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(09/18/18 4:14am)
By Heather Haase
Web Editor
It was 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night. I had been sitting alone at the desk in my room for hours, hunched over my laptop with a curve in my spine that would compel any grandmother who saw me to stop in her tracks and scold me to sit up straight.
I had four classes scheduled for the following day, with hours of homework assigned for each. I was attempting to read one of the many PDFs tabbed on Adobe Acrobat, but the words kept waltzing across the page.
I could feel my heart trying harder and harder to double-bounce the rest of my body off a trampoline. The tiny blonde hairs on my arms were all standing at attention, with beads of cold sweat traveling circuitously around them as if it were an obstacle course.
My thoughts were meteors showering across my brain, bouncing off the interior surface of my skull, occasionally bumping into one another on their tangential path.
This was my second panic attack of the semester, and I still hadn’t made it through the first full week of classes.
I found myself questioning for the umpteenth time whether I was actually cut out for the real world post-graduation, when my phone buzzed. I flipped my phone over hoping it was one of my friends asking me to get coffee so I could have a “legitimate” excuse to leave my desk. However, the notification didn’t come from another person — it came from a robot. Next to an orange icon it wrote: “Get some Headspace.”
Headspace is a meditation app one of my coworkers told me to download a few months ago when I was struggling with my sleep schedule. It comes loaded with curated playlists designed to help with stress, focus, anxiety and, what was most relevant to me at the time, sleep.
The most appealing part about the program is that the user can choose how long they want to meditate, and the guided message will be adjusted accordingly. When I first downloaded the app I started with three minute increments, gradually building myself up to 10 to 20-minute sessions. I ended up using it every day during the summer, and found over time it helped me get better sleep.
But when I went moved back to the College without my 9 to 5 work schedule, my entire routine changed. Between figuring out how to balance my new class and work schedule, going on vacation over Labor Day weekend and meeting up with friends late at night, all of my healthy habits were pushed aside, including my evening meditation. Headspace sends me notifications every day, but over the past week I’ve ignored all of them.
In that moment of panic, I knew I had to do something to break the cycle of consternation. I took a deep breath, sat back in my chair, and opened the app. I scrolled to a three-minute session titled “Panicking” and let a friendly, familiar voice talk me down. After the session ended my mind started to become re-centered, but my heart rate was still elevated, so I repeated the same program.
By the end of the second meditation I felt at ease, ready to tackle each assignment. Looking back, those six minutes were infinitely more productive than the past four hours spent switching between tabs on my computer.
Meditation has an array of benefits, including decreased depression and anxiety, improved ability to focus and increased retention of information. Studies have shown that meditation may actually lower the risk of contracting an inflammatory disease, according to the Biological Psychiatry Journal.
If you want to try meditating with other people, the College also has free resources on campus through the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, including weekly 30-minute drop-in meditation sessions and more structured nine-week non-credit mindfulness courses.
To those who are new to meditation, I must inform you it will likely take you some substantial practice before a six-minute session will calm you down from a full-fledged panic attack.
I can personally attest that if you put the work in now, meditation will save you a lot of time and stress in the future.
If you are struggling with anxious feelings, reach out to the College’s Counseling and Psychological Services at 609-771-2247.
(04/24/18 6:31am)
By Heather Haase
Web Editor
Facing years of student loans and employment insecurity ahead of them, many college students are already struggling to put food on the table.
More than a third of college students at four-year institutions in the U.S. have felt “food insecure” at some point in the past 30 days, according to a survey published earlier this month by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. The study defines food insecurity as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the ability to acquire such foods in a socially acceptable manner.”
The issue of student hunger is not widely discussed, but it plagues students across the nation, including right here at the College.
Some students find they are eating smaller portions and even skipping meals because they cannot afford to pay for food.
“Sometimes I have to rationalize that I need to eat,” said Olivia Grasing, a junior journalism and professional writing major.
Though this nationwide study is the first of its kind, researchers hypothesize the problem has been escalating in recent years because while tuition costs are rapidly rising, more low-income students are enrolling in four-year institutions, seeking a chance for upward mobility through scholarships and grant programs.
A study published last year in the international review journal, “Advances in Nutrition,” showed that students who suffer from food insecurity report high levels of stress, poor quality of sleep and lower GPAs. Hunger adversely impacts students’ physical ability to focus, and the psychological stress of seeking out food further contributes to an increase in anxiety.
The College offers a variety of dining options on campus, mostly centered around a meal plan. The Carte Blanche meal plans allow unlimited access to The Atrium in Eickhoff Hall. Students can swipe in whenever the cafeteria is open, and get as much food as they can eat while they are still in the facility.
Any student, regardless of whether they are a residential student or a commuter, can purchase this plan.
However, these plans cost at minimum $3,620.61, which some students simply cannot afford.
After living on campus for a year, Lorena LiMato, a senior music education major, started commuting from home to save money.
“I feel like there’s a whole stereotype that people our age don’t have money concerns and it just makes me sad because people assume my parents pay for everything, and I have to tell them ‘no,’” LiMato said. “They help me out when they can, but not for everything and I feel it — it’s really stressful.”
Other meal plans are much cheaper, but do not offer unlimited access to Eickhoff. For the A la Carte, Apartment and House plans, every point equals one dollar, and once they spend all of their points, they must pay out of pocket. Students can also pay for Block Plans, which cover either 25 or 50 meals at Eickhoff. The plan carries over the entire academic year.
LiMato paid for her own Block Plan this academic year, but ran out of meals near the beginning of the semester.
“Most of my paycheck goes to food and gas and that’s basically it,” she said. “So it makes it hard to save money for anything else. The time that I do have to realistically work more goes into getting here.”
Purchasing a meal plan at the College is required for all residential students at the College, but 42 percent of students who attend the College live off campus, according to US News. Many upperclassmen move off campus, not only to gain a sense of independence, but to save some money as well.
“Having a job helps, but now that I don’t have a meal plan, not having enough groceries is in the back of my mind,” Grasing said. “When the money comes out of my account, that’s a big stress factor to see the balance go lower, but at the same time I know I’m spending on things that I need to survive.”
Still, some students struggle to pay their rent, let alone buy groceries. According to the Temple University and Wisconsin HOPE Lab study, 36 percent of college students in the U.S. struggle with housing insecurity, which includes a wide variety of challenges, including the inability to pay rent every month. 9 percent of students at four-year colleges have slept in shelters or lacked a consistent place to sleep in the past year.
As a result of this growing issue, student-run food pantries have been opening up on college campuses all over the country. Over 570 campus food pantries across the nation are part of the College and University Food Bank Alliance, which helps colleges establish food pantries and develop other programs to address campus hunger, according to AP News.
Rider University joined the swelling list in early February of this year.
Some other colleges allow students to donate extra points or swipes to students in need, according to The New York Times.
In 2013, a New York University graduate student created an app called Share Meals that connects students with a surplus of points with students who are food insecure. The app also has a place for organizations to post information about events that include free food.
“The Dean of Students’ office has been thinking about this issue for the last couple of years, as more and more students are being referred to our office that are experiencing food and housing insecurity issues,” said Kelly Hennessy, the associate dean of students at the College.
In the past year, an emergency fund called Lions Lifting Lions was created to help students who are unable to pay for essential expenses like food and housing. Current students who have exhausted their financial resources can apply for a one-time fund that never has to be repaid.
Hennessy’s efforts to address this issue do not stop there. Student Affairs has also been collaborating with Mercer Street Friends to potentially develop plans for a food pantry on campus.
Hennessy said she feels the College needs to understand more about the needs of the campus community.
“I have reached out to Wisconsin HOPE Labs to request to be part of the next survey,” she said. “We are hoping to administer the survey within the first four weeks of fall 2018 semester. We have already secured funding to be part of their research. Our hope is that data will help us understand the need on our campus so we can understand how to best address them.”
In the meantime, Mercer Street Friends provides bags of food to students in need. Sodexo and the College’s Dining Services have also provided the dean of students’ office with some small meal blocks to give to students currently experiencing food insecurity, according to Hennessy.
(04/10/18 5:40am)
By Heather Haase
Web Editor
Yes, hi, this is the professor’s pet speaking.
You know, the one who sits front and center in every class. The one who takes scrupulous notes in her thick notebook. The one who raises her hand regularly to ask and answer questions.
I am here to urge you to pay attention more in class. Before you start rolling your eyes, please let me make my case.
Let’s start with the obvious reason to be more attentive in class — your grade. There are reasons why participation grades exist. Participation grades encourage students to stay engaged during the lessons so that they are prepared for an assessment. If a class does not have a participation grade, inattention will probably be reflected somewhere else, like in poor exam scores or project feedback.
Some professors will call students who aren’t paying attention out, while others couldn’t care less. On the first day of one of my classes this semester, the professor told students that if anyone in the room prefers to do other homework or play games on their devices during the class period, they all should sit in the back row so their screen will not distract the other students sitting behind them. This request was in no way passive-aggressive. She was sincere, and some students did end up moving to the back row.
The catch is that if you play on your computer all throughout class and halfway through the semester you realize you have no idea what is going on in the course, your professor will likely be less sympathetic when you come to their office hours in distress the week before the test.
Professors don’t just notice when you are not paying attention, they also notice when you do. At the end of last semester I was 0.5 percent away from getting an A in one of my classes. I participated throughout the entire semester, engaged in class discussions and asked the professor intentional questions. The professor granted me the extra boost.
I love to learn. If I could afford to be a student for the rest of my life, I would. My inherent curiosity makes it more bearable, if not pleasurable for me to engage in all of my classes, even when the lessons are not about something that initially piques my interest.
Still, not every course is my absolute favorite. Sometimes a professor drones on about some dry concept that I believe has no relevance to my personal future, and I succumb to the temptation to check my email quickly. I may be a nerd, but I am still human.
But I do go to every class with the intention to stay focused and do what I came to college to do — learn.
I transferred to the College last fall. Though I wish to leave some of the unpleasant experiences from my previous college behind, I will always remember a statement one of the professors at my last institution made during my freshman seminar: “Students are the only consumers that want less for what they pay for.”
Whether you or someone else is paying for your tuition, college is still a consumer product. It costs money to take a collection of classes so you can accumulate knowledge and build skills that are in turn marketable in the workplace. If you are not paying attention in class, you are not receiving the whole product. It’s like paying for a gym membership and then never going, except college is a lot more expensive.
If I cannot persuade you using an academic or economic approach, let’s try a social angle. You are in the classroom anyway. You made the decision to get out of bed to sit at an uncomfortable desk. You are going to have to complete the homework, prepare the project, or take the test at some point. If you pay attention in class, that is less time spent studying in your free time. Instead of googling the topic the professor talked about or copying down your friend’s notes after class, you can take that time to relax and actually hang out with the friends you are texting throughout the lecture.
I recognize it is hard in the digital age for students to stay focused. There is a plethora of stimuli that seem to demand your attention over the professor’s lecture. With a discreet click of a button, you can catch up with a friend from home, play a favorite video game or watch countless videos of any cute animal you please.
I also understand there are extenuating circumstances. I know there are students in my classes with learning differences. I know there are students who work long hours to pay for college and therefore have difficulty finding the time to get all of their homework done. And I cannot know if the student who is vehemently typing away on their messenger app is actually communicating with family about a sick relative or another emergency. But I have accidentally eavesdropped on enough of my peers to know that usually is not the case.
Take a break from Facebook, friends. It will still be there when you get out of class.
(02/25/18 2:57pm)
(01/30/18 6:03am)
By Heather Haase
Web Editor
The sugary aroma of freshly baked cookies enticed the line of students waiting to try the newest dessert spot near campus when Insomnia Cookies celebrated its grand opening in Campus Town on Monday, Jan. 22.
Insomnia Cookies opens at 9 a.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends. The store is open until 3 a.m. every night, and offers delivery every day between 10 a.m. to closing.
The store offers a variety of cookies, as well as ice cream or a pint of milk. Some cookie flavors include chocolate chunk, sugar, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle and peanut butter cup. Insomnia Cookies also makes custom cookie cakes for special occasions.
On opening day, a few employees from Insomnia Cookies handed out an assortment of free cookies outside of the Brower Student Center to spread awareness of the business.
“I’m getting chocolate chip,” Vinny Guckin, a sophomore management major, said. “It’s basic, but it’s basic for a reason.”
Jackie Hankard, a sophomore communication studies major, remembers employees handing out Insomnia Cookies during freshman year at James Madison University. When she transferred to the College in the spring of 2017, she was thrilled to see the “coming soon” sign for Insomnia Cookies right next to her apartment in Campus Town.
“I came straight from dinner,” Hankard said. “My friends went inside to grab their coats, but I had to come straight here.”
Sam Moorzitz, a junior technology education major, said that Insomnia Cookies is a great addition to the College because of its late hours and delivery service.
“It will be good for late night studying,” Moorzitz said.
The idea for Insomnia Cookies began in 2003 in founder Seth Berkowitz’s dormitory at the University of Pennsylvania. Frustrated by the lack of options for sweets late at night, Berkowitz started baking cookies in his dorm. Word of Berkowitz’s cookies began to spread, and soon he was delivering warm cookies after sunset to students all across Penn’s campus, according to Insomnia Cookies’ website.
Soon after, Insomnia Cookies was born. Now, the franchise has over 100 locations across dozens of states, and serves as a nighttime destination for college students all across the country.
Maggie Zelinka, the marketing manager for Insomnia Cookies’ Campus Town location, said that the location of the College and the reputation of Campus Town drew Insomnia Cookies to open up shop there.
“Ewing stood out to us for many reasons,” Zelinka said. “Naturally, we appreciate the community feel of Ewing and decided to get in on the action.”
This is Insomnia Cookies’ second location in New Jersey, and Zelinka is glad to have chosen a spot near campus.
“We hope to fill a need for late-night sweets in Ewing, and are excited to begin this journey,” Zelinka said.
(11/06/17 10:10pm)
Heather Haase
Correspondent
Male members of Barkada — one of the College’s Filipino culture organizations — stepped shirtless into the Decker Social Space on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The audience erupted as the men performed Maglalatik, a traditional Filipino war dance. Clad in coconut shells, over a dozen students danced to a meticulously rehearsed routine, smiling from ear to ear.
Maglalatik was just one of many performances at this year’s Barangay, the College’s annual showcase of Filipino culture. Hosted by Barkada, the event was co-sponsored by the Association of Students for Africa, Union Latina and the Japanese Student Association.
“This is our biggest cultural event of the year,” said Alexa Sia, a senior nursing major and the president of Barkada. “We just want to show America what Filipino’s have to offer.”
Students gathered around the tables to enjoy an abundance of signature dishes such as chicken adobo, lumpia and puto, catered by local Filipino restaurant Kusina Ni Inang.
The uproarious crowd fell silent as the sound of large wooden sticks beating together suddenly filled the air. Expertly weaving their steps between the sticks, student performers emerged from all sides of the room for another traditional Philippine folk dance — Tinikling.
Tinikling is considered to be the national dance of the Philippines, according to Barkada. Combining traditional routines with contemporary dances, 26 students came together to perform an original mix of choreography.
One of the performers was Alyssa Jackson, a junior communication studies major and Barkada’s publicity coordinator.
Jackson is not Filipino, but joined Barkada her freshman year after her roommate, who was vice president of the organization, convinced her to come to a meeting. Jackson has participated in Barangay every year since. Her favorite part of Barkada is spending time with fellow members.
“Everyone is so warm and friendly and loyal,” Jackson said. “I really found my family here.”
Ariel Toy, a senior economics major and member of Barkada, also discussed the welcoming culture of Barkada after she discovered the club through a mutual friend.
“Barangay gets better every year,” Toy said about the growing number of acts, the impressive student choreography and the variety of Filipino cuisine.
To begin the event, the Trentones sang an a capella version of the American national anthem. After the Trentones’ rendition, two members of Barkada, Joseph Ballesteros and Gino Pineda, performed the Philippine national anthem, Lupang Hinirang.
Some members in the audience quietly sang along with Ballesteros, a junior nursing major, while Pineda, a junior business management major, beatboxed in the background.
Sia was circulating around the event mingling with students in attendance. She discovered Barkada her freshman year at the Student Involvement Fair when Barkada members pulled her aside to see if she was interested in joining.
“I wasn’t too connected to my culture before college,” Sia said. “Barkada helped me get more in touch with my culture.”
More than three years later, Sia is deeply involved with Barkada.
“We pride ourselves in our sense of community,” Sia said, after she hugged several family members of a fellow Barkada member.
Performers from outside the College included students from the Princeton Academy of Martial Arts, local pop singer Katja, dancers from Strictly Funk at the University of Pennsylvania and performers from the Filipino Intercultural Society of Drexel University and local folk singer-songwriter aReJay Ella.
Barkada in Tagalog — a language spoken in the Philippines — translates to “a group of friends,” and Barangay’s cultural performances brought together a group both new and old.