Lt. Col. Christine Harvey and one of the Black Hawk helicopters she brought to campus to provide real military experiences for ROTC cadets through a partnership with the Connecticut National Guard.
When she arrived in 2006 to take command of the UConn Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) as head of the Department of Military Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Lt. Col. Christine Harvey relished her new challenge.
"I saw a great opportunity for my staff to build upon the program that existed under my predecessor, Lt. Col. Paul Veilleux," says Harvey, who went through ROTC at the State University of New York at Cortland before beginning her military career in the Signal Corps branch of the U.S. Army. "One thing that surprised me was how many students I met that didn’t know there was an ROTC presence here."
Military training for students began as a requirement for male students when the Storrs Agricultural College first gained land-grant status in 1893. ROTC arrived on campus in 1919 and evolved over the years to meet the changing needs of the United States Armed Forces.
Upon Harvey’s arrival in Storrs there were 36 students under ROTC "contract," a term the Army uses to describe students who have signed paperwork that provides full tuition and fees scholarships to students committing them to four years of active duty after they graduate. By the end of this past academic year, the number had more than doubled to 84.
The military science department offers a range of courses that all ROTC cadets must take in order to graduate. The courses are also open to the general student population as electives.
Harvey says there are two key areas she and her staff identified as critical to expanding the ROTC presence at UConn.
"First, there was a disconnect in the curriculum, especially between the sophomore and junior years," she says "The students were not ready to progress to the mandatory summer leadership course. And the quality of the training had to be improved. We broke the program down and rebuilt it from the ground up."
The second area for improvement was to incorporate ROTC students into campus life more effectively and increase their visibility in a positive manner.
"I told the cadets they couldn’t just walk around in black and gold," Harvey says. "I wanted them to embrace the blue and white and have Husky Pride. They’re not my cadets; they’re President Hogan’s cadets. We designed blue and white UCONN ARMY ROTC T-shirts and wear them during our physical training every Friday while we run around campus."
Harvey has also made the program more interesting and more enjoyable for students, giving them the chance to experience the Army by partnering with the Connecticut National Guard, which provides its equipment and facilities to the cadets for training outside the classroom. ROTC students travel to Fort Devens in Massachusetts and Camp Rell in Niantic, Conn., to spend time on a rifle range, rappel off towers and undergo other training. Last semester, Black Hawk helicopters flew to Storrs and cadets had the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the campus.
"Much of ROTC training centers on teaching leadership skills that will serve our graduates well in any profession," Harvey says. "They learn how to make decisions, take responsibility for those under their leadership and successfully fulfill their objectives."
Harvey was scheduled to be rotated out of UConn in August 2010, but she petitioned for a fourth year so she could complete her mission in Storrs.
Her wish was granted – one of only 21 petitions to be honored in the country. Now, her last year at UConn will also be her 25th year in the Army. Then, Harvey says, she will have a new mission – retirement.
–Richard Veilleux
Teaching marketing research skills is a challenge under the best of circumstances, but even more so when the students live in a nation that is politically volatile and where counterfeit products dominate the marketplace.
That was the setting for Narasimhan Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing in the School of Business, who last year spent six weeks in Lima, Peru, teaching executives and M.B.A. students new marketing concepts and consumer survey strategies as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.
Narasimhan Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing in the School of Business He was among some 30 U.S. business faculty awarded the prestigious grants to teach their specialties at institutions around the globe.
Srinivasan, who has extensive experience in short-term academic exchanges, including a previous Fulbright scholarship to Canada, says he was specifically recruited by Peru’s ESAN University, the oldest and top-ranked business school in South America.
During his stay, he taught a course on survey research and a research seminar on cross-cultural strategies, developed marketing course syllabi, evaluated a new undergraduate marketing program ESAN launched last fall and conducted some research of his own.
His classes were delivered in English but simultaneously translated into Spanish.
Peru is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. A small elite controls most of the wealth and political power, and the country has long alternated between democracy and military dictatorship. It remains deeply divided politically, Srinivasan says.
Srinivasan says Peruvians face a great deal of uncertainty about the stability of their political system.
"Many in my classes in Peru have family members living in the United States," he says. "They left during the ’90s when the political environment was very volatile and terrorism was rampant."
Despite this, he says his students were "incredibly hardworking." Many of his classes were held at night because most of the students worked by day.
Doing business in Peru poses considerable hurdles. Srinivasan estimates that 95 percent of the books, music, videos and computer games he saw in Lima were pirated versions of intellectual property.
"The people say they can’t afford the copyrighted version of the products," he says.
In addition, the "formal" market of legal goods is very small when compared to the "informal" sector, he says.
Narasimhan Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing in the School of Business In Lima’s garment district, for example, many types of counterfeit high-end apparel, such as Lacoste shirts, are made by seamstresses working in sweatshop conditions.
Srinivasan says he expects his experience in Peru will benefit his students at UConn in the classes he teaches, including marketing management, advertising, marketing research and consumer behavior.
"As Americans, we are on the learning curve as global citizens and need to be taken out of our cocoon," says Srinivasan, who immigrated to the U.S. from India and has been on the faculty of the School of Business since 1987.
"Because of globalization, we cannot afford to be isolationist," he adds.
"We need to understand why business people in countries such as Peru are doing what they are doing. I hope to help my students think again about difficult issues of culture and society, such as the benefits of open business relationships in a global world."
–David Bauman
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