<p>"Devastating news from Connecticut, where the Hartford Courant is reporting that Huskies cornerback Jasper Howard has been stabbed to death. </p>
<p>Details are sketchy at this point, but the Courant reports it happened just after midnight Saturday near the campus student union after a school-sponsored dance. Another person was also stabbed, and no suspects are in custody. </p>
<p>Howard was a two-year starter who led the Big East in punt return yardage last year. The junior was developing into one of the better cornerbacks in the league and was viewed as having NFL potential. He had 11 tackles and forced a fumble earlier Saturday in a 38-25 win over Louisville. "</p>
<p>A few other students died at colleges across America this weekend. But this one was an athlete, hence it’s deemed newsworthy. While it’s sad that he is dead, it is also very sad that the media think his death is so much more important than the others.</p>
<p>Wow - that was unnecessarily harsh mantori.<br>
Do you have something against college athletes? For some college athletes - athletics is their ticket to a college education. </p>
<p>Seriously - this student was murdered. Feel free to post the other college students who were murdered.
and UConn - I never would have guessed it.
My heart goes out to this young man’s family and the entire UConn community.</p>
<p>mantori: please let us know of these other student deaths at colleges over the weekend so we can discuss, send condolences…
were any of them murdered on campus within a few feet of the student union? at a school sponsored event?
if so, our hearts go out to those families as well…</p>
<p>Condolences to this young man’s family and to the entire UConn community…</p>
<p>This is a very slowly developing story. I’m surprised that we haven’t heard of any description of suspects or why a fight started and was it caused from non students. Many witnesses, little information.</p>
<p>To Chelsea’s point, there are a lot of moving parts to this story. Over the weekend they had the student union and rec center closed off as part of the crime scene investigation. the sequence of events was such that a fire alarm was pulled and the stabbing apparently took place as people were clearing out of the building, so there are likely to be many statements (200+ kids!) to be taken from people on the scene. At least the other victim is doing well as of this morning… Latest report said that Jasper Howard was being tended to that night by two fellow f-ball players when the authorities arrived. They have not made any public statement yet either.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m sorry. I obviously came across as much more callous than I intended, and I apologize for seeming cold or dismissive. Please let me try again.</p>
<p>It is terrible that this young man died in such a senseless way, and I am saddened by it. However, young people die tragically every day, and it’s a shame that we usually hear about the ones that noteworthy for some other reason, such as being an athlete. But there are victims of drunk drivers, alcohol poisoning, murder, preventable disease, etc. The fact that this young man was an athlete means that we heard about his case, but if we heard more about all the cases happening every day across this country, and around the world, we as a society would be more inclined to act. Shame on the media for focusing only on high-profile cases like this one, because he happened to be an athlete. I’m pretty sure there would be a lot less attention given to this case if he were just another student.</p>
<p>I hope that’s a little clearer. I certainly am not immune to the grief we all feel when we hear about a young person dying needlessly, in this or any other case.</p>
<p>I think what stood out to the media were the facts that he’d been given the game ball earlier in the day, and that he was about to become a father. Not just that he was an athlete.</p>
<p>I think what strikes fear in the hearts of parents most is random violence - and as I understand it - this is what is somewhat at play here. However, while they do not refer to a specific motive, there has been some sort of arrest.</p>
<p>The reason this gets so much press is that its a common and very real fear for most people. It’s easy for the media to play up because there is little a student can do or a parent can do in situations like this. I am pretty sure that ALL college campus murders are played up in the press. Alcohol poisoning? Probably less so but I would guess some of that is in respect for the grieving families. After all… alcohol poisoning is certainly avoidable. This happened in a crowd of 300 or so people and shocking in its bravado. However, not only do you have network news commenting and the front pages, but also the sports networks and sports sections of the paper. It might seem like a lot, but really it’s just the outlets doing their respective jobs that results in what might feel like double commentary.</p>
<p>I think if he was just “Joe College Student” this would have made the news and been headlined. Two Va Tech students were murdered last summer while camping and they made the news.<br>
Of course that he was a football player and they had just won their game that day added to the story. If he was class president that would have added to the story as well.</p>
<p>There hasn’t been a homicide at UConn in 30 years. This young man was a first generation college student, an athlete, an expectant father. More facts have and will come out but it is certainly newsworthy. By accounts that I have heard there were over 300 people at the dance itself. As many as 100 may have been involved in what started out as some kind of altercation and became a group issue. As mentioned, this is the third college student death in Connecticut recently. This one appears to be very different from the situation at Yale.</p>