Volume CXIII No. 73 Friday, December 5, 2008 www.dailycampus.

com

VP: Policy didn’t come from me or my office

By Kate King
Associate News Editor
A UConn media policy designed to
handle press inquiries has generated
confusion about where the policy origi-
nated, from whom it originated and
whether it is even a policy.
University spokeswoman Karen
Grava and several other administrators
told The Daily Campus on Nov. 20 that
a new policy put forth by Vice President
for Student Affairs John Saddlemire
required all media inquiries to first go
through Grava, who is a media coordi-
nator for UConn. Saddlemire defended
the policy, writing in an e-mail sent
the same day that “all that the Division
of Student Affairs has done is clarify
for our employees the common prac-
tice that has long been in place by
University Communications.”
But, on Dec. 3, Saddlemire denied
in an interview that the policy had
originated from him and was reluctant
to refer to it as a policy.
“It’s a recommended process that is put
forth by University Communications,”
he said.
Grava agreed that it is a recom-
mended process of the communications
department, but said on Dec. 4, “There
never has been a written policy until
John [Saddlemire] had Danielle Burl
write it.”
Burl is the director of risk manage-
ment in the Division of Student Affairs,
according to the division’s Web site.
Grava said she did not know whether
the policy was distributed via e-mail.
Saddlemire said he asks reporters
who approach him if they have first
talked to University Communications.
But Elizabeth Hopkinson, a 7th-se-
mester journalism major, said she fre-
quently interviews him for either her
classwork or for UCTV stories and
has never been referred to University
Communications.
While she knows Saddlemire and
other UConn administrators are
extremely busy, Hopkinson said bet-
ter communication about this policy is
necessary.
“It’s one thing if they made a press
release saying, you know, this is how
it’s going to work, but for them to just
implement it ... this is just poor plan-
ning,” she said.
While there are discrepancies about
the specifics of the policy, both Grava
and Saddlemire said that the process
in not meant as a roadblock for report-
ers, but rather as a way to ensure that
questions from student and profession-
al reporters are answered as quickly
as possible by the most appropriate
source.
“It’s not at all meant to be something
to control message or stop people from
interacting,” Saddlemire said. “It’s a
coordination piece. Whether the right
people are involved and whether it
» MEDIA, page 2

E.L.F. gets
gifts for
HIV/AIDS vigil focuses on prevention military
Students remember families
disease’s impact,
renew hope for future By Katherine Martinez
Campus Correspondent
Spending time with the peo-
By Kate Monohan ple you love is one of the great-
Campus Correspondent est parts of the holiday season.
UConn Health Education held an AIDS But for military families whose
vigil Thursday night to “promote aware- loved ones are deployed, being
ness of HIV/AIDS and the effect it has apart can make the holidays dif-
on the community locally, nationally, and ficult. In 2003, then Lieutenant
worldwide,” according their Web site. Governor M. Jodi Rell created
Joleen Nevers, Health Education coordi- Operation E.L.F (Embracing
nator, and Erika Howe, World AIDS week Lonely Families), which accepts
coordinator, worked together to organize donations during the holiday
the event and incorporate other student season for military families.
organizations in fundraising for HIV pre- According to the National
vention and to help people infected with Guard Foundation, 500 deployed
the disease. troops from Connecticut have
The UConn Chordials and Shir left behind 650 family members,
Modulation a cappella groups sang reflec- 248 of which are children.
tive pieces like Gavin Degraw’s “Meaning,” “A lot of our troops are
and The Beatles’ “Blackbird.” Afterwards, deployed and their families are
those in attendance headed to the UConn home wondering how to make
seal on Fairfield Way with red glow brace- ends meet,” Rell said. While
lets to have a moment of silence to honor she recognizes that times are
those impacted by the HIV and AIDS. hard with the current state of the
Along the way, a musical triangle was hit economy, Rell also believes that
every one new person infected with HIV it is our responsibility to help
every12 seconds. military families while their
Since Dec. 1 was World AIDS day, loved ones are away.
organizers devoted the week to spread- Operation E.L.F asks the
ing awareness and HIV prevention across public to donate unwrapped
the UConn Campus. Howe, a 3rd-semes- toys, gift cards, phone cards,
ter exploratory major and coordinator of oil or Christmas trees to the
UConn’s World AIDS week, hoped the Connecticut National Guard
vigil would “recognize and acknowledge Foundation, according to John
those who are currently affected with it » CONNECTICUT, page 3
[HIV], or those who are affected by it.”
The main proceeds from the vigil are
going to Ashford’s Hole in the Wall Gang

Study:
Camp, which helps children with HIV and
other terminal illnesses.
The vigil started in the Student Union’s

Happiness
Art for AIDS gallery, which had many
AIDS-related student art pieces. According
to Nevers, these were easy to obtain, as

really is
many students want to raise awareness on
such an important issue.
Liberty Pandey, a public health graduate

contagious
student, worked at a table of HIV/AIDS KEVIN MCQUADE/The Daily Campus
Nick Gwiazda, a member of a cappella group Shir Modulation, sings Thursday night at the HIV/AIDS vigil at the Student Union. The event, meant to
» AIDS, page 2 raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide, also featured the all-female a cappella group the Chordials.

LONDON (AP) — When

you’re smiling, the whole world

Katrina victims, celebrities bond at

really does smile with you.
A paper being published
today in a British medical jour-

Rockefeller Center tree lighting nal concludes that happiness is

NEW YORK (AP) — A fam-
ily of Hurricane Katrina sur-
vivors whose new house was
partly built with lumber from
last year’s Rockefeller Center
Christmas tree were among tens
of thousands who attended this
year’s lighting ceremony.
The eight-ton, 72-foot
Norway spruce was illumi-
nated Wednesday night in the
Manhattan plaza after perfor-
mances by entertainers including
Tony Bennett, Harry Connick
Jr., Jamie Foxx and Beyonce.
AP “It’s been an awesome expe-
Onlookers watch as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is lit in New York Wednesday. rience,” said Tracey Davison,
40, a teacher’s assistant from
Pascagoula, Miss. “I have a
famous living room because of
the tree from last year, and my
girls and I have had a spectacu-
lar trip to New York for the first
time.”
This year’s tree was decorat-
ed with 30,000 energy-efficient
LED lights on five miles of
wire, topped with a 750-pound
star made of 25,000 Swarovski
crystals. It was donated by the
Varanyak family in Hamilton
Township, N.J.
Among the thousands of
onlookers who gathered to
watch the annual tradition were
Davison and her four daughters:
Ashunti, 10; Nylah, 9; Majsa, 8;
and Karly, 4.
The family, who fled Katrina
with just a few suitcases, recent-
ly moved into a new three-bed-
room house built by Habitat for
Humanity. Parts of the walls
and floors in their living room
were made with lumber from
last year’s tree.
“It’s kinda like Christmas
before Christmas,” said
Davison. “It was a dream come
true. We’re very, very excited to
be in the house.”
contagious – and that people
pass on their good cheer even
to total strangers.
American researchers who
tracked more than 4,700 people
in Framingham, Mass., as part
of a 20-year heart study also
found the transferred happiness
is good for up to a year.
“Happiness is like a
stampede,” said Nicholas
Christakis, a professor in
Harvard University’s sociol-
ogy department and co-author
of the study. “Whether you’re
happy depends not just on your
own actions and behaviors and
thoughts, but on those of people
you don’t even know.”

» INSIDE FRIDAY’S DAILY CAMPUS:

» FOCUS » SPORTS »INDEX

Recognizing (and Football to honor Weather 2
surviving) your seniors at Rentschler Commentary 4
mid-college crisis. Field on Saturday. Comics 6
Focus 9
see page 9 see page 16 Sports 16