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15th Annual Health and Wellness Expo
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Students, faculty, staff, and area residents crowded the Betty R. Tipton Room of the Student Center on Oct. 16 to interact with more than 50 health agencies, vendors, and representatives, making Eastern’s 15th Annual Health, Wellness, and Benefits Expo the most successful to date. The day-long expo included demonstrations, performances, free health testing and screenings, free massages, reiki energy therapy, acupuncture, consultation with nutritionists, free HIV and STD risk assessment and testing, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, skin damage analysis, information on cancer prevention, free health food samples, and much more. Activities also included a variety of demonstrations and performances including yoga, and jujutsu for self-defense. In addition, representatives were on hand to discuss retirement, finances, and insurance.
The expo was co-sponsored by Eastern’s Health Services, Office of Human Resources, and the Department of Health and Physical Education.
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Disability Awareness Week at Eastern
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 If you witnessed an unusual number of people on campus who appeared to be handicapped during the week of Oct. 14 – 19, it was just an illusion. Eastern students, faculty, and staff participated in numerous disability simulations to participate in the observance of National Disability Awareness Week.
The event, which was organized by the Office of AccessAbility Services at Eastern, enabled participants to experience challenges faced by people with auditory or visual impairments, persons who are wheelchair-bound, amputees, and persons suffering from schizophrenia. Participants viewed the movie, Out of the Shadow, produced by Susan Smiley. In this documentary Smiley videotaped her schizophrenic mother over a span of five years and reveals a side of schizophrenia that many do not see. |
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Federal Ethics Official Speaks at Eastern
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Robert Cusick, director of the U. S. Office of Government Ethics, discussed "Ethical Issues in Public Policy" on Oct. 11 in the Paul E. Johnson, Sr. Community Conference Room of the J. Eugene Smith Library. Cusick is responsible for ethics laws and policy issues in the Executive Office of the federal government. His office has the authority to issue formal opinions in ethics matters, to review ethical-related issues in all departments of the federal government, to assist federal agencies in achieving ethical compliance, and to work with other nations in treaty matters affecting government corruption. |
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Eastern Wins Grant to Increase Graduates from Underrepresented Populations
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Eastern Connecticut State University has been named a recipient of a $100,000 grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to participate in the foundation’s Project Compass, a program designed to help increase the number of young people from underrepresented populations who graduate with four-year degrees. One of six universities chosen, Eastern has been awarded an initial grant of $100,000 to support a year of planning and capacity building.
“We are thrilled to have been awarded this Project Compass planning grant,” said Eastern President Elsa M. Nuñez. “The generosity and vision of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in making this grant is much appreciated. We will use these funds to support initiatives in our new Strategic Plan that are designed to improve the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented students, including the development of a comprehensive, stage-based advising program for all Eastern students.”
The initiative will serve students from various populations who are currently underrepresented on New England college campuses -- from first-generation immigrant students in Connecticut to Native American populations in northern Maine, from urban students of color to rural low-income learners. The colleges will work to identify challenges to academic success for these populations in order to help students persist and graduate. |
Elaine Kuttner, facilitator
Cambridge Concord Associates
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Professor Cromwell Crawford, University of Hawaii; Professor Hope Fitz.
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A number of members of the Jain Society came to campus in late September to visit with Professors Hope Fitz, Gail Gelburd, Andrew Nilsson, and their students. (One of the oldest religious traditions of India, Jainism was established around 600 B.C. Comprising less than 1 percent of the Indian population, Jainism is grounded in principles of religious austerity, self-denial, and peaceful coexistence with all living creatures. There are Jain Societies throughout the United States.) |
(left to right) unidentified student; Dr. Chandra Khasgiwala of Boston; Dr. Faquir Jain of the University of Connecticut; Professor Emeritus Charles Prewitt; student Adam Brzozowski; Dr. Natubhai Shah of London, England; Dr. Vinay Jain of Boston; and Professor Andrew Nilsson.
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Eastern Receives CQIA Innovation Prize |
Eastern has been awarded a Silver Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) Innovation Prize from the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership. Eastern won for its numerical-results directed innovation — CTEnergyEducation.com: Developing an Educational Program through Collaboration.
The award was presented at the Quality and Innovation Conference on Oct. 19 at Waters Edge Resort in Westbrook.
CTEnergyEducation.com is an open access website that was created after the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund asked Eastern’s Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) to create a statewide high school energy education program to address both local and global issues concerning climate change and energy efficiency. The website can track users and downloaded lessons to ensure that teacher’s needs are being met; offers the most current information and resources on emerging topics; addresses eight of the nine required framework standards in the State of Connecticut; and has 26 online lessons. |
Chimamanda Adichie’s Second Novel Wins Britain’s Top Literary Prize |
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ’01 continues her winning ways. Earlier this year, she won the Orange Prize for fiction, Britain’s top literary prize, for her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Adichie, 29, became a nationally acclaimed author with her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book Prize. Purple Hibiscus made the Orange Prize shortlist in 2004. Half of a Yellow Sun is the story of four people — a radical academic, his beautiful lover, her twin sister’s English boyfriend, and a houseboy — swept up in the horrors of the Biafra war in Nigeria in the 1960s. Adichie is from the Biafra region. One reviewer called her first book, Purple Hibiscus, “a monumental literary achievement and a prayer for Nigeria.” Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, has been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. |
James Tillman Speaks at Eastern |
On Oct. 3, James Tillman, a man convicted of rape and kidnapping in 1988 who was finally exonerated after serving more than 18 years for a crime he did not commit, told an audience that he was forever grateful to the Connecticut Innocence Project (CIP). In February 2005, the CIP, well-known for working to resolve miscarriages of justice, took on Tillman’s case. Tillman and Karen Goodrow, attorney for the CIP, discussed how they obtained DNA testing on biological evidence from the crime. When results came back in June 2006, testing revealed that another man committed the rape. The case became one of the most famous in Connecticut history. The presentation was part of Eastern’s University Hour lecture series.
 
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Intolerance and the Witch Hunts |
| Nov. 7 was a day devoted to looking back at a dark time in history, when the campus community was treated to academic and artistic examinations of religious intolerance in 17th century Wethersfield, Connecticut, where two trials in 1648 and 1651 resulted in three executions by hanging, including a married couple, who were accused of witchcraft.
Two performances of “The Witching Hour,” a captivating dance and theatrical piece performed by the Judy Dworin Performance Project, gave a dramatic interpretation of Connecticut’s 17th century witch craze. The afternoon symposium “Witches Among Us: A Reconsideration of Witchcraft Studies,” featured both Eastern faculty and international experts on the 17th century witch hunts and related gender issues. All three activities were well attended and received excellent reviews from participants. “The Witching Hour” was co-sponsored by Eastern Connecticut State University in collaboration with the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society.
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Hall of Fame Honors Eastern Athletes from the Past
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Cornicello Composition Debuts in Europe |
| On Oct. 31, Performing Arts Professor Anthony Cornicello’s composition, “I’ll Have an Electric Mahabharata, Please,” was played in Barcelona, Spain. The work, written for cello and live electronics, was performed by Mark Friedhoff of the Grup XXI, a contemporary music ensemble, as part of a concert at the Phonos Foundation, Spain’s oldest electronic music society. This was the European premiere of Cornicello’s 2003 composition, which has been performed more than a dozen times in the United States. |
Orchid Ensemble Delights Eastern Audiences |
The three members of the Orchid Ensemble, which uses traditional Chinese string instruments and percussion to play a variety of musical styles, entertained Shafer Auditorium audiences on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 during an evening performance and a University Hour appearance the following day. Ensemble members, who reside in Vancouver, BC, were joined on the 23rd by Eastern’s Concert Chorale.
 
Photo credit: Andrew Powaleny |
Tibetan Mandala to be Created at Eastern |
Visual Arts Professor Gail Gelburd has arranged for two Tibetan monks from the Namgyal Monastery of the Dalai Lama to grace Eastern's campus from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9, when they will recreate an ancient mandala using millions of grains of colored sand. It will be formed in the Akus Gallery, each day for a week, before being cast into the Willimantic River to disperse its blessings for peace. The public is invited to watch its creation and dispersion. For more information, call Professor Gelburd at (860) 465-0195.
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