The Daily Campus: March 4, 2011

Volume CXVIII No. 105

» INSIDE

www.dailycampus.com

Friday, March 4, 2011

Bond commission: $12.8M for univ. projects

By Kate Smith Senior Staff Writer

ON A HAPPIER NOTE....

No one leaves Lidiv Piano Trio show livid.

FOCUS/ page 7

Last Thursday, the State Bond Commission approved the allocation of $12.8 million to the Connecticut State University System (CSUS) which will be used to advance numerous projects around the campuses. The largest project, which will require an estimated $5.2 million, is the new construction of a public safety building at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), as it is currently dually housed in a former residence and trailer.

“Gov. Malloy and the State Bond Commission are to be commended for investing in the universities and moving these important and much needed projects forward,” said Richard J. Balducci, vice chairman of the CSUS Board of Trustees. “Higher education is an important catalyst in revitalizing Connecticut’s economy, and the Connecticut State University

ARI MASON/The Daily Campus

Construction continues to be done between Homer Babbidge library and the Hawley armory.

System is certainly well-positioned to lead the way.”

The most substantial addition to the CSUS is the construction of a public safety building at CCSU, which will replace the antediluvian house and trailer that cur-

rently is home to the department.

Design of the new building has already been solidified, and this recent approval of fund will allow construction to move forward.

Davidson Hall, an iconic CCSU building and home to administra-

tive and academic departments, will also receive $1 million in order to implement needed fire code improvements.

“We are grateful to Secretary Barnes [of the Office of Policy and Management] for his diligence in reviewing these projects and appreciate the leadership of Gov. Malloy in advancing projects with a compelling and demonstrated need,” said CSUS chancellor David G. Carter. “Our universities are an investment in Conecticut’s future, as we prepare students who will remain in our state in overwhelming numbers, contributing to Connecticut’s economic vitality and quality of life.”

Nearby Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) will be breaking ground on a new softball field costing about $2.7 million.

The former field was displaced about two years ago upon the construction of parking facilities on campus. The new field will be NCAA regulation sized and in compliance with Title IX regula-

By Courtney Robishaw Campus Correspondent

UConn to spend spring break in San Diego.

SPORTS/ page 14 EDITORIAL: UCONN CAN DO MORE TO SUPPORT ROTC After incidents at Columbia University students need to do more to support ROTC. COMMENTARY/page 4

ASHLEY POSPISIL/The Daily Campus

John Yurek enthusiastically enters the field during the Fiesta Bowl in January. The university lost more than $1.6 million during the trip to the bowl.

UConn faculty and student publish finidings.

NEWS/ page 2

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» index Classifieds 3 Comics 10 Commentary 4 Crossword/Sudoku 10 Focus 7 InstantDaily 4 Sports 14

The Daily Campus 11 Dog Lane Storrs, CT 06268 Box U-4189

Katherine.H.Smith@UConn.edu

Senate race not in the future for Courtney

Along The golden coast

INSIDE NEWS: ONE QUARTER OF GENOME DATABASE CONTAMINATED

tions in its athletic program.

But not all students agree with the “compelling and demonstrated” need of the field, since the substantial grant will only affect a small facet of the school population.“I thought they were using the money to build a new dorm or academic building,” said Mallory Violette, a 6th-semester elementary education major at ECSU. “They could use that money to fix up some old dorms or academic buildings instead of a softball field. That would benefit all students because there are places that need improvement.”Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) will also be included in the new building projects with the addition of a new home for the School of Business which is currently housed in Seabury Hall, which has been slated for demolitions due to serious structural deficiencies. The project is estimated to cost $3.87 million.

Fiesta Bowl document shows loss to be more than $1.6M, taking donor revenue into account

By Mac Cerullo Sports Editor According to a new financial document obtained by The Daily Campus, the UConn athletic department valued their Fiesta Bowl losses at $1,663,560, taking into account revenue that was generated from a donor reception that wasn’t included in the official summary of Fiesta Bowl expenses submitted to the NCAA. The official summary stated the losses to be closer to $1.8 million, which was the figure reported yesterday.

In the new financial statement, the donor revenue was combined with the total ticket sale revenue and valued at $676,248. Taking into account the ticket revenue listed in the NCAA document, which totaled $507,530, it can be estimated that the donor reception generated about $168,718 worth of revenue for the school.

The university also accounted for certain costs differently in the financial statement than they did in their statement to the NCAA. One notable change was the movement of about $100,000

worth of ticket expenses from the school’s total allotment (the value of the 17,500 tickets the school was required to sell) to the total cost of sending the band to the game.

Another was the separation of expenses into “team operations” and “cost of band/cheerleaders for travel,” as opposed to “travel expense,” “meals/ lodging per diem expense” and “other expenses.”

Mike Enright, the associate athletic director for communications, said that the school will also receive $3.8 million from the Big East conference for being a member of the football playing conference, though he added that this payment is unrelated to the Fiesta Bowl and that all eight Big East football schools receive it.

He also reiterated the athletic department’s original stance that long-term recruiting and donor benefits, not short-term profits, were the goal of the trip.

“I think it is fair to point out that the athletic department was perfectly honest and upfront in December that these were going to be the costs of the bowl,” Enright said. “We believe that the appearance in the bowl will

pay great long-term benefit for the Division of Athletics and the entire university.”

Since news of the financial loss broke, a great deal of the public reaction has centered on the huge amount of unsold tickets and the resulting financial bath the university took as a result.

One thing that has also been noted, however, is that there were a lot more than 2,771 UConn fans in attendance at the Fiesta Bowl.

UConn’s attempts to sell tickets were severely undercut by secondary markets such as eBay and stubhub.com. With high transportation expenses just to get to the game, many fans opted to go for the better deal, rather than buy a package through the university.

It didn’t help UConn’s case that tickets to the game could be purchased for as little as $3.99 each on stubhub.com the day of the game.

“The number of tickets sold doesn’t reflect interest in the game,” Enright told the Hartford Courant last month.

“It’s reflective of secondary market and price of airfare and hotels.”

UConn’s tickets were priced

at $105, $155, $190, $235 and $255. Of those tickets, the university sold 985 out of 1,000 of the $105 tickets, along with about half of the $255 ones. The other three groups of tickets, however, cost UConn dearly.

Out of those three sets, the school sold a combined 1,198 from the allotted 15,001, which was the majority of UConn’s potential ticket revenue.

The Fiesta Bowl requires the school to commit to selling a particular number of tickets, in this case, 17,500. This is not unusual for bowl games, and this requirement, more than any other factor, proved to be responsible for UConn’s huge financial loss. By requiring schools to sell the tickets, the Fiesta Bowl insulated itself from the potential losses and passed the buck to the participating universities.

Once UConn had the tickets, potential customers were preyed upon by the exorbitant cross-country travel costs and the better deals found on secondary markets. Given these facts, it could be argued that the losses were unavoidable.

Michael.Cerullo@UConn.edu

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, recently announced that he will not be running for the U.S. Senate in 2012.

Instead of moving to the Senate, Courtney will be staying in the House, where the Democrats represent the minority.

Courtney made this decision by vowing to continue to work for his constituents in eastern Connecticut.

According to Courtney, he is concerned with recent measures passed in the House by the Republican majority.

“House Republicans last week pushed through a measure to slash support for our firefighters, gut funding that helps homeless veterans and ended critical infrastructure investment and the jobs that go with it,” Courtney said in a statement.

Courtney has been trying to make higher education more accessible to middle class families by passing the College Cost Reduction Act. This piece of legislation would increase Pell Grants for students and reduce the interest rate for student loans.

Courtney would still like more support for middle class students who would like to go to college.

In the past few years, Courtney has acquired two grants for UConn, including one for $657,564 to promote UConn’s Online Reading Comprehension Assessment in June 2009. A second federal grant for $46,285 was awarded to UConn’s Nursing Program to enhance the program and reduce student costs in May 2009.

Courtney will stay in the House to represent eastern Connecticut for the next two years to make sure his district continues “to have a strong voice defending its priorities,” he said.

“I am truly grateful for the tremendous encouragement and enthusiastic support I have received from leaders across Connecticut as I have considered this question,” Courtney said.

According to Courtney, he has done many things to benefit Connecticut over the past four years.

Courtney.Robishaw@UConn.edu

What’s on at UConn this weekend...

F-1 OPT Workshop Friday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Student Union Rm. 307 The workshop will cover the basics on OPT, work authorization, including filing procedures, differences between pre-and postcompletion OPT.

Friday Film Festival Friday, 12:15 to 1:45 p.m.

The Benton The Rape of Europa: This epic film documents the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures.

Views and Reviews Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Benton “Views and Re-Views” is an exhibition of Soviet-era political posters and cartoons dating from 1919 through the 1980s.

Men’s basketball Senior Day Saturday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Gampel Pavillion UConn men’s basketball will host Notre Dame Saturday at Gampel Pavillion.

-NICHOLAS RONDINONE

The Daily Campus, Page 2

Friday, March 4, 2011

News

DAILY BRIEFING Obama to astronauts: Unpack robot in space soon » STATE

Charges against former lawmaker are dropped

MANCHESTER (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped their case against a former state lawmaker accused of inappropriately touching a girl inside Tolland Middle School.

Michael Cardin had been charged with risk of injury to a minor and disorderly conduct. The Journal Inquirer of Manchester reports those charges were dropped on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old Cardin has been on paid administrative leave from his job as a social studies teacher since his arrest in September. A warrant says several female students told investigators Cardin made them feel uncomfortable and one alleged he rubbed her neck and shoulders and looked down her shirt.

Cardin, free on bond, has refused comment. A message seeking comment was left Thursday with his attorney, Stephen McEleney.

Cardin, a Democrat, served as state representative from the 53rd District from 1994 to 2006.

State smoker gets another $15.7M against company

NEW HAVEN (AP) — A federal judge has awarded nearly $16 million in interest to a smoker who already had won $12 million against a tobacco company in the first such jury award in New England.

Judge Stefan Underhill awarded about $15.7 million to Barbara Izzarelli, a Norwich resident who developed larynx cancer. She had won her case last year against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Underhill rejected claims by R.J. Reynolds that the interest was excessive. He says interest is mandatory under the law and is designed to encourage defendants to accept reasonable settlement offers.

» NATION

Airlines raising domestic fares again

DALLAS (AP) — Airfares at major U.S. airlines are climbing again, continuing a dizzying pace of nearly weekly increases on both penny-pinching vacationers and expense-account corporate fliers.

The airlines are raising fares to cover higher jet fuel prices, and the strategy seems to be working. US Airways said Thursday that if the trend toward higher revenue continues, it will be able to cover foreseeable increases in fuel costs.

Jet fuel prices are over $3 a gallon, the second-highest reading in March behind only 2008, when oil prices surged to record levels and U.S. airlines lost billions of dollars.

Delta Air Lines touched off the latest fare hike by adding up to $20 to the price of domestic round-trip flights for tickets bought on short notice. American Airlines choose a more modest increase of $10 per round trip but applied it to virtually all tickets for travel within the 48 contiguous states.

Mom held on $5M bond in death of boy found in oven

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge has set bond at $5 million for the woman charged with murder in the death of her 3-year-old son, whose body was found in an oven.

The Delta Democrat Times reports bond was set by City Judge Michael Prewitt during Robinson’s initial court appearance Thursday.

Authorities say they found the child’s body in an electric oven at his mother’s apartment in Greenville.

Washington County Coroner Methel Johnson says it’s unclear if the child was already dead when he was placed in the oven.

Johnson said an autopsy would likely be completed Friday.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Robinson has a lawyer.

Inmates who refuse hair cuts sent to high security

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Several Rastafarians and other inmates have been moved to a high-security prison as officials try to persuade them to cut their hair, which many refuse to do because it goes against their religious beliefs.

Many inmates had spent more than a decade in isolation for refusing to cut their hair and then were all first moved to the same prison in November. Their refusal violates the state’s grooming policy for prisoners. Some of those recently moved are still working through a program meant to persuade them to cut their hair. Nine chose to go back into segregation, corrections department spokesman Larry Traylor said Thursday.

Corrections officials said the program would give the inmates more privileges and a chance to socialize. In letters to the AP, several inmates criticized it as little more than segregation by another name.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The 12 astronauts on the orbiting shuttle-station complex had to explain to a higher authority Thursday why they hadn’t yet unpacked R2, the first humanoid robot in space.

In a phone call to the two crews, President Barack Obama congratulated them for their joint mission and made note of shuttle Discovery’s final flight.

Then he went straight to the robot matter.

“I understand that you guys have a new crew member, this R2 robot,” Obama said from the Oval Office. “Are you guys making him do chores up there?

Washing the dishes or something? Or does he have more exciting jobs?”

Discovery’s commander, Steven Lindsey, explained that the astronauts had pulled the robot out of the newly installed storage unit but had yet to remove the packing foam around the humanoid.

“He’s still in packing foam?”

Obama asked with a laugh.

“That’s a shame, man. Come on guys, unpack the guy. He flew all that way and you guys aren’t unpacking him?”

Lindsey said the robot, officially known as Robonaut 2, has been encased in foam for months.

“Every once in a while, we hear kind of some scratching

AP

In this image provided by NASA the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module in the grasp of the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 is being transferred from space shuttle Discovery’s payload bay to be permanently attached to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity node Tuesday

sounds from inside and maybe a ‘let me out, let me out.’ “ “All right,” the president said, “well, let him stretch his legs pretty soon.”

Actually, R2 doesn’t have legs yet. The robot exists only from the waist up.

After the call, flight

director Royce Renfrew said NASA would stick to its plans to keep Robonaut boxed up on the International Space Station until long after Discovery departs with its crew of six.

R2 was designed to be an astronaut helper, taking care of simple,

monotonous chores. Its arrival at the space station was delayed four months because of Discovery’s prolonged grounding.

On Thursday, NASA managers added a 13th day to Discovery’s mission, which already had been stretched earlier in the week to 12.

Non-teaching faculty hiring requires new approval

By Kate Smith Senior Staff Writer In an effort to quell state budget concerns, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced all nonteaching position hirings within the state’s public college and universities must be approved by his budget office. This new requirement was implemented following state capital trepidations of depleting education funds at the university and college level.

“It’s an added control mechanism that we make sure we are actually spending as much money as we possibly can in classrooms, as opposed to in administration positions, “ Malloy said in a press conference last Thursday. “So I think it’s a good idea to have someone keeping an eye on it.”

At UConn, non-faculty staff including administration, maintenance and public safety make

up nearly 70 percent of fulltime employees. Combining the Connecticut State University System’s schools and the state’s 12-campus community college system, the percentage drops down to about 50, according to a report published by the State Department of Higher Education.

According to a 2009 State Department of Higher Education report, in the past 20 years, 3,993 new non-faculty positions were created, compared to only 1,955 faculty positions, as enrollment increased by 24 percent among all public institutions.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth in non-faculty,” said Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti. “Some if it is understandable, but given the track record we’ve seen in the last 20 years, a little more engagement on position control is worth it.”

State higher education institutions, which have enjoyed inde-

pendent hiring since 1991, have raised questions and concerns regarding the change.

According to Mary Anne Cox, the assistant chancellor for the community college system, the new system would put the colleges at a disadvantage and that it gives decision making power to people who “don’t understand higher education like we do.”

Education officials have also voiced their concerns over the inefficiency of the new system.

“It’s going to delay things,” said Richard J. Balducci, acting chairman of the CSUS Board of Trustees. “You are talking about adding another level. Now it’s done in a relatively quick fashion.

I think the process works.”

But state officials in Hartford disagree that the new protocol would add extraneous amounts of time.

“It’s all done electronically,” said Ben Barnes, the head of the budget office that would review potential hirings. “It doesn’t sit

was identical to one in humans and could not be part of the fish genome. The only explanation was that the sample he was studying was contaminated.

“Contamination in these databases could be from people’s skin or hair, or it could be DNA from other sequence libraries kept in the same facility,” Long said. “We knew we needed to quantify this to see how many of the databases contained human contamination.”

Any sequencing project paid for by federal funds is required to be deposited into one of a few archives, including the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the University of California Santa Cruz, the Joint Genome Database and the Ensembl Genome Browser.

So the team started gathering

sequences from all of these major DNA repositories in an attempt to find out if similar contaminations had occurred.

Out of the 2,027 samples that they found were contaminated with human DNA, 454 of them contained non-primate DNA, even though the samples tested were specific to primates.

Rachel O’Neill said that contamination could go both ways, but that it is difficult to identify a foreign section of DNA in the human genome.

“It’s virtually impossible to find human contamination in human genome database,” O’Neill said. She added that contamination in these samples could lead to some enormous errors made in the medical diagnoses.

“It would be very upsetting to

for more than a day.”

“If they want to hire 15 custodians, we just want to make sure there are vacant positions and that they have money to do that,” he added. “I would rather they not be hiring new people if it means some faculty may be laid off.”

Malloy’s proposal has yet to be approved by state lawmakers giving college and university officials a chance to provide input.

Hoping to change policy maker’s minds, the community college system sent a report outlining their misgivings with the change.

“Excessive oversight, unnecessary regulations and redundant levels of approval for many administrative activities often undermine the ability of the community colleges to efficiently respond to the needs of students, our business partners and the communities we serve,” the report read.

Katherine.H.Smith@UConn.edu

One quarter of genome database contaminated

By Ben Fecther Campus Correspondent On Feb. 18, Associate Professor Rachel O’Neill, Associate Professor Michael O’Neill and graduate student Mark Longo of the molecular and cell biology department in CLAS published their findings of contamination in nearly one quarter of genome databases.

Their discovery began when Longo was examining the genome of zebrafish and comparing it to the human genome.

He was trying to find ultra-conserved regions, which are bits of DNA that may be similar among species that are anciently related, like humans and fish. What Longo found was surprising, he located a region of DNA that

be told you have a mutation for breast cancer when in fact you don’t, and it was just a contamination from another sample.”

O’Neill stressed the importance of using extreme caution when performing sequencing, which is finding the order of nucleotides on a given DNA fragment, to determine its purpose. She added that scientists should validate their tests in their own laboratories before sending them into databases.

“Millions of dollars are invested each year in these sequence databases, but we’re plowing ahead with less caution than we should,” O’Neill said. “The result is that we might have a harder time recognizing…something like cancer.”

Benjamin.Fecther@UConn.edu

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This space is reserved for addressing errors when The Daily Campus prints information that is incorrect. Anyone with a complaint should contact The Daily Campus offices and file a corrections request form. All requests are subject to approval by the Managing Editor or the Editor-in-Chief.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Copy Editors: Sam Marshall, Dan Agabiti, Cindy Luo, Melanie Deziel News Designer: Nicholas Rondinone Focus Designer: Brian Zahn Sports Designer: Matt McDonough Digital Production: Ed Ryan

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Daily Campus, Page 3

News

Students opt for non-traditional spring break

By Amy Schellembaum Associate Managing Editor

Come Mardi Gras, 50 University of Connecticut students are journeying to New Orleans, but not to collect strings of beads, guzzle booze or enjoy beignets and jazz.

Instead, the students will be spending their nights in a church and their days restoring wildlife, tutoring children and building homes. Not exactly “College Students Gone Wild.”

The students on the strictly alcohol-free Honors Alternative Spring Break (HASB) trip will study the social, economic and political issues of the city, all the while surrounded by the boisterous effects of an unusually late Mardi Gras.

This is just one group of students who are participating in alternative spring breaks, a swelling trend at universities across the nation.

More than 72,000 college students will go on an alternative break this school year, according to an estimation by Break Away, an organization that helps colleges organize volunteer trips. That number is based on a reported steady increase in participation for each of the last six years, said Programs Director of Break Away Samantha Giacobozzi in an interview.

The surge of interest in alternative breaks began with a flurry of volunteer activity after the publicized devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Giacobozzi said.

“University students and administrations decided that Katrina’s effects on the Gulf Coast gave them an incentive to start a program,” Giacobozzi said.

UConn students volunteer labor for hurricane relief during a past Alternative Spring Break trip to Immokalee, Fla. Five years later, with the media spotlight on areas affected by spring’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, students and coordinators in alternative breaks are again focusing on the tangled social, economic and environmental issues that snag the lives of families still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

“There’s definitely a high level of interest for students to go work in the Gulf Coast this year,” Giacobozzi said.

This year, students are most interested is environmental issues, according to a Break Away study. That concern, coupled with the news media’s graphic images of animals and wetlands coated in sludge from the Deepwater Horizon spill, has many groups returning to the Deep South to offer help.

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Though cleaning up oil is a hazardous materials issue that requires more training than most student-run trips have access to, students are still interested in understanding the complexities of an area in turmoil.

“It’s an educational experience for us,” said Margaret McCarthy, the director for this year’s HASB trip at UConn. “When you get down there, you…learn about their livelihoods.”

“We want to communicate with the people down there in a meaningful way,” said Laura Hatchman, a team leader for UConn’s HASB trip.

But an integral question remains: why are thousands of young people giving up their school breaks to build homes and learn about social crises? The most obvious answer is a sense of obligation to help others.

“There’s always a time in our

lives when we need help and if we don’t give help when we can, we can’t really expect help in return. We have to keep the cycle going,” said Hatchman, who went to Florida last spring to learn about problems facing migrant workers.

The trip also offers students an opportunity to visit a new place, oftentimes watching daily life through a lens that is not presented to them in movies and news broadcasts, Hatchman said. Last year’s trip to Immokalee, Fla. exposed the students to the faces, settings and stories behind the controversial and political issue of the rights illegal immigrants have to fair jobs and lawful wages.

Traveling with dozens of people one’s own age forces and forges a bond that makes the trip an entertaining and eye-opening social experience as well,

Hatchman said.

“The first day is like summer camp,” she said.

The 30-hour bus ride one way to Immokalee meant sleeping on the shoulders of people they’ve just met, half a dozen games of “Truth or Dare,” a miniature dance party and hours of bleary, slow and sleep-deprived conversation.

By the time the group reached the city in southern Florida, the members’ parallel experiences with exhaustion, claustrophobia and bus toilets laid the groundwork for a week of tiresome labor that would produce trusting, accepting and loving relationships that can spring only from emotional work and hours of time together, said Hatchman.

The trip doesn’t disrupt the academic four-year course plan, making it easier for students

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Policies:

For ads of 25 words or less: 1 day............................................................................ $5.75 3 consecutive days........................................................ $15.25 5 consecutive days: . .................................................... $26.50 10 consecutive days:..................................................... $48.00 1 month:..................................................................... $88.00 Semester: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ................................ $215.00 Each additional word: ... ... . .................................... ... ..$0.10 Additional Features: Bold ... ........................................... .$0.50

for rent

KELLY GANLEEY/The Daily Campus

to participate in than a study abroad program. Many universities also offer academic credit.

The majority of trips in the U.S. cost between $100 and $200 per student and include meals and transportation, according to a Break Away survey. Average costs are kept low because 26 percent of alternative breaks get $175 to $200 per student from fundraising and grant money. This cost is in contrast with the average of $1,200 for more typical college students’ Spring Break trips, according to Student Travel Services, an online marketplace for travel agents and college students that specializes in spring breaks at warm and beachy locations.

“It is relatively inexpensive for a trip to New Orleans, but we don’t want people to go because it’s a cheaper trip,” McCarthy said. “You have to work and prepare for it.”

“I don’t think everyone was strictly altruistic…I’m sure some students go on them because they’re fun and inexpensive,” Giacobozzi said. “I like to think those who go on the trips for those reasons come back changed.”

The goal of alternative breaks is not isolated to one week of volunteer labor, Giacobozzi said. Break Away hopes to make students “active citizens” by providing experiences so that they make awareness and volunteering a priority in their own communities.

Hatchman said the trip is bigger than one week; it’s how that one week affects how they see and treat people in need throughout the rest of their lives.

“But who says we can’t do all that and also eat a beignet or two?” Hatchman said.

Classifieds are non-refundable. Credit will be given if an error materially affects the meaning of the ad and only for the first incorrect insertion.

Ads will only be printed if they are accompanied by both first and last name as well as telephone number. Names and numbers may be subject to verification. All advertising is subject to acceptance by The Daily Campus, which reserves the right to reject any ad copy at its sole discretion. The Daily Campus does not knowingly accept ads of a fraudulent nature.

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Page 4

www.dailycampus.com

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Daily Campus Editorial Board

John Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief Taylor Trudon, Commentary Editor Cindy Luo, Associate Commentary Editor Michelle Anjirbag, Weekly Columnist Arragon Perrone, Weekly Columnist

» EDITORIAL

UConn can do more to support ROTC

C

ollege campuses are meant to welcome all kinds of people regardless of their ethnicity, gender, nationality, race or religious conviction. But a recent incident at Columbia University has shown that at least one group risks discrimination: the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). On Feb. 15, students heckled and booed a wheelchair-bound Iraq War Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient at a town hall meeting held to discuss whether ROTC should be allowed on campus. At one point, some students called Anthony Mascheck a “racist” as he addressed the crowd.

This disgusting behavior exhibited by certain members of the Columbia University student body is unjustifiable. Veterans and ROTC cadets deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

Whether or not students agree with a particular war, they need to honor those, like Mascheck, who put their lives on the line so that other Americans can live in peace. Freedom of speech may protect what protestors say, but common human decency obliges them to follow a certain standard of behavior.

ROTC enjoys greater rights at UConn than at other institutions like Columbia, which has denied the program an on-campus presence for 42 years. At UConn, cadets can be seen on-campus on any given day, marching through Fairfield Way in the early morning, earning an education while learning skills that will make them better leaders or simply hanging out with friends. On certain days, they can be seen proudly wearing their uniforms as they balance their academic duties with their ROTC responsibilities, which is no small task.

Despite the positive environment ROTC enjoys at UConn, the university can do more to make ROTC cadets feel welcome and expose civilian students to the real sacrifices of voluntary service, so that incidents like the one at Columbia do not happen here. The easiest way to make cadets feel welcome and promote dialogue is to show some appreciation. As cadets walk by, tell them “thank you for your service,” or, “I support you.” Some cadets are veterans who have seen conflict, and offering them a simple “thank you” can go a long way to making them feel at home and easing their transition into civilian life.

The military is not for everyone, but that does not give civilian students the right to treat those who choose to serve with disrespect or contempt. So next time you see a cadet, be thankful that you are at a university that appreciates the dedication of its servicemen and women, and know that there is always more that can be done to honor them. In Mascheck’s own words, “It doesn’t matter how you feel about war. It doesn’t matter how you feel about fighting.” Those who serve deserve the greatest amount of respect at Columbia, at UConn and at every college campus in this country.

The Daily Campus editorial is the official opinion of the newspaper and its editorial board. Commentary columns express opinions held solely by the author and do not in any way reflect the official opinion of The Daily Campus.

When I’m on the elevator alone, I dance like a maniac until the doors open.

D-Chi had it coming.

Productivity? What is this sorcery?

I sang, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” but it didn’t save me from midterms.

You know it’s a good day when your professor talks about pirate porn in reference to the lecture.

Dear Bookworms, Thank you for making the coffee stronger as it gets later. It’s like you know my heart.

Am I the only person whose feet can’t completely touch the floor on the shuttle?

Pre-break chores: Clean the room, empty the garbage, pack up laundry, finish all the alcohol in the fridge...

While I was studying, my roommate set up his camera to record me so that he could show me how weird I look.

Beats headphones are the new Uggs.

It’s called Spring Break. Can it please be spring now?

I just went to print my history paper I was proactive enough to write last week... it didnt save...

I haven’t been sober one night this week. Suck it midterms.

Send us your thoughts on anything and everything by sending an instant message to InstantDaily, Sunday through Thursday evenings. Follow us on Twitter (@ InstantDaily) and become fans on Facebook.

Limit texting in class, we all know it’s rude

W

e are all guilty of doing it.

No, I’m not talking about watching “Teen Mom 2” (I dare you to convince me that it’s not addicting), eating Lucky Charms for dinner or saying that you didn’t use Wikipedia as a source when you did. I’m talking about texting during class.

As a society, we are attached to our cell phones. I don’t know about anyone else, but not having my CrackBerry – err, BlackBerry – with me when I leave my apartment for the day

By Taylor Trudon would be compaCommentary Editor rable to me leaving my apartment and not wearing any underwear. It would be extremely uncomfortable. The only time I don’t have my phone within reach is when I go to the gym, where I force myself to leave it in my backpack. Nevertheless, I spend a good amount of time thinking about all the e-mails and missed texts I’m getting as I sweat on the elliptical. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that not having my phone induces separation anxiety.

We read it in bold print on our syllabuses and our professors remind us on the first day of class at the beginning of each year.

We shouldn’t be using our cell phones to chat, text or check our Facebook newsfeeds, but we all do it anyway. But what’s interesting is that we continue to do it even

though we know it’s wrong. According to a new study completed by the University of New Hampshire, 49 percent of students revealed they felt guilty texting during class, yet 65 percent admitted to sending at least one text message per class. Also interesting was that business students were found to be the guiltiest of doing this and women text during class more than men.

“What’s interesting is that we continue to do it even though we know it’s wrong.”

I do feel bad when I text during class.

Granted, I’m not having full-blown conversations with my friends about our plans for the weekend. Usually when I do text, it’s a quick “yes” or “no” response. Any response requiring more than three words is typically reserved for after class, as most of time, I think we can all agree that during class, texts can wait.

I think we can also all agree that texting is a distraction. Not only is it distracting (and undeniably rude) to the professor standing in front of the class or behind the podium in a lecture hall as they watch you, but it’s ultimately distracting to your classmates as well. The worst texters are the ones that disregard any subtlety whatsoever and blatantly text with their phones on their desks. But even for the students who think they’re being discreet, when you’re sitting like squished sardines in a lecture hall, the sound is magnified. This includes

the sound of fingers typing, keyboards clicking and phones vibrating each time a new text is received. It’s hard enough sitting in an over-heated room with 200plus other people and staying focused, but incorporating additional distractions to your lecture doesn’t quite help either.

It would be unfair to say that phones should be turned off or banned from classrooms, as personal emergencies or problems might arise that may need your immediate attention. One of my professors this semester told our class that she would be keeping her cell phone on her not just so she could keep track of the time, but in case there was an emergency with her infant daughter. Some students are parents themselves and need to have their phones available for the same reason. Just like professors, crises can pop up for students too, and as a result of modern technology, we can be alerted instantly. But just because we have this technology literally at our fingertips, doesn’t mean we should abuse it because we can.

I’m not writing this to preach to students on why texting during class is bad, as I’ve done it myself. We know we shouldn’t be doing it, so maybe we should start getting in touch with our inner-Jiminy Crickets and tapping into those guilty consciences. We’re all adults and don’t need to be babied in the classroom, but I think if we make an effort, we just might surprise ourselves.

Commentary Editor Taylor Trudon is an 8thsemester journalism major. She can be reached at Taylor.Trudon@UConn.edu.

The analog society should not shun digital world

I

t’s hard for our generation to remember a time before online social networking. From Myspace to Facebook we, as a collective group, have been slowly incorporating the features of these websites into our daily lives.

As with every great step forward in society, there are those who ask,

By Tyler McCarthy “Is this such a Staff Columnist g o o d idea?” In the case of social networking, the ones asking are usually our parents and grandparents.

Hailing from a generation that saw the Internet’s triumphant rise to the forefront of our consciousness, the previous generation grew up afraid of the world wide audience that the web reaches. They see sites like Facebook as an excuse for us yielding all of our personal and contact information over to the scum of the Earth who are just chomping at the bit to use it all against us. We’ve all sat at the dinner table having the same conversation with our mothers and fathers: “No Mom, my information can only be seen by my friends. No strangers are going to track me down.”

“No Dad, I don’t have any bad

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pictures up for people to see.”

No matter what we say, we never seem to be able to win the argument and get them to admit that we’ve got things under control. Unfortunately, this fight is getting harder and harder to win as Facebook grows, both as a website and a public figure. With widespread news about the controversial new privacy settings on the site as well as their new “CheckIn” feature, which allows you to tell people where you are at anytime, Facebook seems to be giving our families more and more reason to find social networking online to be unsafe.

“You simply cannot stand in the way of progress, and why would you want to?”

I am by no means suggesting that Facebook has gone too far. Why would I? The privacy settings scandal has blown over in a matter of weeks and users seem to have taken to the Check-In feature like ducks to water. It has

even encouraged many other sites, such as Shizzlr.com, to adopt a geographic feature for its users as well in order to figure out what their friends in the area are up to. We’re taking a clear step towards sacrificing more of our privacy for the sake of better social interaction. Shizzlr is one of many new application websites that allow you to update friends on where you’ll be, when you’ll be there and who you’ll be with. This demonstrates that the overall trend in is moving towards digitalizing social interaction.

Where once we wrote a letter, now we e-mail. Where once we waved, now we “poke.”

Where once we talked, now we instant message. The reason we’ve embraced this shift is simple – It’s better.

Previous generations have reacted with such hostility to new media because they got along just fine without all these different methods of contacting people. They’ve done this in the sense that people on horseback got along just fine without trains and people on trains got along just fine without airplanes.

You simply cannot stand in the way of progress, and why would you want to? Online

social networking has taken this vast world and shrunk it down so that we all feel less like a population and more like a community.

While it is true that any major progress in a society will be met with opposition, the fact of the matter is that the decision as to whether or not it will remain comes down to one simple question: “Do the benefits outweigh the risks?”

In terms of social networking, the answer to this question has proven time and again to be a resounding “yes.” Do I sacrifice my privacy by putting my full name online for anyone to see? Yes. Is it worth it so that I can reconnect with old friends who have maybe moved away or gone to a different school?

It absolutely is.

We may, as a generation, continue to have difficulty getting our parents to understand the benefits of sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, but as long as we remain able to write a status update about what a headache it is to try, we’ll all be more than content.

Staff Columnist Tyler McCarthy is a 4th-semester journalism major. He can be reached at Tyler.McCarthy@ UConn.edu

federal watchdog agency says that overlapping and duplicate programs waste billions of dollars each year . C ongress is taking this study so seriously that they ’ re ordering a second study to look into it .” – J ay L eno

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Daily Campus, Page 5

Commentary

Activist Tim DeChristopher should be freed D espite odds of 300 billion to one, an economics student well-versed in costbenefit analysis, sought to disrupt the status quo of two of the most demanded products in the world: oil and gas. Knowing the laws of supply and demand that govern our economy, this unlikely champion walked into government-sanctioned

By Tim Brogan auctions being held Staff Columnist by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in December 2008, and like the well-groomed oil executives surrounding him, had exploitative intentions.

While the oil men who placed bids on 164,000 acres of public lands in eastern Utah sought to exploit oil and gas reserves, this sleeper activist sought to expose the “midnight maneuvering” of a waning Bush administration by exploiting the auction process, which would later be deemed unlawful.

Formidable opposition to the “midnight maneuvering” came from the National Park Service and the National Resource Defense Council – both called the auctions irresponsible and successfully reduced the acreage of land being auctioned from an original 300,000 acres to half that size – but one Utah resident with no political leverage took things even further.

Concerned with the fate of his state’s lands bordering Nine Mile Canyon, Dinosaur National

» LETTERS TO THE EDITOR UConn PIRG is not to blame for higher gas prices

I’m about to let you in on a very well known secret among the students here at UConn: five dollars of your tuition goes to your local chapter of ConnPIRG in an effort to provide a voice for students and community at the state and federal level. According to the recent Student Activities survey concerning Tier 3 organizations, over seventy percent of students know that there is a chapter on campus.

Information about the organization is entirely public, and PIRG works constantly to make sure students know about the waivable fee, one of the lowest student fees on campus.

As the executive officers of UConn PIRG, the University of Connecticut chapter of the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group, we would first like to address a recent op-ed where we were labeled as a “shady special interest group.” It is our creed to fight against special interests, as reflected in our name. The five dollars from students who do not waive their fee goes to funding our numerous campaigns and conferences, such as the New Voter’s Project, the Hunger Sleep-out, our extensive activist training opportunities, and helps promote our lobbying efforts for issues students care about: renewable energy, better public transportation, a clean environment, and consumer protections for students.

Now, with that clarification aside, we want to directly address the misleading article titled “UConn PIRG works hard to raise gas prices” (Feb 22). The parallel between UConn PIRG and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is disgraceful and out of line. The leader of Iran hardly works in the interest of his people, where WE work every day to benefit and support the citizens and

Monument and Canyonlands National Parks, the activist picked up bidder paddle number 70, and without the slightest intention to pay, won $1.7 million in leases, scoring 20,000 acres of pristine land. This man was Tim DeChristopher.

He had confidence that the incoming Obama Administration would nullify the leases he was not able to obtain, and for the most part, it did.

Incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases, citing procedural failures in assessing the environmental impacts prior to the auction. 130,000 acres of land were salvaged and $6 million in checks were returned to bidders.

In the proceeding months and years leading up to today, DeChristopher was indicted on federal charges.

Prior to this trial, the defense team cited 25 cases in which bidders failed to pay for their leases and had no charges brought against them, showing that DeChristopher is a victim of selective enforcement. But shockingly, they were dismissed as reasonable evidence and barred from court.

Additionally, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson dismissed DeChristopher’s “necessity” defense. It may sound like a valid claim, but DeChristopher can’t say in court that his falsified bids, while intentional, prevented the unlawful leasing of public land and served a greater good.

Besides unreasonably constraining DeChristopher’s arguments in court, judges have

students of our country. The entire basis for the U.S. PIRG campaign of “No Drills, No Spills” was to prevent catastrophes like the ones that we have seen numerous times in past decades. The issue is not that some animals were covered in oil, although that is certainly part of it. It is not solely about the vital ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico that will take many years to bounce back from the tragic devastation they have experienced. The fact is that our economy was devastated by the spill, destroying the lives of local fisherman and others of the Gulf who rely on the sea.

Flagrant disregard for safety regulations has become the industry standard for offshore oil rigs.

The Deepwater Horizon platform that exploded had a history of hundreds of violations that were deliberately ignored. In September of last year, another oil rig in the Gulf exploded. Investigations following these explosions found hundreds of safety issues on rigs throughout the Gulf. From 2006 to 2009, 30 workers died on rigs in the Gulf as a result, and 1,300 workers were injured as a result of unsafe practices, according to ABC News.

The purpose of the moratorium that we supported is to allow regulators to undo the damage of years of negligence. There are still almost 4000 oil and gas rigs in the gulf pumping fuel for the American economy every day.

These do not stop running under the ban. Construction that was underway does not stop under the ban. Oil is still being produced at the same rate, while new construction continues off the coast of Alaska unhampered. This moratorium gives oil companies and regulators time to prevent another catastrophe, and the claim that we are trying to raise gas prices by supporting it is entirely without merit.

The article ‘UConn PIRG works hard to raise gas prices’ has done a disservice to our organization and to the readers of the Daily Campus by transforming our effort to protect the environment and the economy into an attack on our organization.

We won’t take the blame for raising gas prices, but we will certainly take the blame for registering 1,500 students to vote last year, raising thousands of dollars for charity, and for training dozens of new, engaged student activists.

– Willy Tobelman – Steve Waslo

Concerning the recent attacks on women’s health

As the recent decision in the House of Representatives to eliminate Title X, which intends to defund Planned Parenthood, gains more attention, I feel that we should look at the motivations behind, as well as the potential effects, of such an action. While there is no doubt in my mind that this attack is strictly anti-choice in nature, many people fail to realize that the funds Congress is trying to eliminate go toward providing people with comprehensive sexual education, contraception, HIV testing, mammograms and pap smears, among other things. To many women and men from lower-income communities, Planned Parenthood is the only means of accessing these vital services. Contraception is extremely expensive: just look at the price of a box of condoms.

Many low-income families cannot afford contraception on their own, and Congress? attempt to further eliminate their access to that birth control puts yet another obstacle in their way.

It is a lack of easy access to contraception, as well as the abstinence-only programs taught in schools, that are harming people, not Planned Parenthood. In fact, the organization provides comprehensive sexual education to both heterosexual and non-heterosexual couples, as well as contraception.

But neither of these are the real motivations behind the attack; rather it is the right to choose.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, countless laws and regulations have further limited a woman?s access to an abortion.

But by federal law, Title X funding cannot be used to fund an abor-

set an unfair precedent. Bidding without the ability to pay is apparently less punishable and less destructive than bidding without the intention to pay. Think what you like, but this logic seems flawed.

So, what’s the penalty for trying – in this case succeeding – to prevent a governmental sponsored environmental travesty from occurring? Activists, hold your breath. The answer is 10 years in prison and $700,000 in fines.

“I hope the skills of his legal team...and the optimistic spirit of a UConn student can stop the oil and gas industry from exploiting DeChristopher.”

The case is Tim DeChristopher v. The United States. The one to 300 million gamble began on Monday. Let’s hope the burden of proof necessary to obtain a guilty verdict proves insurmountable for the prosecution. Lawyers can engineer technical guilt all they want, but DeChristopher is hardly a criminal.

As I write this column, the jury deliberates. By tion. What will be affected, however, is access to HIV tests, pap smears, sexual education and contraception. Congress, composed of mainly upper-class white men, seemingly has no problem compromising the health of thousands in order to weaken an organization that recognizes that a woman, and no one else, should have control over her body. These attacks are attempting to set us back forty years, to a time of back-alley abortions and wire hangers. As a male member of the community, I refuse to let us to go back!

It is up to us to tell Congress that we will not allow the elimination of Title X. Please, write your congress[wo]men, write to other states? congress[wo]men, tell your friends and family to write their congress[wo]men ? be heard! This isn?t just about Planned Parenthood; this is about the health of thousands. We have made too much progress to be sent back without a fight!

– Austin Longendyke

“Mainstream movies of recent years lack quality”

Ignoring the obvious critique that the list of classic movies provided in the first paragraph is highly subjective to the author, the list and argument given implies that there have not been movies of recent years that have been commercial and artistic successes. I have a number of problems with this. First, what defines a movie being mainstream? Is it immediate commercial success, because if it is then that eliminates “Fight Club” from the list because it was a commercial failure, which brings me to my next point.

Nobody currently has the hindsight to effectively claim that there are no slow burning momentum movies like “Fight Club” that have emerged recently. None of us can know which new independent movie will go onto become a cultural phenomenon the way “Fight Club” or “Juno” have.

Further on this point though, the movies she has listed have sur-

the time you read it, they may have made their decision. For the tens of people that gather outside the Salt Lake City district courthouse in support of DeChristopher, the suspense is palpable. It is for me, too.

Besides my name, I share with Tim a keen sense of environmental awareness. I stand in solidarity with him – as I think we all should – in the upcoming days that determine how he spends his third decade of life.

He was once a man conflicted by the gap between the impact of his daily actions – writing letters to representatives and riding a bike did not suffice—and the immediacy of climate change as an issue.

“When I stepped it up at this auction and was putting myself out there…I felt like my actions were aligning with my sentiment,” DeChristopher said in an interview with Democracy Now. “I felt this tremendous sense of calm.”

His actions prevented the exploitation of Utah lands. I hope the skills of his legal team, pressure from supporters and, perhaps intangibly, the optimistic spirit of a UConn student can stop the oil and gas industry from exploiting Tim DeChristopher.

Staff columnist Tim Brogan is a 6th-semester natural resources major. He can be contacted at Timothy.

Brogan@UConn.edu.

vived the test of time because of their superiority to the movies of their era and not because of some dip in Hollywood movies? quality. Hollywood has always been about remakes, sequels and other schlock because it is easy for audiences to connect with characters they know or understand easily, which means more money for the studio financing the movie. But, the appearance of a remake isn?t always a bad thing.

Look at the new “True Grit”, not only is it artistically better than the original in terms of cinematography, acting, and writing; it also will not suffer the ignominy of “Rooster Cogburn”, the dreadful sequel to the original. In fact, every single movie given initially as a classic is an adaptation of a book, making all of them remakes of sorts.

One needs only watch “The Godfather Part II”, “The Empire Strikes Back”, “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”, or “The Dark Knight”, a movie she herself lists, to see that sequels should not be dismissed a priori. And certainly, if “The Godfather Part III” does not tarnish the legacy of its predecessors, then “Spiderman 3” should not impact “Spiderman” or “Spiderman 2”.

Her list of commercially and critically successful movies of the last 10 years is not at all exhaustive, “The Departed”, “Inglorious Basterds”, or the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy certainly belong on the list as do many other films. Quality cinema will always suffer under the heel of a studio system that does not always appreciate it, but it is important to not dwell on the past with rose-tinted nostalgia and ignore merit worthy art in the present.

– Michael Maranets

Re: “Campus bottle ban”

It is fascinating to me that the environmental movement is considered to be a “special interest group” by this Gasser.

Gasser forgets to acknowledge in his attack on the proposed campus bottle ban that many students

carry reusable water bottles to eliminate their own waste, which is a great alternative to buying bottled water.

Dasani bottled water, and other coca-cola products, may be 30% plant-based polymers, but that other 70% is still petroleum based, keeping us just as dependent on oil. While Coca-cola’s website says that the “plant bottle” is just the start of their quest to manufacture bottles made from 100% renewable resources, this does not change what is in the bottle.

The Dasani website has a link for a fact sheet about the quality of Dasani water. It informs the consumer that Dasani is mere tap water. It has been purified, and salts have been added to improve the taste. Gasser should do some reading next time he scoffs at the idea of drinking bottled water.

The fact sheet goes on to inform the consumer that ?Substances that may be present in the source water include any of the following: 1.

Inorganic substances, including, but not limited to, salts and metals, that can be naturally occurring or result from farming, urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, or oil and gas production. 2. Pesticides and herbicides that may come from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to, agriculture, urban stormwater runoff, and residential uses. 3. Organic substances that are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production and can also come from gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, agricultural application, and septic systems. 4. Microbial organisms that may come from wildlife, agricultural livestock operations, sewage treatment plants, and septic systems. 5. Substances with radioactive properties that can be naturally occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.?

Why buy water, when I may even be able get those wonderful substances from the tap?

The environmental movement is not a “special interest group” as Gasser calls it. It is a movement of people who want to protect our planet as well as the people in it; even Mr. Gasser.

– Kerry Semle

Where is your dream Spring Break?

– By Wynne Hamerman

“New Zealand.”

“Australia”

“Madagascar”

“South Africa”

– Sam Ferrigno, 8th-semester English Major

– Dramere Graham, 6th-semester biology major

– Rachel Healy 6th-semester math major

– Meredith Kelsey, 6th-semester human development family studies major

The Daily Campus, Page 6

Friday, March 4, 2011

News

» WORLD

Fear haunts Libyan capital as protest planned

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — The mourning tent was set up in Tripoli’s Fashloum neighborhood Thursday to receive grieving friends and neighbors of a 56-year-old man shot to death

by Moammar Gadhafi’s militiamen a week ago. No one dared show up. Paying condolences to a slain protester is dangerous in the Libyan capital.

A wave of arrests, killings and disappearances has terrorized Tripoli in a deadly crackdown by Gadhafi’s regime as his opponents try to organize new protests Friday.

Bodies of people who vanished have been dumped in the street. Gunmen in SUVs have descended on homes in the night to drag away suspected protesters, identified by video footage of protests that militiamen have pored through to spot faces. Other militiamen have searched hospitals for wounded to take away.

Residents say they are under the watchful eyes of a variety of Gadhafi militias prowling the streets. They go under numerous names — Internal Security, the Central Support Force, the People’s Force, the People’s Guards and the Brigade of Mohammed al-Magarif, the head of Gadhafi’s personal guard — and they are all searching for suspected protesters.

“While you are speaking to me now, there are spies everywhere and people watching me and you,” one man said, cutting short a conversation with an Associated Press reporter visiting the Tripoli district of Zawiyat al-Dahman on Thursday.

Residents said calls for new protests to be held Friday after weekly Muslim prayers were being passed by word of mouth in several districts of the capital.

Whether crowds turn out will depend on the depth of fear among Gadhafi opponents. Friday could prove a test of the extent of Gadhafi’s control. The capital is crucial to the Libyan leader, his strongest remaining bastion after the uprising that began on Feb. 15 broke the entire eastern half

names of six people from Fashloum who were killed. He said other bodies of slain protesters that day were seen being loaded into cars by militiamen and have not been seen since.

He said he knows families who are still searching for bodies of their loved ones.

Others were arrested later on. The brother said he knows a 37-year-old man who disappeared for several days afterward. Then his body was dumped in a street in Tripoli’s Abu Selim district.

In nearby Zawiyat al-Dahman, a similar protest came last Friday came under a shower of bullets.

One man on Thursday pointed

to a building where he said a young woman was shot dead while standing on her balcony.

“All people hate Gadhafi. This is a fact. But if anyone steps out, he is dead,” he said.

In an upper-class street of the same neighborhood, a cafe owners said Tripoli residents are torn — they want change but also want safety.

“What I know for sure is that it is getting worse. What we are in right now is worse than what we had before. I don’t know what will the future look like,” he said. “The price people pay for change is very dear.”

In the embattled neighborhood of Tajoura, a 31-year old protester showed the AP the houses of his two brothers, who were rounded up in a 3 a.m. raid on Wednesday.

He was on the roof of a nearby building, counting the militia vehicles: 15 white pickup trucks with People’s Guards license plates and two 4x4 Toyotas screeched up to the adjacent houses in a narrow, unpaved alley. They cordoned off the buildings, militiamen leaped over the buildings’ fences, froze the door locks off with a compressed substance in cans and broke in. They drove off with his 32- and 35-year-old brothers, whose whereabouts remains unknown, the protester said.

They were among 20 protesters rounded up in Tajoura at that same time, according to various residents.

“They call Tajoura ‘the terrorist neighborhood’ because we dared to call for ousting Gadhafi,” the protester said.

In the home of one of the arrested men, clothes were left scattered around the living room, drawers were open and the TV was still on. The door was intact, but its lock was knocked out. In the bedroom, the mattress was overturned. The protester said money, jewelry and four mobile phones were also taken. Other young men from the family had already been arrested days earlier, he said.

HAVANA (AP) — More than a man’s fate will be at stake when U.S. contractor Alan Gross goes to trial Friday on charges he sought to undermine Cuba’s government by bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally.

U.S. officials have made clear that no meaningful rapprochement between the two Cold War enemies is possible while the 61-year-old Maryland native remains in jail. And with Gross facing a possible 20-year sentence for “acts against the integrity and independence” of Cuba, that could put relations into a long, deep freeze.

“If they sentence him to 20 years and then put him in prison ... I think it will have a very damaging effect on US-Cuban relations,” said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for International Policy.

Gross was working for the Bethesda-based Development Associates International on a USAID program that promotes democracy when he was arrested in December 2009.

He has been held since then in Havana’s maximum-security Villa Marista prison, most of that time without charge.

His family, and U.S. and company officials say he was bringing communications equipment to Cuba’s 1,500-strong Jewish community. Cuban Jewish groups deny having anything to do with him, and there is even speculation that leaders of the Jewish community might testify against him.

Gross’ case will be decided by a panel of five black-robed magistrates — three of them professional, and two average Cuban citizens specially trained to decide cases who are impaneled for one month.

A simple majority is enough to convict him.

The trial is expected to be over in a day or two, with a verdict announced immediately thereafter. Sentencing, should Gross be convicted, would likely come about two weeks later. Under Cuban law, he has the right to appeal any conviction, and can win a sentence reduction because he is more than 60 years old.

State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said he hoped Gross would be allowed to come home soon. “He has been in prison for too long,” he said.

Gross’s U.S.-based family lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, was flying to Havana for the proceedings, and he had a Cuban lawyer representing him as well. It was not clear if his wife, Judy, would attend.

Gloria Berbena, a spokeswoman for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, said consular representatives last met with Gross on Tuesday, and that they had been told they can attend the trial as well.

Calls for Gross’ release have poured in as the trial has approached, from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who sent an open letter to Cuban President Raul Castro and offered to fly to Havana personally to mediate the case; and from Jewish groups including the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, who say Gross was simply trying to help and had no idea what he was doing was in violation of Cuban law.

Judy Gross appealed to the Cuban government to let her husband go home on humanitarian grounds, saying in a written response to questions submitted by The Associated Press last week that Gross’ daughter and mother are both suffering from cancer, and that he has lost 90 pounds (40 kilograms) in prison.

AP

Hundreds of supporters of Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi gather for an organized rally in Green Square in Tripoli, Libya Wednesday. In a speech Wednesday Gadhafi vowed ‘We will fight until the last man and woman, and lashed out against Europe and the United States for their pressure on him to step down, warning that thousands of Libyans will die if U.S. and NATO forces intervene in the conflict.

of Libya out of his control and even swept over some cities in the west near Tripoli.

The clampdown in Tripoli has left some yearning for outside help. One 21-year-old in Zawiyat al-Dahman said residents were hoping for manpower to come from the opposition-held east.

A Libyan writer in his 70s said he rejects “foreign intervention” in Libya’s upheaval — but wouldn’t mind a “a powerful strike” on Gadhafi’s headquarters to stop further bloodshed.

“There must be some sort of action as soon as possible.

Time is running and Libyans can’t wait any longer,” the writer said.

He, like other residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear they too would be hunted down.

Last Friday, the residents of Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa witnessed the price anti-Gadhafi protesters pay, when militiamen opened fire on demonstrators.

In Fashloum, worshippers emerged from the Al-Baz mosque and young men in the crowd began to march and chant, “Freedom to Libya.”

Within moments, the barrage of gunfire from militiamen erupted, said a brother of the slain 56-year-old protester.

“My brother was hit with a

bullet right in the heart. In minutes he lost all his blood,” he said, showing a mobile phone video clip of his brother’s body, with a hole in the chest.

While rushing to Tripoli’s central hospital, he found militia stationed in front of the building.

“Doctors at the hospital told me that they are taking the injured to underground rooms inside the hospital away from the militia,” said the brother, who is a doctor himself.

“During the burial, the militia was also there watching us,” he added.

The number of deaths across Tripoli last Friday is not confirmed. The brother gave the

AP

Flowers and a sign reading “anger, grief, why” are put down at the site where a two US airmen have been killed in front of the Frankfurt, Germany, airport, Thursday.

Suspect in airport shooting recently radicalized FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Arid Uka grew up in a well-kept immigrant neighborhood in Frankfurt as the son of a relatively prosperous, not all that religious family of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo — a group notable more for their pro-American outlook than for mosque attendance.

But somewhere along the way, Uka turned very drastically from his upbringing.

German officials said Thursday the 21-year-old temporary letter sorter with the postal service has admitted targeting Americans when he opened fire with a handgun on a busload of 15 U.S. airmen at Frankfurt’s airport on their way to deployment in Afghanistan, killing two and wounding two more.

A federal judge in Karlsruhe on Thursday ordered the suspect held in prison on two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder pending further investigation.

German investigators said so far the indications are that Uka turned only recently to extremism — a member of the generation with immigrant background but raised in Europe, who become radicalized to the shock and dismay of their elders.

German officials said that he had contact with other radicals through social networking sites and elsewhere, but it appears he was not part of a terrorist organization.

“From our investigation so far we conclude that he acted alone,” Hesse’s top security official, interior minister Boris Rhein told reporters. “So far we cannot

see a network.”

A trim white van from the family’s roofing company stood parked Thursday outside the 11-story high-rise where Uka lives with his parents in the Sossenheim district in Frankfurt.

It’s a neighborhood of mostly graffiti-free high- and low-rise apartments and tree-planted green spaces within a block or so of the older part of Sossenheim, with its narrow, typically German church steeple. Slavic and Turkish surnames appear on the letterboxes in roughly equal proportion with German ones.

Uka’s Facebook page — with “There is no God but God and Mohammad is his prophet” in Arabic over a map of Kosovo as his profile picture — was in stark contrast to the unassuming, somewhat standoffish young man the neighbors met in the stairwell.

“He was nice and very quiet — I would say, shy,” said Jessica Friedrich, who went to the nearby elementary school with him and recognized the scowling, eyes-downcast photo of “Abu Reyyan” — a recently acquired nom de guerre according to Rhein — as him.

“He was a completely normal guy,” said Katharina Freier, who lives across the hallway from the Ukas.

Uka’s father, Murat, would not speak to journalists who gathered outside. But he told Kosovo’s daily Gazeta Express that family members are shocked.

“Americans are our friends and they have helped us very much. I can never agree with what has happened,” he is quoted as telling

the newspaper.

Kosovo Albanians are notably pro-American thanks to the U.S.-led NATO air war that halted a Serbian government crackdown on the rebellious province in 1999, when dictator Slobodan Milosevic still ruled in Belgrade.

The air war and subsequent deployment of peacekeepers, followed by UN administration, paved the way for Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008. There is a Bill Clinton Boulevard and statue of the former president in the capital, Pristina.

The family of Murat Uka’s brother, Rexhep, lives in the town of Mitrovica in a large, three-story house with spacious garden, leather sofas, halogen lighting and a flat-screen TV — signs of considerable prosperity in Kosovo, which remains one of the poorest parts of Europe. The only sign of religion in the house was a small wall clock with a picture of a mosque on it.

Rexhep Uka said the suspect’s grandfather was a religious leader at a mosque in a village near the Kosovo town of Mitrovica, and that Arid Uka was a devout Muslim himself. But he also said the family was pro-American and was also having a hard time understanding what their nephew was involved with.

“I love the Americans because they helped us a lot in times of trouble,” he told the AP. “We could not imagine something like this would happen because Americans are our brothers,” said Behxhet Uka, Arid Uka’s cousin. “They are our friends. Arid has been there (Germany) for the past twenty years.

He was born there and went to school.”

Detained US contractor goes on trial in Cuba

The Daily Campus Friday, March 4, 2011

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Callahan: Looking ahead to the Big East Tournament ... Pg. 2 C. McDonough: UConn continues dominance ... Pg. 2

UConn defies short bench to win Big East regular season title again ASHLEY POSPISIL/The Daily Campus

Basketball Special, Page 2

Friday, March 4, 2011

Basketball Special

Huskies seek fourth straight Big East title

» BIG EAST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT SPECIAL

By Andrew Callahan Staff Writer Beginning this Sunday at 2 p.m., the UConn women’s basketball team (291, 16-0) will strive for its fourth straight Big East tournament championship.

After running the conference tables in the regular season, the No. 1 seeded Huskies will first play in a quarterfinals match against Georgetown, Syracuse or Seton Hall.

These were the last three opponents the team faced in the regular season, and all wins were by an average margin of 22 points. If the Huskies were to reel off three victories in three days, they would be crowned Big East champions for a record 17th time.

“I told them that that’s something to be proud of, to show up… and figure out a way to win every night,” said coach Geno Auriemma after claiming another perfect conference record. “I find it remarkable, I really do,” Last Monday, the Huskies trounced the visiting Syracuse Orange on Senior Night as honorees Maya Moore and Lorin Dixon combined for 31 points, and 10 assists. Defensively, the Huskies forced the Orange into many long-range shots which sparked their offensive attack in transition. A rematch would likely end in similar fashion to their meeting on Monday, with an 82-47 UConn win.

Since that night, Moore and Tiffany Hayes have been named to the All-Big East first team, while starting first-years Bria Hartley and Stephanie Dolson were named to the All-Freshman team.

Combined with sophomore Kelly Faris, the five have been a stellar starting line for a team that, with the loss of Heather Buck, now only goes six deep.

When asked about whether or not that lack of depth could hurt the Huskies in the post-season, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman had a very frank answer.

“No,” Hillsman said. “Their six players are better than most six players in the country. The only thing that can hurt them is if three of them get in foul trouble, and

that won’t happen because they are too good of a defensive basketball team.”

Defense was the name of the game last time Connecticut met with another one of their potential foes, Georgetown. The then No. 18 Hoyas held the Huskies to a season-low 52 points, though UConn still escaped with a ten-point victory, thanks to their own stellar effort on the defensive end. Auriemma lauded his team afterwards, particularly for their toughness.

“This team pretty much doesn’t get affected by things,” Auriemma said. “They stay pretty even keeled and that allows us to do what we do,” Now if the Pirates of Seton Hall were to emerge from the field of next Husky opponents, they would in all likelihood provide the least resistance to a UConn semifinal appearance.

In their worst Big East game of the season, the Huskies still managed to achieve a 21-point victory as Moore and Hartley combined for thirty-seven. Seton Hall is currently led by former WBNA head coach Anne Donovan, who is in her first year at South Orange. A very much developing program, the Pirates are the lowest seed the Huskies could possibly face.

Moving past what the quarterfinals may hold for them, the biggest threat to upsetting the Huskies is Notre Dame.

UConn came back to defeat the Fighting Irish 79-76 in South Bend after a backand-forth affair back on Jan. 8. In their rematch, however, Connecticut was able to handle the Irish attack led by Skylar Diggins, who scored just five points in the second half.

“It’s definitely a confidence builder with the way we played tonight, considering the last time we played them,” Hartley said after beating the Irish a second time. “It’s definitely a measuring stick with how we improved throughout the season.”

The Big East championship is scheduled to tip off on Tuesday night beginning at 7:05 PM. All UConn games can be heard on UConn’s student radio 91.7 WHUS or streamed online at whus.org.

ASHLEY POSPISIL/The Daily Campus

Andrew.J.Callahan@UConn.edu

Maya Moore dribbles the ball down the court during UConn’s Feb. 5 game against DePaul. UConn won the game 89-66.

A LOOK AT THE BIG EAST FIELD 2011 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Championship Presented by American Eagle Outfitters XL Center • Hartford, Conn.

First Round Friday, March 4

Second Round Saturday, March 5

Quarterfinals Sunday, March 6

Semifinals Monday, March 7

Championship Tuesday, March 8

No. 12 Pittsburgh Noon (BE.tv) Game 1

No. 13 USF

2 p.m. (BETV/BE.tv) Game 5

No. 5 Marquette

Noon (ESPNU) Game 9

No. 4 Rutgers No. 9 Syracuse 2 p.m. (BE.tv) Game 2

No. 16 Seton Hall

6 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 13 Noon (BETV/BE.tv) Game 6

No. 8 Georgetown

2 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 10

No. 1 Connecticut No. 10 West Virginia 6 p.m. (BE.tv) Game 3

No. 15 Cincinnati

6 p.m. (BETV/BE.tv) Game 7

No. 7 St. John’s

7 p.m. (ESPN) Game 15

6 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 11

No. 2 DePaul No. 11 Providence 8 p.m. (BE.tv) Game 4

No. 14 Villanova

8 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 14 8 p.m. (BETV/BE.tv) Game 8

No. 6 Louisville

8 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 12

No. 3 Notre Dame

BETV - BIG EAST Regional Sports Networks (check your local listings) BE.tv - streamed online at www.bigeast.tv

UConn women exceed expectations, continue stretch of dominance

By Colin McDonough Senior Staff Writer Coming into the 2010-2011 season, the No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team was riding a 78-game winning streak, but also had a lot of question marks. Many of the questions UConn had at the beginning of the season were answered.

And the tests were passed with flying colors.

The Huskies are 29-1. They are Big East regular season champions and went undefeated in league play with two freshmen starting most of the season.

On Nov. 16 in a matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2, UConn outlasted Baylor in a classic at the XL Center in Hartford. Bria Hartley made key 3-pointers and the Huskies hung onto their winning streak by one point.

Although UConn’s win streak ended, 10 games later after 90 games at Stanford, you wouldn’t have known it Monday night in Gampel Pavilion.

The Huskies’ most celebrated graduating class in school history, Maya Moore and Lorin Dixon, were honored prior to their final regular season game.

An emotional Moore, Dixon and coach Geno Auriemma finished their unbeaten conference season in blowout fashion against Syracuse. After dropping to No. 2 in both polls, UConn took back a hold on the No. 1 ranking two weeks ago after Baylor was upset at Texas Tech.

Lorin Dixon is backing up point guard to Hartley. Caroline Doty was out for the season before it began, Samarie Walker transferred to Kentucky, and now Heather Buck is battling injury. The Huskies have only lost one game this season, and are undefeated since Walker’s departure. They may not be

deep, but they are talented, including Dixon.

Dixon may not have started over a freshman this season, but the senior has no regrets at UConn.

“I’m going to look back at what we did,” Dixon said.

“Looking back, look at what we accomplished. Just the things we’ve done. We went 90-0. I’m extremely glad I came to this school.”

Auriemma needs Dixon to contribute in the postseason and has seen signs she’s still improving.

“These last two weeks have been unbelievable,” Auriemma said. “She’s gotten more done in the last two weeks than she has in the four previous years combined, and it shows.”

Auriemma hugged Moore and Dixon on the Husky logo after the Senior Night ceremonies.

“It has been a long road for me and Maya,” Dixon said. “It’s a special bond the class you come in with.”

Other big wins this season have been blowouts over Duke and DePaul. The Huskies have beaten Notre Dame twice, including a comeback win in South Bend in January.

After losing their 90-game winning streak, the Huskies have already started another long one. UConn has won 17 consecutive contests since the loss to the Cardinal and although their rotation has only six, with their starting five getting the most playing time, the Huskies will find out the next nine games if they have enough to win their third-straight national championship.

The 2010-2011 season began with many question marks, although the big question, “Will UConn win the championship?” remains, so far it has been business as usual.

Colin.McDonough@UConn.edu

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

BORN ON THIS DATE

1933

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States.

www.dailycampus.com

Antonio Vivaldi – 1678 Patricia Heaton – 1958 Chaz Bono – 1969 Margo Harshman – 1986

The Daily Campus, Page 7

Friday, March 4, 2011

On a happier note...

How to have a safe break

Break on a budget: Part 2

By Lauren Cardarelli Campus Correspondent

By Melanie Deziel Associate Focus Editor

Last week, I talked about setting up a Spring Break adventure on the cheap. Check out these last minute tips to keeping a little life in your wallet over break, no matter where you end up.

If you are looking into getting a new bathing suit before heading somewhere beachy, consider a bikini swap instead of splurging. Find a friend of similar size or style and see if they’d be into swapping last years suits for a new look at no cost. Or, if you have a friend with great taste, offer to buy last season’s suit; it will probably still cost less than buying one from the store and it gives them a head start on buying their next suit.

A seemingly simple idea, try bringing as much of your own food and drinks as you can. This can be a bit of a problem if you are flying or crossing a national border, but if you are staying in the country, pack a case of water or soda and brings a bunch of snacks and instant meals. It may be an expensive grocery trip before you leave, but it will cost less than eating out every night.

A few weeks ago, I talked about Groupon.com, a website that offers you deals in your area. Switch your Groupon location to your Spring Break destination and see if you can get a nice discount on food, activities or attractions in the area. Just be sure to check the dates that the deals are valid before you commit.

Along the same vein, check to see if any memberships you have will save you money while you’re away. Academic groups and AAA sometimes offer reduced rates at restaurants or stores, reduced admissions to shows or other attractions and more. Don’t miss out on savings just because you didn’t check.

Not knowing where to go often means spending more than you have to on food, drinks and more. Do a bit of internet research, check travel guides and ask locals before choosing a place. Find out where the cheapest restaurants are, which bars boost prices during spring break and what attractions offer discounts on certain days of the week. There’s no use spending $10 on a cocktail when the bar one block over has 50 cent pitchers, right?

When planning an activity, consider any free alternatives.

Instead of paying for a bus tour of your destination city, pick up a $2 map and explore on your own. Don’t pay admission to an exclusive beach when there are free shorelines down the road. Why rack up hourly rates for surfing lessons when you can ask some attractive local for tips?

I have just a few more miscellaneous tips before you go.

Weigh your bag before you go to the airport so you don’t get charged a heavy bag fee. Make a checklist before you leave so you don’t end up buying forgotten items when you arrive. Last, but certainly not least, don’t bring what you don’t want to spend and don’t spend what you don’t have.

Melanie.Deziel@UConn.edu

LILIAN DUREY/The Daily Campus

The Lidiv Piano Trio performs for the Husky Headliner Series in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. The instrumentation comprises a cello, a violin and a piano.

No one leaves Lidiv Piano Trio show livid

By Elmira Fifo Campus Correspondent A Husky Headliner Series event, Thursday night featured a performance by the Lidiv Piano Trio the trio, a celebrated new group who bring interesting interpretations to music with their piano/strings combination.

The group consists of Lilit Hartunian on the violin, Diana Flores on the cello and Ivan Todorov on the piano. Although it is only their second year playing together, the trio has gained a great deal of recognition, performing primarily in Boston and collaborating with the Boston New Music Initiative. This young group performed pieces

by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, bringing

their own style and fusing into these classic composers’ works.

They began the show with Beethoven›s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, titled “Archduke,” which consisted of four parts. This first piece illustrated their practiced rhythms and demonstrated a range of beautiful dynamics. Beginning at Allegro moderato and continuing toward Andante cantabile, the piece provided delicate, flowing music, as well as upbeat, more staccato sounds.

Many audience members were part of a scholarship program, the Joy Conservatory Program where Jorgensen provided the tickets to enjoy the classical music. Sarah Welden, a senior at E.O. Smith, hopes to study either music education or voice performance, and appreciated

“the great opportunity to hear the trio play” adding that she is “a fan of classical music, and it sounded really good.”

The trio performed Sergei Rachmaninoff›s Trio Elegiaque No. 1 in G minor. The piece included slow, soft blends of the violin and cello with the piano nicely harmonizing to produce a lamenting, more serious tone. The cello was particularly powerful in evoking deep musical and sad tones, with the violin countering and likewise harmonizing. Chris Welden, mother of Sarah Welden was also present, and noted that «the cellist is really amazing, I am really fascinated by her playing,» showing praise for the young musician. All three parts combined to form a well played elegiac blend.

After the intermission, the trio treated the audience with their final piece Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 by Dmitri Shostakovich. This piece also had four parts to it but included much more dynamic range. The great liveliness of part two was contrasted with the more subdued music of part three, which consisted of high, soft notes held out consistently by the strings. They ended with a more powerful allegretto that, according to third year grad student, Patrick Painter, “did true justice to Shostakovich.” He also asserted that “they did the best in this piece. They were innovative, and they really brought it to life.”

Elmira.Fifo@UConn.edu

Homegrown music on display

KEVIN SCHELLER/The Daily Campus

The University of Connecticut Symphonic Band performs at von der Mehden Recital Hall.

Great news everyone, midterms week is finally over. Time to relax, kick up our feet for a week and let all that cramming percolate from our minds.

Sorry I’m not sorry, professors. Anyway, before you hit the beach, it is crucial to consider some safety measures to ensure a fun and healthy vacation. Every place is different, but being aware of these five helpful reminders will have you thanking me later.

Swap tap water for bottled Staying hydrated, at least eight glasses of water a day, is a necessity while catching some rays and consuming alcoholic beverages. Water and ice cubes, especially out of the country, can be risky, though. The traveler’s golden rule is to simply opt out of drinking tap water all together in fear that it is nonpotable or unsafe to drink. At the very least, discomfort can stem from waterborne diseases and contaminated water. Don’t let staying hydrated be your break’s party-pooper. Keep a water bottle in hand and you’ll be a happy camper.

Be wary of your cup Wherever you choose to party over break, remember the responsible drinking tips that parents, teachers and peers have drilled into your head over the years. Alcohol is one of the leading date rape drugs, not to mention it’s an easy way to conceal predator drugs like roofies and GHB. Never leave a drink unattended and be cautious about who is handing you a drink. Be smart, play smart.

Buddy system It seems elementary, but in unknown places or situations, sticking alongside a buddy or group of buddies is a good idea.

Being by yourself or with a stranger is not a situation you want to put yourself in for obvious reasons. Keep a buddy by your side, make sure everyone in your group stays together and come home together at the end of the night. Ensure your own and your friends’ safety by watching out for one another.

That includes alcohol consumption.

All-inclusive overindulging and late night noshing For those of you who have worked hard the last few months getting your body in tip-top shape for your bikinis or swim trunks, why throw that all away for one week of “all you can

» YOUTH, page 8

Residential Life helps to decipher housing process

By Kim Halpin Campus Correspondent There’s no doubt that the most talked about issue on campus this month is housing. It seems like all conversations revolve around roommates, pick dates, suites, off-campus houses and the like. Does the issue really deserve this much attention? Is the system too flawed?

“I don’t think the system is fair,” says 6th-semester management major Michelle Wax. “I’m going to be a senior and have the third pick day. It seems a little ridiculous.”

Many other students on campus concur that the system isn’t perfect. But many students also

agree with students like Chad Scheaffer, a 2nd-semester allied health major who said, “[he] doesn’t know how it could be made more fair.”

Currently, those wishing to keep their exact room for next year are allowed to claim the room, or “squat.” Next in line to pick housing are the Honor Program students, and then other living and learning communities. Finally, it comes down to the general student body, broken down into credit blocks and randomized within.

Only the number of credits earned prior to the start of the spring semester is considered.

Students who have earned 86 credits or higher earned senior status and get to choose first, then

juniors or students with 54-85 credits. Students with between 24 and 53 credits are considered sophomores, and all those below 23 credits are freshman status.

The stresses that come with housing can seem like a game.

You keep looking for better options; like finding a friend with a better pick date to pull you into a South suite and wondering if you should give up a guaranteed room to try for something better. The process can appear daunting, especially to freshmen and other students who have never had to deal with the system in previous years.

“I’m pretty stressed, mostly though because I’ve never done it before,” says 6th-semester environmental science major,

Lisa Halpin.

Luckily, the Department of Residential Life held housing kick-off events to help explain to new students how the system works. The department is efficient on responding to student emails for people with questions and concerns.

On the opposite side, some new students feel that not knowing what to expect is less troublesome.

“I’m not really stressed,” says 2nd-semester computer science engineer major Arjun Mohan.

“But my opinion might change after the experience.”

Missing your pick time could be the worst of all scenarios. If you, for any reason don’t pick your housing during your allotted time, your pick time is moved to the end

of the housing cycle, during phase two. This can be annoying when some students are forced to submit housing in the middle of class time or their time falls during a period they cannot access a computer.

“The time that I have to pick for housing is inconvenient for me and I have to have someone else choose my housing for me,” Scheaffer said.

That situation can be stressful for any student, let alone someone new to the system.

If you have any questions regarding your housing selection for next year, go to http:// www.reslife.uconn.edu/contact_us.html or you can send an email to the Residential Life.

Kimberly.Halpin@UConn.edu

The Daily Campus, Page 8

Friday, March 4, 2011

Focus

Daytrips to keep you Carey ‘embarrassed’ over Gadhafi-linked concert busy and your wallet fat

By Joe O’Leary Staff Writer

So you couldn’t afford that trip to Cancun over Spring Break, your grandparents in Florida are too busy for a visit and your parents aren’t going to let you sleep until 2 p.m. every day.

Before you resign yourself to a week-long crying session, take a step back. New England is a hotbed of activity in early March. As long as you’ve got the dough (and in some cases, gas money), here are some day trip ideas to brighten up your break.

For fans of UConn basketball (and really, who isn’t in Storrs?), both teams have finished their regular season play, but will be playing in their respective Big East Tournaments over break. The men’s championship will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City from March 8-12; the women’s, Hartford’s XL Center from today through Tuesday. Tickets are on sale for the women’s tourney now, and while men’s tickets aren’t readily available, StubHub.com is offering tickets for as little as $5 for early games. If you can, go cheer on our Huskies!

Fans of the outdoors can take advantage of beautiful

AP

You might not be able to go somewhere fancy or expensive this break, but Connecticut has many ski slopes that offer good deals.

early-March weather at any of New England’s numerous ski resorts. Whether you prefer skiing, snowboarding, tubing, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, dozens of resorts, both local and distant, hold enough trails for weeks of fun.

Gamers can put down their controllers and visit the east coast’s biggest video game convention. In its second year, PAX East, created by the webcomic Penny Arcade, will be held March 11-13 at Boston’s Convention and Exhibition Center. If you want to try new releases, get free stuff and meet the people who make your favorite games, this is your best option. Passes are nearly sold out, but some remain available for March 11 and 13 for $35 at east.paxsite.com.

In the mood for a concert?

All around the region, dozens of bands and artists are playing local cities over break. Just to name a few: Lady Gaga plays Boston’s TD Garden on March 8; Bright Eyes is playing the House of Blues Boston on March 10; and funk-rock band Further plays Wallingford’s Oakdale Theater on March 8.

Even if none of these interest you, there are hundreds of ways to have fun next week.

Visit your library and grab a book, check out any of the numerous movies currently out in your local theater and maybe even get ahead on your homework! No matter what you do, enjoy your break, and we’ll see you on the 13th!

Joseph.O’Leary@UConn.edu

NEW YORK (AP) — Mariah Carey says she was unaware that she was booked to perform a concert linked to Gadhafi’s clan — and she’s embarrassed “to have participated in this mess.”

Carey is among a handful of entertainers who were paid handsome fees to give exclusive private concerts. It was later revealed the people behind those concerts were the family of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose country is in an open revolt against him and who faces an investigation for possible war crimes.

This week, Nelly Furtado announced she is giving the $1 million fee she was paid in 2007 to charity; Beyonce said in a statement Wednesday that she donated her fees for a 2009 New Year’s Eve performance in St. Bart’s to Haiti earthquake relief once she discovered the Gadhafi link.

Carey performed in St. Bart’s in 2008, but in a statement released to The Associated Press on Thursday, she said she didn’t know she was performing for an infamous family.

“I was naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for. I feel horrible and embarrassed to have participated in this mess,” the 40-year-old singer said. “Going forward, this is a lesson for all artists to learn from. We need to be more aware and take more responsibility regardless of who books our

AP

Mariah Carey.

shows. Ultimately, we as artists are to be held accountable.”

Carey’s representative, Cindi Berger, would not comment on how much Carey was paid for the performance. But she noted that Carey has donated millions throughout the years to charity, from royalties from her hits “Hero” and “One Sweet Day” to her own foundation, Camp Mariah.

Berger said Carey will also donate royalties for the song “Save the Day,” which she has

written for her upcoming album, to charities that create awareness for human-rights issues.

“Mariah has and continues to donate her time, money and countless hours of personal service to many organizations both here and abroad,” Berger said.

The album is not due out anytime soon; Carey is pregnant with a boy and girl, and she and husband Nick Cannon are expecting the babies in the spring.

‘Hurt Locker’ director seeks lawsuit dismissal

AP

Media wait outside the home of Charlie Sheen Wednesday March 2, 2011 in Los Angeles. Sheen’s 23-month-old sons were removed from his home Tuesday night after Brooke Mueller Sheen claimed that he threatened her with decapitation, adding a nasty custody battle to the actor’s bitter war with the studio and producers who shut down his hit CBS show.

Some see poetry in Sheen’s ‘Adonis DNA’ NEW YORK (AP) — With “tiger blood,” ‘’Adonis DNA” and his “fire-breathing fists,” Charlie Sheen has practically invented a new language with his rants and ramblings.

And while it may not rate an entry in Webster’s, the sitcom star’s batty, blustering poetry has resounded in social media. Sheen gained 1 million Twitter followers in just 25 hours and 17 minutes — record time, according to Guinness World Records, which keeps track of such obscure achievements and had not previously crowned a champion in that particular category.

His unique lexicon grows daily, spreading rapidly over the Internet and onto T-shirts. On “The Alex Jones Show,” he said he has “poetry in my fingertips,” and added: “Most of the time — and this includes naps — I’m an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air.”

He has frequently repeated his most famous sayings — “winning,” ‘’tiger blood” — like trademarked catch phrases.

Early Thursday, he announced his latest slogan — er, “fastball” — with more hype than a CBS promotion for his show, “Two and a Half Men.” “Ready for my next fastball, world?” he wrote on Twitter.

“PLAN BETTER Applies to

everything where an excuse now sits. Try it. U won’t be wrong. Ever.”

Sheenspeak could be considered a demented combination of William S. Burroughs’ beat musings and those Chuck Norris jokes in which the ‘80s action star is inflated to mythic proportions.

“I am on a drug,” Sheen told ABC. “It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it, you will die. Your face will melt off, and your children will weep over your exploded body.”

Sheen has said his former party exploits made Frank Sinatra and Mick Jagger look like “droopy-eyed armless children.” He has called himself “battle-tested bayonets.”

And he’s said he’s riding the “tsunami of media ... on a mercury surfboard.”

Glossaries have sprung up to help keep track of Sheen’s vivid verbiage, which he has spewed consistently during his feud with the studio and producers who shut down “Two and a Half Men” because of his erratic behavior. CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves has said the series’ future is uncertain.

The question of whether Sheen’s bizarre bravado is a ploy, a sign of mental-health

problems or a combination of both has grown more urgent as it has encompassed his private life. The actor’s estranged wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, has claimed Sheen threatened to cut her head off, among other things. Their twin toddlers were removed from Sheen’s home Tuesday night.

Despite the accusations, Sheen’s ramblings have gone a long way toward endearing him to some of the public. The Twitter analysis firm Research. ly has found that positive sentiment for Sheen online far outweighs the negative.

Online, his best sayings have been compiled into lists, compared with the meandering speeches of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, substituted into New Yorker and Family Circus cartoons, added as subtitles to pictures of cute animals, put to song and remixed, and mashed-up with his scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Though the 45-year-old Sheen hasn’t previously been widely known to be lyrical, he has penned a book of poetry before: 1990’s “A Peace of My Mind,” with illustrations by director Adam Rifkin. It’s out-of-print, but GQ located a copy and has been publishing excerpts.

One verse: “A night of drink/

A night of hate/ A night as dark/ As last night’s date.”

For his tweets, Sheen built a following much faster than Ashton Kutcher, who had been on Twitter for months when the actor won his much-publicized race with CNN to 1 million followers in 2009. Kutcher now has about 6.4 million followers, while Sheen was approaching 1.4 million Thursday night.

Sheen, who has called social media a “cash cow,” seems likely to profit from his instant Web stardom, though he has not done so yet. He is being advised by the startup company Ad.ly, which helps celebrities earn money in endorsements on social media.

He already has at least one grateful business — a dairy whose owner told TMZ he’s been flooded with calls since Sheen posted a photo of himself holding a bottle of the company’s chocolate milk.

The American Red Cross tried some cross-marketing of its own with this tweet: “We may not collect (hashtag)tigerblood, but we know our donors & volunteers have fierce passion for doing good!”

Wherever his words take him, Sheen won’t fail for lack of positivity. As he’s said: “Can’t is the cancer of happen.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscar-winning director and screenwriter of “The Hurt Locker” have asked a federal judge to dismiss an Iraq war veteran’s lawsuit alleging the film is based on him.

Attorneys for director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal wrote in a motion filed Wednesday that Master Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver cannot prove he is the basis for the bomb technician portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the film. They also argue that the movie is protected by California law and the First Amendment, and that Sarver cannot win the case.

Sarver sued Bigelow, Boal and the film’s producers and distributor in March 2010, just days before the movie won best picture at the Academy Awards. Bigelow and Boal also received Oscars for their work on the film, which portrays a U.S. bomb technician defusing improvised explosive devices during the Iraq War. Boal was embedded with Sarver’s unit in Iraq in 2004 and wrote a story for Playboy titled, “The Man in the Bomb Suit” that profiled the West Virginia native.

Sarver contends Boal based Renner’s character on him, an

accusation the writer has consistently denied. In a sworn declaration, Boal writes that he interviewed more than 50 military personnel who work in bomb disposal units and that Renner’s character, named William James, is a composite of many of them.

“William James is a fictional character that is a product of my imagination,” Boal wrote in his declaration before listing 29 scenes portrayed in the film that Sarver didn’t experience.

Sarver’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said he expected Bigelow and Boal’s motion to fail. He called Boal’s defense “disingenuous.”

“All you have to do is read Boal’s article in Playboy Magazine and read “The Hurt Locker,” Fieger said. “It’s the same story. They just changed Sgt. Sarver’s name.”

In his declaration, Boal also rejects Sarver’s claim that the technician introduced him to the term “the hurt locker” that became his screenplay and the film’s title. Boal writes that the phrase has been used since the Vietnam War. A phone message for Sarver’s attorney Todd Weglarz was not immediately returned. According to court filings, Sarver is currently deployed in Afghanistan.

Youth must protect against dangerous situations on break from HOW TO, page 7 eat” buffets, binge drinking and late night snacking? It’s all about portion control. Be smart with what you’re putting in your body this break, especially if you’re staying in the sun all day and out partying late. Your body needs nutritious fuel, so don’t overindulge in nachos by the pool or sugary daiquiris on the beach.

Sun (screen, exposure and burn) We’re all young, but who wants to prematurely get wrinkles? Not me. More importantly, wearing SPF can help prevent sunburn, sun poisoning and, down the road, skin cancer. If you’re planning on having fun in the sun all day, every day this break, make sure you lather up

the sun block and reapply often.

Be aware of the symptoms of heat exhaustion and sun poisoning, which could seriously put a damper on your vacation. Some studies have shown a positive correlation between sun exposure and an increase in the effects of alcohol.

The semester is already half way through and everyone needs a break. In order to enjoy Spring Break, though, it is important to recognize safety and health precautions, because the repercussions of not using your common sense can be dangerous and not so fun. Enjoy your week off, my fellow Huskies. Be cautious, smart and have a blast.

Lauren.Cardarelli@UConn.edu

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Daily Campus, Page 9

Focus

Sheen says he’s ready to fight to get kids back LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charlie Sheen is living large on the public stage but his personal world is diminished, with the TV star’s “Two and a Half Men” and now his twin toddlers missing from his life.

Sheen’s 23-month-old boys were taken from his home Tuesday night after estranged wife Brooke Mueller Sheen claimed that he threatened her with decapitation, adding a nasty custody battle to the actor’s bitter war with the studio and producers who shut down the hit CBS show short of the season’s end.

Her claims followed days of sometimes manic, sometimes violence-tinged media interviews by Sheen, part of a public campaign to disprove that he is a drug-using, reckless playboy who was unable or unfit to work on TV’s No. 1 comedy.

In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday, Sheen said he was “very calm and focused” about having the children taken away but was ready to fight to get them back.

Outside his home a short time later, Sheen, 45, was asked by reporters whether the legal move came out of left field for him.

“It came out of the bleachers, actually,” he said. “Yeah, I was told a restraining order was being delivered and I thought, ‘OK, I can deal with that.’ And it was revealed that it was something much more serious.

Asked why Mueller got the court order, he replied, “It’s just silly. I think she’s latching on to some of this recent press.”

In interviews filled with strange comments such as

“I got tiger blood, man,” Sheen has lobbed vitriol at “Men” executive producer Chuck Lorre and Warner Bros. Television while sharing details about his unusual home life and insisting he was “winning.” He’s demanding a big raise in future contracts for the show from his $1.8 million-an-episode pay — already among the highest in television.

CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves on Tuesday said the series’ future is uncertain.

Sheen’s grandstanding has fascinated the public, with his Twitter account drawing more than 1 million followers a day after it was created. But in Mueller Sheen’s claim seeking a restraining order Tuesday, she said that his “bizarre, disturbing and violent” comments made her fear for the safety of their children because Sheen “does not appear mentally stable.”

According to Mueller Sheen’s filing, Charlie Sheen has rarely seen the boys in the past year, but took them on Saturday and refused to return them. In a sworn declaration filed in the case, she said he told her in a phone call Sunday night, “I will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom!” She also claimed earlier threats and physical abuse.

A court order issued Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press requires Sheen to stay 100 yards away from Mueller Sheen and their twin sons. Sheen has two other children with former wife Denise Richards.

A hearing on the order is scheduled for March 22.

Text messages sent to

Sheen on Wednesday for comment were not immediately returned. A phone message left for Sheen’s divorce attorney, Mark Gross, was not immediately returned.

The twins, Max and Bob, were taken from Sheen’s Hollywood Hills home Tuesday night and returned to their mother’s care. The boys turn 2 on March 14.

In a house he calls “Sober Valley Lodge,” Sheen has been living with a former porn star and a model — his “goddesses,” he says. Sheen was asked on “Today” if marijuana magazine cover model Natalie Kenly and adult film star Rachel Oberlin, who performed as Bree Olson, helped care for the twins.

“Oh, yeah. If I can’t be there, they’re there, and it’s like everybody helps out. ... There’s nothing broken here,” Sheen said.

The seemingly unlimited soapbox that media outlets have given Sheen has provoked strong criticism.

“No one is exercising any discretion, at least the kind that weighs things like taste, proportion and decency instead of ratings points,” Los Angeles Times media columnist James Rainey wrote in Wednesday’s paper.

Ben Grossman, editor-inchief of Broadcasting & Cable magazine, urged ABC on Monday to cancel its “20/20” interview with Sheen that night.

He rapped the media for “celebrating the sad effects of an illness. And that is not a healthy way to do business.”

In her filing, Mueller Sheen noted a Christmas Day 2009 fight in Aspen, Colo., that led to

AP

Charlie Sheen waves as he arrives at the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen, Colo., for a hearing in his domestic abuse case. Sheen said Wednesday that after his two young sons were removed from his house overnight he’s “very calm and focused” but ready to fight.

the actor pleading guilty to misdemeanor third-degree assault.

Sometime after that incident, Mueller Sheen wrote in her court filing that Sheen told her, “I should have killed you when

I had the chance!”

Mueller Sheen acknowledges her own sobriety issues in the declaration. She said she is in a day rehab treatment program, but that she can care for the

children for four hours during the day and at night. She told the court that she would be living with a sober companion, and that her mother would help with the twins’ care.

Mexican judge orders hit documentary film pulled

AP

Striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musician Karl Pituch stands with fellow musicians and announces during a news conference Thursday, Feb. 17 that members would attend a meeting and hear recommendations by union officials on whether to accept or reject management’s final offer.

Musicians unite for strikers in Detroit

DETROIT (AP) — Musicians from five U.S. orchestras plan to wear bracelets during performances this weekend to support the striking members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, a national musicians’ union said Thursday.

American Federation of Musicians spokeswoman Honore Stockley said that players are participating from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. The navy blue bracelets read “AFM Solidarity,” which refers to the national federation that is coordinating the effort.

Stockley said talks are under way to enlist other orchestras.

Jennifer Mondie, a violist and chairwoman of the National Symphony orchestra committee, said members will wear the bracelets during performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. She said “it seemed like a small thing

after their weeks and months of struggle.”

“We think that supporting our colleagues in the Detroit Symphony is important in order to defend the integrity and quality of symphonic arts across the country,” she said.

Detroit musicians’ spokesman Greg Bowens said it’s part of a larger effort toward courting national labor support for the strike that hits the five-month mark on Friday.

The Detroit musicians walked off the job Oct. 4.

Management suspended the remainder of the season last month after musicians rejected a contract proposal.

Musicians have proposed returning to the stage and creating a binding arbitration panel to work out unresolved issues. Orchestra management spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said Thursday that lawyers representing both sides continue to talk about the offer.

Another orchestra is offering support of another kind next week when Detroit’s music director comes to town.

The Nashville Symphony

musicians, with management’s blessing, plan to insert a flyer in the program for a three-night stand of performances beginning March 10 that feature Detroit conductor Leonard Slatkin.

The flyer is expected to inform patrons about the Detroit musicians’ proposal to return, ask them to check out websites representing all sides in the dispute and encourage them to lend their voices to “try and find a way to keep symphony music alive in Detroit,” said Laura Ross, Nashville Symphony’s union steward and a second violinist.

“We’re saying, ‘It works in Nashville. Maybe you should write to these people (in Detroit) and say we see how it can work,’” Ross said.

Ross, a Detroit area native, said the musicians’ intention is to raise awareness without raising the ire of supporters or management.

“We don’t want to tick off Leonard, either,” she said.

“We’re just using his being here as an opportunity to bring what’s going on in Detroit to their attention,” she said.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A judge in Mexico City ordered authorities to temporarily halt screenings of an acclaimed documentary about the failings of Mexico’s justice system after a prosecution witness who appears in the film alleged that his privacy rights were violated.

The ruling is the latest round in a heated debate over reform of Mexico’s secretive, antiquated justice system, which critics say routinely violates the rights of defendants or fails to convict those who are guilty.

“Presunto Culpable,” or “Presumed Guilty,” centers on 26-year-old Antonio Zuniga, who was convicted of a 2005 murder on scant evidence.

Zuniga’s conviction was eventually overturned, a process documented by his lawyers, who filmed the hearings with the permission of the judge.

The film opened across Mexico on Feb. 18 to wide acclaim. A complaint filed by chief prosecution witness Victor Manuel Reyes Bravo, a relative of the victim, alleges that his right to privacy was violated, the federal Judiciary Council said.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said in a message posted on his Twitter account Thursday that his administration would appeal the ruling, which he called “an abuse against freedom.”

Mexico’s federal Interior Department, which also promised to appeal, declared it does not have the authority to pull films from theaters.

A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for March 11. In the meantime, Cinepolis, the theater chain showing the documentary, said it “will continue to show the movie until we receive a formal judicial or administrative order to stop showing it.”

The filmmakers posted a similar statement on their website.

Hector Villarreal, the assistant Interior secretary for media, called the judge’s ruling “confused, ambiguous, dark” and said “the film should continue to be shown in theaters” until the judge clears up the ruling.

It is the first time in recent memory that a judge in Mexico had ordered a movie pulled.

AP

Antonio Zuniga, protagonist of the documentary “Presumed Guilty,” poses for a photo in Mexico City, Wednesday Feb. 16, 2011.

In past decades, the Mexican government sometimes blocked movies it deemed politically sensitive from being shown, but did so behind the scenes with a combination of financial and political muscle. At the time it owned, financed or tightly regulated much of the movie industry.

The Federal Judiciary Council, which oversees courts in Mexico, issued a statement Thursday strongly denying that anyone in the court system was trying to censor the movie.

The council said it had organized showings of the film for its own personnel, saying it contained important information.

Instead, the council said the issues involved a clash of competing rights, freedom of expression vs. privacy, that the judge would have to sort out.

The filmmakers, in a statement posted on their website, said the movie would continue to be shown until they receive a court or government order.

Carlos Ibarra, the publicist for the film, said the filmmakers did not seek permission or get release forms from witnesses because “they didn’t need to.

Trials are public processes, and they can be filmed.”

In fact, that is one of the main messages of “Presumed Guilty” — that greater transparency and openness can improve a system in which most convictions are not based on physical evidence, and defendants are vulnerable to unfounded claims. A message in the film’s credits advises viewers to demand their legal hearings be recorded.

In the movie, some of the prosecution witnesses can be heard complaining about being filmed. Most do not come off well. Some stumble over evidentiary details or say “I don’t remember” when asked about their testimony. The prosecutor in the trial advances almost no arguments to support her case.

Activist and writer Homero Aridjis suggested Reyes Bravo’s complaint is not about privacy rights, but more likely the fact the documentary has embarrassed some officials. In the film, he said, Reyes Bravo “doesn’t seem like someone who is very concerned about his image.”

“Presumed Guilty” has been honored with prizes at several film festivals, receiving the audience award for best international feature at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Mexico has taken steps to overhaul its justice system. In 2008, the northern border state of Chihuahua became the first to implement judicial reforms, embedded in Mexico’s constitution, that more closely resemble the United States’ legal system.

Though there are no juries, lawyers question and cross-examine witnesses in open court, and defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

Yet, Mexicans were outraged by the result of an early case under the new system: Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, who publicly protested the acquittal of a man accused of killing her daughter, was gunned down in December on a street in Chihuahua’s Ciudad Juarez.

The Daily Campus, Page 10

Friday, March 4, 2011

Comics

JELLY!

by Elise Domyan infield hits” 50 Caruso, for one 53 A couple 54 Acrobat developer 55 Rachel Maddow’s station 57 Serious lapses 58 Zeno’s home 59 Dangle 60 Tater __ 61 __ Simbel, site of Ramses II temples

Dismiss the Cynics

by Victor Preato

Down 1 Orderly movement 2 Nirvana #1 album “In __” 3 Scorned lover of Jason 4 Lose it 5 Michael’s nemesis on “The Office” 6 Boarding pass generator 7 Sponsors 8 Brand of nonstick cookware 9 Half a city 10 Michael of “Caddyshack” 11 Gallantry 12 River island 13 NFL stat 21 Show-what-you-know

chances 22 Machinating 26 Prelate’s title: Abbr.

27 Unevenly worn 29 Cross words 30 Actors Rogen and Green 31 Big gun or big cheese 33 Desire and then some 34 Clinton Treasury secretary 35 In one piece 36 Award with a Sustained Achievement category 40 “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” for one 43 Broad 44 Endangered great apes 45 x, at times 47 Baseball star who reportedly said, “I think there’s a sexiness in

by Andrew Prestwich

67 Henry VIII et al.

68 Hitch 69 Wall St. monitor

Jason and the Rhedosaurus

Across 1 The word?

4 You might need to watch yours 8 Like some Disneyland passes 14 Downed 15 __ bene 16 It may involve an exaggerated age 17 With 19-Across, serious warnings 18 Not much 19 See 17-Across 20 Halloween breakfast pastry?

23 1938 “The War of the Worlds” broadcast, for one 24 Keystone enforcer 25 Blazing 28 Go-aheads 32 __’acte 33 Lone breakfast pastry?

37 Garden product word 38 Attacks 39 Igloos and yurts 41 Sch. attendance notation 42 Cherished breakfast pastry?

46 End of a boast 48 Got for nothing 49 Make official 51 Newspaper supply 52 Islamic leader 56 Ones hooked on breakfast pastry?

60 Type of sauce served with falafel 62 Gaucho’s weapon 63 Homework amount?

64 Puck’s king 65 “Dulce et Decorum est” poet Wilfred __ 66 Flow out

I Hate Everything

by Carin Powell

The Daily Crossword

Horoscopes

Toast

by Tom Dilling

Aries - Find a quiet place to work for the greatest productivity. You may have a tendency to focus on your limitations today. Don’t worry.

They’re not as real as they seem.

Taurus - Imagine the project already completed. Gather up your courage, take a deep breath and charge forward.

You’re afraid of the unknown.

It’s only human.

Gemini - There’s a sense of urgency. Thinking outside the box is useful, especially when it comes to your career goals. Be courageous, and just go for it.

Cancer - Someone else’s emergency can be your windfall (and help them out in the process). Take that trip you were planning. It may open up amazing new possibilities.

By Michael Mepham

Leo - Act quickly, but don’t spend recklessly. Embrace questions: who, what, when, where and why. What if the answers, rather than concrete, are relative to the questioner?

Virgo - Caring for others gives concrete results and satisfaction. All you need is love today, for your neighbor, yourself and for simple things like clean water.

Libra - Work is on your mind today. You have the capacity for great business transactions.

Remember to be fair and balanced. Simplify, for best results.

Why The Long Face

by Jackson Lautier

Scorpio - You’re on fire. If you had the opportunity, you could paint the Sistine Chapel today. That’s the kind of artistic productivity you’re capable of.

Sagittarius - Go ahead, rearrange the furniture if you have to. Just make sure that you plan ahead where everything goes. Plot the perfect backdrop for new beginnings.

Capricorn - Pay attention to your dreams (daydreams count).

Write everything down. It’s important, even if seemingly senseless. It will come together logically later.

Aquarius - Resist temptation.

Money is on your mind today.

Being stubborn could damage a friendship. Consider bringing some balance to the equation.

Pisces - Life is good. Enjoy every single minute today. You never know when it’s going to end. Take creative risks, but don’t gamble with money or love.

Pundles

by Brian Ingmanson www.cupcakecomics.com.

Sad Hampster

by Ashley Fong

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Daily Campus, Page 11

Sports

Huskies head to Puerto Rico to face four teams UConn plays four consecutive days starting March 7 against NEC's Bryant

senior on the team, has a career 49-25 matches record and will be valuable asset for UConn in both singles and doubles. Junior Dave Adams has a phenomenal serve and has become a solid player for both lineups. Junior Scott Warden also provides a consistent all-around game for the Huskies, and was instrumental in UConn’s season opening win over Army.

Sophomore Wei Lin, and juniors Jai Yoon and Ricardo Cardona also have a chance

By Quenton Narcisse to provide a huge impact for Campus Correspondent this team.

From a record standpoint, The UConn men’s tennis Bryant University is 1-4 for team is heading to Puerto Rico the spring season while Sacred during spring break, Heart is 2-4, Wabash in hopes of bringing is 8-1 and Minnesota home four victories State is 3-3. to add to their early Bryant is comseason record. ing off a 4-3 victory The Huskies at Puerto over Sacred Heart at will face Bryant Yale University this Rico University, Sacred past Saturday. After Heart, Wabash and March 7-10 a rough start, Bryant Minnesota State- Bryant, SHU, looks to continue Mankato in consecutheir momentum Wabash tive days starting today versus Hartford Monday, March 7. before heading out The match times for these to Puerto Rico. The Bulldogs dates are yet to be determined. first game during the spring This year’s UConn team break trip is a rematch with is filled with experience and Sacred Heart on Tuesday. leadership, which will prove Minnesota State is coming to be pivotal if the Huskies off a 9-0 victory over Bethany want to compete for the Big Lutheran, while Wabash East championship. defeated Westminster 7-2 on Andrew Marcus, the lone Feb. 26. With only one loss,

MEN'S TENNIS

the Little Giants could prove to be UConn’s toughest opponent during this trip.

With a 1-1 record, UConn has had mixed results thus far this season. On February 12, the Huskies started off their 2011 season with a riveting 4-3 victory over Army in West Point, New York.

Marcus and Warden led the charge for UConn, sweeping their matches in the double competition.

With the singles matches tied 3-3, Lin went through multiple deuces/advantages in the final game with his opponent before giving the Huskies a rousing win at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center.

It was only UConn’s second victory against Army in the school’s history. The Huskies weren’t as lucky in the next match, however.

The Huskies took a 7-0 drubbing from Stony Brook the same day. The Huskies started off nicely, as Warden and Marcus won their doubles match over Nikita Fomin and Roope Kailaheimo, 8-4.

However, things would soon go downhill as Stony Brook would win the final two doubles matches and sweep the singles matches.

STEVE SWEENEY/The Daily Campus

Quenton.Narcisse@UConn.edu

A UConn tennis player uses his backhand in the Sept. 25 match against Hartford.

UConn’s hopes for 8th title may rest with freshman center Dolson STORRS, (AP) — Connecticut center Stefanie Dolson is getting used to big expectations.

UConn’s 6-foot-5 freshman came into the season as the heir apparent to Tina Charles, last year’s national player of the year. She thought she was ready.

She says she knows now that she wasn’t.

Dolson says that became apparent after the second game of the season, when she scored just two points and played just 13 minutes against Baylor star Brittney Griner in a 65-64 UConn win.

She said it became crystal clear after the team’s lone loss of the season to Stanford on Dec. 30, which snapped the Huskies’

record 90-game winning streak.

Dolson scored just six points and grabbed five rebounds.

“After the loss, CD (associate head coach Chris Dailey) said to me, ‘I need you to lose weight, get in better shape and be a beast in the weight room,’” Dolson said. “I said all right, and I did.”

She said she has dropped a few pounds, added some muscle, and increased her strength, speed and stamina.

Connecticut star Maya Moore said Dolson has transformed herself into a key cog in the Huskies offense along the way.

“I think she’s really starting to get a rhythm and kind of a comfort zone of getting position,” Moore said. “Because once she gets the ball, we know what she can do with the ball.”

After averaging less than eight points a game in the team’s first 22, Dolson has averaged 13.5 in the final eight, while playing more than 25 minutes a game. She was named the conference’s rookie of the week twice in February, and was a unanimous selection to the league’s all-freshman team that was announced Thursday.

“Stefanie has just been getting better and better every day,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I know that people who haven’t seen her in a while are just amazed at the change in her in such a short period of time.

“Stefanie has turned into somebody you can trust, day in and day out.”

Opponents have noticed.

Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman said Dolson is developing into the league’s dominant inside player.

“She can turn over either shoulder,” he said. “Normally, you can say jump on somebody’s left shoulder and they can’t go the other way. But she’s not that kind of player. She can go both ways and make shots.”

Some of her improvement has come out of necessity. At the beginning of the season, Dolson was sharing time with freshman Samarie Walker, with sophomore Heather Buck providing mop-up duty off the bench.

But Walker transferred to Kentucky in January, and last week, Buck suffered a stress injury to her left foot that is expected to keep her out through the Big East tournament.

That leaves Dolson as part of a six-player rotation and UConn’s only viable post option.

“That’s asking a lot with no margin for error,” Auriemma said.

“Ninety percent of the time, it’s not an issue. Ten percent of the time, it is because you can’t give your players a breather when they’re playing poorly. The fatigue and wear and tear mentally is almost worse than physically.”

The Daily Campus, Page 12

Friday, March 4, 2011

Sports

Huskies head to Big Apple for ECAC meet

By Cory LeBihan Campus Correspondent The New England Champion UConn Huskies continue their indoor schedule this weekend as they compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships and at The Armory in New York.

On March 4, UConn’s nationally ranked distance medley relay team (DMR) will head to New York to compete in the Columbia Last Chance Meet in an effort to maintain a top-12 ranking in the event and qualify for nationals. UConn’s DMR squad, No. 10 in the country, con-

sists of breakout junior Heather Wilson, senior Leah Andrianos, sophomore Brigitte Mania and freshman Celina Emerson. The DMR team won’t participate in the ECAC Championships and will compete against several Big East schools that are also trying to secure spots at nationals.

The team has worked hard and cracked the national rankings, said distance coach Andrea Grove-McDonough, noting that they needed to make efforts to stay there. “We made the decision for what’s best for the team, and we are really trying to look beyond championship meets and grow on a national level,” she said.

UConn qualified 15 athletes for the ECAC Championships, which the Huskies have won three out of the past four years.

The Huskies didn’t attend the meet during the 2009 season.

“We are not going to go out there and mail it in,” said Grove-McDonough. Although the Huskies will be without four of their top athletes, they are more than capable of winning and would love to end the season on a high note, she added.

All-American Trisha-Ann Hawthorne and sophomore Kristen Brown qualified for sprinting events. Ana Groff, Imani Sudlow, Shauna McNiff and Lauren Sara will compete in

mid-distance and long-distance races, while freshman Madalyne Smith will look to win the 60-meter hurdle event. Tiffany Daley, Groff, Coleen Hepburn, Cassondra Hunter, Rosie Crean and Courtney Dinnan all qualified for the ECAC championships in relay events. Natasha McLaren, Ilva Bikanova, Jasmine Cribb, Brown and Whitney Holder will be competing in jumping events.

The ECAC Championships provides the final opportunity for athletes to set national marks and will take place in Boston on March 5 and 6.

Cory.Lebihan@UConn.edu

FILE PHOTO/The Daily Campus

The UConn women’s track team competes in a home meet against Quinnipiac on April 17 last spring. The Huskies won the New England championships last week.

Huskies earn bye in playoffs IC4A meet up next for UConn

By Danielle Ennis Staff Writer

sion of Saturday’s first round game. The Huskies could hit the road to face Holy Cross, Robert Morris or Niagara, The UConn men’s hockey or they could also host team heads into the Atlantic Mercyhurst here in Storrs.

Hockey Association tournament Earlier in the season, the next weekend with a record of Huskies went 1-1 against 13-17-4 (13-12-2 AHA).

Niagara and 1-1 against The eighth annual AHA Mercyhurst. If they play Tournament begins tomorrow Holy Cross or Robert Morris, where the No. 3 through No. the Huskies will be looking 6 seeds will compete for their first win to advance to the against these teams quarterfinals next this season.

Saturday, March 13.

“We can play any The Huskies will of those four teams, be on a two-week hiaso the coaching Atlantic tus from competitive staff is doing our Hockey play until quarters. best to scout and “Its important now breakdown film,” Playoffs that we keep the conMarshall said. ditioning up, that we Quarterfinals The Huskies must keep their hands and TBD/TBA win it all to move feet moving, ” said onto the bigger stage. head coach Bruce The quarterfinals on Marshall. “This week is not Saturday aren’t just one and so much a focus on tactics, or done. It’s a best of three series. fundamentals. The guys are “Basically, we have to win taking a break this week and four games in the next two by next week, we’ll get back weeks to advance to the tourinto the daily routine.” nament,” Marshall said.

They will not know their If successful on Saturday, opponent until the conclu- the Huskies will continue to

MEN’S HOCKEY

the semifinals and finals, both held at the Blue Cross Arena, in Rochester, NY. Last year, RIT won the AHA championship and continued onto the NCAA tournament, becoming the first-ever AHA team to compete in the Frozen Four. This year, they stand atop of the conference standings again.

Senior Captain Andrew Olson commented on the overall attitude of the team looking forward to post-season.

“Our main focus needs to be just to play our game and not worry about things we cannot control,” Olson said. “We have beaten a lot of good teams, and when we play up to the best of our ability we can play with anyone and beat anyone in our league. We cannot dwell on the games we have lost, but learn from those games so we do not make the same mistakes as we did before.”

UConn heads into the tournament with a three-game win streak.

Danielle.Ennis@UConn.edu

» NBA

Bibby starts settling in with Heat

MIAMI (AP) — Mike Bibby already has something in common with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. He left money on the table to join the Miami Heat.

Bibby settled in Thursday morning with his third team in little more than a week. He became a free agent Wednesday after clearing waivers and quickly signed with the Heat, who believe Bibby can be the last veteran piece of a championship puzzle.

“You can just tell that the guys here have a winning mentality,” Bibby said. “You need that in this league. We’re all on the same team. I’m not coming here trying to do anything, take anybody’s minutes or anything else.

I’m just here to help the team win. We’re all a team and we’re all in this together.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wasted little time putting Bibby to use, sending him in with 1:11 left in the opening quarter against the Orlando Magic on Thursday night. It’s unclear how much time he may be in line for right away, especially considering Carlos Arroyo — who was waived to clear a spot for Bibby — has not been a regular part of Miami’s rotation for several weeks.

Bibby ran through some offensive sets at the Heat facility after signing Wednesday night, went through a shootaround practice Thursday and

studied film after that.

Miami has even experimented at times this season with having no true point guard on the court for long stretches, although the Heat have gotten away from that somewhat with Mario Chalmers playing a larger role of late.

“This gives us more depth,” Spoelstra said. “I think ultimately some of our most consistent minutes happen when we have a point guard on the floor.”

There were plenty of things pulling Bibby to Miami. His brotherin-law is Heat reserve guard Eddie House, but more than anything else, Bibby wanted to be with a team that he thinks will win a title.

In the end, Miami was his clear choice.

“I just thought it would be a good move for me,” said Bibby, averaged 9.4 points and 3.6 assists as a starter with Atlanta this season, his 13th in the league.

“I tried to see where I would fit in the best and help the most.”

This Heat team came together last summer with a theme of sacrifice: Wade, James and Bosh signed deals worth a combined $51 million less than what they could have commanded. Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem were among other Miami players who signed for less money as well, and Bibby unexpectedly joined that group earlier this week.

When the Hawks traded Bibby to Washington last week, it was

a move few people saw coming beforehand, Bibby included.

He didn’t want to stay with the Wizards and be little more than a mentor to rookie guard John Wall, so he asked that his contract be bought out.

It came with a price: $6,217,616.

That’s what Bibby would have made next year, and that’s what he forfeited as terms of the buyout.

“It’s always tough to give up money,” Bibby said. “At this time, this part of my career, I want to be happy. And I thought this would be the best place for me as far as winning. I’ve won and lost in my career, and I’m at a stage where I want to be happy.”

Bibby brings something that the Heat will covet in April, May and, they hope, June: Playoff experience.

He’s started 80 games in the playoffs, more than any other Heat player and 17th-most among active players across the league.

And part of the sales pitch team President Pat Riley gave Bibby was how valued he would be on a championship run.

“He picked things up quickly,” Wade said. “He’s a veteran so he’s going to fit in with the offense that we run. He’s run some of it before. Just come in and play basketball, don’t even worry about necessarily fitting in, just worry about the impact he can make on our team. If he does that, he’ll be fine.”

Blair: Davies is man of moral character, but made a forgiveable mistake from TRYING, page 14 That was about the extent of my day before I headed to work last night. Oh, one more time I missed the mark?

Church service. Although I grew up in a Protestant household, I haven’t been to church in years. To be fair though, I didn’t violate any laws or rules – campus or otherwise – I’d like to think I was mostly respectful (I attended all my classes, didn’t I?) and I was on top of things academically.

Still, if my math is correct,

that only puts me at about 2-for-10.

In all seriousness, instead of scrutinizing BYU, or praising them for their standards, we should turn the attention to the students who sign this agreement and live by it dayto-day. Davies and the 28,000 other undergraduates at BYU know what they are signing up for and, for the most part, follow these rules closely. The website for the BYU Honor Code Office says the office investigates only hundreds of complaints a year, a miniscule

number for a campus with nearly 30,000 students.

Davies is obviously a man of outstanding moral character. He wouldn’t be at BYU if he wasn’t. He made a mistake, and seems ready to pay the consequences. Here’s hoping that he pays his dues, returns to BYU, is allowed to compete next season and helps lead the Cougars deep into the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Russell.Blair@UConn.edu

By Mike McCurry Campus Correspondent Up to this point, the 20102011 season has been very successful for the UConn men’s indoor track and field team. The Huskies will be going for their third straight title this weekend when they compete in the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championship (IC4A) in Boston. Action begins at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday with the heptathlon’s 60-meter dash.

Only those with times and distances that qualify by IC4A standards are permitted to compete. For UConn, that is a remarkable 26 athletes.

Amazingly, the Huskies have

never won the indoor IC4A’s.

According to head coach Greg Roy, “We will be running a very good lineup this weekend. As a team, our top two goals are always winning the Big East Championship and the New England Championship. When the guys go out individually, it is all about competing at the highest level possible.”

The IC4A is the oldest athletic conference in the country. As Roy put it, it was “the national championship before the national championship.” It has since been shrunk to feature schools predominantly on the East Coast. The competition, however, has not eased up.

Roy said he would be smart about not pushing guys

like Mike Rutt and Aaron King to the limit. Rutt, a senior All-American, will be competing in the 800-meter sprint as usual. Rutt currently holds the 6th fastest time in Division I this year for the 800-run. King, who is ranked 31st nationally right now, will only be doing the heptathlon this weekend.

The 88th annual IC4A Championship is being held at the Boston University Track and Field Pavilion on campus. Although UConn will not employ its full roster, the IC4A is still considered a team-scoring meet.

Michael.McCurry@UConn.edu

UConn junior G Walker to be honored on senior day with Beverly and Okwandu STORRS (AP) — Connecticut junior guard Kemba Walker will be honored during this year's senior day ceremonies at Gampel Pavilion, an indication the Husky star is not planning to return next season.

Walker will participate in ceremonies Saturday, along with

seniors Charles Okwandu and Donnell Beverly before the No. 16 Huskies (21-8, 9-8 Big East) take on No. 8 Notre Dame (245, 13-4) in the team's regularseason finale.

The school says Walker is scheduled to finish his degree this summer and plans to march in May

graduation ceremonies.

Walker, a candidate for national player of the year, is averaging almost 23 points per game and is projected by many as a first-round NBA draft pick.

Walker has said he will make a decision about his future once UConn's season is complete.

from HUSKIES, page 14

UConn will be participating in the Buzz Classic in Woodstock, Ga, on Friday and Saturday before heading to Auburn for a single game against the Tigers on Tuesday. Following the showdown with the S.E.C. powerhouse, the Huskies will play a double header against Kennesaw

State on Wednesday in Kennesaw, Ga. Mullin’s squad will wrap up their brutal spring training trip with five games in Tampa, Fla., as part of the University of South Florida Tournament, starting on Friday, March 11.

Mullins: We need to improve this week

Mullins said. “We also have to finish more of our scoring opportunities. This week we hope to get keep improving our game by increasing our offensive production and going all out on every play.”

Peter.Logue@UConn.edu

Huskies face SDSU, Cal, among others from ALONG, page 14 For the most part, UConn’s pitching has done its job in the early part of the season, posting a 3.81 ERA while holding opponents to a .244 batting average.

The offense, on the other hand, has scuffled a bit, hitting just .227 with 28 total runs through the first six games. Infielders Nick Ahmed and Mike Friel are the only players with a batting average north of .300 – with averages of .364 and .348, respectively – while centerfielder George Springer has the team’s only home run.

The Huskies’ offense will undoubtedly have to step in during Sunday’s game against California, whose pitching staff has a min-

iscule 1.02 ERA. The 5-1 Bears have outscored their opponents – which have included the likes of North Carolina State, Kansas State and No. 15 Stanford – by a total margin of 44-9. Justin Jones, who’s 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA, is expected to get the start for Cal. On Monday, UConn will travel to Cunningham Stadium to take on San Diego (3-4) in their final game of the USD Tourney. Greg Nappo, who got the win his last time out, will get the start for the Huskies.

Nappo threw six shutout innings in the game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, a contest in which the offense exploded for seven runs. Springer’s three-run bomb in the sixth inning broke the game open for the Huskies.

UConn will also play a threegame series with San Diego later that week, from March 10 to March 12, with a matchup against UC Irvine sandwiched in between on Tuesday. UC Irvine is up to No. 19 in the Coaches Poll after a seven-game win streak to start the season, its most recent being a 20-0 thumping over Grambling State. The UConn pitching staff will have its hands full with the Anteaters, who enter this weekend averaging over 11 runs per game.

Following the seven-game road trip, the Huskies will be off until a March 15th meeting with Sacred Heart.

Ryan.Tepperman@UConn.edu

Who was the first to report the Fiesta Bowl losses?

DC Sports Online

The Daily Campus Sports Section!

We’ll be filing over Spring Break!

Check over break for articles, posts, videos and

Meetings: Mon. at 8:30 p.m.

Check us out!

The Official Sports Blog of The Daily Campus

Why go to DC Sports Online?

podcasts from the Big East tournament.

dcsportsonline.wordpress.com

TWO Friday, March 4, 2011

PAGE 2

What's Next

Home game

Away game Gampel Pavilion, XL Center

Men’s Basketball (21-8) (9-8)

The Daily Campus, Page 13

Sports

The Daily Question Q : “Will UConn get a first round bye in the Big East tournament?” is playing too inconsistent right now, no way they will beat Notre A : “UConn Dame.”

TBA Big East Tournament TBA

Sunday Big East Tournament 2 p.m.

March 7 Big East Tournament 6 p.m.

March 8 Big East Tournament 7 p.m.

The Daily Roundup

“This is a great opportunity for me... Let’s hope we all have the chance to play this season.”

» NFL

NFL, union agree to 24-hour extension

Jeremy Shockey

» Pic of the day

Men’s Hockey (13-17-4) TBA Atlantic Hockey Tournament Quarterfinals TBA

Baseball (2-4) (0-0) Tomorrow San Diego State 9 p.m.

Sunday California 3 p.m.

March 7 San Diego 5 p.m.

March 8 UC Irvine 9:30 p.m.

March 10 San Diego 5 p.m.

Softball (2-3) (0-0) Today Akron 11 a.m.

Today Alabama State 4 p.m.

March 5 March 5 Jacksonville UNC State Greensboro 11 a.m.

4 p.m.

March 6 Drexel 11 a.m.

Lacrosse (3-0) (0-0) March 7 Boston College 1 p.m.

March 9 Holy Cross Noon

March 12 Sacred Heart 1 p.m.

March 19 Rutgers 1 p.m.

March 25 Canisius 5 p.m.

Men’s Track and Field March 5-6 IC4A Championship All Day

March 11-12 NCAA Championship All Day

Women’s Track and Field March 5-6 ECAC Championship All Day

March 11-12 NCAA Championship All Day

Men’s Swimming and Diving March 11-12 Zone Diving All Day

March 24 NCAA Championship All Day

Women’s Swimming and Diving March 11-12 Zone Diving All Day

March 17 NCAA Championships All Day

Golf March 7-9 March 25-27 April 9-10 April 17-19 May 19-21 Carribean FAU Spring N.E. D-1 Big East NCAA East Intercollegiate Break Champs Champs Regional All Day All Day All Day All Day All Day

E-mail your answers, along with your name, semester standing and major, to sports@dailycampus.com. The best answer will appear in the next paper.

» That’s what he said

Gillette Young Gun

Women’s Basketball (29-1) (16-0)

“Are you going to watch the UConn basketball team in the NCAA tournament?”

—Ryan Vantime, 4th-semester civil engineering major

– Tight end Jeremy Shockey on signing with the Carolina Panthers.

Tomorrow Notre Dame 2 p.m.

Next Paper’s Question:

AP

Colorado Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez smiles as he prepares to run to the field to face the San Francisco Giants during a spring training baseball game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick near Scottsdale, Ariz.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s favorite sport is still in business — for another day.

The NFL and the players’ union agreed Thursday to a 24-hour extension of the current collective bargaining agreement so that negotiations can continue.

Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday, a member of the NFL Players Association’s executive committee, told The Associated Press about the extension after the sides met for about eight hours before a federal mediator. The CBA was set to expire at midnight, which would likely have prompted the first work stoppage since 1987 for a league that rakes in $9 billion a year.

“We just know right now that we granted a 24-hour extension,” Saturday said as he and Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch left the session.

Union executive director DeMaurice Smith emerged from the talks soon after.

“For all our fans who dig our game, we appreciate your patience as we work through this,” he said. “We are going to keep working. We want to play football.”

Failing to make a deal could put the two sides on the road to a year without football, even though opening kickoff of the 2011 season is still six months away. The labor unrest comes as the NFL is at the height of its popularity, breaking records for TV ratings: This year’s Super Bowl was the mostwatched program in U.S. history.

Without a new CBA, the owners could lock out the players, and the union could decertify to try and prevent that through the courts — something the NFLPA did in 1989. It formed again in 1993.

While the league and players’ union met for a 10th day with mediator George Cohen, even President Barack Obama weighed in when asked if he would intervene in the dispute.

“I’m a big football fan,” Obama said, “but I also think that for an industry that’s making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way and be true to their fans, who are the ones who obviously allow for all the money that they’re making. So my expectation and hope is that they will resolve it without me intervening, because it turns out I’ve got a lot of other stuff to do.”

With the clock ticking down, Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL’s negotiating team arrived at a federal mediator’s headquarters about 45 minutes ahead of the NFLPA’s Smith and his group.

“We’re working hard,” Goodell said.

Also on hand for the NFL were Pash, outside counsel Bob Batterman, New York Giants owner John Mara, Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy, Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen and several other league executives.

Mara and Murphy are members of the league’s labor committee, which has the authority to call for a lockout if a new agreement isn’t reached.

BIG EAST Standings THE Weekend Ahead Men’s Standings Team 5Pittsburgh 7Notre Dame 11Louisville 15St. John’s 12Syracuse West Virginia Cincinnati 17Georgetown 16UConn 19Villanova Marquette Seton Hall Rutgers Providence South Florida DePaul

Women’s Standings Team

1UConn 12DePaul 7Notre

Dame Rutgers 20Marquette Louisville Syracuse 17Georgetown St. John’s West Virginia Providence Pittsburgh South Florida Villanova Cincinnati Seton Hall

Overall

Record

26-4 24-5 23-7 11-5 24-6 19-10 23-7 21-8 21-8 21-9 18-12 11-17 14-15 14-16 9-21 7-23

Pct.

.867 .828 .767 .688 .800 .655 .767 .724 .724 .700 .600 .393 .483 .467 .300 .233

Overall

Record

27-1 26-5 24-6 18-11 22-7 19-11 21-8 21-9 20-9 22-8 13-15 13-16 12-18 11-18 9-19 8-21

Pct.

.964 .839 .800 .621 .759 .633 .724 .700 .690 .733 .464 .448 .400 .379 .321 .276

Conference

Record

14-3 13-4 12-5 19-9 11-6 10-7 10-7 10-7 9-8 9-8 9-8 5-11 5-12 3-14 3-14 1-16

Pct.

.824 .765 .706 .679 .647 .588 .588 .588 .529 .529 .529 .313 .267 .176 .176 .059

GB

– 1 2 2.5 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 8.5 9 11 11 13

Conference

Record

16-0 13-3 13-3 11-5 10-6 10-6 9-7 9-7 9-7 8-8 6-10 5-11 3-13 3-13 2-14 1-15

Pct.

1.00 .813 .813 .688 .625 .625 .563 .563 .563 .500 .375 .313 .188 .188 .125 .063

GB

– 3 3 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 10 11 13 13 14 15

Compiled by MATT MCDONOUGH

Men’s basketball Senior Day, Big East tourney take place

By Matthew McDonough Associate Sports Editor Storrs Side The games to attend: Stay for Saturday of Spring Break.

The men’s basketball team will honor seniors Donnell Beverly and Charles Okwandu prior to the 2 p.m. tipoff for UConn’s game against Notre Dame. With Kemba Walker possibly graduating and leaving early for the NBA, it might be his final game in a Husky uniform at Gampel Pavilion. The matchup between the Fighting Irish and the Huskies will be a vital regularseason finale, with Big East tournament seeding still very much on the line. Speaking of the Big East, the men will be in New York City over break for the Big East tournament, March 8-12 at Madison Square Garden. The women have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Big East tournament from March 4-8 at the XL Center in Hartford.

The games to follow up on: Baseball and Hockey.

The baseball team will be

in San Diego all break, playing San Diego State, San Diego and California-Berkeley at Tony Gwynn Stadium before going to Cunningham Stadium for a threegame series with the Toreros. The men’s hockey team qualified for the Atlantic Hockey Association playoffs which start March 11.

Pro Side March Madness: Although this space is usually devoted to happenings in pro sports, the NFL collective bargaining agreement deadline, the dog days of the NBA and NHL seasons and spring training aren’t worthy of recommendation when mid-major conference tournaments are happening. Perhaps the best part about Spring Break is when the little guys have their chance to play on the big stage.

Every conference tournament championship is broadcast, with area teams like Fairfield and Quinnipiac having great opportunities to clinch an NCAA tournament berth and punch their ticket to the Big Dance.

Matthew.McDonough@UConn.edu

» INSIDE SPORTS TODAY P.13: NFL, union agree to extend deadline. / P.12: Kemba Walker will be honored on Senior Day. / P.11: Men’s tennis heads to Puerto Rico.

Page 14

Friday, March 4, 2011

Trying to live

by BYU code

www.dailycampus.com

ALONG THE GOLDEN COAST

UConn to spend spring break in San Diego

By Ryan Tepperman Staff Writer

Russell Blair

Much has already been written about Brandon Davies’ suspension from BYU for violating its honor code by having pre-martial sex with his girlfriend. Some have complained about how such an archaic system of rules is still in place in this day and age, while others have come to the university’s defense and lauded them for applying the same strict standards to all students and not making exceptions for athletes. But this column isn’t about that.

In searching for a new way to write about Davies’ dilemma, I perused the BYU Honor Code.

I have to tip my hat to all the students in Provo. It takes strong morals and will – something I clearly lack – to follow these rules.

As I read the code, I thought to myself, I clearly violate most of these standards on a daily basis.

So, why don’t I take you through part of my day, and we can see just how many times I break the BYU Honor Code.

9:15 a.m. – I roll out of bed and start getting ready for my 11 a.m. linguistics class. I haven’t shaved in a few days, but my facial hair doesn’t grow quickly enough for me to have a beard yet, so I’m good in that respect. But I keep my hair over my ears, so I’ve already violated the school’s “dress and grooming standards,” and I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet. Things aren’t looking too good.

9:30 a.m. – Breakfast today is Eggos, yogurt and a nice cold class of Diet Coke. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose rules govern BYU, prohibit caffeine. Looks like I’m 0-for-2.

9:50 a.m. ­– Before I hop in the shower, I browse some of my regularly-visited websites, including Barstool Sports. I’m greeted by the post “Wake Up with Holly Lynch,” part of a daily Barstool feature where a celebrity is shown in scandalous clothing, presumably to brighten the day of those who browse the site that are about to head off to work. I think I have to concede that I’ve broken the rule of “No involvement with pornographic or indecent material.”

10:45 a.m. –­ This is a twofer.

On the way to class not only do I have a cigarette, (tobacco is forbidden by the LDS) but I’m listening to Blink 182 Pandora on my iPhone. The music is filled with swears, and I can no longer attest that I’ve lived up to the standard of “clean language.”

I’m really not on a roll here.

11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. – I have back-to-back classes, and this is probably my shining moment. I got a 95 on my linguistics midterm, and I actively participate in a budget simulation in my congressional theory class.

1:50 p.m. – Another cigarette before class.

4:45 p.m. – I leave my fourth class pretty satisfied with my day so far: the morning was looking a little dicey, but I’ve picked it up in the afternoon.

5:30 p.m. – The girls in the apartment next to me in Grasso must have literally set a bag of popcorn on fire. It reeks, and the fire alarm goes off and I’m forced outside. I call my dad to wish him happy birthday, and tell him that I was too busy to call him Wednesday, the day of his birthday. The truth? While I was busy, I also forgot until 10:30 or 11 p.m. and didn’t want to wake him or my mother by calling the house that late. The commitment to honesty just took a little bit of a hit. But my dad does thank me for the 11:30 Facebook wall post I left for him, “Happy birthday Dad! Sorry I forgot to give you a call!

» BLAIR, page 12

Like many college students, the members of the UConn baseball team (2-4) will spend spring break traveling throughout California. But instead of spending their days on beaches or at popular vacation spots, the team will visit four different cities during the road trip, playing seven games in eight days.

Coming off a 1-2 showing in last weekUSD Tourney end’s College Classic, the Huskies will try to March turn their luck around 5-12 when they travel to Diego to partake San Diego, San in the three-day USD Calif.

Tournament, which includes matchups with San Diego State, California and San Diego. The team will first head to Tony Gwynn Stadium, the home park of San Diego State, for a 9 p.m. showdown with the Aztecs. SDSU is 2-6 on the season after dropping its last four games. UConn will then take on the No. 22 California Bears in a Sunday matinee.

Senior Elliot Glynn and junior Matt Barnes are expected to start games one and two of the tournament, both of which will take place at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Glynn received the loss his last time out, despite a 7.1 inning, two-run effort against Oregon State thanks to OSU ace Sam Gaviglio’s complete game shutout.

Barnes was also a tough-luck loser last weekend after striking out nine Indiana batters in seven innings. The hard-tossing junior dropped to 0-2 on the season despite a 3.46 earned run average and 20 punchouts in 13 innings.

BASEBALL

ED RYAN/The Daily Campus

Kevin Vance pitches in last season’s 8-2 win over Villanova at J.O. Christian Field. Vance and the 2-4 Huskies will head to San Diego over Spring break for games against SDSU, San Diego and California, among others.

» HUSKIES, page 12

Huskies spring trip no day at the beach ing a 10-0 season-opening throttling by Jacksonville. However, UConn was able to bounce back and knock off Kent State by a Like many other students, the score of 14-5 before avenging UConn women’s softball team their embarrassing loss to the will be heading south for spring Dolphins with a 3-2 thriller.

“We improved every game and break, trading books for beachto beat Jacksonville on Sunday es. Except, instead after they spanked us of basking in the sun on Friday was huge,” and being worrycoach Karen Mullins free for a week as Buzz said. “I liked our comthe majority of their petitive attitude in the peers are, the team Classic final two games.” will be hard at work March 4-9 Building off the in cementing themmomentum gained selves as a threat in Georgia from the latter two the Big East softball games in Boca Raton ranks. They will play a total of 13 games over will not be an easy task for the the nine-day span in Georgia, Huskies, as they continue to face southern teams who are not Alabama, and Florida.

The Huskies experienced plagued by the same weather mixed results in a season-open- conditions as UConn and other ing tournament last weekend teams in the Northeast. While in Boca Raton, Fla. They were schools from warmer climates outscored 16-1 in their first have been practicing outdoors three games, all losses, includ- for weeks, UConn has been

By Peter Logue Campus Correspondent

SOFTBALL

hung up indoors for the majority of the preseason.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to play in Schenkman,” Mullins said, referring to the state-of-theart indoor practice facility on campus used primarily by the football team. “We can get a lot done in there but it’s not the ground and it’s not the dirt.”

Perhaps the lack of repetition on real dirt is the reason for the Huskies’ shaky defense thus far.

In Florida last weekend, UConn committed 10 errors over their five games. The defensive woes, combined with the fact that UConn scored one run over the first three games of the season, are the primary aspects that the Huskies will hope to improve on over Spring Break.

“We need to tighten up our defense and make our opponents work harder to score,”

» HOPES, page 12

JOHN LEVASSEUR/The Daily Campus

A UConn first baseman catches a throw from an infielder last season.

Huskies play two in Florida, one at home Huskies. “But we have a long season ahead of us, and we’re still working on getComing off of a win ting our systems in place.”

The Huskies’ two preagainst Quinnipiac last weekend, the UConn vious wins before the women’s lacrosse team Bobcats were against will be spending their Iona and Binghamton, spring break playing three where they won by scores of 18-11 games, two in Florida and 11-9, and one back home. respecLast Sunday, the tively. In Huskies beat the vs. SHU their short Bobcats 17-12 on the March 12 season thus Bobcats’ home field. far, the The Huskies’ scorSherman Huskies are ing attack was led by senior Lauren Sparks, Family-Sports o u t s c o r ing their who had a team high Complex opponents four goals in the con1p.m.

46-32 and test to help the Huskies outshootearn their third victory on the season, they now ing them 104-64.

A large reason why stand at a perfect 3-0 record.

“It’s definitely exciting... Woods thinks her squad and I’d rather be 3-0 than has been so successful is 0-3,” said head coach Katie because they have been JIM ANDERSON/The Daily Campus Woods, who is in her first playing well together as Lauren Kahn carries the ball in an 11-9 win over Binghamton Feb. 25. season at the helm of the a team.

By Carmine Colangelo Campus Correspondent

LACROSSE

“Since I arrived at UConn, we’ve been emphasizing a team game,” Woods said.

“We’ve made significant strides in that, and I think we’ve played as a team.”

She also credits a lot of the team’s early success to the strong play and leadership of senior captains Sparks and Jess Mucci as well as great play from junior M.E. Lapham and freshman Lauren Kahn.

With an early portion of their season behind them, the Huskies will look ahead to the upcoming week, where they will play three games over the break.

The team will first travel to Clermont, Fla., where they will play Boston College on Monday and Holy Cross on Wednesday.

“Both Boston College and Holy Cross have had a strong showing this year... we are in the process of

reviewing film, but we’ll need to step up our game significantly to prepare for both games,” Woods said.

And preparation will be essential against these teams if the Huskies wish to maintain their early success, because the Eagles are also undefeated this season at 4-0, including a 14-8 victory over Big East rivals Villanova. The Crusaders currently stand at 1-3 this season.

After their road trip, the Huskies will come home to play Sacred Heart on Saturday, March 12. The Pioneers currently hold a 1-1 record this season, playing one more game before they face off against the Huskies.

Carmine.Colangelo@UConn.edu

Friday, March 4, 2011

Basketball Special, Page 3

Basketball Special

» SENIOR DAY SPECIAL

HUSKIES SAY GOODBYE TO SENIOR CLASS

ASHLEY POSPISIL/The Daily Campus

KEVIN SCHELLER/The Daily Campus

Charles Okwandu guards Georgetown’s Henry Sims during UConn’s 78-70 win over the Hoyas on Feb. 16.

Donnell Beverly dribbles the ball during UConn’s 61-59 win over Villanova on Jan. 17 at Gampel Pavilion.

Despite shortened college career, Okwandu has become a key contributor in his senior year

By Matt McDonough Associate Sports Editor In the spring of 2009, 7-foot-3 junior center Hasheem Thabeet of Tanzania was leading the UConn men’s basketball team to its third Final Four appearance in school history. Then-freshman center Charles Okwandu from Lagos, Nigeria was watching, ruled academically ineligible, and forced to sit out the second half of the season.

“It was really hard because in junior college I played some games, but I could not finish off the season with my teammates,” said Okwandu, a 7-foot paint presence. “Then when I came to UConn, I had the same problem. It made it tough to watch them play and not be able to experience it with them. The academic ineligibility hurt my confidence a lot because it made me feel like I was not getting the chance to show what I could do, and therefore lessened my chances for a career after graduating.

It made me stronger because I was working harder to get the things I wanted, a chance to be part of the team again and get better grades.”

Okwandu, who played only half a season at Harcum Junior College prior to UConn, played a mere 10 games in the 200809 season, scoring a total of just three points. Following the Final Four loss to Michigan State, Okwandu only had two seasons of eligibility remaining due to the year at junior college.

Coach Jim Calhoun told the Hartford Courant they should have redshirted Okwandu his first season.

With a shortened college career, Okwandu seems to be improving every game. After an inconsistent junior season, his lone highlight a 10-point performance on 5-for-5 shooting in a win against Notre Dame, he is making strides as a senior.

“Charles is coming,” Calhoun said to the Hartford Courant.

Calhoun added that the 24-year-old is only getting better and could really make a difference next year, if he was still at UConn.

Okwandu has appeared in every game this season, starting 14 of them. He is averaging 2.8 points per game and 3.1 rebounds per contest. Although he has not eclipsed his career-high of 10 points in the regular season, he’s played complete games.

Okwandu, who played at King’s High School in Nigeria, scored six points, blocked four shots and grabbed 11 rebounds in a win over Providence in February, garnering praise from Calhoun. It was a big moment for Okwandu, as he was often pulled quickly by the veteran coach.

“Sometimes it is tough, but he has been doing his job for a long time and he knows how to improve his players,” Okwandu said. “He is just doing what is best for the team, even though I wish he would give me more chances.”

Calhoun’s reputation is a reason why Okwandu played here in the first place.

“I was interested in the way

[UConn] was able to help previous ‘big men’ centers develop their skills to be ready for the league,” Okwandu said. “I think [junior college] helped me a little bit to get to know my position better and get ready for a higher level of college basketball.”

Okwandu also put up eightpoint efforts against Seton Hall and Syracuse this season.

But no matter what potential remains for Okwandu, he will be gone in a few weeks. He is doing his best to graduate this May and hopes to play professional basketball either in the United States or Europe.

Whatever his future plans are, he’ll take his three years of memories with him.

“I have enjoyed playing with this group of guys,” Okwandu said. “Every day, I just work hard and hope that it shows during the games and it helps the team win games. Although it is my senior year, I had a lot of fun with my teammates and the coaches. One of my favorite memories will be every time that I made a basket or had a block, I knew the person who it was dedicated to was watching. Another favorite memory was after winning the tournament in Maui when we all went jet skiing, and that was a lot of fun.”

Okwandu only saw the court for two and a half years in Storrs. And the sad thing is, if Calhoun’s correct, Husky fans never got to see Okwandu reach his full potential.

Matthew.McDonough@UConn.edu

A LOOK BACK AT THE HUSKIES’ SEASON

By Mac Cerullo Sports Editor Coming into the year, UConn was not expected to succeed. With only one solidified, experienced player on the roster to point to on a team full of question marks, it was hard to get a sense of what this year’s team would be like.

It didn’t take long before that all

Beverly looks to best friend and former teammate Russell Westbrook when facing adversity

By Matt McDonough Associate Sports Editor On Saturday, a few minutes before the 2 p.m. tipoff against Notre Dame, the only four-year player on the UConn men’s basketball team will be honored along with Charles Okwandu and Kemba Walker. Senior cocaptain Donnell Beverly will strut across the Gampel Pavilion floor for the final time in his college career.

Beverly, a reserve point guard, has been the epitome of a team player during his tenure with the Huskies. Although Beverly’s statistics don’t jump out of the box score, he’s garnered high praise from coach Jim Calhoun for his defensive performance in wins against Georgetown and Providence. Calhoun said Beverly, along with Okwandu, is an example of good things coming to those who stick it out. Beverly’s resilience comes from one of his best friends from his native Los Angeles: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook.

“Yeah I talk to him pretty much everyday basically,” Beverly said. “He’s one of my closest friends so I talked to him pretty much all the time.”

The two attended Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, Calif. together. The public high school has a great athletics history, with Warriors’ Dorell Wright and former Reds’ slugger George Foster as alums.

With Westbrook as a senior in 2006, the Olympians went

vs. Vermont, W 89-73 In what was a sign of things soon to come, Kemba Walker exploded for 42 points, tying Clifford Robinson’s record for most points in a game by a UConn player at the XL Center. vs. No. 2 Michigan State, W 70-67 In a rematch of the 2009 Final Four, the Huskies’ stunned the No. 2 ranked Spartans and established themselves as a team on the rise. Walker scored 30, and Alex Oriakhi had a tremendous 15 point, 17 rebound performance.

changed, however. Kemba Walker’s breakout performances and the emergence of numerous new go-to players energized the fanbase and inspired hope that maybe this year wouldn’t be a repeat of the disappointing 2006-07 campaign.

It has been a wild ride, and the team has seen its fair share of ups and downs. But the postseason is nearly upon us, so before we look ahead, lets take a moment to look back at some of this year’s highlights.

vs. No. 8 Kentucky, W 84-67 Any thoughts that UConn’s win over Michigan State was a fluke were erased after the Huskies ran John Calipari’s highly vaunted Kentucky team out of the gym in the Maui Invitational final. UConn closed the first half on a 21-2 run, and througholy outplayed the Wildcats from start to finish. at No. 6 Pittsburgh, L 78-63 After starting the year a perfect 10-0, UConn suffered its first loss of the season

25-4. Westbrook earned a scholarship to hometown UCLA in the process. After two years and two Final Four appearances with the Bruins, Westbrook declared for the NBA Draft. He was picked fourth overall by the Seattle SuperSonics and accompanied the team in its move to Oklahoma City. In 2009, he made the NBA All-Rookie team and this February, Westbrook earned his first career All-Star appearance in his third NBA season. Westbrook, along with Kevin Durant, has become the faces of the Thunder franchise.

“It’s great,” Beverly said.

“Nobody from our neighborhood knew he was going to blow up like he did. And he worked extremely hard over the summer, I know he did. I was really happy for him. All his hard work paid off with his first All-Star [appearance] this year.”

Beverly took the reins from Westbrook at Leuzinger High in 2007, captaining the Olympians and earning team MVP honors, averaging 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game. He was named the Bay League MVP as well. Although the two haven’t played with each other for five years, the former teammates still one another advice.

“I mean, if I see something, I’ll tell him,” Beverly said with a smile. “He always just tells me how ever long I’m in the game, just be aggressive. That’s the main thing he always tells me is be aggressive, don’t worry if coach pulls me, just be aggressive. That’s mainly the advice he gives me.”

in its Big East opener. UConn was physically overmatched against the tough Pitt frontcourt in an enviornment that’s notoriously tough on opposing teams. at No 12 Texas, W 82-81 (OT) In a key road game following a loss at Notre Dame, UConn came up huge by taking down Texas in their own gym.

This game may have been UConn’s best win of the season, as Texas would soon rise into No. 1 consideration after this loss before falling back down to Earth more recently. vs. No. 7 Villanova, W 61-59 In front of a raucous crowd at Gampel Pavilion, UConn opened up the spring semester with an exhilarating win over conference rival Villanova. It was a close game right down to the finish, with Walker sinking the game winning shot on the Huskies’ last possession. vs. No. 23 Louisville, L 79-78 (2OT) After starting the year off 17-2, UConn looked ready to add another impressive win to their resume. But

Beverly has had an adversityfilled career at UConn, finding himself at the end of the bench fighting for minutes in the rotation all four seasons. He played sparingly as a freshman, averaging less than one point, but he gave the shorthanded Huskies 16 minutes off the bench in a win at Indiana. His minutes actually decreased as a sophomore, but he appeared in important games, including the Big East tournament loss to Syracuse and every NCAA tournament game, including the loss to Michigan State in the Final Four. He notched seven points in the first-round win over Chattanooga and scored a careerhigh nine against Hartford.

As a junior, he appeared in all but one game, averaging 1.6 points per game. This season, he is averaging almost two points per contest, and has made 7-of-13 3-pointers.

His best effort was an eightpoint, three-assist showing in the overtime win at Texas.

Beverly and Westbrook are on different career paths. While Westbrook continues to tear up the NBA and becomes one of the league’s best point guards, Beverly is playing out his UConn career. Westbrook may have the accolades and stardom, but on Saturday, it will be Beverly on center stage. Because no matter how successful Westbrook ends up in the NBA, Beverly will have something Saturday that Westbrook never had: A Senior Day ceremony.

Matthew.McDonough@UConn.edu

the Huskies couldn’t put Louisville away, and the Cardinals wound up coming back and eventually tying the game at the buzzer on a Peyton Siva layup. The Cardinals would eventually pull away in double overtime, and the loss began a downward trend for the Huskies that saw UConn lose three out of four games. vs. No. 9 Georgetown, W 78-70 Needing a big win, UConn got the job done and ended Georgetown’s eight game winning streak to put themselves back into contention after their brief skid. vs. No. 8 Notre Dame, Sat., 2 p.m.

Since that Georgetown win, however, UConn has again lost three out of four games again. Now with a first round bye in the Big East tournament at stake, UConn faces one of the conferences strongest teams, Notre Dame. Can they take care of business and finish the regular season strong? Only time will tell.

Michael.Cerullo@UConn.edu

The Daily Campus Friday, March 4, 2011

FIGHT

By Matt McDonough Associate Sports Editor

THE

Senior captain Donnell Beverly, center Charles Okwandu and junior Kemba Walker will play on the Gampel Pavilion floor for the final time Saturday against Notre Dame at 2 p.m. Prior to tipoff, the three outgoing players will be honored, but once the ball goes in the air it will be down to business for the No. 16 UConn men’s basketball team.

The Huskies lost at West Virginia 65-56 Wednesday night, and in the process may have lost a first-round bye in next week’s Big East tournament. Heading into the game, UConn and West Virginia were tied for eighth in the conference standings. After the loss, the Huskies are now tied for ninth in the conference looking in at 9-8 in the league and 21-8 overall. West Virginia improved to 10-7 in the Big East, but are 19-10 overall.

“We didn’t play with the kind of energy we needed and it’s very disappointing,” coach Jim Calhoun told the Associated Press.

Kemba Walker led all scorers with 22 points in 40 minutes of play, going 8-for-23 shooting and 4-for-7 from three-point range. Shabazz Napier added 18 points, but only four other Huskies scored.

In the second half, UConn went six minutes without a basket and Kevin Jones’ 15-point, 10-rebound performance was too much for the Huskies. Joe Mazzulla led the Mountaineers with 18 points.

West Virginia out rebounded UConn by eight on the defensive glass.

“West Virginia won in what I would consider to be Bob Huggins style,” Calhoun said.

“They out-toughed us. We needed to play physically inside and get some rebounds. We made some very poor choices on offense and we didn’t do a good job the whole game of taking away their post play.”

Against the Fighting Irish, the Husky defense will be spread out to the perimeter. Notre Dame tied

a Big East record with 20 made 3-pointers as a team in a 93-72 win over Villanova Tuesday. The Irish are in second place of the Big East conference at 13-4 and 24-5 overall. They have already clinched a double-bye in the Big East championship to the quarterfinals round.

Notre Dame enters Saturday’s contest winners of three straight.

The Fighting Irish defeated the Huskies 73-70 at the Joyce Center in Indiana on Jan. 4. UConn had opportunities to tie the game, but Walker and Napier both missed long, rushed three-pointers in the waning moments.

Senior Ben Hansbrough, who transferred from Mississippi State a couple years, has developed into Notre Dame’s best player, averaging 18.4 points per game. Another fifth-year senior, Farmington’s Tim Abromaitis, is second on the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, and senior Carleton Scott, who has battled injuries during this season, is third with 11.3 points a night. Purduetransfer Scott Martin and senior Tyrone Nash also add experience and leadership to the Irish.

After looking like the doubters who picked the Huskies to finish 10th in the Big East would be proved wrong, UConn has struggled mightily in-conference.

The Huskies’ 12-0 non-conference schedule will help them in NCAA tournament seeding, but after a 7-2 Big East start, UConn’s seeding for the conference tournament has been sinking. The six-game Big East win streak in January seems to be a distant memory, as the Huskies have lost six of their last 10 and three of four contests. They were able to snap a two-game losing streak with a 67-59 win at Cincinnati Sunday afternoon, but the loss in Morgantown, WV sent them back in the standings.

With a loss to Notre Dame, UConn will be guaranteed a game on Tuesday. To get a first-round bye, the Huskies will have to send Beverly, Okwandu and Walker out winners in Storrs, not to mention get some help.

Matthew.McDonough@UConn.edu

IRISH vs.

UConn vs. Notre Dame Senior Day

March 5, 2011 Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Conn.

JIM ANDERSON/The Daily Campus