Many University of Hartford students on campus had the privilege and good fortune of being able to go home for a delicious Thanksgiving meal this past week. However, many of the families in the surrounding Hartford area are not as fortunate, and may struggle to put a nice holiday meal on the table.

University of Hartford students decided to help in an act of kindness for the holiday season. Several of the University’s student groups participated in an effort to collect canned goods for less fortunate families in the area so that these families could enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner.

Groups that participated included the men’s rugby team, Greek Life, Brothers and Sisters United (BSU), Caribbean American Student Association (CASA), Naciones Hispanas Unidas (NHU), National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and the Strong Independent Sisters (SIS) club.

The men's rugby team have already collected over 200 pounds of canned goods and nonperishable food items to donate to Foodshare for Thanksgiving! Help out by dropping some off in the many boxes around campus. Grab a food item the next time you hit up Konover. Donations will be accepted until Tuesday #UHart #HartfordInformer #HawkNationDomination #RuckHunger #Thanksgiving

A photo posted by The Informer (UHart) (@hartfordinformer) on Nov 21, 2015 at 10:01am PST

The men’s rugby team set up boxes around the main parts of campus and blasted it on social media. Most of the food donations came from when they went door to door in the campus’ residence halls collecting goods. The team collected an estimated total of about 200 pounds of goods that they donated to Foodshare, who serves the greater Hartford area.

Men’s rugby player Liam Eastman said, “We participate because it’s a good thing we can actually do to help the community.”

“We decided to do this can drive because we are thankful for what we’ve been given from the school,” team captain Troy Solt said. “The culture of rugby is all about taking care of your own, and nothing exemplifies this more than a can drive to help those less fortunate than us.”

Greek Life consists of six sororities and eight fraternities, and each chapter was asked to collect about 15 to 20 cans. Altogether, Greek Life ended up collecting about 175–200 items.

The campus’s sororities and fraternities have participated in canned good drives during the past few years as well, donating to food banks in the area, in order for Greek Life to be able to give back during the holiday season. This year’s collection was donated to Foodshare as well.

Leah Pedrani, Panhellenic Council director of community service, said that Greek Life participates in these food drives because “everyone deserves to have a Thanksgiving dinner, no matter where you are or where you come from. It gives people not only food to eat, but a heartwarming thought to know that people actually care and want to help out.”

Presented by BSU, CASA, & NHU pic.twitter.com/uxtDzv19Eo

— Brothers&Sisters (@BSU_UHART) November 17, 2015

Also making a donation to Foodshare was Brothers and Sisters United, Caribbean American Student Association and Naciones Hispanas Unidas.

Together, they hosted an event on Nov. 20 titled, “Guy Code vs Girl Code.” The event featured games, music, prizes and refreshments; all while discussing gender beliefs in a fun environment. Admission into the event was two canned goods. About 200 canned good was collecting from the event and was donated.

The National Organization of Minority Architects not only collected food items to donate, they also collected clothing items with the help of members from the Strong Independent Sisters club.

According to Mutazz Butler, public relations manager of NOMA, the group went house-to-house in West Hartford over two weekends, resulting in the collection of 300 canned goods along with several bags of clothing.

“We can often be overwhelmed by all the food and fun that comes with [the holidays], yet forget that there are others who simply don’t have the resources to eat a regular meal every day,” Butler explained. “We feel that our lives revolve around building structures, so we want to use our skills to help build others’ lives in the process.”

NOMA’s collected items were donated to Mercy Housing and Shelter in Hartford.

The University of Hartford’s annual spirit/homecoming celebration Hawktober Week/Weekend took place throughout last week.

It kicked off Sunday, Oct. 11 and wrapped up on Sunday, Oct. 18.

Each night throughout the week, there was a different event for students to participate in, events such as a movie night on the village lawn, pumpkin carving, the UHart Cake Wars competition, the Nearly Naked Mile and a bonfire.

The event that kicked off everything was the Nearly Naked Mile on Sunday evening, sponsored by the Center for Community Service, Student Government Association (SGA) and Student Alumni Association (SAA).

Students who participated removed an article of clothing — or a few — to donate, and then ran or walked a mile.

SGA member Bryson Owens observed that “A good amount of people showed up and it was really awesome to see people freezin’ for a reason.”

Hawktober Week kicked off tonight with the Nearly Naked Mile! #UHart @UofHartford @UHartSAA @HartfordSGA pic.twitter.com/E6BaOLuKve

— The Informer (@UHartInformer) October 12, 2015

Another popular event was the UHart Cake Wars competition that took place in Commons on Tuesday night.

Teams of students competed to decorate the best cake with various edible embellishments, and the winners, from the women’s ultimate team, quite literally took the cake.

“The Cake Wars was really entertaining because you really saw people express their creativity through cakes,” Owens said.

Hawktober Week continued tonight with the #UHart Cake Wars! Here's this year's winners! #UHartTraditions pic.twitter.com/3RAHLi1Z1Z

— The Informer (@UHartInformer) October 14, 2015

Thursday night’s bonfire was an eagerly awaited event that drew in many students. The fire did take some time to ignite nicely, but everyone still had a great time waiting for the fire to really start.

Sophomore Alanna Calabro, also an SGA member, said, “The bonfire was amazing. The community of UHart really came together to support the first annual bonfire. There was great hot chocolate, cookies and an awesome DJ playing music.”

Students in attendance even described a spontaneous dance-off that took place while students hung out in the light of the fire.

“The bonfire was pretty chill, or should I say hot,” Owens remarked.

Midnight Mania is, of course, one of the highlights of Hawktober Week/Weekend.

Friday night saw an influx of students, parents, alumni and fans of the athletics teams in general fill the Sports Center. There were various games and student performances to get fans hyped up for the 2015–16 basketball season.

Student Laura Faria declared, “I especially enjoyed the performance by the UHa Steppaz.”

Saturday brought the annual Picnic on the Green that is always a huge attraction, especially for the families of students.

One of the final Hawktober Week/Weekend events was the Evening of Student Talent that took place Saturday night in the Lincoln Theater.

Groups such as Hawkapella, UHarmonies, L’Shir, HartAttack, the Gospel Choir, Fenomena, the UHA Steppaz and Stop Laughing Mom performed songs, dances and comedy acts.

As always, this event was a great experience that did a great job showcasing the abilities of many talented students on campus.

Hawktober Week/Weekend was the usual success. Students, parents and alumni alike seemed to have a great time at each and every event they attended.

In the wake of the shooting that took place at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, students, parents and people everywhere are getting more and more concerned.

The morning of Oct. 1, Christopher Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student at the college, entered his introductory composition class with two handguns, and after shooting the assistant professor, proceeded to ask his fellow classmates for their religions.

He shot each one after they responded and ended up killing nine people, and injuring nine others before killing himself.

This was yet another school shooting amongst the 150 that have occurred in the United States since 2013.

#BREAKING: Active shooting reported at Umpqua Community College #UCCShooting https://t.co/zvTuBRxR28

— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) October 1, 2015

Now, schools everywhere, whether they’re elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges or universities, are left wondering what to do in order to prevent their campus from being next, and especially what to do in the event that another one of these tragedies does occur.

Here at the University of Hartford, the Department of Public Safety has taken measures to ensure that officers are specially trained to deal with a situation such as this.

Assistant Chief of Public Safety Michael Kaselouskas explained, “My officers are fully equipped and trained, and trained better than any agency in the state on responding to these incidents. We train several times a year. Hopefully we’ll never respond to a real incident, but we train both mentally, physically, and with the Simunitions [training ammunition] and etc. weapons to respond to these incidents.”

• Public Safety armed to protect

Kaselouskas went on to describe that several officers are indeed armed, especially due to the possibility that an event like this could occur, saying, “All of our officers, to be in an armed position, go through physical assessments, go through combat training on the range, night shooting, shooting behind targets. It’s an over 40-hour class of combat training. They also go through psychological background checks, psychological checks, and go through a whole monotony of checks that they need to pass in order to be selected for that position.”

The @UofHartford is arming its public safety officers. @BeauBermanFOXCT got the info, and student reactions http://t.co/5QVwLneOv1

— FOX CT (@FoxCT) August 26, 2014

The Department of Public Safety, especially Kaselouskas, has made extensive efforts to provide training sessions for University faculty, staff and students regarding how to respond in an incident involving a shooter on campus.

Kaselouskas explained that Public Safety officers and police, in an event like this, are actually “second responders” and went on to refer to faculty and staff who may actually be on the scene during an attack as the first responders.

“I want to train the first responders to mitigate that threat right away,” Kaselouskas said. “I want those first responders to take out that threat should they have that opportunity.”

Training sessions such as these offered by Public Safety here at the University are being offered in settings across the country for staff at various facilities, and according to Kaselouskas, the country wide training is to hide out, get out, take out; flee if you can, hide out if you can’t or take out if you have to.

“I’m doing everything I can and putting myself out there to accommodate whatever schedule I need to, to get the training done because it’s important,” Kaselouskas said. “But people need to take responsibility for themselves to get this training for themselves. A lot of people think they’re just going to call the police when something happens. Well, the police are not there immediately, and you need to do something in that meantime.”

Kaselouskas also discussed his plans of holding similar training sessions open to the entire campus community, including students and he really believes that as many people should make an effort to attend as possible in order to ensure that they are trained as well as faculty and staff members. Spreading this information will help keep campus as safe as possible.

On Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, at around 1:30 a.m., an incident occurred in the second floor hallway of Regents Park South at the University of Hartford.

Allegedly, a group of students in the hallway saw a young male walking down the hallway when the young man proceeded to drop his cell phone.

The group of students in the hallway laughed and the young man asked them “What did you say?” to which the student who reported the incident responded with “What did you hear?”

After squabbling for a few moments, the young man removed a utility box cutter from where he had it stashed in his pocket. He apparently proceeded to open and close it, as if threatening the other students.

The floor’s resident assistant then walked down the hall and the young man left.

He reportedly walked down the south hallway and left the building through the stairwell to the outside that is located in Regents South.

An email describing this incident, including a physical description of the suspect, was sent out to students shortly after 10 p.m. on the same day by the University’s Department of Public Safety.

The incident had not actually been reported until 1:05 p.m. that day, as reported in the email from Public Safety.

Public Safety Lt. Chris Lyons stated, “The incident with the box cutter was not reported for approximately 12 hours and that reporting delay caused a delay in reporting the incident to the community.”

He emphasized the importance of reporting incidents such as this in a timely manner so as to facilitate investigation as soon as possible.

As of Monday, Sept. 28, the suspect was identified by Public Safety.

“The student is being disciplined through student conduct and will face serious consequences for his actions,” Lyons stated.

The Public Safety department then sent out another email explaining that the incident was resolved with the identification of the offender, and that they greatly appreciated the campus community’s help in resolving the issue.

“It makes me nervous that a potentially dangerous person can be walking around campus, and PS might not know for hours,” junior Michael Desiderio said. “If PS doesn’t know, then it’s likely that the students who live here don’t either.”

Members of the campus community are strongly urged to notify Public Safety if they have any concerns regarding suspicious activity around campus.

They can the emergency number at 860-768-7777.

Other safety instructions from Public Safety include never propping doors used to enter or exit any residence halls and always taking care to lock rooms when leaving.

Tuesday, Sept. 22 brought an undeniably inspiring and informative event to the University of Hartford.

Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, two survivors of one of the most fatal dorm fires ever to occur, came to campus to speak about their experiences and show the documentary that described their journey to recovery after the injuries they sustained, appropriately titled, “After the Fire: A True Story of Heroes & Cowards.”

The event began in Lincoln Theater with introductions from the speakers, then proceeded by the showing of the documentary, ending with a Q&A session where general and heavy-weighted questions were answered.

The documentary explained that on Jan. 19, 2000, at around 4:30 a.m., a deadly fire began spreading in Boland Hall, a freshmen residence hall at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

This fire ended up injuring over 58 victims and killing three more. After extensive investigation, in 2007 Joseph LePore and Sean Ryan, two freshman students at the time, were finally charged on a 60-count indictment that included felony murder and starting the fire, and sentenced to five years behind bars.

Speakers Simons and Llanos survived some of the most brutal injuries from the fire, sustaining burns on 16 percent and 56 percent of their bodies, respectively. They now dedicate much of their time to speaking to students about the importance of fire safety.

Both men explained that although so many young adults believe that unfortunate events such as this can never happen to them, it does, with Simons saying, “To be 18 years old, probably like many of you in this room, to feel like we were invincible, that nothing’s ever gonna happen to us, to open up that door, to see that cloud of smoke, to feel the intensity of that heat as we tried to escape out of that building, was one of the most scariest things that we’d ever been through in our life.”

Llanos, in particular, endured lasting scarring that will forever plague him, but he made a point of describing his emotional reaction to feeling so different after his injuries.

“I had to learn to love my scars, and we all need to learn to love ourselves a little bit more because our scars don’t define who we are, our heart and everything we overcome defines who we are,” he said.

And the most important piece of advice?

Regarding fire safety, Simons said, “So it’s important, every time you hear an alarm go off, no matter how many times it goes off, to go outside, to evacuate. I don’t care if it goes off four or five — I don’t care if it goes off 10 times over the course of the night, I would rather you be inconvenienced and safe outside the building 10 times than that one time you say ‘you know what, I’m not gonna go out, it’s probably, you know, somebody playing around,’ and then next thing you know you’re trapped, suffering from smoke inhalation or even worse.”

For more information, you can visit their website at alvaroandshawn.com.

Upperclassmen all over campus at the University of Hartford have noted the influx of first-year students this fall. This year’s freshman class, the Class of 2019, is the largest class the University has had since 2009.

In fact, according to assistant vice president for Residential Life Michael Malone, there are about 16,000 new students with about 200 more than the Class of 2018.

This means that freshmen are living throughout every residence hall on campus — even those reserved for upperclassmen. Freshmen are in E and F complex, and about 50 lucky students are even experiencing apartment-style living early on in Regents.

While housing is clearly brimming with students, it actually could have been even more packed. The University was allegedly expecting even more freshmen to be living on campus, but according to Malone, “Some first-year students have withdrawn from housing and some have not checked in [at all].” Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, one thing is for sure —space is limited.

However, now that the semester is in session, the room change period has also officially begun. Efforts are being made to relocate as many freshmen as possible to spots in the complexes. Malone stated, “We have begun offering first-year students in Regents Park spaces in A–D complexes.  We expect that we will have some first-year students in Regents Park through the fall semester, but will have everyone relocated to the complexes by the start of the spring semester.”

Notably, though, the difficult housing situation is not only due to the arrival of such a vast group of first-year students. There were also more returning students than usual who chose to remain in campus housing and some returning commuter students who requested to live on campus this year. As Malone put it, “More new students plus fewer returning students departing equaled the tight housing situation we worked with throughout the summer.”

Malone also explained that it is highly likely that the University will have about as many freshmen next year.

“We are beginning to plan for accommodating them in the complexes,” he said.

So what happens if the University really does become home to another immense freshmen class next year? Malone responded that “there are no immediate plans to build a new residence hall but conversation continues about how to best use our existing facilities including renovation and remodeling.”

That being said, if residence halls are very close to full occupancy, flexibility regarding room changes will become nearly impossible.

But how did the University fit so many freshmen when classes were this large previously?

Dean of Admissions Rick Zeiser explained that before 2009, it was actually normal to have so many first-year students. He mentioned the fact that “in 2003 the number was 1,603; 2005 was 1,613; 2007 was 1,668; 2008 was 1,648,” and that this year’s class is expected to have about 1,615–1,630 students when the official census is taken on Oct. 2.

These classes were all here before Hawk Hall was built, making it so that “up to 250 rooms in the complexes were tripled.”

Housing situations aside, having the size of the freshmen class increase this year has been not only beneficial, but necessary.

Zeiser mentioned that “enrollment levels similar to those in the past are optimal in paying for the construction of Hawk Hall, the mortgage so to speak.”

The freshmen tuition is expected to help with other campus updates as well.

“Chief among those are the renovations of both the library and Gengras Student Union,” Zeiser said.

No matter the freshmen class size, the University of Hartford is excited to welcome them and especially excited for the great year ahead.