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
The University’s Master of Public Health director and student researchers in the program have found that sexual-minority males who use dating apps are more likely to experience body image dissatisfaction and may be more apt to engage in unhealthy weight-control behavior.
June 8, 2023
Alvin Tran, Sc.D., MPH, and the student researchers pursuing their MPH broke new ground in their research – finding a connection between the use of dating apps and body dissatisfaction – and published their findings in the highly regarded BMC Public Health this spring. And their work continues.
"Research should never stop at the publication stage," Dr. Tran said. "We need to work with community leaders, politicians, and leaders of nonprofits to translate our findings into action. That’s important to me and that’s what I train my students to do in order to be advocates for change."
Dr. Tran and two of his former students, Mabintou Darboe ’22 MPH and Anirudh Goyal ’22 MPH, along with Nick Birk of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, found that sexual- minority males who use dating apps tend to have greater body dissatisfaction than those who don’t use dating apps.
Working with Qualtrics software, Dr. Tran and the team surveyed sexual-minority men from around the country. The team found that sexual-minority males who use data apps "demonstrated significantly elevated odds of engaging in unhealthy weight-control behaviors, including misusing diet pills, laxatives, muscle building supplements, and purging."
Their study found that "online dating apps have many similarities to traditional media in the sense that they also present and promote muscular and lean body types as the socially acceptable physique; many dating apps also allow their users to digitally alter their images."
The first thing people see on a dating app is a person’s profile picture, Dr. Tran noted. "Do they quietly decline to meet with you or swipe on you, and say not-so-nice things? Do they comment on your weight or appearance? Does that have a short or long-term impact on your satisfaction with your appearance or other mental health-related factors?"
Dr. Tran and Goyal said poor body image can lead people to take muscle enhancers and diet pills. "Many of these substances are available in your local dietary supplement store or pharmacy, and people think they are safe and effective, and we don’t know the answer to that," Dr. Tran said. "A lot of research has found adulterated and banned ingredients in some of those supplements."
The study was particularly timely because, Goyal said, "mobile dating apps are widely used, and continue to expand."
Goyal said doing the research in Dr. Tran’s WeEmbody Lab honed his skills in data analysis and manuscript writing, and Dr. Tran’s motivation and support led to his current position as a research associate in the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. He is studying the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines and the influenza vaccine, and he eventually plans to pursue a Ph.D. in epidemiology.
Goyal presented a poster on body image related to the group’s research at the Society of Behavioral Medicine's 43rd Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions last year. "We were able to spread word about this to other doctors, researchers and public-health analysts," he said.
Dr. Tran said he hopes researchers across the globe will build upon their findings. His earlier research in this area has been cited repeatedly "and that’s exciting, but at the same time, it’s a sad topic, and I hope we are able to put an end to this public-health concern over time."
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.