WCSU in the Age of Reason

Many of you are wondering how Mike Rollman fared in his quest for the truth during the recent election.

Rollman, you will remember, is the political science student who authored a question about F-22 fighter jets that Professor Dr. Christopher Kukk asked of Fifth District Congressional candidates Sam Caligiuri, the Republican challenger, and Chris Murphy, the Democratic incumbent.

Neither politician answered the question but both told Rollman they would get back to him in a couple of days to discuss it. Not surprisingly, they were busy in the week before the election and neither contacted Rollman.

He tracked them down, though, on election night. Rollman traveled to both campaign headquarters in Waterbury and was able to speak briefly to Murphy after he was announced the winner. The congressman said he really wants to sit down with Rollman soon and talk about the issue of whether the government should buy more F-22s, which every military leader has said is unnecessary but that politicians have supported because of the possibility of job creation in their states.

Also, Rollman noticed Murphy stripped any mention of the F-22 from his website before Election Day.

Victory for Mike Rollman!

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I’ve been working with former Danbury Mayor James E. Dyer on an exhibit Dyer will stage on Nov. 9 at the Haas Library on Western’s Midtown campus, 181 White St., to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy.

Dyer is a big Kennedy nut and owns much memorabilia from that era, including buttons, posters, photos and the like. Some of it will be on display for the day, with Dyer on hand starting at 10 a.m. to talk about his collection to anyone who is interested.

As it happened, Dyer and Mike Rollman were in my office this week at the same time and they recognized a common interest as political junkies. They talked shop for about 30 minutes and when Rollman left Dyer said with a shake of his head, “That kid is smart.”

Actually, Mr. Mayor, they’re all smart at WCSU.

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I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the unbelievable and wonderful victory of the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

I grew up near San Francisco and remember no time when I was not a rabid Giants fan. As you may have heard, the team had not won the World Series in 56 years, which is longer than I have lived. As a result, I’ve endured a lifetime of not just disappointment, but the abject horror that only a spurned fan understands. I know it sounds out of proportion — but it’s not.

The weird thing is that there aren’t a lot of people in Connecticut who care. My family members were happy and I e-mailed a couple of old friends in California. And every once in awhile you stumble across someone whose mom or dad was a New York Giants fan, so as a duty-bound child the Giants are their team, too. But most people around here like the Yankees or Red Sox or, for some reason, the Atlanta Braves.

In response, I’ve started a Facebook page: SF Giants Fans at Western Connecticut State University. I’m hoping a lot of folks have jumped on the bandwagon along with us diehards. Then, even though we didn’t fly 3,000 miles to attend the victory parade in downtown San Francisco on Wednesday, we can talk about it together.

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The politicians I spoke to said the debate between Fifth District Congressional candidates earlier this week at the Portuguese Cultural Center was the best ever held in Danbury. A crowd filled the place and partisan supporters were raucous, with applause and shouts crisscrossing the hall.

But Dr. Chris Kukk, the WCSU professor of political science who sat on a panel that asked questions of the politicians, could only shake his head and grimace.

Neither candidate — incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy nor Republican challenger Sam Caligiuri — would give straightforward answers that provided a full picture of their positions.

Kukk asked the first question of the event. He explained it was based on research by Michael Rollman, a junior political science major from New Fairfield. Kukk had asked his students to develop questions for the debate and Rollman threw himself into the project.

Here is the question Rollman wrote and Kukk asked Murphy and Caligiuri:

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has recently stated in multiple interviews and speeches that “Our national debt is our biggest national security threat,” and has raised concerns about the culture of spending in Congress, which often authorizes higher budgets than the Pentagon has requested. Given that, how do you both justify your support for the continuation of the F-22 program, a program which the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force Chief of Staff, among others, have all said is unnecessary? In other words, please explain why you both would vote for a military program that no one in the military wants. If your answer is jobs, please explain why jobs in Connecticut are more important than resolving the biggest national security threat to the United States.

I wouldn’t want to answer the question, either. In fact, if I won the election, I might try to cut funds for the university as punishment. (Kidding!)

Both Murphy and Caligiuri answered that the Air Force in fact does want more of the F-22, a fighter jet on which the country has already spent $65 billion for 187 planes.

Murphy said: “There is absolutely waste and abuse in military spending. There is no way to attack the deficit in this country without looking at the defense budget. But the Air Force has said they need the F-22. The pilots who use these planes want them.”

Caligiuri said: “I disagree with the questioner. The Air Force has said it needs the F-22. Yes, we need to cut waste. We need to make tough decisions about every aspect of our federal budget. But if there is any one single thing the federal government should be doing, it is to protect our national defense. I will never support balancing the budget on the back of the military.”

Here’s the thing: Rollman has done his homework — beyond the sound bite.

He has copies of letters sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee by the secretary of the Air Force, the Air Force chief of staff, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as a transcript of sworn testimony given by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who all say no more F-22s are needed.

But Rollman also knows that 25,000 jobs are needed to manufacture or assemble parts of the F-22 in 44 different states, including Connecticut. That has prompted members of Congress across the country to give the Pentagon money for the F-22, even when military leaders say they don’t want it.

Rollman said the two politicians were evasive.

“I didn’t really think they gave a proper answer,” Rollman said. “I felt it encapsulated a microcosm of what’s wrong with Congress. If this is just to project defense jobs, that’s not really something we can afford. There are other things we need to spend the money on. Any cuts you make are going to hurt. That doesn’t mean you don’t make them. There are better ways to put people to work.”

Rollman didn’t stop after Monday. The final Fifth District debate was a couple of days later in Farmington. Rollman attended and handed each candidate his pages of research information. They paid attention.

“Sen. Caligiuri gave me his business card and said to call him this weekend on his cell phone,” Rollman said. “He said he would look at it in the car as he was driving to different events. Congressman Murphy’s wife took my information down. Later the congressman said he would get back to me before the election and depending on how things go on Election Day, he’d like to sit down with me and talk about it.”

Note to Dr. Kukk: Please give Mike Rollman an A.

To follow Western Connecticut State University, go to www.wcsu.edu.

Questions about race permeate U.S. society, and we haven’t figured out how to talk about them, as Juan Williams, the NPR correspondent, found out.

NPR fired Williams after he said he worries about being blown up when he boards an airplane and sees “people who are in Muslim garb.”

While most of us do our best to avoid talking about issues of race, ethnicity and religion — because it’s uncomfortable, for example, or we don’t want to get fired — some people keep hammering away.

Bill Imada is one of those people. He runs a national advertising agency and he is especially interested in why some companies insist on using racial and ethnic stereotypes to sell their products.

Imada will speak at WCSU at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the Ballroom of the Westside Campus Center on the Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury.

He is chairman and chief executive office of the IW group. Among the various ad campaigns his company has executed are Warner Brother’s “Inception,” McDonald’s “Brain,” “Safe” for the 2010 Census, and MetLife’s “Dragon Boat.”

Imada also writes a blog for Advertising Age in which he calls out advertising campaigns as offensive and racist. Here is a link to a recent post that critiques ads for MetroPCS featuring actors who play the part of Asian tech advisors.

Imada questions the value of advertising that “typecasts a group of people as perpetual foreigners who remain at the fringe of American society.”

Imada contrasts the MetroPCS campaign with another from Fiber One that features an Asian grocery store manager without the stereotypical slapstick affectations.

As you will see from the postings, several readers think Imada is way too sensitive.

The value is not whether you agree or disagree with Imada’s view on these particular ad campaigns — it’s that he’s promoting the discussion. The United States now almost always uniformly applies constitutional rights regardless of skin color, but as a society we have several levels of standards and acceptance that have nothing to do with legalities.

That is what Imada probes and questions. His appearance at the university, sponsored by the WCSU Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association, is free and open to the public.

America will be better if we all attend.

Follow Western Connecticut State University at wcsu.edu.

Dan Malloy, the Democrat running for governor, apparently read my last post and, through his communications person Brian Durand, issued this statement.

Recently, the Danbury News Times reported on a conversation I had with their editorial board, in which we discussed the pressures placed on some state schools due to our budget problems. The initial version of the story led some readers to believe that I would consider closing one or more state universities.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. As governor, I will be a staunch defender of our state universities, and will work diligently to keep them open and to support them in a manner that allows them to grow and thrive. My campaign reached out to The News Times, who to their credit quickly updated the story on their website to better reflect the conversation we had and the point that I was making.

That point was as follows: a report by the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Appropriations laid out a number of cuts that would be needed to effectively close the state’s budget gap (they were not recommending these cuts). Included in their analysis would be at least one Connecticut State University. I pointed out that due to budget and size, Eastern and Western would be in the most danger if the state ever reached that point. I also laid out all the things I would do as governor to ensure that didn’t happen (more details on my education plan can be read at www.danmalloy.com).

As someone who had to overcome a learning disability at a young age, I’m acutely aware of the power and importance of schools. From kindergarten all the way through our state’s higher education system, we simply can’t underestimate the positive impact our schools have on so many other aspects of our state. At a time when we desperately need to grow jobs and jumpstart our economy, these are the engines for growing the next generation of skilled workers that we so urgently need.

Follow Western Connecticut State University at www.wcsu.edu

A day in the life of a public relations professional:

I was sitting at my desk behaving myself Thursday morning when I came across this statement in a News-Times article about Dan Malloy, the Democrat running for governor:

“I hate Western Connecticut State University.”

Actually, Malloy didn’t say that, but that’s how everyone at the university read it.

The article stated:

On the education front, Malloy said the state has to cut down on “top-heavy” administrative expenses within the university system in an effort to prevent the closure of one of Connecticut’s four universities.

Malloy said a state study had concluded that — based on size and budget allocation — either Western Connecticut State University in Danbury or Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic would be the first to go. That’s not something that he would like to see happen, however.

I distributed the article to appropriate people and I called up reporter Dirk Perrefort, who wrote the story. He told me he had spoken to Malloy’s people that morning and they mentioned that the candidate really wanted to re-emphasize the line, “That’s not something that he would like to see happen, however.”

It turns out a lot of other people on campus were also pondering the article. The local president of the State University Organization of Administrative Faculty said she was swamped with calls from members wondering “What the heck?” The union’s statewide president was trying to contact Malloy’s camp.

After reading Malloy’s comments, Admissions Director Steve Goetsch created a picture in his head of that night’s college fair: It involved students and their parents averting their eyes as they walked quickly past the WCSU table. Why apply to a university that might be closed?

And everyone wanted to know what I was going to do about it.

Well, I could hide under my desk.

Or I come out with a strong statement that adamantly assured the community that Western is here to stay.

As we talked it over, we realized that something in between might be better, and I jotted down some notes.

A few years ago the university did a study that showed for every dollar the state invests in Western — this year it’s $43 million, or 35 percent of the university’s budget — the investment returns $3.73. That is a total of $160 million going into the region in and around Danbury.

About 6,600 students attend WCSU. They contribute more than 100,000 hours of volunteer work and internships to area businesses each year.

I wouldn’t be afraid to mention that 93 percent of Connecticut State University System (CSUS) students are from Connecticut and half are the first in their family to attend college. More than 85 percent of CSUS graduates remain in the state to run businesses and otherwise lead productive lives. In a recession, especially, we’re all looking for ways to increase job opportunities and tax revenue.

And nothing against the University of Connecticut but I might point out that last month the Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes noted that CSUS had in excess of 2,000 fewer full-time employees than UConn, which serves 30,000 students, compared with the 36,600 who attend the four CSUS schools.

The end result: I lost a Thursday, but it could not be more clear that there is just no way to hate WestConn.

To follow Western Connecticut State University, go to www.wcsu.edu

Tim O’Brien, the author of “The Things They Carried,” is going to speak at WCSU at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26, as part of “One Book, One Community,” the project to bring people together through books.

Many other “One Book” events are taking place throughout the month. You can see them here.

What “The Things They Carried” does is give some insight to the experience of military people, both in war and when they return home. The book’s most disturbing parts are not the scenes of battle, which are horrific, but rather the times when characters remember and retell their experiences. Battle has set them apart. They have trouble comprehending their situations, and the family and friends they return to have no idea.

When you read the book, you will gain a better understanding.

At the kickoff press conference for “One Book,” Brian Bielefeldt, a WCSU student and a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan spoke, explaining why he would like as many people as possible to read “The Things They Carried.” Here is what he said:

I am an art major, a graphic designer and a computer science minor.

But, I am not a “traditional” college student. I enlisted in the Army as an airborne infantryman and now I am a veteran, with experiences that range from a combat parachute assault into northern Iraq to over 15,000 miles driven in Afghanistan in some of the most treacherous terrain I’ve ever seen.

When I was asked to speak today I wasn’t sure if I was going to accept. After reading “The Things They Carried,” I realized the underlying significance of this book to our community. With so many young people such as myself coming home and having to live with the experience of war, I feel our communities are ill-equipped to assist in the transition for those returning. Out of a platoon of 30 soldiers I have had two friends commit suicide due to the lack of support from our V.A. and their communities.

Sgt. Colman Bean, and Spc. Jake Swanson.

That’s very difficult for me to say out loud but it is reality.

Our community will benefit greatly by exposing itself to a small part of a thought process experienced by many veterans of today’s generation. Not that they would “know” but more in the realm of recognizing the sensitivity of those returning.

If you were to approach any veteran and ask them if they needed help or someone to talk to, the majority would probably refuse or even be offended. That may be due to their independence but more than likely it has to do with the stigma surrounding mental and physical health in the military.

I feel this community read may not only help those who are not veterans but also those who are, simply by creating a commonality, a talking point or even a silent understanding.

And to quote a chapter from the book, “Speaking of Courage,” page 149, second paragraph:

“He lived with his parents, who supported him, and who treated him with kindness and obvious love. At one point he had enrolled in the junior college in his home town, but the course work, he said, seemed too abstract, too distant, with nothing real or tangible at stake, certainly not the stakes of war.”

Follow Western Connecticut State University at www.wcsu.edu. View information about the services for veterans at WCSU here.

No one has ever mistaken me for a genius.

Piquantly humorous? Yes. Ruggedly handsome? Check. Smartest one in the room?

Well, at least he makes us laugh.

But I’ll have you know I might be changing some minds.

The folks at WCSU give me permission to teach a writing course each semester and at the beginning of last year I decided to make all my students write down one detail about something they notice every day. They get weekends off but otherwise I want five details by the end of the week.

It was the best thing I could have done as a teacher. Some observers actually tell me it’s the best idea any teacher has ever had.

I will let others judge that, but I must say this detail thing is successful. Looking for details is good for a writer, because whether you are typing an e-mail to mom or you are putting together a technical manual, you should provide specifics that give readers a picture in their minds of what you are talking about.

My students are realizing that they have excellent powers of observation and are very good at reproducing those observations in written form. They surprise themselves but they are happy to discover their talents. And they inspire me.

Following is a sampling from this semester’s “Habit of Writing” class:

I saw someone relaxing on a grassy hill, reading a book. His shoes were off and a cloud was casting shade on part of the hill.

He swam so quickly when I touched his bowl. His tiny neon blue-striped body left a streak of light as he swam.

Today I noticed if you drive around in circles in the parking lot, sooner or later you will find a spot! (Even though it is very frustrating.)

My mother’s eyes flood with tears as she watches her favorite Lifetime movie.

Today I watched my roommate get excited after hearing that her family was coming to visit.

I watched as a mother yelled at her children from the front porch of her house. Her young twin daughters quickly responded to her, looking as though they’d been caught and in trouble.

Today I noticed that I didn’t expect to miss my dogs as much as I do.

I felt my pocket get lighter as I filled up my gas tank…

Many shoots of a weeping willow tree hang over the road on the Westside campus of WCSU.

People waiting for the train are generally angry about something and don’t talk much. Even when asking for a lighter, they only raise their hand in the “Bic-flick” motion. Travel is frustrating.

Car blinkers are there for a reason… I don’t understand why people won’t follow through with such a simple but potentially critical action.

The green lawn in front of my house is covered with yellow leaves that just swirled down a moment ago.

I watched the sunset today. The sky was a dusty blue that faded into a pink color like a peach and the sun a small sliver just visible over the tree line. It was very pretty.

I’m sitting at the bar waiting for football to start when a woman walks in. She points to the bartender and says “You will find true love at 8 tonight.” Then she looks at me and says “You will find it at 1.”

When you write neat you can actually understand your notes better!

The crystal clear water splashed out of my cup and onto my hand as I was pouring water into it.

Today I realized if I study in the library, I get my work done much faster than if I were to sit in my room and do it.

Before a scrum, three greasy rugby players stand supporting each other with their arms wrapped around their sides. They have dazed looks on their faces like a bunch of drunks at a bar about to collapse.

As I walked through the aisles of Staples I imagined myself buying everything!

I woke up from a nightmare and found it was time to get up. Now I still feel drowsy and unhappy. So, does someone’s emotion the next day have anything to do with the time of a nightmare?

After working out for the first time in two months, I noticed I wasn’t able to move my back.

Customers get mad when you put bananas on the bottom of their bag.

On the way to school, out of nowhere I heard a “pa pa” sound. After listening to it for awhile very carefully I found out that it came from the song I was listening to.

As I walked through campus I could hear the faint sounds of music being played. Walking closer I found a couple guys sitting on the grass, quietly strumming their guitars and talking to each other.

The round, black tire sat underneath the car with a slump, telling me it didn’t want to go anywhere.

Today was a really tiring day due to the fact that “The Habit of Writing” class is back after the holiday. This means an extra class on Mondays.

Today is my last day as a 21 year old.

Two young men were crossing a not-busy road, riding bicycles. Although no cars were coming, they still turned their heads to the right as much as possible. Then they turned to each other and nodded while they started to cross the road.

I would rather go to school more, and work less.

I slide the magazine in and start adjusting my sights, aiming right for the center of the target. I breathe in and then breathe out, slowly putting my finger on the trigger and start pulling. I have no clue when this thing is going to fire but I know it will. An explosion goes off and the barrel snaps back and throws an empty round on the ground. What an amazing feeling.

I like to fold sweaters. I find it relaxing.

Learn more about Western Connecticut State University at www.WCSU.edu.

Part of my job is to plan events on campus, a task for which I was once woefully unprepared.

You would think that a newspaper editor, in charge of bringing a new product from concept to street corner every day of the year, would be good at planning other types of happenings, most of which are much less complicated.

You would be wrong. One day, while recovering from an especially dismal failure here, I analyzed the situation and figured out that at the newspaper, everyone else was doing the work. Sometimes I would assign or kill a story, tweak a headline, change a sentence around, and then I would take the credit for the whole operation. If the paper didn’t get to subscribers on time any given morning, I would blame the circulation department.

Soon after I arrived at Western, I was assigned the task of planning a ribbon cutting for a new parking garage. I ordered fancy invitations, which took too long to print and they arrived late. The one thing you really want at a ribbon cutting is a big audience to listen to the dignitaries, which in this case someone else had put together. I scrambled to assemble a crowd. My wife showed up, but she was lonely.

I think of my early efforts every time I plan an event.

The next one is coming up at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30, in Warner Hall. As part of Banned Books Week, which we celebrate annually on campus, I organize a reading by WCSU faculty who have published books in the past year.

Each author reads from his or her book and talks for a few minutes about the process of writing, reporting and of actually becoming an author.

Here are this year’s authors and their books:

• Dr. Edward Hagan, professor in the department of writing, linguistics and creative process, “Goodbye Yeats and O’Neill: Farce in Contemporary Irish & Irish-American Narratives”
• Dr. Jane Gangi, associate professor in the instructional leadership program, “Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms”
• Dr. Fred Maidment, associate professor in the management department, “Annual Editions: Human Resources, Management, and International Business”
• Dr. Bozena M. Padykula, assistant professor of nursing, “Giving through Teaching: How Nurse Educators are Changing the World”

Some of you are thinking you would rather go to a parking garage ribbon cutting, but in fact these faculty author readings are interesting, which makes it easier to deliver a decent crowd.

In past years, professors have discussed what excites them about teaching, and how they learned to use technology in the nursing lab, for instance. Others read their poetry or explained the history of jazz in New York. We have one professor who is a for-real best-selling author: Dr. Kevin Gutzman wrote “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution,” which gets him frequent air-time on radio talk shows. You might not normally pick up a book on any of those topics, but whether they are famous or not, our faculty share a passion for their work that is not common. I could listen all day to people talk about what they love to do.

That’s why you should join us at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30 in Warner Hall. If you are attending from off-campus, park in the lot next to Old Main. Here is a campus map.

We will serve cookies. And you’ll get to meet my wife.

Follow Western Connecticut State University at www.wcsu.edu