Media Bytes

President Lee Higdon and his wife Ann gave advice to college-bound students, discussed the value of the liberal arts and talked about growing up in Westchester County, N.Y., in an article on the Journal News (N.Y.) newspaper web site on March 8.

In an Associated Press article that describes how young people are using iPods and cell phones to tell time instead of traditional watches, Paul Dryden '07 was quoted as saying "to be honest, I can't remember the last time I wore a watch – I'm guessing early in high school." The article was published in more than 100 newspapers and web sites around the country.

Laurie Deredita, curator of special collections, including the Lear/Carson Collection at Shain Library, was quoted in a March 7 Washington Post article about a celebration of the life of environmentalist Rachel Carson. "She was the one who kind of rang the alarm bell, that we have to start thinking about the world around us in a different way," Deredita said.

Exceptional play by the men's hockey team, which earned a NESCAC playoff berth for the first time, garnered attention from the Boston Globe, The New London Day and other regional newspapers in late February.

Jean Handley '48 was named Citizen of the Year by Business New Haven newspaper and was featured in the Feb. 5 issue. Handley served as chair of the College's Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1992, and is known as a champion of the arts in New Haven. "I feel as though I have to do certain things and I have to do them in the best way possible," she said in the article.

Scott McEver, director of student activities, was featured as an "Everyday Hero" by WFSB-TV (Hartford/New Haven) on Feb. 16. McEver has taken five trips to New Orleans to help with hurricane reconstruction. "After the first trip, you sort of, I think, either never look back at it again or you go back and you go back and you go back," he said in the interview.

Marc Zimmer, the Barbara Zaccheo Kohn '72 Professor of Chemistry, published "Guerilla Puzzling: A Model for Research," in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Feb. 16. In the article, Zimmer explains how undergraduates at colleges such as Connecticut College can contribute to scientific questions through research. He says, "Undergraduate projects can be more like guerrilla attacks. They can concentrate on one aspect of a puzzle and be done in one or two summers. ... If they do not produce results, they might make the professor less likely to get future grants, but they do not harm the undergraduates' chances of finding employment or getting into graduate or medical school."

Eugene Gallagher, the Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies, was quoted in a March 4 article in the Hartford Courant about self-declared saviors and "would be Christs." Later in the month, Gallagher was a featured expert in a two-hour History Channel documentary titled "Cults: Dangerous Devotion." In the documentary, Gallagher had this to say about the power of cults: "Passions and commitment that can be engendered by religion are extraordinarily powerful, and sometimes no other human beings can stand in their way."

The Times (Trenton, N.J.) published a story about Nick Perold '07 and his experience as the president of the College's newly-reinstated Surf Club. Perold secured funds from the Student Government Association for beginner surfboards and wet suits, and the club frequently travels to the Rhode Island coast in search of the perfect wave – even in sub-freezing temperatures. "To the dedicated, surfing is aesthetic and dynamic – two factors of the creative process common to all forms of expression," he said.