PresRelease

(Blue Sky Studios)

Students at UConn and Wesleyan University will benefit from state-of-the-art animation computers donated by Greenwich-based Blue Sky Studios, the creator of a number of award-winning digital animation features, including the Ice Age series.  Blue Sky, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox Filmed Entertainment, relocated to Connecticut from New York in January, bringing with it more than 300 jobs. The gift of computers was announced yesterday by Governor M. Jodi Rell.

Students will be able to learn on the same hardware that produced Blue Sky’s Ice Age the Meltdown and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who. The high-speed animation computers feature 104 Centralized Processing Units per rack. Each rack has a current market value of approximately $35,000. UConn’s drama and computer science engineering departments are each receiving two racks and Wesleyan’s computer science department is receiving four donated racks.

Blue Sky’s latest release, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third in the Ice Age series, opens in theaters Wednesday, July 1.

We’re very grateful for the gift and for the opportunities it creates for our students.

UConn’s William Benton Museum of Art in Storrs is hosting a Summer Weekend Comedy Film Festival featuring classics from the 1930s and 1940s:

Saturday, July 11:   It Happened One Night (1934)
Sunday, July 12:   Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Saturday, July 18:   Destry Rides Again (1939)
Sunday July 19:   My Little Chickadee (1940)
Saturday, July 25:   A Night at the Opera (1935)
Sunday July 26:   Ninotchka (1939)
Saturday, August 1:   My Man Godfrey (1936)
Sunday, August 2:   Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

Showtime is 2 p.m. Admission is free to the films and the exhibitions, A Touch of Humor and Punch & Judy: Handpuppets, Politics & Humor. Saturday and Sunday hours at the Museum are 1-4:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday hours are 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The museum will be closed July 3-8 and will re-open at 10 a.m. on
July 9.

Punch and Judy

And on Thursday, July 2, at 12:15 pm, Ballard Institute and Museum Director John Bell will give a Gallery Talk on the current Punch & Judy exhibition.

John Frascella
John Frascella, Class of 2008, signed a book contract just a month after graduating from UConn to write about Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein: Theo-logy: How a Boy Wonder Led the Red Sox to the Promised Land.  John was a journalism and English major in CLAS and lead sports columnist for the Daily Campus.  His book is out and doing well, from what I hear.  You can read about it on the CLAS web page and in the Advance.
My own recent attempt to get to a Red Sox game at Fenway was rained out, not surprising given the unusually wet and cool June we’ve had here in New England.

As I write this, the Red Sox are 44-27, 5 games up on the Yankees.
And by the way, the UConn baseball team made the 2009 Big East championship game on May 11, finally losing to Louisville for a season record of 36-24.  It was the Huskies’ sixth title game appearance in program history.  This marked the most wins by the Huskies since the 2006 season.  It’s the fourth year in the last five that the Huskies have won at least 30 games, and the second time in three seasons that the Huskies have found themselves competing in the Big East title game.  Three Huskies made the all-tournament team:
Peter FatsePierre LePage Mike Nemeth
And seven Huskies: Dennis Accomando, Dusty Odenbach, John Folino, David Erickson, Dan Mahoney, Peter Fatse and Harold Brantley, Jr. signed professional contracts after the close of the season.

On May 21, the UConn Health Center’s Board of Directors named Dr. Bruce Gould the 2009 winner of its Faculty Recognition Award.  Dr. Gould is Associate Dean for Primary Care at the School of Medicine, and Director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program.  The Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award was established in 2003 to recognize and celebrate excellence in our Health Center faculty.

An article in UConn’s Advance six years ago gives an interesting look at Dr. Gould’s background and motivation for community service.  He helped establish our Urban Service Track, a special mentorship program designed to produce doctors, dentists, nurses, and pharmacists committed to serving underserved populations in Connecticut’s cities, and the Youth Health Services Corps, a nationally recognized recruitment program that trains and places high school students as volunteers in health care agencies.

Just recently he sent me an email, in his usual enthusiasm describing our successful progress on an HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) grant application:

From: Gould,Bruce
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 11:41 AM
Subject: Model AHEC Funding Award Notice!

Some great news!  We just received our pink sheets from our HRSA Model AHEC Grant Application.  It was recommended for funding and scored 93 out 100.  We have been asked for permission to share our grant with other AHECs nationally as an example of how to write a successful grant.  We will hear about the level of funding in August but as you may recall the original application was for $750,000 per year for three years for a total of $2.3 million over the grant period.  …  Clearly the cross campus (Farmington and Storrs) nature of the center has enabled us to further expand the reach of the AHEC and its statewide system beyond what we thought was possible.  Apparently, the Feds agree!

Bruce E. Gould MD, FACP
Associate Dean for Primary Care
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
Director, CT Area Health Education Center Program
Medical Director, Burgdorf Health Center, Hartford, CT

Congratulations, Bruce!  Good things are happening.

School of Pharmacy staff got to play chef at their staff development day on June 11.  But before they were allowed in the kitchen, activities included a session with Ken Steller, from the School of Social Work, on Managing Change; and a program with J.P. Lacombe, from Human Resources, on Working Through Conflict.  Sounds to me like Hell’s Kitchen!  Then it was time for a team-building cooking class with Rob Landolphi and Amy Gronus of Dining Services.  Teams prepared salad, muffins, macaroni and cheese, grilled sweet potatoes, grilled chicken, and individual peach cobblers for dessert!  The program was created by Mary Ann Phaneuf and Leslie LeBel of the School of Pharmacy Faculty/Staff Development Committee, in conjunction with Pamela Heath-Johnston of Human Resources.

food pills
Phood vs. Pharmaceuticals: can you tell the difference?