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(09/28/05 12:00pm)
He hobbled across the stage, cane in hand, floppy hat atop his head, gray beard descending from his chin, and found his way through disheveled piles of books spread across a tiny old desk and chair.
"From my point of view, I am in a pretty boggy condition indeed," the man said, noting his abilities to write, read, work, laugh, cry and "be (himself) in most ways" were fortunately still intact.
His ability to look back and tell his story was too. In this way, actor Stephen Collins introduced the College to Walt Whitman Thursday morning in Kendall Hall, portraying the poet reflecting on his life just before his 70th birthday celebration.
His message, given at the end of the performance, called "Unlaunch'd Voices," was clear: "We must work at finding beauty in this life," he said. "We must be grateful. We must love the earth and the air and the animals. Despise riches."
Michael Robertson, professor of English and co-director of the Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" Sesquicentennial Symposium, introduced Collins' performance by asking the audience to time-travel to 1889.
"In that year, there were living only two great poets of the English language," he said, noting that one lived in England, going by the name of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and living in wealth at his London mansion and Surrey country home.
The other, Robertson said, was Whitman, who could be found "living on a poor, working-class street in the grimy industrial city of Camden."
Collins' performance also involved some time traveling, as he removed his jacket, vest and hat, and threw down his cane when portraying Whitman in his younger years. He donned them again toward the end of the performance to revert back to the 70-year-old crippled man.
David Blake, associate professor of English and the other co-director of the symposium, said he particularly enjoyed seeing Collins change between "being the robust young poet of the 1855 Leaves of Grass and the old, enfeebled man looking back upon his career."
Saying things like, "I asked my soul to loaf with me on the grass," Collins recited and paraphrased lines from "Song of Myself," "Children of Adam" and other poems, capturing Whitman's word choice and use of the English language so much that it seemed Whitman really could have said every line, verbatim.
He explained why Whitman began writing poetry - "It occurred to me that America had yet to reach its own voice," he said. "I took to the open air and nature and wrote - wrote, wrote, wrote."
Collins was upfront about the opposition Whitman faced, citing reviews that he rotted "like a pig," was a donkey as well as "a heterogeneous mix of bombast, egotism, vulgarity and none" and wrote "a mass of stupid filth."
He credited Ralph Waldo Emerson as Whitman's inspiration to continue writing, as he alone had written him with praise after the first edition of Leaves of Grass was released. "This letter electrified me," Collins said.
He also confronted those who would have liked to censor Whitman. "In these poems, I wanted to celebrate the human body," he said, referring to Whitman's "Children of Adam." To this, Collins spoke out against censorship, saying, "evil is always evil."
Collins even faced claims that Whitman was egotistical. "I do not understand how anything can be more wonderful than myself," he said, before asking, "Do I use 'I' too often?" The audience laughed in response.
"I, I, I" he retorted. "This isn't egotism purely. I was content for a while to dismiss everything and to dote on myself," he admitted, noting that the Civil War changed all of that with his efforts to help sick and wounded victims.
"I thought (the performance) was tremendous," Bob Anderson, director of Liberal Learning, said. "I think his telling us to re-examine everything we've learned is at the heart of what we're about here."
Lindsay Knight, junior English major, said that though she hadn't read Whitman since high school and knew little about him, seeing Collins' performance made her want to study him more. "He did a great job at making Walt Whitman accessible," she said.
Collins was inspired to do a one-man show of a poet after seeing a one-man show of Henry David Thoreau. "I was very moved and mesmerized," he said.
While working as a massage therapist, he had a client who suggested Whitman for his subject. Collins started reading his poetry and "just kind of fell in love with it," he said. "It was kind of a serendipitous thing."
He collaborated on the project with director Michael Kearny for nine months, and has been performing "Unlaunch'd Voices" since its January 1998 debut.
Though currently working on a one-man show about Robert Frost, he said he still loves playing Whitman and especially enjoyed doing it for the audience in Kendall Hall Thursday morning. "When there's an audience like there was today," he said, "you just feed off that energy."
(09/21/05 12:00pm)
When David Blake, associate professor of English, and Michael Robertson, professor of English, received an e-mail two years ago asking College faculty for ideas regarding how to celebrate the College's 150th birthday, they didn't have to think for very long.
The professors, who have been studying Walt Whitman since graduate school, already realized there were three coincidences that made it seem necessary for the College to host a celebration of Whitman: 2005 would be the 150th anniversary of Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," it was already known as the year the College would celebrate its own sesquicentennial, and Whitman was a New Jersey poet.
"So it seemed naturally appropriate," Blake said. He and Robertson contacted Janis Blayne-Paul, major events director and chief sesquicentennial officer in the office of College and Community Relations, and they immediately received her support, as well as that of Stephen Briggs, chief academic officer/provost, and Eleanor Fogarty, executive assistant to the provost.
College President R. Barbara Gitenstein also gave her nod of approval. "Whitman is one of the most important American poets and his poetry represents a major change in the history of poetry," she said.
"He was, in other words, as challenging, imaginative and American in the world of literature as the Normal School movement was in education," Gitenstein said, explaining that the New Jersey State Normal School, the College's predecessor, was one of the earliest normal schools - or teacher education schools - in the country. It was also the first state institution of higher learning in New Jersey, she said.
"Thus, to celebrate Whitman at (the College) in this particular year is a particularly apt celebration," she said.
And so, Blake and Robertson went to work on putting together the three-day celebration of Whitman that the College will host this weekend.
They hand-selected experts and scholars from across the country to speak about Whitman, arranged for the Fred Hersch Jazz Ensemble to come and play its rendition of "Leaves of Grass" and even coordinated with the art department, whose faculty created works inspired by Whitman, currently on display in Holman Hall.
Accordingly, Gitenstein said she feels "the symposium and all that has led up to that weekend are manifestations of the kind of research, scholarship and learning that is happening on the (College) campus."
For the speakers, Robertson was quick to say that while it was important to include Betsy Erkkila, Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, whom he considers "three of the greatest living Whitman scholars," he and Blake also wanted more than "the usual suspects" at the symposium.
Some of these non-traditional Whitman speakers include Angela Miller, an art historian from Washington University, and University of Maryland's Benjamin Barber, who was an advisor to former president Bill Clinton.
Barber also served as director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University, and held the Walt Whitman chair of political science there as well.
"We also found some young scholars who will be really big in a few years," Blake said. "We wanted to bring them here too - a handful are just tenured or not even."
In addition, Blake and Robertson invited four poets, including Sherman Alexie, and even an actor, Stephen Collins, who will do a one-man show about Whitman as the symposium's first event Thursday morning.
"It will be a wonderful introduction," Robertson said. "You don't have to know anything about Whitman to enjoy it. It shows his human dimension, the fact that he nursed soldiers in the war."
One of their biggest concerns, though, was to ensure that the students of the College could participate in the event, and that it wouldn't be "just a conference."
"We wanted conversation," Blake said. "That's why we're calling it a symposium."
"Academic conferences are often off-campus at a hotel," he said. "And they're usually just with academics talking to one another," Robertson added.
"We wanted it here on campus and we wanted students to participate, so people could come here and see what (the College) is all about," Blake said. "We wanted to bring the most interesting minds in our field here."
With the exception of the Fred Hersch Jazz Ensemble's performance of "Leaves of Grass," for which tickets must be purchased, all symposium events are free and open to College students. Thursday's events will be free and open to the general public, thanks to a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Also, two of the speakers are professors from the College. "It shows the talent that we have," Blake said, noting that they'll be presenting alongside scholars and professors from prestigious schools like Harvard University. "That's the company that the faculty of (the College) is keeping," he said.
Janet Gray, associate professor of women's and gender studies, said she will speak about Edgar Allen Poe's influence on Whitman and how each of them positioned themselves in relation to "a literary marketplace that was very nearly dominated by women writers."
Gray said she looks forward to "a collegial discussion with two eminent scholars" whose work she admires.
"I'm grateful to the symposium organizers for the opportunity to present with them - and also pretty freaked out," she said.
Blake said Gray is "such a natural person to ask about Whitman" because she has written about so many of his contemporaries.
The other faculty member representing the College will be Anita Anantharam, assistant professor of women's and gender studies.
"Her work on Indian verse provides so much perspective on Whitman," Blake said, noting that Whitman's work has many followers in India.
The weekend of panels and performances commemorating Whitman will conclude with a bus trip to his house in Camden.
"It's amazing, most people don't know he lived in New Jersey," Robertson said. "We thought, let's celebrate him as a New Jersey poet."
(09/21/05 12:00pm)
Although she has lived 10 minutes from the Walt Whitman Bridge her entire life, senior English major Nicole Kukawski knew nothing about its namesake before last spring aside from the fact that he was "some poet." Now, she finds it difficult to remember what her life was like before Whitman became so inextricably twisted into it. "I go to parties and I'm called 'the Whitman Girl,'" she said.
Her name has achieved a kind of celebrity status on campus, as well as in the literary community. She was cited in stories by the Associated Press that were distributed across the United States and even in other countries such as Italy and Canada, as well as in New York Newsday and The New York Times.
She spoke at Whitman's Long Island birthplace in June to an audience that included such renowned poets as Diane Wakoski, Alan Planz and former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins. This fall, the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review will publish an article she wrote. And she will be introducing one of the panels at the Walt Whitman Symposium on campus this weekend.
What did Kukawski do to become such a revered source on Whitman, to acquire a nickname like "Whitman Girl"? She read The Signal - the February 1888 issue - and unearthed an interview with the poet that was completely unknown to Whitman scholars. That finding threw her into a whirlwind of Whitman-mania, and she hasn't had a chance to look back.
Though she expresses a passion for learning, Kukawski admits she was not thrilled to take her junior seminar - the course that led to her research and the interview recovery - on Whitman last spring. "It was 9 a.m. on a Wednesday morning for three hours, and I hardly knew anything about Whitman," she said.
However, she said it didn't take her long to "really fall in love with his poetry."
It was soon time to start thinking about a research paper topic for the course, which was taught by David Blake, associate professor of English. She was interested in looking into Whitman and education for her research paper, because she felt he "had a similar mind to those who started (the College), with the ideas of Horace Mann," often called the father of public school education.
To look for similarities between Whitman and the origins of the College, she went to the reference section at Roscoe L. West Library. While there, digging through boxes of books, a stack of old Signal issues bound together caught her eye.
"I pulled them down and went for the oldest one: 1885-1888," she said. "I pulled it off the shelf and the first article was called 'A need for a true American poet,' making the argument that we need to break away from the British style of poetry. I figured, 'there's gotta be something about Whitman in here' since at that time, The Signal was part news, part literary magazine and part alumni magazine."
She began leafing through the faded volumes, so interested in the pages of the College's past that she almost forgot why she was there. "At this point I didn't even care about the paper," she said. "I was just curious - all the old advertisements and seeing what it was like back then."
Five hours later, still sitting in the same seat she sat down in at 9 a.m. that morning, she found out how right her earlier assumption - that there must be something about Whitman in the old Signal issues - really was.
"I triple-taked and kind of did a quiet 'yes,'" she said, recalling that life-changing moment. "I kind of felt like I didn't want to let on that I'd found anything that big. I made copies, and I read it."
Two days later, her class was scheduled to take a train ride down to Camden to visit Whitman's house. On the ride, Blake was holding informal office hours, giving his students the chance to run their research progress by him. Kukawski took the opportunity to tell her professor what she had found and see what he thought, and she knew within an instant.
"His face just dropped and he couldn't stop smiling," she said. "He said, 'OK, we have to talk to Ed Folsom,'" who is responsible for the Walt Whitman archives and would know whether the interview was known or not.
Looking back on the moment, Blake said, "Right away I knew this had potential to be very big."
Folsom had never heard of the interview, and told Blake to contact a friend of his, who was working on Whitman interviews at the University of Nebraska, and was therefore aware of every Whitman interview known to the scholarly world. "He hadn't heard of it either," Blake said.
The Whitman interview expert was able to verify that the interview was valid by looking at the language in it. "Expressions like 'whack away' showed it was real," Kukawski said. "That was one of his favorite terms. You can just tell it's him from language like that."
Blake and Kukawski next met with College President R. Barbara Gitenstein to tell her what Kukawski had found. "She was so excited," Kukawski said. "She was pumped."
Not only did she understand the enormity of what Kukawski had found, but she also was proud of what it reflected about the College. "Ms. Kukawski's work was research that is characteristic of our exciting new curriculum," Gitenstein said.
"The combination of our intellectual work on the campus with the additional energy of the national and international scholars are typical of an exemplary undergraduate institution of higher education."
Gitenstein put Blake and Kukawski in contact with Matt Golden, director of public information, who wrote some press releases about the interview Kukawski found, and it wasn't long before articles were being printed about it in newspapers everywhere.
Blake said the story was so appealing for two reasons: "The first is simply because of the funny lines, with Whitman saying 'don't write poetry.'" he said. "Second, people love the story of a college junior uncovering this in her college newspaper."
But what appealed to Kukawski most was what she learned about the students who studied so many years before her at the College. She did research at several historical libraries to learn all she could about Whitman's interviewers, George Worman and Francis B. Lee.
"One of the most exciting things was what she's been able to discover about (College) students," Blake said. "Our students there in 1888 had the confidence and interest to travel to Camden, which was not easy in those days, and interview him - and call him one of the most sublime creatures to walk the earth."
Worman was "most likely the cause of the interview," Kukawski said, due to the fact that he worked for Camden area newspapers and may have crossed paths with Whitman on other occasions. After attending the Model School, which was an advanced secondary school that was part of the College in the late 1800s, he attended University of Pennsylvania Law School.
In 1890, Kukawski said, Worman worked on the presidential campaign for Benjamin Harris, and he also worked for Thomas Harned, who had been close friends with Whitman.
The article was written by Lee, under the penname Cessator, Kukawski said. She pieced his identity together after looking at the Signal staff box in to find who else had worked alongside Worman and was likely to don such a penname.
Along with Worman's, Lee's name was in the staff box of the very first issue of The Signal in 1885. Kukawski also found references with his name and the title of "the old Roman" of The Signal. Kukawski figured he was a likely candidate.
She decided Lee had to be the writer after discovering a parallel in the meaning of Cessator - one who loiters - and the beginning of Whitman's "Song of Myself," which discusses him loafing around.
After studying at the Model School, Lee studied journalism at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote back to The Signal at times, until Worman died of typhoid fever in 1890. Lee's last submission was Worman's obituary.
He later became a Trenton historian, writing two books about Trenton and even having a street, Lee Avenue, named after him.
(08/31/05 12:00pm)
This fall, new clubs approved by the Student Government Association (SGA) will not be able to simply apply for a budget and receive one from the Student Finance Board (SFB), Julia Pratt, SFB chairperson, said.
The new procedure for new clubs to obtain SFB-approved budgets will involve each new club submitting a request to SFB for a budget and then being assigned an SFB representative. That representative, Pratt said, will go to the organization's meetings to find out more about it, and for what it needs funding.
SFB representatives will report back to the board about the meetings they have attended and make recommendations to fund their organizations or not. If recommended, organizations will receive budgets.
If organizations are not recommended for funding by their SFB representatives, then they will have the opportunity to appeal the decision, explaining to the board why they should be funded and clearing up any confusion. The board members can then decide to fund the organization.
If an organization still does not receive budget approval, it must significantly change the circumstances that made SFB not want to fund it, Pratt said, in order for it to be reconsidered for a budget.
Pratt said the change was made because it is not possible for SFB to keep approving so many new clubs' budgets. "It is difficult to keep giving budgets to new clubs because we're constantly getting more clubs but using the same amount of money," Pratt said. "Then the money that can be given to each club decreases."
This is despite the fact that SFB has approximately $56,000 more to work with this year than it had last year, due to a $10 increase in each student's Student Activity Fee (SAF). This semester, each student paid $66.50 in his or her tuition bill toward this fee.
Because each student must pay this amount, SFB is limiting the new clubs it approves for funding to those that appeal to a wider range of students.
"The nature of some organizations doesn't fit with what SFB funds," Pratt said, explaining that no department- or major-centered organizations will receive budgets. "We want to fund those organizations that offer things for everyone on campus."
Because of this, she said most of the money that SFB appropriates will go toward the College Union Board (CUB), which hosts large-scale entertainment events tailored for all students at the College. "CUB will work with approximately $100,000 this year, so it can get a really big comedian and really great musician," Pratt said.
However, some students feel that not funding organizations specific to departments and majors is unfair.
Aileen McCandless, former president of the International Studies Club, said "having clubs specific to majors helps to appeal to certain groups of students and allows for those students to interact with each other and learn from each other, especially students who are new to the major."
The senior international studies and political science major said she also feels SFB does not provide enough for small organizations, which prevents them from being able to grow. Because new organizations usually start out small, she feels this is another unfair way of limiting new clubs.
"By limiting small clubs' budgets, you are basically saying they are not as important as, say, SGA," McCandless said. "And for those students who are involved in the small clubs, it's frustrating and ultimately causes the demise of that group because there's not much you can do without funding."
This summer, SFB also decided it will not accept any new club sport budgets whatsoever.
"We have six men's teams, six women's teams, and two co-gendered," Pratt said. "That's in line with what the College has in terms of Varsity, and we won't add unless an existing one goes."
In addition, SFB will not approve budgets for organizations similar to already existing ones. "We want organizations that are totally new. No more duplicating," Pratt said.
Other changes SFB will be implementing this fall include a new policy that organizations can only request funding for one conference per academic year.
SFB will be accepting applications for freshmen representatives and senior representative until Sept. 6, and will hold its first meeting to accept requests Sept. 14.
(02/09/05 12:00pm)
On this day in 1855, then-Gov. Rodman Price signed the documents that established the New Jersey State Normal School as the first teacher-training school in New Jersey and the ninth in the nation.
The school has undergone many changes since then - when it was located on Clinton Avenue in Trenton - in terms of its location, buildings, curriculum and student body.
In 1925, the first four-year baccalaureate degree program was established, changing the school from a normal school to a teacher's college.
In 1928, the 210-acre tract of land in Ewing Township where the College is today was purchased as a new site for the school.
Graduate study was instituted at the College in 1947. The Higher Education Act of 1966 enabled the College to expand its degree programs into fields other than education.
In the 1970s the College increased selectivity while reorganizing its academic structure, forming the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and separate divisions of Business, Nursing, Industrial Education and Technology. By 1972, 70 percent of entering freshmen selected non-teaching majors.
By the mid-1980s, construction was completed on a new 250-bed residence hall, new athletic and playing fields and a new swimming pool. To recapture the Georgian Colonial architectural design of the College's buildings in the 1930s, the College refaced the contemporary buildings erected between 1955 and 1975.
When state funding for construction became available in the late 1980s, the Georgian Colonial design was applied to the reconstruction of the performing arts building (Kendall Hall), the new music building, the nursing/reception building and the preparation for the new science building.
The design was replicated in the 220-bed residence/dining hall that would later be named Eickhoff Hall. Decker and Cromwell, residence halls built in 1958 and 1963, were refaced, and townhouses with 500 beds were constructed.
In 1986, after being granted $2.8 million to increase its minority enrollment, strengthen its academic programs and attract potential students who typically leave the area for higher learning, the College revised its curriculum, including unique humanities courses focusing on issues surrounding race, gender, class, ethnicity, morals and ethics.
In 1995, the College adopted a "teaching first" policy central to the College's commitment to a high-quality education.
In 1996, the institution changed its name to The College of New Jersey "in order to better reflect its broadened academic mission and service to the state of New Jersey," according to College and Community Relations.
Throughout the 1990s, the College constructed several state-of-the-art buildings, beginning with a new music building in 1993. Loser Hall became home to the Nursing Department and Admissions in 1997.
The Business Department moved into its new building in 1999 and, in 2000, a new biology building was erected and construction began on a new social sciences complex.
In 2000, the College instituted a new academic structure incorporating several community service initiatives with its educational curriculum. More than 50 liberal arts and professional programs are now offered through the College's seven schools. Today, the College is known for its challenging undergraduate education and rewarding residential experience, small classes and prestigious faculty.
It has received national recognition in Money magazine, U.S. News and World Report, "The Fiske Guide to Colleges," "Barron's Profiles of American Colleges" and "Peterson's Competitive Colleges."
(09/15/04 12:00pm)
When Student Finance Board (SFB) Chairperson Craig Gross decided to completely alter the way SFB allocates Student Activities Fund money to student organizations, cutting each organization's base budget substantially, many of these organizations and their treasurers grew weary.
The changes meant that money typically guaranteed to student organizations no longer existed, and would force them to request funding for most of their programming and extra activities at SFB's weekly meetings.
They also assumed it would be more difficult than ever - amidst the requests of other student organizations - to get their requests granted and access the money that they had usually been handed as part of a lump sum at the beginning of the school year.
Now, however, while many organizations still see drawbacks in the new system, they are beginning to see some advantages in it as well. Could the changes be worth it?
"I guess it's sort of a nuisance to go back each time (to request money), but if the purpose is to save money that's being wasted then I guess it's okay," Susan Becker, junior international studies major and president of the Korean American Student Organization, said.
Gross said the system is aimed at saving money because SFB should no longer discover in its year-end evaluations that thousands of dollars that were appropriated in budgets went unused - as would happen with the old system.
"A lot of organizations were worried they wouldn't get money," Gross said, "but the whole reason (for the new system) is so more money is available from week to week."
Becker noted, though, that this system will only be successful if SFB is ready to accept the programming requests that are made.
Gross said the board should be ready. Although each meeting agenda will likely be longer than in the past, he said the deliberations regarding each request should not take as long, as the board will only question how much money should be allocated for each request - not the validity of each request.
Black Student Union (BSU) President Paul Harris is not so sure of that, though. "The question we have to address is, on what basis will they be making their judgments - that is the key question," he said.
"Are these representatives competent to judge the value of a program from their positions? I would argue on this question that they are not, and no matter how well our organization argues for programming, they need to be within our organization, a member, to understand the value of such a program."
Harris said that in determining the value of a program, SFB seems to focus on getting the most out of every dollar. "Fundraise where you can fundraise, charge students where applicable and most importantly, when working with vendors, always shop around," he said.
Harris said although BSU has always done well with approaching programming in this fashion, it makes him uneasy to see programming judged only along these lines. "That was my fear - that this would turn into a rat race, and then this governing body would resort to using a framework to make decisions that may in the long run be detrimental to campus programming," he said.
Gross, however, insists that during the board meetings the value of programming will not be discussed - only what amount of money should be allocated for it.
"We're not going to be asking 'Do we like this program?'" Gross said. "We'll make sure we get any requests to that point (that validity is already certain and money is all that needs to be settled)."
A lot more work must be done behind the scenes in order for this to occur, though. And while Gross said SFB is "putting in more time and effort and not looking to make the treasurers' lives miserable," he also said there will be a lot more responsibility placed on the treasurers.
"They will really have to be on top of things," Gross said.
Jenn Kaplan, sophomore mathematics and secondary education major and treasurer of P.E.A.N.U.T.S., is beginning to realize this.
"As a treasurer, SFB definitely made things more difficult," she said. "Whenever we plan a trip we now have to start discussing it months in advance so we can go talk to SFB and see if they will fund us where previously it was built in and we already knew that we could afford to denote such and such money to the activity."
Jocelyn Charlon, junior nursing major and president of Union Latina (UL), who was the organization's treasurer last year and part of the preceding year, sees the added responsibility as a benefit, though.
"I think the new system of having to ask for money forces organizations to be more organized and responsible with the money that is allotted to them," she said.
Charlon is also happy with the new system because of its inclusion of the Multicultural Programs Line, whose funds, she said, "go specifically toward the kind of programming that UL often holds.
"For those reasons I like the way SFB is now being run," she said.
UL still faces many economic challenges, though, Charlon said. "Since there are less funds available to us, UL, as well as other organizations, has been forced to look for other avenues in the form of income," she said.
UL has fortunately been successful in finding these sources of income, as it was granted $2,500 from Public Service Electric and Gas Company to go toward its "Explosion Latina" event last year.
"Hopefully we will receive that money again this year," Charlon said.
Kaplan said her organization has also been forced to find more funding for its programming.
"We need to develop numerous fund-raiser ideas in order to reduce prices for everyone to be able to afford a trip," she said.
Charlon found a benefit that can result from different organizations having economic problems, though - in the form of co-sponsorship. "(It) can be a very positive thing," she said. "It creates more unity within the campus community and more networking opportunities."
(03/31/04 12:00pm)
In college, top stresses for most students should include getting work done for classes, doing well on exams, attaining good grades and paving the way towards a successful future.
This past week, however, these have all been placed on the backburner for most students at the College (with the exception of graduating seniors), to make way for the overly stressful process of housing.
The decisions surrounding housing have serious implications for how a student may or may not enjoy the following school year.
There is no reason we, as students at the College, should be faced with such an enormity of worries and fears about where we will end up living next year.
That is the last thing we should be worrying about.
However, when the list was posted last Thursday, students flocked to the posting sites both on campus and online. Frantically and nervously, they looked up their names, hoping to get a really good number.
Some were delighted with low numbers, others were disappointed with mediocre numbers and the really unlucky ones entered a momentary state of disbelief, before most likely shedding a few tears.
Worries instantly multiplied. 'Where will I live?' 'What numbers do my friends have?' 'Am I going to make the second cut, or be thrown on the street by my own school?'
For those of us unlucky enough to not make the first cut, today is the fateful day which will determine whether we make the second cut. If we do, then wonderful!
But if we don't, what will we do?
Some of us don't have cars, some do but are afraid of driving the long distance from home, some don't have others to live off-campus with because everyone else seems to have made the cut and some are concerned for their safety living in some of the rougher neighborhoods that exist minutes from the College.
As deserving students, we should all have the opportunity to live on campus if we so desire.
However, we simply cannot. It is extremely unfair, though, that the decision of who gets housing and who does not is based on the luck of the draw.
If every student on this campus cannot be guaranteed a housing spot, then students should earn their spots.
The College needs to recognize and show some appreciation for those of us who utilize our rooms for doing work and being the good students that we are.
At many other colleges, GPAs and activities play a role in who gets housing and who does not. The College needs to catch on and do this as well.
As a good student with a high GPA, highly involved on campus as an editor of The Signal and a tutor at the Academic Enhancement and Tutoring Center, the College should theoretically want me on campus more than the next guy who smokes pot every night and is failing three of his four classes.
However, for the second year in a row, I received a horrible number.
The fate of my residency next year now rides on whether or not I will make the second cutoff, to be posted today.
Until then, I'll try to concentrate on my studies and hope for the best in this unjust system.
(02/11/04 12:00pm)
Were it possible to see music, it would look like Savion Glover's body gyrating to his own taps and the rhythm emanating from his every extremity. The unremitting fluidity of his body shows music is as much alive in his dreadlocks, fingertips and elbow joints as his toes. Music even flows from Glover's mouth, revealing the well-kept secret that he can sing, too. Every molecule in his body surges with energy at the beat of a drum or the flap of a tap, and every member of his audience can both see it and feel it.
Savion Glover, choreographer, director and tap dancing phenomenon, had the stage in Kendall Hall smoking - literally - with the airborne resin dust of his taps on Friday night. He has had the same effect on the entertainment industry as well. From the age of 11, the Newark, N.J. native's tap dancing was smoking up the stages of Broadway, with his debut in "The Tap Dance Kid." He later starred in the movie "Tap" with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr., and in the same year, 1989, he was back on Broadway in "Black and Blue."
In 1990 he began making his way into homes across the nation on Sesame Street. Meanwhile, he returned to Broadway in 1992 for "Jelly's Last Jam." In 1995, he choreographed and performed in Broadway's "Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk," for which he received a Tony for choreography in 1996. Since then, he has also choreographed and been featured in several TV shows and movies.
Glover was brought to the College by the Celebration of the Arts, and his show certainly celebrated many types of art. The art of bucket drumming, the art of tap dancing, the art of singing and the art of playing the piano, bass, drums, saxophone and guitar were the obvious celebrated talents. But the art of feeling music, the art of being music, the art of letting every beat of a rhythm flow from the human body - these were the arts that audience members did not realize they were paying to celebrate when they bought tickets.
And celebrate they did. Five minutes could not go by without the sound of the audience cheering, clapping, hooting and hollering interspersing into Glover's tapping against the jazzy beat of the band. The audience was enthralled and involved in the show, able to feel the rhythm, too.
"Savion has a gift," Sarah Schlesinger, sophomore psychology major, said. "Not many people can inspire others through their feet."
Glover, comfortable as ever, appeared to be having the time of his life. He often danced with his back to the audience and jammed with the band members. Although his expressions weren't visible, the band members' faces revealed the musical chemistry at work on the stage. It appeared as if the audience was sneaking a peek at the Friday night jam session of a talented group of friends, who have a great time making music. Nothing seemed staged or fake; the emotions and the energy were real. It was impossible not to feel it. And it would be impossible for Glover to fake it. The passion with which his body moved could not have been feigned.
Glover entered the stage in a crimson button-down shirt, un-tucked over loose black pants. He tapped around for a bit, and started to sing David Bowie's "Nature Boy," recently featured in the motion picture "Moulin Rouge," while he tapped. Ending with the words, "the greatest joy you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return," Glover continued to let the explosive energy of his ankles produce the rhythmic euphony of his taps. He sometimes accompanied it with his own sound effects, nonsense words that seemed to vocalize musical sounds.
Glover was later joined by two other men in loose black pants and blue and green button-down shirts like Glover's. By this point, Glover's shirt was hanging open, revealing a 'wife beater' and chains that swung with his every movement. His sweat had worked its way down to the waistline of the red shirt. The trio tapped together for a few minutes, synchronized and sensational, and then each of the men produced tap soliloquies as Glover changed out of his sweat-soaked crimson shirt to a tan button-down one backstage. When he returned, the three acted as if they were trying to compete, each creating combinations of sounds to top the other. It is then, perhaps, that Glover appeared to have the most fun, bursting out with laughter at times, looking as if he had never been happier to tap with his buddies.
Before performing "one more groove," Glover said to the audience, "I hope you had as much fun as I did." He sang another song as he tapped, singing about "you and the night and the music," and then tapped to the band's jazz version of the "Sound of Music" classic, "My Favorite Things." He closed with a reprise of "Lonely Boy," and he and his band were met with a standing ovation, revealing the audience indeed shared in Glover's fun.
The show opened with two bucket drummers. Sitting on milk crates, the large men banged out more sounds from four cement buckets and the Kendall Hall stage floor with regular drumsticks than most would think possible. Lifting the upside-down buckets slightly with their feet at times to create varying sounds, the men created rhythms that reverberated from the walls and infiltrated the audience.
All of Kendall Hall clapped along to the beat and marveled not only at the talents of the two musicians but at how much fun they were having. The drummers' whole bodies shook with the rhythms and their faces, though dripping with sweat, featured bright eyes and huge smiles that emitted occasional bouts of laughter.
(02/11/04 12:00pm)
The Student Finance Board (SFB) made a unique decision in an effort to divide the remaining money in the special appropriations line fairly when chairperson Craig Gross vetoed a decision made at the beginning of the meeting with a vote of 6-5-0 to allocate $975 to the men's volleyball team.
The request was then tabled for next week's meeting, along with requests from intramurals and the women's club volleyball team, so the roughly $2,000 that Jennyfer Nesci, director of finance, thinks she can pull from unused money back into the account will be available for appropriation. The board felt it could better decide how much to fund once it is aware of exactly how much money is available.
The request from the men's club volleyball team was actually taken off the table from last week's meeting, when it was categorized as a conference request. The conference request line, however, is completely exhausted. The request was changed to special appropriations because, according to Gross, athletic events can come out of the special appropriations line. The team requested to send 12 members to the 2004 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Collegiate Volleyball Sport Club Championships in Charlotte, N.C. from April 8 - 10 for $3,953.46.
"I don't see spending half the money we have left on something benefiting only 10 people from the school," Julia Pratt, Student Government Association (SGA) Liaison, said.
The board decided to fund the $975 registration fee, until later in the meeting when the decision was made to veto and table the request.
The intramurals request, also tabled, involved sending 10 players plus a coach to the 2004 USA Team Tennis National Campus Championship in Daytona Beach, F.L. from March 11 - 13 for $4,458.34.
The third tabled request, from the women's club volleyball team, was also to attend the 2004 NIRSA Collegiate Volleyball Sport Club Championships in Charlotte, N.C., but from April 7 - 11. The women's team requested $4,177.24.
SGA, with the Senior Class Council (SCC), received full funding of $15,000 for Senior Week with a vote of 7-3-0. This request is less than half of the $38,000 SFB funded for Senior Week last year.
To cooperate with the budget constraints, the SCC cut costs while still keeping the schedule busy, so as to also cooperate with the administration's concerns for safety.
Nicole Colello, senior class vice president, said "we're focusing on keeping 'em out and occupied so they don't go back to the towers and start drinking."
The week of activities includes trips to Atlantic City, Great Adventure, Bar Anticipation, a senior picnic and a senior formal dinner dance. Admission to the bar will be free, in contrast to the $10,000 Colello said it cost to be admitted into a bar during last year's Senior Week.
The ticket price of $150 was also raised from last year's price of $125, to help cut costs. There was some debate within SFB between some of the underclassmen and upperclassmen regarding the necessity of Senior Week.
Julian Gomez, sophomore representative, said "I don't think it's fair you make freshman, sophomores and juniors pay for your senior class trip."
"Every class pays for the seniors," Rachel Forman, junior representative, said, "and when you're a senior they'll pay for you."
The Italian Club received $670 out of the transportation line for bussing to an opera on April 17. The vote was unanimous.
(02/04/04 12:00pm)
The Student Finance Board (SFB) was so impressed with an eight-member co-sponsorship to bring guest speaker Katie Koestner to the College on Feb. 19 that it did not hesitate to give away $1,250, about a quarter of the $5,017 essentially remaining in the special appropriations line (after $15,000 is taken out of the $20,017 line in the near future for Senior Week).
The massive co-sponsorship supporting the event includes the White Ribbon Campaign, Inter-Greek Council, the women's softball team, the office of campus wellness, the athletic department, the women and gender studies department, Travers and Wolfe Halls and the First Year Government (FYG).
Koestner will be speaking about the dangers and seriousness of sexual assault.
The only discussion before voting, 8-0-1, on full-funding involved Chairman Craig Gross saying "We're hanging this one on the wall," and Jared Breunig, director of communications, saying, "They did everything we've ever asked of a group before."
The Leadership Development Program (LDP) also wanted to bring speakers to the College. However, the organization's request for $14,400 was returned with $0 funding, by a vote of 7-0-3.
LDP wanted to bring two breakout speakers to campus; Tim Gard, to speak about harnessing the power of humor in personal and professional life, and Paul Vitale, to enforce the importance of a positive attitude, a strong work ethic and other vital components. They would join another breakout speaker along with a keynote speaker at LDP's Spring Leadership Conference on Feb. 28.
Ravi Kaneriya, freshman representative, said while its fun to have speakers, they can get redundant after a while.
Breunig noted the total price of the program is about $4,000 an hour for a program attended by about 100 people.
Breunig did not see this as cost effective.
Mike Cilia, SGA vice president of administration and finance, said the best part of LDP's programs happens after the speakers talk, when the organization breaks down the audience in groups and does activities. He said the speakers might set the tone, but LDP could probably set the tone just as well and save a lot of money.
After Gross told the organization it had received $0, he said "they're not too happy with me."
The table tennis club, whose request was tabled at the last meeting because the group had no room or facilities, received $653 of a $780 request with a vote of 6-3-1.
Since the last SFB meeting, the table tennis club got a room in the recreation center where its equipment can be secure, as the board requested.
The club requested two Stiga Quickplay IX tables at $200 each and one Stiga Quickplay IIX table at $300. The SFB did not feel it was necessary to have the more expensive table, and instead gave the group funding for three Stiga Quickplay Ix tables.
Also, discrepancies in published prices and the prices in the request for four paddles and seven packs of balls led the paddle price to be reduced from $30
(11/18/03 12:00pm)
The Formal Committee's ticket price request of $30 failed, and later passed 9-1-3 with the stipulation that $1.21 from each ticket would not be donated to the Sunshine Foundation, as originally planned.
The formal will be held at King's Caterer's in Bristol, Pa., on Feb. 4, from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. $25 of each ticket would go toward King's Caterer's, $1.92 to the disk jockey, $0.12 for ticket printing and $1.75 for buses, which attendees will have the option of taking.
The remaining $1.21 would go toward the Sunshine Foundation.
However, it is SFB policy that "the second a program is subsidized with (Student Activities Fund SAF) funds they cannot donate towards a charity," Craig Gross, SFB chairperson, said.
The Formal Committee said that one of the reasons it charges for tickets is "to raise money for the Sunshine Foundation, which is the philanthropy we fundraise for."
In previous years, including last year, the organization donated between $1 and $2 from each ticket to this charity.
Gross said although the Sunshine Foundation is not a charity likely to be opposed, it must be treated like all other charities. A person should not have to donate to a charity he or she might not agree with in order to attend the formal.
Oriana Nadraga, assistant chair of the SFB, suggested the Formal Committee provide an option for two prices, so that students can choose whether or not to spend the extra $1.21 that would go towards the Sunshine Foundation.
Sneha Gandhi, senior representative, said, "I think that's really silly. If I don't put in the extra $1.21, I look like such a bad person."
Joe Schramm, Student Government Association (SGA) liaison, said, "The bottom line is, we need to not approve this," and motioned to deny the request.
The vote tied at 5-5-3, so Gross had to vote to break the tie. Gross voted against the ticket price.
Rachel Forman, junior representative, motioned for the ticket price to remain at $30, but without the $1.21 going toward charity.
Uni?n Latina (UL) received full funding of $426.64 with a vote of 8-3-2 to fund publicity for Explosion Latina, an event to take place Nov. 22, at 6:30 p.m., in the student center atrium.
The cultural event, in its first year, is to feature students and faculty performing cultural dances and acts.
The request included funding for a full-page ad in The Signal, flyers, mailbox stuffers, table tents, sidewalk chalk and a banner.
The event will also be advertised on the College's Web site for free.
Ravi Kaneriya, freshman representative, said, "It seems they're pulling out all the stops," and said it might be excessive.
Jared Breunig, director of communications, said, "Last year, Mike Cilia brought up a great point when he said advertising determines how successful an event will be."
Schramm expressed a personal vendetta against mailbox stuffers. "If I read them, it tends to be a month after, so now I make it a point to not even read them," Schramm said.
"For a first-time program, you need to get that out there," Mary Ennis, director of external relations, said. "Mailbox stuffers - I think you guys are mean about that. I've read them from freshman year on."
When the motion was made for full funding, Schramm said, "I'm not voting in favor of this motion. I will not fund mailbox stuffers."
The Bowling Club received $2,461.64 out of its request for $6,952.96 with a vote of 8-5-1 to attend the Coca-Cola Collegiate Classic in Las Vegas from Jan. 31 to Feb.1.
It is necessary for the club to attend the event in order to further qualify in the sectional tournament.
Nick P. Luisi, president of the club team, said attending would also fulfill the importance of national recognition.
The club requested both the A team and the B team, to attend the event. "I feel it should be open to the B team because they fundraise too and they don't do it just for the A team," Luisi said.
The team did not include transportation to and from the airport in the request, and so Luisi said to note this would be paid for out-of-pocket.
The request also included a personal contribution of $50 a person, but Christopher Mahoney, treasurer of the organization, said they would be willing to contribute up to $150.
Forman said it is not economically feasible to send both teams. "I think over $2,000 is more than generous to allow them to qualify for sectionals," Forman said.
The previously tabled request of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) received full funding of its new request of $1,495 to attend the organization's National Technical Career Conference, Jan. 7 - Jan. 11, in Chicago with a vote of 9-2-2.
When the original request of $1,965 for this conference was tabled, SFB requested more of the attendees be members that did not attend the conference before, the personal contribution be raised and an itinerary of the events at the conference be supplied.
The organization complied with all the requests, as three new members that did not attend the conference last year were added to the list of five attendees, the personal contribution was raised from $50 to $150, and the itinerary was supplied.
(11/18/03 12:00pm)
Many students at the College had problems registering on The Electronic Student Services (T.E.S.S.) because the system failed to recognize prerequisites and provided incorrect credit amounts for certain courses.
"The problems are primarily due to the transformed curriculum and coding within the system," according to Frank Cooper, director of Records and Registration.
Cooper said, "A lot of it has to do with overlapping of the transformed courses and the original courses and the way we code it on the Student Information System (SIS), which is our software."
Errors of this kind have occurred across the departments and schools at the College.
"Chorale, the singing group, showed as zero credits when it should be a half credit," Chris Proulx, sophomore vocal music education major, said.
"We couldn't register at first and we are required to take it, so people were worried and told the profs and they took care of it," Proulx said.
Christine Leichliter, assistant dean for student services of the school of art, media and music, said, "It was submitted correctly and was probably just some technical error, but it has been fixed."
Nancy Da Costa, sophomore accounting major, said, "I couldn't register for Info Systems, which I need as an accounting major, because it would only let business majors register. There was only 1 spot left, and by the time I got the problem fixed it was taken, so now I'll have to take it another semester."
Cooper, however, said, "As students discover the prerequisite issues, my staff enters the students in the courses anually."
Da Costa also had problems registering for two business courses that had Psychology 101 as a prerequisite. "I took it in the summer as a transfer course and it was on my transcript, but T.E.S.S. didn't recognize it," she said.
Amanda Conforti, sophomore psychology major, had the same problem. "I had Psych 101 from Fairleigh Dickinson University and it wouldn't recognize (the transfer credits) as prerequisites for any psych courses."
"I couldn't get in one of my classes," Ross Bucholc, sophomore organizational psychology major, said, "because I wasn't a business major, even though this class is a mandatory class for my psych major."
Many of the staff at the College are just as confused by the scheduling problems. Bernard Bearer, assistant professor of English, said, "I have no idea what the cause is, and no idea what's going on. All I know is that there are prerequisite problems."
"Have you heard of what a corequisite is?" Robert C. Cole, chair of journalism, asked, "Because I hadn't even heard the term before." The prerequisite and course credit problems, though, seem to be the only problems that have been occurring during registration. Students no longer must wait hours to register because the system was overloaded.
According to Cooper, T.E.S.S. has been registering about 100 students within the first 10 minutes of each of the registration windows.
In response to the prerequisite and credit issues, Cooper said, "We apologize for the inconvenience."
(11/11/03 12:00pm)
Of course it is optimal to think about career choices in terms of what one enjoys and would like to do more than anything for the rest of his or her life.
However, most people also have some goals in mind. For me, these include a family, children, and the contented feeling of security. It is important to me to ensure that my career supports the lifestyle I have in mind.
When I was a little girl and my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer always was, "a dancer."
Somewhere along the line, though, this answer changed. I woke up and realized I am not the best dancer this world has seen, and even if I were, it would be entirely too risky for me to base my entire life, and salary, on a skill that is naturally lost with age and unnaturally lost with the trip of a foot.
This is not to say that exceptional skill and a clean bill of health would necessarily provide me with a good salary and good benefits, anyway.
If I have to put food on the table and clothes on my children depending solely on what dance company wants me this season or what gig I can get next week makes my former dream job seem like a nightmare. The feeling of security, therefore, is a huge given in my definition of "dream job."
If I really wanted to find a way to secure my future and receive the most benefits, I would probably have law school in mind. However, law is not something I want to practice for the rest of my life, despite the benefits it offers.
It's something I would rather write about. And if I can get paid to write about it, all the better.
So, I plan to become a journalist.
Although this second love of mine may not be the most lucrative of professions, it would be enough for me.
I enjoy investigating news and writing about it, and I have a compulsive tendency to edit anything I see.
I like having deadlines and feeling organized, and I like knowing that breaking my ankle will not affect my career or income in any major way.
In order to make this more practical career work even more in my favor in terms of benefits and being able to support myself, I plan on going to grad school.
By attaining a Master's degree program, I would be able to make more money, receive more benefits and feel more secure.
I have hopes that if I went on maternal leave, it wouldn't be too challenging to return to the same, or a different, newspaper.
I need the satisfaction of knowing I will be able to pay the bills whether I am married or not. It is too dangerous to rely on one salary, and nearly impossible if kids are in the picture, especially as costs rise and college becomes more and more expensive.
Overall, practicality and passion combine to provide, for me, the ideal "dream job."
I don't think it's materialistic at all to say I would be happy to know I had money in the bank. It is not the money that I love, but the knowledge that if I have a health problem, my medical plan will pay for it.
If I have children, I will be able to provide them with the best medical treatment and send them to college, among other things.
Vacations here and there would be nice too, but overall, I just want to know that I will be able to keep my children and family healthy and happy.
Happiness without security, for me, wouldn't last very long. Security with contentment, though, could last me a lifetime.
(11/11/03 12:00pm)
The Student Finance Board approved the College Union Board's (CUB) ticket price request - $5 for Carson Kressley of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," to come to the College.
Kressley's worldwide college debut will take place on Nov. 22 in Kendall Hall at 8 p.m. The ticket price passed 14-0-0.
The Islamic Society received full-funding of $1,145 with a vote of 13-0-1 to hold a feast on Nov. 7 to break the month-long daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan. It would be open to the entire campus, in addition to off-campus students invited from Rutgers University, Kean University and Bryn Mawr College.
A converted Muslim, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, would speak at the break-fast celebration with his wife, also a converted Muslim, for a cost of $350. The remaining expenses would cover food and supplies.
Ravi Kaneriya, freshman representative, said money for off-campus people should not come out of the Student Activities Fund (SAF). Kaneriya's motion for $970, which subtracted the speaker cost as well as catering delivery and supply costs, in addition to charging off-campus attendees $8.75, failed 1-9-4.
Mary Ennis, director of external relations, motioned for full-funding, with the stipulation of a donation box be placed at the feast. The donations received would be put back into the SAF. This passed 13-0-1.
The Order of the Golden Lion (OGL) also received full-funding for a feast. OGL requested $714.95 for a medieval feast on Nov. 15, and received funds with a vote of 12-1-1.
Prior to the feast, OGL will present a free medieval fight. For the fight, OGL requested $300 for three helmets. Attendees of the feast will be charged $5. OGL also sold lollipops, and $70.77 of the proceeds will be contributed to the feast.
Last year, OGL had about 80 attendees at the feast, and charged $10 a person. Last year, the stew was stolen for the feast. Due to this, SFB chairperson Craig Gross made the request, "Don't steal their stew."
Oriana Nadraga, assistant chair of SFB, made the motion for full-funding.
The Intramural flag football team received $1,843 of their request of $6,093 to attend the 25th Annual National Flag Football Tournament in New Orleans, from Dec. 26 to 31, with a vote of 9-4-1.
The team has competed in this tournament for the past 16 years, and has always placed in the top 10, according to Chris Tuohy, senior member of the team.
The request included $519 for registration, of which $230 is an entry fee, while the remaining $289 consists of a $17 fee for each of the 17 players to participate.
The request also includes $304 in transportation costs, $2190 in hotel costs and $1,116 for two rental vans. The team raised $1200 for the event in fundraising, and agreed to contribute $100 a person.
Because the conference request line containes $7,101, full funding would consume most of the conference request money for the rest of the year.
Kaneriya commended the team for putting in $2,900 from fundraising and personal contributions, but said "if we do fund this, we won't be able to fund anything else the rest of the year."
"These kids are going to New Orleans which is a hell of a fun city at a hell of a fun time since its during the holidays," Jared Breunig, director of communications, said.
He added that this is reason to raise the personal contributions a lot.
Sneha Gandhi, senior representative, suggested raising the personal contributions to $250. This motion, for $3,543, failed 0-10-4. A motion for $1,843, with contributions raised to $350, passed 9-4-1.
The Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors Society received full-funding of $2,056 for Robert Pennock, known as the country's leading expert in the Creationism v. Evolution debate, to speak at the College on March 20, with a vote of 11-1-0.
The Art Student Association (ASA) requested a new club budget of $600.
As the request included $60 for T-shirts, but since SFB does not fund T-shirts, the request was changed to $540. ASA received full-funding of $540 with a vote of 11-2-0.
The organization has had a budget in the past, but neglected to turn it in last year.
This year's budget includes expenses for all-nighters in the drawing studio, refreshments and staffing for senior portfolio reviews, and a museum trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Siren Art and Literary Magazine received full-funding of $369 with a vote of 13-0-1. The magazine is bi-annual, and features literature and art submissions by the students and faculty members of the College.
The Student Government Association (SGA)'s ticket price request of $10 for a Senior Night at the Rat, with bus transportation and admission to Kat Man Du, a club in Trenton, on Nov. 18, passed 13-0-0.
Gross also mentioned the importance of an article in USA Today on Nov. 3, focusing on different universities that have been sued for not representing all political views in keynotes speakers. "Our job as the SFB, when funding speakers, is to make sure we don't do it in a way that is discriminatory," Gross said.
(10/28/03 12:00pm)
SFB felt the effects of the budget constraints at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 15. The Black Student Union (BSU) requested $6,212 for Kevin Powell, best known for his role in the first season of MTV's The Real World, to be the keynote speaker for its annual pre-Kwanzaa celebration.
"It is a valid request," Craig Gross, SFB chairperson said. However, the request would consume almost one third of the remaining special appropriations request money for the year, $20,845.81.
Cheonette Petion, freshman representative, said, "I urge everyone to stop paying attention to the numbers, and more to the benefits of the campus community."
BSU requested $6,000 for Powell's fee and $212 for a Signal ad and three technological service workers. The event would be free to the entire campus community.
Mike Becktel, representative at large, reminded SFB that the Asian American Association contributed half the money for their speaker, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
BSU did no fundraising for the event, and has $633 in its fundraising line.
Jared Breunig, director of communications, suggested deciding if enough people would still attend if a ticket price were set. If they would not, it is not worth the money, he said.
A motion for $0 funding failed with a vote of 1-13-0.
A motion to table the request passed 12-2-0.
The Homecoming Committee received full funding of $395 for trophies, police, referees and cups of ice for the powder puff game and cheerleading competition on Oct. 26. The motion passed 10-1-2.
Gross said the $200 for the police would come out of the police fund.
The Homecoming Committee also made a special appropriations request of $1064. They received $632 of this, with a vote of 10-3-0.
The request included spirit week equipment ($240), homecoming king and queen equipment ($152), staffing shirts ($240) and carnival expenses ($432).
Breunig said he was not comfortable giving $432 for a carnival when it is not for the students. "Out of the 6,000 students on campus, a small amount of their money would be going out to help outside kids have fun," Breunig said. "The Student Activities Fund (SAF) is for the students here to have fun."
"We just had Community Fest to be all philanthropic and all," Cilia said. "Homecoming is for TCNJ only. It's our event, no one else's."
A motion for full funding failed 2-8-1.
The motion that passed, for $632, included everything requested except for the carnival expenses.
The White Ribbon Campaign requested a new club budget of $1,136. They received $436 with a vote of 11-2-1.
Seven hundred dollars of the request is for splashguards for the urinals on campus. On the splashguards would be written "In your hands you hold the power to stop rape." President Caitlin Stinneford, said this is effective because "there is a captive audience. They're not going anywhere."
The request also includes ribbons, publicity and programming money for the international "16 Days of Activism to end Gender Violence," from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10.
The motion for $436 that passed included everything but the money for the urinal splashguards.
The Opera Theatre received a unanimous vote for full funding of $3,751.50 for the performance rites for the "Mystery of Edwin Drood," to be performed Nov. 13-16.
The Men's Club Soccer team received a unanimous vote for full funding of $550 for practice balls, and referee and game fees.
BSU also made a conference request of $1,533.99 for 10 members to attend the fifth annual youth & College Leadership Summit, Nov. 21-23 in Baltimore. They received $734 with a vote of 7-4-2.
The motion that passed for $734 raised personal contributions to $100 each.
Transportation fees of $200 were approved for the tabled request of PEANUTS and GUTS for a trip to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The motion passed 12-0-2.
Oct. 22 Meeting
The Korean American Student Association (KASA) received full funding of its $700 request for the Sori-Mori Philadelphia Korean Cultural Troupe and Beth Maso, a separate solo drummer, to perform on campus Nov. 16 as a part of Experience Asia.
SFB voted 9-1-3 to fund this request.
The Sori-Mori Philadephia Korean Cultural Troupe is "a group of Koreans in Philadephia engaging in the traditional Korean folk art of Pungmul" (www.sorimori.org). Pungmul is a traditional type of Korean folk music.
The Sori-Mori Philadephia Korean Cultural Troupe requested $600 from KASA for their performance.
Maso's solo performance will add to the presentation with two different styles of drums. Maso did not request any money to per
form, but KASA requested $100 to give to her, as she will be traveling from Connecticut to perform at the College.
BSU returned with its conference request from the previous week's meeting to attend the fifth annual Youth & College Leadership Summit, Nov. 21-23 in Baltimore.
BSU previously received $734 out of their request of $1,533.99 for three members of BSU, and one member each of the African-American Cultural Awareness Association, Caribbean Student Association, Gospel Choir Ministries, National Association for Black Accountants, National Council for Negro Women, National Society of Black Engineers and Minority Association of Pre-Health Students to attend the conference.
This time, BSU received $1,084 with a vote of 8-5-0.
BSU's new request for the conference was for $1,433.99, with the personal contribution set at $30.
Roy Johnson, president of BSU, said BSU does a lot of programming and offers a lot of skills that benefit the whole community.
Jennyfer Nesci, director of finance, said she would like to see the personal contribution set at least at $50.
Kevin Croissant, sophomore representative, made a motion for $1,233.99, which would raise the personal contributions to $50 a person.
Rachel Forman, junior representative, said none of the actual programs directly had to do with programming.
Breunig suggested having half of the members go and later discuss with the remaining members what they learned at the conference.
The motion for $1,233.99 failed 0-13-0. Another motion was made for the contributions to be raised to $65 each. This motion, for $1084, passed 8-5-0.
Lions Athletic Pride received $156 out of its request of $216 to hold a picnic at the Cross-Country New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) race on Nov. 1 at Washington's Crossing State Park, 15 minutes from the College. The motion passed 8-4-1.
A motion for full-funding failed 6-7-0.
Cilia said the majority of the beneficiaries would be the runners, their families and friends.
A motion for $156, subtracting $60 from the request, passed. SFB suggested that Lions Athletic Pride to charge non-students $1.
SFB tabled White Ribbon Campaign's request of $2,319 for Jackson Katz, a leading anti-sexist male activist to speak at the College on Nov. 18.
Katz's normal fee is $4,000, but Katz said he is willing to negotiate. White Ribbon Campaign requested $3,000 for Katz.
SFB tabled the request 13-0-0 because they would like to see documented proof that Katz is willing to accept this price.
Gross, said "I do applaud them for finding $1,000 from the departments," as the organization will be receiving this money from the General Education and Women and Gender Studies departments.
SFB changed its voting method for motions to a tally vote in which each member will say "yay," "nay," or that he or she is abstaining. Previously, votes for motions were done through hand-raising.
(10/14/03 12:00pm)
The Asian American Association (AAA) received full funding of $4,474 for Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, to speak at the College on Nov. 6. Gandhi's speech, to focus on nonviolence and the Middle East, will kick off AAA's Experience Asia event, held every November.
AAA requested $8,500 for Gandhi's speaker fee and airfare, $250 for transportation and the College, $109 for a hotel room and $40 for food.
AAA deducted $4,425 from the total expense of $8,899 for the event because SFB had already allotted them $4,000 for a keynote speaker and because AAA's entertainment budget still had $425.
The event will be held in the Music Building. The theater seats 320.
Joslyn John, chair of AAA's Experience Asia committee, said many other organizations will be co-sponsoring the event.
Mike Cilia, SGA vice president of administration and finance, said, "AAA is known for putting on such great events, and this guy is such a pertinent speaker."
Cilia said his only issue was with the $40 AAA allotted for Gandhi's food, which would cover one dinner meal and one breakfast meal. Cilia said AAA could easily pay for it out of their own fundraising.
However, Cilia said if this feeling were in the minority, he would vote for the motion made for full-funding anyway because he liked the event so much.
The motion passed, with a vote of 11-2-1.
A motion was tabled for the request of The Gay Union of Trenton State (GUTS) and Planning Exciting Activities for a Never-ending Utopia for TCNJ Students (PEANUTS) to attend The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pa. on Nov. 1. The event would be open to all students at the College, with a maximum of 50 students.
The request involved $25 per ticket. For 50 students, the ticket cost would amount to $1,250. With car use for transportation, transportation would cost $105.60.
If each student paid $10 per ticket, $500 could be deducted from the cost. The resulting request was $855.60.
SFB voted unanimously to table the request to conduct additional research on bussing students to the event, to relieve the organizations of possible insurance issues.
Craig Gross, SFB chairperson, said he received an e-mail from Jamie Gusrang stating her resignation from her position of senior representative.
Gusrang resigned due her inability to attend meetings because of a conflicting job. SFB will search of another senior representative.
SFB also discussed ideas for an outdoor recreation trip.
Mary Ennis, director of External Relations, suggested horseback riding.
Jennyfer Nesci, director of Finance, said, "Let's rent a house in the Poconos and have a party." Gross said he didn't think this would be allowed and pushed for a paintball trip instead. The tentative date is Nov. 15.
The appropriation balances as announced by Nesci at the beginning of meeting included $9,096 for conference requests, $11,025 for capital equipment, $7,453 for new clubs, $6,000 for the multicultural award and $25,319.81 for special appropriations and weekend enhancement.
"We have to stick to these numbers," Gross reminded the SFB. "Due to budgetary restrictions, we cannot exceed them."
(10/07/03 12:00pm)
Last Saturday my hard drive was replaced, so I had to wait until Monday for Res.net to put me back on the network. I thought I would go crazy. I was without Internet, without e-mail and without AIM.
It was bad enough that on Friday the week before, we were without these modern communication techniques due to the power outage - this was double the time and double the torment. I needed my AIM. Even if I'm not always communicating with people, I need the ability to do so, and with the convenience, speed and ease of AIM.
Sure it's endearing to actually hear the voice that you're talking to, and know that they dialed your number and sincerely wanted to call you. It's a lot easier and lazier to IM someone, and takes less guts.
But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are so many people I talk to on-line that I know I'd never talk to on the phone. If I did, I wouldn't talk to them nearly as much. I have gotten to know so many more people through that little IM window. And I can talk to them at the same time, without having to press call waiting buttons and make people wait. What isn't there to love?
The Internet also allows for another wonderful form of communication: e-mail. I love getting e-mails. I type "webmail.tcnj.edu" into my web browser all the time, anxiously hoping for a bold-faced subject to indicate I have a new e-mail. Of course getting actual letters in the mail is great too, if you have time to wait for them.
We have the ability to send things to one another in seconds, and we need it in today's fast-paced society. We can communicate with whomever we want without having to lick a single envelope, pick up a single pen or wait more than a second or two until sending a letter.
We can even send e-cards. This form of card-sending is one of the best parts of online communication. It's possible to have music, animation, interactive games or whatever you desire in your card. There is an e-card available for every occasion, whether it's to tell someone you're thinking of them, miss them, love them or wish them a happy birthday.
Yes, it's still nice to get cards through snail mail. The Hallmark store will always be one of my favorites. I'm notorious for always checking the backs of cards for that Hallmark seal of quality. But having that crown on the back of a card isn't what makes it special - it's the time a person took to pick out the card. And there are millions of cards to pick from online.
Just because you send someone an e-card doesn't make it any less special. It doesn't mean it's any cheaper either-while many sites have a small free section, the rest of their cards are usually for a fee. And there's always a page at the end of the card with the sender's message that you can print if having a material keepsake is what warms your heart most.
(10/07/03 12:00pm)
SFB director of finance, Jennyfer Nesci, will now provide the board with an appropriation update at the beginning of every meeting.
The appropriations this week consisted of $6,000 for the Multicultural Award, $12,000 for capital equipment, $10,000 for conference requests, $7,500 for new club budgets and $25,300 for special appropriations.
The Women's Club Soccer and Men's Club Lacrosse teams made conference requests for tournaments. SFB raised the personal contributions for team members in each of these requests to $15 a piece.
As a result, Women's Club Soccer received $374 with a unanimous vote, while Men's Club Lacrosse received $530 with a vote of 11-2-0.
The Women's Club Soccer team wanteds $474 to attend the Yale Women's Club Soccer Tournament on Oct. 18, at Yale University.
Robyn Faruolo, vice president of the team, said there would be three games for the team to play on the same day. To get there in time, they would have to leave at 5:30 a.m.
The team would like to stay at a hotel the night prior to the tournament.
Faruolo said because the team was invited suddenly there was no time to fundraise for the event.
The money the team has from previous fundraisers will be used for new uniforms.
The 19 girls and one coach expected to attend the tournament agreed to pay personal contributions of $10.
Nesci said she was shocked about the minimal contribution of only $10 each.
Joe Schramm, SGA liaison, said if they each contributed $10 more, that would be $200 more off the cost.
"The only thing is they're always paying a little for each of these games and things they go to," Sneha Gandhi, senior representative, said. "They never request anything for all those times."
Mike Becktel, representative at large, motioned for $374, with the personal contribution raised to $15 a person. This motion passed 13-0-0.
The Men's Club Lacrosse team also requested money for a hotel so they wouldn't have to leave at 5 a.m. The team plans to attend the Beaver Classic Tournament on Oct. 12, at Lock
Haven University in Pa., where they will also play three games in the same day.
Last year the team also attended the tournament, but was able to stay at a house. This year, the house available would be too small for the 20 expected players.
According to team member Chris Haggerty, the team already has to pay $175 for the tournament fee, so they don't have money allocated for a hotel.
The team also requested $50 for tolls incurred in travel, in addition to the money requested for gas. Each team member agreed to contribute $10.
"Last week they went pretty much out of pocket for Maryland. Be lenient," Jared Breunig, director of communications, said.
According to Haggerty, the team sold t-shirts to fundraise, but the money from this is not available yet.
SFB seemed skeptical about the $50 requested to pay for tolls. Todd McCrary, current advisor of the SFB, said there is a route to take to Lock Haven University that does not charge tolls.
Julian Gomez, sophomore representative, noted that the SFB had just motioned for the Women's Club Soccer team to pay $15 each in personal contributions. "We should raise this team's contributions to $15 each, too," Gomez said.
Gandhi motioned for $530, which raised the personal contribution to $15 and removed the toll money from the request.
The Minority Association of Pre-Health Students (MAPS) requested $47 from SFB. According to President Yasmilka Sarmiento, the purpose of MAPS is to provide career information for anyone in the health field. Activities include visiting hospitals and medical schools.
Sarmiento said the club is not only for medicine. "We are also trying to get panels of speakers in health but not strictly for medicine," she said. "We want more students involved, to help them in whatever careers they want to go into."
Plans are currently in the works to have a motivational speaker come to campus on Oct. 22.
MAPS' request includes a $10 banner to be used at various events and activities fairs, and publicity.
The publicity includes two-color copies. Rachel Levy, junior representative, said she never sees others use the two-color copies.
A motion for full funding of $47 passed 12-1-0.
Gross said the meeting ran much quicker than in previous weeks.
Forman said that this could be due to the absence of Mike Cilia, SGA vice president of Administration and Finance.
(09/23/03 12:00pm)
Two organizations, Vox and Men's Club Soccer, requested new club budgets from SFB although they had received previous budgets.
Neither organization requested funding last year.
Vox, the Voice of Planned Parenthood, received full funding, $771, with a vote of 7-0-6. Men's Club Soccer received $817 of their requested $2,400, which passed 10-3-1.
Vox also received full funding for its conference request of $162, which passed unanimously.
The Political Science Club also made a conference request of $3,263, and received $2,353, which passed at 10-3-1.
The Student Government Association (SGA) requested a ticket price approval of $10 per ticket for Senior Night, that passed with a vote of 12-0-1.
Women's Club Soccer received the re-approval and appropriation of $1,154 that they received last year but did not spend, by a vote of 11-0-2.
Vox's request consisted of publicity, office supplies, as well as condoms and Chapstick to be distributed to students of the College.
Chapstick, according to Jackie Cornell, president of Vox, is a form of herpes prevention.
Sneha Gandhi, senior representative, said, "(Vox is) really active, but I think $478 is a lot for a publicity request of a newer club."
Several members questioned why the Women's Center and Health Center are not helping the organization with funding.
"I think they are in collusion with the Women's Center, but they are a totally separate entity that should have their own budget," Jared Breunig, director of communication, said.
Vox's request for a grassroots conference at the College, also to be attended by students of Rutgers and Princeton, was for $162.
A motion for full funding passed with a vote of 14-0-0.
John Jaskula, co-president of Men's Club Soccer, said that a large portion of last year's team was composed of seniors.
As a result, the organization fell apart this year as the sophomores tried to take over.
The club requested 25 uniforms, 18 to be handed to players that would best benefit the team.
The remaining seven will be circulated among the other players.
These uniforms consist of shirts, shorts, socks and alternate jerseys.
The club requested uniforms because the seniors never returned them last year.
The club's request also included a game and referee fee, eight practice balls and three professional Nike balls for games.
Nadraga motioned for $812 for game fees, T-shirts and official balls. The motion passed with a vote of 10-3-1.
The Political Science Club made a conference request for a four day Model U.N. trip. Twelve students from the International Organization class (POLS 335-01), and 14 additional members of the Political Science Club, are to attend the conference.
A motion was made to include the student contributions of $100 a student. The resulting $2,353 passed with a vote of 10-3-1.
Bill Carroll, junior accountant, and Jennyfer Nesci, director of finance, were introduced, and will be present at future SFB meetings.
Nesci is a voting member of the board, "because if she's sitting and offering information she might as well carry a vote," Craig Gross, SFB chairperson, said.
(09/16/03 12:00pm)
The College Union Board (CUB) received $591 of its requested $3,341 for the Fall Fun Fest to be held Sept. 20.
The $591 will pay for lodging for the event's crew.
The motion passed 7-3-2.
A motion for full funding failed with a vote of 5-6-1.
The denied $2,750 was comprised of $1,750 for a video dance party and $1,000 for a curtain to divide the dance party from the other festivities.
The purpose of the annual Fall Fun Fest, in its fourth year, is "to give the entire student body an opportunity to come out and have fun," Keri Adams, director of CUB, said.
Events for the night include trampolines, laser tag, virtual reality race, bumper car crash, make your own crafts and bungee ball.
Funding that was received from SFB last year will be used toward these events.
Funding for the video dance party, which has been part of the event in past years, was asked for in a separate request this year. The request, however, was denied.
"When an organization is appropriated funds in the budget for an event, should we be appropriating additional funds later on?" Craig Gross, SFB chairperson, asked.
Sneha Gandhi, senior representative, said Adams admitted they made a mistake when doing the budget last year. "They did lose out on money that they might have had already otherwise," Gandhi said.
"Will the event truly benefit from the extra $3,000 when it has already been given $17,198?" Gross asked.
"TCNJ doesn't seem like the kind of campus that gets down for $3,000," Jared Breunig, director of communications, said.
"If the latenighter dance party is packed, then why wouldn't the Fall Fun Fest dance party be packed?" Mike Becktel, representative at large, asked.
Rachel Forman, junior representative, said that last year she observed more people concentrating on all the other events, with hardly anyone at the dance party.
The necessity of the curtain was debated as well. "$1,000 to rent a curtain," Becktel said. "Jesus."
The curtain, Adams said, is the same one that has been rented every year. Becktel suggested buying the curtain and reusing it every year.
"The SFB is here to allocate student funds," Rachel Levy, junior representative said. "This does sound fun, but after hearing the list of everything else there will be, it just seems sort of superfluous," Levy said.
"If these are things everyone looks forward to going to every year, maybe it is worth it," Gross said.
Gross said, however, "this year we have to be more cognizant of the fact that we don't have as much money as in previous years."
"There are a lot of things but they cater to everybody," Gandhi
said. "You need a variety because there's a diverse kind of people."
"They're billing this as the pinnacle of the event," Mary Ennis, director of external relations said, "but it seems like they're already catering to everybody even without this."
Becktel suggested giving some money, since the money for lodging would be needed regardless.
In the remainder of the meeting, Jamie Gusrang was elected as a senior representative. SFB made plans to train and elect two freshman representatives.