DENVER – A pregnant woman who was fleeing a bear when she was struck by a slow-moving car said she would honor the euthanized animal by giving her baby the middle name “Bear.”
Ashley Swendsen, 26, said she thought the bear followed her more out of curiosity than malice because it kept a distance of about 10 feet Thursday morning on a hiking trail in northwestern Colorado Springs.

As she ran, she thought, “If it was going to hurt me, it already would have.”

Swendsen managed to scramble up an embankment and was crossing the street when she was hit by a slow-moving car. Although she was not seriously injured, she was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Police said they’re looking for the driver of the car that hit Swendsen. The driver stopped and spoke to her but left before police arrived.

Swendsen said she first spotted the bear as it was coming out of a creek.

“I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept walking,” she said.

Seraphin said the brown-colored North American black bear was tranquilized and later euthanized after Swendsen identified it.

WEST HAVEN–Axes. Licks. Britney Spears. All were parts of the thunderous evening of the MEISA-sponsored 2009 Battle of the Bands.

Held in the German Club on Monday, April 15, many students attended what was to be the three and a half hour-long concert jam-packed with seven bands, each fighting their way toward the number one spot. A panel of four judges scrutinized over the myriad of musical stylings, giving scores for originality, musicianship, showmanship, and success of satisfying the requirement of performing an original cover of a Britney Spears song.

The first group up was The Trails, a minimalist and experimental duo whose originality blurred genres as the members went from performing a flute/acoustic guitar set to a drum kit/electric guitar set.

Next was Goodman Brown, a tight quartet whose dance-pop and classic rock feel was nicely accented with beautiful vocal harmonies.

Third on the bill was The AIDS, a performance-based shock rock group full of obscenities, stage moshing, and costumes meant to entice the audience.

Twin Berlin was the fourth to perform, and brought a comforting local garage band feel to the room.

Afterwards, Shut Up and Deal kicked off their energetic set, which involved spinning bassists, audience sing-a-longs, and a tight mainstream pop/punk sound spiced with sweet guitar riffs.
The penultimate group was 1974, a band who amalgamated classic rock covers into their own blend of classic rock, dance, and pop music.

The night was closed by the (almost) all-female pop-punkers, She Eats Planets. Their energy and stage presence brought the evening to a wonderful end.

So who won? The results were as follows: the Audience Choice Award went to 1974, Third Place went to She Eats Planets, Goodman Brown took Second Place, and Shut Up and Deal went home with the big title of First Place.

Congratulations to all of the winners and be sure to check out the battle next year when new bands compete for the gold.

NEW HAVEN–This past weekend, the UNH community took a great step in helping with the fight against cancer. Over 100 members of the UNH community took part in the SCSU/UNH Relay for Life at Southern Connecticut State University Saturday night into Sunday morning.

The UNH Relay Committee has been working since the end of last year to plan this event. They began working with the SCSU Relay Committee at the end of last semester to unite in the fight against cancer.

The night opened with an introduction by the SCSU Committee Chair and our very own Scott Kazar. There was also a cancer survivor who spoke at the opening and told his own personal story and his belief that our generation will eliminate cancer as a major health threat.

Throughout the night there were many activities meant to keep everyone awake. There was a dance-off competition, a talent show and a karaoke segment of the night. The movies Cool Runnings and Forest Gump were also shown.

The basic idea of Relay for Life is for teams of people to come together in an effort to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. One person from each team should be walking around the track at all times.

The walking opened with a survivor/caretaker lap and then every team walked together. Some teams made banners showing their unity.

There was also a luminary presentation during which the words “HOPE” and “CURE” were spelled out on the bleachers and the luminary that were decorated for survivors and victims of cancer were set up around the track. Walkers paid their respects to the victims and took the time to remember their lives and hope for a future without cancer.

I would personally like to thank everyone who took part in the Relay. Thank you to everyone who sponsored a team and fundraised. Thank you to Kappa Gamma Rho for saving our karaoke segment by letting us use their system and thank you to the 5,6,7,8 Dance Team for donating cookies that everyone enjoyed during the movies.

When all was said and done there were over 60 teams who participated in the event. United, we raised over $15,000 for the American Cancer Society and the fight against cancer.

There is no doubt that we had a beautiful weekend this past weekend. If you’re the type of student who goes home every weekend, this is the one weekend of the year that you cannot go home. There are tons of events taking place all over campus by various different organizations and student groups. I would encourage all of you to take part in as many activities as possible while doing so in a safe manner. There have been many students who have been working hard all year long to pull off many of these large scale events and I would like to thank all of them for their hard work.

One group in particular is SCOPE. They have been working hard to plan and coordinate the events of Spring Weekend, which include many more obstacles than it seems. Items like fighting for proper and usable space, permits, and the massive amount of logistical issues are starting to come together. So while you are out enjoying the festivities please take a second to stop any of the members of SCOPE for all of their hard work all year long. They certainly deserve it! Enjoy the weekend!

NEW HAVEN–On Saturday, April 18, the Fire Science Club held its fifth annual banquet at Amarante’s Sea Cliff in New Haven. The event celebrated the achievements of club members, faculty, and the election of the new executive board. With 200 attendees including students, staff, and alumni, this year was the club’s largest attendance yet. The banquet was a huge success, bringing recognition to the club and the subsequent professions that follow a fire science degree from UNH.

Although buses may have been scarce, the wait was worth it upon arrival. The hall was elegantly decorated, served fantastic appetizers, and lacked the usual giant table decorations that make speaking to anyone across the table impossible. For those of an appropriate age, a bar was kept open throughout the evening.

Following appetizers, the evening truly began with an invocation led by club advisor, Professor Marty O’Connor, after which followed dinner. President Chris Rinck welcomed those in attendance and Professor O’Connor once more faced the audience and gave a thoughtful and entertaining greeting before awards were given out and former Vice President Jessica Davis announced the 2009-2010 executive board. Heading into the next school year, the club will be under the leadership of Chris Rinck as President, Vice President Nick Stevens, Treasurer Alex Cardella, Executive Assistant Mike Matseur, and Sergeant-at-Arms Brian Ricci.

As far as awards go, it’s no surprise that Don Zessin received the Club Dedication Award. During the Fire Science Club/Criminal Justice Club hockey game, Don severely injured his arm so much so that he required surgery. He never lost his club spirit, joking around with club members and paramedics alike as he was unceremoniously taken away by an ambulance.

The Chief O’Bier award, known as the club’s MVP award, was given to senior Jessica Davis for her outstanding club involvement. Both the Professor of the Year and Distinguished Service Award went to Professor Robert Massicotte, the Director of the Fire Science Department who will soon be leaving his full-time position. Professor Massicotte is the only professor to have won the Professor of the Year award twice. Honorary membership went to UNH Facilities, who were instrumental in several club events, including the construction of the Burn Box and Docudrama.

Following the awards ceremony, the club’s newly elected executive assistant, Mike Matseur, announced the raffle winners, door prizes, and made the closing statements very vibrantly. Dancing closed the banquet, which was DJ’d by UNH’s very own TJ the DJ.

The banquet, which is open to all students, occurs every spring semester.

WEST HAVEN–On Saturday, April 18, RECSports held the annual Table Tennis tournament at the Beckerman Recreation Center. Eight contestants battled in single elimination play to be this year’s ping pong champion. Thank you David Rodrigues, Eric Wong, Sam Claver, and Kyle Barrett for your participation and we hope to see you come out again next year. Adamo Defeilce and Farhad Mekael showed strong skills by placing third and fourth respectively. Ayub Mirza did a great job and came in second after playing a spirited final. But it was Neeharika Irrinki who rose above the rest. Congratulations on your well deserved victory, Neeharika. Thank you to everyone that came out.

In other RECSports’ news, the Season Four championship is coming up next week. All of the intramural leagues will be having playoffs and championships, so be sure to come out and support your friends. Check the website and/or the bulletin board outside Equipment Issue for the playoff schedules for each sport. Champions of each division will get a t-shirt and photo. Also, remember, following the end of Season Four the Quest for the Charger Cup will come to an end for this year. The points will be tallied and a champion of the Quest announced. Participants keep this in mind as you finish up Season Four.

That’s all for this week. Have a great spring weekend and check back next week for more news.

Earth Day, a day to reflect upon the natural wonders of this world and take action to protect them. Earth Day here on the University of New Haven campus saw tables in the student center that offered ideas on how to make our world a greener place one light bulb at a time, talk of the new Sustainability Living Learning Community for next year, and trees being ripped out of the ground.

For living on a campus trying to take an important step toward a greener world, I find it ironic that the poor trees outside of the student center patio had no respite from the tree-moving machines and the workers that operate them. Please don’t get me wrong with this. I am extremely happy that the university chose to relocate the trees rather than cut them down. I am, however, opposed to the methods used to relocate the trees.

While sitting in the Echlin Dining Hall with a close friend of mine during breakfast last Thursday, I noticed a truck pulling up onto the patio with a tree-digger on the back of it. I had not seen this machine at work so I was excited to see what it did and how it was done.

The process started out how I expected it would with the truck being backed up to the edge of the tree and the digging end of the machine was lowered into the ready position. After the hydraulics had pushed the large metal wedges into the ground around the tree it was raised up out of the ground. Here is where the problems started.

The first thing we noticed after the tree was taken out of the ground was the large amount of roots dangling from the bottom. Everything I have learned about trees leads me to believe that if a majority of the roots are damaged or cut off the tree will not survive. Apparently the tree moving company believes otherwise because they cut off quite a bit of the root system.

Along with this article, you will find a diagram of a tree and its root system. For your enjoyment I have indicated my estimate for how much of the root system the moving machine actually captured and moved with the tree. Even if this estimate is not as accurate as I believe it to be, it is clear that the majority of the root system remains buried around the patio.

While the roots were hanging, one of the workers began hitting them with a shovel. Clearly feeling that this wasn’t being done thoroughly enough, a second worker joined in with a rake. I still don’t fully understand what the tree was being hit with a rake and a shovel. The only thing they were accomplishing was making the dirt fall off but since the roots were being buried in more dirt there shouldn’t have been a need to beat up the tree.

The two assailants did uncover a wire basket that had been used to keep the ball of roots together while it was being shipped to the university before planting it originally. This wire wouldn’t hurt the tree at all because the roots will just grow through it. The only logical explanation I can come up with for the roots being cut off of the tree is that the basket never should have been buried in the ground to begin with, but that’s an issue for another editorial if it’s true.

In the end, all of the roots hanging out below the machine were cut off. Some of the roots were over two inches in diameter. While transporting the tree to its new home, it was driven through the line of trees along the road between Bartels and Dodds in such a way that many branches broke off. Why the trees on the outside weren’t removed first I have no idea.

I would also like to point out that the expansive root systems of the removed trees have been left underground. Anyone who has cut down a tree will soon notice that the roots and stump begin to degrade and a sink hole is created. I think this is worth looking into to make sure the new renovation/addition to Bartels doesn’t have to be renovated again in two or three years because the ground has shifted.

In speaking with students about this issue I have come across something that I have brought up to President Kaplan himself: we were not consulted. While we did know that the trees were being moved we did not really know where they were going. We knew that the trees were going in between Botwinik and the Rec Center but what about when there was no more space? Students that I have spoken with think the arrangement looks shabby and not put together. It almost looks like an unfinished project in that there should be more to bring everything together.

Students are also confused about why the university had new mulch brought in and planted new flowers after the trees were dug up and the area was prepared for construction. They are mainly concerned that with all of the budget cuts the university must make because of the economy there are better things the money could be spent on. I understand that we want to present a favorable image to prospective students on Accepted Student Days, but I also think it’s perfectly fine to show that we are getting ready for construction since we are hyping it up so much.

In researching how trees should be moved and taken care of I noticed that one of the first warnings was to take care of the roots. Lowes.com warns to “be aware of the root system when digging and aerating around trees to avoid cutting too many roots.” The experts at Lowes also warn against construction around trees in general as the heave equipment could damage the root system. This leads me to worry about the trees in the Maxcy Quad. Those trees are among the largest and oldest on this campus and should be protected.

In conclusion, we as a community of adults striving for a greener world should make sure we are accomplishing those goals rather than just making it look like we are. Yes the trees were moved, but I do not believe that they were moved in the right way.

-Heather Brown, Staff Writer

Earth day has come and passed. Although there was no gorgeous weather to remind us of our world’s beauty, many things came into light. The momentous day had no hype, no passion and of course little action on the proactive front. Some of you readers may have seen promotion for a campus ‘green team’ as well as sustainability committee; but I, like you, have seen or heard little activity. As we continue to grow as a university we must grow out of our barbaric ancestry to become a greater contributor to the sustainability movement.

Yale University has been headed in the right direction for the past few years implementing everything they can to become a rival to the Earth-integrated European universities. Dr. Julie Newman, Yale University’s sustainability director was kind enough to share Yale’s experience with UNH on April 22. Unfortunately, like many vital speeches given on campus, there was a small turn out.

Yale’s sustainability director puts no explicit definition to the term we’ve all been subjected to over the past years. Sustainability according to Dr. Newman is “a framework for decision making in which we balance economic viability, ecosystem health and human health.” Decision making; that’s it. Everyday activities are inundated in this balanced fundamental framework.

Kudos to the University of New Haven as we have almost completed our new multi-million dollar building which is LEED gold certified. This is one of the few and far steps we are beginning to take as we strive to make a difference in our impact on the Earth. There may be four or five recycle containers around campus, but do the students actually use them? 

From observation, we have seen kids blatantly disregard these efforts. Plastics are most commonly found in the trash when proper recycle receptacles are an arm’s reach away. Education needs to be a top priority on this campus, and this one of the first steps to be taken.

Speaking for the student body, if I may, I would like to see more effort put forth on the ‘green movement.’ It’s amazing what can be done if we could put our interests into action. Our university holds the funds to make change while we hold the power. The price tag put on such a invaluable cause cannot be judged as too much; only too little. Several ideas are being put into action as several of your clubs are collaborating to make a difference. 

Paper recycling should be on every floor of every residence hall. Paper cups from the café should be included in the ‘recyclable’ category. A no-idling law should be enforced on campus to reduce carbon emissions. I hear they have Styrofoam cups in the New Hall cafeteria…tsk tsk. Studentss must be aware how much of their resources they waste on a daily basis (i.e. energy, water, and food). Everything possible should be done to reduce the waste that the University of New Haven seemingly ignores. 

For those of you who are interested being consciously aware of what needs to be done about our world’s on-going situation, there are plenty of resources on the internet and of course at your local library. A suggested gateway into sustainability is Annie Leonard’s “Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video that can be found at www.storyofstuff.com. The video will introduce you to the consumer patterns that contribute to America’s blatant disregard for the environment.

As you move out of your residence halls this May, don’t leave anything behind. Working and even non-working electronics, light fixtures, furniture, desk goods, bathroom necessities, and appliances should be brought to a local re-use/re-cycle center. The Marine Biology Club is working hard to bring such a hub to campus for the move-out season. Some less fortunate families and students would love to benefit. The clubs involved are doing what they can to make sure only thing going into the garbage is waste, not reusable goods. 

I leave you, the reader, with this…April 22 was a momentous day, but nothing was done on UNH’s part besides promoting plastic bottle sales. This day was your chance to do something big to show the campus you cared and are doing things to bring us one step further to a sustainable campus. We are far from it at this point, but reassurance of change would have been nice.

Knowledge is power.

With great concern,
Jeremy Esposito – a student like you.

The Octopus, also known as the cephalopod, is the most alien-like creature you will probably encounter on this earth. Octopuses are classified as having eight arms and no external or internal skeleton. This enables them to squeeze into tiny areas only minutely larger than their eyes. Octopuses generally have blue blood because of the different means of circulating oxygen throughout the body. The blood is mainly circulated by three hearts with two supplying for the gills and one supplying for the rest of the body.

There are three methods that an octopus can use to defend itself against predators. Inking is a common way to confuse predators when the octopus wants to escape. As the octopus suctions water into its mantle, it will release it back out for propulsion and release its ink at the same time. The ink contains the same properties as melanin which is the same chemical found in human skin and hair.

Being the masters of camouflage, they can not only change the color of their skin but also the texture in order to mimic their environment to the fullest extent. Autotomy is the method of severing a body part to distract predators, which thankfully we are not able to do. The octopus on the other hand can detach its arms when in danger and escape to the nearest hiding place. Fortunately, the cephalopod will grow its arms back gradually.

After males use a specialized spoon-like arm to scoop sperm from their own mantle and transfer them into the female, they will usually die after a few months. A female will lay thousands of eggs in a sac and hang them in different areas of her home. She will gently blow currents of water to ensure that the offspring receives sufficient oxygen. One month later when the eggs hatch, the mother will blow currents to push the offspring away. The mother will then die shortly due to starvation. It is good to know that when we have kids we will be able to see them grow and become full functioning adults.

Did you know? There is a certain Giant Pacific Octopus (Louis) that lives in Newquay’s Blue Reef Aquarium who has grown attached to a Mr. Potato Head and becomes aggressive whenever it is taken away from him.

All is not glitter as gold in Hollywood. Child star Rubina Ali, a little girl that played a local child in the hit film Slumdog Millionaire, has recently been tangled up in a sales ring at the hands of her father.

Upon the film’s breakout success, all of its actors, including the children, have gained a large amount of wealth and fame all over the world, and in the film’s core location: Mumbai, India.

Various sources reported that Ali’s father, Rafiq Ali Quereshi, allegedly tried to sell his daughter for a profit of $200,000 British Pounds to help raise his other children at the expense of his daughter’s well-being. Ali’s mother, Khursheed, who left Queresh in 2001, told People Magazine, “He should be jailed for what he has done.”

Recently, the charges have been dropped, but there is still concern for Ali’s safety, and the other child stars of Slumdog Millionare. A few months ago another child star from Slumdog was hit by his father when he refused to answer a question by an interviewer. Further actions are being made by the producers and film crew of the film to help the children featured in it, give them a better quality life, and really get them out of the slums.