A tragedy’s aftermath

Jasper T. Howard. Photo credit: UConnHuskies.com

WRITTEN BY: Amanda Falcone and Regine Labossiere

PUBLISHED: The Hartford Courant, 10/20/09

STORRS – About 300 people had gathered inside the ballroom of the University of Connecticut Student Union Saturday night expecting a good time to cap off homecoming week.

The party, for students and guests, was sponsored by the university’s West Indian Student Awareness Organization. It began at 9 p.m., several hours after the Huskies beat Louisville in the homecoming football game. Among the attendees was Jasper Howard, a 20-year-old junior who, as a 5-foot-9, 174-pound starting cornerback, had much to celebrate. He had helped lead his team to victory that day. He was also going to be a father, as coach Randy Edsall would say later.

But it wasn’t long before the Student Union went from a place of celebration to a bloody crime scene, leaving police officers to piece together what had happened.

The party was scheduled to end at 1:30 a.m. but instead ended abruptly when a fire alarm sounded at 12:26 a.m. As the crowd left the building, there was a commotion and people appeared to be getting mad, said sophomore Ettienne Percy.

He said that fights broke out and, within a few minutes, he saw Howard fall and his friends go down to help him.

“The kid was just stumbling and he kind of fell,” Percy said. “There was too many people. No one knew he was hurt until he fell.”

Howard was stabbed once in the abdomen and eventually bled to death; he died at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. Edsall said Monday that one teammate held Howard as he lay dying, while another tried to put pressure on the wound.

Amid the commotion, another student, Brian Parker, also was stabbed. He was treated at Windham Hospital and released.

A freshman who attended the event said she was surprised to see only three police officers at the scene of the stabbing. The police prevented anyone from re-entering the Student Union and let the crowd disperse after the incident.

The Student Union, where the stabbings occurred. Photo credit: The Hartford Courant.

“Everyone was standing around [Howard] while they were working on him,” said the freshman, who declined to give her name.

On Monday, State police said they weren’t notified about the stabbing until after 2 a.m., but UConn officials said they had the appropriate number of university police officers and security guards at the party. In light of what happened, UConn officials said the university might review protocol.

The mood on campus Monday in the wake of Howard’s death was a mixture of shock and grief, as the community tried to return to its normal routine. One of those grieving was Shirley Armenteros, a graduate student who had bonded with Howard over their shared Miami hometown. She learned of her friend’s death Sunday morning from Facebook

“I really didn’t believe it,” Armenteros said, tears streaming down her cheeks as she walked on campus. “I called him, and it went straight to voice mail.”

Armenteros and Howard lived in the same dorm and became friends at the beginning of the school year, she said. Both viewed UConn as a way to get out of the rough neighborhoods they grew up in.

They had many of the same friends back home and planned on getting together during school breaks, Armenteros said. They used to talk about the Miami Dolphins and Howard’s NFL dreams, she said.

Armenteros said Howard had recently taken an interest in a pair of pink-and-black eyeglasses that she owned.

“He always wanted them, and now I think he should have them,” she said. “I’m going to give them to his mom.”

Kathy Ruiz, a sophomore who knows some of Howard’s friends, said everyone she talked to was “shaken up.”

One of Howard’s friends who declined to give her name called Howard “fun-loving” and “kind-hearted.”

“Every time you were near him, you had a good time,” she said.

Candlelight vigil held for murdered athlete

Students mourn at one of the candlelight vigils held on campus. Photo credit: Steve Slade.

WRITTEN BY: Colin McDonough

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/20/09

Students gathered at the Student Union and the Burton Family Football Complex Monday night to mourn the loss of Jasper Howard.

Outside of Burton, a crowd assembled for the candlelight vigil. Desi Cullen, one of four captains of the football team, led the group in a prayer for Howard, the Howard family and the UConn community. Many fellow student-athletes from a number of UConn athletic teams attended the vigil.

Cullen said he was thankful for the support that students and people from the UConn community have given the team over the last two days. He acknowledged that the Howard family came to Connecticut from Florida yesterday but could not attend the vigils because of all they had been through since Howard’s death.

“You have no idea how encouraging it is for us to see you come here and support us,” Cullen said.

After the prayer ended, students and student-athletes consoled and embraced one another. Many shared their condolences with Howard’s teammates.

Sophomore Vijay Sekhara attended the service to show his support for Howard and the football team.

“I met him once and didn’t really know him, but you don’t need to know him to come to something like this,” Sekhara said. “He was a part of the UConn family and such an integral part of the community deserves our respect.”

Outside the Union, many football players and friends of Howard gathered to pay their respects. A poster with pictures of Howard was illuminated by lit candles on the ground placed there by grieving students.

A poster in memory of Howard, known to friends as "Jazz." Photo credit: Steve Slade.

There are several other memorial events planned for the campus this week to celebrate Howard’s life. Tomorrow, many students will wear dark colors to mourn the loss of Howard, and Wednesday there will be another candlelight vigil in the Student Union Quad.

“My friends and I will try to participate in the memorial services and events,” Sekhara said. “We try to do what we can because it is important.”

Task force to increase online classes in 2010

WRITTEN BY: Josh Clarke

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/13/09

UConn is increasing the number of online courses that will be offered in 2010, with the help of an online education task force.

The task force was established in December 2009 by Provost Peter J. Nicholls to research the potential of online classes and how students and faculty can best receive support from the university.

“Provost Peter Nicholls was the one who determined that the University of Connecticut needed to move forward in online education and so he charged a committee,” said Douglas Cooper, a co-chair of the task force and a professor of chemical materials and biomolecular engineering.

This committee became the online education task force, which consists of 27 faculty and administrators from different departments. Members are from the Storrs campus as well as the regional campuses.

The task force’s final report was presented in June with goals and recommendations for UConn to increase the number of online courses and to provide faculty and students with support to ensure a quality experience provided by these courses.

There are a number of advantages that online classes can give students. Having the option to take an online course can make it easier for a student to complete a degree in four years and to avoid schedule conflicts when two desired courses meet at the same time. Taking an online class “removes you from having to be in a specific room at a specific time,” Cooper said.

Students who go home during the summer can take an online course at UConn for credit, rather than taking a course at another college and having to transfer the credits to UConn, Cooper said.

“There are students who prefer online courses. There has been a demand for online courses from our student population,” Cooper said.

Online courses also offer flexibility of schedules to faculty, said Desmond McCaffrey, the other co-chair of the task force and the director of instructional design and development.

Another advantage to faculty is that “it allows them to explore new methods of teaching,” Cooper said.

“One of the ideas behind this task force is that what they learn in the process of developing an online course they can actually take back to face-to-face courses,” he said.

Health care campaign seeks senator’s support

WRITTEN BY: Amy McDavitt

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/16/09

The university’s public interest research group, UConnPIRG, has launched a campaign this semester entitled “Making Health Care Work” to coincide with the current nationwide reform of the health care industry and ConnPirg’s campaign of the same title.

There are currently 46 million Americans who do not have health insurance, according to the campus organizer Kevin Maggio for ConnPIRG, the state’s public interest research group. Without reform, one in four dollars in the United States will be tied into the health care system by 2025.

“We really think this is a major issue that needs to be dealt with,” Maggio said.

ConnPIRG is currently focusing its efforts on gaining support from Sen. Joe Lieberman after Sen. Chris Dodd offered strong support for health care reform.

In August, Dodd announced that he had been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer. He said that he hoped a bill would pass in the Senate so that every American could have an annual physical and become aware of any health issues in the early stages.

Lieberman “hasn’t really dipped into it all that much,” Maggio said about the senator’s stance on health care reform. Therefore, UConnPIRG has been making phone calls to Lieberman’s office and sending handwritten letters asking him to support the bills that will lead to reform.

Besides urging the senator to take action, ConnPIRG recently released a report called “Small Businesses at Risk: How Entrepreneurs Slip Through the Health Care System’s Cracks.” (This link opens a PDF file of the report, courtesy of cdn.publicinterestnetwork.org.)

The report examines several ways that the current health care system fails small businesses. These factors included the rising cost of health care, the decline in coverage that small businesses can offer, the problems of attracting and retaining good employees, the low bargaining power the businesses possess and the problems they face when an employee gets sick.

According to the report, the cost of annual premiums for family coverage of small business employees has increased at a rate of 12 percent per year since 1999. Conversely, the median family income rose only 29 percent over the whole decade.

Businesses have few options for providing coverage, and the few they have are not good, Maggio said.

Celebrating LGBT History Month

WRITTEN BY: Travis Moore

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/20/09

To celebrate LGBT History Month, check out one of the following six films being featured around campus throughout October.

“Hedwig and the Angry Inch“

In addition to boasting a killer soundtrack, John Cameron Mitchell’s rock opera about a transgendered front-woman for a D-List rock and roll group is a bitingly clever and delightfully campy meditation on finding love and identity after separating one’s self from the binaries many depend on to give them form. “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” doesn’t deconstruct heteronormativity – it rips it apart with equal parts rancor and joy.

“Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community” and “Stonewall“

The Stonewall Uprising was a major catalyst for gay activism in the United States, and pairing “Before Stonewall” (a documentary) with “Stonewall” (a fictional story set against the backdrop of the uprising) makes for an informative and entertaining double-feature on the topic. “Before Stonewall” manages to pack in nearly half a century of LGBT history into its 90-minute running time, and does it without a hint of bitterness.

“Aimee and Jaguar“

Love in the time of war is risky. Love between a Nazi newspaper editor and a Jewish resistance fighter is riskier. And lesbian love between a Nazi newspaper editor and a Jewish resistance fighter – well, you get the idea. German director Max Färberböck’s 1999 drama takes the tired framework of the wartime romance and reinvigorates it with passion. The women at its center, reckless and doomed, are lovers of the fiercest kind.

“Milk“

American audiences may still be hung-over from Hollywood’s five-year biopic binge, but thanks to an electrifying performance from star Sean Penn, a solid script from Dustin Lance Black, and perhaps the tragic mythology of its titular figure, “Milk” remains a compelling portrait of Harvey Milk, the United States’ first openly gay politician.

“Wet Hot American Summer“

A departure from other films on this list, David Wain’s 2001 homage to the raunchy teen romantic comedies of the ’80s does not seriously concern itself with LGBT issues, nor does it seriously concern itself with anything, period. But while most of the cast struggles with sexuality on the last night of summer camp, the film finds its only true romance between tw0 gay men. Wain’s story is shocking, powerful and beautiful.

Huskies face Bulldogs in dogfight

Max Wasserman during a game. Photo credit: Ryan Sayers.

WRITTEN BY: Jake Goldberg

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/20/09

As the men’s soccer team travels to Reese Stadium to face off against the Bulldogs tonight at 7 p.m., Yale will have to find a way to score on a team that hasn’t allowed a goal in a full month.

The last goal that the Huskies allowed was against Rutgers in New Jersey during a 2-1 loss on Sept. 20. The No. 17 Huskies (8-2-3, 6-1-1 Big East) have not lost a match in their last seven contests, six of which have been Big East conference games. The Bulldogs (4-5-3) are coming off a 4-3 win over conference rival Cornell.

Within the past month, the Huskies have won a handful of awards. Kwame Watson-Siriboe won Big East Defensive Player of the Week; Carlos Alvarez was awarded Big East Rookie of the week for the second time and earned a spot on the Men’s College Team of the Week.

Many of the players have improved their skills since its 3-0 loss to Boston University. During the stretch, Watson-Siriboe routinely held Pittsburgh and Harvard offenses in check, preventing them from reaching goalie Josh Ford. Alvarez amassed two goals and three assists during the three games and has been a staple in the UConn midfield.

Senior Mike Pezza has returned to the field after suffering a food injury. He has since returned and put up an assist and a goal during the past two games. The Huskies now have all the original starters from their first game in early September.

Alvarez made adjustments and now looks comfortable playing alongside Toni Stahl and Tony Cascio. Freshman Stephane DIOP has become a big threat on the sides of the field, with his ability to make defenders miss while still in control. Cruz Hernandez has also stepped up and become a reliable fifth defender coming off the bench. With these pieces in place, the Huskies have created a noticeable bond on and off the field.

Photos: Around UConn

Arjona: Humanities Building, Photo credit: Crystal Maldonado and Shadae Spence

Paint the Rock: Remembering Jasper Howard. Photo credit: Shadae Spence and Crystal Maldonado.

 

 

Mirror Lake on campus, Photo credit: Crystal Maldonado and Shadae Spence