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(04/11/17 7:35am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
The world of superhero comics is a vast tapestry made of thousands of different ideas thought up over decades by hundreds of artists and writers. Some of those ideas stuck around, some of them were forgotten, some became passion projects and others were hastily stitched in to meet a deadline.
Out of this disjointed quilt FX pulled out David Haller, aka Legion, to adapt to television and chose Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley to direct it. Having aired its first season finale on March 29, the show has set the bar high for every superhero show that will come after.
David Haller (Dan Stevens) is a mutant psychic with unprecedented power, but is plagued by schizophrenia. He is dumped in a psychiatric hospital, where he is discovered by two warring factions –– the government agency tasked with hunting mutants to extinction known as Division 3 and a group of mutants hiding away in a haven called Summerland.
The premise allows Hawley and Stevens to explore their respective crafts. Stevens is compelling as Haller, whose journey from madman to hero is the focal point of the series. Stevens sells the character every step of the way. Hawley illustrates David’s story with psychedelic interludes through David’s memories, periodic visions of the world through David’s broken psyche and an imaginary mindscape called the astral plane. These lead viewers to question the reality of the show. How much of it is in David’s head?
Hawley draws on horror influences to create a host of truly unnerving villains like the World’s Angriest Boy in the World, a children’s book character from David’s childhood with a large head that looks to be papier-mâché, and the Devil With Yellow Eyes, a ghoulish round figure resembling Humpty Dumpty’s evil twin. These characters often appear subtly in the background without any warning and torment David without saying a single word.
In the hospital, David befriends Lenny Busker (Aubrey Plaza), a manic drug addict and Sydney “Syd” Barrett (Rachel Keller), a mutant who switches bodies with people she touches and becomes David’s girlfriend. Plaza shines as Lenny, who becomes somewhat of a shoulder devil for Haller, while Keller manages to give the distant Syd some charm.
In Summerland, David meets the rest of the cast. Dr. Melanie Bird (Jean Smart), a Professor X-type character; Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Harris), a mutant who remembers every waking moment of his life and can enter the memories of others; and Cary (Bill Irwin) and Kerry (Amber Midthunder) Loudermilk, who live within the same body. All of these characters except David are original. While every cast member does an excellent job with what they’re given, the cast of mutants often take a backseat to David’s story. None of them get sufficient development in the first season.
These characters have their moments, though. The Loudermilks’ relationship stands out among the rest of the side cast because of the way their powers work. Kerry lives within Cary and only ages when outside, creating a kind of father-daughter relationship. Cary is a docile, old scientist while Kerry is a headstrong young woman always looking to fight.
One scene illustrates how close the two are. Cary is in his lab quietly working while Kerry is out on a mission. As she pounds on dozens of Division 3 mooks, the show cuts back to Cary in his lab. He’s suddenly on his feet, moving in sync with Kerry as she fights miles away, like a superpowered tango.
Superpowers in general are another thing “Legion” nails. Rather than existing solely as an excuse for expensive special effects and cool fight scenes, the powers in “Legion” tie into the plot of the character’s development. For example, David and Syd must learn how to be a couple without being able to touch.
For me, a lot of the appeal with superhero comics is the way creators weave in the more ridiculous ideas from that tapestry into the story. These things complicate the comic on the surface, but at its core is a simple hero’s journey.
Adaptations usually seem ashamed to touch on the ridiculous things in the comic book universe. Netflix doesn’t even put their heroes in spandex until the very last episode, if that. “Legion” is not afraid to dip its toes in the unusual and the absurd, while still being a superb superhero story.
(04/03/17 7:51pm)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
The smells and sounds of New Orleans — hot jambalaya and cool jazz — percolated the Decker Social Space on Wednesday, March 29, where the Alternative Break Club hosted its seventh annual Mardi Gras Masquerade.
ABC organized the event to share the essence of the Big Easy with the campus community through authentic food from Beck’s Cajun Café in Philadelphia and a live jazz band, Patricia Walton and the Jazzin’ All Stars. While the All Stars performed and food was served, the College’s Swing Dance Club danced the night away.
Although the tone of the music was warm, like the city itself, underneath the upbeat tempo ran a bluesy undercurrent. The event’s main purpose was to raise awareness for the city’s persistent struggle to come back from Hurricane Katrina. Twelve years later and there is still work to be done.
“There’s a lot of issues that prevented people from coming home and even over a decade later, it’s something that they’re struggling with,” said Ashley Fuzak, ABC president and a senior secondary education and history dual major.
In addition to the Mardi Gras Masquerade, ABC also organizes three trips to New Orleans — one in the winter, spring and summer — to help rebuild.
Around 90 students go down to New Orleans for the winter trip and between 20 and 30 attend the summer and spring trips, according to Jenn Pagliaro, vice president of ABC and a senior special education and history double major.
During the trips, students work with Project Homecoming, a nonprofit working with the Presbyterian Disaster Alliance and the Presbytery of South Louisiana to rebuild neighborhoods gutted by the hurricane.
The club is also involved in other missions. After Hurricane Sandy, ABC helped a resident of Union Beach, N.J. They also work with Give Kids a World, a nonprofit that gives children with life-threatening illnesses a free Disney World vacation. Despite this, New Orleans is “definitely at our core,” Fuzak said.
New Orleans is constantly fighting forces of nature that wish to reclaim it. Once the hurricane shattered the levees keeping water out of the city, 80 percent of the city was submerged. More than 1,800 people died.
In early February, a tornado ravaged the same areas of the city as Hurricane Katrina. Project Homecoming’s Volunteer Village — a second home for many members of ABC — was destroyed in the disaster.
Despite this, there has been some progress. A study held in March 2017 for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp, stated the city is finally reaching pre-Katrina tourism levels.
The club has worked to improve New Orleans’s condition for more than seven years. Fuzak credits the club’s founders for the large numbers they pull for trips in recent years.
“We’ve had lulls as a club, we’ve had growth as a club. I would say, overall, (the club’s founders) really set the foundation for us to bring down the massive numbers we try to bring down now,” Fuzak said.
The Mardi Gras Masquerade has also grown. When the event first started, the only music played came from an iTunes playlist put together by the club. However, as more students began to attend, the club started bringing in live bands to provide an authentic feel.
For Pagliaro, part of that authentic feel is the attitude of the people. Pagliaro was awed by the residents’ kindness in the face of disaster.
“So many bad things can happen, but you still have this positive attitude and it really makes you reconsider the way that we look at things,” Pagliaro said. “There’s people that literally lost their homes and still have a smile on their face.”
Fuzak saw those smiles her first day in the city. Her job was to survey the city to find houses still damaged by the storm. The kindness of the residents she spoke to let her know she would be back again.
“They asked us if we were OK with Hurricane Sandy,” Fuzak said. “Their neighborhood had been hit in such a hard way, the fact that they had asked how New Jersey was faring after a hurricane was amazing. There’s something about the city that just reels you in.”
Fuzak also acknowledged the members of ABC who helped out in organizing the trips.
“The people that are willing to give up their breaks, donate their cars, give their time and really take in the city for what it is, is something that’s so unique and special,” Fuzak said.
For students who wanted a mouthful of gator gumbo, an earful of New Orleans jazz and a heartful of Big Easy benevolence, ABC hopes the Mardi Gras Masquerade provided all of that.
“We really wanted it to feel like you were in New Orleans because that’s something we all get to experience while we’re there,” Pagliaro said. “We wanted to bring a piece of that to TCNJ to show why it’s so important that we rebuild.”
(03/28/17 7:22am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
One day, Sylvester James Gates, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and a pioneer in the field of supersymmetry, was observing one of his classes solve a physics problem in groups.
One group of three caught Gates’s eye. While two students were fighting in front of the chalkboard over how to solve the problem — “spinning their wheels,” according to Gates — the third stepped up to the board, scribbled an equation and sat back down without a word.
It took the two others a moment to notice what the third had written, but when they did, they realized it was the correct answer. The next class the same thing happened, but this time one of the two at the board turned to the third and asked, “How did you guess that?”
“I don’t guess,” the third said.
Gates noted that the two students at the chalkboard were a part of the majority demographic of the class, however, the third was a part of the minority.
Gates shared this story at the second annual Barbara Meyers Pelson ’59 Lecture — entitled “Einstein v. Roberts, Diversity & Faculty Engagement” — on March 21 in Mayo Concert Hall. He was there to explain the importance of diversity in a science class.
Gates holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and was the first African-American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major university in the U.S. He also co-authored “Superspace, or One Thousand and One Lesson in Supersymmetry,” the first comprehensive book written on supersymmetry, an attempt to fill the holes in the current Standard Model of the universe.
Between his research and media appearances in NOVA programs, Gates served on former President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 2013, Obama awarded Gates the National Medal of Science for his contributions.
Gates wrote an essay in 1995 on why diversity is important in science. It was entitled “Equity Vs. Excellence: A False Dichotomy In Science And Society,” and since then, he’s been an advocating for more diversity.
In Mayo, Gates first pointed to an example everyone in the audience could relate to — American styles of music. Rock ‘n’ roll, Gates said, was created by Western musicians “having a conversation” with African musicians. The styles of music blended to create something new and exciting.
Like music, mathematics also has different styles, Gates said. Looking back at mathematical literature from centuries ago reveals a stylistic shift from today’s literature, according to Gates. If you have an eye for seeing these mathematical styles, you might also notice differences in literature across different countries, races and cultures.
Gates also used the example of diversity in biology. The more diverse a species, the better equipped it is for survival.
With more diversity comes more styles of thinking and viewing science. With more diversity, scientists can be better equipped to make discoveries.
“Diversity enhances innovation. That’s what we learn from these examples,” Gates said.
In the case of science, like with art, Gates believes imagination beats knowledge.
“Knowledge is like a finite ball. It has an edge beyond which we don’t know the answers,” Gates said. “But If you come back in 10 years… you’ll notice we have more knowledge.”
But how did the ball get bigger? The answer is imagination, according to Gates.
Scientists need to think creatively or irrationally to create new knowledge, according to Gates. Reflecting on his time at MIT, he noted that whenever he’d get an answer right in class, it was because he was thinking “out in left field” away from everyone else.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge because it’s the mechanism by which we increase it,” Gates said.
Having access to a more diverse group of styles of thinking can really impact scientific progress. If there is just one or more people in a group of scientists that can think outside the box, the possibility of success increases greatly.
“If you’re trying to solve a problem where maybe one of those crazy ideas of yours is the exact key to solving the problem, that means collectively, if you’re looking at a group of scientists, the group is more capable of making progress,” Gates said.
Gates referenced a world where there were only classical musicians. Such a world would be “much more limited,” he said. Diversity enriches music and much more.
Sheen S. Levine, an assistant professor of organizations, strategy and international management at the University of Texas at Dallas, quantified Gates’s observations with an experiment involving traders and bubbles. Two groups — one homogenous and one heterogeneous — traded in the stock market.
The more diverse group matched true prices 58 percent better than the homogenous group because members of the homogenous group were less likely to question their peers. The same experiment was conducted in North America and Asia.
A well-known physicist and personal idol of Gates, Albert Einstein, would have been overjoyed to see Levine’s results. Einstein was both a man of science and a man of conscience. He condemned racism.
Einstein referred to racism as a “disease of white people” in a 1946 speech at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the first school in America to let blacks earn degrees.
In a 2013 court case, Fisher v. University of Texas, the plaintiff fought affirmative action, claiming she was not let into the university because she was white. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the judge in that case, asked in 2015, “What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?”
Gates penned a response titled “Einstein v. Roberts,” identifying Einstein as another minority that brought a creative approach to science.
“Why Einstein?” Gates asked. “Well, Einstein was Jewish and he lived in Germany as a child — that made him a minority, and, therefore, many of the kinds of things I experienced in my life, he had experienced as a child in Germany.”
(03/26/17 5:49pm)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
Everything happens for a reason.
That’s what Daniel Lapidow, a senior career and community studies major, believes.
Because of his belief in Hashgacha Pratis, or “divine providence” in Hebrew, Lapidow said his life has unfolded not because of chance or coincidence, but due to God’s will.
“Everything is wrapped together in one and everything is together in a way,” he said.
In a short span of time, Lapidow discovered two things that would come to define his life — his disability and his passion for blacksmithing.
As a child, Lapidow visited the Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, N.J., for a lesson in cider-making. He was quickly drawn to the blacksmith demonstration. As he watched sparks fly, he knew he found his calling.
Soon after this discovery, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. Still, through his passion for blacksmithing, Lapidow learned that he could express himself creatively in ways the written word could not.
“I was able to go and practice once every weekend (at the farm) and focus on things that I could create with my mind instead of just having to read and write,” he said. “It started off as therapy and having fun with fire every now and then.”
At age 9, Lapidow became a member of the New Jersey Blacksmith Association. By age 12, he was apprenticed by Alex “Sasha” Parbuchenko, the master blacksmith at the Blacksmith of Trenton in Trenton, N.J. He continues to work there as an assistant between his career and community studies classes.
The College’s CCS program teaches students with intellectual handicaps independence. While students receive a certificate rather than a degree, Lapidow believes his time at the College will be beneficial.
“Sadly, the state, even though we take real college classes, doesn’t see (CCS) as a real organization — as real college life — so we don’t get a degree, but that’s no problem for me because I just want the knowledge,” Lapidow said.
Lapidow hopes the knowledge he gains from business and art courses will bolster his career as a blacksmith.
Students similar to Lapidow are required to take CCS-specific courses to build independence during their freshman year, followed by regular courses with the help of a peer mentor.
Maureen Hudson, a senior elementary and urban education double major, mentored Lapidow twice over the course of his college career.
“My role is to provide one-on-one support to build independence,” she said. “So, I meet the student where they are, I provide the support needed… and then I fade out.”
Hudson was impressed with Lapidow’s diligence.
“Lapidow has a sense of why he is here and what he wants to get out of his time at TCNJ,” she said. “He’s really always had a strong sense of self.”
During his junior year, Lapidow joined two clubs: Chabad, an orthodox Jewish community, and Rebel Art Movement, an art club that aims to have a strong artistic presence on campus.
Other members of RAM go to Lapidow for metalworking advice. He also made a ram statue for the club.
“They call me the metal master of the club,” Lapidow said.
Lapidow is also a founding member of Students for Disability Awareness. He participated in the club’s (dis)Ability Monologues in October 2015, where he spoke in-depth about his dyslexia and what he’d do if, miraculously, he woke up and could read normally.
All the same, he would not change his life.
“I can’t complain,” he said. “Once I learned to cope with it, it was just a really fun lifestyle.”
Lapidow was not always so confident. While he could shape metal at age 9, he could not do the same with his future. At times, he struggled to get academic help. The state refused to acknowledge his disability, assuming that he was simply lazy, he said.
After going through two private schools, he found the Newgrange School, a special education school in Hamilton, N.J.
“The teachers in that school basically saved my life because they taught me how to deal with (my dyslexia),” Lapidow said. “I was really depressed as a kid.”
Alfredo Cunha, Lapidow’s social studies teacher at Newgrange, became more than just a mentor, he became a friend.
Their relationship was kindled by an interest in role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. During a free period, Cunha would host role-playing sessions with students.
Within these circles, peers are more open-minded, Cunha said, allowing Lapidow to think “outside the box.”
If Lapidow was ever bullied for his ideas at Newgrange, Cunha listened to him.
“I don’t think it was so much advice, but just being there understanding his point of view,” Cunha said. “Being open enough to not see him and his ideas as offbeat or weird, but just different ways of thinking.”
At Newgrange, Lapidow was still able to work on his blacksmithing.
Arleen Thompson, the art teacher at Newgrange, helped him get his apprenticeship in Trenton after seeing his work.
Students were also encouraged to enter pieces into the Mercer County Teen Arts Festival. Lapidow’s entry — a dinner bell — won first place at a state-wide competition. He gifted the bell to Newgrange’s principal.
“He doesn’t let (his disability) get in his way,” Cunha said. “He’s not just going to give up and say, ‘I can’t do this because I have this disability.’”
Ever devout to both his religion and blacksmithing, his friends dubbed him “The Hebrew Hammer.” Lapidow started a backyard blacksmith shop under his new moniker.
After graduating from high school, he didn’t want to return to school, however, his father convinced him otherwise. After looking at colleges as far as Vermont, Lapidow discovered the College right under his nose.
Lapidow’s entire life — his house, Newgrange, the Trenton Blacksmith and the College — can be seen in a single 30-minute drive. To Lapidow, this is no coincidence — it’s divine providence.
(03/21/17 1:42am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
“I have just come down from my father.
Higher and higher he lies
Above me in a blue light
Shed by a tinted window.”
Amos Koffa, a senior from Burlington County Institute of Technology, carefully recited the first four lines of James L. Dickey’s poem “Hospital Window” to a crowded Mayo Concert Hall.
For the third year in a row, Koffa was one of 12 finalists in the New Jersey Poetry Out Loud state finals on March 9.
Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide poetry recitation competition that allows high school students to choose, memorize and recite poems to be graded by a panel of judges. It is currently in its 11th year.
It took Koffa over a year of writing down the poem and listening to himself recite it to get it right, he revealed in a Q&A after the show, and it seems the effort paid off.
Koffa finally won. He will represent New Jersey in the National Finals on April 25 and April 26. Breana Senna, from Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School, won runner up.
In “Hospital Window,” the narrator has just visited his father in the hospital. As he walks out into the street, he turns and gives a final look to the window to his father’s room. Traffic halts and drivers honk, and six stories up the narrator can make out his father waving and smiling at him through the glare of the hospital window. He waves back.
It is implied that the father will not last long. His father lies “Above me in a blue light” like a spirit rising to heaven. Koffa emphasized this element of the poem by making his voice ascend in pitch during the lines “Higher and higher.”
“Now (Koffa) is one student who will tell you he overcame a lot to participate in the program,” said Kay Potucek, New Jersey’s state coordinator.
Poetry Out Loud isn’t Koffa’s only exposure to poetry, he also does spoken-word poetry, through which he hopes to speak out for the oppressed. He considers himself a “fierce” LGBT advocate.
“It’s my job to use my talents and help other people,” Koffa said. “Since there is such a lack of representation, it’s my job to represent the silenced.”
Koffa first participated three years ago with his school, but last year, no teacher would run the program, preventing him from participating again. He started a poetry club and worked with Poetry Out Loud and the vice principal of his school to get involved again.
“He’s an amazing young man,” Potucek said. “This concept opened up a world for him.”
After competing in the regional competition in Camden, N.J., Koffa took the stage to talk about what the competition means to him. Potucek summarized what he said.
“This was his window, his way to get out, his escape,” Potucek said.
Breana Sena, the runner-up from Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School in Jersey City, N.J., gave a moving performance of “I Sit and Sew” by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson. The poem reflected the author’s desire to escape to something greater.
“I sit and sew — a useless task it seems,/My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams,” Sena said quietly.
Sena, Koffa and the other finalists were scored based on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding and overall performance. In addition, an accuracy judge deducts points based on any mistakes a contestant makes.
“We always tell the students up front… that it’s about the simplicity of your poem and connecting with the audience,” Potucek said. “If that means you need some hand gestures or some facial expressions — of course — then you should use those.”
Potucek believes the most important thing about competing is clearly delivering the poet’s message.
“I think probably the most important thing… is that the student becomes the shell for the poem,” said Potucek, a former accuracy judge.
She hopes students learn something out of competing, whether they win or lose.
“(I hope) they find out a little bit about more themselves,” Potucek said.
In between the second and third rounds, a video honoring the 2010 state champion Shamsuddin Abdul-Hamid was projected onto the screen. Abdul-Hamid, affectionately called “Sham” by his friends, died unexpectedly at the age of 25 on March 3.
In the video, Abdul-Hamid explained how Poetry Out Loud gives students access to great writers they might not have been able to study in school.
“Organizations, like Poetry Out Loud and the New Jersey state arts council, they say that you, too — you, too, can do this,” Abdul-Hamid said in the video. “There are no boundaries, and I think that that’s sort of what we felt as a student having someone hand you a William Shakespeare sonnet — you sort of sit up and say, ‘What else am I worthy of?’”
Like Koffa, Abdul-Hamin won the state championship on his third try. In two lines of “Hospital Window,” the narrator realizes that, although his father is likely close to the end, he is not afraid. He can still smile.
“I am not afraid for my father—
Look! He is grinning.”
(03/07/17 9:52am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
There are around 400,000 plant species on Earth, but only 7,000 of them are edible and cultivable. Among those 7,000, just 90 are commonly cultivated around the world, and out of those 90, three — wheat, rice and corn — make up 50 percent of the average human’s daily calories.
The lack of biodiversity on our plates was the theme of the biology department’s campus-wide Tasting the Tree of Life event held on Feb. 28, which included a revamped Eickhoff Hall menu designed for diversity and a keynote lecturer in Mayo Concert Hall, botanist Nyree Zerega.
Each station in the Atrium was repurposed to reflect a specific theme of biodiversity.
Field guides were positioned at each station, ready to explain the exotic foods being served. The menu included foods like alligator sausage, frog legs, jackfruit sandwiches, breadfruit cakes and roasted crickets. Familiar dishes were being served with a twist, as well — Quimby’s Rotisserie served cumin roasted lamb and a clam and bacon pizza was served at Ceva Pizza.
So, why is biodiversity in food necessary?
“All levels of diversity are important, especially within that food domesticate, whether it be plants or animals,” Zerega said.
More biodiversity within a species can prevent famine because the species would be better equipped to fight new diseases or threats with their genetic reservoir, according to Zerega. A lack of diversity can lead to disasters such as the Irish Potato Famine.
She added that biodiversity can also provide people with more varied nutrients that they otherwise could not get. Certain food varieties can also be adapted to parts of the world experiencing drought or famine.
Zerega explained the three main branches that create the tree of life: eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea. Bacteria and archaea are single-celled organisms, however, archaea tend to live in extreme places such as hot springs and salty environments. Eukaryotes are organisms made up of cells that contain a nucleus and other more complicated structures.
The menu at Eickhoff featured 149 ingredients across all three of these branches. There was even a salt-tasting station where students could taste archaea. A many-branched tree diagram demonstrated the variety of ingredients used throughout the day.
Including all of these branches creates phylogenetic diversity. Zerega showed the audience a photo of a bison near some hot springs to demonstrate the point.
“You got this picture and you think of what’s in there in terms of biodiversity, you see some trees… a bison. It doesn’t look that diverse,” Zerega said. “But, if you think about it in a phylogenetic sense, you got these hot springs, which are home to many different species of bacteria and archaea… and then you got eukaryota.”
Zerega said biodiversity can be found within a branch of the tree of life as well with a slide of a rainforest. Every organism pictured was a tree, but there were many different types.
There can also be biodiversity within the same species, such as with different breeds of dogs. Similarly, the plant Brassica oleracea — possibly a child’s worst nightmare — has been bred over the years to yield cabbage, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower.
Kohlrabi, another variant of Brassica oleracea was one of the 149 ingredients in Eickhoff on Tuesday.
Two others are the jackfruit and the breadfruit, two plants Zerega is familiar with — she studied both as a part of her research into underutilized crops.
“An underutilized food crop is a plant species that has some sort of proven food use, it’s been shown to be cultivable at some point, but for some reason, it’s currently less cultivable than it could be,” Zerega said.
These are crops that might be more nutritious or better-suited to locations that can’t grow more-widely known crops, but because of economic, cultural or political reasons, they are not widely cultivated.
The breadfruit is a semi-tropical fruit found in the South Pacific with many positive, underutilized traits, according to Zerega. The fruit is versatile and nutritious and the tree itself can live a long life in places lacking food. Zerega showed two maps, one showing areas where the crop can be grown and another showing places devoid of food, overlapping in certain areas.
The jackfruit, a relative of the breadfruit, can be found in tropical regions and is also underutilized, according to Zerega. Jackfruit is the largest fruit to come from a tree, growing up to 50 pounds.
The massive fruit was on display at the 31 North Deli in Eickhoff, where it was used in a barbecue jackfruit sandwich. Breadfruit cakes were served alongside the sandwiches. At the grill station, a jackfruit Reuben was being served.
Evelyn Kulesza, a sophomore biology major and field guide, said the jackfruit tastes a bit like mango. Ruth Sanchez de la Rosa, a senior biology major and field guide, compared the taste to an apple or pear.
The problem with breadfruit is that most cultivated variants are mostly seedless, and the ones that do have seeds cannot be dried or frozen. This means the crop can only be maintained as a tree. One way to fix these problems is by researching the crop’s relatives on the phylogenetic tree so a better variant can be bred.
Crops aren’t the only foodstuffs being underutilized — we avoid certain animals, too, based on cultural norms and political reasons, namely insects. There are more than 2,000 species of edible insects, mostly beetles and caterpillars, but there is a stigma against using them as food in the West.
“There are so many species (of insect) that are efficient and nutritious, and arguably delicious depending on how you prepare them and what you are used to,” Zerega said.
Compared to cows, pigs and chickens, insects produce the most food in relation to the size of their bodies, meaning there is less waste, according to Zerega. Less feed is also needed to maintain a healthy supply of crickets than other animals.
Crickets and cheese-flavored larvae were served to students in Eickhoff on Tuesday. The crickets had a slightly nutty taste and a crunchy, flaky texture while the larvae tasted kind of like Cheetos.
The Eickhoff overhaul needed eight months of planning between students, faculty and Sodexo staff. Okxana Cordova-Hoyos, a senior biology major, was a part of the Scientific Planning Committee that helped plan the event. She said the main point of the event was to spread an understanding of science through something everyone enjoyed — food.
“We figured everyone loves food so we combined the two (food and science),” Cordova-Hoyos said.
She said the event was designed to make students think of their food in a different way.
“It’s a different way of thinking about balancing a meal,” she said.
Wendy Clement, an assistant professor in the biology department and committee chair, went into detail about that different way of thinking.
She hopes that students “recognize that every ingredient on their plate is a living organism that has a story of its own and that what they eat represents many different lineages of the tree of life.”
Kathryn Elliott, as assistant professor of biology and member of the committee, hoped students learned something about the richness of life on Earth.
“We really wanted to convey that all organisms on life are related in one big family tree, the Tree of Life, that there is an incredible amount of biodiversity on Earth, which we tried to illustrate by showing how diverse your foods can be, and that humans have an impact on that biodiversity,” Elliott said.
After the committee approached Sodexo with a list of ingredients, Executive Chef of Resident Dining Lauren Franchetti went to work designing a menu.
“We have over 300 different foods on inventory in the Eickhoff kitchen, it is not often that we get to work with an ingredient that is completely new to the kitchen team,” Franchetti said. “It was a great experience to break from the norm and have some fun tasting and working with something completely new to us.”
The professors and Franchetti came out of the eight-month experience with new knowledge and a palette for exotic foods.
Elliott enjoyed the jackfruit cake and Franchetti liked the frog legs. Clement enjoyed the jackfruit Reuben, but what she liked the most was something familiar that reminded her of home.
“I’m a New Englander at heart, so I did also enjoy the clam and bacon pizza,” Clement said.
(03/05/17 2:09am)
George Tatoris
News Editor
Night had fallen in Milan, and a sudden shower soaked the streets below. The thin raindrops could only be seen when reflected against the yellow light of the streetlamps, but anyone caught outside without an umbrella or raincoat was still drenched.
Amongst the luckless few were myself and the woman who would become my first girlfriend — we were in the city on a weekend trip while studying abroad in Spain. We were not prepared for the weather — she was even wearing open-toed shoes. As the raindrops fell, we were looking for a restaurant we saw on Yelp.
We were together in the city by accident — the trip was supposed to be for her and her friend, but the friend couldn’t get a visa in time. On the spur of the moment, I bought the spare plane ticket off of her.
Though I planned very little for the trip and barely knew the girl — and Italian even less — Milan became a life-defining moment for me.
Studying abroad in Spain taught me that stepping out of my comfort zone and living in the moment can lead to new experiences. Some of my most cherished college memories were the result of spontaneous decisions.
Introverted students like me often stick with the familiar parts of the College community, but I got so much more by just forgetting my fears and diving head first into new things. Two years after Milan and Spain, that dive is still making ripples.
As the weather worsened, we splashed through puddles looking for cover. The strap on her sandal snapped in the process and all we could do was laugh. Her hair was matted and her face glistened.
We abandoned all hope of reaching that restaurant, which at that point was a few blocks away, and went into the next restaurant we saw. The place was small, but crowded and brightly lit.
We looked like a mess under the white lights having just stepped in from the rain. We shared jokes and stories over a delicious plate of pasta alla norma cooked al dente, a ham pizza and glasses of the house wine.
She still insists it was not a date.
We didn’t become official until after we returned to the United States.
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been stepping further outside my comfort zone. I got more involved with The Signal and took up an internship for Courier News and Home News Tribune. If you’re shy like I am, trying new things and meeting new people can be terrifying, but in the long run, I promise it will be rewarding.
And yes, we’re still dating.
(03/01/17 6:27am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
The men’s swimming team thought it was over once senior Scott Vitabile touched the wall, but they were wrong.
Both Vitabile and Massachusetts Institute of Technology junior Josh Tomazin touched the wall in the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay at 3:00.51, tying both teams for eighth place — the final spot to qualify for the finals.
To determine a winner, the teams went head-to-head in a swim-off on the final day of the NCAA Division III National Swimming Championship.
While most students were riding out the unseasonable winter storm, the men’s swimming and diving teams were facing the heat down in Shenandoah, Texas. The competition took place over four days from Wednesday, March 15 and Saturday, March 18. Overall, the Lions finished 12 out of 50 teams, scoring 101 points. Emory University swept both the men’s and women’s meets, the second team in Division III history to do that.
Vitabile was joined by sophomore Alex Skoog and seniors Ryan Gajdzisz and Andrew Nesbitt for both the initial preliminary and the swim-off. The Engineers came out on top by a sliver. They posted a time of 2:58.20 against the Lions time of 2:58.74. The Lions were awarded an All-American Honorable Mention for their efforts.
If the Lions had made it to the final, they would have finished third with that time.
“Having two teams go at it in front of packed house was pretty cool,” head coach Brian Bishop said. “Both teams swam even faster than they did in prelims and, had both gone that fast, would have been seeded one and two for finals. However, only one spot was open, and we came up a little short. I’m incredibly proud of the effort the guys made.”
The dramatic closer capped off a weekend of success for the Lions. Over 40 events, they compiled 21 All-American citations — most of which were for relay events.
In the 800-free relay, the quartet of Gajdzisz, freshman Harrison Yi, Vitabile and Skoog secured an honors citation with a fifth-place finish. Their final time was 6:38.84. This performance boosted the Lions two spots to 11th place on the second-to-last day of the meet.
In another relay, the 200-free, the team of junior Adam Coppola, Gajdzisz, Nesbitt and Vitabile earned All-American Honors with a sixth-place finish and a time of 1:22.33. They finished milliseconds ahead of the seventh-place team.
In the 200-medley relay, Skoog, Gajdzisz, Vitabile and Coppola earned an honorable mention with a combined time of 1:30.18, crossing tenth in the consultation final.
Another mention came out of the 400-medley relay, in which Skoog, Gajdzisz, Coppola and Vitabile finished 12th with a time of 3:18.93.
The 200-medley team had their best performance all semester in the preliminaries, reducing their previous best time by nearly a second. They took another half-second off that time in the finals. In addition, several Lions earned individual victories throughout the meet Gajdzisz beat his best time in the 200-free preliminaries with a 1:39.23 finish. In the consultation final, Gajdzisz finished 16th. Gajdzisz also finished 13th in the 100-yard breaststroke. Skoog set a personal record in the 50-free preliminaries with a time of 21.36 seconds, finishing 42nd. Coppola finished 26th with a time of 20.79 in the same race. Gajdzisz, Vitabile, Nesbitt swam their last race as a Lion. Seniors Anthony Gurrieri, Sean Johnson and Vince Masciandro also will be graduating.
“These guys put in a incredible amount of hard work over the years and I am very proud of the accomplishments they achieved throughout their career,” Bishop said. “I’m even prouder of the legacy they will leave with the program and the impact that will have for years to come.”
The women’s diving team also had strong showings in the postseason. Senior Sarah Grassi, earned a spot to Nationals in the 1-meter for her last diving meet as a Lion at the NCAA Division III Region 4 Diving Championships held on Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25. She finished sixth overall.
The first day of the meet, Grassi placed 10th overall on Friday.
The end of the season marks the men’s team’s 25th consecutive trip to the Championships and Bishop’s 28th year coaching the swim team. The 12th place finish was the Lions 23rd top-20 finish.
“It’s an honor to compete in the NCAA championships and we have had an incredible run over the last four years,” Bishop said. “While we had hoped for a higher finish, 12th place with six all Americans is still pretty good.”
(02/21/17 6:38am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams raced, leapt and swam through over 40 events apiece at the Metropolitan Conference Championships held during the weekend of Friday, Feb. 17.
For the men, it was a close meet, but they still had not accumulated enough points to outshine the Rowan University Profs.
No matter what place the Lions finished for the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, they could not topple the Profs unless the top team somehow fell to ninth or below in the final event of the weekend.
Despite the tremendous odds, the Lions still poured their all into the last race.
“Winning the last race of a championship meet as close as this one gives the team a huge mental boost heading to NCAAs,” men’s head coach Brian Bishop said. “That relay will probably be ranked in the top five at NCAAs, which sends a strong message to the rest of the country that we will be a force at the Championships.”
The team of sophomore Alexander Skoog and seniors Ryan Gajdzsiz, Andrew Nesbitt and Scott Vitabile nosed ahead of the quartet of Profs with a time of 2:59.94, over a minute faster than the Profs.
The effort earned the four Lions shots at nationals, although the team itself managed a second-place finish with 1396 points, 17.5 points behind the Profs. The Lions have won 18 of the last 23 Metropolitan Conference Championships, according to Bishop.
“This was one of the closest meets in conference history,” Bishop said. “The only one that was closer was in the early ’90s and we came out on top at that meet. It was thrilling to be a part of such an exciting meet. Great competition brings out great performances and we had many outstanding efforts by our team.”
The women’s team fought for a third-place finish at the meet, gathering a total of 933 points. The University of Bridgeport took first with 1098 points and the Profs were not far behind with 1086 points.
Working with a smaller squad than usual, members of the women’s team had to sign up for races they were not comfortable with, according to head coach Jennifer Harnett.
“One of the things that stood out most to me was some of the swimmers that swam in events they might not have been their first choice, but swam them because the team needed points in those events,” Harnett said.
This has been a common theme all year for the undersized squad. This weekend, junior Robin Lukens earned her team 12 points in the 1650-free, sophomore Laura Rippey switched from the 200-breast to the 200-fly for the better scoring opportunity and freshman Samantha Askin made the top heat in the finals of the 400-meter individual medley.
The men’s team had standout performances, as well. Strong races and dives on the first day of the meet propelled the Lions to a slim lead over the Profs. Gajdzsiz, Nesbitt and Vitabile were joined by senior Adam Coppola for a first-place finish with a time of 1:21.35 in the opening event, the 200-freestyle relay.
By the end of the second day, the Lions had a firm 20.5-point lead. Skoog won the 100-backstroke with a time of 50.04 seconds. The program record for that race is 49.56 seconds. Coppola took third in the same event with a time of 50.96 seconds, less than a second behind his teammate.
Gajdzsiz, Vitabile and freshman Harrison Yi earned the Lions points in the 200-free. Vitabile took second with a time of 1:39.33, Gajdzsiz took fifth at 1:40.89 and Yi took eighth with a time of 1:41.98.
Vitabile and Gajdzsiz finished in second and third place in the 100-free with times of 45.02 and 45.15 seconds, respectively. Junior Philip Binaco and Nesbitt were not far behind in sixth and seventh place, respectively. Binaco finished with a time of 46.46 and Nesbitt finished 46.67. The efforts of the four Lions qualified them for the championship finals.
The Lions performance earned several swimmers a spot at the NCAA regionals next week.
“Seniors Coppola and Nesbitt will be heading to NCAA’s for the first time along with rookie Yi,” Bishop said.
By the end of the third day, the Profs were on top despite the efforts of the Lions.
“Yes, we were disappointed that we finished second, but we accomplished our primary goal of qualifying a strong group for NCAAs,” Bishop said. “We’ve won our share of title, but we always want more.”
The women’s team’s third-place finish was made possible by the determination of the team. Sophomore Maddie Hynoski swam on an injured shoulder throughout the weekend, earning top times in several events.
“She worked through some shoulder injuries this whole season and had to kick most practices, so for her to have best times in three events is amazing,” Harnett said.
In the 100-fly, Hynoski finished fourth and earned the team 26 points with a time of 58.84 seconds. Hynoski also earned points in the 50-free and the 100-free.
Junior Debbie Meskin worked through some issues with her back to earn points. In the 400-individual medley, Meskin hit the wall fourth at 4:49.73, earning her team 26 points. In the 200-fly, she finished fifth with a time of 2:13.09.
“Her determination is what got her through this weekend,” Harnett said.
Rippey, Askin and sophomore Courtney Thompson gave the Lions even more points in the 200-fly, finishing ninth in 2:17.23, 12th in 2:20.43 and 15th in 2:24.08, respectively.
Senior Brenna Strollo finished her career with a fourth-place finish in the 200-back, an event the senior has struggled with in the past, according to Harnett.
Sophomore Gabi Denicola set the tone for the final stretch of events on Sunday with a personal best of 17:54.08 in the 1650-free, earning her fifth place. Denicola was not satisfied with her times in the 500-free and 200-free earlier that weekend, so her personal best finish in the 1650-free was a great way to finish the weekend.
The women’s diving team also showed spirit in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Senior Sarah Grassi earned first in the 1-meter with a score of 467.80 and second in the 3-meter with a score of 401.10.
Junior Hannah Raymond took second runner-up in the 1-meter with a score of 432.65.
“Sarah was in second place going into finals on the 1-meter board and upped her game at the finals to finish first,” Harnett said. “It was a great way to finish her career.”
Harnett believes the season has showcased the Lions teamwork.
“That is what this team has been about this season — teamwork,” Harnett said. “Our squad size was down this year, so everyone had to pick up some of the missing pieces at dual meets. That carried through into Championships. I’m am very proud of this team. They worked hard as a team, and they succeeded as a team.”
(02/14/17 7:14am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
Seventy students from Carteret, Franklin and Lakewood middle schools woke up early on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 10, for long bus ride into Ewing.
The students were a part of the Aspire High Youth program, a nonprofit devoted to showing underprivileged youth aged 10 through 17 the many pathways to college available to them by visiting campuses across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
During each visit, college students act as mentors to middle schoolers as they explore what the future may hold for them. Each campus visit has a different theme. Saturday’s was “Positive Life Choices.”
The program works with schools to seek out students who believe college is not viable for them and teach them that college can be for everyone. All three districts’ high schools ranked below the state average for SAT participation in the 2014-2015 school year, according to N.J. School Performance Reports.
Torrie Hurd, the eighth grade vice principal of Franklin Middle School, believes one reason children don’t consider college is a lack of people in their lives attending college. It’s hard to break that barrier.
“If you don’t see it, if you have no one in your family to say, ‘This is what you’re going to do.’ It’s hard to imagine it,” Hurd said.
Hurd compared the phenomenon with children of color not having strong role models in their lives.
“If you’ve never seen a doctor, you can’t dream to be a doctor,” Hurd said. “If you’ve never had interactions with a lawyer, you can’t dream to be a lawyer.”
Thelma Carrera, a junior philosophy and Spanish double major, can attest to the effectiveness of programs such as these. Carrera grew up in Trenton, N.J., where it was difficult for her to envision a future in academics.
She received little help from her family as she would become the first in her family to attend college.
“Growing up, I was in a program similar to this,” Carrera said. “And that really helped me throughout high school to have my mind straight and help me with my grades and really prepared me to look at college as a possibility.”
Now, Carrera is a member of Lambda Theta Alpha, the Latin sorority that hosts these sessions throughout the state.
The sorority teamed up with the Golden Key International Honour Society as well as Alpha Phi Alpha, Sigma Lambda Beta and the PRIDE mentoring program to provide mentors for the children.
Ashley Lai, a senior psychology and music double major and program coordinator of Golden Key, was not thinking about college when she was in middle school.
“I was probably more focused on high school and just trying to survive middle school,” Lai said.
Lai acted as a mentor at the event, asking about their interests and answering any questions they had for her.
The morning consisted of mentors and mentees exploring topics like bullying, social media, peer pressure and drugs, and how
the students can make positive life choices as they grapple with these issues in the future.
Working in groups, students defined their topic, named the reasons the issue occurs, listed what effects they have on people and determined how to prevent them from happening. The children’s findings were all posted on poster board.
Over lunch, the mentors talked about the college application process and afterwards, students toured the campus. The purpose of these exercises was to equip students with the life skills needed to make good life choices.
In addition to student mentors, those in the program receive help from teachers and counselors known as liaisons, who help arrange the trips and run an after-school program at school.
Toni Planko, a guidance counselor and liaison at Carteret Middle School, feels the college visits benefit students.
“I think it’s an excellent program for the kids that gets them exposed to different colleges where I think they otherwise, normally wouldn’t get a chance to attend,” Planko said.
Jonathan Gant, a guidance counselor and Aspire High liaison at Lakewood Middle School, said the kids who take the program are usually the ones who want to better themselves while doing an extracurricular activity that will look good on transcripts.
Like Lai, Gant didn’t think about college until junior or senior year of high school.
“For them to be able to see this stuff at the middle school level, is something I wasn’t provided with when I was growing up,” Gant said.
When the Aspire High program was pitched at a meeting at Franklin High School, chemistry teacher Katie Barillas knew “that’s exactly what I want to do with my kids.”
Barillas soon became a liaison herself. She explained how she learned through her own experiences the benefits of guidance.
“I didn’t become what I thought I would be at that time,” Barillas said. “I had no one focusing my goals or telling me this might be a good way to go.”
While these students will have guidance just as Carrera did, Lillian Perez, the president and co-founder of Aspire High, was treading on new territory as she was applying to college.
“What people don’t realize is that this one Saturday can change the lives of so many kids,” Perez said.
As students from Lakewood Middle School filed in, Perez greeted each like a friend.
Perez and the students have a lot in common.
Perez was the first in her family to attend college, and she did so without a group like Aspire High at her back, which was one of her inspirations for founding the company. The non-profit started with one school, Piscataway Technical High School, and branched off from there. Now they serve five districts.
“When you have kids who are in middle school, coming in, waking up at 7 in the morning to go to a college or a university, it’s a need, it’s something that they want to do,” Perez said.
Although it was only their first year doing the program, Franklin Middle School is looking to branch out to others students who might benefit from Aspire High. Days before arriving at the College, the school held a workshop for parents about studying strategies. Four more students joined the fold as a result.
Hurd believes that the lack of mentors in addition to the steep price tag of higher education deters students who do not want to be a burden on their parents.
She recalled one student who said that, because he did not have $60,000 at his disposal, he could not go to college. Through Aspire High, he quickly learned that not all colleges are that expensive, and there are ways to lower the price tag, such as a scholarship.
Hurd was not originally an educator. Originally a member of the business realm, she returned to school to get a teaching degree 10 years ago. She only started working at the middle school last November.
“What really excites me about middle school is that they’re really not sure what they want, and it’s a great opportunity to mold... their minds and give them the opportunity to see what’s out there,” Hurd said.
(02/07/17 9:54am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
Walking around campus, you see two types of people: those with hard hats and those without.
Campus construction has become an ubiquitous part of life at the College. From the fenced-off and refurbished Brower Student Center to the hollowed-out halls of the new STEM Building to the bare-windowed storefronts of Campus Town, the College seems to be under perpetual construction.
Campus Town
Campus Town is beginning to shape up as more companies come in. Brickwall Tavern and Restaurant remains the most anticipated project, having originally been projected to open summer of 2016, according to an NJ.com article from January 2016.
However, students looking to find a place to drink within walking distance of campus may be dismayed to see the space leased out to Brickwall barren save for a coming soon poster on the window.
The owners of Brickwall just recently got their permits into the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and are getting approval for aspects of the project one by one, according to Greg Lentine, director of campus development and vice president of sales and marketing at PRC Group.
“There were a lot of things that had to happen with (Brickwall) in order for them to move forward, and one of the biggest things for them is the guarantee of the availability of a liquor license,” Lentine said. “That took some time to get organized. ... That’s done.”
New Jersey has some of the strictest liquor license laws in the nation. Each municipality is only allowed to issue one license per every 3,000 residents, which leads to licenses being auctioned off at sky-high prices, sometimes more than $1 million.
Aspects of the original Brickwall plan, such as an open walkway going through the restaurant, were scrapped as time went on.
“We thought (Brickwall would) be open by spring, but in construction, unfortunately, things happen,” Lentine said.
Despite the delay, construction has begun on a number of other new Campus Town businesses. A hair stylist called Hair Worx, emPower Yoga and a nail salon have all begun construction, according to Lentine.
All current construction “should be open” by the fall semester, Lentine said. However, that is not certain.
“It really depends on the business,” Lentine said. “So it’s hard to tell (when they will be done).”
PostNet, a print shop, and the inFocus Urgent Care are awaiting approval for permits from the DCA, while a gourmet hot dog restaurant — which does not have a name as of yet — is also in talks to open a store.
California Tanning backed out of their deal with Campus Town. Lentine speculated that they could not get adequate equipment in the Campus Town lease space. Their sign still hangs in front of building 6, to be removed once another business takes its place.
Several other businesses are also eyeing Campus Town lots that — should negotiations fall through — will fill out the rest of the open storefronts.
“By this time next year, it should be fully occupied,” Lentine said.
Brower Student Center
On campus, Brower Student Center opened its new event space on Sunday, Feb. 5, for the College Union Board’s Super Bowl LI Celebration, but renovations aren’t done yet. Both the atrium and the north entrance remain closed to the public.
“The atrium is closed to the public for a few reasons — we recently removed the ceramic flooring, patched the existing concrete and are in the process of installing the new porcelain flooring,” said Matthew Bonomo, the project manager for the Brower renovation project. “The existing lighting fixtures are being removed and replaced with new lights.”
These tasks were meant to be completed over winter break, but complications with the new light’s wiring resulted in a delay.
The project is currently in Phase 3, which comprises completion of the second-floor meeting spaces and bathrooms, until the end of February 2017, according to the campus construction website.
Phase 3 also includes the completion of the north entrance and exit, game room and the Dean’s Suite, as well as new atrium stairs, Bonomo said. All work is scheduled to be completed by summer 2017.
STEM Complex
Rising above the green fence surrounding it, the new STEM Building and Forum seeks to “connect TCNJ students with the synergy and the tools… of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the 21st Century,” according to the College’s website.
The project reached it’s 75 percent mark and is aiming to be occupied by summer 2017, according to the campus construction website.
Phase 1 of the project consists of the new STEM building, an addition to the chemistry building and a Forum connecting the biology building with the new building. The cream-colored bricks of the Forum stand in contrast to the red brick buildings surrounding it.
The STEM Building will house the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and the Mechanical Engineering.
Parking garages
Another project was just added to that list. On Jan. 30, students received an email about new fencing and barriers on the upper two floors of Lots 7, 11 and 13 on campus, closing the parking spaces lining the walls of the garages on those floors.
“The main purpose is for safety and security,” said Joe Como, the project manager. “And the project entail garage barriers and fencing.”
The first garage slated for the project is the Metzger Garage, Lot 7. The construction will be completed in phases between Feb. 9 and Feb. 24. Campus Police will not ticket Campus Town residents — who usually park on the roof of Lot 7 — if they park on lower floors while construction is going on. Overflow parking for residents is also available in Lot 8 by the Administrative Services Building.
While the initial email said construction would begin on Thursday Feb. 2, problems with the supplier led to a week-long delay.
(01/31/17 5:29pm)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
In 1904, German researcher Paul Ehrlich decided the world needed a new cure for syphilis. At the time, the common treatment was both ineffective and often produced harmful side effects. Ehrlich believed a better drug could be made that would only target the disease-causing pathogens and not the patients.
He called these hypothetical compounds “magic bullets.” We call them antibiotics.
After testing hundreds of new compounds, the 606th compound yielded results, becoming the first chemical drug — Salvarsan — but it was far from magic. The discovery paved the way for Alexander Fleming to discover penicillin in 1928. Over the next few decades, more antibiotics were discovered using a similar process to Ehrlich.
By this time, the scientific world believed antibiotics had won them the battle against bacterial infections, however, these magic bullets were not as flawless as people believed. After use of antibiotics became widespread, pathogens adapted and antibiotics lost its magic.
Antibiotic resistance was the topic of the biology department’s first Colloquium seminar this semester. Alita Miller, head of biology at Entasis Therapeutics, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca that focuses on the early stages of drug development, spoke to students and faculty about her research on Friday, Jan. 27, in room 101 of the Physics Building.
“All of the seminars function to enrich the intellectual community within the departments and school,” said Keith Pecor, an associate professor of biology and chair of the department.
Miller graduated from Kalamazoo College with a Bachelor of Arts in biology and earned her Ph.D in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Chicago.
Students and faculty from the biology, chemistry and nursing departments packed the lecture hall wall to wall — some had to sit on the stairs.
“It was fantastic to see so many of our students take advantage of this opportunity to hear about cutting-edge applied research in biology and chemistry,” said Kathryn Elliott, an assistant professor of biology.
Armed with a slide show, Miller began the seminar explaining all of the good accomplished by antibiotics — the treatment of cancer, heart surgery and care for premature infants, among other things, were all made possible thanks to antibiotics.
The mood at the time was that of optimism. Miller demonstrated this with a photo of a surfer riding the crest of a massive wave. Like the surfer who had conquered the wave, science had conquered bacterial infections. Antibiotics gave humanity power over once-deadly diseases.
However, “in that power hung the seeds of crisis,” Miller said.
Resistance to antibiotics appeared soon after its discovery. Antibiotics act as a “selective pressure” on pathogens, Miller said, meaning they make certain traits more desirable for reproduction.
When an antibiotic is used to fight infection, it only kills those organisms that do not have the genetic traits to resist the drug. Those that do survive and go on to reproduce more bacteria with the ability to resist the antibiotic.
Over the next few decades, each new drug lost its efficiency one-by-one. Miller demonstrated this with a timeline marking when an antibiotic was discovered, when resistance was first identified and when the drug lost its efficacy. After a heap of antibiotic-resistant pathogens sprung up in the ’80s and ’90s, scientists began forewarning of a post-antibiotic future. Things seemed grim.
“This is where we are today,” Miller said, switching to another slide of a surfer, this one tumbling into the wave he was trying to ride. The crowd laughed.
The first antibiotic Miller helped discover kills drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. Gonorrhoeae), which causes gonorrhea and is considered one of three “urgent threats” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While infections are low in the United States, the speed at which these resistant strains can spread makes N. gonorrhoeae an immediate threat.
It took the small team of Entasis just six months to discover the antibiotic QPT-1. It was used to create the drug Zoliflodacin, which is currently in clinical trials.
“The rise of drug-resistant gonorrhea is alarming, and while this bacterium is not usually fatal, untreated infections can cause chronic pain and infertility,” Elliott said. “So, it was exciting to hear that a promising new drug is in clinical trials.”
For many companies, it isn’t profitable to find a new way to kill a bacterium. Most modern antibiotics are improvements on old ones or are only designed to attack a specific component of bacteria, not kill them.
Entasis went against this trend with QPT-1, screening thousands of compounds to find a new way to kill. They concerned themselves only with the compound’s ability to kill — they didn’t question the results, they only cared if the compound did its job, saving money and time. The new drug is effective because N. gonorrhoeae never experienced the drug’s unique method of attack before, so it has no defenses for it.
Miller mentioned two genes that lead to antibiotic resistance in her seminar — New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) and mobilized colistin resistance (MCR-1). Both can be spread to other bacteria through horizontal gene transfer, when genetic material is transferred in ways other than from parent to offspring.
NDM-1 is a beta-lactamase, an enzyme that “chews up” beta-lactam antibiotics like penicillin, Miller said. MCR-1, discovered in 2015 in a string of E. coli, allows bacteria to resist colistin, an antibiotic used only when a disease has resisted every other drug administered against it.
Miller and Entasis are working on a drug that can fight against multidrug resistant acinetobacter — a “serious threat,” according to the CDC, one tier below urgent — currently known as ETX2514.
The task of finding this drug was complicated by multiple beta-lactamase enzymes within bacteria working together to fight off the effects of the drug. With so many different combinations of enzymes, Entasis could only find drugs that would be effective against some, but not all.
After a lot of testing, Entasis discovered ETX2514, which, when used in tandem with the drug Sulbactam, stopped all beta-lactamase combinations with the least amount of concentration and dosage.
Elliott hoped students walked away understanding the gravity of antibiotic resistance and how public policy can speed or hamper progress on a new drug.
“This is one case where the scary stories in the media are not always an exaggeration,” Elliott said. “The post-antibiotic era is right around the corner unless we do something to prevent it.”
Pecor hoped biology students learned about the flexibility of their degree.
“At open houses and during advising sessions, a common question is, ‘What can I do with a biology degree if I don’t want to be a doctor?’” Pecor said. “Our seminars help answer that question by showcasing the people doing many of those jobs.”
During a question and answer session, Miller stressed that, although these drugs might end up becoming obsolete in the future — “We’ll be lucky if they work in 10 to 20 years,” she said, it is still important to continue making these drugs.
(01/24/17 10:11am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
Updated on Jan. 30, 2017 with statistics.
Every year is the same. December comes around and finals week hits, the air grows colder, the nights longer and each day another cluster of students escape to the warmth of their homes, leaving an increasingly empty campus behind them. It’s higher education in hibernation.
While the campus may sleep over winter break, Campus Town does not. This past break, the new businesses that opened primarily to provide convenience to students were inconvenienced themselves after their primary customers went home for the next month. During the fall semester of 2016, 3,752 students lived on campus, according to Associate Director of Housing Emily Lleo. Over winter break, approximately 100 students lived on campus.
Evan Yap, the manager of Yummy Sushi, witnessed her once-bustling Asian restaurant grow quiet. On Sunday, Jan. 22 — move-in day for most students — the winter struggle is invisible. Students and families alike were seated for dinner that night.
“You hardly see anyone walking around anymore,” Yap said.
Kevin Meneses, who works behind the counter at Mexican Mariachi Grill next door, supported Yap’s claim, stating there were less people at the restaurant over winter break. With Mariachi Grill and Yummy Sushi having just opened in September and October, respectively, this was their first time experiencing the winter lull — neither establishment knew to what extent the lack of students would hurt business.
At Yummy Sushi, a majority of the clientele were students, Yap said. Those few that weren’t students were mostly regulars at the first location that lived closer to the new one. These few extra customers were not enough to overcome the lack of students.
Escalating the problem was the winter weather, Yap said. The few students on campus for winter session preferred to stay indoors or eat in on-campus facilities, which are closer to residence halls. During winter session, Eickhoff Hall remains open, albeit for limited hours, as well as the Lion’s Den, according to tcnj.edu.
Presentations held by Campus Town before companies moved in stressed the importance of not relying too heavily on students, however, many businesses seem to have underestimated by just how much.
Greg Lentine, the director of Campus Development and vice president of sales and marketing of the PRC Group, the private partner in the Campus Town project, said the public didn’t realize the stores were open to them as well as students.
“When we first opened this, there seemed to be in the public some confusion on whether or not the public was allowed here,” Lentine said.
Campus Town is currently working to reach out to the public through advertisements and articles in local papers. There was some improvement — Lentine said some restaurants are reporting half of their customers are locals, however, the winter lull still stings.
“If you have 100 percent customers and then half your customers leave, you feel it. You see it. It’s obvious,” Lentine said.
RedBerry Frozen Yogurt saw a lot of business from the public over the summer, but they benefit most from students, owner Sherry Havier said.
“When the students are here, we definitely do much better business, so it’s more students than community,” Havier said.
Lentine also mentioned that the first year for these businesses is learning the ropes of the new location and adapting the next year. While Mariachi Grill and Yummy Sushi wrestled with their newfound winter worries, RedBerry, which opened the year before, had already learned to cope.
“Business drops off dramatically,” Havier said. “But to cope with it, we shortened our hours, my husband (Art, who is also an owner) and I worked most of the shifts by ourselves without paying labor and we didn’t order as much product and we held our breath until it was over.”
In addition to the lack of customers, less students meant limited staff. To prevent understaffing on days neither Havier nor her husband could work, they hired high school and community college students to help out.
Both Lentine and Havier hope that, as new businesses open, the public will have more incentive to visit Campus Town. According to Lentine, Campus Town expects to open a hair cutter, an InFocus Urgent Care, a gourmet hot dog store, a yoga studio, a nail salon and a PostNet, which is a printing and mail store, in the next six months.
Much like other Campus Town establishments, RedBerry had some idea of what might happen without students to give them business, but underestimated just how hard it’d hurt.
“We were panicked last year,” Havier said. “We didn’t know that was going to happen,” Havier said. “We didn’t realize how big of an effect it was going to have.”
They spent the rest of the year preparing for the following winter. Yummy Sushi is currently doing the same for the three-month long summer break.
“We still have to try our best to stay open,” Yap said.
(01/24/17 5:41am)
By George Tatoris
News Editor
Maurice Hall, the current chairperson of the Department of Communication at Villanova University, spent two days in Ewing, N.J., for his interview for the position of Dean of the Arts and Communication at the College.
One evening, he spent about 20 minutes discussing the upcoming exhibit in the the College’s art gallery with a student. The student’s knowledge and passion impressed him beyond bounds.
“She was totally lost — in a very good way,” he said.
The experience was just one of a handful of things that struck Hall about the College.
According to an email sent out to students by Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jacqueline Taylor on Jan. 9, Hall was appointed to the position of dean of the School of Arts and Communication, which will be effective July 1, 2017.
“(The deanship is) a job that is at the heart of a school that focuses on the liberal arts,” Hall said. “It integrates the arts with communication, which I think are both vital to both understanding the world in which we live currently and to giving students a really exceptional education.”
Hall will take over the position from Interim Dean James Day in July. Day took over shortly after the previous dean, John Laughton, retired at the end of the fall semester. Hall had first heard about the College from his students at Villanova who had siblings at the College or had applied here themselves. Hall said he has only heard good things.
“It’s a public university, but so many of its best teachers resemble those of very good liberal arts colleges,” Hall said.
To Hall, the job represented everything he enjoyed about schools.
As chairperson, Hall oversees the largest department in Villanova’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences — almost 500 undergraduates study communication at the university. His work focuses on communication across cultures and within mixed organizations.
“Communicating effectively within diverse organizations and across cultures is vital in our increasingly heterogeneous and globalized society,” a summary of his work at Villanova’s website reads.
As chairperson, Hall — along with a bevy of other academics — implemented a university-wide program called Intergroup Relations, a non-credit course open to every student that aims to build an understanding between students of different social, economic, racial and ethnic groups.
Hall has consulted and taught on issues such as diversity training and strategic diversity management, conflict management, team building, cross-cultural communication and leadership training for national and international clients.
Before coming to Villanova, Hall worked as an assistant professor and graduate teaching assistant at Howard University, where he earned a doctorate, and as an instructor at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors.
Hall was raised in Spanish Town, Jamaica, which is just west of the capital of Kingston. He was born in Bradford, England, according to Patch.com. He moved to the U.S. in 1990 and has published numerous works since then.
Publications such as “Embodying the Postcolonial Life and Re-Constituting Place and Space: Culture and Communication in the Construction of a Jamaican Transnational Identity” discussed the identities and experiences that come with living in the Caribbean. The latter book earned Hall the Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the African American Communication Division at the National Communication Association in 2012.
Among the many things that struck Hall about the College was the physical beauty — he even admired the campus-wide construction.
“All (the construction projects) are good signals for the continuing development and evolution of the school,” Hall said.
(12/06/16 5:19am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
Far away from the cross country team’s usual stomping ground, clouds lingered and winds slashed temperatures down to a crisp 40 degrees in Louisville, Ky., as sophomore Natalie Cooper crossed the finish line without her team by her side for the first time in the 2016 cross country season.
Cooper was the only Lion of the women’s team to qualify for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship, hosted in Louisville’s E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park on Saturday, Nov. 19. The entirety of the men’s team was also there, having earned an at-large bid after a third-place Regionals finish.
Cooper finished 47th with a time of 21:29. It was her last runaway success in a season full of them. Even her older teammates are starting to look up to her.
“Last year Natalie did not race at the NCAA Regional meet and this year she finished 47th in the nation,” said junior Allison Fournier, one of Cooper’s teammates. “She is an inspiration to me.”
The week before she placed sixth in the Atlantic Regionals, and the week before that she won the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) title. Getting to nationals came as a surprise to the sophomore.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Cooper said.
Assistant coach Michael Walker was more surprised by the time frame in which she got to nationals.
“I could see it happening later on as a senior, so this is ahead of schedule from what I thought was possible,” Walker said.
Cooper previously played soccer, but did not enjoy it, so her mother suggested she try cross country. The new sport resonated with her.
Unfortunately, during junior and senior year of high school, fractures and shin problems prevented her from running.
Upon graduation, she chose to attend the College because her brother graduated from there, and if she wanted to continue to run, the cross country program was there, ready and waiting.
When she first became a Lion, Walker and head coach Justin Lindsey noticed there was more to her skill than what laid on the surface. They knew right away she had not met her full potential in high school.
“The first thing (Walker and I) noticed is she manages pacing with a rhythm that showed she would be able to push the training intensity and not break down as quickly as others,” Lindsey said.
Cooper was just thrilled to return to her favorite sport.
“My mindset was just happy to be running again,” she said.
Over the course of her rookie season, Cooper’s time in the 6000-meter decreased with each race. Forty seconds were cut between her first and second 6K, then 40 more and then nine more. For her final race of the season, the NJAC Championship, Cooper crossed the finish line at 22:46, ending her season with a new personal record (PR) exactly two minutes faster than her first 6K of the season.
“We were careful about her training last year as a frosh, and it took her a while to build up endurance in order to practice and compete at a high level,” Walker said.
Fournier took notice of her success early on.
“Without being able to run higher mileage last year, she still ran very well,” Fournier said. “I couldn’t wait to see how much faster she would race with more training.”
Over the course of the season, Cooper also became friends with her teammates. She always looked forward spending time with them at practice.
“Practice is one of the most fun parts of my day,” Cooper said.
Walker believes the team’s relationship is key to their success.
“All the women work well together and bonded in a way that allows them to think big,” Walker said. “(Cooper) has great potential at the national level, and I think the team will follow and be part of that overall success in the next few years.”
Back in Kentucky, Cooper was alone. As she watched the men’s team savor their hard-fought success, she could not help but think of her team back home. Starting the season, the goal was to get to Louisville as a team. Cooper picked up her phone and sent a text to a friend back in Jersey.
Between seasons, Cooper increased her mileage. Competing as a distance runner in indoor track and field, Cooper ran a PR of 11:02 in the 3000-meter and 19:11 in the 5000 meter. In outdoor track she ran a PR of 17:56 in the 5000-meter event. Cooper continued to run over the summer, as well.
Returning for the 2016 cross country season, Cooper beat her PR in the 6K by more than 20 seconds. By the Atlantic Regionals in November, her time was 21:03. One week later, she was on her way to nationals. To Cooper, it seemed things were “starting to come together in a real way” after her legs caused her so much trouble in high school.
Lindsey owed the success partially to Cooper’s mental fortitude.
“She doesn’t get intimidated easily and she focuses on herself and how well she can execute her race plan,” Lindsey said.
Cooper said her success came from the training. Walker devised a training regiment for her that helped her progress without taking time off, according to Lindsey. Walker believes strongly in finishing the last one and a half miles of a race with finesse, so much of the training was geared towards achieving this. Having a plan on race day, according to Lindsey, is “paramount” in cross country.
Cooper’s a bility to accommodate her new training leaves Lindsey optimistic.
“My hope is she becomes a mainstay at the national level and ultimately contend for a national title,” Lindsey said.
In New Jersey, Allison Fournier received a text message from friend and teammate Natalie Cooper.
“Al,” the text read. “Next year we are going to Nationals. It’s going to happen.”
(11/29/16 4:48am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
The College’s swimming and diving teams had more to digest than turkey and stuffing over Thanksgiving break.
The Lions withstood a grueling dual meet against the New York University (NYU) Violets the previous Saturday, Nov. 19. While the women’s team were routed, 223-71, by the eighth-ranked Violets, the men’s team slipped past them in the final event of the meet for a 151-143 victory.
The 12th-ranked men’s Lions were barely ahead, 140-137, when senior Scott Vitabile, sophomore Alex Skoog and seniors Ryan Gajdzsiz and Andrew Nesbitt readied themselves for the 400-yard freestyle relay. Whichever quartet finished first would be given 11 points, and the overall win. It was a similar scene to last year’s NYU meet, which the Lions lost, 151-147.
In that 400-free relay, the Violets wormed ahead by mere milliseconds. This year, things went differently. Vitabile, Skoog, Gajdzsiz and Nesbitt skated by with a time of 3:05.90 — four seconds more than the Violets A team — giving the Lions the win.
“It was one of the most exciting meets I’ve experienced during my 29 years at TCNJ,” said men’s team head coach Brian Bishop. “I was very impressed with the energy that the team displayed throughout the entire contest. Winning it in the last relay was a fitting end to an awesome meet.”
The Lions got ahead early in the first two events. In the 200-yard medley relay, junior Adam Coppola, Nesbitt, Skoog and Gajdzsiz took first with a time of 1:34.38. Soon after, freshman Harrison Yi and junior Logan Barnes put the Lions further ahead with a tandem finish — Yi took first with 9:56.98 and Barnes followed second two minutes later with 9:58.55.
Vitabile, Gajdzsiz and freshman David Madigan furthered the Lions lead in the 200-yard freestyle race. Vitabile touched the wall first at 1:43.03. Not a second passed before teammate Gajdzsiz finished with a time of 1:43.42. Madigan took third with a time of 1:46.18. According to Bishop, Vitabile helped elevate the team.
“Team captain Scott Vitabile had a tremendous day and demonstrated his leadership throughout the entire competition,” Bishop said.
The Violets were able to reduce the deficit in the 100-back and 100-breast, but the Lions continued to put out strong performances. Sophomore Samuel Maquet dominated the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:55.35. The men continued to dominate the freestyle, as well.
Coppola took top honors in the 50-free with a time of 21.64, Vitabile took first in the 100-free with a time of 46.61 and Gajdzsiz and Yi placed one-two in the 500-free with times of 4:46.76 and 4:47.49, respectively.
“Yi had another outstanding meet and I expect more great things from him for the rest of this season and beyond,” Bishop said.
Despite its loss, the women’s team had a number of highlights.
Like the men’s team, the Lions did well in the 500-free. Sophomore Gabi Denicola and juniors Marta Lawler and Debbie Meskin swept the race for the ladies, with respective times of 5:29.66, 5:40.10 and 5:45.32.
Senior Brenna Strollo provided the Lions with four points in the 100-yard backstroke and juniors Ali Huber and Cassidy Bergeron finished in tandem, taking the second- and third-place spots in the 100-fly with respective times of 1:03.30 and 1:03.87.
The women’s divers also finished close in the 1-meter dive. Junior Hannah Raymond took second with a score of 296.33 while senior Sarah Grassi took third with a score of 288.75.
Junior Jill Galindo gave the Lions a few points with a third-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Meskin contributed two third-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-fly with times of 2:20.66 and 2:17.35, respectively.
After a week-long break, the Lions return to host the TCNJ Invitational from Friday, Dec. 2, to Sunday, Dec. 4.
(11/17/16 4:03am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, millions of Americans stepped into voting booths, drew the curtains closed and chose who they wanted to be president. As they filled out that bubble or pressed that button, I’m willing to bet many Americans — regardless of why they chose to vote, their political ideology or even which candidate they were voting for — felt the same exact feeling: like their vote would save the country.
As we neared the end of this ugly campaign, each candidate became a villain to the other side — whether they wanted to form a pseudo-fascist dictatorship and persecute minorities, or were secretly a corporate puppet, or maybe even a secret communist, that must be stopped. We weren’t casting ballots for one side or the other. We were casting ballots to prevent disaster.
Polling data released by the Pew Research Center in 2014 showed that for the past two decades, the percentage of Americans favoring mixed political views dropped significantly — from 49 percent in 1994 to 39 percent in 2014. The data also showed that 27 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans view the opposing side as a “threat to the country.” While these extreme views are still in the minority, the number is rising.
Another Pew study released in 2014 explored the media habits of individuals on the far sides of the political spectrum. The study separated the polling data into five groups — consistently liberal, mostly liberal, mixed, mostly conservative and consistently conservative.
The study found that while we cannot completely block out opposing views in social media, political bubbles can still exist. Only 32 percent of consistent liberals reported not seeing opposing political views on Facebook. That number was even higher for consistent conservatives at 47 percent, however, consistent liberals were more likely to unfollow or unfriend someone based on politics. Both sides share one thing, though — they’re more likely to vote and discuss politics than those with mixed views.
While this data was released just before the election, another study published by Contemporary Economic Policy in August 2016 found many Americans search for “self-reinforcing viewpoints rather than be exposed to a common ‘nightly news’ broadcast,” which leads to an inability to sympathize with the opposing viewpoint. We need to address this.
The opening line to Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” goes, “Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our voices together.” That song was released in 1968, a time of even greater divide in our nation. In that year, some Americans were killing communists for their beliefs in Vietnam, while other Americans were dying for their beliefs back home — Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of them. The opening line almost pleads with America to stop the chaos.
The rest of the song follows the narrator’s search for America and its meaning. He and his girlfriend, Kathy — the lover in the first line — start their road trip with enthusiasm, but by the end, the only treasure the trip has yielded is an empty box of cigarettes. As the narrator stares out the window at an empty field, he realizes the America he went looking for doesn’t exist. America itself is meaningless. I believe this is only partially true.
America is a blank canvas upon which people imprint their own ideals through voting and being politically active, and everyone is allowed to contribute. Sure, in the end, the canvas looks like a mess, but that mess is America.
This election, like the narrator’s journey, has left many Americans feeling weary and disillusioned, but it’s important that we, as students, remember the ill-feelings are spread all over the political spectrum.
There are thousands of students on campus with different beliefs about where we should go. We can’t belittle someone if they don’t agree. We can’t disregard a voice or unfollow or unfriend someone based on political views, because in doing so, we close ourselves off. More and more we enter discussions with no intention of listening and with no intention of learning, and that is a mindset students should not keep.
We need to listen, not just because we’re students, but because at the end of the day, we are all looking for America and coming up empty.
(11/15/16 7:42pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
The Lions were faced with a familiar situation on Saturday, Nov. 12 — something they’ve seen two times already this season. After 70 minutes of evenly-matched field hockey, they go into overtime.
The stakes are high — any scoring opportunity, any penalty corner can win the game. The Lions were able to come out on top in both contests. However, this time things were different. Throw in the possibility that the loser is ejected from the NCAA Tournament, and things can get a little testy.
The Lions met the Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats in neutral territory — Babson Park, Mass. — to negotiate a spot in the next round of the NCAA Tournament the only way they know how.
Unfortunately for the Lions, this would not be their third victory in overtime. After the hard-fought match, the Diplomats eked past the Lions, 1-0.
However, Babson College put the Diplomats at the other end of that score the next day to make it through to the Final Four.
The loss leaves the Lions with a 16-4 record for the 2016 season.
The Lions were ranked fifth and the Diplomats ranked eighth nationally upon taking the field. The Lions strength this season came in the form of a vicious offense that scored 79 points over 20 games. All of their opponents were only able to score 22 points on them total.
The Diplomats themselves only scored a total of 46 goals prior to the the match-up, however sometimes it’s not about the number of goals a team scores, but the effectiveness at each goal. At the end of the day, the Diplomats had increased their season goals to 47 while the Lions were still at 79.
Almost half of those goals came from senior forward Jaclyn Douglas, who scored 19 of them, and senior defender Lexi Smith, who scored 18.
Although the Lions had an overall advantage, the Diplomats rigid defense and very competent offense were able to keep the Lions at bay. The Diplomats outshot the Lions 2-1 in the first half, and initiated three penalty corners against the Lions none.
Junior forward Elizabeth Morrison fired the first shot, but Diplomat goalkeeper Lliana Santangelo made it a save. The Diplomats went on the attack after this, initiating two corner plays, each offering the team an opportunity to score.
Diplomat sophomore midfielder Nicole Bodo took the first shot, but Lions senior defender Shannon Cowles was there to make her fifth defensive save of the season. Cowles was second this season in defensive saves behind Smith, who had nine. Although she is a senior, Cowles made her first Lions goal against the Kean University Cougars on Saturday, Oct. 29.
With less than 30 seconds in the half, the Diplomats freshman midfielder Erin Coverdale made another shot, but it was blocked by a Lions defender.
The Lions took control of the ball in the second half. After another shot from Coverdale was blocked, the Lions made three shots against the Diplomats. Smith missed an opportunity to score at 40 minutes in, hitting the post on a corner play.
After, two opportunities to score were stymied by the Diplomats defense. Sophomore forward Taylor Barrett’s shot ended in a defensive save for Diplomats junior defender Sarah Schannauer. Later, both of senior forward/midfielder Danielle Andreula’s shots gave Santangelo a save.
Despite either team’s efforts, the half ended in another stalemate, and the game went into overtime.
At first, it seemed Douglas, who has five game-winning goals this season — one of which resulted in a victory in overtime — would repeat history. However, Douglas’s shot ended in a save for Santangelo.
Franklin and Marshalls junior forward Sydney Cole decided the game with a goal just over two minutes into the overtime period.
The season may be over for this group of Lions, and the loss of their two most heavy-hitting starters — Smith and Douglas — will truly impact them in 2017. However, many returning players have also shown great potential this season.
Despite only playing for just over 800 minutes the entire season, freshman forward Cayla Andrews has scored 12 goals, the fourth most of any Lion. One of those 12 won the Lions the 2016 New Jersey Athletic Conference title and earned the team a slot in the NCAA Tournament.
Morrison, who also scored 12 goals and whose speed and strength are always a highlight on the field, also has one more year of play left. Junior goalkeeper Christina Fabiano also has one year left. After playing just under 1,000 minutes this season, she has accumulated 28 saves.
(11/14/16 8:05pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
“I have one pair of assless chaps,” Mellissa Hughes sang to a crowd at Kendall Hall on Friday, Nov. 11. “Size 42. Perfect condition, barely noticeable stickiness.”
That night, the stage belonged to the College’s Wind Ensemble for their concert, titled “Word/Play.” Hughes first came to campus in 2015 for the College’s “Katrina Ballads,” a song cycle about Hurricane Katrina on the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
This time, Hughes came to sing about about assless chaps. The band provided color with chromatic scales on the xylophone and oompahs from the brasses, giving the song a fitting comical context.
The song was one of eight in “Craigslistlieder,” a piano and vocal composition by musician Gabriel Kahane, arranged for the Wind Ensemble by its director, David Vickerman, and with a libretto written by a series of anonymous ad posters on Craigslist. The song cycle was the centerpiece of the concert that night.
“What I love about it is that it takes something so basic — we’ve all read Craigslist ads — we’ve all read something basic like this, and then putting this really well-crafted music behind it,” Vickerman said. “And then really making the music honest to what it’s about… (the music is) what it would sound like if you were really writing that.”
The individual who penned “For Trade: Assless Chaps,” wanted Spider-Man comics “or equivalent,” in return.
The arrangement by Vickerman added an operatic flair to these common man’s plights, and Hughes was able to morph her voice to fit each ad’s tone. Vickerman described the feat as “athletic.”
In “Half a Box of Condoms,” Hughes laments as she discovers “five blue, foil squares,” at the bottom of her sock drawer that are soon to expire, even though she is soon to be deployed. She anguishes over what could have been.
In “Neurotic and Lonely…” she plays the part of an “occasionally employed anthropologist, chainsmoking Jew,” who yearns for love, but has a long list of prerequisites for his potential lady. When the narrator is describing himself, the band utilizes chaotic rhythms and avant-garde stylings to stress the neuroticism of the man’s ad, but shifts to a quiet hymn when describing a potential Mrs. Right.
“Seeks gorgeous artsy genius woman interested in philosophical discourse,” Hughes sang.
The band swells as Hughes sings the final and most important requirements of the writer: “No Ugg boots. No Long Island.”
Hughes poured saccharine on her vocal chords for “If Anyone Knows,” a Disney-like ballad about one Craigslist user’s search for a mysterious condiment found at a stand in the Catskills.
“Somewhere up there at one of those stands, we pulled over and bought some stuff,” Hughes sang.
“Bought some stuff,” the Wind Ensemble sang in refrain.
The crowd laughed, and was able to chime in for the next line.
“One of the things we bought was some kind of sandwich relish,” Hughes sang.
“Sandwich relish,” the crowd sang.
For Vickerman, this was desirous.
“To me, concerts are about bringing people together,” Vickerman said. “And when we separate (the audience) from what we’re doing, it doesn’t help that.”
It’s not common for a sing-along to break out while a wind ensemble plays — it’s against concert etiquette — but Vickerman encouraged the rebellious attitude. During an intermission between the first and second songs of the night, he told the crowd to react to the music however they saw fit.
“Clap whenever you want,” he said.
After playing through an entire composition the crowd finally broke character for “If Anyone Knows.”
The band opened with Osvaldo Golijov’s “Three Songs for Soprano,” a series of dream-like compositions set to poems about death and mourning, and moved onto Louis Andriessen’s hectic arrangement, “M is for Man, Music, Mozart.” The only thing binding the three was the need for a soprano, and what Vickerman described as “the interplay of language and music.”
“There wasn’t anything really deep,” Vickerman said. “There were some deep moments maybe, but most of it’s just pretty fun and joyful.”
“Night of the Flying Horses,” the first of Golijov’s “Songs,” opened with a solo from Hughes. Soon the band joined in, providing sparse instrumentation driven by a rhythmically plucked harp. Meanwhile, a purple light provided color to the stage while the band played slow, sweeping notes.
In the last two minutes, the band broke into a gallop, propelled by a snare roll that sounded like a freight train.
The light turned blue for the next song, “Lúa Descolorida,” or “colorless moon” in Galician, making the stage look like a cloudless night on a full moon. Hughes opened the song with a wordless howl.
While Hughes sang lyrics that encapsulated absolute misery, even wishing for Death to “take my body and soul / Together / To a place I won’t be remembered,” according to the translation in the concert program, the piano and other instruments plodded behind, ascending up a scale while Hughes wailed.
For the last of the three songs, “How Slow the Wind,” written around an Emily Dickinson poem of the same name, the light turned a vibrant pink and the tone of the music made just as drastic a change. Driven by sinister low notes from the bassoon section, many of the phrases in this song went down a scale.
The band cut down in size for their next song series, “M is for Man, Music, Mozart.” Only part of brass section, a stand-up bass, a piano and Hughes remained onstage for the seven-part composition. Between each song, the band transitioned with instrumentals.
If “Craigslistlieder” was whimsical and “Three Songs for Soprano” was melancholy, this middle composition encompassed fury.
While the band hammered through dissonant chords, Hughes bellowed obscene, sometimes gory lyrics.
“‘B’ is for bile, blood and bones,” she sang during “The Alphabet Song.”
During the instrumentals, the saxes droned 16th notes to give the piece its frantic drive. The final song, “The Eisenstein Song,” mellowed things out before intermission. The band glided along on long notes while a flute echoed behind Hughes and the rest of the band.
The Wind Ensemble closed the night with “Opera Scene,” the story of one user’s search for a roommate that will tolerate the user’s one fatal flaw: their compulsion to put ice cubes down people’s shirts.
The finale of “Craigslistlieder” proved just as enjoyable as the rest.
“Let’s enjoy this together, be part of it, that’s what makes it great,” Vickerman said. “That’s what people love about live music.”
(11/08/16 10:31pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Editor
The field hockey team earned a clean 3-1 win over Rowan University on Wednesday, Nov. 2, sending them to the finals of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Tournament.
Senior midfielder/forward Jaclyn Douglas swiped a rebound into the net for the opening goal. With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, senior defender Lexi Smith received the ball on a corner play and fired a shot past the Profs goalkeeper to make the score 2-0.
Five minutes into the second period, Rowan midfielder Rachel Galante scored on a penalty stroke, but the Profs had given up too many scoring opportunities to the Lions defense.
In the first half, the Profs had four failed penalty corners. The first corner play gave senior defender Shannon Cowles a defensive save. The last corner, initiated with less than 30 seconds left, was their final effort to get on the board before the period ended, but it too failed.
After the Profs goal, the Lions defense kept them out of the net until the end of the game, halting four more corner plays. Junior goalkeeper Christina Fabiano made four saves throughout the game.
Meanwhile, junior forward Elizabeth Morrison sent a long pass to Douglas, who had a clear shot for her second goal of the night. The Lions won, 3-1, placing them in the NJAC finals.
Across the state, the College’s opponent in the finals had just been decided. Montclair University beat back Kean in a vicious 1-0 victory. The two teams met up on Saturday, Nov. 5, and the Lions put the Red Hawks at the other end of that 1-0 score to take the NJAC title.
As the top two teams in the NJAC — with the Lions in first and Montclair in second — walked onto the field at Lions Stadium, both undefeated in the conference, they approached a pivotal moment in their 2016 journey. Whomever won the NJAC Championship would receive automatic placement in the NCAA Tournament.
Both the Red Hawks and the Lions plodded through mire and muck to get to the finals. Beset by injury and illness in the beginning of the season, the Lions gave up three games to high-class teams throughout the month of September. They turned things around in October, resulting in a now 12-game win streak and a record of 15-3 at the start of the game.
The Red Hawks started 2016 strong with a 5-game win streak, but lost their momentum mid-season with three consecutive losses. Since then, the team rebounded and have since only lost a single match — a 4-0 shutout to the Lions — to make their record 16-4.
The Lions ignored their previous victory when they stepped onto the turf in Lions Stadium on Saturday. This was a new day and a new game.
“That (game) was history. Now we have to prove ourselves again,” head coach Sharon Pfluger said. “That is the mindset.”
In their last matchup, the Lions maintained control of the ball so thoroughly, the Red Hawks only had one chance to score in the entire first half. Things were immediately different this time. While the Lions still maintained control with five penalty corners, the Red Hawks had three penalty corners and two shots.
Neither team managed to score in the first half thanks to strong defenses on both teams. The Lions only managed one shot attempt in the entire period, which happened with less than 10 minutes left. Coach Pfluger expected a close game.
“We never underestimate any of our opponents,” Pfluger said. “So we knew it was going to be tight.”
The Lions returned to the field after halftime with added fire. Two minutes into the half, Douglas bolted downfield with the ball, past her teammates and past Montclair’s defenders, until the only thing standing between her and the back of the net was the Red Hawks goalie, Kaitlin Maguire. Unfortunately for the Lions, Maguire made the save.
Morrison was there to catch the rebound and fired it at the goal, but the shot went wide. In moments, the Lions tripled their shot count. Douglas initiated a corner play soon after, but the game remained scoreless. While both shots missed their mark, they showed the Red Hawks why the Lions held the No. 1 seed in the NJAC Tournament.
In one of the most decisive moves made by Pfluger in the entire game, the Lions substituted freshman defender Cayla Andrews for sophomore midfielder/defender Sidney Padilla with the timer at 49:25.
Not 30 seconds later, Morrison made a short pass to Andrews, who issued a solid tap for the only goal of the entire game. The timer was at 49:52. The score was 1-0, but the Lions couldn’t ease up.
“There was no relaxing because anything can happen,” Pfluger said. “There is still a lot of time left. So we had to get possession of the ball and we still had to play strong defense.”
After the goal, the Lions initiated five corner plays, but the Red Hawks defense held up for the remainder of the period. Unaware that Andrews's goal would be the only one of the day, a crowd in the stands dressed in Montclair red shouted in fervor as they approached the Lions net with the ball, but the Lions defense kept them out of their circle.
With that, the Lions enter the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Lions will face either the King’s College Monarchs or the Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats on Saturday, Nov. 12, depending on the outcome of their game on Wednesday, Nov. 9. In the meantime, the Lions will practice.
“We could come against teams we played already or we could come against teams that we’ve never seen,” Pfluger said. “So we have to concentrate on ourselves first and get refreshed and be ready for a whole ‘nother segment of the season.”