaries with UConn Magazine by sending an email to [email protected] or writing to Alumni News & Notes, UConn Foundation, 2384 Alumni Drive Unit 3053, Storrs, CT 06269.

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CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO TOM'S TRIVIA!

Go to s.uconn.edu/oct17trivia to see if you know as much as King of UConn 1. UConn’s school colors of National Trivia and University Deputy Spokesperson Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS). Flag blue and white were made official in 1952. What were the TOM'S earliest colors known to represent the institution? TRIVIA A: Orange and white B: Red, white, and blue C: Imperial blue and white D: Midnight blue and white 2. The opening of the Downtown Hartford Campus this fall is the first time UConn has had an under- graduate campus in the capital city since 1970. How many previous locations have there been for the University in Hartford? A: One B: Three C: Five D: Six

UConn’s Winter Weekend – a bright 3. spot during the cold New England months on campus – began in 1979 with jugglers, an ill-advised para- chute jump, and a “pajama party beerfest.” Only one activity has survived as a mainstay of campus life, though. What is it? A: The Senior Scoop B: A ski trip C: One-Ton Sundae D: Saturday basketball game

What non-Halloween costume tra- 4. dition disappeared from University life after 40 years? A: UConn’s president dressing once a year as the “Mayor of Storrs” B: A parade through campus led by someone dressed as the Pied Piper C: The football team and marching band swapping uniforms after the Spring Game D: Students dressing as the mascots of Yankee Conference rivals to mock their teams

In 1904, some 40 students — a quarter of the student body — posed in their Halloween garb.