Public Safety is tracking a significant snowfall that will be arriving in our area late Sunday morning (Jan. 25). It will snow heavily throughout the day and evening eventually tapering off Monday (Jan. 26) with 10-14 inches expected statewide. A sleet and freezing rain mix is also possible along the shore. Temperatures will be in the teens and twenties.
Due to this significant winter storm and the extensive campus clean-up operations that will need to take place, all in-person day and evening classes scheduled for Monday, January 26, 2026 have been cancelled. All scheduled in-person classes will transition to being held online or remotely. Additional information on the virtual format for each class will be provided by your instructor.
Faculty have been asked to prepare for Online or Remote sessions in the event of in-person meeting cancellations. These options will be determined by the Faculty member and all questions should be directed to the Faculty teaching each course section. Faculty also have been asked to be very understanding and accommodating of the individual situations of their students who may have difficulty managing these alternative online or remote class meetings on short notice.
Please note that only essential employees, as previously determined by their respective department leaders, should report to campus. All other employees should fulfill the requirements of their role remotely.
Campus operations for residential students, unless otherwise noted, will operate as scheduled, though hours may be modified or changed based on the conditions. Separate messages will be sent from the Peterson Library, the Beckerman Recreation Center, and Dining Services regarding any changes to their normal hours of operation. The Bergami Center for Science, Technology, and Innovation will remain open for residential students to use for study space and to participate in online classes.
Off-campus students that live in the City of West Haven should abide by the city’s parking ban during inclement weather to avoid having their vehicle tagged and towed. Please check the City of West Haven’s website for further information on their snow parking ban.
The Charger Blog
Students in the University's Media Business in Sport course – one of just a few such sport management classes of its kind in the country – took on roles as negotiators for ESPN, Warner Brothers Discovery Sports, NBC Sports, and Amazon.
June 8, 2023
Alyssa Pasniewski '23 M.S., an international programming coordinator at ESPN, handles the scheduling of Major League Baseball, the NFL, and XFL for ESPN for networks across the entire Pacific Rim – including Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean.
It's a complex process. "In the U.S., ESPN has rights to Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card playoff round, but outside of the United States, the package is much larger, with multiple games a week extending through the end of the World Series," she said.
A semester-long project in the University's new Media Business in Sport course prepared her well for her work at ESPN, she said.
For the project, Pasniewski, who received her M.S. in Sport Management in May, and her classmates were placed in groups representing ESPN, Warner Brothers Discovery Sports, NBC Sports, and Amazon. Each team vied for media rights to upcoming seasons of the NBA.
The course was co-taught by Practitioner-in-Residence J.W. Stewart, a former sports anchor and reporter with ESPN and NBC CT, and William Mao, the senior vice president of media rights consulting for Octagon, a global sports agency. Guest speakers included Carol Stiff, former VP of Women's Sports Programming at ESPN; and Alex Rosen, senior counsel of global media for Major League Baseball.
With the total value of sports media rights in the U.S. across TV and streaming expected to surpass $30 billion by 2025, according to Tim Baysinger of Axios Pro, understanding media rights is crucial, Stewart said.
"Media rights are the largest revenue source for most sports organizations, including the NFL and the NBA, as well as the World Cup and the Olympic games," added Ceyda Mumcu, Ph.D., chair of the University's Sport Management Department.
"It's important for anyone in sport management to be aware of how this revenue is generated, who the stakeholders are, what perspectives they have, and how they come to agreements that benefit both parties," Dr. Mumcu continued. "Our curriculum is cutting edge and closely aligned with the sport industry. We always push the boundaries and aim to prepare our students with industry knowledge and skills."
In the course, each team had to create and pitch a proposal. "There are so many things they had to consider," Stewart said. "Do they want the rights to regular season games...or the rights to All-Star Weekend, and how much is that piece worth? It forced them to think critically and creatively, problem solve, and effectively communicate their solutions."
Mao, who handles such negotiations in his day-to-day work said, "I was impressed by the ability of the groups to take in feedback and revise and improve their presentations – the content and the delivery – based on the multiple phases of negotiation."
Emily Bogdanowicz '23, '24 MBA said her team representing NBC went through many negotiations and continued to tweak their pitch.
"My group and I got creative with our pitch, taking into consideration what our company, NBC, wanted, what the NBA has, and what other broadcasting companies might be trying to get," she explained. "Knowing that the NBA would look for a deal similar to what the NFL has, we anticipated a multi-billion-dollar deal as well as multiple broadcasting companies getting 'a slice of the pie.' The class taught me just how complicated these media rights negotiations are between the broadcasting companies and the professional sports leagues."
Bogdanowicz plans to work in the sport industry in ticket sales. Her ultimate aim is lofty. "The end goal is to be NFL commissioner," she said.
Groupmate Joe Klaus '23, '24 M.S. relished tackling the challenges with his collaborators on the NBC team. "We had to understand that the network is the home of the Olympics, and we had to work around that schedule and the prime time shows and other sports programming," he said. "We needed data to back up all our points, and some of that isn't available, so we had to continually think out of the box."
A graduate assistant who does broadcasts and sideline reporting for Charger athletic events, Klaus plans to become a sports anchor. "Having this experience will "definitely give me a leg up" when he looks for jobs.
Pasniewski, who joined ESPN last summer, said she is already using what she learned and that will continue. "The guest speakers gave us a ton of knowledge on ratings, the negotiation process, what sections a contract should contain, and much more, all of which gave me a deeper understanding as to what my managers and bosses do," she said. "Some of what I was taught is above what I do right now, but it paints a clearer picture of what my duties can be in the future."
University News
New University-wide council will advance strategic partnerships, immersive student opportunities, and innovative research, supporting the University’s strategic plan the development of its pioneering Center for Innovation and Applied Technology.
The Charger Blog
Entrepreneur David Sussman, Pompea College of Business Advisory Board Member and chief visionary officer of The Family Security Plan®, is collaborating with University of New Haven students, faculty, and staff to create a program and app that helps Chargers support each other to achieve academic, personal, and professional goals. It’s called Uccountability.
University News
Vice President for Innovation and Applied Technology Paul Lavoie will serve on the Board of Directors and as America’s Chief Manufacturing Officer for the newly launched American Manufacturing Futures Institute.