Media bytes

WTNH, Channel 8, aired a story April 26 about a movie, “The Big Bad Swim,” which was partly filmed at Lott Natatorium. Will Tomasian, sports information director, appeared on-screen to say, “It’s a great way to showcase one of our nice facilities.”

An article in the April 26 Norwich Bulletin about National Administrative Professionals Day included comments by Candace Howes, Barbara Hogate Ferrin ’43 Associate Professor of Economics, who said, “This [holiday] should remind us that secretary jobs aren’t paid enough because of historical discrimination that causes women not to be paid enough.”

On April 24, The New York Times Connecticut section carried an article on college students studying in the 26 countries on the State Department’s travel warning list. In it, Mary Devins P’97&’00, associate director of the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA), said, “These kids are coming to campus already having traveled… It’s not just confined to rich kids anymore.”

The spring issue of the Natural New England magazine carried a feature story on Doug Thompson, associate professor of physics, astronomy and geophysics, who explained how he became an expert in his field. “Before college, I didn’t know what geomorphology was. I just knew that I had always been interested in rivers.”

John Nugent, senior research analyst, published an opinion piece in The Day on April 17. In “A Line-item Veto Clearly Can’t Be a Silver Bullet,” he wrote, “Politicians who hail our federalist system of government and our states as vibrant ‘laboratories of democracy’ should pay close attention to the outcomes of states’ ‘experiments.’ The closer one looks, the shakier the benefits of the line-item veto appear.”

Glenn Dreyer ’83, Charles and Sarah P. Becker ’27 Director of the Arboretum, appeared in a “Connecticut Energy: On the Line” segment, which aired on Connecticut Public Television April 20 and 23 and will air on Monday, April 24, at 11:30 p.m. Dreyer said that colleges are good places to foster environmentalism because “you’ve got a very receptive audience
of idealistic people who haven’t been beaten down by life yet ... and are still willing to try things.”

On April 18, WNPR aired a report, “Conn College students crazy about recycling,” on its “All Things Considered” program. The report quoted Randy Jones ’06 about CC’s RecycleMania results.

Stuart Vyse, professor of psychology, published an opinion piece in the Providence Journal on April 18, lauding the merits of dining at a family-owned restaurant near campus (Mr. G’s) and recommending others seek out “your local deli, greasy spoon or pizza place ... you’ll get more than a cheap meal. You might just get to know your neighbors.” In a feature story published that day in the paper, Vyse was quoted on why scientists embrace superstition. “Our desire for control is sufficient to support doing things that we know can’t really affect the outcome,” he said. The story also appeared on USAToday.com and on azcentral.com, the Web site of the Arizona Republic.

The image loop of the Office of Admission in the “Anything Admission” blog by counselor Zach Hofer-Shall caught the attention of Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and a columnist for Forbes.com, who has posted a link to it on his blog at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/.

The performances of “The Vagina Monologues” were previewed in the Hartford Courant’s gossipy “Java” column on April 14. It mentioned that playwright Eve Ensler would attend the performances because “her goddaughter Molly Kawachi [’06] is a student there and one
of 60 actors performing.”

Deborah Eastman, assistant professor of biology, was called upon to provide context
to a first-person story in The Day on April 12 about DNA analysis. Commenting on research that shows the human race to be much more homogenous that previously thought, Eastman said, “The concept of ‘race’ is very complicated. Race as we use it in our society is really a social construct. …Human genetic variation does not fit the defined criteria for biological races.”

Ulysses Hammond, vice president for Administration, was quoted in an April 12 article posted on RenewableEnergy Access.com about CC’s purchase of more renewable energy certificates, which, he said, “reaffirms the College’s commitment to be a model for environmental sustainability.” An article on Hammond’s being named “Man of the Year” appeared in The Day April 18.

An April 11 article in a special report on The Da Vinci Code that appeared in the Sweden’s Världen idag, was devoted to “Debunking the Da Vinci Code” by Robert Baldwin, associate professor of art history. It recapped Baldwin’s thesis, that Mary Magdalene is not among the apostles in “The Last Supper.”