The CCSU women’s soccer team (1-2-0 overall, 0-0-0 NEC) found their first victory of the season against the Holy Cross Crusaders with a 3-2 win in Tuesday night’s matchup.

The Blue Devils entered the night’s game down two games after early season losses to the Army at home on Aug. 26 and later at Boston College on Aug. 29.

After getting shutout in the match against Boston College, CCSU managed to score early with a goal from freshman Kerriann Welch 5:53 into the first half. The goal was the first for Welch as a Blue Devil, and the first goal of the season for CCSU. Welch was assisted by senior Lauren Salvia.

Less than five minutes later Welch increased the Blue Devils’ lead to two when she scored again, this time unassisted at 8:11 in the first. Welch managed the goal off a misplay made by Holy Cross’ goalkeeper Ashlyn Angell.

In an attempt to clear the ball Angell kicked it to Welch at which time she was able to capitalize on the mistake and score the second goal of the Blue Devils’ season.

However, the CCSU lead vanished as quickly as it appeared. In less than 15 minutes after CCSU’s second goal the Crusaders managed to stay alive and tie the game with two apiece at 17:23 and 19:51.

“Two up, capitalized on two mistakes and you know from there on in we should’ve made it comfortable, and you know within two minutes they were back in the game and it was just a little naïve at times,” said head coach Mick D’Arcy, “but this is all a part of the learning process.”

CCSU took the game into the half tied and was looking for ways to come back and hold the lead that Welch had given them.

“To be honest it was a bit of a downer and half time talk definitely boosted us up a bit and we knew what we had to do today, we needed to come out with a W,” said senior Beth Loyd.

Lloyd scored the game winning goal 57:42 into regulation play with a header off a free kick, giving the Blue Devils the one point advantage for the remainder of the game and her first goal of the season. Lloyd was assisted by freshman Nathalie Nilsson.

“Before the goal I was just gesturing to Nat (Nilsson) to dink in over because the defense was quite high up so after she did it, I followed it up… I went in behind the defense and luckily the defender got a flick on it,” Lloyd said. “She didn’t get full contact and just managed to get it past the keeper.”

Despite walking away with a win the Blue Devils had to fight through the second half knowing that one of their teammates was injured. Freshman Lauren Varholak, who entered the second half as a substitute for Lloyd, was unable to walk off the pitch on her own and had to be carted off after collapsing in the far sideline.

After a further examination the team was still waiting on an official diagnosis for her injury.

“You’ve got to learn how to deal with adversity,” Coach D’arcy said. “There was two major things happened today, one ,we gave up a two goal lead and two, we saw one of our teammates carted off the field which is upsetting to say the least.”

CCSU is looking to carry the winning momentum into their next game against Columbia on Fri. Sept. 3, which will be played at the University of Hartford.

Conference play does not pick up until the end of the month when they face Quinnipiac on Sept. 26. Until then, D’Arcy looks at the games more as a learning tool for his young class.

“For us at this time of the year, especially for us with so many young players, it’s just really installing our system and how we want to play. And we’re relearning as we go along, so the results are great. But in all honesty it’s not the most important thing for us,” D’Arcy said.

CCSU will not see any action at home until Sept. 17 against Hartford.

A growth of 414 more undergraduates, totaling 7,859 enrolling in fall 2009 compared to fall 2005, measures the strong demand that exists for people looking to get an affordable education. President Jack Miller attributes this to professors providing incentives for students to stay.

This may be true, but it also comes from a new generation of students who are showing greater concern for their campus community.

Students are now becoming more involved with extracurricular activities, as seen with 63 percent participating, a large jump from the 47 percent in 2007. Perhaps the university may need to look into extending the hours that the fields and Kaiser Annex (“The Bubble”) are available.

The administration has already shown though that they’re looking to meet these rising numbers by beginning the plans to construct a new dorm. Housing has become a growing problem on campus, and it’s only expected to grow with each succeeding year. A new dorm would allow more breathing room for the university when it comes time to send out letters to students on acceptance into the dorms.

It may seem unfortunate to students that the cafeteria at Memorial Hall has moved to trayless dining, which began in the final weeks of the spring semester and has now been permanently implemented, but it may be for the best. The administration has already said that thousands of pounds of food waste has been saved by taking away the trays.

Having the option of throwing on as much food as people want onto their trays removed forces students to think more responsibly about what they’re eating and how much they’re tossing out. There may be a factor of inconvenience, but it will be worth it in the long-run for better sustainability.

Miller’s memory of arriving to CCSU in 2005 and not having a place to recycle a soda can indicates that it wasn’t long ago that the university had hardly any system for recycling waste. Now that the administration has proven they have greater care for sustainability, students must equal it by doing what they can to embrace the current system.

The newly elected Student Government Association president Matt Vekakis must be a leader in pulling together students to improve what they can of the university, and if needed, question university policies. With an increasingly tighter university budget, Vekakis will need to monitor expenditures for clubs and events, and make sure every dollar is accounted for and used wisely.

As a whole, CCSU has vastly improved within recent years, but in order to keep a hold on those advances, all members of the campus community must look to themselves to pitch in what they can and ask what needs additional development.

Starting this fall the CCSU bookstore, run by Barnes & Noble, will offer students the option of renting textbooks rather than buying them.

Students traditionally saved money on textbooks by selling them back at the end of the semester. But now, says bookstore manager Jack O’Leary, “students can save money up front.” Students who opt to rent their textbooks may save as much as 60 percent as opposed to buying a new copy of a printed text. For example, O’Leary offers one instance of a book that costs $100 new but $45 to rent for the semester. Students may rent new or used books for the same rental fee. Rental books may be used in the same manner as a purchased textbook that could be sold back as it can be highlighted and written in, and then returned.

Textbooks may be rented at any time throughout the semester, or prior to the beginning of the semester, and are to be returned by December 27. The bookstore will send students five emails to remind them to return their rented book. If the student fails to return the book, or the book is not in acceptable condition, they simply owe the bookstore the difference between the rental price and the purchase price. “It’s no different than Blockbuster,” O’Leary said. And, if you end up with the wrong book, you can return it to the bookstore and exchange it for the right one, and pay just the difference in rental fees.

So far, students at CCSU seem to like the textbook rental option. According to O’Leary 20 percent of students typically buy their books before classes start. This semester, O’Leary said that 40 percent of students have bought their books prior to the first day of class. As of the first day of classes, O’Leary says that 3,000 online orders have been placed for rented textbooks. The affordability of rental textbooks and the fact that students are getting their books before going to class is likely to improve student academic success.

Of course, students may still purchase both new and used books. O’Leary says 60 percent of the textbooks carried by the CCSU Bookstore are used. Used books clearly save money for both the person selling them to the bookstore and buying them from the bookstore, but also contribute to sustainability by reducing the number of new textbooks that are being produced as well as the number of old textbooks that are being discarded.

In addition to the print textbook options, the bookstore also offers digital textbooks. There are currently 700 titles available for download. Students who enjoy interactive media may prefer e-books, where, for example, in a history book, a student can click on Abraham Lincoln and hear the Gettysburg Address, said O’Leary.

Students may order rental textbooks, as well as e-books and new and used print books for purchase, online at the bookstore’s website or get them at the bookstore.

Michael Bellesiles

By Jonathan Stankiewicz

Adjunct history professor Michael Bellesiles is no newcomer to scandal. Having released a controversial book on the history of guns in America and an article about a former student’s loss of a half brother from war, he’s now trying to give a second go at teaching.

“I’m an adjunct, [I] was a full-time professor,” said Bellesiles. “I cannot get a full-time job in the U.S.”

Before the firestorm, Bellesiles was a respected historian, now he is left trying to make a fresh start, a task which is proving easier said than done.

“I wish I never written about guns,” said Bellesiles.

The drama started with Bellesiles’s first book, published in 2000, titled Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Bellesiles was a highly acclaimed historian at Emory University and was working full-time.

After Bellesiles’s book came out and he won the highly acclaimed Bancroft prize in 2001, things began to unfold.

The book showed that guns were not prevalent before the Civil War. Arming America challenged foundations that the National Rifle Association has thrived on for years.

Gun rights activists were outraged and started to look through Bellesiles’s notes and sources very, very closely.

Questions were raised about how Bellesiles used the records, who he talked to and even his counting of the number of guns was under fire. The use of probate records, which are composed of information about family relationships, property holdings and values, and land and building locations and descriptions, came into question, isn’t an exact science. Scholars know that wills and records written hundreds of years ago shouldn’t be taken for concrete fact.

Soon other history scholars couldn’t replicate the numbers and they began to see misquotations.

“Arming America is changing the way that some historians think about their own profession and how some scholars in fields allied to history regard historical research and publishing,” said critic James Lindgren, in a book review from April 2002 in the Yale Law Journal.

Things were beginning to get out of hand and Emory’s dean, Robert A. Paul, decided to establish an expert panel of scholars to investigate the charges against Bellesiles. The panel consisted of three distinguished historians – Stanley Katz of Princeton University, Hanna Gray of the University of Chicago and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich of Harvard.

The investigation concluded with a 40-page indictment, along with a 7-page response by Bellesiles himself.

Among the findings of the panel they found that “Every aspect of his work in the probate records is deeply flawed.”

“Bellesiles seems to have been utterly unaware of the importance of the possibility of the replication of his research,” said the panel in their findings.

Soon after the investigative report was released in October, Bellesiles resigned from his post at Emory.

Today, Bellesiles wishes that the book that caused him so much grief was never written.

“It was a horrifying experience,” said Bellesiles, “that was 12 years of my life.”

One would think that the troubles would be done, but Bellesiles’s story takes another turn for the worse.

Bellesiles wrote an article in June of this year titled “Teaching Military History in a Time of War” in the Chronicle Review. The story was about a student named “Ernesto” who had allegedly lost a half brother overseas.

No sooner was the article published that cynics were already trying to disprove his story. Skeptics flew out of the woodwork to try to find loopholes and fabrications in Bellesiles’s story.

And those cynics found some.

A former critic named James Lindgren searched through military deaths and came up empty with anyone that could have been related to student “Ernesto.” Lindgren posted his findings on the site The Volokh Conspiracy.

“In my review of several sites, but chiefly ICasualties, I find no Connecticut military killed in Iraq in 2009 or 2010 (and only one in 2008, a Marine who died from a non-hostile cause),” wrote Lindgren on the site.

Others piled on and Bellesiles’ hope for people to get that extra insight to living in a time of war was lost.

“That was the one unfortunate experience as long as I can remember,” said Bellesiles, “I have always trusted my students.”

Bellesiles was especially upset about how bloggers and journalists alike acted.

“It was unfortunate that a few people felt that they should track down that student,” said Bellesiles. “No one benefited from them doing that.”

But now, Bellesiles is back, teaching here at CCSU as an adjunct. The history department at CCSU denied to comment saying that it would be inappropriate to talk about faculty members.

Coming back to teaching wasn’t easy for Bellesiles.

“I have had gotten down to the point where I was signing the contract [to teach] and it has been yanked away,” said Bellesiles, “from coordinated complaints that I should not be teaching.

All of that is thanks to Arming America, said Bellesiles.

“I admire the integrity of CCSU,” said Bellesiles. “If they have received any sort of [outside] pressure they have not buckled.

Life for Bellesiles is easier, but there are weekly, if not daily reminders of the past.

As casual as talking about how “cool” his neighbors are, Bellesiles described how he still gets hate mail roughly “two to three times a week” but “e-mail is more often than that.”

It’s been almost nine years, and Bellesiles has had enough, even going as far as to get rid of the home answering machine due to so much “cussing.”

“I don’t know what I did to them,” said Bellesiles, “just accept my apology to anyone I have ever hurt.”

And even leading historians want this behind them.

“What more is there at issue?,” said David Hollinger, the president of the Organization of American Historians. “I think the press should let it alone. Enough already.”

Bellesiles is back in the classroom, having just released his newest book, 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently, an anecdotal study of one of America’s bloodiest years.

Taking just 18 months to write 1877, Bellesiles was not only teaching, but researching and writing for his new book. 1877 was a much easier write for Bellesiles and critics pending are not expected to cause any problems.

“I get so many ideas from my students,” said Bellesiles. “For me, intellectually, students are full of ideas and especially in ways of relaying the past…it’s nice to constantly be reminded how exciting it is to be [a teacher].

Bellesiles’ past never seems to get far enough away from him though.

“Everything about him surprises me,” said Stanley Katz, one of the three historians on the investigation panel that looked into Arming America. “He’s very puzzling to me; I guess I’m a little surprised that he seems to be making a campaign now.”

Katz isn’t against Bellesiles writing a new book, he actually thinks that it’s the “best thing he’s done.”

“He’s done the right thing,” said Katz, “reestablishing a professional reputation.”

But Katz isn’t convinced about everything that Bellesiles is doing right now.

“Test for him [Bellesiles] is peer judgment [on his new book],” said Katz, “but the other is Central. To what extent will it be difficult for him to do a proper job as a teacher, that’s for the students to figure out?”

Bellesiles isn’t fazed by critics or anything for that matter; the man doesn’t read the stories about him.

“I never read about myself,” said Bellesiles. “Journalists have to do their jobs.”

Bellesiles pushes on even with his past ever so close behind him. He’s in the middle of writing a book that should be out next year.

The future book will be about working with veterans. Bellesiles wrote a lot of the book based on personal interviews.

“One of the great accomplishments of scholars is to record these memories,” said Bellesiles.

And like his books, Bellesiles will continue to live on and not without a great pride by having returned to teaching.

“I just cannot say enough about how much I like teaching at CCSU,” said Bellesiles, “I identify with [my students].

Bellesiles appreciates the situations of his students and the rest of the Central community.

“I’ve taught rich kids but they are different; they’ve had it all,” said Bellesiles. “I like working with students who have to fight for it.”

By Michael Walsh

Once the fiery explosions settle and the screen is clean of blood and guts, all that’s left of Sylvester Stallone’s highly hyped-up action blockbuster The Expendables is a largely forgettable yet still serviceable mindless romp through the fictional island of Vilena, amped by quite possibly the most typecasted ensemble cast in the history of Hollywood.

Stallone’s The Expendables was supposed to be the manliest of them all; the action film that makes other action films tremble in its leather boots. But when you get over the gnarly gore and the randomly interconnected action sequences, Stallone’s film is in one ear and out the other, not creating more than a few merely okay moments of intestinal fortitude to leave impressed with.

The film was touted as having one of the best action casts you might have ever laid witness to, but when you realize that part of that star-studded cast is former wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, UFC fighter Randy Couture and former football player Terry Crews, the excitement quickly subsides and rests on the shoulders of headliners Sly Stallone and Jason Statham. While Jet Li makes a formidable addition to the group and Dolph Lundgren is just kind of silly to look at, other tough guy Mickey Rourke completely sits out of the action, resorting to drawing tattoos and telling old war stories, a complete disappointment of what could have been a brilliant casting of a great actor who has turned a corner in his up and down career. The film’s best scene is when Stallone is joined on screen with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh what a film it could have been with a committed John McClane and Terminator in focus.

The Expendables will absolutely fill the summer’s quota for blood, guts, gore and dead bodies, but it doesn’t do so in a memorable way. The film’s plot is largely forgettable and is not even enjoyable in an absurd way. A motley group of secretive war veterans team up and head to a small island to overthrow a dictator and the ex-CIA controlling him, all the while trying to save a damsel in distress. Each character in the Stallone-penned screenplay has a personality and background that falls off the face of the earth by the film’s conclusion. These characters are so secretive to their mission and their pasts that the deepest we get are a few muddy war stories and botched relationships. Give me something to remember them from outside of their possibly plastic faces, popping veins and deep bronze tans.

And in the end, isn’t that what this film is about? The characters and personas that made some of these actors the biggest of the literally biggest action stars of the 1980’s? None of these characters will have a legacy like those of Hollywood’s past, and this comes at the expense of the film’s decision to ignore even the slightest character development and personality. Even a tweak here and a tweak there of emotional toil would have made for a much more memorable and long-living film. Jean-Claude Van Damme wasn’t kidding when he turned down a part in the film because there was no substance in the character.

Not much is being said in Stallone’s kill for the sake of it joy ride, but there was so much more that could have been said as Stallone’s screenplay balanced on the line of full-on action film and a sort of self-reflective meditation on old age, similar to Van Damme’s wonderful film JCVD. But while Stallone was busy juggling acting, directing and writing, the film seemed to be unable to make up its mind. It’s disappointing in many ways, as Stallone has writing credits on the classic First Blood, which introduced us to John Rambo for the first and definitely not last time. Even Stallone’s 2008 Rambo was a thoughtful, maintained and explosive action film. Stallone seemed to be literally juggling the camera, as the film’s action sequences often fall prey to the modern plague that is shaky cam. The same terrible camerawork that plagued titles such as the latest Bond film has seemed to infected Stallone’s sense of judgement, leading to even more meaningless action sequences pieced together one-by-one in whatever order they felt appropriate.

And I realize that if a film accomplishes what the creators set out to do that you cut it a little slack in other production areas. But I’m also not so sure that The Expendables did accomplish everything it aimed to be. Perhaps one’s personal expectations of explosions, blood, more explosions and more blood are met, but I don’t think Stallone wanted it to leave viewer’s minds so quickly. There’s no doubt this film sold well on its star power, but these big names and this film’s success was created on the genius of other films and is the only reason this film wasn’t released as a B-grade level action film with a wasted budget. The attempted concoction of tough guys is underwhelming and just doesn’t work. It’s like if I poured my favorite 12 beers together in a pot and decided to drink it. It won’t make for a miracle.

9.1
Sam Adams
@ Toad’s Place
New Haven, CT
$20 / 9 p.m.

9.3
Built to Spill
@ Toad’s Place
New Haven, CT
$25 / 9:30 p.m.

9.6
Afroman
@Webster Theatre
Hartford, CT
$10 / 7 p.m.

9.7
F*cked Up
@ Toad’s Place
New Haven, CT
$14 / 8 p.m.

9.8
The Sleeping
@ Toad’s Place
New Haven, CT
$12 / 8 p.m.

The Birthday Massacre
@Webster Theatre
Hartford, CT
$13 / 6:30 p.m.

MOVIES

9.1 – 9.2
Let It Rain
@ Real Art Ways
Hartford, CT
$6.25 (with student ID)

“Let It Rain touches on class issues, feminism, immigration and the particular challenges facing a single, driven career woman in her 40s. But it’s graceful in presenting its ideas, and what emerges is not a polemic but a kind of snapshot of modern-day concerns.” – Mark LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

9.1 – 9.4
Cyrus
@ Cinestudio
Hartford, CT
$7 / 7:30 p.m.

Jonah Hill, the generously sized star of Superbad, The 40 year-old Virgin and Knocked Up, gets a chance to expand his acting chops in a seriously creepy black comedy. Hill personifies arrested development as a stuck-in-teendom 20-something, whose perfect life at home with his mom (Marisa Tomei) is threatened when she brings home a goofy boyfriend (John C. Reilly). As Hill describes the challenges of playing the role, “the character has to be heartbreaking, twisted, manipulative, sweet, sad, f***ed up, dark.” Marisa Tomei, whose role in last year’s The Wrestler won her an Academy Award nomination, shows no fear in the improvisation-heavy directing style (called mumblecore) of the cult favorite writer/directors, the Duplass brothers. “A freakishly engrossing black comedy about excessively mothered men and the women who enable them.” Ella Taylor, Village Voice.

9.2
Iron Man 2
@ Philbrick, Student Center
CCSU
10pm, free

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts, and James “Rhodey” Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances – and confront powerful enemies. – IMDb

9.3 – 9.9
Jean Michel Basquait: The Radiant Child
@ Real Art Ways
Hartford, CT
$6.25 (with student ID)/ 7pm

After our September 9 screening of Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, join us for a conversation with Basquiat’s longtime girlfriend and muse, Suzanne Mallouk. Known as “Widow Basquiat” after his death, Suzanne Mallouk lived with the artist for many years and appears in Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.

9.5
To Kill A Mockingbird
@ Cinestudio
Hartford, CT
$7 / 7:30 p.m.

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s well-loved novel by coming to Cinestudio to experience the original 1962 film on the big screen! Horton Foote won an Academy Award for his adaptation of Lee’s semi-autobiographical novel about a young girl named Scout growing up in segregated Alabama of the 1930s. It is when her father, attorney Atticus Finch, takes the case of a young black man falsely charged with raping a white woman, that Scout learns about integrity. A tender and courageous masterpiece with a demand – that everyone is treated equally under the law – that still challenges today. “I put everything I had into it – all my feelings and everything I’d learned in 46 years of living, about fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.” – Gregory Peck, winner, Academy Award for Best Actor.

By Matt Clyburn

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World should really be titled, “Scott Pilgrim vs. Seven Evil Exes.”  After some pondering, though, I decided that the title is telling.  It ultimately shows us the real battle here – not one between our quirky Canadian hero and a slew of bizarre characters from his love interest’s past – but one between the creative minds behind Scott Pilgrim and the world of the flagging film industry.

The film (and I don’t use the term film lightly) thrusts us into a ‘comic book and video game’ world of gravity-defying physics and butt-kicking action.  As far from a fan of video games and comic books as one can get, I was amused by the references to this late 80’s/early 90’s dream world.  Even the references that I didn’t understand made me laugh because the script and visual effects burst with countless dimensions of wit and originality.

Detractors of the film will dislike it because they found themselves walking out of the theater scratching their heads.  If you can’t submit to the preconditions of this fantasy world early on in the film, then you will hate this movie.  If you go to an amusement park and don’t want to take your little brother or sister on the teacups because you think you’re too grown-up, you’ll hate that too.  But sometimes it’s best to just sit down and enjoy the ride.

As a language aficionado (and admittedly, a grammar Nazi), I often criticize classmates that err in the creation of proper sentences.  I am eternally frustrated by misplaced or misguided punctuation, especially when these blunders can often alter the very story they are trying to tell.  In Scott Pilgrim, we are retold a story we’ve heard many times before, but the style and flare of the punctuation truly bring a brand new world to life.  The creative minds behind Scott Pilgrim offer an irreverent rebellion against today’s status quo in Hollywood.

The football team practices alongside the dug up soccer field. Photo credit: Kenny Barto.

By Brittany Burke

Driving by the athletic fields on Ella Grasso Boulevard there are two things that cannot help but be noticed. The first would be the brand new sign welcoming the passing cars to the home of the Blue Devils, the second happens to be the multiple construction trucks working steadily to renovate the new CCSU outdoor sports complex.

At the closing of the spring semester, the finishing touches of phases one and two of the multi-tiered renovation project were still being completed. Those phases, which included the reconstruction of the baseball and softball fields, as well as a new recreational field, have been finished over the summer hiatus and the next phase of the project has begun.

“We’re very fortunate right now that we have some great facility projects going on outside. Obviously I came in and they had just completed the baseball and softball field projects, so the next phase in that is working on the soccer/track complex which they’ve started,” said Paul Schlickmann, Director of Athletics at CCSU.

The soccer/track complex is an internal project, while the renovations to the football field are to be outsourced to the Department of Public Works and worked on simultaneously with the soccer/track complex.

“They’re cultivating the ground and getting it all set up so they can put down the soccer field, so there’s a couple of different phases to that, but once that’s completed it’s going to be a great outdoor complex and I think it will be one of the better outdoor athletic complexes in our conference which is nice,” said Schlickmann.

Laying the artificial turf is the first step in completing the soccer project, which is set to be completed prior to laying down the track around its perimeter.

“From July to now they made a lot of progress,” said Schlickmann regarding the renovations. “So what they’re doing now, it’ll be an artificial surface for soccer and the next phase would be building the grand stands to go along with that for soccer and also the track so it’ll be a soccer field, track around it, grand stands for football and the grand plan would be for adding seats to the other side of the football stadium so it’s kind of like a multi-tiered multi-faceted phased project.”

The idea for the completed outdoor sports complex is to have a new soccer field with artificial turf, lighting, seating, half time facilities and track around the perimeter much like the CCSU sports complex in the eighties, which has since been removed due to space restrictions.

The final phase of the soccer/track complex would be to add the track, but the project is not set to be fully completed for another eighteen months. With the way construction is moving along, Schlickmann is hopeful to have the soccer field ready for play by the next fall season. The entire outdoor sports complex is projected to be completed in 2012.

Once the renovations are fully completed Schlickmann is confident that CCSU will be home to one of the best outdoor sports complexes in the North East Conference.

“I think it will be one of the better outdoor athletic complexes in our conference which is nice…it’s great for first and foremost for our athletes to have state of the art facilities to train and compete on, and it’s great for recruiting… I think it speaks to the progress we’re making as an institution,” he said.

As of right now, the main focus is for the outdoor athletic complex to be completed with no plans in the near future to begin refurbishments to the indoor complex, according to Schlickmann’s blog.

Quarterback Gunnar Jespersen.

As defending Northeast Conference champions, the CCSU football team enters the 2010 fall season projected to repeat their championship season in the coach’s poll, but number one is the last place head coach Jeff McInerney wants them to be.

“I told them to forget it. I told them the only thing that matters, whether you’re picked first or last, you still have to go out there and play and win,” said McInernery.

“It’s the first time in school history [being picked first], and I’m a guy who likes firsts. Beating teams for the first, we’re the only team in the NEC to ever be ranked, we’re the only team in the history of the NEC to beat an Ivy League team, we beat fully funded teams, we beat ranked teams. I like those things, the one I didn’t like is we’re picked first and I think it’s foolish.”

Despite being the 2009 NEC Champions, Coach McInerney stresses that this is not the championship team. The 2009 roster were champions, the 2010 roster still has something to prove.

The end of the 2009 season saw the departure of the team’s two starting quarterbacks, leaving a void at the most crucial position on the roster. Gunnar Jespersen, a junior transfer from Allan Hancock Junior College in California, is expected to start in the season opener against the University of New Hampshire, while freshmen Denzell Jones will serve as a backup. Neither quarterback has had previous game experience in the NEC, putting the Blue Devils at a serious disadvantage.

“Gunnar knows the offense; Gunnar’s an extremely confident young man. Gunnar works extremely hard, he’s a competitor and he gets it. What he can’t do is put us in harm’s way, try to make the big play. When our defensive line is healthy we’re pretty good on defense. We can win games on defense, he just doesn’t need to turn the ball over and I think he’s been awesome,” said Coach McInerney of his starter.

While the offensive side of the ball may remain uncertain, returning seniors such as Jeff Marino remain confident in the defense’s ability to make plays and keep control of the game. Marino led the team in tackles last season with 93, followed by fellow senior Alondre Rush who finished the season with 78.

“The biggest thing I think with our defense is a lot of knowledge came back…the people that got reps last year…they’re coming up and playing this year like Dominic Giampietro, Ricardo Gibson, Dominick Tomanelli, Gene Johnson, all those guys,” said Marino. “Now they’re stepping up, now they’re picking up. There was no drop off from last year at all. I think we’re a better team as far as the front seven, I think we’re a way better team than last year.”

The Blue Devils face a tough 2010 season opening against power house University of New Hampshire before opening the season at home on Saturday, Sept. 11 versus Bentley. Like any other defending champions they realize that there are other teams in the NEC who are now gunning to defeat them, but they plan to take it one game at a time.

“Honestly a lot of the teams on our schedule are rivals,” Rush said. “There’s not really one game or the other, we have a lot of big games this year, a lot. So if I was to say ‘Oh Oct. 22 is important because it’s against Albany,’ that’s an understatement because we have teams in our conference that are coming off to beat us.

“We’re playing two upper echelon Division I-AA teams that make the playoffs every year, and if we over look them for one second we’re gonna get beat,” said Rush.

Based on the Blue Devil’s scrimmage played on Aug. 24, the team still has some things to work on, including remaining consistent on offense and coming out explosive in their season opener against UNH.

The LGBT Center’s Oct. 27 conference on social justice, which takes place on the CCSU campus and features special guest speaker Jessica Pettitt, has begun early registration for those interested in taking part in the activities.

Pettitt is well known as a diversity educator and has been nominated by the Campus Activities Magazine for Best Diversity Artist on two separate occasions. Pettitt offers very interactive and direct programs which are designed to educate the public on specific themes of diversity. Diverse LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) topics such as privilege, gender and identity will be discussed at the conference.

Though the topics discussed are serious and quite sensitive for many people, Pettitt promises a mix of effective and active steps toward life changes for her audience and a good time, as she has been doing stand-up comedy for the last few years and incorporated it into her program. She has traveled all around the country to speak to college students about LGBT-related topics and make a change in their lives.

Pettitt’s academic background includes a BA in sociology with secondary certification in social studies from Hendrix College and a Master of education administration from the University of South Carolina. In addition to her years of experience working in student affairs, Pettitt keeps her skills current by continuously gaining new certifications such as lead facilitator and certified mediator. In addition, she continues to regularly write articles for various publications and has been the recipient of several awards.

CSU students, faculty, staff or anyone with a valid CSU ID will only have to pay $5 for a ticket. All others will be offered an early bird special of $35 until Sept. 27. The regular price $55 will be charged from Sept 28 and on.  You can register and pay for tickets at the CENtix Box Office located in the student center at CCSU or by calling (860) 832-1989.

For more information or questions on the event contact Kristin Van Ness (LGBT Center coordinator) at (860) 832-2091 or Sarah M. Rine (assistant director of Student Activities and Leadership Development) at (860) 832-1999 or visit the SALD website at http://www.ccsu.edu/sald/.