Bridge program featured in Hartford Courant

President James W. Schmotter and Bethel Superintendent Gary Chesley are quoted extensively about the "Building a Bridge to Improve Student Success" program in "WCSU Reports Success Helping High School Students Get Ready to College" by Kathleen Megan in the Hartford Courant.   Drs. Schmotter and Chesley and Interim Dean Abbey Zink and Bethel Associate Superintendent Janice Jordan testified today at a legislative hearing focusing on education-related issues, including remediation and teacher preparation.

Don J. Snyder wins travel journalism award

Don J. Snyder, a Writer in Residence for the MFA in Creative and Professional Writing Program, won a gold award in the Special-Purpose Travel category of the 2010 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition for "Clubbed" published in Outside magazine.  The Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition is sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.  Congratulations, Don!

Science at Night: Jim Bishop, Storm Chaser

Meteorologist Jim Bishop will present "Storm Chasing: Behind the Scenes" at 7 p.m. in Science Building 125 on Feb. 17th as part of the "Science at Night" lecture series.  More information about Bishop's work is available at http://www.stormgasm.com/.  A reception will follow Bishop's talk.

Dr. Thomas Philbrick, Professor of Biology and CSU Distinguished Professor, organizes the "Science at Night" series.  Thanks so much, Tom, for all of your good work in bringing so many interesting speakers to campus.

Dr. Saad to discuss 'Popular Revolution in the Middle East' on Feb. 16th

Dr. Abubaker Saad, Professor of History and Non-Western Cultures, will present "Popular Revolution in the Middle East" at noon on Feb. 16th (Wednesday) in the Warner Lyceum.  Dr. Saad is a specialist in Middle East and Islamic Studies.  All are invited for what will be a fascinating hour of insight and discussion.

Rep. Taborsak visits PS 104

Longtime adjunct Scott Benjamin regularly invites guest speakers to visit his PS 104: World Governments, Economics and Cultures courses.  Rep. Joe Taborsak (D-109th) talked with Prof. Benjamin's PS 104 course on Feb. 7.  Here's what Rep. Taborsak had to say about key issues facing Connecticut:  

Taborsak on the Issues

By Scott Benjamin

State Rep. Joe Taborsak (D-109^th) of Danbury said Connecticut can add job by improving its sea ports and establishing high speed rail service as it tries to overcome an official unemployment rate of 9 percent, a figure that he insists is misleading.

He told students in a section of PS 104: World Governments, Economies and Cultures on Monday, Feb. 7, 2011 at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) in Danbury that Connecticut’s ports are “very underdeveloped” and people would be “shocked” after making a comparison to the more impressive port infrastructure in New Jersey.

Mr. Taborsak said the ports in Connecticut should be upgraded so the state could “do more” to develop “trade centers.”

He said if he took a train in the morning to Hartford for his commute to the State Capitol, the train he would need to make the return trip would have already left.

“We haven’t invested in rail,” said Mr. Taborsak, whose mother, Lynn Taborsak, a graduate of WCSU, once held the very same seat in the state House.

However, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in 2010, has said he is not a proponent of rail expansion because there isn’t much pay back for the huge investments that have to be made.

In 2010, then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) and then-U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-East Haddam) announced that federal funding was being provided for a high-speed rail initiative from Springfield, Mass., to southern Connecticut.

Mr. Taborsak said that Connecticut’s 9 percent unemployment figure is misleading because it doesn’t include people who are underemployed or who have stopped seeking to find a job during what has been a slow recovery from a recession that is considered the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

“The more you analyze it, the more you start to question what it means,” he said.

“You can have somebody who was an engineer making $80,000 a year, loses his job, and is working at Wal-Mart for $15,000 a year,” Mr. Taborsak said.

“Some studies show that between all of the factors, Connecticut has 15 to 20 percent of its work force that is either unemployed, underemployed or not searching for work,” the state representative said.

Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) said while campaigning in 2010 that Connecticut and Michigan are the only states with fewer workers than they had in 1989.

Speaking nine days before Mr. Malloy delivered his budget address to the General Assembly, Mr. Taborsak said the state has “five legs” to its fiscal stool as it tries to offset a budget deficit that the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the General Assembly’s budget-making arm, has projected at $3.67 billion for the fiscal year that starts in July, 2011.

He said the state lost considerable revenue during the financial services crisis of 2008, since part of its economy is “heavily tied” to Wall Street.

Stamford reportedly ranks fourth in the world in financial services.

Mr. Taborsak said those legs consist of revenue, spending reductions, borrowing, employee concessions and federal stimulus money.

Those stimulus funds, however, which were approved in February 2009, are about to expire.

Mr. Taborsak said he believes that reductions can be made in the administrative structure of state universities, such as WCSU, without having much impact on teachers and students.

Two days after Mr. Taborsak’s talk, Mr. Malloy proposed merging the central offices of the Connecticut State University – which includes WCSU, Central in New Britain, Southern in New Haven and Eastern in Willimantic – to save money.

Mr. Taborsak, a graduate of Northeastern, which has one of the model Cooperative Education programs in the country, said he hopes Connecticut’s public colleges and universities start to offer more apprenticeship programs.

WCSU has had a Cooperative Education program since the late 1970’s, which currently provides students with the opportunity to earn up to 18 credits through work-study programs.

Despite the slow economic recovery, Mr. Taborsak said the state should consider providing funds to help school districts provide all-day kindergarten.

The legislator said that step would increase achievement for students of all abilities.

New Milford, for example, has included it in its proposed education budget for the next fiscal year after a pilot program was successful at the John Pettibone School in that district.

Mr. Taborsak said that the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that then-President George W.Bush signed in 2002 has required too much standardized testing.

“I haven’t taken a standardized test since law school,” said Mr. Taborsak, 35, who has a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in Massachusetts and a law degree from Pace University in New York state.

He said the standardized exam in the state, the Connecticut Mastery Test should be administered every other year, instead of every year as it now is between third and eighth grade.

It had previously been given only in fourth, sixth and eighth grade.

“You should give teachers more flexibility in the classroom to teach,” Mr. Taborsak said.

However, some assistant superintendent of schools in Connecticut have said they are pleased that the tests are given each year since it provides more data on the students.

Since the inception of the standardized tests a generation ago, following the established of Connecticut’s Education Enhancement Act under then-Gov. William O’Neill (D-East Hampton), educators have praised the tests for largely measuring higher-order thinking skills.

During his gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Malloy said Connecticut has been hobbled by the second highest electricity rates in the country, behind Hawaii.

Mr. Taborsak said because the state is small geographically, it is difficult to generate hydro-power.

He said Connecticut will likely add many jobs in green technologies, noting that Fuel Cell Energy in Danbury is one of the leading manufacturers of that technology.

Mrs. Rell and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Stamford) have said that 25 years from now there will be more people employed in fuel-cell technology than any other part of the states’ economy.

Mr. Taborsak said nuclear energy is cleaner than the fossil fuels, but the technology “remains controversial” because of the potential safety issues.

“Nobody wants it in their back yard,” he said.

Mr. Taborsak said the energy reform package that both chambers of the General Assembly approved last spring, shortly before adjournment, will likely resurface this session.

Mrs. Rell vetoed that legislation, indicating that it would increase costs on consumers.

Mr. Taborsak said it provides incentives for clean energy sources and would over the long run generate more sales of those technologies, which would save money for consumers.

Prof. Benjamin will next host Steve Arlinghaus, a former official with the U.S. Commerce Dept., in his PS 104 course on Feb. 28 from 5:25-6:25 p.m. in White Hall 214.  Arlinghaus will discuss the European Union.  All are invited to attend.  For more information, contact Prof. Scott Benjamin at benjamins@wcsu.edu.

WestConn alum presents biochemistry seminar

Dr. Matthew Young will present "Probing the Structure of P450cam Via High Resolution NMR" tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 11) at 3 p.m. in Science Building 219 as part of the 2011 Dept. of Chemistry Seminar Series. 

A 1996 WestConn graduate in Chemistry,  Dr. Young earned his doctorate at the University of New Hampshire and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University in Boston. 

As Dr. Paul Hines, Interim Assistant Dean and Professor of Chemistry, says, "If you have any bright young people agonizing about the cost of going to college when they are looking at graduate school after that, you might send them to see a local young man who got his bachelor's degree in Chemistry here at Western and went on to get his Ph.D. and is now doing really cutting-edge, high-powered science."

The Chemistry Seminar Series is in its 36th year.

Jeannie Hatcherson and humanitarian travel

Longtime adjunct Dr. Jeannie Hatcherson teaches in the Social Sciences Department, and she frequently takes students and other groups of volunteers on humanitarian trips around the world.  Here's Jeannie's report from her latest trip: 

"I just returned from Kolkata, India. It was my third consecutive trip taking volunteers to work with projects organized by Rosalie Giffionello of Empower the Children (http://www.empower-children.org/). I took 11 others, including Dr. Patti Ivry from the Social Work Department at WCSU (the youngest volunteer  was 13, the oldest about 60), and we completed projects at a home for mentally and physically challenged adults; visited vocational programs in a rural village aimed at empowering low caste women; conducted a journalistic photo shoot in a Muslim slum where children were given digital cameras and sent off to photograph their 'story;' completed art projects with preschool slum children and others hospitalized long term at Rehabilitation Center for Children for orthopedic surgeries; and worked side-by-side with underprivileged adolescent girls participating in a pre-vocational program. We did a blog about our trip at http://travel-jeannie.blogspot.com/. I have already booked dates for next year's trip."

What amazing work!  Thanks for sharing your latest trip with us.