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(05/02/17 5:42pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio and Elizabeth Zakaim
Editor-in-Chief and Reviews Editor
If you are a student employee at the College, then you might be disappointed when you check your bank account next semester and see your income take a hit.
For those who rely on the Loop Bus to get off campus, you may find the schedule less convenient than it used to be.
When you are thinking of requesting funding for your organization, you might have to spend your own money to fund an event.
The Student Finance Board, which is charged with allocating the Student Activity Fee fund to organizations’ events, is in the midst of some major changes.
The SAF budget started out with around $1.6 million in the beginning of this academic year.
During the Spring 2016 semester, the College’s Vice President for Student Affairs Amy Hecht proposed to remove up to 15 percent, or about $240,000, of the SAF budget every year to hire new staff during both this semester and the next fiscal year.
Of that $240,000, $60,000 of the SAF is used for the club sports and intramural director and an estimated $100,000 will be used for the diversity inclusion representative when they are hired, according to Chris Blakeley, the Student Government representative for SFB and a sophomore civil engineering major.
The outlook of hiring the SFB business operations manager is not currently being looked at. If this position is not filled, it would save SFB about $80,000, according to Blakeley.
Robert Mitchals, the current executive director of SFB and a junior political science major, said that while Hecht did not violate SFB’s Constitution and this reallocation of SAF was ultimately within her rights as vice president for Student Affairs, her decisions have put SFB in significant financial trouble.
Though the loss will not cause an increase in the SAF students pay as part of their miscellaneous fees each semester, it will greatly impact how much money SFB can allocate to different club events on campus.
According to a letter Hecht addressed to SFB in 2016, both she and Mitchals agreed that no more than 15 percent of the SAF would be used annually to fund positions created to directly benefit students.
“I am grateful for the student leadership who stepped up and saw a need on this campus and agreed to fund it,” Hecht said. “The position that is already on campus has made a tremendous difference for our club sports and intramural program. I believe the director of Student Diversity and Inclusion will do the same.”
“Student Affairs wants to support students and provide the very best student experience that we can,” Hecht added. “With the support of Student Government and Student Finance Board, we will be able to accomplish even more.”
While Mitchals says that he does not regret signing off on the decision and is in full support of the positive impact these positions will have on campus life, he acknowledged that both SFB and SG are facing the financial consequences.
If he hadn’t signed off on the agreement made in September 2016, he would have jeopardized SFB’s status in the eyes of the vice president for Student Affairs, according to Mitchals.
While he isn’t opposed to the staff hired, he was not in full agreeance with where the money came from.
“We fought it tooth and nail,” Mitchals said. “We would have been viewed as someone who was obstructing the agenda of that office.”
SFB initially opposed the idea and worked with SG in order to spread awareness for the impending decision during open fora held in April 2016 before the decision was made, according to Mitchals.
“No one voiced an opinion,” Mitchals said. “It wasn’t real — they just saw a number on paper.”
Hecht, however, found both student organizations to be in agreeance with the decision.
“Some students expressed that they wished that there was another way to fund them,” Hecht said of the overall student consensus on hiring the new staff. “But after much discussion, they realized that this was the only way to have them in the near future.”
Although Blakeley was freshman class secretary at the time, he felt assured that SG did what they could to fight the changes.
“Yes, everyone could always fight more,” Blakeley said, “but at that moment, you’re in a split decision –– you don’t know what’s gonna happen, you don’t know how it’s going to work out.”
Through the fora, SG did what it could to reach out to the campus to make them aware of the issue, yet the consequences of reallocating the SAF has already started to surface.
In February, SFB had to dip into its own reserves for $60,000 in order to fund the remaining events for this semester. According to Mitchals, there is $190,000 left in reserves for any other emergency. When he joined the SFB executive board as a freshman, there was $1.2 million in reserves.
According to Mitchals, the SAF won’t likely ever see that kind of money again.
“Our reserves won’t replenish,” he said.
Different clubs on campus continually look to SFB for funding, and the organization has also had to open its pockets for other expenses over the years. SFB funded more than $100,000 toward the Brower Student Center renovation.
While the expense was authorized by SFB in 2015, it highlighted the recurring trend of using the SAF for purposes not specific to student organization funding.
According to Mitchals, the College lacks sufficient funds to pay for its own projects.
“Every higher education institution’s budget is tight,” he said.
The school saw an avenue in excess SFB reserves and took advantage under the reasoning that the renovations benefit co-curricular activities on campus, which is the general goal of the SAF, according to Mitchals.
Yet, Mitchals finds fault with that justification.
“Student Activity Fees should not be utilized for on-campus building no matter what, even if it benefits students,” he said. He also said that there are other historic budgets, like facility budgets or bonds that are issued by the school, that should be used for that purpose.
SFB has become a convenient go-to for funding through the SAF, according to Mitchals.
“Just as time has progressed, the amount of requests we get, they’re crazy and just continue to increase,” Mitchals said.
In the 2015 fiscal year — when there was $1.2 million in SAF reserves — Hecht had taken $900,000 out of reserves, a separate account from the general SAF budget, in order to fund mascot costumes and other equipment. SFB is in full support of what the money is funding both in terms of the equipment and the new potential staff. The question that arises, though, is whether or not this money should be coming out of SAF.
Ideally, the money should not be coming from the SAF budget at all, yet there is nothing that explicitly says that Hecht is not allowed to take money out to pay for staff, according to Mitchals. In fact, the definition now allows for it.
Both Mitchals and Alexandra Wallach, financial director for SFB and a senior accounting major, agreed the definition of SAF’s function, which comes from the Office of the Treasurer, was changed online. While they don’t know exactly when it was changed, they discovered in the beginning of this semester that the definition online had changed sometime in 2016.
Whereas both definitions acknowledge that SFB is responsible for the allocation and management of the funds, the updated definition now includes “personnel costs” as part of SAF’s function, which was not included in the original definition.
“The No. 1 primary definition you go off of is whatever the Office of the Treasurer is putting out primarily because they’re the ones dealing with students tuition and what I assume is that Student Accounts and possibly (Student Affairs) just haven’t adopted the new definition,” Mitchals said. “But without a doubt, we allocate the SAF, so we know what the definition has and always will be, and now there’s just the change.”
Mitchals was concerned that neither SFB nor the student body were consulted in the changed definition.
“If you’re changing a definition of what a student’s tuition is used for, shouldn’t students know that?” Mitchals said. “It was 100 percent in correlation with what occurred with the (vice president of Student Affairs) with allocating the SAF with allocating staff wages.”
According to Hecht, SAF’s definition was not changed.
“The definition of SAF has not changed. This fee was created almost 30 years ago by the board of trustees (like all fees), to enhance student life and programs,” Hecht said. “That does include funding activities by students for students — which is the majority of how those funds are used. However, to continue to enhance student life and program, full-time staff is necessary and can be considered an enhancement to student life and programs.”
A previous version of the fees reads, “The Student Activity Fee is collected by The College on behalf of the Student Finance Board (SFB). The SFB is responsible for allocation and management of the funds. The SFB is comprised of various clubs, service organizations and activities of the college campus for the purpose of enriching the cocurricular life of the college community,” according to studentaccounts.tcnj.edu/files/2013/10/Description-of-Fees.pdf.
The Signal has a physical copy of a document called “Description of Mandatory Fees” printed in the Fall 2015 semester that states, “The primary goal of the SFB is to allocate the Student Activity Fund to various student clubs and student service organizations for the purpose of enriching the co-curricular life of the college community.”
A portion of the SAF definition currently reads, “The primary goal of the SFB is to allocate the Student Activity Fund to various student clubs and student service organizations for the purpose of enriching the co-curricular life (including personnel costs) of the college community.”
The link to this is studentaccounts.tcnj.edu/files/2016/10/Description-of-Fees-NEW.pdf, which may indicate this is a more recent file.
There has been some miscommunication between the Office of the Treasurer and Office of Student Affairs, according to Hecht. The current definition on the website is inaccurate and needed to be updated years ago, she said.
Regardless, Blakeley suggested a different potential financial outlet for Hecht’s financial needs — Hecht’s own budget. He acknowledged, though, that the Office of Student Affairs’ budget might be tighter than SFB’s.
“It’s her staff, her office pays… for all the people in the staff,” he said. “She thought this was a way of getting the staff she needed without trying to impede on other things.”
In order to battle the blow, SFB plans on cutting its members’ wages by 10 percent and base budgeting different club expenses like SG. Mitchals said they’re going to be more rigorous when it comes to club applications and deciding what to fund. While this is the most delicate way of saving money, it hurts clubs’ future budgets — most won’t see growth any time soon.
Taiwo Akinmboni, treasurer of the Association of Students for Africa and a senior business management major, said the organization started facing issues this year with SFB.
ASFA holds an annual event called “Akwaaba,” which is a banquet for students interested in learning more about African culture and watching authentic cultural performances with guests from outside the College. This year, with the club’s budget
capped at around $4,000, it was hard to find a performer at a good price and pay for the expenses as well as other events throughout the semester.
The club wanted to spend $2,000 on a performer for its event, and SFB had to turn down the request. Akinmboni eventually did find one who would perform for a cheaper price, but the search wasn’t easy.
Ziyi Wang, a junior finance major and SFB’s current operations manager, will be taking on the role of executive director for SFB next semester. Although his hands will be full with the SAF issues he will be inheriting from Mitchals, Wang is confident about taking on the new position and aims to please different campus organizations while keeping SFB’s shaky budget in mind.
He plans to encourage more club co-sponsorship next year, suggesting that clubs with similar events in mind combine their ideas and host one event instead of two separate ones.
“We don’t want collaborations to feel forced,” Wang said, “but at the end of the day, if the balance of the SAF is starting to get pretty low, groups will be forced to collaborate to have events they want to have.”
He plans on working closely with Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Angela Chong, who will replace Hecht next year as vice president for Student Affairs, in order to mitigate SFB spending.
“Instead of seeing a year-to-year increase in how much a student organization receives, we’ll see a stagnation in the amount they’ll be receiving in terms of funding,” Wang said.
While Akinmboni didn’t see a problem with collaborating with other clubs for smaller get togethers, he didn’t see a benefit to co-sponsoring its annual event, a program the club works hard on and looks forward to every year.
“It would take away from our mission and goal (as an organization),” he said.
ASFA is not the only organization facing budget caps and cuts.
In an open forum on March 29, SFB discussed potential expense reduction ideas with different club representatives, which included cutting funding for student employee wages, Loop Bus trips and club retreats.
This also includes cutting The Signal’s funding in half. According to SFB reports, $800 of SAF currently goes toward printing each edition. SFB plans to reduce the amount to $400, which could save approximately $11,500 in expenses a year.
While Blakely acknowledged how detrimental this seize was for SFB, and that its budget has been greatly misused, there is still hope that the positions the SAF will fund will be money well spent.
From a club’s perspective, the options may currently seem bleak, but these new positions may be able to help each club’s goal of enhancing student life.
“If these two positions are really going to help us then that’s great, we made the right decision,” Blakeley said. “If (they) are really helping the student body and doing their purpose, it may have been worth it.”
(04/29/17 5:36pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Editor-in-Chief
Imagine a journalism major attending a college without a newspaper or any other media organizations. Unfortunately, that illogical hypothetical was my reality until I transferred to the College in the Spring 2014 semester. Without getting into the complexities of my past, I will say that the long journey to editor-in-chief of The Signal was hard, but worth it.
In the film “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Harry says of his accomplishments, “It all sounds great when you say it like that. But the truth is most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I nearly always had help.”
I’m not saying I’ve faced Harry Potter-level challenges, but what he’s saying is still applicable. College has been a series of confusing, frustrating and exhilarating experiences. I’ve always felt like I was thrown from one crazy experience to the next, and, luckily, I’ve almost always had help.
Before I completely part ways with the College and The Signal, I’d like to recognize some of the people — aside from the intelligent, inspiring and kind journalism professors — who helped me along the way.
When I served as production manager, alumnus Tom Kozlowski (’16) was editor-in-chief at the time. He surprised me both literally and figuratively. When he wasn’t sneaking up behind me — which, without fail, always ended in me screaming — he taught me that you don’t necessarily need to be a journalism major to be a great writer, editor and leader. He also taught me to watch my back.
When I was opinions editor, alumna Julie Kayzerman (’16) successfully piloted The Signal through challenging stories, including a breaking news story the day of production, which is a daunting additional responsibility on an already stressful day.
As an editor, she was tough, fair and honest, which I could not fully appreciate until I was put in a leadership role and learned that I wanted to mirror those qualities.
As I took on the role of news editor, alumna Colleen Murphy (’16) showed me how to look for the best in people, but remain objective when necessary. Perhaps most importantly, she made me realize that it’s essential to do your job, but you have to have fun while you do it.
This was especially true when sleep deprivation kicked in and she made me laugh by, say, seeing people walking around the lake outside of Forcina Hall at 6 a.m. and communicating what they were wearing through song and dance.
Honestly, I’d hang out longer in the newsroom, so we, along with Sydney Shaw, the managing editor at the time and a senior journalism major, could get breakfast at Eickhoff Hall in the morning. Somehow, I still wanted to joke around with them after spending more than 12 hours together.
More recently, though, I served as managing editor last semester under Shaw’s guidance. I learned a great deal from her on how to be a better writer and trust my gut. Luckily, she also taught me how to be a better friend.
While my personal experiences may not affect you, I think it’s important to look at the people who have come before you and learn from them. Before you know it, those people won’t be around and you’ll be left to your own devices to piece everything together using the wisdom they tried to impart on you.
Although no one is perfect, I did my best to instill some wisdom in The Signal’s staff for the Fall 2017 semester. As they transition from their old jobs to new — and me from editor-in-chief to a debt-ridden graduate living in a cardboard box — I have faith that they will continue to carry out quality, honest and thorough journalistic work, and learn some lessons along the way.
(04/19/17 5:20pm)
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(03/19/17 9:03pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Editor-in-Chief
As the College’s president, R. Barbara Gitenstein has a lot to think about on the local, state and national levels.
When people ask her “What keeps you up at night?” she responds: “the students… what’s happening that would put them in harm’s way.”
The Signal sat down with Gitenstein on March 8 to learn about what she believes are the biggest threats to her students’ well-being.
Mental health
The College identifies as a survivor campus, with five deaths by suicide in a four-year period, according to Gitenstein. Compared to other colleges, the College is very academically competitive, which puts a lot of pressure on the students, however, the College is making moves to provide long-term mental health care to its students.
Gitenstein cannot comment yet on what exactly the College has planned to provide more mental health services to students since the TCNJ Clinic is set to close at the end of the academic year, but she assures the students that there is a plan in the works.
Tuition cap
Gitenstein said she does not want to increase tuition any further, but it becomes problematic if the legislature tries to implement a tuition cap.
“TCNJ begins building its budget by positing what would be a reasonable tuition increase,” she said. “Then we try to meet the needs of the institution within that revenue limitation.”
One of the best features of New Jersey’s four-year public higher education is its diversity, but that diversity relies on each institution’s board of trustees, according to Gitenstein.
“The underpinning of that diversity is the fact that these individuals’ institutions have separate boards of trustees — each of which has the fiduciary responsibility to assure that the individual institution is true to its mission,” she said.
Gitenstein also said that since the state has not been generous with allocating money to higher education for capital investment, such as construction, the College is among the many colleges that have to borrow money.
“We had to sell bonds to fund these projects and one of the features of our bonds’ attraction has been the bond ratings (determined by the bond rating agencies),” Gitenstein said.
If the ratings go down, then it becomes more costly for the College to borrow money, which translates into greater costs for students, according to Gitenstein.
“The bond rating agencies have all said that one of the reasons our bond ratings are so high is because our board of trustees determine our budget,” Gitenstein said.
The president also said that although people do not like the tuition increases, the College costs less for the state per student because students are actually getting their undergraduate degrees in four years. Seventy-three percent of students at the College graduate on time compared to the national average of 33 percent, according to collegefactual.com.
National concerns
Gitenstein called this a “disruptive time,” citing the second version of President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order and the recent riot at Middlebury College, which resulted in a controversial sociologist not being able to speak and an assault of the event’s moderator.
The Trump administration announced a second version of the immigration executive order on March 6, which would suspend immigration into the U.S. from six predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya. The order would have gone into effect on March 16, but was frozen by a federal judge in Hawaii, according to The Washington Post.
The government said it will appeal the decision of a Maryland federal judge, who also blocked this executive order, CNBC reported.
“While I do believe that there are some significant improvements in the new travel executive in response to the legal objections that were raised, I continue to have concerns,” Gitenstein said. “Most specifically, I am concerned about what messages the order sends to the world and to our own citizens about the history of immigration, diversity and global engagement that is at the heart of the United States.”
At Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., students violently protested sociologist Charles Murray on March 2. Murray is most known for his book “The Bell Curve” from 1994, which connects lower socioeconomic status with race and intelligence.
In response to this incident, Gitenstein found herself asking, “How do we deal with those kinds of speakers?” and “Can we learn from them?”
Gitenstein is optimistic about one national issue, though — the Bar Removal of Individuals Who Dream of Growing Our Economy Act.
Proposed by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the BRIDGE Act allows people who have received work authorization or temporary relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to continue living in the U.S. with the federal government’s permission, according to the National Immigration Law Center’s website.
Former President Barack Obama announced DACA in 2012 in which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not deport undocumented youth who came to America as children and granted them temporary permission to stay in the U.S.
“These people have grown up in the United States — they have no conscious memory of life in any other country,” Gitenstein said.
She added that of the approximately 800,000 people that fall into DACA, about 300,000 are current students.
“I am not sure that the BRIDGE Act is the only way to address the needs of these individuals, but I am committed that their special status should be considered in any discussion of their immigration/citizenship status,” Gitenstein said.
(02/14/17 10:50am)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Editor-in-Chief
Madonna is dead, and you have 10 minutes to write an obituary.
As I manically composed a story about her sudden death, I got so caught up in the restrictions: I have to be fast, I have to be factual and I have to be first.
In reality, I was not quick — I took about 15 minutes — I was not accurate — I might have spelled her name wrong — and I was not first — I was among the last to file the story.
Of course, the Queen of Pop is not dead, but I had to react to her fictional passing for an assignment in one of my journalism classes, and the result was not something of which I am proud.
Modern journalists face an unseemly amount of challenges: They have to be accurate, eloquent and beat everyone to the punch. But I’m biased, right? Or at least that’s what everyone tells me.
I find myself being a self-proclaimed crusader for journalism, trying to defend those who do honest, thorough work to inform the public.
I have actually had fights with people during class after a conversation about anything suddenly turns into “Well, it’s the media’s fault.” Again, I am not proud, but I feel like someone has to do it – someone has to offer the other side of the conversation.
I’ll be the first one to admit that not all news sources are original — which is evident in Conan O’Brien’s bit “Newscasters Agree: Valentine's "I Love You" Edition” on YouTube — and some are not even factual.
Luckily, there are a few ways to determine between what’s real and fake. Check the URL as some, such as abcnews.com.co, are not real news sites, according to NPR.org. Take a look at the website’s “About Us” section because it might say the site is satirical, or the use of over dramatic language might indicate it is an unprofessional site.
Despite these bias or fake sources, some honest people are still trying to inform the public. Without professional journalists, who would uncover the corrupt and unjust? Who would be the gatekeeper of what information can and should be allowed into the mainstream?
Without them, there would be endless fake news seeping into society and penetrating minds to further widen the divide between left and right, conservative and liberal, honesty and falsity.
In my Introduction for Cultural Anthropology class this semester, I was captivated by my professor’s words, as she was giving the most honest opinion about the media I have heard during my time at the College — one that didn’t require me to fight back.
“A free press is an integral part of what makes our society open. It is also our constitutional right,” said Rachel Adler, an anthropology professor. “When the press is silenced or delegitimize, it is a serious problem, as it is a step toward authoritarianism.”
She said that while sources like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal are not perfect, they are trustworthy publications that try to present the facts. She talked about how “fake news blurs the line between fact and fiction,” and how some scholars argue that there is no real objective truth.
However, she agrees that subjective truth is unscientific, as truth is based on evidence and facts.
With the creation of fake news, people are stuck in an echo chamber of their perceived reality and truth, which damages their perception of unbiased, hardworking journalists.
“It is easy to find ‘evidence’ for something that we already accept as fact,” Adler said. “I think that we must be critical of the news that supports our own point of view. This is not second nature — it takes effort, and it can be disconcerting. But it is well worth it.”
(02/07/17 7:26am)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Editor-in-Chief
From the comfort of her bed in America, Abrar Ebady checks in with a Syrian refugee living in a war zone via the messaging app WhatsApp, unsure if anyone is on the other end.
“I WhatsApp her to console myself and know that she’s alive,” said Ebady, a senior psychology major at the College. “I can’t send her money — I don’t know what the banking is like — I can’t do anything… and the only glimmer of hope was us taking the pin drop in the ocean of the amount of refugees.”
Ebady, an Egyptian American of Turkish descent and Muslim faith, interned for the Syrian American Medical Association — an education and humanitarian organization for healthcare professionals — in Amman, Jordan over the summer. While she was listening to the stories of traumatized refugees, she met a woman and her daughter who had escaped the horrors of Syria to seek refuge in Jordan.
“Everyone I met at the clinic had trauma,” Ebady said. “Currently, it’s a war zone where she’s living. ... (On my first or second day,) she was so excited that I was there, she just took out her camera and took a picture of me. ... She’s very welcoming and very typical of the Arab culture: hospitable, loving and sweet. You felt the love and kindness radiate from her.”
Without any government assistance, the refugee had to return to Syria. Ever since, Ebady has wondered if she is alive.
Ebady is one of many students at the College affected by their experiences with refugees. When President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 that suspended immigration and restricted entry into the U.S. for nationals from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, it hit people like Ebady “like a ton of bricks.”
The first week
“My heart hurts,” Ebady said. “Even when I talk about it, my heart starts beating faster. I get really anxious because I genuinely feel — and I know this is an irrational thought — but I feel like I failed the people that I met. … It’s like when people see someone from America, they see you as a promise. You’re that glimmer of hope.”
The executive order even prompted a response from College President R. Barbara Gitenstein, who sent an email to the College community on Jan. 30.
“While I strongly believe in the need to take actions that will protect our citizens and the country, I have deep reservations about the specifics of these particular actions,” the email read. “The College of New Jersey has been enriched immeasurably by the contributions of students, faculty and staff from other countries. Indeed, our national heritage is built on welcoming and embracing the vitality and difference that comes from these kinds of contributions.”
In her email, Gitenstein also said she endorses the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’s statement that asks the Trump administration to reconsider the executive order. In addition, she signed a statement along with more than 600 other higher education presidents in the fall that urged the federal government to consider the circumstances of younger people who were “childhood arrivals” from other countries.
“TCNJ will continue to provide support and protection for our students, faculty and staff as allowed by law,” the email read. “Information about the national origin or immigration status of a TCNJ student or employee is private and will not be disclosed without the consent of the individual except as required by law, such as pursuant to a valid subpoena or court order.”
The Signal published a response from faculty members at the College, who penned a letter to Gitenstein asking her to “denounce the executive order.”
“We’re asking you to take a public stand because this executive order is also an assault on institutions of higher education,” the letter read. “This ban will diminish the College’s efforts to be a site of international cooperation and will compromise the transnational production of knowledge. Under this ban, it is quite possible that international students, faculty, staff and researchers will be excluded from our campus, and that some will be stranded away from their families.”
Refugees worldwide
Several students at the College left their families behind to witness the refugee crisis for themselves.
Since Fall 2016, the College’s Heidelberg exchange program has brought students to the Patrick Henry Village in Germany to study the refugee crisis up close, according to Karen Becker, an associate professor of marketing.
“It was my hope that this course and the associated service would allow our students to develop their worldview and meet refugees from all over the world,” Becker said. “I believe one of the only ways we can create understanding and move toward a more peaceful world is through cultural understanding, and this course and service was designed to increase understanding and build empathy.”
The village temporarily houses refugees from Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, according to senior marketing major Nicholas Maldarelli. There, he met a Sri Lankan boy he calls “J” who taught Maldarelli Tamil, his native language. In return, Maldarelli taught him English and Russian.
“This boy had a resounding laugh and jubilant personality,” Maldarelli said. “His broken English was not a barrier in our friendship. … We found similarities and used that common ground to develop a strong friendship that transcended everything I had come to understand about refugees and friendship thus far.”
According to Maldarelli, J was at the village because his late father was executed for an anti-government coup intended to bring justice to the low- and middle-class Sri Lankans who have been extorted and scared through fear-based tactics from their government.
“In my time with J and other children of parents seeking asylum in Germany, I learned that these people were not terrorists, but rather victims of terror,” Maldarelli said. “My eyes and heart were open to hear their stories, share in their tears and do everything in my power to make their troubles of finding a home a little more bearable.”
Olivia Donini, a junior psychology major, is currently studying and volunteering in the Heidelberg village, which comprises about 2,000 refugees who are waiting to be granted asylum or be forced to leave.
“We are all humans,” Donini said. “Although we may come from different locations, have different family dynamics and beliefs, we all are the same in that we were born on this Earth and given the chance to live a fair and happy life.”
Donini admits that being abroad has made her a little disconnected from what is happening in America, but she believes that under any circumstances, a ban is against her fundamental beliefs.
“I think safety is an issue to keep in mind, but I wholeheartedly do not believe that what we are doing right now is morally right,” Donini said. “These people are fleeing their home countries because of issues bigger than some of us can imagine. … And when they come asking the rest of the world for help, regardless of if they are asking America or another country, they deserve kindness, fairness and the help that they need.”
Donini believes people should try to be more empathetic.
“I cannot imagine being forced from my place of comfort, safety and identity,” she said. “We need to stand up for the refugees, for ourselves and for the existence of humankind. This reality could happen to any one of us, and we have to put ourselves in their shoes — which some may not even have — in order to generate the natural empathy and understanding that is the basis of life.”
Checks and balances
The controversial executive order has seen some recent impediments since it was signed. U.S. District Senior Judge James Robart of Seattle issued a nationwide restraining order on Friday, Feb. 3, that blocks the travel ban, according to USA Today.
As a result, airlines were told that the U.S. government would reinstate previously cancelled travel visas, as well as allow refugees with processing U.S. visas to enter, the same source reported.
A federal appeals court denied the Justice Department’s request on Sunday, Feb. 5, to reinstate the president’s executive order, according to The Wall Street Journal.
United or divided?
“So, here you are
too foreign for home
too foreign for here.
Never enough for both.”
- Ijeoma Umebinyuo
After reading Umebinyuo’s words off her phone, Ebady said the poem is the only way to convey her experiences abroad and in the U.S.
“No matter where I go in the world, I’m American. But in America, I’m a threat,” she said.
Ebady believes that this order resulted from fear and a lack of understanding of her Muslim faith.
“My religion really does promote peace, equality,” Ebady said. “My religion doesn’t hate. … In fact, it teaches you that if you kill one person, it’s as if you’ve killed all of mankind and to save one life — it’s as if you’ve saved all of mankind. … That’s really what motivates me — my religion — to be a better person.”
Ebady said she has diverse friends with diverse beliefs — some who are Muslims and others who are non-Muslims, some that believe refugees should be welcomed and others that think they should be turned away from entering the U.S.
“We’re so used to hanging out with people who share the same political ideologies,” Ebady said. “We’re actually limiting ourselves, and we’re, in an essence, creating this segregation that’s dividing us.
“You should be able to sit down with someone of the opposing party and be able to entertain them, entertain their thoughts,” she added. “We’re all products of our environment, products of our upbringing and products of our exposure.”
(10/30/16 1:18am)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Managing Editor
Campus Police have identified a person of interest in the recent residence hall intrusions, according to an email sent to the campus community by John Collins, Campus Police chief and director of Campus Security, on Thursday, Oct. 27.
The email included image attachments of a white male in his mid-20s, about 5-foot-9, with a thin to medium build, dark hair and a beard. These pictures were obtained by reviewing footage recorded by Cromwell Hall’s security camera on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 19. No students who matched the person in the images swiped into the hall during that night, according to the email.
“Our records show that this individual did not swipe into the building, which underscores the importance of not allowing people to 'tailgate' in behind you, or slip in as you are leaving,” Collins wrote in the email.
Anyone with more information on the individual in the images or additional information should contact Campus Police at 609-771-2167 at any hour, and call 911 if anything suspicious or of concern occurs.
(10/23/16 5:43pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Managing Editor
When swatting bugs, wiping away sweat and moving fallen bamboo culms to clear a path, it can be easy to forget you are still at the College.
The on-campus bamboo forest behind Green Farmhouse is littered with food wrappers, beer cans and water bottles full of green liquid — signs that this spot has hosted the occasional “good time,” according to a Signal article from Sept. 24, 2008.
That same article reported that the only exposure Thomas Hasty, former head grounds worker for the Office of Grounds and Landscape Maintenance Services, had to the bamboo was limited to the few times the grounds crew needed to clean up the litter, along with some cult-like paraphernalia reminiscent of “The Blair Witch Project.”
This campus oddity has been shrouded in mystery, as Hasty had reportedly never learned why the bamboo was there, and any further knowledge left with him when he retired.
According to Head Media Relations Officer Tom Beaver, the mystery continues.
“We do not have a record of when the bamboo was planted and why, at that time, the decision was made to plant bamboo,” Head Media Relations Officer Tom Beaver said.
Eight years later, the College still has no idea.
Until now.
The Eldridge family
Walk along the Metzger Loop away from the bamboo forest behind Green Farmhouse — past the Administrative Services Building and before the apartments — and one can spot another patch of bamboo. Unlike the bamboo behind the farmhouse, this one has a sign posted in the patch.
The marker indicates a few critical points: the Eldridge family planted the bamboo at this specific location in the early part of the last century, and it was the first bamboo planted in Ewing, N.J.
It also notes that Eldridge Park in Lawrenceville, N.J., was named after the family and that one family member named John was an associate of William Penn: “English Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom, who oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” according to britannica.com.
The Rockino family were the ones who acquired the Eldridge’s property on Pennington Road — they believe it was built around 1919 — in an estate sale in November 1973. Linda Rockino Schultz, 64, does not live in this house, but her brother does.
According to Rockino Schultz, Sarah Eldridge built a colonial home for her son, C. Wellington Eldridge, and in the yard, she planted several species of flora still there today, including Silver Spruce, Japanese Maple and bamboo. Their fence is the one that separates the College from the bamboo patch.
A not-so-invasive species
So, what is the connection between the Eldridge’s bamboo and the College’s? The answer can be found in basic ecology, according to Professor of Biology Janet Morrison, who is currently conducting her own research on the interactions between overabundant deer, invasive species and native plant communities.
Morrison said the bamboo on campus is likely Golden Bamboo, since that is the most common type of planted bamboo.
“(Golden Bamboo) might flower (about) every five to 10 years,” Morrison said. “So, it’s possible that a few seeds made it and got spread to the other side of the road, and so it’s making a second patch.”
That second patch has been growing just over the fence and down the road on the College’s campus.
Since John Eldridge was the one to introduce the plant, which, according to Morrison, is commonly found in Asia, the bamboo is actually an invasive species.
“Generally, when we say ‘invasive species,’ we’re usually talking about species — whether they’re animals, plants, whatever — that come from a different continent and have been introduced to a new continent either intentionally or accidentally,” Morrison said. “(The species) have done very well in the area over a quite short period of time — in ecological time rather than, say, evolutionary time.”
Morrison said the bamboo has survived here because it thrives in temperate climates, as opposed to harsher ones in the arctic and tropics, for example.
While often beautiful and exotic, invasive species are not necessarily positive for the local native plants. Some invasive species can spread out and inhibit native species from growing, which can lower biodiversity. These species can affect the soil’s nutrients and the local water cycle, as well, according to Morrison.
“If someone plants a little bamboo in their yard and it takes there — does well — it will then send out stolons, or these little… horizontal stems, basically, and these sort of spread out and make a giant clump,” Morrison said. “On a very, very local scale where it’s spreading out every year and making little bit of bigger and bigger clumps, it’s forcing out other plants that are there.”
Fortunately, bamboo is not a huge threat, as it grows tall quickly, but spreads out slowly.
“People consider it invasive, but from my perspective — compared to so many other species — it’s not of particular concern,” Morrison said. “It does not act like a classic invasive species… You don’t see bamboo invading across all of our forest patches on campus.”
To Morrison, the bamboo on campus is symbolic of a much larger issue — the decrease in species diversity.
“Bamboo is very dramatic, and people notice it because it’s so big and incredible looking,” Morrison said. “As the world is becoming more globalized… we’re losing diversity of different species… because of the success of a relatively small number of cosmopolitan species that are well-adapted to the sort of disturbed environments that people make. As people cover the globe, those are the species that are going to do well.”
(10/04/16 5:24am)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Managing Editor
They are writers, researcher or speakers. They are friends of people you want to be acquainted with, or they are who you want to become. These people, the ones standing at the front of your classrooms, happily wait to bestow their real-world knowledge upon you — a bleary-eyed student counting down the minutes until you’re back in bed.
Professors at the College are accomplished, to say the least, and these achievements go widely unnoticed. To those students who come to class late every day and are the first ones out the door, no amount of studying can make up for the fact that you are failing college.
Some of the best advice I received before starting college was to try to get to know at least one of my professors each semester. The advice didn’t mean we had to be best friends, just interact with them enough for them to remember me well after the semester was over. Honestly, I set out to get to know a professor or two well enough so that they could write me a recommendation if I ever were to need one.
As a senior, I am not proud to admit that I did not start trying to figure who my professors truly are until fairly recently. I learned that like the books in the Library, these professors are invaluable resources full of endless advice and useful and humorous anecdotes, all at the fingertips of each student, but only open up to those inquisitive enough to seek out their stories.
James Queally, a journalism alumnus (’09), former Signal editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, attributes his success to one of his professors during his time at the College, Donna Shaw, an associate professor and chair of the journalism and professional writing department.
“She was watching over me at The Signal (and) when applying for internships, and once talked me down from deciding to give up on journalism,” Queally said. “She did all that for me and that’s before even mentioning what she did inside the classroom. Donna was my example, but she’s just one of several at TCNJ that has to act as teacher, career counselor and therapist, and go far beyond the eight-hour work day… Professors are pretty much on-the-clock 24/7, and I feel like people outside the teaching profession don’t realize that.”
While being a professor is a full-time job, some professors have had to take on second jobs because they are no longer making enough money as a professor, according to John Krimmel, president of the College’s American Federation of Teachers Union and an associate professor of criminology.
Professors at the College have been working without a contract, which details their terms of employment, like salaries and benefits, since July 2015. This issue is not something that can be solved by the College, but rather something the professors have been trying to negotiate with the state government.
The four-year contract that started in 2011 had salary increases of 0 percent the first two years, then a 1 percent increase in the third year and a 1.75 percent increase in the fourth year, Krimmel said. He also mentioned that they now have to pay for their own healthcare, too.
Continuing to work at the College without a contract, taking on second jobs, being there for you whenever you need them — how could you not be grateful for these people? They are here to challenge, mentor and push you to be better. Not getting to know them — their stories and experiences — is not only an insult to the professors, but yourself, as well. These resources that stand before you are here for you, so take advantage of this privilege during what time you have left here.
(08/01/16 8:41pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
Managing Editor
College alumna Ana Montero (’89) has been named chief executive officer of the American Red Cross’s New Jersey region, according to the organization’s press release.
“I am honored to lead such a talented group of people at the Red Cross in my home state,” Montero said, according to the press release. “I look forward to building upon our relationships and partnerships, and to cultivating new collaborations with partners representing our most vulnerable communities.”
Through volunteers, donors and partners, the American Red Cross aims to help people worldwide prepare for and recover from disaster, give people access to lifesaving blood transfusions and provide members of the military support for themselves and their families, according to the organization’s website.
Montero’s new position allows her to oversee all of the Red Cross’s service delivery, fundraising and external relations within New Jersey — a position she is undoubtedly qualified for, American Red Cross Northeast Division Vice President Mathieu Nelessen said, according to the press release.
“I’m thrilled to pass the torch to Ana, who I know to be a talented and thoughtful leader,” Nelessen said. “She was the unanimous choice of the team. I am confident that her skills and experience will enable her to build upon the region’s existing strengths and lead the Red Cross to provide even better service to communities in New Jersey.”
Montero has more than 20 years of public service and leadership experience, which includes her previous role as chief operating officer of the American Red Cross’s Los Angeles region — the second largest Red Cross region in the country, according to the press release.
“We’re pleased that Ana has returned to New Jersey to fill this chief leadership position,” Nelessen said. “Ana brings a great mix of leadership, inspiration, operational experience and a passion for service. Her experience creating community partnerships, combined with the support of a strong team of committed volunteers and employees, will undoubtedly help us build more resilient communities throughout New Jersey.”
(05/04/16 6:28pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
Each semester, students are asked to fill out an Online Student Feedback on Teaching evaluation for every course they take. This semester is no different, as some of the undergraduate students at the College can complete them at anytime from Monday, April 25, to Friday, May 6, in PAWS, according to the Office of Records and Registration’s Website.
However, there is a miscommunication between the professors and students, with the latter generally believing their responses have no impact on their professors’ careers.
“Some people think that they don’t (affect the professors) because I feel like most people don’t really want to (fill them out) and just think it’s a waste of time,” junior psychology major Christine Dunne said.
Sociology professor Diane Bates said that the evaluations have more of an effect on untenured professors. Department chairs review and renew adjunct professors’ contracts every semester, which includes looking at their student evaluations, according to Bates.
“(This is) so that if they see something, they can act very quickly,” Bates said.
Likewise, pre-tenured faculty are under annual scrutiny from their department chair, whereas tenured professors are reviewed every five years, Bates said.
The student evaluations are also a crucial part of the promotion process for pre-tenure professors, College Promotions Committee (CPC) Chair and the Library’s Head of Cataloguing Cathy Weng said.
For promotions, first the Department Promotion and Reappointment Committee looks at the professor’s application, then the dean of their school, CPC, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jacqueline Taylor and then College President R. Barbara Gitenstein — in that order, according to Weng.
According to Academic Affair’s Website, the CPC — made up of 12 faculty members and librarians from a variety of disciplines — evaluates each applicant on the criteria and standards detailed in the Board of Trustees-approved Promotion and Reappointment document.
This document details the three primary criteria: teaching, scholarship and service, with teaching being the most important, Weng said.
In order to evaluate teaching effectiveness, every evaluating entity, including the CPC, looks at the applicant’s student evaluations and course syllabi from three to five years prior to submitting the application, colleagues’ peer reviews of their teaching and course materials that are deemed relevant by the candidate, according to the document.
Since every type of faculty is affected by the student evaluations, Bates questions the representativeness and accuracy of the evaluations’ results. She pointed out that certain courses and instructors always receive lower ratings in evaluations.
“It’s not just at TCNJ, it’s a national issue,” Bates said. “I have concerns that student evaluations are not a good measure of the quality of education or the quality of instruction, frankly. Because we know that certain patterns exist and some of them are that some types of instructors get lower student evaluations than others.”
According to Bates, liberal learning courses get lower ratings than upper-level seminars within the student’s major. In addition, writing-intensive courses, as well as “threshold classes that are designed to sort of weed out students” in each major, get lower ratings, too, Bates said.
“It makes sense. If people are taking an elective in their major, they’re happier — they’re likely to give higher student evaluations,” Bates said. “Whether or not those evaluations capture who is a good instructor and who is not a good instructor, I have some concerns about that because none of that is ever taken into consideration.”
Bates expressed concern about the way the College interprets the student evaluation data.
“The promotions process here at TCNJ really just wants to look at the numbers,” she said. “‘Well, what was your average? What was your mean score?’ And while those I think are reasonable to include (in the process), I just have some serious hesitation about using that as a very powerful measure of the quality of instruction.”
As a sociologist, Bates is worried about how representative the surveys are since they switched to online from print. As a result, the survey responses are voluntary, which generally garners the most positive and negative responses.
“(The results) will look more like (ratemyprofessor.com) than a legitimate sample of students,” Bates said.
For Dunne, who gives mostly positive evaluations, she thinks the evaluations are a useful tool for both the students and the faculty.
“I feel like it’s good that the College (has evaluations),” Dunne said. “I think it’s better than not doing it because it’s just a way for students to express their opinions about a course and I think that is super important because nobody knows the course better than the students that are in it.”
However, fewer students have been participating since the format changed. According to Taylor, when the evaluations officially went online during the Fall 2014 semester, they had a 65 percent participation rate, which includes both undergraduate and graduate students. The participation rates then fell to 52 percent in Spring 2015 and then 49 percent in Fall 2015, Taylor said.
“We really need to get the word out to students,” Taylor said. “That’s the best way to counter the skepticism that students have in whether the (evaluations) matter.”
Although student evaluations are an important part of the application review process, their unreliability is the reason why other criteria are examined during performance reviews as well as promotion applications.
“It’s possible to see some negative evaluations from students, but we also look at peer evaluations because we cannot all rely on students’ evaluations,” Weng said. “We also look up the percentage of students filling out (the evaluations). For example, if there are 20 or 15 students in one class and only three… submitted their evaluations, then this could skew the final (results of the) evaluations.”
As a personal solution to this problem, women’s and gender studies Professor Janet Gray gives all of her students her own questionnaire.
“In doing my own evaluations, which are really sort of more focused on ‘What have you put into the course? What are you going to take away? What are your favorite bits? Most memorable bits?’ That’s far more meaningful to me than the standardized evaluations,” Gray said.
Bates agrees that Gray’s own questionnaire is the best option for teachers looking to improve.
“Students actually typically provide more useful feedback in that context than in anonymous student evaluations, which tend to both bring out both efficiency in answers — so people just quickly fill it out,” Bates said. “Especially now with the electronic, voluntary process, it’s going to bring out the very angry and the very satisfied students and probably miss a lot of the average students.”
In order to combat these bias results and impact each professor’s ability to become better, every student should fill out the student evaluations each semester, according to Weng.
“I believe professors here want students’ feedback to improve their own teaching, not only to get tenured or get a promotion — (that’s) not their primary purpose,” Weng said. “We care about teaching and we care about the success of our students.”
(05/04/16 4:38pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
What do your honor society and club memberships, 3.5 or above GPA and internships all have in common? They are not good enough — or at least that is what you tell yourself. As I end my third year at the College, I have become increasingly aware of the defeatist attitude that plagues many of the students here. We tell ourselves that a “B+” in a class is not going to cut it and that it will ruin any chance of landing a spot on the Dean’s List. You can feel the judgement radiating from your peers — which you internalize — as you get back a test with anything less than an “A.”
However, the attitude that we as individuals, and as a campus, perpetuate is absurd and needs to be put in perspective. While good grades are important, they are not everything. They are not worth harming your mental or physical health, social life or happiness. This mindset extends past just grades and drives us to be a part of as many clubs as possible, as well as leading as many of them as possible. Although being a part of extracurricular activities is good for your résumé, it can cause you to spread yourself too thin. Join clubs, but only those that will aid in your personal growth through things like friendship, skill building or networking. Clubs are meaningless unless you grow from being a part of them.
Beyond grades and clubs, we push ourselves to participate in as many research projects, internships and competitions as possible because we do not feel that just one opportunity is enough. As invaluable as these experiences are, there is a certain point when you can turn down an out-of-classroom experience or stop actively seeking one out. There is more to life than earning an award or having the most experience with something. While these things are good, they do not define your current or future success.
If you have given your time at the College your all through classes, internship experiences, clubs, jobs, etc., then it is perfectly acceptable to take a lighter course load one semester or drop all of your responsibilities for a summer. Whether you are heading into next semester or the real world, be sure not to get down on yourself about not being the best in your major or graduating class. While I commend the vast majority of the students at the College for caring about their careers above everything else, it would be even more impressive if we all could learn how to maintain a healthy balance between work and our personal lives.
(04/26/16 4:18pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
On the gray, rainy morning of Saturday, April 23, TCNJ Society for Treatments and Awareness of Neuromuscular Disease (STAND) enlightened the College about Parkinson’s disease.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., three people participated in STAND’s Walk for Parkinson’s Disease by walking around the Metzger Drive Loop to raise money and awareness for the National Parkinson Foundation, according to STAND President and senior communication studies major Bryan Steward.
“I (hoped) people (would) attend just to show that people really care about things like Parkinson’s disease and show that people are willing to go out… to a fun event to raise awareness,” Steward said. “It’s a laid back event. They can come, they can donate as much they want per mile. They can walk, they can run. It’s just an event to have fun and show support.”
In total, the participants raised $14.
According to Steward, STAND was started in Spring 2014 by alumnus Mark Eisenberg (’15), who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Steward said that Eisenberg started it to not only raise awareness for muscular dystrophy, but also other neuromuscular diseases, such as Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
STAND held this event to continue to support Eisenberg’s original intentions when he started the club.
“There’s a lot of research going on now and it’s an important time to raise money and raise awareness,” Steward said.
(04/26/16 8:51am)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
• Campus Police responded to a report of underage drinking in Lot 14 at 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 16. Upon arrival, police met with a security officer who stated that he saw two females walking on the driveway to the rear of Decker Hall and that one of them appeared to be intoxicated and could barely walk, police said. Upon approaching the females, one of them did appear to be visibly intoxicated, have a speech impairment and smell of alcohol. She admitted to drinking a half of a fifth of vodka. The other female did not appear to be intoxicated, but admitted to consuming four alcoholic beverages a couple of hours prior, according to police reports. The less intoxicated female said the pair was heading back to Cromwell Hall after attending a formal dance. She said they started drinking at a party thrown by Theta Phi Alpha, according to police. TCNJ EMS assessed both of them and determined that the less intoxicated female did not need further medical attention. The visibly intoxicated female needed to be transported to a hospital by Ewing EMS for further medical treatment, according to Campus Police. Both females were issued underage drinking summonses, police said.
• Campus Police responded to a report of possible criminal mischief at the rear of Decker Hall at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 17. Upon arrival, police met with a TCNJ EMS member and a resident who said she was in her room when she heard a noise outside her window. The witness said she looked outside her window and observed two males throwing what appeared to be rocks at a TCNJ EMS vehicle and Decker Hall, according to police reports. She stated that she observed one of the males enter the vehicle, remove a wheel lock and throw the wheel lock from the TCNJ EMS vehicle onto the ground. According to police, she said she saw the two males get into a navy blue sedan and drive away. The witness was unable to see the license plate on the sedan, police said. The witness, along with Campus Police and the TCNJ EMS member, did not observe any damage to the TCNJ EMS vehicle, Decker Hall or the wheel lock, according to police. Both the TCNJ EMS member and witness were advised to contact Campus Police if they acquire any more information on the issue, police said. At approximately 2 a.m., a second witness called Campus Police in reference to criminal mischief in the rear of Decker Hall. According to police, he said that at approximately 1:30 a.m., he saw a sedan at the scene of the crime. He could not recollect the color of the sedan, but observed the first three digits of the license plate to be “K12.” Around 2:20 a.m., police called the second witness to obtain more information, which is when he told Campus Police that he did not see what the individuals were wearing, but did witness a driver in the vehicle and an individual getting into the back seat of the driver’s side of the car, according to police reports. The witness said he was unable to see if there were other occupants in the car.
• At 6:25 a.m. on Monday, April 18, Campus Police were dispatched to the College’s parking lot on Carlton Avenue meant for construction workers. Upon arrival, police met with a contractor who said that between 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15, and 6:25 a.m. on Monday, April 18, both the bodies and mirrors of the driver side and passenger side mirrors were broken on a white Ford ES350 van, according to police reports. Campus Police said that the rear window on the driver’s side was completely broken out and a concrete block was laying on the back seat next to the window. The contractor said that there was nothing missing from the vehicle since it is only used to transport company workers to and from the construction site and the parking lot. He said he notified his supervisor of the damage to the vehicle, according to police.
Anyone with information can contact Campus Police at 609-771-2345.
(04/19/16 4:03pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
On an exceptionally warm day in mid-March, friends approached TCNJ Environmental Club President Eric Mauro and asked him, “Hey, global warming — how do you feel about it?”
As much as Mauro wanted to respond in an equally blasé attitude, his concern for the erratic weather and, subsequently, the environment, hindered him.
“This is just crazy weather,” said Mauro, a senior electrical engineering major. “It’s only going to get worse.”
The likely culprits to charge with these drastic weather changes are global warming and climate change.
Global warming results from the greenhouse effect, in which certain atmospheric gases trap in heat, according to NASA’s Global Climate Change Website. Among these gases is carbon dioxide, which is emitted into the atmosphere during the process of burning fossil fuels, among other means of emission.
With a planet-wide problem like global warming, a college of only 289 acres, according to U.S. News, is a small yet vital cog in the Mother Earth machine.
Like any other large institution, the College emits carbon into the atmosphere, and around 60 percent of it comes from the campus’ electricity, such as heating and air conditioning, according to Political Science Department Chair and Associate Professor Brian Potter. Established when College President R. Barbara Gitenstein signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007, which promised to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the Presidents’ Climate Commitment Committee (PC3) is made up of students, faculty and staff from the College, including Potter.
PC3 is tasked with finding innovative initiatives to help reduce the College’s carbon emissions.
“Carbon neutrality is an aspiration,” Potter said. “It’s where an organization or an individual has no net carbon emissions. If you are emitting carbon, you should minimize that and offset that by, say, having a large forested area of trees actually trap carbon and sequester it back into the ground. What the committee has been doing is finding ways where carbon reduction actually goes hand in hand with cost savings. A good example of that would be making the buildings more energy efficient.”
The College has made an effort for new construction to be energy efficient. Director of Energy and Central Utilities Lori Winyard said that the newest buildings to be constructed, such as the Art and Interactive Multimedia, Education and STEM buildings, have a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver status — the third highest-ranking status in efficiency, according to usgbc.org.
While these newer buildings may be energy efficient, the constant construction on campus emits carbon. However, the College plants trees and has other initiatives to try to offset those emissions and make up for the deforestation, according to Director of Buildings and Grounds Ed Gruber.
“With a large amount of construction, a lot of trees are coming down,” Gruber said. “We’re working to replace trees and replace them with even more trees than were there initially… I love trees. I’m an arborist by trade.”
The College plants different types of trees, particularly native species that can endure the area’s climate, according to Gruber. He said that for every tree taken down on campus, he aims to plant a couple in its place.
In addition to planting trees, the College also has a “Knowledge is Power” Initiative that cuts down on expenditures and emissions by preventing unnecessary heat, air conditioning and light use throughout campus, according to an email sent to students, faculty and staff on Monday, March 28, by Associate Vice President for Facilities and Administrative Services Kathy Leverton.
Since the initiative’s inception in December 2005, the College has decreased its light use from 10,571,703 kilowatt-hours to 7,125,159 kilowatt-hours, despite adding a few buildings and parking garages along the way, Winyard said. The initiative saves the College and its students $1.3 million annually, she said.
Despite the effort to save power, anyone strolling through the campus at night would look at the academic buildings and assume professors are burning the midnight oil — and the College’s electric bill.
“You walk around campus on a Friday night when you know no one is in their offices, but all of the offices are lit up. It’s waste,” Potter said. “We don’t have — and other campuses do have — a security team that comes by and locks doors and turn off lights. We don’t have that, but it’s also just individuals not doing that little part. We have a lot of programs and initiatives that we can do, but really a lot of them need consciousness and actions by every member of the campus community to save energy and to be more efficient.”
Winyard agrees and believes drastic change really comes down to every member of the College being conscientious.
“If you go past a room where someone didn’t turn off the light, pitch in (and turn it off),” Winyard said.
Although everyone can try to pitch in, the wasting of power, whether it be lights or heat, may not always be an individual’s fault, according to Mauro.
“I remember… when I lived on campus, I had my windows open year round because the heat was always at like 90 degrees and (the College) wastes a lot of energy,” Mauro said. “I think part of it is people don’t know that they can just call maintenance, and if it is a problem, they can get it fixed.”
He also mentioned how certain lights in dorms are out of students’ control, such as the lights always on in the hallways of places like Wolfe, Travers and Decker halls.
Although it is not as significant as power use, 20 percent of the College’s carbon emissions comes from transportation to and from campus, according to Potter.
To combat this, Potter recommends TCNJ Rideshare App. The app is meant to help students, faculty and staff at the College carpool.
“On this app, when I enter in my car on my profile… the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has a measure of how much that car produces in carbon emissions per mile,” Potter said. “So if you and I share a ride in my car, you can measure how much your car produces per mile and… then we can figure out how much carbon is not emitted because we’re teaming up in one car instead of two.”
Potter equates it to Uber, except rides through this app are free. Though it emulates Uber, it is still trying to find success on campus and needs a minimal threshold of a few hundred users to become a viable solution to cutting carbon emissions, according to Potter. In the past, other car services have tried, but have found little success at the College. The College hopes to have better success with this program, as well as the one through Enterprise.
“Right now, we have the Enterprise car rental, which I think will only have students use it,” Potter said. “I think it’s underused, so Enterprise might pull it simply because it’s not profitable for them.”
If the current car initiatives are not effective, there may be a push for biking, according to Michael Nordquist, a political science adjunct professor and interim executive director for the Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research.
“We’re trying to encourage biking as much as possible,” Nordquist said. “It’s something like 50 percent of students live within two miles, but 70 or 80 percent of them drive by themselves, so there’s a real market there for people to be able to bike to campus.
“But we don’t necessarily have the infrastructure for biking on campus…, enough bike racks, weather-protected storage or bike paths on campus. So there’s a couple of places that there’s a real opportunity for growth,” he said.
In addition to insufficient bike infrastructure, Nordquist believes recycling at the College is not something that is running as smoothly as it should.
“We recycle on campus, but obviously there’s lots of criticism of that and what that looks like and what people think actually gets recycled and what doesn’t,” Nordquist said. “I see both sides of that in that we don’t have the most straight-forward recycling rules on campus. If you contaminate anything — if there’s non-recyclable goods mixed in with recyclable stuff — the entire thing goes out because it’s not going to be sorted (at the College), so it’s tough on that front.”
The College has a single-stream recycling program in which different materials can be recycled together and sorted later when they arrive at the facility, since the College does not have the staff to sort, according to Director of Risk Management, Occupational Safety and Environmental Services Brian Webb.
However, there is some campus-wide confusion on what can actually be recycled.
For instance, an annoyed Mauro said he watches his fellow students or the College’s staff and faculty as they try to recycle contaminated pizza boxes in recycling bins or wax-covered coffee cups in the Library Café.
“I don’t think recycling is that big of an issue when you look at the overall picture of environmental issues,” Mauro said. “But on campus, it just seems a little negligent… It’s a gateway to bigger issues.”
When it comes to the mountain of paper coffee cups piled up in the Library Café recycling bins, Sodexo has made an effort to reduce this waste by giving those with carte blanche meal plans a free, reusable coffee cup, according to Dining Services Registered Dietician Aliz Holzmann.
As of right now, the improper recycling on campus is not crucial — just another pet peeve for environmental enthusiasts. The College has not yet been notified of too much contamination in the recycling, which would be a violation in its contract with the recycling facility. Because the College has never breached this, the school has never found out what percentage of trash is tolerated or beyond the acceptable limit, according to Gruber.
Although it may not be a problem yet, the College still takes the recycling seriously.
Environmental Programs Specialist Amanda Radosti acts as the College’s recycling coordinator by educating students, faculty and staff about properly recycling by ensuring that recycling brochures, pamphlets and fliers are available at staff orientations or when freshmen move into their dorm rooms.
She has also helped put together the single-stream recycling sticker found on recycling bins. The sticker shows a water bottle, cardboard box, newspaper and soda can going into a recycling bin — a simple indication of the materials that can be recycled, according to Radosti.
However, some students believe the sticker does not accurately fulfill its purpose.
“Personally, when I look at it, and I would expect when most people look at it, they’re just like, ‘Oh, it’s just a picture of what recycling is. It’s not telling us what we can recycle because it’s just a picture,’” senior elementary education and Spanish double major Lea Fulscado said. “If it said, ‘Recycle these things here,’ it would make a difference to me. But… it just looks like a cute graphic rather than instructions.”
Fulscado said that although the College does not effectively communicate its recycling policies to the students, the students should also already know how to recycle.
What may be lacking from the student body is proper education. Luckily, the College has recently come up with some solutions for those seeking answers — one of them being the environmental studies minor, coordinated by sociology Professor Diane Bates, and the environmental sustainability education minor, coordinated by elementary and early childhood education Assistant Professor Lauren Madden.
Both minors are new with only a handful of students currently pursuing each. According to Madden, she and Bates worked together to develop their respective minors.
The environmental studies minor incorporates a mixture of hard science and social science courses since the key to helping the environment is a combination of understanding the science behind it and acting accordingly, Bates said.
“Scientists know the threat behind (climate change) and question why we don’t respond to science,” Bates said. “The answer is that it’s a social issue. We’re set on our own cultural norms… and we push (the responsibility) onto someone else.”
The environmental sustainability education minor is primarily geared toward education majors, but is open to anyone interested in incorporating teaching others how to be environmentally friendly into their profession, Madden said.
“The goal is to help grow green children,” Madden said. “Adults are responsible for every single problem in the world.”
With all of these ways to help the environment at the College, it is safe to say that the College recognizes the side effects of global warming and climate change that are evident through the recent changes in the weather.
Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, according to NASA’s Global Climate Change Website.
“The idea that we are having 70 degree weather consistently (the week of Monday, March 7,) is really going to screw up broader weather patterns, agriculture, water supply, essentially everything we rely on to live. Yes, it concerns me,” Nordquist said. “It concerns me that we had one significant snowstorm this past winter and it was a blizzard and then it was 50 degrees two days later (and) most of the snow was gone. It concerns me that it was just released the other day that it was the warmest winter on record ever in North America.”
Mauro agrees and thinks that the people who are still in denial about climate change and global warming, and their effects, need to wake up.
“I don’t think we’re all going to go up in flames within the next year or two, but it’s definitely something we need to be concerned about,” Mauro said. “It might not affect us too much, but other countries, like (those in the) Pacific Islands, you can see the changes there.
“There’s facts, there’s science backing it. There’s plenty of documentaries actually showing physical changes,” he continued. “I don’t think that it’s as much of a problem in a college campus, but if people are still denying climate change — I can see them denying the (human) impacts — but if they are still denying that it exists, it’s kind of a problem.”
(04/19/16 3:50pm)
Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
• Campus Police were dispatched to Townhouses East at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 1. Upon arrival, police met with a Pro Staff member who told the cops that, while doing a welfare check on a resident, she smelled marijuana in the hallway and the second floor of the building. She told the officers from which room she smelled the marijuana coming and proceeded to knock on the door. Upon opening the door, both the Pro Staff member and Campus Police asked the resident if he was smoking marijuana and if there was any more of it in his room. He responded, “Yes,” to all questions, according to police reports. The accused opened the top drawer of his dresser and pulled out a blue and black glass pipe with burnt residue and a plastic sandwich bag containing a green, leafy substance, according to police. Campus Police searched, handcuffed and transported him to TCNJ Police Headquarters. The accused was issued summonses for possession of controlled dangerous substances and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Campus Police met in the TCNJ EMS assessment area in the Recreation Center at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, during the College Union Board’s Spring Concert. Strike Force Security Officers escorted an individual into the assessment area to be medically evaluated for suspicion of intoxication, police said. According to Campus Police, the individual’s breath smelled of alcohol and she admitted to consuming six shots of vodka. After slurring her speech when answering TCNJ EMS’s questions, TCNJ EMS determined that she required medical transport by Ewing EMS for further care. She was issued an underage drinking summons, police said.
• Campus Police were dispatched to the front of Decker Hall around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 6, in reference to a report of criminal mischief. Sometime between 1 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., an unknown person broke the driver’s side window of a TCNJ EMS response vehicle, according to police. Members of TCNJ EMS and police observed a large crack at the top of the window. Campus Police advised TCNJ EMS to contact them if there is anything further to report.
• Campus Police were dispatched to Travers Hall at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 10, for a report of an unresponsive, intoxicated male. Upon arriving to the room, police met with a Community Adviser (CA), who said that the two residents of the room told him that they woke up to find a floor resident sleeping in their room. The residents told the CA that they were not able to wake him after several attempts. According to police, the intoxicated male woke up as soon as the police announced their presence. Campus Police asked him if he knew where he was and he responded, “I’m in my room.” The student admitted to having “a couple of red Solo cups of beer” and apologized for wandering and falling asleep in the wrong room, according to police reports. TCNJ EMS arrived and evaluated him but did not deem it necessary to transport him. Police said he refused additional medical attention and was allowed to go back to his own room after being issued an underage drinking summons.
Anyone with information can contact Campus Police at 609-771-2345.
(04/05/16 4:17pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
• An employee reported a theft from Kendall Hall to Campus Police at approximately 10:25 a.m. on Tuesday, March 22. Upon arrival, an officer met with the caller and was brought to the Main Stage’s control board, where an unknown person removed an Apple Mac mini, monitor, keyboard and a NETGEAR Wi-Fi router, according to police. The caller said he last saw the items on Wednesday, March 16, at 2 p.m. and he had not been in the building again until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 22, when he noticed the equipment missing. The Mac mini and its components are valued at $1,000 and the router is valued at $200, police said.
• A victim of theft went to TCNJ Police Headquarters on Friday, March 25, to report a stolen bike. He said he secured his green Road Warrior six-speed mountain bicycle on a bike rack in front of Cromwell Hall at approximately 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, according to Campus Police. Upon returning to the bike rack around 1:50 p.m. on Friday, March 25, an unknown person had removed his bike, but left the lock on the rack, according to police reports. The victim told Campus Police that no one else knows the combination to his bike lock and no other bikes appeared to be missing. The bicycle is valued at $100, according to police reports.
Anyone with information can contact Campus Police at 609-771-2345.
(03/22/16 8:16pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
• On Friday, March 4, at approximately 1:40 p.m., Campus Police met with a student who reported a stolen cell phone, according to reports. The victim said that at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, he last had his phone when walking past the outdoor tennis courts before returning to his room in Travers Hall to retrieve his student ID. Around 7:35 p.m. he realized his phone was missing and searched his room as well as around the tennis courts but found nothing. According to Campus Police, he tried to call the phone several times, but no one answered. The cellphone is a white Samsung Galaxy S5, valued at $600, with a black Kate Spade phone case, valued at $15, according to police reports.
• Campus Police were dispatched to Travers Hall on Saturday, March 5, at 12:40 a.m. after receiving multiple calls where they could only hear screaming on the other line, according to police reports. After tracing the calls back to Travers Hall, Campus Police tried several times to reach the student and were unsuccessful, the report said. Police said they went to Travers Hall and met with a Community Advisor (CA) who knocked on the student’s door with no response. Campus Police tried knocking on the door, received no response and then opened the unlocked door to check on the welfare of the student. Upon entering, the police saw beer cans scattered throughout the room with no residents present. At 12:54 a.m., the student exited the elevator while the police spoke to the CA in the floor’s lobby. The CA identified the student and the officers asked the student about his welfare and if he knew about calling them several times. Campus Police said he smelled of alcohol and admitted to drinking eight or nine Keystone Light beers at an off-campus house. The student was issued an underage drinking summons, according to police reports.
• A CA in Travers Hall called Campus Police on Monday, March 7, at 10:35 p.m. to report the smell of an odor of what was believed to be marijuana emanating from a dorm room, police said. Upon arrival, Campus Police met with the CA and requested that she wait in the lobby while they speak to the resident. Police knocked on the resident’s door and announced their presence. After asking the resident who else was in the room, the police were introduced to the resident’s friend. Both of them said they had not been smoking marijuana, according to police. From the doorway, Campus Police said they did not smell any marijuana or observe any smoke, controlled dangerous substances or drug paraphernalia in plain view.
Anyone with information can contact Campus Police at 609-771-2345.
(03/08/16 5:21pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
The world is not funny. “Can I get a little more pink light?” The world is not funny. “Every building here is made of brick. Why?” The world is not funny. “The cop has retreated to the grassy knoll of the building, which is really unsettling.”
Before Bo Burnham entered the stage, the crowd in Kendall Hall anxiously awaited his theatrical musical comedy, but the audience was instead met with an empty stage, choir music and a Siri-esque voice that warned, “You are here because you want to laugh and you want to forget about your problems, but I cannot allow it. You should not laugh. You should not forget about your problems. The world is not funny.”
The audience thought otherwise.
Following comedian and “Daily Show” writer Matt Koff, Burnham headlined the College Union Board’s Spring Comedy Show on Tuesday, March 1. As Burnham performed bits from his most recent “Make Happy” tour, the audience was smiling, laughing and cheering. They were happy.
Burnham entered the stage to animated applause, while sporting an over-priced sweatshirt from the College, and immediately broke into his first song with “feminine Eminem”-like swagger. After pumping up the audience, the heavy beat changed to a softer, sadder tune as Burnham became introspective — juxtaposing ironic jokes with self-aware observations is an essential part of his comedic style.
During the song, Burnham pointed out the stage’s noticeably-pink lights, as lighting plays a significant part in his shows.
“Look at all these pink lights. Who has pink lights? I have pink lights. It will remain that way,” Burnham said. Despite the technical setback, Burnham was just happy to be playing at TCNJ rather than contracting it.
“I like my colleges to sound like a sexually transmitted disease,” Burnham said. “It’s good. ‘Mom, I got into TCNJ.’ ‘What? Edward, she got TCNJ. How?’ You know how dads are Edward.”
After some jabs at the audience in an attempt to give them their $5 worth of comedy, everything but the pink lights dimmed as Burnham sat down at his keyboard to reveal “some of the problems in my life.”
“God only knows why he cursed me to be a straight, white male,” Burnham sang, interjecting midway, “This song is ironic. I don’t mean any of this, I mean the opposite of this. Are we all clear?”
In an interview with The Signal, Burnham said he could understand why the audience might not be aware that his material is satirical.
“The fact that the young people might be coming into their morals and be a little irony-deaf in exchange of not being bigoted is fine,” Burnham said. “The idea that like ‘Oh, my God, kids aren’t so psyched for my subtle racial humor.’ They should understand that I’m actually making fun of the privilege.”
Not long after some jabs at the College’s architectural style reminiscent of the colonial era — a time heavy with privilege and bricks — a computerized, high-pitched voice asked Burnham to sing a song that calls him a faggot.
Burnham told The Signal that he understands why bits like this can easily offend people.
“If someone were like ‘I don’t like hearing that word. I just don’t like hearing it,’ I’d be like ‘That’s completely fair.’ I can defend it in terms of, like, what it does in the show and what it is for me, but if someone’s offended, then that’s completely fine,” Burnham said. “I mean, that’s what you’re doing. You’re asking for people’s judgement and you’re asking for their approval, so you might not get it.”
Audience members, who spent their Super Tuesday at the show, fell silent at Burnham’s mention of Donald Trump.
“Nothing makes a room quieter than mentioning Trump to a bunch of college-age kids,” Burnham said. “I can feel the tension. Welcome to the next four years.”
Burnham told The Signal that Trump is spearheading the anti-politically correct movement, and even though they might not support the candidate, other comedians think that having to be inoffensive is damaging to their profession.
“I think political correctness is a slight over-correction to a problem that needs to be corrected. It’s a little bit clunky… but it’s young people caring about things, so I don’t really care and I’m a tough guy — supposed to be — other comedians complain about it,” he said. “I just think that if comedians spent half the time working on their shows as they did talking about comedy or talking about the problems of comedy, comedy would be a lot better.”
Burnham interrupted his show by coming down into the audience to “get to know the kids of New Jersey.” After calling out a few students about their majors, he targeted the police officer in the room.
“I know what you do. Justice for the people, baby. Hand on the belt. I am terrified,” Burnham said. “He’s just maintaining eye contact with me. Comedians’ lives matter, all right?”
After praying for Campus Police’s patience, Burnham invited the audience to sing along to his older song, “From God’s Perspective.”
Burnham showed a more down-to-earth side of himself as he uncovered the point of the show: performing on stage and in life. The comedian told The Signal that performing, and the attention he receives as a result, is the only thing he feels qualified to speak about and wants to alert people to how strange the process really is through his show.
“I wanted to wake people up to what was happening, which is like, there’s a 1,000 of you here,” Burnham said. “I’m up here and I’m trying to be relatable and you guys all like me and I’m the cool guy, but this is so weird. This is truly, truly weird.”
To make it weirder, Burnham ended the show by breaking into an auto-tuned tale of his struggles with performing and happiness, inspired by a rant done by Kanye West during his “Yeezus” tour.
Though the song appeared personal, Burnham said in an interview with The Signal that it’s not telling of the person he is off stage.
“Me on stage is still a character. It still kind of is. It is me as a performer. So for me as a performer, them liking me or not is life and death,” he said. “The good thing is truly in my real life, I have strong personal relationships and stuff that fulfill me to the point where I don’t totally 100 percent need this.”
Burnham’s serious side seems to be an honest glimpse into the person behind the persona, but it’s just an exaggeration with a hint of truth.
“It’s funny that I do something crazy and funny and people are like, ‘Ah ha ha, he’s kidding,’ and then I do something a little dark or whatever and everyone is like, ‘This is him. This is absolutely him.’ Both are exaggerations of something, but yeah, I mean I’ve never been great with performing… It’s very strange to me. I feel like I signed up for a life that I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen if I had started now.”
Thanks to LTV for filming the interviews.
(02/23/16 10:01pm)
By Chelsea LoCascio
News Editor
Over the course of 14 years, Matthew Bender scoured sources in archives across Tanzania, France, Britain and America to piece together an intricate story. He lived in Tanzania for a year and visited four summers thereafter to roam the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, seeking the natives’ wisdom. He dedicated nine and a half of those years to transform his research into a comprehensive manuscript on the source of life: water.
From his childhood on a farm in Indiana to his adulthood spent in classrooms of higher learning, Bender’s interest in agriculture shifted to water, specifically how particular populations perceive this vital resource.
Now an associate professor of history at the College, Bender has dedicated most of his adult life to researching the past 150 years of an indigenous Chagga-speaking population that lived on Mount Kilimanjaro for the last 800 to 1,000 years. He also studies how outsiders have influenced the Chagga’s view of water, which comprises his manuscript “Water Brings No Harm: Knowledge, Power and the Struggle for the Waters of Kilimanjaro.” As the third recipient of the College’s Gitenstein-Hart Sabbatical Prize, an endowment set up by College President R. Barbara Gitenstein and her husband Donald Hart, Bender can now ensure the manuscript will come to fruition with this stipend.
“What I’m interested in doing is finding out how the people of the mountain are able to negotiate the ideas that are brought from the outside in order to preserve their control over the resource,” Bender said. “The kind of knowledge that outsiders bring in is not just about control of the resource, but it’s also about the very fundamental nature of it. So who owns it, what its religious significance is (and) what its capacity to bring harm is.”
According to Bender, the outsiders that have tried to shape the locals’ views on water include Swahili, European explorers, the independent Tanzanian state and currently, climate scientists.
“(I) look at how this mountain population tries to make sense of outside ideas, how they incorporate ideas that are useful to them and how they manage to reject ideas that they find to be incompatible with their way of thinking,” Bender said.
The Chagga have been able maintain their own views of water despite these outside influences, he added.
According to Bender, the outsiders that have tried to shape the locals’ views on water include Swahili, European explorers, the independent Tanzanian state and currently, climate scientists.
“What I do is look at how this mountain population tries to make sense of outside ideas, how they incorporate ideas that are useful to them and how they manage to reject ideas that they find to be incompatible with their way of thinking,” Bender said.
The Chagga have been able maintain their own views of water despite these outside influences, he added.
“People on the mountain think of water in a very holistic kind of way that people in western societies often don’t think of anymore,” Bender said. “It used to be that when people thought about indigenous societies, they thought that outsiders had a tremendous amount of power in terms of influencing their ideas and practices, but… people on the mountain show a remarkable ability to control how they conceptualize the resource.”
According to Bender, he has published five scholarly articles and a book chapter about the topic, but this manuscript is a culmination of the whole project. The first half of the manuscript is complete. He intends to use the first part of his 2016-2017 sabbatical to finish writing it and the rest of his time to edit, Bender said.
“The sabbatical prize helps to close the gap between what (you are) ordinarily paid and what you’re paid if you go on sabbatical,” Bender said. “The College’s policy is if you’re going on sabbatical for a year, you’re paid three quarters of your salary. The (prize) money is meant to help make up for the difference, so the people that want to take a year sabbatical can afford to do so.”
Though neither Gitenstein nor Hart decides who wins the awards, they have been satisfied with the past three recipients.
“I’m thrilled with the three choices. They just couldn’t have been better,” Gitenstein said. “The College of New Jersey has a fabulous faculty.”
The first two recipients of the prize were Associate Professor of Physics Nathan McGee and Associate Professor of Mathematics Jana Gevertz.
According to Bender, he is proud to be the first one from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences to win the sabbatical prize. His colleagues are just as pleased.
“Bender richly deserves this award. He represents the history department’s real commitment to combining our teaching and scholarship in meaningful ways,” said Cynthia Paces, history department chair and professor. “I have used some of Bender’s articles in my own courses and have invited him to lecture in my classes. His writing is a model for clear, engaging prose.”
The faculty committee that chooses the Gitenstein-Hart winner looks beyond just the writing, taking into account the faculty member behind the application. According to Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jacqueline Taylor, the committee looks at faculty who are still in the early stages of their career and then ranks the applicants and recommends the best to her. Taylor makes the final decision based on their rank, proposal and adherence to the award criteria.
“I was particularly happy... to see Matt Bender win the award this year. He wrote an outstanding sabbatical proposal,” Taylor said.
Despite his current success here at the College, Bender experienced some hardships along the way, including his field sites being 8,000 miles away and some language barriers. Though he speaks French and Swahili, can carry out simple conversations in Chagga and can read German, Bender struggled with reading through his source material, carrying out interviews and developing relationships with Chagga natives.
Despite the challenges, Bender overcame these obstacles in order to give the natives a voice — his biggest reward.
“I feel that I can do a lot to share their stories and draw attention to the challenges that local communities face regarding access to water. Not just on Kilimanjaro, but more broadly,” Bender said. “(My work) indicates the way that people on Kilimanjaro think about water is very unique to their own historical experiences. We live in a world where water is a scarce resource for billions of people and in order to address problems of water scarcity moving forward… we need to understand how people in local communities think about resources and how they manage them.”