Author Archives: UConn Journalism

Gig economy grows, but not gig worker salaries

By John Leahy | UConn Jour­nal­ism Dec. 9, 2022  In May of 2020, Thomas Taber real­ized he was run­ning out of mon­ey.  The 20-year-old Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut stu­dent was liv­ing at home due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, and was order­ing food con­sis­tent­ly through online plat­forms like Door­Dash and Uber Eats. Though the coun­try was essen­tial­ly shut down, heCon­tin­ue read­ing “Gig econ­o­my grows, but not gig work­er salaries”

UConn vets exposed to burn pits welcome expanded health care benefits

Mem­bers of the Iraq and Afghanistan Vet­er­ans of Amer­i­ca (IAVA) who say they were impact­ed by expo­sure to burn pits while serv­ing, stand to be acknowl­edged at a House Vet­er­ans’ Affairs Health Sub­com­mit­tee hear­ing in June 2018. (AP Photo/FILE/Jacquelyn Mar­tin) By Mikhael Thomp­son | UConn Jour­nal­ismDecem­ber 8, 2022 Bran­don Soto, a fresh­man biol­o­gy major at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut who joined theCon­tin­ue read­ing “UConn vets exposed to burn pits wel­come expand­ed health care benefits”

SCOTUS action could impact college admission process

By Car­son Swick | UConn Jour­nal­ism | Dec. 2, 2022 STORRS, Conn. — Forty-sev­en per­cent stu­dents of col­or; 26.5% of stu­dents from eth­nic back­grounds “tra­di­tion­al­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed” in high­er edu­ca­tion — Black, His­pan­ic, Hawiian/Pacific Islander, Amer­i­can Indi­an and Alaskan native stu­dents. These fig­ures rep­re­sent the stu­dents admit­ted into the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut Class of 2026, the mostCon­tin­ue read­ing “SCOTUS action could impact col­lege admis­sion process”

Connecticut not likely to embrace ranked choice voting anytime soon

By Hud­son Kam­phausen | UConn Jour­nal­ism Nov. 5, 2022  Pro­po­nents say it encour­ages more civ­il cam­paigns and oppo­nents con­tend it’s too com­pli­cat­ed — but regard­less of indi­vid­ual opin­ions about ranked choice vot­ing, one advo­cate for the sys­tem says it’s not like­ly to hap­pen in Con­necti­cut any time soon.  State Rep. Josh Elliott, a Demo­c­rat who rep­re­sents Ham­den andCon­tin­ue read­ing “Con­necti­cut not like­ly to embrace ranked choice vot­ing any­time soon”

More voters shunning political parties

By Lau­ra Mason | UConn Jour­nal­ism Nov. 5, 2022  It was 2020 and UConn stu­dent Gar­rett McGlinchey had just turned 18 when he offi­cial­ly declared him­self polit­i­cal­ly unaf­fil­i­at­ed. With an increas­ing­ly polar­ized polit­i­cal atmos­phere and an influ­en­tial par­ent in each major par­ty, McGlinchey had been cer­tain for a while that he didn’t want to align withCon­tin­ue read­ing “More vot­ers shun­ning polit­i­cal parties”

Lady Elliot Island Squid

UConn Jour­nal­ism major Christie Wang stud­ied abroad in Aus­tralia dur­ing the Fall 2022 semes­ter. She took this squid pho­to at Lady Elliot Island, the south­ern­most coral cay of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.  Christie stayed on the island for a week as part of a coral reefs con­ser­va­tion course. She stud­ied marine life, corals, tidal cir­cu­la­tion andCon­tin­ue read­ing “Lady Elliot Island Squid”

Making roads safer: it’s complicated

By Lau­ra Mason | UConn Jour­nal­ism Oct. 30, 2022  STORRS, Conn. — It was the end of August 2022 and cars were whip­ping by Lisa’s Choco­lates and Gifts on Route 195 in Mans­field again.  Fol­low­ing ren­o­va­tions at Mans­field Ele­men­tary School and the sub­se­quent removal of a traf­fic island, the widened road now allowed cars to accel­er­ate into theCon­tin­ue read­ing “Mak­ing roads safer: it’s complicated”

What’s a winning strategy? GOP, Dems use different approaches

By Car­son Swick | UConn Jour­nal­ismOct. 22, 2022  Abor­tion. Infla­tion. The econ­o­my. Threats to democ­ra­cy.  In many ways, these sim­ple yet charged terms char­ac­ter­ize both Democ­rats’ and Repub­li­cans’ approach­es to mes­sag­ing ahead of the 2022 midterm elec­tions: Hone in on spe­cif­ic “win­ning” issues while for­get­ting the incon­ve­nient ones. In what is shap­ing up to be anCon­tin­ue read­ing “What’s a win­ning strat­e­gy? GOP, Dems use dif­fer­ent approaches”

Jamie Lee Curtis at Comic Con

Actor Jamie Lee Cur­tis holds back tears while hold­ing a pic­ture of her “Hal­loween” char­ac­ter at a New York Com­ic Con pan­el at the Jacob Jav­its Con­ven­tion Cen­ter on Octo­ber 8, 2022. The pan­el was ded­i­cat­ed to dis­cussing Cur­tis’ four decades of expe­ri­ence with the “Hal­loween” film fran­chise.  UConn Jour­nal­ism stu­dent Sofia Saw­chuk is asso­ciateCon­tin­ue read­ing “Jamie Lee Cur­tis at Com­ic Con”

Super Dog

For a fea­ture assign­ment in JOUR2065: Mobile Sto­ry­telling, UConn stu­dent Kelti John­son pho­tographed the bright col­ors of The Big E in Spring­field, Mass­a­chu­setts in Sep­tem­ber 2022.  The East­ern States Expo­si­tion, as the fair is also known, is one of the top ten fairs in North Amer­i­ca and the largest on the East Coast, rep­re­sent­ing all sixCon­tin­ue read­ing “Super Dog”