http://hccperspective.blogspot.com Summer 2011

HORIZONSHOUSATONIC COMMUNITY COLLEGE

A & E

News

H & S

Opinions

Sports

Paying Student Athletes

Ready To Die

Annual Faculty Art Exhibit

Students Protest Budget Cuts At Hartford Capitol

HorizonsHousatonic Community College

Can School Save Students From Personal

Adversity?

Global Warming’s

Impact

2

Editor-in-Chief Tori Centopanti

Editors-in-Chief EmeritusBrandon T. Bisceglia

Victor Rios

Advisor Prof. Steve Mark

Outreach EditorDeb Torreso

News Editor Vincent Altamirano

Opinions Editor

Jennifer Claybrook

News You Can Use EditorSusan Smith

Arts and Entertainment EditorMichael Bednarsky

Editor-at-LargeLovanda Brown

Web DeveloperAdam Bello

Staff WritersPatrick Beach

Mark Bein

Eric BjornsonTiana BridtterBobbi Brown

Elisa ByrdsongStephanie Castillo

Tina EckartChad FisherJohn Francis

Whitley-Ann GrantKeri-Ann Jackson

T.J. MallicoAnthony MoranJessica NomackTravis Owens

Marysol RodriguezMyranda Sinkler

Dana Souza

Mimi WilliamsRondale WilliamsCarolyna Zarate

Senior Staff WriterJose Rosas

Art and Design Staff Andrzej Piechocki

Janeivy Hilario Tara Shepard

Design AdvisorProf. Andy Pinto

ContentsHorizonsNursing Students Learn About Transfer Options ................................3By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

False Alarm Raises Concerns Over Safety ...........................................3By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

South Africa Group Visits HCC ............................................................4By chad fishersTaff WriTer

Students’ Message to Legislators “Cut YOUR Budget!” ....................4By Tori cenTopanTiediTor-in-chief

More Than Just Teachers .......................................................................9By BoBBi BroWnsTaff WriTer

Trash Does NOT Belong Here! ..............................................................10By BoBBi BroWnsTaff WriTer

An HCC Success Story ...........................................................................10Housatonic Graduate and His Team Win EmmyBy chad fishersTaff WriTer

Student Senate Updates ..........................................................................11By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Getting Ready for Graduation ...............................................................12By lovanda BroWnediTor-aT-large

Can School Save Students from Personal Adversity? .........................12By Travis oWenssTaff WriTer

Too Many Nurses? ..................................................................................13By WhiTley-ann granTsTaff WriTer

Five Candidates, Five Voices, One City ................................................14By eric BjornsonsTaff WriTer

Statway Offers Alternative to Developmental Math ............................16By Tori cenTopanTiediTor-in-chief

Letters to the Editor ................................................................................16

Course Evaluations: Waste of Time or Just What The Students Ordered?17By elisa ByrdsongsTaff WriTer

Remembering Mothers On Mother’s Day ............................................17By jennifer clayBrookopinions ediTor

Calling All Mothers .................................................................................18By dana souzasTaff WriTer

How to Pitch Your Story to Sell .............................................................18By Tina m. eckarTsTaff WriTer

How Will Global Warming Impact Connecticut? ................................20By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Health and Science Tidbits .....................................................................21By horizons sTaff

A Piece of Paper.......................................................................................23By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

When God Infiltrates Government Institutions, It Hurts Everyone ..23By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Ready To Die ............................................................................................24By WhiTley-ann granTsTaff WriTer

Tips on ArguingbAvoid Hypocrisy / Genetic Fallacy ..........................25By Brandon T. BiscegliaediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip Hop Culture .....................................................................................................26By rondale WilliamssTaff WriTer

HCC Faculty Exhibits “Evolution” of Their Artistry ..........................26By Tori cenTopanTiediTor-in-chief

Celebrity Tattoos: Miscellaneous Edition .............................................29By michael BednarskyarTs & enTerTainmenT ediTor

Key Players for Contending Teams .......................................................32By T.j. mallicosTaff WriTer

What If These NBA Players Went to College? .....................................33By john francissTaff WriTer

Heat Looking to Nail 16 More Victories ...............................................34By jose a. rosassenior sTaff WriTer

No Pay for Play for Student-Athletes? ..................................................34By rondale WilliamssTaff WriTer

It’s Back to the Future in the Bronx ......................................................35By paTrick j. BeachsTaff WriTer

Horizons Staff

3HORIZONS • News

ewsNursing Students Learn About Transfer Options

By Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

About 20 Nursing students got a chance to find out about the trans-fer program offered by St. Vin-

cent’s College on Sunday, April 17 in the lecture hall in Lafayette Hall.

Joe Marrone, Director of Admissions at St. Vincent’s, extolled the benefits of the associate’s degree program to an all-female crowd. He also had them fill out cards listing their transfer information and the program they were looking to get into.

Marrone contrasted his college with the certificate program offered by Bridgeport Hospital.

“You do not have a degree from Bridge-port Hospital—they can’t offer them,” he said.

In January, St. Vincent’s added a four-year Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. Marrone stressed that nursing students should pursue the longer program in order to ensure that they would maintain their jobs.

“Right now, the state has not said that nurses need to have the four-year program. But they are talking about it. Sometime

within ten years, they’re heading that di-rection.”

Marrone also pointed out that nurses with a bachelor’s could go farther in their jobs.

“If you have an associate’s degree in nursing and you’re an RN [registered nurse], then you’re probably going to be working on a floor for the rest of your life. It’s only when you get your bachelor’s degree or your master’s that you can start being in a supervisory or an administrative position—or teaching,” he said.

Although St. Vincent’s only accepts a maximum of 18 transfer credits for its as-sociate’s program, Nursing students who finish with a grade point average of 2.67 are automatically guaranteed a spot in the BSN program. At that point, they’re al-lowed to transfer up to 80 credits.

The criteria for being accepted at St. Vincent’s are rigorous but fair, according to Marrone.

“We don’t just look at your grade point average—we look at your entire academic history,” he explained. The reason, he said, is so that the college can understand how a student has progressed through their col-lege career. If a student retakes too many

classes or withdraws from too many, they can be rejected, even with good grades.

“I’m going to be honest with you: if you’ve taken biology or chemistry or anat-omy and physiology or microbiology two or three times, then we’re probably not go-ing to take you, unless you’ve gone from something like a D to an A,” he said.

“My personal recommendation is that if you haven’t done well in those classes, then you should probably look for another career than nursing,” he added.

Marrone said St. Vincent’s also has general studies and other medical-related programs aside from nursing.

The information session was the second in a series arranged by Professor of Biol-ogy and Director of HCC’s Nursing Pro-gram Sandra Barnes. The first session, also with Marrone, was on April 14.

A third session was held on April 28 with Gayle Barrett, the nursing admissions specialist for the statewide community col-lege nursing programs.

Barnes said that most of the transfer sessions that HCC used to host for Nursing students were for Bridgeport Hospital.

“Most people have much better chances of getting in to Bridgeport Hospital,” she

said, but added that she wanted to expand the options that were available.

“Right now there’s a bottleneck, be-cause there aren’t many Master’s-level nurses to teach all the students who are in-terested,” she said. “We have 880 people here in pre-nursing. A lot of students at Southern [Connecticut State University] come to Bridgeport Hospital, and it pushes our students out.”

Barnes was skeptical that St. Vincent’s would be the best choice for all students, though.

“If you’ve only been at Housatonic a semester or two, I could see transferring,” she said. “But beyond that, you might be better off here.”

Either way, Barnes agreed with Mar-rone that a student’s academic performance would determine his or her long-term suc-cess in the field. In particular, she empha-sized that it was important to have strong math skills to succeed.

“If you’re not good at math, you’re not going to go anywhere in Nursing,” she said.

False Alarm Raises Concerns Over SafetyBy Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

The fire alarms in Beacon Hall were activated three times on the morn-ing of April 4, leading to an evacua-

tion of the building.The cause of the alarms, which began at

approximately 10:40 a.m., was not imme-diately known. Director of Security Chris-topher Gough said his department was in-vestigating.

The Bridgeport fire department did not come to the college, suggesting that there was no fire to report.

The high-pitched buzzing and flashing strobes of the alarms interrupted classes. Students, professors and staff members poured out of the building into the court-yard and other areas near the entrances.

The first time that the alarms were acti-vated, they lasted only a minute before be-ing abruptly halted. This caused confusion among some students and teachers.

“We were about to leave when it stopped,” said Adriana Cedeño, a Criminal Justice major at HCC who was in the mid-dle of her Criminology class at the time.

“Since it went off, we sat back down. We didn’t leave until the third one.”

Some were critical of the disorderly way in which the evacuation was handled.

Theater Arts major and Student Life employee Theresa Giorgio was working in the Wellness Center at the time. “When the alarm went off, the students tried to grab their stuff from their lockers,” she said. “I think we’re all old enough to know we’re supposed to leave if there might be a fire.”

She added that the conduct of students leaving the building was “sheer chaos.”

Director of Student Activities Linda Bayusik was also disappointed at the slow reaction to the alarm.

“There were students playing table ten-nis in the Game Room, so I told them to leave. They hadn’t noticed. Then I went to the TV Room and the lounge [on the third floor], and found people there, too,” she said.

“Students were on their cell phones, wandering around. Some of them had ear-buds – I had to tap one on the shoulder to tell him to get out,” she said.

“You cannot treat the alarm as a joke,” she added.

Women’s Center employee Shirley Jo-

hansson was completely thrown off by the alarm. “I was a nervous wreck,” she said.

Although there is a se-curity office across the hall from the office where she works, she said could not find any security personnel to assist her. When she re-alized what was going on, she retreated to the patio connecting the third floor of Beacon Hall to the parking garage.

It was there that Bayusik found her along with other students, and redirected them back into the building and out the door on the ground floor.

The patio is not considered a safe option in the event of an emergency.

“It is your responsibility, wherever you are, to know the evacuation route,” said Bayusik.

According to the evacuation procedures published on HCC’s website, once people are outside the building, they are supposed to proceed to a designated area “at least

across one of the streets from the campus.” Yet students who exited through the main doors in the courtyard remained within feet of the building for the duration of the evacuation.

After about ten minutes, people were allowed to reenter Beacon Hall.

Students mill about outside Beacon Hall, waiting for security to allow them back inside.

Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia

Got some news you want covered?Let us know!

Write to housatonichorizons@gmail.com

4

Students hold up protest signs while Housatonic Community College alum and Women’s Center student-worker Kaitlyn Shake is interviewed by NBC news.Photo by Tori Centopanti

HORIZONS • News

South Africa Group Visits HCCBy chad fisher

sTaff WriTer

On March 19 a group of six South Africans—four pre-school teach-ers, one college student, and one

school director—traveled to Bridgeport in order to learn from our culture and our ways of teaching.

The group’s main concern was how to better approach early childhood education.

The trip was part of a program Housa-tonic’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) School laboratory started between HCC and South African preschool teachers. The goal of the program is to share ideas for

improving early childhood education in both countries.

Dr. Laurie Noe, director of Housaton-ic’s ECE program, said the South African group from the Royal Bafokeng Nation stayed in Connecticut over a period of three weeks.

One of the main points of their visit was four days that were spent at HCC. During their time at HCC the group learned about the ECE program.

They learned important aspects of ECE, such as how to set up an ECE environment, early childhood language development, how to set up licensing for teachers, and what the standards should be for teaching

children.“They spent a lot of time observing

the Early Childhood Education labora-tory,” says Noe. Their visit also included a symposium that over 120 people attended in which they discussed their plans for improving early childhood education in South Africa.

Noe said the group was amazed by Housatonic’s collection of African Art. The group also attended the United Nations In-ternational Teacher’s Day while they were here. The rest of their visit was spent tak-ing in American culture.

“They ate a lot of pizza,” says Noe. Ac-cording to Noe, every time the group met

someone new, that person would suggest another pizza place for them to try. “Some of the pizza places they visited were Pepe’s and Two Boots,” says Noe, noting that the list of restaurants is longer than that.

Noe and members of the Bridgeport Alliance for Young Children visited South Africa in January as part of the exchange.

While the group was here they were housed with different Rotarians. According to Noe, two of the South Africans stayed with HCC President Anita Gliniecki, who is a Rotarian.

The group departed Connecticut on April 10.

Students’ Message to Legislators “Cut YOUR Budget!”

By Tori cenTopanTi

ediTor-in-chief

Students cut classes and called out of work to rally together at the Hartford Capitol the morning of April 27 to

protest Governor Dan Malloy’s proposed budget cuts to higher education.

Only 35 people showed up to the ral-ly from Housatonic Community College (HCC), Three Rivers Community College, and Gateway Community College. But what they lacked in numbers was compen-sated by their enthusiasm and passion for their cause.

During the rally, it was announced that

the cut to the Connecticut Community Col-lege (CCC) system was reduced from 13 percent to 11.3 percent, which is in line with all the units of higher education, add-ing about $4.7 million back to the budget.

Students were not satisfied with the re-duction though, and began chanting “still too high,” and “cut your budget.”

If the budget is passed, up to 380 fac-ulty and staff are going to be laid off. 180 of them would be full-time professors, put-ting a majority of the community colleges at risk of losing their accreditation.

NEASC will be evaluating HCC for re-accreditation in 2012. At HCC alone, up to 32 full-time professors would be laid off

when there are only 71 currently—because two years ago the state forced many of the full-time faculty into early retirement.

Housatonic was informed April 20 about the potential lay-offs. A petition was, and is still being, circulated around cam-pus. By the morning of the rally a week later, almost 1,000 student signatures had been collected. That number is still grow-ing.

Later that day, Governor Malloy’s of-fice issued a press release announcing the consolidation of the state’s community colleges, the Connecticut State Univer-sity System (CSUS) and Charter Oak State College.

Effective July 1, this will create a Board of Regents for the four CSUS colleges (Eastern, Central, Western and Southern), the CCC colleges and Charter Oak, as well as an Advisory Committee to work with the Board of Regents to create and imple-ment a strategic plan for higher education.

The release also states that while com-munity colleges, regional universities and Charter Oak will remain separate with distinct missions, each “unit” will have “a lead individual designated by the Board of Regents.”

For the full story and more photos visit

hccperspective.blogspot.com

5HORIZONS • News

Connecticut Community College students rally at the Capitol in Hartford.Photo by Tori Centopanti

Students hold up protest signs while Three Rivers Community College student Abby Cobb is interviewed by NBC news.

Photo by Tori Centopanti

Housatonic Community College alumni Kevin Green (left) and Chad Hunter (right).Tori Centopanti

Visit HCC Online!Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC?

Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu, the college’s home page.From there you can navigate the various departments, search for courses, or follow links to other useful sites, such as MyCommnet and the HCC

Foundation.

6 HORIZONS • News

Students speak with State Senator Anthony Musto, who represents Bridgeport, Monroe and Trumbull.Photo by Tori Centopanti

Protest sign reads “They say cut back, we say fight back.”Photo by Tori Centopanti

7HORIZONS • News

Students wore T-shirts with the slogan “Democracy is not a spectator sport.”Photo by Tori Centopanti

Housatonic Community College student and Student Life Office student-worker Theresa Giorgio said, “We’re working together, we need to mesh together, we

need to integrate because that’s what we need right now.”Photo by Tori Centopanti

HCC students speak with State Representative Tony Hwang, 134th Assembly District Representative (Fairfield and Trumbull), member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Photo by Tori Centopanti

Housatonic Community College alum Chad Hunter said, “I have a very hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that Malloy is proposing a budget that would detract from our educational system when we

need one better than it’s ever been, now more than we ever have.”Photo by Tori Centopanti

Want Horizons on Your iPod?Listen to

ContinuumHorizons’ weekly companion podcast

Your source for News, Events, Interviews and Commentary

About HCC and the community.

www.housatonichorizons.podbean.com

8 HORIZONS • News

Attention Students: Save Our CollegeAct Now!

The SGAs of all 12 Community Colleges want you to flood the Appropriations Committee, Educa-tion Committee and State Representatives with emails addressing how cuts to the Community Col-

lege Budget will negatively impact students. They will listen to us!

What to say?

It does not have to be long. A few sentences or a paragraph will be fine.

Write about your personal experiences and how the Community Colleges have helped you;Write about how more tuition increases would affect you; and

Write about how cuts in services would affect you, etc.

Include your name and your school.

Remember, Democracy is NOT a spectator sport.Let them know that they CANNOT balance the budget on the backs of

students!!Higher Ed Committee Appropriations- Higher Ed. Subcommitteebeth.bye@cga.ct.gov andrew.maynard@cga.ct.govroberta.willis@cga.ct.gov roberta.willis@cga.ct.govgary.lebeau@cga.ct.gov Joe.Markley@cga.ct.govJuan.Candelaria@cga.ct.gov Terrie.Wood@housegop.ct.govToni.Boucher@cga.ct.gov Catherine.Abercrombie@cga.ct.govTim.LeGeyt@housegop.ct.gov Andrew.Fleischmann@cga.ct.govMike.Alberts@housegop.ct.gov edwin.gomes@cga.ct.govPatricia.Dillon@cga.ct.gov Gregory.Haddad@cga.ct.govJanice.Giegler@housegop.ct.gov Bryan.Hurlburt@cga.ct.govGregory.Haddad@cga.ct.gov gail.lavielle@housegop.ct.govBryan.Hurlburt@cga.ct.gov Pamela.Sawyer@housegop.ct.govClaire.Janowski@cga.ct.gov Jack.Thompson@cga.ct.govDouglas.McCrory@cga.ct.gov bill.wadsworth@housegop.ct.govSelim.Noujaim@housegop.ct.gov andrew.maynard@cga.ct.govDanny.Rovero@cga.ct.gov Peggy.Sayers@cga.ct.govPamela.Sawyer@housegop.ct.gov Toni.Walker@cga.ct.gov

HCC State RepresentativesThemis.Klarides@housegop.ct.gov Auden.Grogins@cga.ct.govlen.greene@housegop.ct.gov Jack.Hennessy@cga.ct.govDebraLee.Hovey@housegop.ct.gov Laura.Hoydick@housegop.ct.govChristopher.Lyddy@cga.ct.gov Tony.Hwang@housegop.ct.govDavid.Scribner@housegop.ct.gov brenda.kupchick@housegop.ct.govKim.Fawcett@cga.ct.gov Lawrence.Miller@housegop.ct.govjohn.shaban@housegop.ct.gov jason.perillo@housegop.ct.govAndres.Ayala@cga.ct.gov Kim.Rose@cga.ct.govTerry.Backer@cga.ct.gov TR.Rowe@housegop.ct.govCharles.Clemons@cga.ct.gov Richard.Roy@cga.ct.govLinda.Gentile@cga.ct.gov Ezequiel.Santiago@cga.ct.gov

9HORIZONS • News

More Than Just TeachersBy BoBBi BroWn

sTaff WriTer

Camar Bell is a Nursing major at HCC, and with the amount of classes he takes for Nursing, it has

allowed him to build relationships with professors. Such bonds have made them not only his teachers, but shoulders to lean on, and better yet, professors he will never forget.

“I’m from Jamaica and I often speak very fast. This past semester, I took a pub-lic speaking class and fell in love with [it]. [I also] gained a greater respect for my teacher,” says Bell. “Whenever I had an issue about my assignment or felt uncom-fortable with presenting, my speaking pro-fessor would root me on. She encouraged me to keep going.”

Wherever you go, students bear witness to the support certain teachers on campus are providing for the student population. HCC has a rising number of more than 6,000 students, but this doesn’t count the dedicated teachers who help students on a everyday basis.

“I’m so grateful for HCC and its profes-sors because when I came to HCC, I had just left a school which offered no support from my professors, [and] to be honest, this is why I left that school,” says Kim-berly Wright.

“I was shy, afraid, and kind of intimi-dated by my teachers because if I got some-thing wrong, they would look at me as if I should have known it, but HCC professors are such great teachers,” she adds.

There are so many majors at HCC and there are supportive teachers in each of these majors. What used to be a barrier between students and professors has now become a safe haven for most students.

“I understand teachers have their own personal lives, but I remember when I was pregnant with my son, and I was going to be out for a few classes, my professor en-couraged me to hold out and reminded me that HCC will always be there when I re-turned back,”says Randal Givens, Human Services major.

No matter what a student may face, whether it be academic or personal prob-lems, students feel that a positive relation-ship with their professor goes along way.

“I feel that being able to talk to my pro-fessors about school [and] also about is-sues that affected me academically, helps me see the value of my teachers in a dif-ferent way,” says Kory DeVonawick, also a Human Services major.

“I know where my struggle is academi-cally and it’s in my math, so I go to tutoring and it’s kind of crazy that my professor is my tutor. He not only sees my desire for help, but also sees what areas I need to work on the most,” adds DeVonawick.

What used to be a stigma among many students at HCC has caused more students to be open and also depend on their profes-sors for help.

HCC has created an environment that welcomes so many students from so many different backgrounds. From registering for classes, down to getting more support from the Dean’s Office, students have seen the hand that keeps on giving.

“I’m excited to be a student at HCC and would not trade my experience for [any-thing], from day one-- I was able to speak and interact with my professors and gain the help I needed. So yes, my professors are more than just teachers [to me]!” says Jah’lyn Kemp.

Professor Rizzi, a Math teacher at HCC, helps a student out with math in the tutoring center.Photo by Bobbi Brown

English teacher spends a little extra time explaining an assignment to one of her students.Photo by Bobbi Brown

Teacher explains assignment using blackboard.Photo by Bobbi Brown

10 HORIZONS • News

Trash Does NOT Belong Here!By BoBBi BroWn

sTaff WriTer

Even with countless hours of hard cleaning, trash seems to be ending up in places that it should not be.

Students seem to neglect to put trash where it really belongs.

Every day, as you enter HCC, you may stumble upon people dressed in brown or blue uniforms. These people are not just paid janitors, but some are students, and the majority are people who have dedicat-ed their time to keeping HCC clean. They want to keep the campus presentable to any student who walks in.

“The way you keep your school clean is a direct reflect[ion] on how you keep your home clean,” says Tyrell Pettway, a student and janitor at HCC.

He comes to work knowing what he

is in for every day, but sometimes he gets upset at the little things people do such as leaving their trash on the table when a gar-bage can is sitting within walking distance.

“I know my job is a janitor, and my job is to clean,” says Pettway, “But I have seen students drop trash on the school grounds and walk away as if they didn’t know they dropped it.”

There are over 6,000 students that at-tend HCC, and these students go from Bea-con Hall to Layafette Hall. In each building there are two major cafeterias where many students eat and wait for classes. However, students don’t seem to pay close attention to the areas around them.

“I’m going to be outright honest. When I finish eating, I often leave my trash on the table. I’m not proud of myself because, although we have janitors here, out of re-spect it really wouldn’t hurt to pick up after

myself,” says student Kyle Mason.“I feel the same way,” says Jenna Co-

hen, a Business major, as she her picks up her trash and dumps it in the bin. “I have worked as a waitress before in a restau-rant and also as a janitor in a local hotel. I have seen people walk over or leave simple trash on the floor or table, when all they had to do is pick it up or throw it away!”

Trash has been seen in the courtyard and even as far as the restrooms. Where trash does not belong it most often seems to appear. This is not only a bad look on the students, but even as far as guests who may be visiting the school.

“HCC had a visitor who came on cam-pus to talk about a book he had written and it made me really wonder would he ever come back if HCC was decorated in trash,” says Dana Mackin with a disgusted look on her face. “With all the guests we get on campus, I feel our school should not only be kept clean by janitors but us as stu-dents.”

Projects such as “Go Green,” which has been an ongoing project for the city of Bridgeport, has inspired local cities and schools to create a program, such as HCC’s Friends of the Environment (FOE) club.

FOE informs students on the need to keep their environment clean as well as their school. One key component is re-cycling and picking up after each other. They have been working towards getting a garden on campus to grow fruits and veg-etables in order to help give away food to those in need. This project will also help beautify the HCC campus.

“I think the message Bridgeport is showing has help me take action whenever I see trash or, better yet, I refuse to leave any trash after I have finished eating,” says Kim Dean.

There are trash cans located in each building as well as each classroom. The need is great for those HCC students to respect not just themselves, but the area around them.

“What makes a clean school is the stu-dents who attend it, so lets keep our school clean,” says William Issac, Forensic Sci-ence major.

Student places her trash in the correct trash bin, recycling the right item.Photo by Bobbi Brown

One of these recycling bins are placed in every class-room and building in HCC.

Photo by Bobbi Brown

Photo by Bobbi BrownThis is the correct place for trash. Labels are on the trash bins so its easier to know where trash goes.

Photo by Bobbi Brown

An HCC Success StoryHousatonic Graduate and His Team Win Emmy

By chad fisher

sTaff WriTer

Richard Stabile, a 2003 HCC journalism graduate, won an Emmy with his News 12 team—comprised of Tom Appleby, Dave Feuerman, Amy Packham, Louis Mataraz-zo, Heather Kovar and Amelie Wilson—on April 3 in New York, NY.

The team won the Emmy for Best Morning News Cast. The award was given to them for their breaking coverage of the May 4, 2010, FBI raid on Faisal Shahzad’s apartments in Bridgeport and Shelton,

Conn. Shahzad was a suspected terrorist, and was charged with terrorism and mass destruction.

Stabile, who grew up in Shelton and is now producer of the News 12 morning show, was actually covering for a co-work-er the morning of the raid.

During his two years at Housatonic he was a part of the student newspaper, Hori-zons, every semester. Stabile’s hard work eventually lead him to become an editor for the school paper.

He credits much of his success as a tele-vision producer to his time spent writing for Horizons.

“Horizons offered me an opportunity to practice and hone the writing style as I was learning about journalism,” said Sta-bile. “It gave me an immediate opportunity to compare my work to other, more estab-lished students in the field and with other published pieces.”

During Stabile’s time at Horizons, Pro-fessor Steve Mark was the instructor and advisor, and still holds the position today. When asked about Stabile’s success, Mark smiled and said how it makes him very happy to see a past student succeed. Mark had nothing but good things to say about Stabile’s time spent writing for Horizons.

“Rich had a real knack for collaborating with and supporting his classmates, which is one of the reasons I asked him to become an editor for Horizons,” said Mark. “These qualities have clearly been put to good use in his work for News 12. To have a former student go on to meet with success is one of the greatest rewards an educator can en-joy.”

Some may think writing for a school newspaper and producing an Emmy win-ning television show are worlds apart; however, Stabile believes he got his cur-

Continued on Page 11

11HORIZONS • News

rent job due to his background in journal-ism.

“Sure it took time to adapt to a different writing style, but that foundation, created by Horizons and HCC, got my foot in the door. That was the single most important skill I could have,” he said.

After graduating in 2003, he moved to Florida, working different jobs, none of which were in journalism, and eventually moved back to Connecticut. Three years ago he got the job at News 12, originally working as an associate producer, writer, line producer, to now having the sole title of producer.

When asked how he was able to become a producer at the young age of 28, Stabile replied it took hard work. “Everything doesn’t work out to plan. Just work hard and it will pay off. Hard work is 90 percent of it,” he said.

He also recalls many times when he felt like all hope was lost and that he should give up.

“When I started at News 12, I was way out of my league. I can think of at least two times when I wanted to give up and very nearly did,” he said. “But looking back I learned more in those moments than I ever did winning an Emmy. In fact, I very liter-ally wouldn’t have won if I let myself give up.”

According to Stabile’s co-workers, it also takes hard work to stay a producer and he has all the qualities a great producer needs.

“Rich and I have worked together for three years on the morning shift,” said Amelie Wilson, News 12 morning anchor. “He is an excellent producer with timely and sensitive judgment of the news. Some-

how he’s able to keep his cool while stack-ing a show, talking to anchors, reporters and photographers in the field and directors in the control room.” She added that pro-ducing is a juggling act, and Rich makes it look effortless.

When asked about whether it made a difference for a person to have a four-year degree, Stabile reinforced his statement

about hard work.“You don’t have to go to a four-year

school as long as you work hard and put your all into everything you do,” said Sta-bile, adding that a four-year degree doesn’t hurt, but there is hope for a hard working community college student.

When asked what one thing he want-ed to share with Housatonic students and

alumni, Stabile’s message was: “Failure happens, mistakes happen but if you ac-cept that, pick yourself up and don’t quit, success will come.”

To check out more information on Sta-bile and his Emmy award winning team check out nynatas.org.

Continued from page 10

Professor Steve Mark, advisor to HCC’s journalism program (left) and Richard Stabile (right).Photo by Chad Fisher

Student Senate UpdatesBy Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Access and Liability Subject of Equipment Proposal

The Student Senate tabled a motion at its April 7 meeting that would make cameras available to photog-

raphy students on campus.The discussion between the senators

revealed how tenuous the balance can be between providing equipment and main-taining responsibility for it. Questions of equality and cost also surfaced.

The Student Senate had taken up the proposal to purchase cameras after learn-ing that there were students taking Digital Photography classes who lacked the abil-ity to acquire the equipment on their own. Students taking those classes are required to have access to a camera.

Originally, it was thought that the cam-eras might be held in the college’s library. Director of Library Media Services Lois McCracken had been asked about the fea-sibility of the arrangement, and had pro-vided a written statement prior to the meet-ing detailing how her department would handle circulation of the cameras.

“I strongly suggest you limit the usage to the students enrolled in the photography class,” she wrote.

“If the student senate wants to be re-sponsible for damage or lost cameras, that is their decision,” she wrote, “but we will not be responsible for carrying out that pol-icy. We will simply let student government know…that a camera has gone missing or is broken.” She added that it would be dif-ficult to prove that a student had broken a camera, because they could simply claim it was damaged when they’d received it.

“The library has heard them all and we

then generally have to absorb the costs,” she wrote.

Senator Ryan Leidy questioned why students were signing up for the classes in the first place if they couldn’t afford the equip-ment.

“I have to pay for my own books, note-books, pens and p e n c i l s . . . I ’ m sure you know – I’m sure it’s written right there,” he said.

He also criticized the notion that only a select portion of the student body would be given access to the cameras.

“If the decision is made to purchase them,” he argued, “I think that every stu-dent should be allowed to use these cam-eras.”

Treasurer John Paul Keleman agreed.“To buy something with the general

Student Activity Fund and say that only students in certain classes can participate in using them—that’s not right.”

President Konrad Mazurek said that he saw the virtue of Leidy’s and Keleman’s position.

“At the same time, we’re concerned about the students damaging the equip-ment,” he said. “If we’re going to go for-ward with that concern as a justification for not buying any equipment, we might as well stop ever buying anything, period.”

Although other Senators agreed with Mazurek, the pricing of cameras was un-known. Without an exact amount to vote on, the Student Senate was forced to table

the matter.

Clubs Given New Budget Rules

St a r t -ing in the Fall

2011 semes-ter, clubs will once again automatically get two thou-sand dollars to work with.

The Stu-dent Senate voted at its April 21 meeting to reinstate the old policy of automatic fund-ing after a protracted debate over how to hold clubs accountable for using the mon-ey responsibly.

The current policy, which requires each club to submit budget requests a semester ahead of time, was dropped because many of the clubs had problems complying with the deadlines and procedures.

The policy was adopted a year ago in an attempt to give clubs more flexibility with their funds, as well as to encourage them to plan for events further ahead of time.

The automatic allocation will have some strings attached to it. The clubs will be required to have a representative at the Activities Committee meetings, or lose one hundred dollars each time they miss one.

The final proposal was amended mul-tiple times, after stricter measures failed to garner sufficient support.

Treasurer John Paul Keleman first rec-ommended that the Student Senate revert to the two thousand dollar rule.

Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly K. Hope urged that club budgets be

tied to the committee meetings. She also advocated for funding to depend in part on the clubs’ participation in various annual school-wide events, including Club Day, the Welcome Back Party, the New Student Orientation, and the Open House/Infor-mation Session. The Student Senate has had trouble securing volunteers for those events in past semesters.

“They should all have a representative at Club Day—that’s their day,” she said. “To have empty tables, and people looking for clubs, and no one’s there, sends a bad message. We have the sign-up sheets there, and buttons on the tables, and they’re emp-ty.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t allocate any mon-ey to the clubs,” Keleman wondered aloud. “One way we could get them involved with the Activities [Committee] meetings is to make them essentially have to go to the meetings for any money.”

“We could even get rid of the whole idea of club budgets and just have a gen-eral Student Activities Fund,” he added. “That’s all it is in the school administration anyway—they don’t have the club budgets recognized anywhere.”

“I think it’s a good idea to have them more involved,” said Senator Priscilla Mathew. “But if we didn’t give them a budget, our Activities [Committee] meet-ings would be ten times longer.”

Senator Vincent Schiavone suggested an alternative approach.

“Why don’t we give them one thousand [dollars], and see what they do with it, then decide if they deserve another thousand?” he asked. “If they want another thousand, we could give it to them. Then if they want another [third] thousand, we could take it from one of the other clubs and give it to them, if they’re making something that’s a

Continued on Page 12

HCC’s Student Senate. From left to right: Treasurer John Paul Keleman, Mariah Smith, Vincent Schiavone, Miyanda Mudin-gayi, President Konrad Mazurek, Scott Day, Priscilla Mathew,

Ryan Leidy, Keira Haller, Parliamentarian Dave Koch.Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia

12 HORIZONS • News

big change.”“I don’t think we could fairly judge how

useful an event is to the campus,” replied Senator Scott Day.

Keleman also objected, pointing out that they were making things too compli-cated for themselves.

“I have a fear that what we’re doing here is building a bureaucracy. We’re es-sentially creating the kinds of things we complain about,” he said. “If we do it, we need to make it simple—we need to make it point-blank.”

Keleman said that he understood the validity of creating penalties for missing

Activities Committee meetings, as well as Club Day and Orientation, but said that “they have to be concrete.”

“There are so many ‘if’s’ and ‘and’s’ that we can make our lives very difficult and make them very angry,” he argued.

Mathew concurred. “I think we should just flat-down give them two thousand

[dollars] like we’ve been talking about, and the deductions if they don’t come to the Activities Committee meetings, and then just call it a day.”

Although her suggestion was eventual-ly carried out, twenty more minutes passed as other versions of the budget policy were proposed, voted on, and defeated.

Continued from page 11

Getting Ready for GraduationBy lovanda BroWn

ediTor-aT-large

Graduation is around the corner, but wait, it’s not over yet.

For some, it is a time that has been long awaited, remembering when pre-conceived notions of successfully ob-taining an associate’s degree in two years was deemed a distant hope after the first two semesters of their experience here at Housatonic. For others, it is the beginning of a new chapter, a transitional period that commences the start of one’s adult life. For all, it is the beginning of the end; the final “hoorah” which expresses the half-pointed demise of one’s college experience.

HCC’s graduation is finally here, and yes, it’s about time.

Still, the process to finally “tie all loose ends” is more than just the purchase of an awkwardly squared hat and a uniformed robe. Graduating from HCC requires a sta-ble grounding of “ducks” carefully placed in sequential order. Preparation is key.

While the anticipation can be found dwelling inside eager peers, it seems they are not the only people excited about the upcoming ceremony. “We are expecting the highest number of graduates this year; 500, that’s phenomenal,” said Anna Cruz, administrative assistant for the Dean of Students.

Cruz advises that a student expecting to graduate must be sure to check inside of his/her active email address for an “Impor-tant Commencement Information” notice. “This letter was sent out to everyone [ex-pecting to graduate]. Any questions that a student has about [graduation] should be on there.”

But before a student can fully inves-tigate how the ceremony will be taking place, one must first ensure that he/she is eligible to participate. One must also un-derstand what this means. So I had a word with Jim Connolly, HCC’s very own Reg-istrar located in Lafayette Hall.

Q: So Jim, exactly what is it that

should be done by a student in order to be able to walk in the ceremony?

A: Well,first off all, they have to com-plete all academic and financial responsi-bilities to the college.

Q: Okay, so then what?A: Then,they need to complete a gradu-

ation application and I review the submis-sions. If there’s a problem, I send out a let-ter stating that.

Q: Can you suggest one thing to make the process that much easier?

A: I think it’s important to apply before the semester [a student] graduates so that way, if you’re missing a class, you have an extra semester to make it up.

Q: So any words on what to expect at the ceremony?

A: I just get everyone lined up at the ceremony. Any information on speakers and that whole process would all come from Anna (Cruz).

Still, there comes a time when a student reflects upon all that is to happen; ponder-

ing upon graduation is another process in itself.

“The thought of passing, or not passing, all of my classes to graduate is the most dif-ficult part of the graduation process,” says Julian Gordon, an Early Childhood Educa-tion major who plans on attending “Sacred Heart or UB (University of Bridgeport), whichever has the best business program.”

“Actually passing and graduating will be the most rewarding,” says Gordon. She also advises that the best time to look at other schools is now. This will better a stu-dent’s chances of getting into fall classes.”

This is true; the earlier, the better, as Connolly suggests. Nonetheless, once all obligations are fulfilled, the proud parade across the stage can now be executed.

According to the Commencement In-formation notice, “Housatonic Community College’s 44th Commencement will be held on Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7:00 p.m at the Arena at Harbor Yard, 600 Main Street, Bridgeport.”

So for expecting graduates, please don’t

hesitate to mark your calendars!The notice also describes other valuable

information for the graduates of Spring 2011. For those of you who neglected to check your e-mails, here’s a run down of what the notice entails and what to expect at this year’s ceremony:

First, the ceremony begins promptly at 7:00 p.m. The doors will open an hour before for all participants and guests. (Stu-dents are urged to enter the Arena using “the Guest Services Entrance only.”)

Qualified representatives of HCC will then usher you to your designated area.

After which, you will be immediately directed to stand in an alphabetically orga-nized line of your graduating peers.

During the ceremony, you will receive a welcome from HCC President, Anita Gli-niecki as well as a few words from a list of undisclosed speakers.

Next, the real show begins, as you “as-cend the stairs to the stage to receive your diploma” from Gliniecki herself.

(Students should also understand that, “the actual diploma [not just the cover handed to you on stage] may be picked up in the Registrar’s Office (B109) starting Friday, July 1, 2011.”)

And at approximately 8:30, when the possible “wave” rolls through all graduates in attendance and you are pronounced the triumphant class of 2011, a few emotions might finally settle in. Whether it’d be a burst of excitement, a tranquil feeling of fi-nality or the delightful thoughts of celebra-tions occurring post commencement; it is a moment most people hold on to, and one most of you will never forget.

As much as some students would ne-glect to admit, HCC offers a great deal of opportunity to develop in almost any field of interest. And as time goes by, some fail to realize, just how much impact this cam-pus can have on a person and just how fast life progresses forward.

So, for pending graduates of tomorrow, Gordon offers one nugget from the wise, “Time waits for no one; [please,] be sure to spend it wisely.”

Want to learn more about the Graduation Ceremony? See Anna Cruz, Assistant to the Dean of Students. Photo by Lovanda Brown

Can School Save Students from Personal Adversity?

By Travis oWens

sTaff WriTer

Most students attend college be-cause of their desire to gradu-ate and begin a career that falls

under the major of their choice. However, every student undergoes moments of strug-gle, whether academically or personally. Some of these students do a better job of hiding it than others, with school not only serving academic purposes, but other mo-tives as well.

There are some students who aren’t here necessarily because they want to be. Some may be here because the college environment serves as a means for escap-

ing the stress that life and a dysfunctional home brings.

These students are often seen outside of class, having a good time and trying to compensate for the lack of enthusiasm at home. The issues they face outside of school could possibly have an adverse ef-fect on them mentally and emotionally.

The hardship of having a dysfunctional family can be very depressing for many students. HCC student Salvatorae Fequiere can recall moments when stress was at its highest in his life.

“About five months ago, I was threat-ened to get kicked out of my home. School was my biggest concern; subsequently, finding a place to live became my biggest concern,” he says.

Students with these issues find school as a means of getting away from all the pain and negativity at home.

Students also deal with the issue of un-derestimating their academic potential. A lot of students say they don’t think they’re capable of getting good grades because of prior poor results on tests or exams. More-over, some say their parent or guardian at home never really showed them much sup-port in school, but criticized them when they got bad grades.

Former HCC student Mark Eccleston says, “My family always [found] fault in my school work. It was never good enough, even if I had a good grade.”

This feeling of discouragement weighs heavily on students and prevents them

from devoting one hundred percent of their ability towards school.

Professor of Psychology Madeleine Burbank says, “For some, they just simply come and say, ‘I’m having personal issues, so I’m dropping the class.’ Very often they try to stick it out until the end; but ulti-mately, attitude is the biggest factor with students who struggle with personal issues at home.”

A great number of students are familiar with the words, “You either go to school, get a job or get out.” While this may not be completely negative for some students, it can raise emotional fear and sadness of not meeting these requirements.

Continued on Page 13

13HORIZONS • News

“My mom was always telling me, ‘Go get a job, you’re lazy,’ which was stressful for me at times,” Accounting major Javar Latibeaudiere said. This form of belittle-ment makes the idea of getting kicked out of a parent’s house even worse.

Another personal problem students face is financial issues.

“I had to take a semester off because I lost my job and I couldn’t afford to sup-port myself with food and transportation daily,” Criminal Justice major Brandon Slade says.

Computer Science major Gemel Dawkins says, “I got turned down for fi-nancial aid and I had to pay out of pocket, which was very hard to come by.”

At some point during a semester, some students suffer from psychological issues, such as the loss of a loved one, family member or friend. Unfortunately, this emo-tional stress often isolates a student from school, which causes them to withdraw or suddenly drop out.

Other students experience the emotion-al pain of not having a stable home while attending school. “I moved out my mom’s

house to live with my grandparents be-cause the relationship with my mom wasn’t working out, but it didn’t last long before my grandfather told me I had to leave; this caused me to move back in with my mom because I had nowhere else to go,” HCC student Jermaine Brown says.

Hernan Yepes, director of Student De-velopment and Services at HCC, feels that “students come in with various personal and life obstacles, which cause some to un-fortunately stop attending.”

“However, the counseling staff is avail-able here, and we do our best to help stu-dents with all types of issues,” he adds. “But the important fact is, they’re here in school, and they took the first step to do so, which is admirable considering how many out there are not in school.”

There is no student who lives a stress-free life. Some students may have issues that are more emotionally stressful than others, but most students come across some sort of pain or adversity outside of school that affects their school perfor-mance in some shape or form.

While some students find ways to cope with such adversity, others suffer the hard-ship with no support or help. In addition,

with the overwhelming stress that school brings sometimes, it’s difficult to carry the weight of the challenges from home and life at the same time.

As Burbank said, it’s all about the atti-tude a student has and the support they get from home, school, or anywhere else that determines their future.

Is there a reason one of these HCC students’ smile is not as vibrant as the others?Photo by Travis Owens

Too Many Nurses?By WhiTley-ann granT

sTaff WriTer

Walking into the ambulatory care unit, you see a lot. From pa-tients anxiously awaiting sur-

gery, to those in need of recovery, a nurse must attend to every ailment. As a nurse, you meet and greet patients constantly, relaying to them all the vital information they need, from what they should do pri-or to their surgery and what medications they should take, to how to deal with the discomfort, pain, or overall attitude about their medical experience.

In this profession, ever minor detail is imperative, especially when those details involve discovering a medication or food allergy, that might change a routine surgery into a fatal experience. For an example, if a patient is allergic to seafood they cannot receive iodine. Also, the countless bits of medical history and health stats that are re-corded (blood pressure, pulse rate, respira-tion, and temperature).

Anyone who has had a nurse tend to them becomes easily convinced that a nurse is among one the most stressful, tir-ing, and necessary positions. But is the

need as great as the quantity?Driving on the highways seeing bill-

boards or flicking through your channels watching TV, you can see that the differ-ent degree programs for nursing are highly advertised. Due to this, the influx of nurs-ing students over the past several years has been intense. With almost 6,000 students enrolled in HCC and 880 of them advised for the nursing program, people are begin-ning to question the reasons. Some say it is because of the money, or because you will always have a job. But are these rea-sons alone worth the process? And are they even true?

Miranda Givens, 20, Human Services major, once desired to enter the Nursing program. She switched majors when she started taking the required science classes. “I think a lot of people are in it for the mon-ey. I couldn’t focus on the science courses, the highest grades I got were Cs,” she said.

It is required to pass all the course re-quirements for nursing, which includes much science and math. Some of the re-quired classes include anatomy, chemistry, biology, nutrition, psychology, and micro-biology. These courses require much of your time to study to do well. After these courses are complete, nursing students

can continue their education at any of the schools linked with HCC.

This career is not just based on your grade point average and completion of the required classes. Nursing programs are interested with your skills and personal-ity too. Nurses are usually compassion-ate, witty, independent thinkers, patient, have common sense, and are able to handle stress well. These skills are important be-cause nurses have to be able to make pa-tients and families feel comfortable while doing their job. You have to-by your own nature- love and care about taking care of people, while still professionally fulfilling your duties.

According to Sandra Barnes, the Advi-sor to the Nursing program, students from HCC will usually start at a “nursing home with their associates.” She also says, “It’s the only career in the medical field that’s most talked about. People are unaware of other options. What most students don’t know is that, you earn your money. You earn every penny.”

Kimoy Johnson, a Nursing major, knew she wanted to be a nurse because she is “passionate about people,” she says. “I notice that a lot of people are in it for the money, and that’s not good. I am not.”

Johnson attends school four days a week and says she is dedicated to her stud-ies. “I don’t mind,” she adds. “I love sci-ence. I feel sorry for those who don’t love it as much as I do, we do a lot of science.”

Unlike Johnson, however, many Nurs-ing students have alternative motives for a Nursing degree. If the coursework is so strenuous, however, how is the number of those students increasing? According to the U.S. Institutes of Labor, “the main reason for the growth is because the U.S. popula-tion that is moving into elderly homes is growing to record levels and is in greater need of physical and long-term care.”

Furthermore, as science develops new technologies everyday, there are far more people entering hospitals for routine sur-geries. All, of course, possible because of the job of a nurse.

As far as the question of the existence of “too many nurses,” it seems Givens put it the most clearly. “The best thing about nursing is that wherever you go, you will always have a job.”

Statistics from: http://nursinglink.mon-ster.com/benefits/articles/132-nursing-sal-ary-projections-for-2011

Continued from page 12

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about what’s going on at HCC as well as articles you won’t find in the paper, and to send us links, comments, and suggestions.

14 HORIZONS • News

Five Candidates, Five Voices, One CityBy eric Bjornson

sTaff WriTer

With the municipal election for the office of Mayor coming in November, candidates are gear-

ing up by gathering support, fundraising, and reaching out to the community through meet-and-greets, word of mouth, and rigor-ous advertising. Incumbent Mayor Finch, Mary-Jane Foster, Charlie Coviello, Jeff Kohut, and John Gomes, all but one who are Democrats, will be vying for the high-est office in the city of Bridgeport.

The list of contenders hoping to topple incumbent Finch are fresh up-and-comers as well as two practiced fighters/partici-pators in the game. Foster and Kohut are newcomers in municipal politics, while Charlie Coviello has run in the past two municipal elections, and John Gomes is Finch’s former deputy chief administrative officer,

But there is no time to waste. With Finch fortified in office with $300,000 amassed for campaign purposes and assured of a sizable Democratic vote, the candidates are going to have to hit the streets hard. Ul-timately, it is the people who will make or break their candidacy.

With the Sept. 13 primary only a few months away, it will be essential for these candidates to make connections with the citizens of Bridgeport. In a city known for an exceptionally low voter turnout rate (23.3 percent during 2007 municipal elec-tion, according to CT.gov website), great efforts will have to be made to reach the

people, to arouse them from inactivity.Issues like the flagging economy, trans-

parency of municipal government, Bridge-port’s budget problems, and plans for seri-ous business endeavors to stimulate growth in the city will all be heavily addressed by the active candidates. Foremost, at this early point in the campaign, is the issue of jobs and turning around the prospects for a city nearly bereft of manufacturing and industry, but which once had a strong eco-nomic base that made Bridgeport a focal point of production and commerce in the nation.

But who are the candidates and what do they propose for the city of Bridgeport?

All of the active candidates—besides Finch—agree that Bridgeport’s municipal government is currently lacking. Luckily, their approach is more than just smearing the incumbent—as is often the case in the grueling game of politics—and they seem to be in accordance over the fact that the economic situation is dire.

A stagnating economy compounded by a diminishing number of jobs and opportu-nities and an air of hopelessness which re-sounds during hard economic times makes the city of Bridgeport in need of a carefully orchestrated intervention.

Multi-mayoral candidate Charlie Covi-ello, a man with deep familial roots in the city and who is a social activist and realtor, believed: “One of the biggest problems is that outsiders are running our city. These guys are milking the city dry.” Coviello said that without any personal stakes in the city, the management would be greatly

flawed, without incentive to truly improve the situation.

Candidate John Gomes, a former member of the Finch administration who worked as Director of the CitiStat pro-gram, has similar sentiments. “I live in the city of Bridgeport, I pay taxes in

Bridgeport, I invest in Bridgeport,” he said. “How can you manage a city which you’re truly not a part of?”

Mary-Jane Foster has been actively involved with the city for years. “I’ve in-vested time and my heart in this city,” said Foster, candidate and vice-president of University Relations at UB (University of Bridgeport) and co-founder of the Bridge-port Bluefish, “I’m unwilling to sit back and see this city poorly managed.”

Jeff Kohut, an independent candidate and a social justice and environmental activist and Member of Lake Forest Asso-ciation Block Watch and North End Com-munity Council, spoke of a new alternative to the Finch administration and its prede-cessors and the role he believes the city has been relegated to. “We cannot allow ourselves to accept a lesser role, a lesser situation, than we need to have a truly vi-able city.”

Gomes, who has lived through and wit-nessed a vapid economy in Bridgeport for years, questioned the lack of a strong eco-nomic base.

“Why is every city around us going through economic development?” Gomes asked. “…Fairfield, New Haven-all these towns around us have an economic boom.”

Kohut believes it is because Bridgeport has been given a role, that which is used to the benefit of surrounding cities and sub-urbs, like Stamford, Trumbull, etc. “…We have to stop all this influence, this subur-ban gold coast influence, that will basically entrap our development prerogatives into being defined in terms of being a housing hub and a transit center, which is just re-ally being a service center for prosperous suburbs and gold coast.”

Kohut wants to break free from the con-straints of Bridgeport being solely used for housing and transit-oriented purposes. He feels that the current and past administra-tions have perpetuated the use of Bridge-port’s workforce outside of the city, bol-stering other cities and town’s economic initiatives, never focusing on bringing industry and manufacturing to Bridgeport itself.

The fact is Bridgeport, once a bustling, thriving hub of economic development, is now a shadow of its former self.

Throughout the country jobs are an is-sue. According to statistics divulged by the National Conference of State Legislatures, national unemployment rates were 8.8 per-cent in March. During the same month, according to the CT Department of Labor, Bridgeport’s unemployment rate was 14.5 percent.

But what can Bridgeport do to play game-changer, to stimulate an economy and bring back the sense of prosperity which once made citizens and business owners proud to live and work in Bridge-port?

While formally announcing her candi-dacy in a speech she delivered at the Holi-day Inn in downtown Bridgeport, Foster spoke of the success with the addition of the Bridgeport Bluefish and Harbor Yard which she fought for twelve years ago: “The ballpark and arena are perfect exam-ples of what can happen when people have the vision and will to put words into action: Create an idea, nurture its development, and shepherd it to completion through a private-public partnership.”

According to Foster, the endeavor she spoke of eventually created hundreds of jobs in Bridgeport and continues to bring

500,000 people to the city every year for the sporting/entertainment events at Har-bor Yard. She believes it can happen again, even to a greater extent.

With her unshakable foundation in business, Foster wants to help bring back industries to the city and to once again garner interest in Bridgeport. “We need economic development with a plan to ag-gressively promote the city across the state and country.”

Gomes also sees great potential. “There are components in Bridgeport that just need the right person to give a push,” he said. “We need to compliment many of the resources we have here.”

Gomes looks to restore activity and commerce to the deep-water harbor, an-other neglected resource facing prolonged inactivity. He wants to foster the growth of jobs, in construction and in other perma-nent positions, while keeping the doors of city Hall opened to work with small busi-nesses. Being a Bridgeport business-owner himself, as the owner of the Red Rooster Deli on the East Side, Gomes believes he can garner the kind of relationships which will be beneficial for the community, the workforce, and city Hall.

He also criticized the lack of efficiency and follow-through exhibited by the cur-rent and former administrations regarding the fruition of other programs which could stimulate greater job-development.

“For 30 years we have been sitting on a program called Steel Point,” Gomes said, “What happened?”

For Mayor Finch, Steel Point is a prior-ity. “We received the largest grant in the history of the city of Bridgeport,” he said, regarding an $11 million dollar Tiger grant which will help move development for-ward. The Mayor wants the construction to occur in various phases, spreading out the work over a period of time, so that it will be “easier for the tax payers.”

Steel Point, a plan for waterfront prop-erty to be developed for commercial and residential development, has been stalled time and time again, though. In February, a Republican spending plan that would de-prive the city of an $11 million dollar grant for Steel Point was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, putting the grant at risk.

But Kohut thinks Steel Point would be counterproductive anyway. “Steel Point, that’s just workforce housing for Stam-ford…Again, the tax benefits are mini-mal,” he said, “And its going to occupy land that could be used for industrial pur-poses, which could provide thousands of new jobs and millions, many millions in a new tax base.”

Kohut proposes a new approach—or at least one revitalized to modern standards. “Bridgeport needs to be reindustrialized. That is our blue print back to prosperity,” he stated. “P.T. Barnum had a vision that worked. All we need to do is retrace our steps and give it a modern twist, in terms of alternative energy, equipment manufactur-ing technology.”

“We have all the ingredients that we

Facade of City Hall on Lyon Terrace.Photo by Eric Bjornson

Facade of City Hall Annex on Broad Street.Photo by Eric Bjornson

Candidate John Gomes.Photo courtesy of Johngomes.com

Continued on Page 15

15

need to reestablish Bridgeport as a major industrial center,” he said. “We have the industrial land; we have connections to companies such as G.E., DuPont, Harvey Hubble, and the machine tool industry. We have access to world class institutions, with world class technology programs.”

Also thinking in the green-scheme of things, Coviello proposed another idea; one he said would ultimately bring about the creation of jobs and help citizens save money. “We’re going to create a green city in the truest sense. Not just putting rain barrels beneath somebody’s gutter and calling it green,” he said.

He wants to see the creation of heating districts, based upon a model developed for commercial use in Sweden, which have been utilized by municipal authori-ties throughout the Scandinavian country and were first discovered in 1945, accord-ing to Svensk Fjarrvarme, a member of the Swedish District Heating Association. Such districts utilize waste water—the by-product of steam/heated water emitted from power plants—to provide heating for communities.

Heating districts would also compli-ment Coviello’s plan to create “urban gar-dens” using hydroponic facilities, which would grow fresh produce with heated water fortified with a nutrient solution, without the use of soil. Coviello said these facilities could be set up in many of Bridgeport’s derelict factories and proper-ties owned by the city and would create a new market for such commodities.

“The secret is that waste water we were throwing away before, but now we get to use it, and it saves us money, and we’re not burning oil, we’re not burning gas,” he said during a meet-and-greet speech at White’s Diner, focusing on the costless waste water which can fuel the heating districts as well as provide heated water (at 85 degrees, ide-al for use with hydroponics) for his urban gardens.

“As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs,” President Obama once said dur-ing his speech in response to the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf on June 15, 2010.

Kohut believes that Bridgeport should be the epicenter for that green revolution. Currently, he is fighting to get GE to “come back home,” to build their largest solar-panel manufacturing plant in the U.S. at the Boston Avenue site where the company

was once situated. Kohut is currently pe-titioning politicians and GE chairman Jef-frey Immelt in regards to this matter.

Kohut wants to actively pursue “green-energy-independence” for the city. Produc-tion and manufacturing of alternative-en-ergy-equipment, including wind turbines and solar panels, will create myriad jobs as well as allow Bridgeport to be self-sus-taining, returning to its viable, prosperous position of former years.

An economic boost would surely im-prove the city. But Gomes also focused on another idea to improve Bridgeport, focusing heavily on municipal government itself.

Gomes looks to the initial CitiStat model, which was based upon the suc-cessful endeavor proposed by the city of Baltimore in order to fight corruption, bad practices and negligence in government, which was implemented during his time with the Finch Administration. As the Di-rector of that program, Gomes apparently looked into every minute facet of the city’s services. These included everything from the use of parking meters for revenue in certain areas to the consumption of gas by city vehicles which eventually ate away at the budget.

CitiStat, according to Gomes, can stop wasteful spending and can ultimate-ly save millions, like the $100 million saved overtime by the O’Malley administration in Baltimore. It em-phasizes synergy between depart-ments, precision in allocating funds as well as creating new, more efficient methods of gener-ating revenue.

Although the Finch administra-tion continues the CitiStat program, Gomes claims it has deviated from its original format. He be-lieves he was removed from his position because his recommendations were out of line with the current administration’s pri-orities.

“As Director of CitiStat, my job was to study the city, to learn what was wrong with the city,” said Gomes, who, through his work as Director of CitiStat, had a “hope of bringing a sense of transforma-tion to the city.”

But the Mayor said the CitiStat program is effective. Along with the new develop-ment of QAlert, a web-based program that keeps tabs on citizen’s service requests and helps gauge effectiveness of the depart-ments in charge of mollifying any prob-lems identified in a timely manner, the Mayor seems genuinely pleased with the results.

“Through CitiStat,” Mayor Finch said, “we can continue to do more with less.”

But Foster also challenged the Finch administration and spoke of a need for change in the management of government. “The sad reality is that the only job cre-ation we’ve seen in Bridgeport is for the

politically connected who have been hired by a mayor who is beholden to the political process,” she said during her speech at the Holiday Inn.

“We have a looming fiscal crisis on our hands,” Foster said in an earlier inter-view. “Our rainy day fund is additionally depleted.” She mentioned a “tremendous amount of wasteful spending” by the Finch administration in various areas. “This ad-ministration does not have the vision for revitalizing the city. There is no room for economic development. Revitalization has to begin with growth.”

But Mayor Finch sees progress, es-pecially in regards to “stabilizing city fi-nances.” He believes he has shown fiscal responsibility in a considerable way with tangible proof to back it up. “For three years in a row, we have lowered spending,”

he said, while also pointing out the fact that he has not raised taxes, a move that is anomalous when compared to other cities in Connecticut and throughout the nation.

It is an early point in the race.

But contention and debatable issues are already blooming, just waiting for the

right venue for the chosen mayoral candi-dates to do battle.

But one thing the candidates understand and are in firm agreement upon is voter participation. With Finch most likely feel-ing somewhat comfortable in his incum-bency, with a clear monetary advantage, backed by the Democratic party which is the majority in Bridgeport, the contenders know reaching the masses is integral. In a city where participation is limited, there are thousands upon thousands of potential voters, waiting to be tapped by a candidate with the right message and the determina-tion to reach the people.

According to the State of Connecticut’s official website, during the Nov. 6 munici-pal election in 2007, which then Senator Bill Finch won, only 23.3 percent of the 56,620 of the registered voters turned out. There is undeniably a large, potentially un-touched mass of citizens not casting a vote.

That’s one of the challenges. It is mak-ing the people care, and making them be-lieve in a candidate.

For Alvin “Smilez,” an HCC student and Bridgeport resident, that is a tough

prospect. “I don’t vote because there is no point,” he said. “I don’t vote. I don’t gam-ble.” For Alvin, the concept of voting can be compared to playing roulette, except the odds of winning seem even more minute, since he has seen minimal change over the years but has heard many repetitious promises and rhetoric about the betterment of the city.

Other students, like Dana Daniels, have no intention of registering to vote. A sim-ple curt “no,” exhibited a disinterest which is not uncommon in younger students.

But HCC Student Senate Treasurer John Keleman said there are plenty of rea-sons why students should participate in the political process. “One, they are our public servants, they work for us, so we have to tell them what we want. Second, off the bat, we are human beings and whatever legislation they create affects our lives, our livelihoods,” he said.

The candidates also believe that par-ticipation in the process is vital. They urge students, community members, to get out there and vote.

Calling upon students and members of the Bridgeport community to strive for a better Bridgeport, John Gomes said, “You can be a part of the difference by taking an active stand, because the decisions you have made have impacted where you are today. We can change the dynamic of ev-erything in Bridgeport.”

“The slogan that every vote counts is real,” Foster said. “If you don’t participate there’s no hope things will change.”

Coviello spoke about his time with the Young Democrats, an activist group which sought voter participation and pushed for the issues they saw affecting the American people. “We affected every convention we went to. We had votes,” he said. “This is a participatory democracy. If you don’t participate that democracy won’t be here much longer.”

“We have to make sure that we give them the right message in an understand-able way and convince them that, if they simply get out and participate in the pro-cess, their lives will get better overtime,” Kohut said.

“Politics is great. Unfortunately, since the Reagan-era, there’s been a media drum-beat to show politics in its worse light,” Finch said, hoping students would not be disheartened and continue to participate. He also spoke about being engaged, not just in terms of voting for the President, but in participating in the other tiers of govern-ment as well. “You got to get involved on all those levels,” he said.

The prospects are real. The issues have a great bearing on the lives of the citizens. The fact remains that the people are still the greatest conduit for change.

For students, those possibly disinterest-ed with the process or facing generalized indifference, this is a chance to be knowl-edgeable, to use that knowledge to make a decision which might profoundly affect the city of Bridgeport. Voting is about tack-ling the future, taking the initiative to help implement a better system to represent the people, to foster the development of fami-lies and further generations who will be empowered by such change.

HORIZONS • News

Continued from Page 14

Candidate Jeff Kohut.Photo courtesy of CT Post; Photo by B.K. Ange-

letti

Candidate Mary-Jane Foster.

Photo courtesy of Onlyin-Bridgeport.com

Mayor Bill Finch.Photo courtesy of Greenwichtime.com

Candidate Charlie Coviello.

Photo courtesy of CT Post; Photo by Christian

Abraham

Visit HCC Online!Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC?

Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu, the college’s home page.From there you can navigate the various departments, search for courses, or follow links to other useful sites, such as MyCommnet and the HCC

Foundation.

16 HORIZONS • News

Statway Offers Alternative to Developmental Math

By Tori cenTopanTi

ediTor-in-chief

If you’re enrolled in a degree program that requires no math beyond fresh-man-level statistics, Statway may be

right for you. It’s a new, alternative math course for students who are non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors, or who are other-wise not required to take calculus.

Every student’s mathematical path has been the same: you either place into a college-level math course on a placement test, or you take up to three developmen-tal courses before even entering a college-level math course.

Well not anymore.Statway is two semesters of college-

level math and worth four credits, unlike developmental courses, which are not worth any credits. The goal of Statway is to offer a direct path to college-level math for students who would otherwise be placed in developmental math.

Statistics also has more practical appli-cations in everyday life than algebra or cal-culus does, unless you’re a STEM major, of course.

However, there is one stipulation stu-dents should be conscientious of when reg-istering for Statway. It is a full-year course, which means that students are required to

take the two-part course over two sequen-tial semesters, or back-to-back, in order to earn the four credits.

HCC is only offering the Statway I (MAT 092) in Fall semesters and Statway II (MAT 122) in Spring semesters to ensure that students take the two courses back-to-back as intended, and to give students the best chance possible of retaining what they have learned.

This innovative course has received funding from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

“A majority of developmental math students who do complete the develop-mental courses end up taking statistics anyway,” the Carnegie Foundation’s web-site explains. “Statistics, because it is not the same math students have failed be-fore, may avoid the motivational pitfalls brought on by activation of traumatic math memories.”

An alternative path to developmental courses may be just what the doctor or-dered, especially since studies have repeat-edly shown that the developmental math

sequence is part of the problem.According to multiple Community Col-

lege Research Center (CCRC) studies, “students either do not sign up for the first recommended developmental course or do not take a sequential course than are lost due to failing a course. The more courses in the sequence, the more opportunities students have to disappear.”

If you think Statway may be the bet-ter mathematical path for you, meet with your academic advisor to determine if the course meets your degree requirements. Be mindful of whether or not the credits will transfer to the four-year university of your choosing.

Statway currently satisfies the math re-quirement for graduation in General Stud-ies, and may be incorporated into other degree and/or certificate programs in the future.

Math prerequisites for the Statway pro-gram are placement into Elementary Alge-bra Foundations (MAT*E095), Statway I (MAT*E092), or higher, or a grade of B or better in Prealgebra (MAT*E075).

Reading prerequisites are an exemp-tion from reading, or a passing grade in Academic Reading (ENG*E073). If place-ment is Academic Reading (ENG*E073), it must be taken concurrently with Statway I (MAT*E092).

While Statway may be rather new na-tionwide, it is a growing movement.

Nineteen community colleges across the United States, called the Collaboratory, are implementing Version 1.0 of the Stat-way curriculum beginning in the upcoming Fall 2011 semester.

HCC is part of a four-college coali-tion within the Connecticut Community College (CCC) system to both develop and offer Statway, including Housatonic (Bridgeport), Naugatuck Valley (Water-bury), Gateway (New Haven), and Capital (Hartford).

The initiative and hard work it took to incorporate Statway into the HCC curricu-lum was undertaken by Instructor of Math-ematics and Statistics Theodora Benezra, Associate Professor of Mathematics Ma-rina Philips, Assistant Professor of Devel-opmental Math Eddie Rose, and Director of Institutional Research Janice Schaeffler.

For more information, contact HCC Statway Coordinator Theordora Benezra at Tbenezra@hcc.commnet.edu or (203) 332-8577.

Image courtesy of http://www.carnegiefoundation.org

Myranda Sinkler,The article that I am writing about, that

is interesting to me, talks about wanting to lose weight on campus. I would like to see more students have motivation to go to the gym four times a week, instead of being lazy and not wanting to do anything with their self. There’s always time to eat food but people choose to eat fatty foods, not healthy foods. It’s good that HCC have machines that can help limit body fat to keep you in shape. I would like to see more activities on campus. For example: Zumba, dancing, kickboxing, karate, and maybe a sauna. These things will help the students to do more but it’s hard for student to attend to these sessions. Because of the stress of homework and the deadlines, they might forget to take care there body. All I can say for people that have trouble with their weight problems is they should take advantage of the fitness program that HCC has on campus. Here are some facts why being overweight isn’t good:

If you’re an overweight young adult, you probably eat too much. By “too much,” we mean more than you need.

Your body needs a certain amount of calories to keep it going, and if you eat more than that amount, you will gain weight.

3. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, you will lose weight.

It’s that simple, and you must not allow charlatans and mountebanks to persuade you otherwise. Unless you have some sort of illness, this method will work for you. So if do not want to be obese then I suggest that all students should join the gym and be happy instead of miserable.

Jahronn Ross

Jennifer Claybrook,In reference to your recent article “Be-

coming An Adult,” becoming an adult can be a pretty smooth ride if you are aiming in the right direction. If you are responsible and have a steady mindset goal, in the end you will end up just fine. I agree with the editors of this article because I truly be-lieve that young adults do not need permis-sion from their parents if they to leave their home. By the age of 15 or 16, I felt like I can make my own decision. I felt I did not need approval from my parents to go out. I felt this way because I am responsible and I always know the situation I am getting in-volved in and how it pertains to my health. To this day, I have ended up to be okay be-cause I knew what I was doing. By the age of 18, parents should realize that their child is an adult. In order for them to branch out and possibly make a career or set up some sort of path for their life, they need to leave their home. I believe the permission is not necessary to do so. By the age of 18, the thought of asking my parents for permis-sion to leave my home has never crossed my mind. Out of respect, I let my parents know where I am going. There should be a certain level of respect parents give their kids. Trust is an important aspect to have in a family. Developing this trust can lead to a healthy family relationship. In conclusion, young adults shall not have to ask permis-sion to leave their residence.

Thank you,Angelo Cecere

Dana Souza,I’m writing this letter in reference to the

“Keep It Simple Or Tat, Tat, Tat It Up?” article. I liked your article about tats. I’m a person that has a few tats. I think they are nice if they are in good taste. When I finally decided to get one, I was excited and afraid all at the same time. But when it was over my tat was just what I expected, very nice

and attractive to the eye. For some time I waited and waited, then decided to have another done, then another and another. I’m finally done with it all, but it’s a per-sonal choice that one makes to cover their body, so I don’t think anyone should judge what someone else decides to do with their body. Tats are a beautiful thing and person-ally I would tell anyone to try it out; they may come to love them also. My tats have meaning they are of love and beauty and that’s significant to me. I would never do anything that didn’t have any significance to me because they are permanent and I have to live with them for the rest of my life. I just want to say thank you for having someone write an article of this magnitude so that others can see the advantages and disadvantages of this thing called body art.

Torisene Blank

Elisa Byrdsong,I have read your article «When is

Enough Enough?» I really just want to let you, know that, I have never been in a bad relationship, but I think that this is a topic that needs to be acknowledged. To-day there are a lot of young girls that are victims of a domestic violence, but they are too scared to break the silence. Domestic violence is a very serious situation and by you taking the time out to write and publish this article about it, that can help can help young students in this situation to come forth. This article can be a reason for them to search for a new lease on love and life. Domestic violence is a cruel way to treat someone you are in a relationship with, however, some people sees it as a way of feeling loved, appreciated, and self-pity. News broadcasts, books, and articles such as the one you have written are ways to open doors of freedom for the victims, and educating others of what is going on right

in front of our noses. Domestic violence victims are very discreet with what is being done to them, but at least now they know that others have been there, done that, and has re-established themselves from that.

Sarita Crawford

Elisa Byrdsong,I do agree people should be happy when

it comes to relationships. You’re also right about people in relationships who idealize each other. My saying is if you don’t like it now you’re not going to like it later. I see this stuff happen all the time to almost all of my friends. They date guys and its great in the beginning and then it’s all tears and depression. I feel bad for them. They lose who they are when they’re in rela-tionships. I try to make them feel better by having a girl’s night out. We go out for drinks and food, and meet new guys. This usually takes their minds off it and rebuilds their self esteem. I think everyone should be single until they figure out who they are and what they want out of life before giv-ing all of their time and energy to some-thing that may not work out. Also, stay away from those stage-5 clingers and live for yourself not someone else. I think col-lege students are just developing as adults and figuring out our lives. I personally am single, and I got out of a nine-year relation-ship before I started school. It was one of the best choices I ever made. I can do what I want when I want and focus on my work and school and being free. I love being single; why have one when you can have them all when you’re young? I’m content where I am now. Maybe later I will think about settling down.

Deneane Abed

Letters to the Editor

17HORIZONS • News You Can Use

ews you can useCourse Evaluations: Waste of Time or Just What

The Students Ordered?By elisa Byrdsong

sTaff WriTer

At the end of the semester, students will hear professors constantly re-minding students to fill out their

course evaluations. Even though students hear about them, many will either forget to fill them out or just don’t understand their importance.

General Studies major Dana Freeman says he has never filled out a course evalu-ation. “I don’t even know what that is,” he said. Freeman has been at HCC for two semesters and says he doesn’t remember any of his professors talking about course evaluations.

HCC student Lauren Reed, on the other hand, says she always fills out her course evaluations.

“It’s so easy and it’s right on Black-board now,” she says. “I figure if teachers can take the time to correct all those papers and pass out grades, the least I can do is to fill something out about their work ethic and teaching methods. It is their job, you know.”

HCC Nursing student Gina Donofrio says, “It just slips my mind.” Donofrio has heard of course evaluations and under-stands that they can be helpful to the teach-ers, but she admits she never has the time and forgets.

In an interview with HCC Academic Dean Elizabeth G.Roop, she said the return rate was higher when the old process with pen and paper was used. The new online course evaluation completion rate for fall semester of 2010 was 12.8 percent.

“It is very important to get students’

input on their course experiences, and the school takes it very seriously,” Roop says. “Students’ input is anonymous and the re-sults are given to the faculty after the se-mester has ended. All faculty gets a copy so it is beneficial to them on a individual basis.”

English instructor Drew Denbaum ap-preciates the course evaluations and be-lieves all students need to take part to help become more efficient. He feels that “student feedback is invaluable, as I am pleased to discover during every class I teach. To make the online system equally beneficial, however, I think a way must be found to include the opinions of every stu-dent in each class.”

Denbaum continues, “These individual responses are almost always insightful about my teaching methods and syllabi, as

well as the students’ perceptions of their progress. On the other hand, if only a few members of a class of 25 students complete the anonymous online evaluation, the re-sults will always be intrinsically distorted. “

For students who are unaware of how to access course evaluations, the following quick and easy five steps will help get the evaluations completed:

1) Access the main myCommNet web-site (my.commnet.edu)

2) Log in with Banner ID and password3) Click on “Banner Self-Service”

(found in top-right corner before Black-board vista)

4) Click on “Evaluate Your Courses”

Remembering Mothers On Mother’s DayHer Death May Be Hard To Deal With, But You’ll Get Through It

By jennifer clayBrook

opinions ediTor

This will be the third Mother’s Day I will spend without my mom. I try to handle it as best as I can, but

sometimes I’m unable to control my feel-ings and emotions. It hurts beyond belief to know that I will never, for the rest of my life, spend another Mother’s Day with her.

Each year, other motherless children are also reminded of the mother-daughter/mother-son relationships, and it can be very complicated for them.

Just knowing that they can’t shower their mom with gifts or even give her a simple hug to show their appreciation cuts deep.

“When my mother died April 18, 11 years ago, I took it hard because Mother’s Day was just a month away. I remember feeling terrible and rather depressed,” Al-lison Kirk, a mother of one child, said. “I usually feel a lot of emotions on Mother’s Day. But honestly speaking, I feel more aggravation than I do anything because I can’t converse with her, hug her, or smell her.”

Yannii Scott, a Northampton Commu-nity College student, feels similar. “On July 9, my mom will be gone six years and I hate knowing that I’ll never see, talk, or feel her again,” she added.

Marquis Bergman, who recently lost his mother, said, “I get emotional. Really emotional, like I’m going into a depressive state. I don’t want to be bothered with any-one or anything. I start to feel like nothing in the world matters at that time because truthfully it doesn’t.”

Around this time of the year, everyone talks about what they’re going to buy their mom, or where they’re going to take her for Mother’s Day, but it can make those who are unable to do those things unhappy.

“I guess everyone whose mom is still alive I’m kind of bitter towards because I feel like my mom was taken too soon and

it’s a holiday,” Scott said.Bergman added, “I cry a lot. It seems

like that’s the only way to feel better,”Some motherless children don’t even

bother to celebrate Mother’s Day because they feel as though things have changed since the death of their mom.

“Mother’s Day just isn’t the same. I re-ally just don’t celebrate it,” said Scott.

Mother’s Day may be hard to get through, but it doesn’t have to be a painful memory.

“I feel kind of depressed and sad, but with my son being there I feel great,” Sa-lihah Williams, who lost her mother at a young age, said. “[It] makes me want to show him everything my mother never showed me”

Even though coping with the fact that

your mom is not there, there are so many things you can do to lift your spirit and cel-ebrate the life of your mother. These are a few things that I do to honor my mother on Mother’s Day. Hopefully they can work for you.

Think of all the good times you and your mother shared, whether it’s the walks you used to take in the park together, or even the television shows the two of you used to watch.

For example, I still watch some of my mom’s favorite cooking shows on the Food Network because I remember when she and I would watch them all day on the weekends.

Talking to friends and family mem-bers about the life of your mom could also help too. Hearing stories about your mom

and looking at her pictures could possibly make you feel a lot better.

“Now that I am older, it helps to look at photos and talk about all the good times we (my mother and I) shared, with family and friends,” Kirk said.

Writing your mother a letter or poem can also help too. This way, no one will know how you are feeling, especially if you aren’t good with expressing it with others.

Every year, I find it very helpful to write letters to my mom, telling her what I’ve been doing and how much I miss her. Before she died, she made me promise to continue with all of my successes and be happy, so writing the things that I’ve done and how I feel makes me feel closer to her.

Having your own memorial session for your mom by lighting a candle near her photo is a simple but great way to honor her. This can be done alone or with others depending on your comfort. I personally light candles near my favorite photo of my mom. I even play some of her favorite songs. It’s like she’s there in spirit, but not physically.

Visiting your mother’s burial site to leave flowers or even to just say you love her is a great way to honor her as well as cheer yourself up.

“My brothers and I get together and go visit her grave,” Bergman said.

Mother’s Day is one of the many holi-days that I find hard to deal with without my mom, but over the years I have found ways to make it better. I know that my mom would have wanted me to be happy every day, even on Mother’s Day. So, I cherish all of the memories that we shared together on this special day to remain happy, just how my mom wanted me to be. I know your mom would have wanted the same. You may not be able to see, hug, kiss, or talk to her, but she’s still there watching over you.

My mother and me (The photo that I use for my memorial).Photo by Jennifer Claybrook

18 HORIZONS • News You Can Use

Calling All MothersToday is Your Day to Shine

By dana souza

sTaff WriTer

It comes around once each year in May, and is celebrated by many. That’s right, Mother’s Day is approaching shortly.

This year, the day lands on Sunday, May 8.Mother’s Day began in the United

States nearly 150 years ago and is a day to honor and express appreciation for moth-ers everywhere! It usually falls on the sec-ond Sunday in May.

In fact, according to Mothers-day@123Holiday.net, did you know that the second Sunday in May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out? Telephone lines record their highest traf-fic, as sons and daughters take advantage of this day.

There’s no particular way to spend the holiday. However, some families have tra-ditions. For example, some families con-sider cooking mom her favorite dish, or serving her breakfast in bed.

In my family, we enjoy going to brunch, usually one that offers a buffet. One thing that is crucial for my mother is ham! My mom must have her eggs and ham on Mother’s Day!

Tayna Etienne, 20, a first-year Nursing

major at HCC, celebrates the holiday with a church tradition.

“It is like a family reunion. All my fam-ily goes to the same church and we always go to church on Mother’s Day!” she said. “Mother’s Day is a day to show apprecia-tion and to recognize mothers for all the hard work they do. This year I am going to

treat my mother and aunt to get their hair and nails done in Manhattan, and possibly buy them a new outfit.”

Why go all the way to Manhattan for hair and nails? Manhattan is home for Tanya who commutes from Manhattan to Bridgeport every day for work and school.

Some families plan the entire day out with church, activities and tradi-tions. As for others, a lovely card or sweet phone call is just enough.

Carolyna Zarate, General Stud-ies major at HCC, will be calling her mother who lives in Florida, and will most likely send her a card.

“My family doesn’t have any traditions. [We] basically treat my mom like a queen and take her out for dinner and shopping,” said Za-rate. “Last year I took my mom out to lunch, then we got our nails done and at night my brother came down from New Jersey. We [then] had a family dinner in which my brother and I cooked.”

Mother’s Day is extra special to Ja-von St. Clair, 25, who is also a General

Studies major at HCC. “I celebrate Moth-er’s Day with my mother, grandmother and aunt. Even though my grandmother and aunt didn’t give birth to me, they played just as important of a role as my mother did,” he said.

This year Javon plans to bring his mom to church. “She’ll love that. Last year I in-

vited her to my church, she cried, she re-ally enjoyed it though,” he said. “I plan on surprising my grandmother and aunt with dinner at a restaurant--on me.”

Javon is very passionate about celebrat-ing Mother’s Day. Some people are not too

sure what day the holiday falls on, but Ja-von knew exactly the day.

So what if you haven’t gotten your mother a gift yet? No worries! As many of us put things off until the last minute, there are lots of gifts we procrastinators can buy, even up until the actual day!

One of the best things during this holi-day are the specials. There are countless amounts of companies discounting and set-ting special prices for the occasion.

Yankee Candle has a Mother’s Day sale. It offers a 50 percent discount when you buy any large jar or tumbler candle.

Macy’s has Mother’s Day designer fra-grance sets on sale, and Edible Arrange-ments has dozens of assorted fruit-filled arrangements; they offer everything from dipped white or dark chocolate strawber-ries to arrangements with balloons, teddy bears, and personal notes.

Bobbi Brown, 21, and a Journalism ma-jor at HCC, shops at Walmart for her Moth-er’s Day gifts. “My mother loves flowers and loves the color purple. Walmart always has a flower section with purple flowers and the prices are low.”

If you are looking for the perfect card, personally I feel that being creative and hand making one is the best way to go! However, if you aren’t into that, CVS Pharmacy and Hallmark have a wide va-riety of amazing heart touching cards and the prices are affordable on any budget.

Hallmark offers many Mother’s Day gifts with great prices. It is the first place on my list when I am shopping for gifts, especially Mother’s Day. They even wrap the gifts and put them in gift boxes for your convenience!

Many restaurants have dining specials as well. Marisa’s Restaurant of Trumbull, Ruby Tuesdays, Outback Steakhouse, and many more, all offer Mother’s Day spe-cials.

According to Mothers-day@123holiday.net, the top ten gifts include flowers, trip to the spa, perfume, jewelry, candles, dia-monds, chocolate, gift baskets and gour-met gifts.

It’s never too late to shop for gifts. Most

of the Mother’s Day specials and promo-tions don’t end until the actual day, which is great for last-minute shoppers. As Moth-er’s Day is only days away, make your mother or loved one know they are special to you. It’s never too late to show apprecia-tion.

Mother’s Day sign at Hallmark.Photo by Dana Souza

Mother’s Day sign at Hallmark.Photo by Dana Souza

A wide variety of Mother’s Day cards to choose from at Hallmark.

Photo by Dana Souza

Yankee CandlesPhoto by Dana Souza

How to Pitch Your Story to SellBy Tina m. eckarT

sTaff WriTer

I have a great story with eye catching graphics. So how do I convey my idea as different - how do I pitch my story to sell?

It’s not enough to merely write a great story; there are thousands of writers do-ing exactly the same thing. My success depends on more than just quality writing. The key thing for every writer, whether his or her passion is feature stories, sports, or in my case, a novel, is to remember these words: “So what?” Why should readers care about my story?

As winner of an Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry, author of The Silent Serenade, an inspira-tional book of poetry and photography, and my newest novel, Dantalion Of The Goe-

tia, a gothic romance about unexplainable love, obsession, and redemption between a condemned demon of an ancient seven-teenth century grimoire and a young col-lege girl, I can only hope success finds its way into the heart of every young adult the story was written for.

I know the years that went into the cre-ation of the story and its characters was a huge undertaking, but I believe in my story and the message it communicates. People are sometimes presented with something or someone in their lives that becomes an obsession - a feeling so strong they don’t care about anything els. We can all identify this in everyday life to people of all ages, backgrounds, and religions who cross is-sues of love, addictions and other uncon-trollable behaviors. Not everyone wants to be saved, but all are offered the chance at

salvation.Helping me convey my story were three

things every writer should live by, (besides caffeine, nicotine and alcohol - in mod-eration, of course): The Writers Market, which offers tips on not only helping to sell a story, but in educating on the creation of a “writing platform;” Webster’s Dictionary, a vocabulary must-have and a writer’s Bible; and The Associated Press Stylebook, one of the most useful weapons against cut-throat book critics.

According to Aaron Shepard, author of Aiming at Amazon, a gracious network-ing tool is the site’s cross promotion and tags to help boost sales of your book. If a person’s sales patterns showed a specific genre of book, such as science fiction, Am-azon would automatically start promoting your book with other similar titles. “More

items to Consider” pops up on a purchas-er’s profile.

As a writer, I think this is by far the best promotional tool one can ask for. You may not be Stephen King, but why shouldn’t your topic be promoted in the same genre if you write the same subject matter?

“Whether you’re creating your ebook, setting up your web site, writing a blog or joining a group on the Internet, hyperlinks are what make things happen. The more clicks, the more chances of your success,” reports Self-Publishing Review.

Several independently published au-thors have reached success selling their stories, and who would have known they did this without walking in the footsteps of big-name publishing houses? Cross-

Continued on Page 19

19HORIZONS • News You Can Use

ing Over, by John Edwards (Jodere Group and Princess Books) sold 177,000 copies in 2002, Dr. Atkins New Diet Cookbook, by Robert C. Atkins (M. Evans), and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly Press) were a few of the other well known independent books reaching

worldwide success selling their stories.The last thing a writer needs after

weeks, months, and in many cases years of working on a piece is to receive a comput-er-generated form letter from a big-name publishing house saying the story is not right for them. Maybe their idea of a best seller is a standard how-to book, but writ-ers today must take control of their own

destiny and creativity, and find ways to reach their target audience independently, selling their own stories.

To pitch a story to sell, the readers must answer the question of “So what?” with an automatic response: “I find the story com-pelling!” Plain and simple.

The Silent Serenade is available in

paperback at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.xlibris.com; Dantalion Of The Goetia is available in paperback and e-book at www.amazon.com and www.createspace.com/3506579. Please visit the author’s website at www.fantasyromanceoccult.com and check out the Book Trailer on Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg644Ee6sZM

Continued from Page 18

PRESS RELEASEDemon Summoned in Seventeenth Century

Courtyard Religous SiteBy Tina m. eckarT

sTaff WriTer

Everyone has skeletons in the closet. Some refer to them as demons, clawing, controlling, obsessing.

In a real-life seventeenth century courtyard-turned-religious-site, among its mysterious Druid circle and rock-built altar, lies the origin of local fiction author Tina M.E.’s Gothic novel, Dantalion of the Goetia.

The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is con-sidered by some “vaguely disturbing,” according to Ar-chitectural Historian Elizabeth Mills Brown.

Dantalion, an immortal angel of God, has fallen from grace and is condemned as one of 72 demons of an an-cient seventeenth century grimoire referred to as The Goetia, meaning “sorcerer” or “mage.” He seduces a mortal college girl and practitioner of the occult named Laurel, who summons his true demonic form in the

Courtyard of the Undead, creating an unexplainable rela-tionship of love, obsession, and redemption.

The novel goes deeper than any typical gothic ro-mance. “Sometimes we face something so strong it blinds us, sometimes to the point of obsession, and there is strength in the human spirit to see us through,” says the author.

Please visit the “Dantalion of the Goetia” website at fantasyromanceoccult.com for an excerpt. You can get a peek at the book trailer and future event listings on You-tube at youtube.com/watch?v=gg644Ee6sZM. You can pre-order books online at createspace.com/3506479 or at amazon.com. Limited bookmarks and live strong bands come free with each book purchase, redeemable at book signing events.

The Dantalion of the Goetia summer book campaign begins with a listing in the May 3 summer preview of Al-ternative Press, a trend-setting, music-driven magazine devoted to new bands, tour dates and most importantly,

its passionate young readers (altpress.com).Join the author for her special book signing scheduled

in the courtyard on May 15 from noon to 4 p.m. (rain date May 22, noon to 4 p.m.), Boothe Memorial Park, 5774 Main St., Stratford; Stratford’s Main Street Festival on June 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and continuing at New Haven’s Arts & Ideas Festival on June 18 from noon to 6 p.m. and June 19 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

About the Author

Tina M.E. is a recipient of Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievements in Poetry, author of The Silent Serenade and Dantalion Of The Goetia, an advo-cate for young adult creative writers in her community, a Journalism/Communications student and a Literary Club member at Housatonic Community College.

20

By Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Over the past few decades, climate scientists have refined their abil-ity to collect and analyze data to

the point where they can now make fairly accurate predictions about how carbon di-oxide and other greenhouse gases impact global temperatures.

Much less clear, however, are what those changes will mean at the local level. And that’s what people really care about. After all, unless you live in Tuvalu or Baf-fin Bay, rising sea levels and melting arctic ice doesn’t impact your day-to-day life-style much.

Or does it?A report released by the National

Oceanographic and Atmospheric Adminis-tration (NOAA) in late February suggests that melting sea ice in the north may be linked to the unprecedented snowfalls on the East Coast over the last two winters.

The phenomenon, known as the “warm arctic-cold continent” pattern, begins with the fact that ocean water absorbs more heat than ice. With larger areas of exposed ocean during Arctic winters, relatively more heat is pulled in by the water, which then transmits some of that heat to the air.

Normally, a strong convection wind carrying frigid air, called the “polar vor-tex,” circles tightly around the North Pole during the winter months. But in 2009 and 2010, enough warm air was produced to disrupt the polar vortex, breaking the cycle and shoving the colder air south.

Some of it spilled across the eastern United States. There and in Eurasia, ac-cording to NOAA, average temperatures during the autumn of 2009 dropped be-tween 3 degrees and 18 degrees lower than the normal monthly average. Meanwhile, the Arctic rose up to 7 degrees higher than normal.

The report hints at the possibility that this disruptive trend might accompany the long-term reduction of sea ice in the north, noting that “loss of sea ice pushes in the right direction for sub-Arctic impacts.”

However, NOAA points out, natural variability can also account for changes in temperature patterns. Other factors, such as El Niño, can mitigate or overshadow the effects of the Arctic.

“One would not expect a sub-Arctic im-pact in every year,” the report says.

Regional climate is a tough nut to crack, because so many factors go into shaping the profile of a given area. To get an idea of how quirky these patterns can be, take out a map of the world, and locate Con-necticut. It’s about 40 degrees north of the equator. Now look at the other places in the world at approximately the same latitude: the Mediterranean coast of Europe; the Gobi Desert in Mongolia; the southern tip of Hokkaido, Japan.

Even though they’re all approximately at the same distance from the North Pole, every one of these places is starkly unique. Take a winter vacation to southern Italy, and you’d never mistake it for Connecticut.

Climatic patterns vary even at a smaller scale. Bridgeport benefits from its prox-imity to Long Island Sound with milder

weather than inland. That’s why summers are hotter in Hartford, and why rain in Mil-ford often means snow in Torrington.

“One of the most challenging and un-certain aspects of present-day climate re-search is associated with the prediction of a regional response to a global forcing,” writes

Norwegian Meteorological Institute Physicist Rasmus E. Benestad on the website RealClimate.org, a collaborative project by climate scientists to provide the public with resources for learning about climate science.

The problem partially stems from the fuzziness of our records of the past. Hu-mans have only been measuring weather patterns for a few hundred years. During most of that time, we have used relatively crude instruments that collected data re-stricted to locations where human popula-tions were high.

Most of the planet went unnoticed un-til the last few decades, when weather re-cording stations and satellites were set up to capture information from thousands of

spots around the globe. As our instruments have become more sophisticated, we’ve learned many more details about the quirks and trends of individual areas.

But a handful of years is not enough to say anything about long-term trends, which is what climatologists try to under-stand. For that, it is necessary to construct a historical context through which they can compare today’s patterns.

Fortunately, there are ways to find out what the world was like before we started watching it. The atmosphere has a direct effect on the makeup of all kinds of longer-lasting things. It influences the chemical composition of glaciers, tree rings, lake and ocean sediments, and a whole host of other structures.

That’s where paleoclimatologists, such as Dr. Christian Shorey of the Colorado

School of Mines, come in. Shorey spe-cializes in cave formations known as spe-leothems, which include stalagmites and stalactites, as well as certain types of cave crystals and other objects. Speleothems are particularly useful for studying ancient climate, because they’re composed of the chemicals (including CO2) that seep into the cave from the surrounding environ-ment, and last for hundreds of thousands of years.

“Paleoclimatology can probe past pat-terns of temperature and/or precipitation, and with a large enough set we may be able to tease out global patterns of past climate,” says Shorey, noting that it was this kind of contextualized data that was used to gener-ate the now-famous “hockey-stick” graph. “The obvious advantage of this procedure is to compare modern changes to those of the recent past to evaluate the idea that any change we are seeing today is ‘within natu-ral variability.’”

Paleoclimatological data has been a boon for climate modeling on a global scale, since there are so many sources to

collect from, and each type can be checked against others to reduce the chances of er-ror.

On the local scale, however, making as-sessments is much more difficult because the range of data tend to be much more limited.

“Using isotopes of carbon and oxygen in stalagmites in Iowa, we were able to see forests changing to prairies and back as gulf moisture advected to the region (for-est) and then would migrate away to the east (grasslands). But it is hard to tie that local effect into the exact global changes going on around at that time,” says Shorey. “We can see changes in physics or chem-istry of ocean currents from ocean cores which give something of a local effect, but again, it would take a very large and con-temporaneous paleoclimatological data set

to put such locally observed affects into a global context.”

“Not impossible, but very hard,” he adds.

Nevertheless, the past has a direct effect on the present, even at the local level. Geo-logical processes that occur over thousands or millions of years directly shape every-thing about a region’s unique makeup, in-cluding the flora and fauna that can exist there.

Connecticut, for instance, was covered by mile-high glaciers until approximately fifteen thousand years ago. Glaciers are not pristine “ice cubes”—as they grow or shrink, they carve up the land and carry huge amounts of debris with them. As the last of these monstrous ice flows melted in the area, they deposited much of that sedi-ment in the state’s lowlands and river val-leys as stratified sand and gravel.

The sand and gravel itself was largely made up of the same material that form Connecticut’s bedrock, which can be split roughly into four areas. U.S. Geological Survey data reveals that the eastern and

western parts of the state are formed mainly of acidic metamorphic rocks, such as gneisses and schists. The Con-necticut Central Valley is composed of much younger sedimentary and ig-neous bedrock. And the valleys in the northwest corner of the state have mar-ble underneath.

The large vari-ability in land types is part of the reason that such a small state contains so much biodiversity. Forests account for 1.8 million of the total 3.2 million acres of Connecti-cut’s land. Different types of trees domi-nate different areas, with hardwoods up north, oaks and maples throughout,

and scattered local patches of hemlock and white pine. The types of trees and vegeta-tion that grow in different areas are depen-dent both on local temperature and soil conditions. Across the state’s six hundred miles of shoreline, tidal wetlands form some of the most ecologically productive habitats on Earth, and are home to numer-ous rare and endangered species. Long Island Sound itself is a unique geological phenomenon, with an ecology to match.

According to a report from 2005 by Connecticut’s “Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy,” 84 species of mammals, 335 species of birds, 49 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 168 spe-cies of fish live within the state’s borders.

In general, a warming climate and ris-ing sea levels will force many of these

HORIZONS • Health & Science

cienceealth andHow Will Global Warming Impact Connecticut?

Over the past two decades, the proportion of cold-water marine species in Long Island Sound has declined, while warm-water species have become more numerous.

Graphic by Brandon T. Bisceglia. Data from the annual Long Island Sound Trawl Survey

Continued on page 21

21

By horizons sTaff

Adapted from “Complex life hit freshwater early,” by Susan Milius. Science News, April 15, 2011:

Tiny fossils a billion years old — the earliest ones yet found of complex cells outside the sea — give the first

direct evidence that evolution in freshwa-ter had already expanded beyond bacte-ria long before the first trilobite skittered through Paleozoic muck.

Fossilized bits less than a millimeter long from Scotland suggest that cells with nuclei were flourishing beyond the oceans, says Paul K. Strother of Boston College. Such cells distinguish one of the three ma-jor domains of life, the eukaryotes, which today range from elaborate microbes such as the schoolbook paramecium to all plants, fungi and animals.

The fossilized cells or masses of cells look eukaryotic because of features not known from bacteria, Strother and his col-leagues report online April 13 in Nature.

For example, one fossil appears to be a mass with three lobes. Other finds show evidence of cell coverings splitting along a preformed biological zipper, or cells with protective coverings bearing complex pat-terns.

Equally complicated eurkaryotes had

arisen in the seas a billion years ago. But fossil eukaryotes from freshwater mean that “our models of how life evolved on this planet should no longer just include the idea that everything was floating around in the ocean.” Strother says. “We really have to consider the [nonmarine] environments as a cradle of evolution.”

These freshwater eukaryote fossils are the earliest by a lot, says paleontolo-gist Susannah Porter of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who mused about which example from 500 million years later would count as the runner-up. In Strother’s find, she says, “It’s exciting to see the cast of characters and to see they are pretty diverse and, in some cases, pret-ty complex.”

Some of these fossils had been sit-ting for decades on prepared slides at the University of Sheffield in England. Ear-lier interpretations dismissed them as more bacteria, Strother says. Inspired by the slides, he and his colleagues returned to the swath of ancient rock where the fossils were found along the northwest coast of Scotland, called the Torridonian, to collect more samples.

Some of the microfossils may even have survived exposure to air, Strother says. The rock shows signs of drying out, such as patterns of cracks and raindrop div-ots. And what look like fossilized protec-tive cysts for cells may have allowed early

experiments with terrestrial life. Bacterial mats had colonized land by a billion years ago, but what else might have lived there remains a matter of debate.

Hungry judges dispense rough justice, by Zoë Corbyn. Nature News, April 11, 2011:

A prisoner’s chance of parole de-pends on when the judge hearing the case last took a break, say re-

searchers who have studied decisions in Is-raeli courts. As judges tire and get hungry, they slip towards the easy option of deny-ing parole, say the researchers.

The bias could apply in any situation in which people make sequential decisions, such as doctor’s consultations, university admissions or grant-review panels.

Jonathan Levav of Columbia Business School in New York and his colleagues an-alysed 1,112 parole hearings for inmates of four Israeli prisons, made by eight judges over a ten-month period.

Judges’ days were divided into three sessions broken by two meal breaks — a morning snack and lunch. Judges decided when to break, but had no control over the ordering of cases, which was determined by when a prisoner’s attorney arrived.

At the beginning of a session, a prisoner had a 65% chance of being parolled, the

authors found. This declined to almost zero by the end of a session, and leaped back to 65% after a break.

The severity of the crime, the time served in prison, any previous incarcera-tions, and the availability of rehabilitation programmes were not enough to explain the effect on the probability of parole, and the nationality or sex of a prisoner made no difference. The findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The work shows the consequences of mental fatigue on really important deci-sions even among excellent decision-mak-ers,” says Levav. “It is really troubling and quite jarring — it looks like the law isn’t exactly the law.”

Levav thinks that decision-makers gravitate towards the easier, default option as they tire. In a judge’s case, this would be to deny parole.

Whether the effect is caused by a lack of food, rest or both remains unclear. And the study draws no conclusions about the quality of the decisions made. “We can’t say without a shadow of a doubt that there is a causal link here, but the data are ex-tremely suggestive of one,” says Levav.

The bias could “happen anywhere where there is sequential decision-making and some kind of status quo or default that

Continued on page 22

HORIZONS • Health & Science

plants and animals to migrate northward or inland, while introducing new species that were formerly restricted by the cold winters. There will be winners and losers in that process.

Trees may be one of those losers, ac-cording to a major assessment released by the Connecticut Department of Envi-ronmental Protection (CTDEP) in March 2009 titled “Facing Our Future: Adapting to Connecticut’s Changing Climate.”

The report notes that although Con-necticut’s forests contain a diverse array of species, they are “old, in the sense that

a majority of the individual forested acre-ages are filled with mature trees.”

“As the health and the resiliency of the forest often depends upon both species di-versity and a diversity of age classes, the ability of Connecticut’s forest to respond to climate change is mixed,” the report says.

Contributing to that problem are two likely winners in the coming climate sce-nario: the white-tailed deer, and the hem-lock woolly adelgid, an exotic pest that has only recently established itself in Con-necticut.

Deer will likely continue to thrive as the winter temperatures drop in severity. But they can be devastating to young saplings, inhibiting the regeneration of forests. Ac-cording to the report, this has already be-come a problem in parts of Fairfield Coun-

ty, “where the understory has been denuded of vegetation, with the exception of highly invasive plants such as garlic mustard and Japanese stilt grass.”

The adelgid, on the other hand, has so far been checked in its destruction of hem-lock because of the cold winters. But, the report warns, “as the climate warms, the impacts to hemlock forests will progress northward.”

Exact changes in forest distribution are necessarily speculative. A given species of plant may not be able to migrate fast enough to keep up with trends in warm-ing, especially if seeds have to cross some of the mountains and ridges that make up

C o n n e c t i c u t ’s complex land-scape. If they en-counter the wrong type of soil, they may not be able to germinate or could suffer from ill health. Add to this the segmen-tation of habitats caused by human development, and the journey can be a rough one

indeed.Other changes

are more straight-f o r w a r d — a n d some are already

staring us in the face. In Long Island Sound, for instance, lobster fishing has been a ma-jor industry for centuries. But in the late 1990s, the lobster population plummeted, and hundreds of fishermen were put out of business. Since then, the numbers of lob-sters have continued to decline.

Because the Sound represents the southern boundary of their range, lobsters have become a sort of “canary in the coal mine” for local climate change. They’re unique because they have what is known as a “threshold tolerance” for water tempera-ture. They’re highly adaptable to anything below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. But as soon as the water gets warmer than that, they have trouble breathing and quickly begin to die off.

In March, the CTDEP, in conjunc-

tion with the marine sciences department at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton, released a new report that showed that the remaining lob-ster population has begun congregating in the deeper, cooler waters of Long Island Sound.

“In the 1980s we used to catch them in less than 30 feet,” said CTDEP Fisheries Biologist Penny Howell in an interview for The Day. “Now, it’s rare to find them in depths less than 90 feet. We’ve looked at the commercial catch, and it tells the same kind of story.”

The lobster industry has already been decimated by the die-off; since the late 1990s, the number of full-time and part-time lobstermen in the state has fallen from approximately 445 to 130.

Now the Atlantic States Marine Fish-eries Commission’s Lobster Management Board, a multi-state panel that overseas the industry, is considering further restrictions that could reduce harvests south of Cape Cod by half or more, as well as limit the seasons during which lobstermen could operate in an attempt to give the animals a chance to recover.

Lobsters may be the most obvious crea-ture disappearing from Long Island Sound, but it’s hardly the only one. For the last 25 years, the Long Island Sound Study has conducted an annual “trawl survey” that estimates the numbers of various species in the waters off Connecticut’s coast.

According to the “Facing Our Future” report, the trawl surveys “now encounter an average of 10-12 warm-water species per sample...compared to just seven to nine species per tow when the survey began in 1984.”

The increase in warm-water species has been accompanied by a steady decline in cold-water species. The report notes that the declines cannot be chalked up entirely to overfishing: “cold temperates in decline include the longhorn sculpin, sea raven and cunner—species experiencing very little or no recreational or commercial harvest.”

The report also lists a multitude of chal-lenges for Connecticut’s infrastructure as climate warming continues. For residents, the most dangerous of these may be flood-ing, which already accounts for most natu-ral disasters in the state and is expected to

worsen because of a projected increase in precipitation coupled with an acceleration in the sea level rise that is already taking place.

People living downstream of Connecti-cut’s 5,500 dams may suffer the most. Of these dams, 239 are presently classified as “high hazard,” meaning that if they fail they could cause loss of life and ma-jor damage to structures and highways. Another 264 are classified as “significant hazard,” and 692 as “moderate hazard.” All of these will face increasing stresses in the coming years.

Even if you don’t live behind a dam, though, shifts in sea level and precipitation could lead to problems with wastewater and septic systems. “Currently,” the report says, “subsurface systems are designed with a minimum of 18 inches between the leach trenches and high ground water to protect the ground water and nearby sur-face waters from contamination. As hy-drology changes occur, particularly in low lying shoreline communities, the rising water table may not allow for adequate soil treatment travel times to remove pollutants and protect surface and ground water qual-ity.”

Contamination of Connecticut’s water supply could have wide-ranging conse-quences, including the spread of deadly diseases.

Not all of these projections will result in catastrophe. One of the benefits of be-ing able to predict the effects of climate change, even imperfectly, is that it allows us time to prepare. There are already ef-forts underway among state agencies, mu-nicipalities, and individuals to shore up Connecticut’s infrastructure and wildlife against the worst of the foreseeable im-pacts.

There are also climate mitigation efforts going on across the state. Although some warming is inevitable, reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas release can slow the feedback loops that lead to a warmer environment.

All scientific predictions are based on statistics, and all statistics have wiggle room. That has been the history of climate science at both the global and regional scales—and it will continue to be the fu-ture as long as we remain vigilant.

Continued from page 20

Lobsters are unable to survive in waters warmer than 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Long Island Sound is at the southern boundary of their range, and the population has

been in serious decline since the late 1990’s. A new study has found the remaining lobsters retreating to deeper, colder waters.

Graphic courtesy of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection

Health and Science Tidbits

22 HORIZONS • Health & Science

allows people to simplify those decisions”, Levav says.

“Even if the effect is half the size it appears to be it is still enormously im-portant,” says David Schkade, an expert in judges’ decision-making at the Univer-sity of California, San Diego. The methods used to reveal the bias are sound, he adds: “They have done the things you have to do to run it to ground.”

“It is hardly the first empirical demon-stration of ‘extra-evidentiary bias’ in judg-es’ decisions, but it is a particularly striking one because the biasing factor is seemingly innocuous and so patently irrelevant to the case at hand,” says Robert MacCoun, who studies law and public policy at the Uni-versity of California, Berkeley.

But Jeffrey Rachlinski, who studies judges’ decision-making at Cornell Uni-versity Law School in Ithaca, New York, thinks that the finding is too neat to be plausible. He suspects that the judges might have in fact ordered their cases with-out the researchers’ realizing it. “I would like to see something similar in another group of judges before I really believe it is a finding of general importance,” he says.

But Levav says the secretary of the pro-ceedings confirmed that the order of cases was arbitrary, and that judges did not list timing as one of the factors influencing their decisions. He now plans to look at doctors’ sequential treatment of patients.

“Superbug turns up in Delhi drinking water.” CBC News, April 7, 2011:

A gene that makes bacteria highly drug-resistant has been found in drinking water supplies in New

Delhi, scientists say. NDM-1 or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1, makes bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics. Since it was first identified in 1998, infections have occurred in Britain, Canada, Australia, the U.S. and Sweden.

The gene was found in two of the 50 drinking water samples and 51 of 171 street samples.

It was also found in 11 different types

of bacteria not previously reported, includ-ing those that cause dysentery and cholera, Timothy Walsh of Cardiff University in the UK and his co-authors said in Thursday’s issue of the journal Lancet Infectious Dis-eases.

The samples were taken between Sep-tember and October 2010 and tested for the presence of the NDM-1 gene. Bacteria isolated from the water samples were also tested for susceptibility to antibiotics.

As a comparison, samples were also taken from a water treatment centre in Cardiff. No NDM-1 genes were found in those.

The rate at which the gene was copied and transferred to other bacteria was high-est at 30 C, a temperate that falls within the city’s daily range from April to October. The time period includes monsoon season, which could potentially disseminate resis-tant bacteria, the researchers said.

Oral-fecal transmission of bacteria is a problem worldwide, particularly in places with poor sanitation. It represents a serious problem in India, where 650 million citi-zens do not have access to a flush toilet and even more probably do not have access to clean water, according to the study.

“International surveillance of resis-tance, incorporating environmental sam-pling as well as examination of clinical isolates needs to be established as a prior-ity …and cover Pakistan and Bangladesh, because these are also source countries for exported cases,” the study’s authors con-cluded.

Indian health officials called the study “unsupported,” citing a random sample of nearly 2,000 women in a New Delhi hospi-tal which they said showed no sign of the NDM-1 gene.

“We know that such bacteria with genes are in the atmosphere everywhere,” said V.M. Katoch, director-general of the In-dian Council of Medical Research. “This is a waste of time,” he said. “The study is creating a scare that India is a dangerous country to visit. We are condemning it.”

In a commentary accompanying the study, Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Ne-hru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India warned “the potential for wider international spread of plasmids en-

coding NDM-1 is real and should not be ignored…coordinated, concrete, and col-lective efforts are needed, initially to limit their widespread dissemination, and finally to combat this emerging threatening resis-tance problem.”

The emergence of NDM-1 is “worrisome” but it is dif-ficult to forecast what could happen, said Guenael Rodier, director of communicable dis-eases at the World Health Or-ganization’s office in Copenha-gen. He noted resistant strains can mysteriously disappear.

The European Union paid for the study.

“Birds inherited sense of smell from dinosaurs … and improved it,” by the Faculty of Science. University of Calgary, April 13, 2011:

Pigeons may not instill the same aura of fear as a Tyranno-saurus rex, but they inherited their

sense of smell from such prehistoric kill-ers.

Birds are known more for their flying abilities and their senses of vision and bal-ance than for their sense of smell. Accord-ing to conventional wisdom, the sense of smell declined during the transition from dinosaurs to birds as the senses of vision and balance were improved for flight. But new research published by scientists at the University of Calgary, the Royal Tyrrell Museum and Ohio University suggests that millions of years ago, the winged critters also boasted a better sense for scents than their dinosaur ancestors.

“It was previously believed that birds were so busy developing vision, balance and coordination for flight that their sense of smell was scaled way back,” says Dr. Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of pa-leontology in the geoscience department at the U of C and lead author of the pa-per published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “Surprisingly, our research shows that the sense of smell ac-tually improved during the dinosaur-bird transition, just like vision and balance.”

The research team used state-of-the-art CT scan technology to examine the skulls of dinosaurs and extinct birds to determine the size of the creatures’ olfactory bulbs, a part of the brain involved in the sense of smell. Among modern-day birds and mam-

mals, larger bulbs correspond to a height-ened sense of smell.

“Of course the actual brain tissue is long gone from the fossil skulls,” says study co-author Dr. Lawrence Witmer, Chang professor of paleontology at the Ohio Uni-versity College of Osteopathic Medicine. “But we can use CT scanning to visualize the cavity that the brain once occupied and then generate 3D computer renderings of the olfactory bulbs and other brain parts.”

The study of fossils revealed interesting details about the evolution of the sense of smell among early birds.

“The oldest known bird, Archaeopter-yx, inherited its sense of smell from small meat-eating dinosaurs about 150 million years ago,” says co-author Dr. François Therrien, curator of dinosaur palaeoecol-ogy at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. “Later, around 95 million years ago, the ancestor of all modern birds evolved even better ol-factory capabilities.”

The combination of a keener sense of smell, good vision and coordination in early modern-day birds have may proved advantageous to orient themselves when flying and to look for food, mates, or suit-able habitats.

Continued from page 21

By comparing the location of olfactory bulbs in dinosaur fossils with those of modern birds, Dr. Darla Zelenitsky demonstrated

that the avians’ sense of smell has improved over time.Image courtesy of Ryan Ridgely and Lawrence Witmer, Ohio

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23HORIZONS • Opinions

pinionsA Piece of Paper

By Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

I graduated high school 11 years ago without any intention of going to col-lege.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t done well in my classes. Since the fourth grade I had been placed on the advanced track, and breezed through those classes so easily that I hadn’t even developed a so-called “studying strat-egy”; I’d never needed one to ace tests or understand concepts.

I had, however, been entirely disillu-sioned by my experiences in public school. I hated the arbitrary rules, the lack of choice when it came to the topics I wanted to pursue, and an administrative environ-ment that seemed more concerned with avoiding controversy than encouraging freedom of thought and expression.

By my senior year, I had skipped so many classes that I had to sign a contract agreeing not to miss any more in order to graduate. I had dropped from first in my class as an incoming freshman to twelfth (not bad, considering how little effort I was putting in by then).

I thought at the time that I would be fine. I rejected the notion that a person needed some piece of paper with a college’s name on it to succeed in the United States. I would fashion myself after other great self-taught men, like Benjamin Franklin.

I did all right for myself after a few years. I got a job, and moved up in the company. I got my own apartment. I began acquiring a personal library from which I planned to conduct an intense and diverse personalized education. I spent most of my free time at home, reading and writing.

But the truth, as I came to realize more and more, was that I was falling behind. The company I worked for was small; there was nowhere else to go there. Any other job that would have suited me re-quired that piece of paper I so loathed. I had no network of professional contacts.

I had learned a great deal in my informal way, but nobody cared. There was no room on a resume to list the number of books I’d read, or the stories, poems and essays I’d self-published.

So in the fall of 2004, I took my first class at Housatonic. I started off with the basics: English 101. I became the de fac-to editorial consultant for my classmates, helping them to correctly format their per-suasive essays and organize their thoughts on paper. After reading my final essay for the class, which argued that the debate between determinism and free will was a false dichotomy, my professor asked me why I was there instead of at Yale.

Yet it still felt too much like high school, squared. I was not at all invested in HCC—I’d paid for my semester out-of-pocket, and owed them nothing more. And (I admit this was ignorantly selfish of me) it took time away from my home studies.

It wasn’t until late 2006 that I finally re-solved to put my nose to the grindstone. I was a part-time General Studies major with no clear direction, so I started picking out classes based on whether they seemed in-teresting.

One of the classes I signed up for in the Spring 2007 semester was called “Publica-tions Workshop.” I thought, “Maybe this will help me learn about the publishing business.”

It was the best mistake I ever made.As I sat there on my first day of class

and realized that the course consisted al-most entirely of writing for the student-run newspaper (the very one you’re reading right now), I grew horrified. I detested the thought of being a member of the “media.” What was worse, they actually expected me to go out and talk to people I had never met!

I could have dropped the class, of course. But something—I’m still not sure what—stopped me.

Instead, I decided to treat it as I treated all of my other classes: I would go above

and beyond what was required of me. If I stuck it out, I could come away with a good grade and only some minor scars.

My earliest articles were ham-fisted. Al-though I had been writing all my life, news stories forced me into a counter-intuitive style that posed a new challenge for me.

I found out quickly that I loved that challenge, as well as the fast-paced envi-ronment. Seeing my name in physical print was rewarding. By making contacts around the college and delving into the research required of investigative reporting, I dis-covered that there was a practical benefit to having background knowledge about the school. I could navigate other facets of my education with more confidence.

I signed up for the course again the fol-lowing semester, and changed my major to communications. I kept pressing the pro-fessor, Steve Mark, to let me know more about the “nuts and bolts” of producing the paper.

I got my first glimpse when former Edi-tor-in-Chief Cody Hill asked me to become the Opinions Editor. Then I added Online Editor to my titles. Finally, I became his replacement. I was thrilled by the prospect.

I also took my job seriously. The first and foremost responsibility of a newspaper is to inform its audience. In the case of Ho-rizons, that meant telling the students what was happening at the college, good or bad.

Over the last few years, I have wit-nessed plenty of both. I’ve seen screaming matches between Student Senators. I’ve seen the pride of professors when they cre-ated novel programs for the school. I’ve seen caring teachers and staff pummel fu-tilely against intransigent administrative forces. I’ve seen students in tears, and stu-dents beaming with the prospects of new possibilities.

Many times now, I have had to report on complex and delicate matters that deep-ly affect the people around me. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been fortunate. Steve has been an invaluable beacon in times

of confusion, a painstaking mentor, and a thoughtful, considerate friend.

The committed editors and reporters I’ve shared the newsroom with have also been indispensable. It’s been my distinct pleasure to participate in the development of their talents, to have helped them grow into their roles and beyond. They, too, have helped me grow.

It was years ago that I stopped earning class credit for my work on the paper. The reasons I have stayed so devoted boil down to three things, all of which are reflections of my feelings for HCC more generally.

First, Horizons has been an outlet for the conversation and creativity that I still don’t get enough of in structured class-room settings. The informal education it’s provided has been at least as elucidating as anything I’ve received a grade for. Along with other voluntary extracurricular activi-ties, it’s kept me from becoming disillu-sioned again.

Second, by writing about HCC’s many strengths and weaknesses, I’ve become a “citizen” of the college, serving others in the vital capacity that the press performs, and in the process helping to improve the campus for everyone. I am personally in-vested in HCC to an extent that I have nev-er been in any other institution—certainly much more than I ever expected to be.

Finally, I’ve stuck around on Horizons because I’ve developed a deep attachment to the people there. With every new group that comes in, I have heard the same obser-vation from one staff member or another: “It feels like you’re part of a family.”

It’s inexplicable, but it does feel like that.

Leaving will be bittersweet. For once in my life, I want that piece of paper with the word “diploma” etched on it. Wrapped up in that symbol will be years of struggle, achievement, and friendship. I’ve earned every letter on it, and I’m excited to move on to the places it will take me.

But boy will I miss this place.

When God Infiltrates Government Institutions, It Hurts Everyone

By Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

Pop quiz: which of the following Con-stitutional principles comes from the Bible?

A) The right to vote for your govern-ment representatives

B) The right to bear armsC) The right of protection from unwar-

ranted search and seizureD) The right to free speech

Okay, time’s up. The answer is…E) None of the above.

It may be surprising to learn this, espe-cially when certain religious and political leaders advocate the view that the United States is a nation based on so-called “Ju-deo-Christian values.”

In truth, though, the nation’s govern-ment underpinnings owe much more to

concepts pioneered by the ancient Roman Republic and the eighteenth century En-lightenment movement than any religious text.

Some rights enumerated by the Consti-tution would not have imaginable to Bib-lical peoples. Guns, for example, simply didn’t exist at the time of Jesus or Paul. Other rights are flatly contradictory to Bib-lical thought. The Second Commandment, which tells believers that they cannot “take the Lord’s name in vain,” is plainly at odds with the First Amendment, which says that no law can be made “abridging the free-dom of speech.”

The U.S. Constitution is, in fact, one of the most overtly secular government docu-ments of all time. It never mentions Chris-tianity or God. In the only two instances where religion is mentioned, it is to make it clear that religion cannot encroach on government.

The first is in Article VI, Paragraph III,

and states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

The second instance is the so-called “establishment clause” of the First Amend-ment: “Congress shall make no law re-specting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

These two clauses form what is com-monly called the “wall of separation” be-tween church and state that Thomas Jef-ferson wrote about to the Danbury Baptists shortly after the Constitution’s ratifica-tion. Jefferson made it clear in numerous writings that such a wall was the intent of himself and the other drafters of the Con-stitution, and more than two centuries of ju-dicial precedent have consistently agreed.

Imagine my shock, then, when I found out that Connecticut’s General Assembly opens each session with a religious invo-cation.

Institutional Sectarianism

It was “Bridgeport Day” at the State Capitol in Hartford, and I was there to represent HCC along with a cadre of other students. As part of our “tour,” we we able to sit in the balcony to watch a legislative session in progress. It seemed it would be like any other governmental proceeding I had witnessed.

Out of the blue, we were asked to bow our heads to listen to a prayer by a pastor. I glanced at one of my friends who was sit-ting next to me.

Since when was I required to go to church to be involved in state affairs?

I didn’t know it at the time, but this is not by any means an unusual practice. School boards, town committees, and state governments all over the nation open their sessions with prayers, despite the fact that

Continued on Page 24

24

it violates the spirit – and in many cases, the letter – of the law.

Prayers have been allowed at these kinds of sessions for years, as long as they meet certain criteria. They’re not supposed to invoke a particular deity; “God” is okay, but “Yahweh” is off-limits.

Alternatively, some governing bodies will cycle through religions: this week, it’s a Catholic priest, and next week it will be a Jewish Rabbi. The idea behind “cycling” is that you give everyone a chance to have his or her chosen sect represented, thereby avoiding offending any group.

There are problems with both of these methods of prayer. With cycling, there is simply no way to hit every denomination of every religion that exists. In practice, mi-nority religions usually get ignored. Quite often, Christianity goes through multi-meeting strings, with the only real variety being in which denomination speaks from session to session.

Either way, though, prayer of any kind ignores the fastest-growing minority of all

– those who do not belong to any organized religion, including atheists, agnostics, de-ists, and a whole host of other people who do not pray. These citizens are forced to en-dure a practice they do not believe in just so that they can participate in their own government.

Such disenfranchisement is not limited to legislative sessions, either. At HCC’s last two graduation ceremonies, explicitly Christian invocations were given. This is despite the fact that HCC is a state-run institution supposedly serving the entire community, no matter religious preference. Non-Christian graduates should not have the celebration of their achievements sul-lied by being forced to perform someone else’s religious rituals.

If you are Christian, and you don’t see this as a problem, imagine sitting at your

graduation and being told to bow your head for a prayer to Zoroaster. Would you feel comfortable with that?

In other ways, HCC does a fairly decent job of avoiding proselytizing for any reli-gious view. There are no references to a re-ligious position in the Student Handbook, and no “Blessed are the faithful” posters on the walls. Students who do wish to in-ject Christianity into their school day have the option of joining the Christian Studies Club, a voluntary student organization that does not attempt to convert other students in the halls. Students of other religions can also create their own groups, as the short-lived Pagan Attitudes and Life Studies (PALS) club did.

Yet institutional sectarianism has crept into some facets of the college occasion-ally. When it’s happened, it’s been in a subtle, quiet fashion.

One place where a particular religious viewpoint has gone unchecked is in HCC’s Health Services Office. There, students looking for medical information on preg-nancy may be surprised, both by what is available and what isn’t.

Tucked into a nondescript cubbyhole is a plethora of pamphlets. Some are what you’d expect to see: fact sheets on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, diet recommendations for pregnant women, information for deal-ing with AIDS while pregnant.

Some of them, however, are poorly disguised anti-abortion propaganda. One purple pamphlet proclaims on its cover, “Legalized Abortion: Safe & Simple for Whom?” The pamphlet was produced by an Evangelical Christian advocacy organi-zation called Victims of Choice – a group that seeks to minister to women through a “ten-session therapy model built on a biblical foundation and administered by a trained professional or lay/peer facilitator.” Even if a woman at HCC was interested in the program, she would have to drive to Maine to find the nearest “facilitator.” The pamphlet has zero medical use.

Another religious post-abortion “coun-seling” organization called Hopeline shows up multiple times in HCC’s preg-nancy literature. One pamphlet contains only a letter highlighting a “client story.” There is not one iota of medical informa-tion on it, though there are plenty of refer-ences to “God’s work” and “discipleship.” It finishes with, of all things, a request for monetary donations.

Almost every piece of “medical infor-mation” related to abortion in the Health Services Office was generated by an an-ti-abortion religious front organization: Focus on the Family, Lumina, Heavenly Bounties, Life Cycle Books, and the inapt-ly-named Medical Institute.

This kind of under-the-table preaching is wrong for a state institution to endorse, even tacitly. But what’s worse is the fact that the office offers nothing else. If you

are a woman seeking abortion services (which, it should be pointed out, are legal and at times medically necessary), then you will find no guidance from the infor-mation provided. If you’re not a Christian, you’re also out of luck.

For that matter, if you’re a male, don’t bother looking in the Health Services Of-fice for condoms; when I asked, I was told they didn’t carry them. You will, of course, be able to find Focus on the Family’s “ex-pert” advice on how to tell the difference between infatuation and love, and Hope-line’s “Abstinence Until Marriage Presen-tation.”

Judeo-Christian Nation?

In recent years, various Christian groups have attempted to spin-doctor American history to further a notion that codifying their particular interpretation of “God’s will” into law somehow represents a re-turn to our Constitutional roots. The term “Judeo-Christian nation” has grown in popularity among politicians and advocacy groups to describe what they consider the true underpinnings of American culture.

It’s an easy trap to fall into. The major-ity of people in the United States have for a long time been some of the most religious-ly fervent in the Western world. We’re all familiar with the strict Calvinism of the Pilgrims who landed in Massachusetts dur-ing the early 1600’s.

Unfortunately, that view of history misses a great many things. It forgets the religiously open Dutch territories that orig-inally spanned from New York to Mary-land. It forgets the freethinking of Benja-min Franklin, the Enlightenment Deism of Thomas Jefferson, and the rejection of all religions by the pamphleteer who gal-vanized the American Revolution, Thomas Paine.

If anyone ever had any question about the religious roots of our early govern-ment, they need look no further than the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams and ratified unanimously by the United States Congress in 1797. Article 11 of the treaty begins, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian reli-gion...”

Our governmental institutions have not always lived up to their own standards. During the 1950’s, the United States be-came so swept up in anticommunist fervor that investigations into unfounded suspi-cions of “communist sympathies” by both the House and Senate resulted in the ruin of many citizens’ livelihoods.

During that time, members of govern-ment sought to distinguish themselves from the officially atheist Communist re-gime in Soviet Russia. It was then that a series of laws were passed injecting God into official government policies. The na-

tion’s motto was changed from “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning “Out of many, one,” to “In God We Trust.” The new motto was required to appear on the dollar bill. The words “under God” were inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance. And the National Day of Prayer was established, during which the president would for the first time be required to explicitly endorse a religious ritual.

So what? If you’re a Christian, you may be thinking that more people should be coming to your faith anyway, and that government is a perfect vehicle for driving them there. Even if it goes against found-ing principles, we could always hold a Constitutional convention to change the document so that it reflects a religious viewpoint.

If you believe that, though, then you haven’t experienced the joy of belonging to the “wrong” Christian denomination.

Consider, then, John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic ever to be elected to the of-fice of president. Despite the promise of our Constitution that no religious test could be required for holding the position, long-standing anti-Catholic fears roiled among some Protestant groups. Rumors spread that Kennedy would become a puppet for

the Pope in Rome.In response, Kennedy delivered one of

the most eloquent defenses of the separa-tion of church and state ever given. Speak-ing before the Greater Houston Ministe-rial Association – a room full of Protestant preachers – in 1960, he said:

“I believe in an America that is official-ly neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Church-es or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general pop-ulace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.”

That, also, is the America I believe in.

HORIZONS • Opinions

A sample of the pregnancy information obtained from HCC’s Health Services office. There was a heavy preponderance of anti-abortion literature,

most of it produced by Evangelical Christian orga-nizations. Some of the pamphlets were non-medical, and others contained inaccurate medical informa-

tion. There was no information whatsoever for students wishing to obtain legal abortion services,

or for students of non-Christian religions.Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia

More religious pamphlets obtained from HCC’s Health Services office.

Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia

Continued from Page 23

Ready To DieBy WhiTley-ann granT

sTaff WriTer

As the 2012 prophecy sweeps throughout the world, encouraged by Internet sites, books, television,

videos and films; people have become con-fused, anxious, and fearful. Natural disas-ters such as Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Japan, and the earthquake in Haiti has only caused students to wonder what else is going to occur. These world issues are something that no man can control or stop.

As students, attending each class, study-ing, writing papers, or preparing for finals causes a huge amount of stress to our daily

lives. This prediction has caused fear for students, and has lead them to panic when thinking about it. Does that mean that we are going to lock ourselves in the house, or throw away most of our priorities that we stress over?

Kadeem West, 20, a Business major, sometimes questions whether or not all the struggles he goes through are worth it, if the world is expected to end in the year of 2012.

“Of course, sometimes when I think about it, if it is true, I should just pack up and travel, have fun, do whatever...I want,” he said. “I’m just prepared for whatever comes.”

Clayton Council, a Business major, be-

lieves, “You are not capable of knowing what’s going to happen, but with all that’s going on, I believe it might happen.”

Another student, Mary Moales, 20, a Criminal Justice major, is also convinced that the world is going to end due to the rare happenings that Bridgeport itself has faced.

“This past year, Bridgeport had a tor-nado and a mini earthquake. To me, that’s just crazy because things like that just do not happen. This world is getting scary! The world is coming to an end!” she ex-claimed. “I would love to have a family. I’m too young to die. I am very afraid of 2012.”

Yes, not only Bridgeport, but the world

has faced many changes throughout the years. Just recently, Japan has faced two devastating earthquakes in which many people lost their lives. People are still af-fected by the earthquake in Haiti, Hurri-cane Katrina, and evidently, people are still killing each other.

Ever since we were introduced to the world, people have died. There have been wars between countries that went on for years, but that does not mean that we should worry enough to throw our future away. Y2K, a prediction that in the year of 2000, the computers would shut down, and as a result, we will go back to living as if

Continued on Page 25

25HORIZONS • Opinions

Tips on ArguingAvoid Hypocrisy / Genetic Fallacy

By Brandon T. Bisceglia

ediTor-in-chief emeriTus

It’s a tough world. Every day, you are barraged by advertising schemes, sta-tistics, and political rhetoric. Every

day, you must express your own views to friends, family members, teachers, and em-ployers.

If you want to hack your way through all that material or convince others of your opinions, it is essential to develop criti-cal thinking skills. These skills are rarely taught in the classroom, yet they often make the difference between getting your way and being ignored.

The editors at Horizons are committed to helping you develop these tools. Each is-sue, we bring you one tip to increase your arguing power, and one hint to sharpen your critical eye.

Avoid Hypocrisy: Hypocrisy is gener-ally defined as saying one thing while do-ing something that contradicts it. It can be summed up in the phrase, “practice what you preach.”

Safeguarding against hypocrisy is a boost to any argument you make. When you profess to believe in something, peo-ple will look for concrete examples of that belief. If they see that you aren’t fol-lowing your own example, then they may conclude that you have some other motive for what you say, such as getting money or support from a certain group.

Just because someone acts hypocriti-cally doesn’t mean that his or her argument is invalid. A smoker who discourages her children from smoking has good reasons for doing so. Those reasons are not can-celled out by the smoker’s habit.

Hypocrisy does, however, tend to un-dermine the arguer by complicating his or her claims, and that’s why it helps to avoid acting contradictorily.

Avoiding hypocrisy can be more diffi-cult than it sounds at first. In the course of our lives, we frequently change our posi-tions on multiple issues. Someone who is a heroin addict at 18 but becomes a drug counselor at 28 might be accused of hypoc-risy. Strictly speaking, though, the accusa-tion would be wrong—the former addict’s change of action would be consistent with his change of opinion.

There are also different levels of hy-pocrisy. For example, the Connecticut Post published an assessment of Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch’s “greenness” on Earth Day. Finch was quoted as saying that he liked taking the train to keep his carbon footprint low. Yet according to the article, Finch had opted to fly (a much less fuel-efficient method of travel) on three out of five trips over the past year to Washington, D.C. He only took the train twice.

If this is a major hypocrisy, consider another note from the article: Finch’s fam-ily composts most of their biodegradable waste. On the day that the reporter was in his home, though, there were some corn-husks in the trash.

If the occasional item misses the com-

post pile, does it negate the vast majority that makes it in?

Finch admits that he’s “not perfect.” Perhaps in the quest to eliminate hypoc-risy, it’s best to realize that his statement applies to all of us.

Genetic Fallacy: The genetic fallacy is a form of misdirected logic in which a claim is supported or refuted based on an irrelevant aspect of its origin. In this con-text, “genetic” doesn’t refer to biology - it refers to any source or point of origin for an idea.

Partisan political battles are often fought using generous doses of the genetic fallacy. In early April, for instance, Presi-dent Barack Obama made a speech unveil-ing his overall strategy for deficit reduc-tion. The policies he outlined were drawn largely from the results of a study by a bipartisan commission formed specifically for the purpose of lowering the deficit.

In response to the speech, though, Re-publican and former Massachusetts Gov-ernor Mitt Romney issued a statement saying that Obama had “dug deep into his liberal playbook for solutions highlighted by higher taxes.”

Romney was speaking to his base. Im-plicit in his statement was the suggestion that Obama’s plan could not be credible because a “liberal” had uttered it.

Obama’s status as a liberal, however, is irrelevant to the question at hand, which is: would these fiscal strategies work? That

question would have to be addressed on its own merits - something Romney’s state-ment failed to do.

Romney is hardly the only person to employ the genetic fallacy on policy is-sues; both sides of the aisle are guilty of substituting labels as substitutes for logic. The practice extends well beyond Wash-ington, too. Comments on blogs and news articles are frequently peppered with dis-sent of a position because such-and-such person is a “socialist,” a “tea partier,” or a “RINO.” Even if such claims are true, they have little bearing on whether a given idea is good or bad.

The genetic argument is not always a fallacy. After all, origins do sometimes matter. Literal genetics do determine your hair color, your eye color, and so forth.

But this can easily be overextended into the territory of irrelevance. This kind of false attribution has become particularly dangerous in the field of genetic risk test-ing. Companies (and sometimes, doctors) can now generate genetic profiles that pur-port to tell a customer his or her risk for this or that ailment. Yet even when the tests are legitimate, they actually provide little useful information. Most diseases and dis-orders arise from a complex interplay that includes such non-genetic factors as envi-ronment, history, and lifestyle.

Beyond that, determination of risk is

usually based on grouping people with similar genetic profiles together. But this is a classic case of confusing correlation with causation: just because people with cer-tain genes tend to have certain conditions does not mean that the genes caused those conditions. That’s as silly as saying that because most redheads live in Europe, that red hair causes people to live in Europe.

Scientific understanding of how genes interact with other risk factors, as well as how they interact with one another, is still in its infancy. A few diseases have definite genetic origins, but the number remains small.

Nevertheless, demand for genetic risk testing is growing, and some people take the results to heart. That can lead to a false sense of dread—or security. And it all feeds on the assumption that who we are is solely determined by our origins.

Whenever someone justifies or discards a claim because of where it originated, always ask yourself: would they feel the same way if the same claim had come from somewhere else? If not, then they’re prob-ably committing the genetic fallacy.

Get involved in the debate! If you have a suggestion for a tip, a question about criti-cal thinking, or a comment about arguing, please send it to housatonichorizons@ya-hoo.com. And for quality news, including a healthy dose of arguments that challenge the norm, be sure to read Horizons!

we were in the Stone Age. That prediction came and went, but we are still here.

Although Mary Moales is terrified, she will not let that stop her from continuing with her daily patterns. “Although I’m scared, I continue to go to school, just in case.” she said.

Thinking positive is the best way to overcome anything. Their shouldn’t be a “just in case” because we have no proof of anything. The truth is, no one knows what’s going to happen tonight, tomorrow, next week or next year. The only thing promised is death for every living being. We just don’ know when, where or how. Death is something that we all have to face

whether we like it or not. Regardless if the world ends in 2012, someday our individu-al worlds will end. We can die even before 2012, but that shouldn’t make anyone put their priorities away. We should all want to accomplish meaningful goals that will make us happy.

Living life for the moment will never prepare us correctly for our futures. So if

the world does not end in 2012, it will be another Y2K, and you have continued on with your priorities. You will be prepared for success.

Continued from Page 24

Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia

26 HORIZONS • Arts & Entertainment

rts and ntertainmentLosing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and

15,000 Books Beat Hip Hop CultureBy rondale Williams

sTaff WriTer

Losing My Cool by Thomas Chatter-ton Williams, is an alluring memoir about Williams, a skinny boy who

grew up acting the part of a bad boy hip hop artist. But behind closed doors “Pap-py,” his father, would force Williams and his brothers to indulge in books. His father, a man who as a young boy used to hide in closets to read, never wanted his son to lose sight of how important being educated was and how lucky Williams was to be able to read without fear of being caught.

Williams wanted no part of it but more so wanted to play basketball, and wore huge chains like the rappers he saw on TV. His image in high school was even increas-ingly perpetuated by his girlfriend Stacey, a dime piece girl, who was running game around town on drug dealers, and who he had to slap down to prove his blackness.

Losing My Cool isn’t about a black man losing his temper because of the influence of hip hop but more about how Williams followed the words of Jay-Z and Tupac to

fit in with the crowd.In his memoir Williams challenges the

social norms of African American students and asks us to rid ourselves of what hip hop tells us we should be. He had to when he went to Georgetown, a place he describes as the place international and white stu-dents went to. He is awed, though, by a rich white student nicknamed Playboy who opens him up to the world of baguettes, fine dining, and expensive clothing with names

other than the likes of Coogi, or Rocawear. This is the first opportunity Williams has to realize people of another skin color are lames like hip hop tells us but that we can like these people if we give everyone a chance.

In his interactions with international students and people of other nationalities at Georgetown, Williams teaches us that college changes us and that because so many people live with each other, the lines of race, culture, and class become blurred so much, so that we can not let hip hop tell us to sidestep these people as irrelevant be-cause they are different.

It takes a lot for a former hop hop en-thusiast to admit he had to correct his ways in the way Williams did in Losing My Cool. Even more so, Williams’s memoir shows that knowledge and a education is what wins in the end, not what TV or our peers tells us can get the hottest chick or guy in school, the knowledge that his fa-ther instilled through summers of SAT prep courses and reading, not because he want-ed to torture young Thomas but because of love and a desire to see his son succeed.

Throughout the book, the line “Pap-py” tells Williams when he is young that he “doesn’t care if he sees another black entertainer or athlete” resonates with Wil-liams all his life, reminding him and us that love, books, and education is what will push us forward, not hip hop, a culture he feels has dumbed down “Black America.”

This is definitely a book I recommend all college and Afro-American students read!

Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip Hop Culture.

Photo courtesy of amazon.com

Thomas Chatterton Williams and “Pappy.”Photo courtesy of georgetown.edu

HCC Faculty Exhibits “Evolution” of Their Artistry

By Tori cenTopanTi

ediTor-in-chief

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and nei-ther is masterful artwork. The only difference is that works of art are

not set in stone. Art is a creative process that constantly flows and changes.

This concept of artistic progression is the theme of this year’s HCC faculty art show, aptly titled “Evolution,” which was featured in the Housatonic Museum of Art (also known as the Burt Chernow Galler-ies) from April 4 to 22.

Rather than focus solely on the final product of an artist’s work, this exhibit

goes beyond that and digs deeper, provid-ing insight into the inner workings of an artist’s mind.

Webster’s dictionary defines evolution as “a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state.” But Lecturer in Art Tom Brenner doesn’t believe the defi-nition applies to his work.

“My images of the Devon Bridges have followed the opposite course, towards simplification. My focus has not grown in its scope, it has narrowed,” says his artist statement. “I have come to agree with An-toine de Saint-Exupery, who said: ‘Perfec-tion is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Brenner’s process for his exhibited works included drawing preliminary sketches of the scenes and recreating them using pastel on paper. Over time, the cre-ative direction he envisioned for the works also developed and changed.

“In the process, my work has evolved from what could be described as conven-tional pictures of a scene into more ab-stracted images imbued with a vital living force and energy emitted by their archetyp-al shapes,” his statement continues.

In a different, practically opposite man-ner, Lecturer in Art Suzan Shutan utilized the simple to create complex work. She de-scribes her work as “wall relief, suspended and free standing installations that active with viewer participation.”

She begins with found and manufac-tured materials, but the end product is not simple, in either a material or symbolic sense. “I try to illustrate an idea by using its intended form as a springboard to evoke

the essence of an object, and remake the known into something uncommon and transformative,” she says.

Her exhibited work, “Cluster,” is made of paper looped and attached to each other. It’s open to interpretation and references everything from knitting to headaches, computer files, populations, atoms and molecules.

“My structures multiply into sweeping patterns that spatially interact with archi-tecture and invite touch, movement and viewer participation,” Shutan says. “They illustrate life’s colorful and quirky mo-ments.”

When Instructor of Art and Graphic De-sign Advisor Andy Pinto began his series of factory and mill paintings, he used his firsthand experience of working his way

through college in a Bridgeport factory as inspiration and motivation.

“I would locate a building or an area that held visual promise and go there to view it, smell it, listen to it, and watch what the light did as the day passed,” he says, adding that he photographed the site for the factory painting featured in this exhibit “over a period of six years before finding something I thought expressed my feelings about it.”

Pinto, who took hundreds of photos for his work, advises to always use more than one photograph as a source when painting from photographs. “A great photograph has only one perspective [and] represents a moment in time,” he says. “Working from “Cluster” by Shuzan Shutan. Paper sculpture wall

installation.Photo courtesy of Suzan Shutan

A downward view of the ground. “Iron Cross” by Tom Brenner. Pastel on paper.Photo courtesy of Tom Brenner

Continued on page 27

27

a photograph is always limiting.”Working from the multiple photo-

graphs, however, helped Pinto “resolve color issues” by enabling him to create a distinct pallet of color. To start on the raw canvas, he would loosely sketch and then slowly build detail and composition. Color was added last and takes three layers of paint to achieve.

His goal was to capture more than just one moment in time on canvas and to “re-cord the existence” of the factories.

“When all of my needs are met and inspiration strikes I attempt to create an expression that transcends the data and employs all of what I have learned about design, color, and light to create an original expression that is more than a moment in time,” says Pinto.

Not all artwork is created intentionally though. A work of art, or any creation for that matter, can take on a life of its own. Sometimes inspiration creeps up on an art-ist when they least expect it, usually in the most unlikely places and ways.

The work exhibited by Lecturer in Art Maggie Sullivan originated as a drawing that was part of an exercise in automatic drawing – the artistic equivalent to stream of consciousness in writing – which is meant to tap into the unconscious.

Her drawing uses symbols from cro-chet diagramming and color sequences taken from space-dyed yarn, and follows a series of rules such as pre-establishing the color sequence, building the drawing from strands of marks and following a pre-existing edge.

The sketch was never intended to be the basis for another piece, but she was “com-pelled” to remake it after the initial draw-ing suffered water damage.

“I preferred the running, blurred col-ors in the water-damaged portions to the original drawing,” says Sullivan’s artist statement. “I thought I’d remake it big-ger, messier, and more saturated, discard-ing the original color restrictions and using gouache instead of fine-tip markers.”

If one looks closely enough, the faces of Yoda, E.T. and Gizmo (yes, the movie characters!) can be identified in both the preliminary drawing and finished piece. “It is meant to be a joke about the content of my unconscious mind,” her artist state-ment explains.

Lecturer in Art Lisa Greenberg inter-preted the exhibit concept not as the evolu-tion of her work, per se, but as the evolu-tion of herself.

“My pastel work depicts a fictional X-ray of my right knee,” says her artist state-ment. “I am reminded that it is the difficult journeys in life that allow us to grow. They instill us with wisdom and help us to put things in perspective.”

The faculty art show won’t return until the Spring 2012 semester, in its annual tra-dition, but there are always exhibits on dis-play throughout campus. The student art show is being exhibited in the Housatonic Museum of Art through the month of May.

Visit the Housatonic Museum of Art’s website - http://www.hctc.commnet.edu/artmuseum - for gallery hours, upcoming exhibits, exhibit archives and more!

Additional “Evolution” (2011) Artist Statements

Professor of Graphic Design and Coor-dinator of the Art Program John Favret

In New London there is an annual street fair called the Sail Fest where people gath-er to enjoy street performances, live music, food, fun, and fireworks. This painting is based on a memory from several years ago when my family enjoyed an evening at the festival. The crowds flowed down the side-walks and pavement past many food and street vendors. The energy and excitement inspired me to make the initial drawing.

In the next few years I started a small study that was painted on a spare canvas I had in my studio. The canvas frame did not fit the proportion of the sketch and I never felt it was going in the right direction. I put it away for several years and recently decided to begin a new painting with pro-portions true to the original drawing. This new piece evolved many different times through the creative process. My goal was to capture the mood of a dark evening on a busy street with the light cast from a street vendor.

Lecturer in Art Lizbeth AndersonMy work is informed by having been Faculty artwork featured in “Evolution” exhibit in Housatonic Museum of Art. In front: “Maquette for Sculp-

ture” by Matthias Alfren. Sculpture. In back: “Ecclesiastical Parade” by Gus Moran. Oil on panel (left) and preliminary sketch (right).

Photo courtesy of Terri Smith

HORIZONS • Arts & Entertainment

Continued on page 28

Continued from page 26

A downward view of the ground. “Vertigo” by Tom Brenner. Pastel on paper.

Photo courtesy of Tom Brenner

“Subway” by John Favret. Oil on canvas (left) and preliminary sketch (right).Photo courtesy of Terri Smith

Faculty artwork featured in “Evolution” exhibit in Housatonic Museum of Art. Works in photo by Ernest Lopez, Judith Corrigan, Lizbeth Anderson, Lydia Viscardi, Maggie Sullivan, and Lisa Greenberg.Photo courtesy of Terri Smith

28 HORIZONS • Arts & Entertainment

both an art historian and a professional tat-too artist for the past fifteen years. It is im-possible for me to separate considering the historical and social climate of America and their affect on the visual arts and cul-ture with my students from the making of my own work. Additionally, working with individual clients who choose to indelibly mark themselves with various symbols and images provide me with many new ways of perceiving the body and identity. Tattoos are just as much a part of modern American visual culture as anything we see hanging in museums, in advertising, on the Internet, television or in simply walking down the street. I emphasize with students the impact of how the specific materials of an artwork affect its form and content. I at-tempt to relate in my own work the charac-teristics of living skin with the use of natu-ral beeswax and organic handmade papers and simulate the processes of tattooing and various medical procedures with a variety of printmaking techniques, collage, stitch-ing, and incisive line work.

As an art historian, I am interested in the visual history of alchemy, anatomy, medicine, chemistry and tattooing. They are all related. All of these disciplines are in intrinsic part of my life and studies, and come through in my work via a synthesis of verbal and visual language.

“Quilting Frolic” evolved out of a di-rect experience of teaching at HCC, tattoo-ing clients at Studio Zee, and considering how I fit into the “History of American Art” myself.

Lecturer in Art Judith CorriganMy intent when painting is to reach

a level of the collective unconscious to create deeply honest images with acrylic paint, oil stick, charcoal, and collage ma-terials. Usually horse and human figures evolve onto and within a scene to express the mysterious ways animals and humans communicate. Dance and music always greatly inspire a sense of movement, sound,

and color in all my work. It is exhilarating to communicate ideas and emotions with paint on canvas, paper, and wood that may engage the viewer.

Continued from page 27

Introducing the Artists of 2011 Annual HCC Faculty Exhibition:

“Evolution”Matthias AlfrenLecturer in ArtNo official website

Lizbeth AndersonLecturer in Artwww.lizbethanderson.net

Tom BrennerLecturer in ArtNo official website

Matthew CapezzutoLecturer in Artwww.matthewcapezzuto.com

Judith CorriganLecturer in Artwww.judithcorrigan.com

John FavretProfessor of Graphic DesignCoordinator of the Art Programwww.johnfavret.com

Lisa GreenbergLecturer in ArtNo official website

Ernest LopezLecturer in ArtNo official website

Gus MoranLecturer in Painting, Artwww.gusmoran.com

Andy PintoInstructor of ArtGraphic Design advisorNo official website

Carmine PicarelloLecturer in Photographywww.picarellophoto.com

Peter RembetsyLecturer in ArtNo official website

Thomas ScippaLecturer in ArtNo official website

Suzan ShutanLecturer in Artwww.suzanshutan.com

Maggie SullivanLecturer in ArtNo official website

Lydia ViscardiLecturer in ArtNo official website

“Transubstan” by Lizbeth Anderson. Silkscreen print.

Image courtesy of www.lizbethanderson.net

“Quilting Frolic” by Lizbeth Anderson. Silkscreen print.

Image courtesy of www.lizbethanderson.net

Share Your Thoughts!Write a review about an art show featured in The Housatonic Museum of

Art for the museum’s blog by e-mailing Curator Terri C. Smith attcamillesmithhcc@gmail.com

Visit The Housatonic Museum of Art Online!Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Housatonic-Museum-of-

Art/121841171170524

Blog: http://housatonicmuseum.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.hcc.commnet.edu/artmuseum/index.html

29HORIZONS • Arts & Entertainment

Celebrity Tattoos: Miscellaneous EditionBy michael Bednarsky

arTs & enTerTainmenT ediTor

This is the last installment of Celebrity Tattoos! This one features individuals from professions that are outside of sports, music, and acting yet may inter-

twine with any of these focuses as well.

1. Christopher Nicholas “Criss Angel” SarantakosCurrently the most notable American illusionist in me-

dia, Angel has turned his role as a magician into a con-glomerate. His bravado not only made way for the mer-chandise he sells, but also cemented the importance of

Criss Angel Mindfreak, his television show that pre-mieres live performances of his tricks (and explanations of some that he decides to reveal). Before that merit, he was featured in“World of Illusion,” a 1998 Madison Square Garden concert. He has won the Magician of the Year award in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. He

also has turned magic into a fashionable art form by sport-ing large chains and accessories to go along with his com-pany attire. Angel brought the profession into relevance from the age range of 18-30 years. He has a tattoo of his own logo on his outer right bicep, in red color.

2. Guy Ramsay FieriSporting sunglasses on the back of his head, retro

bowling shirts, and a spiked hair/goatee combo, Fieri has been a Food Network staple since the mid-2000s. Upon winning the second season of The Next Food Network Star in 2006, his own television show Guy’s Big Bite debuted. Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives followed, touring food hot

spots all over the country. The show has proven to be incredibly successful. He bleeds originality (in terms of fashion style) and has an overwhelming desire for the best food dishes from all cuisines/locations ever. His tattoos perpetuate his persona. He has spoken about his “Culinary Gang-sta’” tattoo as an passionate ode to food professions, but

he has also expressed love for legendary daredevil Evil Knievel with a right inner forearm tattoo of a large number 1 in a patriotic color scheme, and the word Fieri below.

3. Robert “Bob” HarperDespite his com-

mercial success on the reality show The Big-gest Loser, the essence of his credibility is from his impact as a personal trainer. Harper did not compete in high school athletics, but became heavily interested in the fitness field during col-lege when he attended Austin Peay State Uni-versity (Clarksville, Tennessee). He soon received certification for a fitness instructor

position from the American Fitness Training of Athletics (AFTA) and Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA). He then relocated to Los Angeles, California and generated a roster of celebrity clients (which include but are not limited to actor Ben Stiller and actress Selma Blair). In 2004, he joined fellow trainer Jillian Michaels on The Biggest Loser. Harper has not been publicly verbal about his tattoos, but on his lower left forearm he has an exotic purple and yellow fish.

4. Stephen Gilchrist “Steve-O” GloverThis stuntman of Jackass’ fame started his profession-

al career by dropping out of the University of Miami to attend the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He graduated in 1997. Although he was close to successfully being selected to join the staff of cir-cus performers (10 of 33 people were chosen out of a 2000-plus list of applicants), he ultimately was turned down. He performed stunts at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop and documented them. Glover then moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and filmed himself yet again. He sent his compilations to skateboard-ing companies. Big Brother

magazine propelled his status when editor Jeff Tremaine contacted Glover and recruited him for the Jackass line-up. Steve-O has a plethora of tattoos that further generate the intensity of his already reckless persona (such as an arm tattoo of male genitals), and a lot of those tattoos are supposedly covered up now. However, his back tattoo is the magnum opus of his collection: the piece features a portrait of Steve-O himself giving a thumbs-up sign and the words “yeah dude, I rock!” followed by his own sig-nature.

5. Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth Grimaldi (Princess of Monaco, Countess of Polignac)

Being born in royalty was the catalyst of Monaco’s best and worst experiences respectively. Her mother died in 1982 when traveling on a mountain road in Mexico. This devastated Stephanie, and assisted the reputation she began to shape. She became entrepreneurial in her efforts: creating a per-fume, pursuing a career as a pop singer, and also remained in the spotlight by dating high-profile men such as actor Rob Lowe and race car driver Paul Belmondo. She has a tattoo of a sun in a bracelet form on her left wrist.

6. Marc JacobsThis infamous fashion

designer drew early inspi-ration from his childhood days. Marc was 7 years old when his father died, and that demise allowed his living situation to go awry. He moved from New Jer-sey, Long Island, and the Bronx before moving in with his paternal grand-mother on the Upper West Side. It was then that he pursued his passion, due do the comforting environ-

ment in which he lived. He attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City, and began working for Charivari after he graduated. Although only a stock-boy for the boutique, he was allowed to design sweaters in be-tween his merchandise set-up obligations. This perpetu-ated a placement in the Parsons School of Design. When he graduated in 1984, he was awarded the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award and Design Student of the Year merit. After designing the pieces for films Amadeus and Purple Rain, he became the women’s wear designer for Perry El-lis in 1997. After living a glamorous life, he got caught up in the drug availability to the point that he needed to go to rehab. After doing so, he returned to fashion by releasing Marc Jacobs collections. On his right outer bicep, he has a red character from the M&M’S brand.

7. Jesse Gregory JamesHe founded the motorcycle shop/company West Coast

Choppers in 1992, created the Motorcycle Mania docu-mentary series, and spearheaded the vehicle modification show Monster Garage in 2002. Whether or not he is re-

lated to the infamous outlaw Jesse James (he claims he is on the side of his great grandfa-ther’s cousin), he is still notorious for his rugged persona. His tattoos are only one aspect of the said image he embraces, but nevertheless are the most enjoyable to see. He has recently been relevant to a mainstream media degree because of the scandal involv-ing ex-wife movie star-let Sandra Bullock and

model Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. In January 2011, he became engaged to tattoo artist Kat Von D. He has a tattoo of a red octopus on his right outer bicep.

8. Katherine “Kat Von D” von DrachenbergEvery tattoo artist should be commended for their

work/talent, and while putting Kat Von D on this list gives more credit to an individual with already a large list of suc-cessful feats, I still believe she should be introduced. The Nuevo Leon (Mexico) native moved to Colton, Califor-

nia when she was four years old. In the beginning of her career, the surroundings of her Inland Empire habitat (Greater Los Angeles region) influenced her work. Her first tattoo at 14-years old was a “J” in an Old English style on her ankle (an ode to a crush who is out of her life). In 1996, her friends asked her to use a tattoo machine on them, and her first tattoo work was the Misfits band logo, used with a homemade rig. She was offered a job at 305 Ink (as featured on the reality television series Mi-

ami Ink) and became a household name after leaving that shop and creating L.A. Ink, which follows her own tattoo shop High Voltage Tattoo in West Hollywood, California. She has a black and gray portrait tattoo of her deceased mother Sylvia Galeano, located on her left upper back.

Criss Angel’s own logo is embla-zoned on his right arm, as shown in

this picture with a fan.Photo courtesy of www.vegasblog.

latimes.com

Guy Fieri shows his love for Evil Knievel.

Photo courtesy of www.guyfieri.blogspot.com

Bob Harper, a man of physical prowess.Photo courtesy of www.accessholly-

wood.com

Steve-O loves to reveal his iconic back tattoo.

Photo courtesy of www.dpchallenge.com

Princess Stephanie has a dainty tattoo to match her

femininity.Photo courtesy of www.

fimho.com

Marc Jacobs has a large collection of whimsical tattoos.

Photo courtesy of www.newfaces.com

Jesse James intimidates as he takes a rest.

Photo courtesy of www.tattoosilove.com

Kat Von D misses her mother dearly.

Photo courtesy of www.zimbio.com

Got some news you want covered?Let us know!

Write to housatonichorizons@gmail.com

30

Horizons Wants to Hear from You!Write to us at housatonichorizons@gmail.com to:

- Share your opinions- Submit ideas, articles, and information about upcoming events- Request interviews or other information from the Horizons staff

Visit our companion blog at www.hccperspective.blogspot.com to:

- Read additional articles- Find out about upcoming events- Leave comments that will be immediately viewable

Listen to Continuum, our weekly podcast feature atwww.housatonichorizons.podbean.com.

31

Gain Some

PerspectiveVisit www.hccperspective.blogspot.com

32 HORIZONS • Sports

portsKey Players for Contending Teams

By T.j. mallico

sTaff WriTer

In Major League Baseball (MLB), it doesn’t matter if you are on the Pitts-burgh Pirates or the New York Yan-

kees. Every single team has the same goal in mind: Make it to the World Series.

In order for teams to get there, a lot of things have to truly go their way, from calls made by the umpires to certain players car-rying teams on their backs. Everything has to be perfect.

Key players for contending teams that will only go as far depending on how these said players, from starting pitchers to catchers, produce.

American League

New York Yankees Offense: We all know how consistent A-Rod, Cano, and Teixeira are, but that is not the key. The Yankees need somebody else to step up this year if they want to get past the ALCS (American League Championship Series), and I believe they are one hitter away.

Curtis Granderson (Outfield): Last year, Granderson didn’t really have the year everybody thought he was going to have. In 2010, Granderson’s hits, average and home runs were down from the year before. If Granderson can stay healthy throughout the year, hit 24-35 home runs and bat around .275, then the Yankees can go places.

New York Yankees Pitching:The Yankees don’t have a deep start-

ing rotation. Some analysts might say that this is one of their weakest rotations in re-

cent years. The Yankees are going to need someone to step up, and I don’t think it’s going to be A.J. Burnett.

Ivan Nova (Starting Pitcher): Nova is good, and I do not think he gets enough credit from fans. Last year in Triple-A (highest level for minor league baseball players in the USA), the rookie went 12-3 with an ERA of 2.86. Last year he saw some time with the Yankees and pitched at an average rate (in terms of numbers). In spring training, he pitched above expecta-tions and one should expect more of the same throughout the year. I believe Nova is going to be the Yankees number 3 starter by the end of this year and I expect Nova to win 9-14 games and have an ERA around 4.14.

Chicago White Sox Offense:The White Sox have a powerful lineup

consisting of Paul Konerko, Carlos Quen-tin, and Adam Dunn, all of which are going to put up lots of home runs and RBIs. But, the franchise is still lacking talented hitters and they are going to need somebody to play that role.

Alexei Ramirez (Shortstop): Ramirez may be the most underrated shortstop in professional baseball today. He hit over .280 last year and had 18 home runs. I ex-pect those numbers to be a little bit better by the end of the year. Ramirez is the best all-around hitter on the White Sox, don’t be surprised if he bats .284 with 23 home runs and 85 RBIs.

Chicago White Sox Pitching:

Gavin Floyd (Starting Pitcher):The White Sox’s starting rotation has

some depth to it. Mark Buehrle, John Danks, and Jake Peavy are all household names by now. Then again, Gavin Floyd is the missing puzzle piece. He has shown signs of being a number 2 starter and at worst a number 3. For some reason, Floyd can never have a consistent season, but this might be his year. If Floyd can get run sup-port, I expect him to win around 14 games with an ERA in the range of 3.78 - 3.98.

Oakland Athletics Offense:The one weakness of the Athletics is

their offense. They lack a guy in the lineup that can hit for power and RBIs. They do have some small role players like David DeJesus and Kurt Suzuki, but they need more.

Josh Willingham (Outfield): If the Ath-letics want to win the American League West (I think they will), then they need to have someone provide big numbers. Josh Willingham might be the man. He is prob-ably their best power hitter, and I think he can hit over 24 home runs and 75 RBIs

National League

Atlanta Braves (Pitching):The Atlanta Braves have a good lineup.

That’s not their problem. Last year in the playoffs the Braves were completely out-pitched. If they want to get past the first round this year, they are going to need

great starting pitching

Tommy Hanson (Starting Pitcher): Last year, Hanson threw over 200 innings for the first time in his career, posting an ERA of 3.33 and had one of the lowest WHIP in the Majors. I expect more of the same this year and with a very potent offense, Han-son has the intangibles to win 15-20 games and make the All-Star Team.

Milwaukee Brewers Offense:The Milwaukee Brewers have a deep

lineup. They have potential MVPs in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks also had very legitimate sea-sons. If they can get production from an-other player or two, they can contend with the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardi-nals.

Casey McGehee (Third Base): McGe-hee has been one of the most underrated hitters in baseball the past two years. Last year he had a career high in homeruns (24), RBI’s (104), and hits (174). If McGehee can build off his last two seasons, I expect him to hit around ,290, with 20 homeruns, and maybe 115 RBI’s. If McGehee deliv-ers, the Brewers will be legitimate.

Colorado Rockies Pitching:In 2010, Ubaldo Jimenez had a break-

out campaign, and along with Jorge De La Rosa they combine for a respectable one, two duo. The Rockies are in need of one more legitimate starter in their rotation if they want to make a run at a ring this sea-son.

Jhoulys Chacin (Starting Pitcher): This former shortstop converted start-

ing pitcher had a very solid 2010 cam-paign. Chacin threw 137 innings averag-

ing a strikeout per inning and had a solid 3.28 ERA. Chacin is off to a quick start this season with a 1.64 ERA in 22 in-nings pitched. I think Chacin will keep it up throughout the year and win 14-18 games an have an ERA in the

mid-3’s.

Those are some key players for each team for the 2011 season. If

these guys don’t step up, then their team might be in some trouble for the postsea-son. We’ll see over time if they produce or not, but I have a feeling if they do, then most of these teams will be in the postsea-son.

Jhoulys Chacin throw-ing a strike to start the

game off right. Photo courtesy of http://vivalavidro.

wordpress.com

Casey McGehee drives the ball to the left-center gap. Photo courtesy of http://blogredmachine.com/

Gavin Floyd delivering a fastball on a 1-1 count. Photo courtesy of http://thegoldensombrero.com/

Visit HCC Online!Curious about the services, courses, and programs at HCC?

Go to http://www.hcc.commnet.edu, the college’s home page.From there you can navigate the various departments, search for courses, or follow links to other

useful sites, such as MyCommnet and the HCC Foundation.

33

What If These NBA Players Went to College?By john francis

sTaff WriTer

With the University of Connecti-cut’s Men’s basketball team still fresh off their national cham-

pionship win and some of today’s biggest basketball stars gearing up for the NBA playoffs, the sport is on the minds of all its fans. Some of today’s best players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwight Howard didn’t go to college, so they never had a chance to feel what Kemba Walker and his teammates are feeling right now.

Today, the NBA has a rule set in place that does not allow high school athletes to enter the NBA directly, leaving at least a year of college basketball as the best op-tion for even the best prospects high school basketball has to offer.

What if that rule was set in place ages ago? Where would LeBron, Kobe and Dwight have gone to school? Where would Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady and the New York Knicks’ own Amar’e Stou-damire have played their college game?

Many HCC students are opinionated about the subject. AJ Pires, for one, seems to like the idea.

“A lot of people may not like him now, but LeBron (James) would have been so good in college. He stepped right into the NBA and dominated. He would have been even better in college,” he said. “Even if he went to like a small school he could do something like what Butler did the last few years. He’s that good.”

Would history have been different? Would our brackets from all those years have had different outcomes? Would there have been a different national champion?

Here are some of the more intriguing “what if” stories from the list of the NBA’s high school draftees.

Kevin Garnett - 1995Although he was not the first person to

be drafted right out of high school, Kevin Garnett really started the trend for players to skip college in the 1990s and 2000s that eventually led to the rule change. In Gar-nett’s case, he did want to go to college, but he never got a high enough score on the ACT (similar to the SAT) to play in col-lege. Luckily for him, he had the option of going to the NBA. After he was drafted to the Minnesota Timberwolves, he found out that he had scored high enough on the SAT to attend college.

It was clear to many scouts that Garnett would not be attending college due to his poor academics, so there are no records of where he was being recruited, although he has since shown a liking for UCLA.

Some believe, however, that because of his very close relationship with Stephon Marbury at the time, that he would have attended Georgia Tech with him. Garnett played his later years of high school bas-ketball in Illinois, but he is originally from South Carolina which is only a state away from the school.

The following year, Marbury led Geor-gia Tech to a three seed in the NCAA Tour-nament and a sweet sixteen birth, which they lost to Cincinnati. Had Kevin decided to go to Georgia Tech, could he, teamed with Marbury and fellow NBA players Matt Harpring and Drew Barry, have led the team beyond the sweet sixteen? Garnett averaged 10.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game his rookie season in the NBA, stats that would have been far better against in-ferior opponents in college.

Fun Fact: In the following draft, Ste-phon Marbury was drafted by the Timber-wolves and Garnett’s stats jumped to 17

points per game and 8 rebounds per game, giving another reason to believe that the chemistry between the two players could have flourished in college.

)Kobe Bryant - 1996Kobe Bryant’s situation was much dif-

ferent than the aforementioned Kevin Gar-nett’s. Bryant was actually an excellent student, though his superiority on the court shadowed even that. Duke University, known for both its academics and college basketball, would have been the recipient of Bryant’s talents had he decided to attend college.

In what would have been his freshman year, the Duke Blue Devils were a two seed in the NCAA tournament, however they were upset in just the second round by Providence. In his rookie year in the NBA, Bryant scored 7.6 points per game, but he was only seeing the floor for 15 minutes per game. In college his stats would have easily been inflated from that, as well as his minutes. Even without inflating his points, had Bryant been given just 35 minutes per game he would have scored 17.7 points per game, which, in college, would be enough to get his name called in key moments.

That year, Arizona won the national championship as a four seed, and had sev-eral NBA players on their roster including Mike Bibby. Could Kobe Bryant have been able to lead the Blue Devils to the promise land that year? We can only wonder.

Fun Fact: In what would have been Kobe Bryant’s senior year, the Duke Blue Devils won the national championship.

Tracy McGrady - 1997Rick Pitino, one of the best and most

renowned college basketball coaches, had just won a national championship in 1996 and lost in the championship game in ‘97 with Kentucky. Clearly wanting to head to a great program, Pitino was able to recruit McGrady, but when the former decided to try and coach in the NBA and left Ken-tucky, McGrady clearly had no intention of staying with the Wildcats and headed straight for the NBA as well.

Though McGrady’s career has really fallen off, for close to a decade he was con-sidered one of the best players in all of bas-ketball. It took him several years to launch himself into stardom, so it is difficult to judge how his career could have been ef-fected by a college stint.

Kwame Brown - 2001Listed after some of the NBA’s best

players, some people may not even know who Kwame Brown is. Brown will be re-membered for two things: being one of the biggest busts in NBA history and being the first draft pick Michael Jordan made as the president of a basketball franchise. A lack of maturity doomed his professional career, which makes some people wonder if he would have been better had he gone to college. Brown actually signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Flori-da. However, he changed his mind shortly thereafter, deciding to head directly to the pros.

Florida was a five seed in the NCAA tournament in what would have been his freshman year, followed by a two seed the year after that. In what would have been his senior season, Florida won the national championship. The most intriguing part about Kwame Brown however, is what he could have done in the NBA had he been given the time to develop and mature in college.

Amar’e Stoudemire - 2002Amar’e Stoudamire’s troubling past

is no secret, and both colleges and NBA scouts knew it, especially considering HBO aired a segment on him while he was still in high school. Though Stoudamire states he would have liked to play for John Calipari, who was the head coach of the University of Memphis that year and is known as one of the best recruiters in all of college basketball, his sights were always

set on playing in the pros. Calipari’s team was a five seed entering

the tournament that year, yet Stoudamire’s addition piques the curiosity of many. He was the very first high school draft pick to earn the rookie of the year honors, and in that year was never given the overly physi-cal “welcome to the pros” message that many veterans often give to rookies. Stou-damire’s physical play was outstanding his rookie year, which could have made him a dominant presence in college basketball.

New York’s own Amar’e Stoudamire was an MVP candidate when he had the Knicks on his back the first half of the year. It is pretty easy to see that he could have had that same presence in college had he decided to put Calipari’s Memphis Tigers on his back for the 2002-2003 season.

Fun Fact: In what would have been Stoudamire’s rookie year, his current teammate Carmelo Anthony historically led Syracuse to a national championship. Could you imagine a championship game that featured Amar’e Stoudamire versus

Carmelo Anthony?

LeBron James - 2003LeBron James was one of the best high

school basketball players of all time. Be-cause of this, it was clear by his junior year that there wasn’t a chance he would be go-

ing to college. James’ athletic abilities were off the scale, which made it obvious that he would be heading directly to the NBA. Though schools didn’t even bother trying to recruit James, he has since joked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that he would have attended Ohio State University. This is most likely because of his ties with the state of Ohio, which, as we all know, have been broken.

Ohio State wasn’t even on the map the following year, failing to reach the NCAA tournament and finishing with a record of 14-16. Despite this, LeBron has time and time again carried teams on his back. In the NBA that year he averaged 20.9 points, 5.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game, numbers which would clearly have sky-rocketed in college. Though it is way too hypothetical to predict what his point to-tals would have looked like in college, it is pretty easy to see that they would finished much better than 14-16. How many wins would LeBron have been worth that year? We just witnessed Kemba Walker carry UConn to a national championship, and we saw New York’s own Carmelo Anthony do it for Syracuse. Could LeBron James have done the same for Ohio State?

Fun Fact: LeBron James has a good relationship with John Calipari. In this fic-tional world where high school players had to attend college back in these days, could Amar’e Stoudamire, who said he would have attended Memphis, have stayed for his sophomore season as well knowing LeBron James would be joining him there? It is mind boggling to know we were this close to having two of the NBA’s best play-ers on the same team in college.

Dwight Howard - 2004After he was drafted to the Orlando

Magic, Dwight Howard said that the three schools he had been looking at were Uni-versity of North Carolina, Duke and Geor-gia Tech. It is known that he is one of the more intelligent athletes to skip the college level, leading some to believe that Duke would have been his choice of school, but others believe he would have stayed closer to home and attended Georgia Tech.

Howard has dominated competition his entire life, even in his rookie year in the NBA where he scored 12 points per game and averaging 10 rebounds per game. Had he played in the SEC, regardless of which of those three teams his allegiance really lied, he could have arguably been their best player. Now, after his third consecutive de-fensive player of the year award, it makes us all curious how scared his college oppo-nents would have been to try a shot in the paint when he lurks there.

Athletically talented basketball star, Kobe Bry-ant, a proud Lakers team member.

Photo courtesty of Benchwarmersunited.com

Amar’e Stoudamire, one of several pros that made it without the help of a college Basketball team.

Photo courtesy of Zimbio.com

Even as a rookie, Dwight Howard showed impressive skills on the court.Photo courtesy of Wordpress.com

HORIZONS • Sports

34 HORIZONS • Sports

Heat Looking to Nail 16 More VictoriesBy jose a. rosas

senior sTaff WriTer

We have all witnessed the three amigos (Lebron James, Dwy-ane Wade, and Chris Bosh)

spend their very first season together (2010-2011). Many believe that this team would begin to dominate the NBA in the first season as a unit. They did not finish with the best record in the league, but they were able to clinch the second seed in the Eastern Conference and finish with a win-ning record (of 58 wins and 24 losses). Before the season even started, hatred to-wards the roster superstars grew faster than their chemistry as teammates.

Many had high expectations for this team. The new and improved Miami Heat began their journey with a record of 9-8 from late October through late November 2010. This was a huge surprise to many. They were not able to eclipse the 72 wins the Chicago Bulls had in the Michael Jor-dan-era (95-96 season) , nor did they have a a 30+ game winning streak like ABC an-alyst Jeff Van Gundy believed. “They will break the single-season win record,” said Van Gundy. “And I think they have a legit shot at the Lakers’ 33-game streak, as well. And only the Lakers have even a remote shot at beating them in a playoff series. They will never lose two games in a row this year.”

The Heat actually experienced more consecutive losses than simply “two games in a row.”

During the month of March, they went through a devastating four-game losing streak, which left the team very emotional. “This is painful for every single one of us going through this [losing streak]” stated Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, after the Chicago Bulls sent them to their said fourth straight loss. “There[‘s] a couple of guys crying in the locker room right now. It is not a matter of want, it is a matter of do-ing and continuing to put ourselves in this position until we break through” he added.

We stay together, were brothers. We win together we lose together. How sad the Mi-ami Heat are is exactly [what] everybody wanted, “said Miami Heat player Dwayne Wade. The World is better now cause the Heat is losing”, he added.

“I have been a Heat fan since the Shaq[uille O’Neal]-and [Dwayne] Wade era” said HCC student Adam Hass. “Many people expected a lot from us this season. When we would lose two or three games straight, everyone would be right on our back, but if you look at the Atlanta Hawks or the Orlando Magic, nobody would real-ly care when they lost more then two game straight. We are the most hated team in the NBA, but despite all that, we are going to rise to the top come playoff time.”

Some improvements that were made during the season was in the point guard spot. On February 28, 2011, Mike Bibby and the Washington Wizards agreed to a buyout in which he was acquired from a trade with the Atlanta Hawks just five days before.

Though they couldn’t begin their very first two games of the season with a state-ment, they sure began the post season on a strong note. During there first experience together in the playoffs, the team began with a 2-0 (2 wins and 0 loses) record. There first playoff victory as a team came with the final score of 94-73, cruising by the Philadelphia 76ers. The big three com-bined for 63 points as Chris bosh lead the team with 25 points.

“Miami is going to go strong in the playoffs,” mentioned HCC student Ricky Christie, who is fan of the club. “All the negative talk about us not being ready for a

title this season is garbage. Maybe the sea-son did not go as many planned it would, but the playoffs and regular season are two different things. We will leave a strong statement this postseason.”

If the Heat have any hope of bring a title to South Beach this season, they are going to have toi stay focused. They still have to go through the surprising team this season, the Chicago Bulls, and possibly the Boston Celtics in the second round if they can de-feat New York.

This team has made a few adjustments since the trade deadline. Not only did they gain a veteran point guard which they were desperate for in Mike Bibby, but they have also made him a starter and have replaced Mario Chalmers, the younger point guard. This team is filled with veterans, and most importantly, lots of talent. Mike Bibby may not be the guy he once was in the Sacra-mento Kings, when he would average about 18 points a game, but his presence to the team can defintely help boost up any hope these guys have at a ring this year.

Even if they don’t come out as the best team this season, these guys still have lots of years to spend together. Not to mention that as years process, the more comfortable these guys will get with each other. This team will not be taken lightly for many years to come.

Let The Heat Begin! (Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post)

No Pay for Play for Student-Athletes?By rondale Williams

sTaff WriTer

Would paying a high star college athlete such as Terrelle Pryor stop him from selling his jerseys

for free tattoos? Or would paying Reggie Bush in college have stopped him from ac-cepting money and gifts from pro agents. Could it really be a possible solution to all of the NCAA’s problems concerning play-ers taking illegally taking benefits from boosters and agents?

The answer is never, and there is no way schools should start now. Why? Doing so will not stop college athletes from taking benefits they know they shouldn’t take. Now I’m not saying that college student athletes don’t have it hard. I know firsthand as a former college student athlete myself, my schedule was full of classes and daily practices. It is because of schedules like this that athletes are not able to work a job, therefore they cannot make money the same way the average college student can.

So in effect, they take gifts and money from boosters or agents who are looking to financially benefit from them in their fu-ture pro careers. We’ve seen this issue in many stories stemming from Reggie Bush, who reportedly took a Range Rover and a home for his family while in college from a agent, to accusations of Cam Newton’s

father asking for payments from Auburn University in order for his son to sign with the school.

Many experts like Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University claim that poverty is the contributing factor that causes this, stating, “I’ve seen student-athletes won-der how they can help their mothers after they were evicted from their apartment in the projects.” If we just paid them, Watkins argues, they can help their families and do things for themselves.

The aforementioned idea is bogus be-cause student athletes aren’t the only ones struggling to make it through college. I’m pretty sure that anyone who has gone away to college can share stories such as having to eat Top Ramen noodles because they didn’t have enough money to eat real food.

What about college students that work full time while taking classes full time? Do they really have the time to focus on school as much as a student athlete does? I would argue that they don’t and prob-ably suffer academically because of their full-time job. If college athletes are go-ing to get paid, then non-athletes with a packaged daily schedule give reason for a university to pay that student so they can concentrate on school and excel academi-cally. This could raise the academic prow-ess of a school, which in turn would attract more students to a university if it is known

as a great scholarly university like the Ivy Leagues of the world. This could have the same effect as a national championship in a sport would to a potential student athlete because then the student athlete has more reason to come to that school.

Then we hear the usual, “Well, these kids are poor and so the money would help” speech. In reality, there are lots of kids who are poor while in college and struggling just as much as any poor student athlete; as a matter of fact, the athlete prob-ably has it better. Not only may the athlete have a full ride athletic scholarship to a university, but also free tutoring and free meals at the expense of the college. The poor college student will probably gradu-ate from college with a mountain of debt and struggle to find a job to pay it off.

Then athletes whine, “Well, the NCAA and universities makes millions off of our likenesses in video games and ticket sales of games.” This may be true is some but not all cases. For example, this football season the UConn football team went to their first BCS bowl game, a game that would pay out $3.1 million to the univer-sity, but because of low ticket sales the uni-versity had to pay back the Fiesta Bowl $2 million dollars for unsold tickets. In return the university only made $1 million, which reportedly was only enough to cover the team’s travel costs.

If the NCAA does decide to pay college athletes, they run into the issue of figuring out how much to pay them. Do you pay the star players more than a bench player because of the exposure they provide to a university? Or do you play a football play-er more than you play a volleyball player because football brings in more revenue for a school? Or do you set all wages to the national minimum wage or a state mini-mum wage? Then who’s to say that players still won’t accept gifts from college boost-ers because they are greedy for more than what they’re getting?

The situation gets complicated when considering the amount of pay. So many things about it make it unfair to the aver-age college student, especially one that is struggling probably greater than any student athlete. The NCAA doesn’t need to pay athletes but instead needs to regu-late how to handle and punish agents and boosters looking to pay college athletes. Paying anyone never stopped anyone from wanting more and if agents or boosters can offer more than the NCAA can, the ath-letes will be there to take it. As far as I’m concerned athletes are paid, they get a free education, and entrance into universities many of them couldn’t afford or get into if it was not for their athletic ability.

The NCAA should say no to paying ath-letes. That’s what’s the pros are for!

Got some news you want covered?Let us know!

Write to housatonichorizons@gmail.com

35HORIZONS • Sports

It’s Back to the Future in the BronxBy paTrick j. Beach sTaff WriTer

“It’s at the warning track, it’s...GONE!” Get used to hearing this Yankees fans, because the

New York Yankees offense is off to yet an-other promising start in the 2011 regular season.

There has been a fair share of speculation towards the 2011 roster due to some of the failed acquisitions in pitching and clinch hitters that never happened, and the so-called “plan b” moves they ended up making.

It looks as though it’s only a mat-ter of time until this new-look Yankees team gets clicking on all cylinders. Wheth-er it was being scorned by Cliff Lee going to the Philadelphia Phillies or missing out on Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees are show-ing all of us that they can still move for-ward with the players they’ve got. These players include, new catcher Russell Mar-tin and Pitcher Rafael Soriano coming off

a 45-save season last year with the Tampa Bay Rays.

One optimistic indicator of early success for this team, is the comparison in Mark Teixeira this season to previous sea-sons in pinstripes. Speaking to ESPN’s Rob Parker, Teixeira said, “When you have that bad of a start, and last year overall for me wasn’t good. I expect a lot out of my-self.” Batting a .136 with only 2 home runs in 81 at bats in last April, was exactly what the Yankees didn’t want to see out of a key part of their offense. This season seems different for the Bronx Bomber, as he hit 4 home runs in the first 4 games of the season including a three-run blast in the Yankee’s home opener. He is now hitting .226 with six homeruns, and 16 RBI’s (Runs Batted In), and the month is not even over yet. He’s even leading the AL in home runs cur-rently with no signs in slowing down. The sky seems to be the limit as Teixeira seems to have came out of the off-season having done all the right things. It’s nice to see the Yankees being able to use this impor-tant weapon to get ahead of the game, and relieve the team with some wins for when

October comes around. It would be naive to make World

Series predictions at this point. When you really look at how the Yankees are playing thus far even with all the adversity of this past off-season, one can only be happy at what they’re seeing. Wins this time of the year translate into resting time for the start-ers at the other end of the season. We all know how much that’s needed, seeing how the Yankees have been to the post-season 14 out of 15 years dating back to the 1995 Yankees.

Are you cringing at the fact of not seeing Jorge Posada behind the plate? Well, you shouldn’t be because new Yan-kees catcher Russell Martin, who was re-cently acquired this past off-season, seems to be getting more comfortable with the starter job while Jorge settles in as this years DH(Designated Hitter) in the bat-ting order. Martin is currently hitting .292 with four home runs and 11 RBI’s, while veteran Posada is sitting 2nd in the AL in homers with five and nine RBI’s.

Many New York fans were scarred by the efforts made this past off-season in

requiring a solid pitching staff after pitch-ing great Andy Pettit chose to walk away from the game earlier this year. There were rumors of Cliff Lee possibly signing a con-tract with the Yankees, only to find out he was going back to the Philadelphia Phillies to be with a team that never wanted him in the first place. Have no fear though, the Yanks were able to sign Rafael Soriano to help fill the gap in the rotation. Soriano had a career best 45 saves last season pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays. Now it’s time to see what the Pin Stripes have in store for the new pitcher. Joba Chamberlain seems to be over his slump coming out of the bull-pen pitching a 3.6 ERA, adding the final part for Girardi’s new pitching formula for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. And as usual, Mariano Rivera is still with out a doubt as solid and good of a closer as you’ll ever see.

So, gear up, Yankees fans, be-cause we’re off to another great season of Major League Baseball. Throw your favor-ite jersey on, grab some refreshments, and PLAY BALL!

HCC Student CalendarMay 5 – August 29, 2011

Thursday, May 5

Association of Latin American Students Club Meeting / 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM / Student Club Offices (BH-317A)

Table Tennis Meeting / 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM / Student Recre-ation Room (BH-315)

Music Club Meeting / 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM / Student Recre-ation Room (BH-315)

Student Senate Meeting / 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM / Student Club Conference Room (BH-317D)

Preventing Bullying: discussion about the different aspects of bullying and prevention of bullying at the college level; three speakers will be on campus / 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM / Events Center (BH-214)

Literary Club Meeting / 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM / Student Lounge (BH-318)

Saturday, May 7

NYC MOCCA Museum bus trip / $10 for students; $15 for non-students / sponsored by Graphic Design Club / to sign up or for more info visit the Student Activities Office (BH-317)

Monday, May 9

Last day of classes Spring 2011

Gay/Straight Alliance Club Meeting / 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM / Student Club Offices (BH-317A)

Tuesday, May 10

Final Exams Spring 2011

Psychology Club Meeting / 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM / Student Club Offices (BH-317A)

Christian Studies Club Meeting / 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM / Stu-dent Club Conference Room (BH-317D)

Music Club Meeting / 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM / Student Recre-ation Room (BH-315)

Biology Club Meeting / 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM / Lafayette Hall Room C206

Student Activities Committee Meeting / 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM / Student Club Conference Room (BH-317D)

ECE Greater Bridgeport Director’s Group / 6:30 – 8:30 PM / Events Center (BH-214)

Wednesday, May 11

Final Exams Spring 2011

Photography Club Meeting / 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM / Lafay-ette Hall Room B221

Thursday, May 12

Final Exams Spring 2011

Association of Latin American Students Club Meeting / 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM / Student Club Offices (BH-317A)

Table Tennis Meeting / 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM / Student Recre-ation Room (BH-315)

Criminal Justice Club Meeting / 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM / Stu-dent Club Offices (BH-317A)

Music Club Meeting / 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM / Student Recre-ation Room (BH-315)

Student Senate Meeting / 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM / Student Club Conference Room (BH-317D)

2011 Alpha Beta Gamma Induction Ceremony / 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM / Events Center (BH-214)

Literary Club Meeting / 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM / Student Lounge (BH-318)

Friday, May 13

Final Exams Spring 2011

Saturday, May 14

Final Exams Spring 2011

Sunday, May 15

Final Exams Spring 2011

Monday, May 16

Final Exams Spring 2011

Wednesday, May 18

Final grades due by faculty

Thursday, May 19

ACE Mentor Presentations / 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM / Events Center (BH-214)

Thursday, May 26

2011 Housatonic Community College Commencement / 7:00

PM – 8:30 PM / Doors open at 6:00 PM for students and guests / Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard – 600 Main Street, Bridge-port

A reception for graduates, guests, and college staff will be held in the Atrium at Housatonic Community College (900 La-fayette Boulevard, Bridgeport immediately following the cer-emony.

For more information visit www.hcc.commnet.edu/student/graduation, or call the “graduation hot line” in the Dean of Stu-dents Office at (203) 332-5182.

Friday, May 27

Last day to register for Summer Sessions I & II

May 28 – August 21

The college will be closed on Saturdays and Sundays dur-ing the summer.

Tuesday, May 31

First day of Summer Sessions I & II

Friday, June 24

Last day to register for Summer Session IV

Monday, June 27

First day of Summer Session IV

Friday, July 1

Last day to register for Summer Session III

Tuesday, July 5

First day of Summer Session III

Wednesday, August 24

Last day for Fall 2011 placement testing

Friday, August 26

Deadline to enroll in payment plan / 4:00 PM

Last day for 100 percent tuition refund / 4:00 PM

Saturday, August 27

Fall 2011 weekend classes begin

Monday, August 29

Fall 2011 weekday classes begin

36 HORIZONS • Sports

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