The University of Hartford Alpha Chi Honor Society is collecting books for their annual book drive in support of the national program “Reading Is Fundamental.” They will be collecting books up until March 4.
They are kindly asking for gently used books for grades K–12 that will be donated to the University of Hartford Magnet School and the University High School of Science and Engineering.
Last year, the honor society donated 517 books, a record-high since they began the annual collection in 2011. Over the years, Alpha Chi has been able to donate an average of about 350 books per year.
I would say that we are reaching out to both students and faculty this year to help us match that goal. I would say that last year we reached that number through the involvement of students around campus.
The University of Hartford is committed to community and improving literacy is an important goal for the Hartford community and every donation helps to achieve it.
“For many of these students, they will be the only books that they will have to read over the summer,” Alpha Chi faculty advisor Dr. Donald Jones said.
Reading Is Fundamental is the largest nonprofit literacy organization in the U.S. while providing 4.5 million children with 15 million books and a growing number of literacy resources each year.
Collection boxes can be found near the circulation desk at the Mortensen Library or at tables in Commons and the Gengras Student Union’s Suisman Lounge from 12:15–1:45 p.m. on Feb. 25.
University of Hartford sophomore Aaron Shea is using his love for video games as a way to help bring students together. The sophomore computer science major has started a new club on campus called “Project Gamma” that focuses on developing and designing video games.
Shea has had an extensive fascination with video game development since he was 10-years-old, and in June 2015, he received a $7,000 grant from Epic Games for creating a plug-in that allows players to use a web browser within games.
An aspect of video games that Shea loves is that it allows for creative expression through various mediums.
“I was thinking there had to be more people on campus who were interested in, but there’s just not a place for them to come together to share their talents,” Shea said. “You could possibly have artists from the Art School who want to do some concept art, some sprite work or illustration for games. Same thing with musicians. Maybe they want to get their music into games, have their name on it. We just want to have a great time with some artists and designers and make something that’s really awesome.”
The name “Project Gamma” came about because Shea had the support from fellow students Antonio Morales and Tushar Iyer, who helped put this together. Since there is three of them, they decided to select the third letter in the Greek Alphabet so thus, “Project Gamma” was born.
Shea began planning last semester and within a 48-hour period, he already had the forms and contracts completed and ready to be submitted for approval. The club had their first meeting Friday, Feb. 5, and despite the return of snow to the UHart campus, there were still over 20 students who were there in attendance. Shea’s goal of having students from different branches of the University came to fruition as the majors of computer science, illustration, music composition, audio engineering and sociology were all represented.
“A lot of clubs end up finding their own majors that they attract,” Shea said. “I’m trying to make something that can attract multiple majors and get all types of different people involved.”
The club is early in development and are still just discussing ideas of what they would want to do, but Shea hopes that they can eventually work together to make something functioning that they could play and share with the rest of the student body.
“It’s open to anybody,” Shea said. “If you’re interested in any form of learning how games are made, or maybe you just want to learn. Maybe you’re there because you have a passion to make something or maybe you’re just curious. We say, ‘All are welcome.’”
Project Gamma meets on Fridays from 4:15–5:15 p.m. in Dana Hall 318.
For questions or more information, contact Shea at ashea@cs.hartford.edu.
After taking a break from the fall season of tennis, the University of Hartford men’s and women’s tennis teams are gearing up to get back out on the court for the 2016 spring season.
During the fall season, the men’s team started off team play with a clean 1-0 record but dropped the last five matches to end the season 1-5. The women’s team was quite the opposite, finishing with a 4-2 record.
But as the spring season looms ahead with both teams’ first matches on Feb. 13 against Colgate University in Guilford, Connecticut, the players will be playing with a huge chip on their shoulders as this year will be the last season for the tennis program at Hartford.
In Oct. 2015, University of Hartford athletics director Anton Goff announced that the strings of the tennis program would be cut following the 2015–16 season, with women’s lacrosse taking its place. The announcement was a blindside to both the players and head coach Torr Terranova, but women’s team co-captain Skyler Schaar said it was just added motivation.
“I told the team right after it happened, ‘It’s not over yet. Let’s make these people in the athletics department regret cutting us,’” the sophomore said.
With the announcement, it was expected that some of the players would look to transfer schools, especially the underclassmen.
One of those players who had already decided to transfer mid-year was freshman Ariel Haber, who was Schaar’s doubles partner. The duo combined for a 5-3 record over the course of the fall season while playing out of the No. 1 doubles spot.
The Hawks will also be without sophomore Katherine Long, who earned 2014–15 All-Conference Second Team honors in singles play.
But the Hawks still return Schaar, who also earned All-Conference Second Team honors last year — albeit in doubles play. She posted a 5-3 singles record in the fall season playing out of the No. 1 spot.
The duo of sophomore Meredith Heitland and junior Emily Sneddon will be the only duo to return with experience playing together, as they went 3-2 during the fall. Heitland (5-3), Sneddon (4-4), senior Hannah Goldman (4-2) and sophomore Emily Lindsley (2-1) all return with singles experience.
“Our mentality is basically to put as much work in as we can, do as well as we can and just to be positive,” Schaar said. “I know this is a very negative thing that happened to us, but we’re going to come out on top.”
On the men’s side, the mentality is very much the same.
“Our coaches have very clear expectations. If you don’t want to be here, then don’t come,” junior Jairus Baker said. “We’re still going to operate business as usual, and it’s still going to be hard work, and we’re still going to compete, and we’re still going to fight out there on the court.”
The Hawks won’t play on their home court until April 2 against Wagner College. Their final match will be April 17 against Franklin Pierce University, here at home. The women’s team will also be playing Stonehill College later in that same day.
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With the 2015 fall semester wrapped up and students back at home during the winter holiday break, the University of Hartford sent out notices via email of the prohibition of hoverboards on campus properties.
On Jan. 12, just one week before the start of the 2016 spring semester, University of Hartford Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Lee Peters sent an email to students stating that they “have decided to prohibit the use, storage, and charging of hoverboards on all University of Hartford campus properties.”
The ban comes as a precautionary safety risk due to the many incidents of hoverboards spontaneously catching on fire.
“You may have been following the news and seen that these devices’ batteries can burst into flame while in use and/or especially while being charged — resulting in a metal fire that can burn with intense heat,” Peters wrote in the statement.
A photo posted by The Informer (UHart) (@hartfordinformer) on
Hoverboards — or perhaps better termed as “mini segways” — are self-balancing electric scooters and were initially only banned from residential buildings, as noted in an email sent out to students on Dec. 23, 2015 by associate director of Residential Life Shawn McQuillan.
Assistant vice president for Residential Life Michael Malone said that a big concern was especially because the Village Apartments, Regents Park and Park River are largely wood structures.
“We were disappointed because frankly, we thought they were pretty cool, and we look forward to seeing them go around campus,” Malone said. “We hate to take things away from students.”
The conversation then shifted to between Peters and the Department of Public Safety, as concerns grew to include the libraries, the Gengras Student Union and other campus buildings. After the holiday break, it was decided that they would be banned from campus.
However, both Peters and Malone wanted to emphasize that this is just a temporary ban until the technology in hoverboards is improved.
News reports and videos began surfacing in Oct. 2015 of hoverboards that caught on fire while charging, while in use or while on standby.
Most of the blame has gone toward the lithium-ion batteries that are used to power many of the hoverboard products, but a statement sent out by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comission (CPSC) on Jan. 20 said that they are still undergoing investigations to find the root causes of the many hoverboard fires that have occurred throughout the country.
Most electrical products have to be tested and certified by UL LLC, an American worldwide safety consulting and certification company. Products that have been certified will appear with the UL quality mark placed somewhere on it.While the battery packs and power supplies for hoverboards may be UL certified, hoverboards themselves have yet to earn UL certification.
In the meantime, online retail giant Amazon.com has removed most hoverboard brands from their virtual shelves and is now offering refunds to any customers who have bought a hoverboard from their website.
In addition to all major U.S. airlines banning hoverboards, over 30 colleges and universities across the country have banned the use of hoverboards on their respective campuses.
University of Hartford senior Chaz Davis is no stranger to the spotlight. His inspirational story of continuing to compete despite losing most of his vision has been covered many times over the years.
Davis has been a member of the Hartford Hawks cross country and track teams since his arrival at UHart, but because of a rare genetic disease known as Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), he has had to deal with the loss of his diminishing eyesight. But being the tough competitor that he is, the Grafton, Massachusetts native has continued to battle and compete despite his setback.
The accompanying article in the Champion magazine detailed Davis’ battle, as well as how senior teammate Kyle Hamel helped Davis at the America East Conference Cross Country Championships by running side-by-side in tandem throughout the race.
For Davis, it was about being able to compete and just being able to run again that fueled his fire to overcome his disease.
“If you have something you think you do well or enjoy, it takes away from the other things in life that aren’t going very well,” Davis said, as was quoted in the Champion article.“When I wasn’t running, I was constantly thinking about the things I couldn’t do.”
In April 2015, the University of Hartford Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) put on the “Chaz’s Champions” walk to raise money for the fight against LHON with all donations benefitting the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.
Over the past few years, Davis’ inspirational story has been recognized several times by the local media.
A short documentary was produced by two Emerson College students in April 2015 titled, “Flash: The Chaz Davis Story.” The film was submitted for a contest to the New England Sports Network (NESN) with $20,000 and a television job on the line. Ultimately, the film didn’t win the big prize, but it was chosen as the “fan favorite.”
The Undergraduate Commuters Association (UCA) at the University of Hartford hopes to bring awareness and to begin a conversation of what privileges people have in this world. People come from all different walks of life and many times, they may not recognize or realize the privileges they may or may not have.
UCA is hoping to help facilitate that discussion by hosting “The Privilege Walk” for students and faculty at the University of Hartford.
“We’d like students to recognize or acknowledge what position they are or how privileged they feel like they are. Just see how society pretty much has put them at certain standpoints,” UCA president Patrice Pinnock said. “It’s supposed to be really informative to get to have a better understanding of yourself and how you’re placed in a so-called ‘free country.’”
The event will involve active participation from those who attend.
The main activity will call for the participants to stand in a single line where statements will be read and they will decide to either take a step forward if they feel it is a privilege, or to take a step backward if they feel it is a disadvantage.
Following the activity, Hillyer associate dean and chair of the department of social sciences Woody Doane will lead an open discussion on the topic of privilege.
“There’s a lot of talk about these diverse issues that relate to race, religion and class,” UCA treasurer Kharla Colon said. “There’s a lot of hate being spewed. A lot of it comes from ignorance or not having enough knowledge on other people’s positions.”
“We are different but we’re also similar too,” Pinnock said. “There’s so much struggles that everyone goes through, but at the same time don’t always jump the gun and stereotype someone all the time.”
Nick Pinkerton, director of the University of Hartford’s Counseling and Psychological Services will also be at the event.
The hope is that the discussion will cause participants to reflect on themselves, as it might serve as an eye-opening experience that may result in an emotional reaction.
In that case, Pinkerton will be on hand and available to anyone who feels they need his services.
“When you see someone that’s maybe not part of your culture, race or religion, you kind of just make an assumption. Maybe they think a certain way or act different because we grew up with a certain privilege and they didn’t,” Colon said. “Just think twice about it.”
UCA began planning for the event in Nov. 2015, led by graduate adviser Michael Daley.
UCA felt that with recent events like the legalization of gay marriage, Donald Trump’s comments on immigration and the U.S.-Muslim refugee situation, it was an optimal time to have a discussion about these heightened issues.
Similar events have been done at other colleges and university across the country.
Some of those schools have been the University at Albany, University of Arizona, Colorado College, Union College, Wagner College and Azusa Pacific University among others.
A video depicting the activity was also featured on the BuzzFeedYellow YouTube channel.
The video titled “What is Privilege?” was uploaded in July 2015 and currently has garnered over 1.4 million views.
The Privilege Walk will be held Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 7:30–10 p.m. in the Gengras Student Union North Café.
Door prizes and light refreshments will be available.
For questions or for more information on the event, you can contact the Undergraduate Commuters Association at uca@hartford.edu.
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The University of Hartford Relay for Life season has kicked off, and although the event is not until April 2016, now is never too early to begin fundraising and gathering donations.
Relay for Life is a community-based fundraising event of the American Cancer Society with more than 5,000 events taking place worldwide. These events are held in local communities, especially on college and university campuses.
The University of Hartford has held Relay for Life events on campus many times in the past.
In just the past five years, they have raised over a total of $100,000, but the numbers have been dwindling in each of the recent years.
Last year’s Relay for Life event was held inside the Gengras Student Union due to problems with the weather. This resulted in a huge drop in the amount of money raised.
“People really like the element of being outside and hanging out with their friends. It’s all about the atmosphere,” Relay for Life advisor Kristy Severino said. “When it got moved inside, it kind of lost its luster.”
For this year, the UHart Relay for Life committee really wanted to push for raising a higher amount, closer to what they have been able to come up with in the past. The goal for this year’s event is to raise at least $24,000.
A major change to this year’s event is that it will be held Sunday night instead of it traditionally being on Fridays.
Also, instead of going all night and into the next morning, the event will be shorter and end early in the night.
The plan is for the event to be held April 24, 2016, from 1–8:30 p.m. on the Village Lawn.
For now, the committee is pushing hard for students, staff, faculty and the community to being signing up for teams and raising money.
Being that the University of Hartford is a relatively small school, senior Leah Pedrani hopes that the community can come together as one.
“You want other people to have birthdays. Imagine if this was you or your friend. Do you want to support your friend?” Pedrani said. “You’re walking for a good cause and it’s fun.”
Pedrani is also a member of the UHart Relay for Life committee representing the sororities of Greek Life.
“It’s a cause that affects every individual,” she continued. “I’m sure you know a friend or a parent that is battling with cancer. It’s just a nice thing to do as a community.”
The UHart Relay for Life committee will also be holding a fundraiser at Qdoba Mexican Grill at Bishop’s Corner next Tuesday, Nov. 24 from 4–9 p.m.
Proceeds of the sales will go toward the Relay for Life fundraising amount. For more information please contact the University of Hartford Relay for Life committee.
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By night’s end of the inaugural Sig Delt Shakedown last Sunday, Nov. 15, the University of Hartford Sigma Delta Tau sorority had raised $7,065 for Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), reportedly making it the highest donation made by any University of Hartford Greek Life chapter.
Sig Delt Shakedown was a dance battle competition between four of the six University of Hartford sorority chapters with Delta Gamma taking home the first place prize.
Finishing in second place was Delta Zeta, third place was Sigma Kappa and rounding it out in fourth place was Phi Mu.
Each chapter was also asked to raise money for their respective national philanthropies.
As an incentive to win, only the first place winner would get to keep all of their fundraised money while second, third and fourth place would have to relinquish their money to be included with Sigma Delta Tau’s donation to PCAA.
Sigma Delta Tau began raising money in May by asking for donations from friends, family, alumni and Sigma Delta Tau chapters at other universities and colleges. Going into Sunday night’s event, the sorority had already raised over $6,000.
For that amount of money coming from a small private school like the University of Hartford, Sigma Delta Tau senior programming chair Jackie Heatter said that it’s a big deal.
“For big schools like Penn State they give like $20,000 and that’s big for them,” Heatter said. “Usually we’re only giving $1,000 because it’s hard to raise money, but for us to say that ‘we have $6,000 for you’ for such a small school, it’s a very big deal. We’re just trying to promote that to the school and show that Greek Life is a good thing.”
The idea for having the Sig Delt Shakedown came from Sigma Delta Tau vice president of philanthropy Lauren Platt, who has a friend that goes to the University of Georgia where they do a similar thing called “Greek Grind.”
“Our main thing for this was not only to make our chapter look good, but for Greek Life as a whole to look good,” Heatter said.
Also performing dance showcases during the night were the UHa Steppaz, members from each of the Greek Life fraternities and Sigma Delta Tau themselves.
Judges for the dance competition were University of Hartford Interfraternity Council advisor Abe Siliman, Sigma Delta Tau sister and former vice president of philanthropy Nikki Bellicha, University of Hartford director of student activities and Greek Life Felicia Bumpus and University of Hartford president Walter Harrison.
Prevent Child Abuse America is a voluntary organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse through citizen action.
PCAA builds awareness, promotes and enacts prevention efforts and works to ensure that every child has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential.
Sigma Delta Tau adopted PCAA as their national philanthropy in 1982 and have been raising money doing charity events since.
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The University of Hartford sorority recruitment process has been tweaked this year to maximize the opportunities for students looking to join and for the Greek Life sorority chapters.
In previous years, sorority recruitment ran during the first few weeks of the spring semester. Events usually ran at night during the week, and piling that on top of classes created a very hectic schedule for students.
For many students, it caused schedule conflicts. Instead of maximizing their potentials of meeting with the sisters of a sorority, they’d only get 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes.
Another problem that frequently occurred was having snow days shut down the University for a few days, disrupting recruitment week.
To alleviate all of the craziness, this year’s sorority recruitment will occur just a few days before the spring semester begins. It will run four days from Jan. 14–17.
Classes for the spring semester officially start Tuesday, Jan. 19 with residence halls opening two days before at noon on Sunday, Jan. 17.
This means that for those looking to participate in sorority recruitment that they will have to move in a few days early. Although the University will be mostly closed, meals will be taken care of by Greek Life and there will be no extra charge for students to live in the dorms before it officially opens.
Most of the students that go through sorority recruitment are freshmen, and being that it would be the start of only their second semester, they’re still getting used to being in college, being away from home and finding a group of friends.
Having recruitment a few days before the semester allows for four full days of having their focus only on the recruitment events and the sororities.
“They can actually focus on the importance of joining a sorority like community, philanthropy, sisterhood and leadership, instead of focusing on which sororities party the most or which ones have certain reputations,” University of Hartford Panhellenic Council vice president of recruitment Medina Colaku said.
For many years there were talks of wanting to move the sorority recruitment process to this new format, but it wasn’t until this year that Colaku really pushed forward to make it happen.
When the fall semester began, Colaku first talked to the Panhellenic Council e-board and the sorority chapters to get their approval.
The biggest concern was getting the University to comply with having students move in early since the power to residence buildings is shut down over the winter break.
After talking to assistant vice president for Residential Life Michael Malone, they were able to get resident assistants, public safety and facilities on board to make it happen.
“This is going to sound corny, but you can do anything that you put your mind to,” Colaku said. “Not taking ‘no’ for an answer just because someone is in an authority position or whatnot. Always ask questions, always be able to push your limits because look what can come from it.”
For students that aren’t able to move back early due to prior obligations, there will be continuous open bidding during the semester.
To go through the sorority recruitment process, students must have a 2.50 GPA and have earned at least 12 credits. There will be a $50 charge that is mandated by the National Panhellenic Council and is due by Jan. 14.
Students also have to submit a form online at the Greek Life website on the University of Hartford website.
A sorority recruitment information session was held last Wednesday night in the Gengras Student Union.
Upcoming in a few weeks will be “Meet the Greeks” on Dec. 3 where students looking to join a fraternity or sorority are able to meet the brothers and sisters of various Greek Life chapters. It will be 8 p.m. at the Gengras Student Union in the North café.
For more information, you can contact Colaku at recruitment.uha@gmail.com or visit the Greek Life Office at GSU 120I.
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College students are often advised to never leave their belongings and personal items unattended.
Mortensen Library at the University of Hartford even has several signs hanging on its walls around the building with the message: “SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Please do not leave your laptop or personal belongings unattended in the library.”
The library may feel like a seemingly safe place where the assumption is that all the students are there just to study, but sometimes that’s not the case and there may be some people looking for trouble.
Although the University of Hartford is located on private property in a fairly secluded area with only three road entrances/exits, the campus is still open to the public. That alone should serve as enough incentive to always protect one’s own belongings.
Recently, there have been four incidents just in the month of October in which five total laptops have been reported stolen from the Harry Jack Gray Center. Two of the stolen laptops were IBM Lenovo ThinkPads, two were MacBooks and one was a Microsoft Surface tablet.
Each of the four incidents occurred on the third floor of the Harry Jack Gray Center. One was in the HJG conference rooms while the other three were in Mortensen Library.
Of the incidents that occurred in the library, the students were studying in one of the secluded back areas of the third floor.
“Every laptop theft is because the people who left them there didn’t stay with it,” Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Christopher Lyons said. “They left it to go to the bathroom or to go get a coffee. So you have these computers lying around, it’s easy pickings for these guys.”
In two of the incidents, the owners of the laptops sensed suspicious activity and felt that there was a person that just didn’t quite fit in with the area they were in. However, they still didn’t report anything and felt comfortable enough to leave the laptops unattended.
“Be aware of your surroundings. If somebody looks like they don’t fit, tell somebody,” Public Safety officer Timothy Metcalfe said. “If you’re not comfortable challenging them, don’t challenge them but go tell somebody. Maybe you should call Public Safety because this guy shouldn’t be here.”
A REMINDER to students to NEVER leave their belongings unattended even if you'll "be right back." Better to be safe than sorry #UHart
Public Safety urges members of the community to not hesitate to contact them if they see suspicious or threatening activity.
To reach Lyons, his number is 860-768-7985 and to reach Metcalfe, his number is 860-768-7871. Public Safety’s emergency 24-hour number is 860-768-7777 while their routine call number is 860-768-7985.
The safest and easiest way to prevent a theft is still to never leave personal items unattended, no matter if a person will only be gone for a short amount of time.
“Yeah it sucks, it’s a pain. You got to go to the bathroom, you go to pack everything up and take it with you,” Metcalfe said. “You pee with a laptop or you come back and you have no laptop. Take your pick. What’s more of an inconvenience for you?
“It’s more inconvenient to go through this mess of reporting a stolen laptop, finding it and replacing it rather than packing up, going to the bathroom and coming back,” he continued. “Yeah it’s inconvenient that you have to pack all your stuff up, but what’s the bigger inconvenience?”
The Department of Public Safety have also said that they havestepped up their patrol in the area.
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