Husky Life

The link is http://www.subog.uconn.edu/docs/lottery_results_ad_.pdf.

Student pricing is $10 for reserved seats and $20 for floor seats. A friend told me that they sold out of floor seats but hey $10 to see Cudi? Not bad.

My Q&A with Brien Buckman, a UConn sophomore and candidate for state rep. for the 54th district of Connecticut, ran in the Daily Campus today. During the course of our discussion, Buckman said something particularly interesting. When asked what he would say to other UConn students running for political office, he said the following:

I know at least two University of Connecticut students who are running for office in their hometowns and I would absolutely encourage them to do so, especially when we have new problems in our state system that require a new type of thinking…

I always knew that Peter Tesei, first selectman and UConn alum (Class of 1991), served on the RTM when he was 18. A few months ago, I read in the Greenwich Time that Harris Davidson, a Greenwich resident, was elected to RTM in 2008 to fill a vacant seat prior to starting his freshman year of college in D.C.. But I wasn’t aware that three Huskies this year were running for public office.

So, what does that mean for candidates who are college students and their (future?) constituents?

One common criticism of the Buckman campaign as reported in the Daily Campus is the fact that Buckman lacks experience in politics, though in my Q&A Buckman said that he has worked in the state attorney’s office and with legislators and legislative liaisons. Others have wondered how Buckman could balance his studies while still having time to listen and respond to constituent concerns. In response, Buckman has said that he would take spring semesters off (when the state reps. meet in Hartford) so he could fully concentrate on politics.

Here’s my question to you out there in the blogosphere: how do you feel about college students running for political office? Do you believe that they provide new ideas that might solve old problems or do you believe that their limited experience with politics may hinder their political goals? Do you think that college students can both study and represent their neighbors?

One quick note: Buckman is running for state government. Davidson and Tesei served in the local government as college students.

My editor promoted me to staff writer from “campus correspondent” at a news meeting this week. As I walked back to the dorm, I realized how much this new title meant to me. Sure, staff writers are higher up on the payscale. Sure, staff writers get first pick on the stores before the campus correspondent’s fight over the cool stories with piranha-like fury. Okay – I exaggerated. Slightly. But the fact is that I now really feel a part of the paper and my campus. At the beginning of the semester, I remember walking into the meetings right on-time and standing by the door to wait and get my assignment. Now I walk in early, grab a seat and try to separate the real stories from the joke ones on the board. And, of course, crack some one-liners. Maybe lots of them.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the differences between writing for The Beak back in high school and The Daily Campus in college. I guess the audience for the remainder of this post is current high school journalists wondering what it’s like to write for a college publication or college students who wrote for their high school papers and are thinking about writing for their college papers. The following comparisons involve my collegeand my high school. The college part of the comparison may be similar to other large universities. Here is what I’ve learned so far:

*Frequency: college paper is printed daily during the school week; high school paper was produced once a month
*Deadlines: college papers have deadlines for hard news. This week I had to write a story in 30 minutes at 11 o’clock at night after attending a very interesting two hour forum; in high school, I had weeks to research and write a story
*The People: sources for your story could be noted professors or a random person that you meet in the student union who you have never seen before and may never see again; in high school, I knew just about anyone there was to interview
*Editorial Independence: the college paper is independent from the university, a $7 per semester fee from students taken by the university partially funds the paper. Student copywriters edit the articles; in high school, an advisor who is a teacher ultimately edited my articles
*Exposure: The college paper has a circulation of around 10,000. Its website is managed by MTV and its articles are syndicated onto other college paper websites run by MTV. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, Google News will pick up my byline; what I wrote for my high school paper pretty much stayed there

Yet my high school paper gave and my college paper gives me many opportunities to meet new people and ask questions. Many questions.

And here’s one question for you: if you write for a campus newspaper, what is your newspaper like? If you wrote for a campus paper, what are you memories of writing for one?

I snapped this photo in the laundry room. It looks like the pictured clothing belongs to a very enthusiastic UConn fan. Everything down to the blue flip flops just barley in view represent some serious Husky Pride!

Above: Census ad that asks “should we count the cows?” Very appropriate for Storrs which has a sizeable livestock population.

I attended a workshop with one of my fellow DC’ers on understanding the 2010 Census hosted by the CT SPJ at the Homer Babbidge Library this morning. Arthur Bakis and Ana Maria Garcia of the U.S. Census Bureau gave a fascinating presentation on how to find and intrepret census data that was tailored towards journalists. I found their discussion on how college students are counted to be particularly interesting. Apparently students (even if their dependents of parents that live in another town) are counted as part of the population of the town in which their dorm or off-campus housing is located. As a result, UConn students, like myself, are counted towards the population of Storrs. That means that the Census Bureau considers Storrs to have a population around 10,000 (according to the 2000 Census) when in reality, the number of full-time residents is much smaller.

In case you didn’t know, the Census is taking place this March-April and The Consitution requires everyone that lives in the U.S. to fill out one of their forms. The good news is that the Census will only be 10 questions this year. Longer questionaires are now distributed to random households on a yearly basis through the American Community Survey. For more information on the U.S. Census or to check out data from prior years, visit census.gov.

A cell phone photo of the construction on the West Building. Gampel and the UConn School of Business are to the back left and the UConn Student Union is to the back right.

I snapped this photo as I walked by the construction site for the new West Building, the 42-million-dollar replacement for Arjona. I remember attending the press conference for the official groundbreaking of the site back in December, 2009 (they had already fenced off the site and made some preparations when I returned from Thanksgiving break). I’m surprised that work has transformed a grassy field crisscrossed with sidewalks into a pit containing what looks to be the building’s foundation in three months. The building is scheduled to open in time for Fall 2011 classes, according to the administration back in December. I hope that happens as the building will house the social sciences including journalism, my intended major.

On a side note, I noticed many tour groups walking around campus today. I can’t believe that I was walking around campus in one of those with my parents two years ago! I wonder what they think of all the construction/new buildings on campus…

A sign outside a travel agency by campus advertises spring break deals.

I’m not writing from any Carribean Island. I’m still in Storrs. But a sign that I saw outside a travel agency by campus made me want to be relaxing in a warmer climate.

While it may be 83 and sunny in Aruba, it’s 33 and cloudy in Storrs. Just a slight difference…

And speaking of Spring Break — I’ll probably spend it catching up with friends and enjoying Tod’s Point this year. As far as the plans for other people, I have not heard much about spring break plans. I saw a sign for a website advertising an organized trip to Florida but other than that I’m not sure. One journalistic question about all this: considering the turblence in the economy, has interest in spring break declined? Apparently not, according to a recent USA Today article entitled “Economy won’t stop the spring break party”:

“Typically the student business is more resilient to the economy because it’s like a once in a lifetime trip,” said Jason Chute, director of operations for StudentCity.com. “A lot of times kids will go no matter what.”

Also, apparently interest in trips that involve community service has increased, according to the article:

It’s been more than three years since Katrina, but spring break volunteering is growing exponentially, according to Andrea Hutchinson, of Adventures in Travel Expo.

That seems to be the case at my school as well. There is a wait list for the Honors Alternative Spring Break to Florida for hurracine relief. One of my friends, who has experience in construction, was actually placed on the waitlist.

I ran around campus for the first time this semester. That statement does not include running to class — I’m just talking about running for exercise here.

The campus and I have changed the last time I blogged around running around the Storrs. I now actually know the roads and terrain. Compare that newfound knowledge to my lack of experience in September when I got lost in a field of tall grass. And the landscape has changed. When I ran by that field today, I noticed that an open field of mud and dirt had replaced the grass. But one aspect of the landscape has not changed: the cows by Horsebarn Hill still smell like cows.

By now I’ve figured out my route but I’m always looking for new paths to explore. To fellow Huskies and alumni…what are your favorite places to run on or around campus?