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Local NewsREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN TUESDAY, DECEM BER 27, 2 011

BSECTIONDAILY DIGEST

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Route 8 driver crashes, runs

A Thomaston man with a record of drunken-

driving convictions was charged Monday

after he crashed along Route 8 and ran intothe woods, police said. PAGE 3B

Injured bridge worker files suit

A construction worker who was critically in-

jured when a Naugatuck bridge collapsed

last year is suing subcontracting companies

that were working on the bridge. PAGE 2B

New creche in Bethlehem

Members of the Church

of the Nativity in Bethle-

hem have raised money

and replaced a creche

that crashed to the

ground in high winds

last year. PAGE 2B

>>> DEATHS ON PAGE 2B

THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

OF UCONN HAS MADE AN

IMMEDIATE IMPACT, FROM CHAMPIONING RESEARCH TO TUITION HIKES

T H E N E W S M A K E R S O F 2 0 1 1

SUSAN HERBST

CONTRIBUTEASSOCIATED PRESSASSOCIATED PRESS

PROFILESus

an Herbst, 49, of S

torr

s

>>Married to Douglas Hughes,

with a daughter and son.

>>A Duke grad with a Ph.D from

USC in communication theory,

Herbst taught at Northwestern

University and later worked in

top administrative posts at the

State University of New York,

Temple University and the

Georgia university system,

before being tapped to head

the University of Connecticut inDecember 2010.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER MORENUSSusan Herbst is the first female president at the University of Connecticut.

B Y GEORGE KRIMSKY

REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

The first female president ofthe University of Connecticut,Susan Herbst, has been de-scribed by womens basketballcoach Geno Auriemma assmart, tough and engaging.She hit the ground running,championing the university asa future research mecca, push-ing to drive the endowment upto $1 billion, insisting on aca-demic and recruiting compli-ance for athletes, holding ontothe Big East Conference whileother schools defected, and in

her most controversial move,persuaded her board to raisetuition rates. She spoke to theRepublican-American from heroffice in Storrs last week.

QIn a word or two, how wouldyou describe your kick-off at

UConn?

AInteresting, exciting andvery welcoming.

QU.S. News & World Reportranks UConn 19th in the

country for public universities.Do you think thats fair, andwhich universities are goodcomparisons from a competi-tive point of view?

AThe rankings are taken seri-ously, because its not a

beauty contest. A lot of factors

See HERBST, Page 5B

B Y PAU L HU GHESREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

HARTFORD Democratsand Republicans disagree overhow the state Supreme Courtshould approach congressionalredistricting.

Republicans want the high

court to appoint a special masterto develop a redistricting plan.The Democrats want the court todecide based on competing plansthat the two parties submit.

The Supreme Court is takingover because top Democraticand Republican lawmakers on aredistricting panel failed to

agree on a plan for realigningthe five congressional districts.

The state constitution author-izes the court to redraw the dis-tricts itself or order theReapportionment Commissionback to the drawing board.

The expectation is that theseven justices will assume re-

sponsibility for the congres-sional redistricting. The courthas a constitutional deadline oFeb. 15.

The Supreme Court has nothad to draw a congressionalmap before. It must now decidehow to proceed with the politi-cally fraught task.

In court filings, lawyers for

Parties split on redistricting

Supreme Court to decide congressional lines

B Y AL IA MAL IKREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERTOWN Sunris-es and sunsets. The ocean.Listening to music andhearing your favorite songs.

Earlier this month, townnative Lauren Taylor andsome of her friends sat intheir Quinnipiac University

suite and thought of 100things that make them hap-py reasons that someonecontemplating suicideshould stay alive.

Taylor, 20, a junior study-ing communications, and

her roommate, MichelleBrandow of Brooklyn, in-corporated those things intoa video called 100 Reasonsto Stay, which has beenviewed nearly 76,000 timessince it was posted on thepopular Perez Hilton web-site two weeks ago.

Its cool that it got aspopular as it did, and hope-

fully it helped somebody,said Taylor, who lives withher family on WhisperingHill Road when she is not atschool.

STUDENTS ANTI-SUICIDE VIDEO COMES ALIVELauren Taylor, 20, a

Watertown native and

junior communications

major at Quinnipiac

University, holds up

the first card in her

suicide prevention

video titled 100

Reasons to Stay. The

video, which Taylor

made with herroommate, Michelle

Brandow, has been

watched 76,000 times

on the popular Perez

Hilton website.

CONTRIBUTEDSee STAY, Page 5B

See DISAGREE, Page 5B

C L A S S I F I E D , 6 B

W A T E R B U R Y

Aldermen get committee

assignments for termMembers of the new Board of Aldermen have

been assigned committee and liaison duties for thecoming political term.

Democrat Joseph Begnal Jr. will lead the financecommittee, which includes Majority Leader Antho-ny T. Piccochi, Democrat Gregory A. Hadley andRepublicans Frederick Luedke, Frank A. BurgioSr., Carlo Palladino and Lysa Margiotta.

Democrat Anne P. Phelan runs the intergovern-mental committee, which includes DemocratsRyan A. Mulcahy, Ernest M. Brunelli and RonaldA. Napoli Jr. and Republicans Jerry Padula, StevenGiacomi and George N. Noujaim.

Brunelli will serve as liaison to the Board of Edu-cation, while school board member Jason VanStone will return the favor and attend most Boardof Aldermen meetings.

Padula will sit on the Waterbury DevelopmentCorp. board.

W A T E R B U R Y

School board OKs contractfor youth services mentoring

The Board of Education earlier this month ap-proved a $50,503 contract continuing an arrange-ment with Waterbury Youth Service Systems Inc.to provide mentoring and guidance services forchildren with truancy issues.

The contract provides funding for the fiscal yearbeginning July 1, and is one of several importantrevenue streams for the local agency.

The contract also obligates the city to provide anequal amount of in-kind services, such as trans-portation. This is used to bring in a matching stategrant of approximately $110,000.

The contract still requires approval from theBoard of Aldermen and Mayor Neil M. OLeary.

S T A T E W I D E

Flu vaccines neededfor children in day care

Parents of preschool youngsters age 6 months to59 months who are attending or registering at anylicensed Connecticut day care facility must havetheir children receive flu-immunization vaccina-tions by Dec. 31 according to a Connecticut Depart-ment of Health directive.

Unvaccinated children will be ineligible to enteror return to school in January. Medical or religiousexemptions are available with proper documenta-tion.

Information is available by calling New Opportu-nities Muriel Moore Center at (203) 759-0841, ext.227.

C H E S H I R E

Council approves leasefor Hitchcock Phillips House

The Town Council approved a five-year lease forthe Hitchcock Phillips House at 43 Church St. withthe Cheshire Historical Society.

The historic home has housed the Historical So-ciety for at least 10 years. A 10-year lease expiredearlier in the summer.

The council, at the recommendation of TownManager Michael A. Milone, approved a five-yearlease for the house for a token $10.

Milone said the society has been an extremelygood tenant.

W A T E R B U R Y

Driver sent to city hospital

after crash on I-84, police sayA collision on Interstate 84 sent one driver to the

hospital Thursday.Jomyra Martinez, a 26-year-old Naugatuck resi-

dent, was driving a 1997 Honda Civic east on thehighways right lane at about 4:48 p.m. when an un-known other vehicle merged into her lane from theleft, police said.

The second car continued without stopping, po-lice said.

Martinezs air bag did not deploy, and Martinezwas taken to Saint Marys Hospital with back pain,police said. Her car was driven from the scene, po-lice said.