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(02/11/14 6:00am)
A recent report by United Nations investigators revealed that children in Syrian government detention have been sexually abused, forced to fight against the opposition, tortured and used as human shields. It was estimated that as many as 10,000 children have been killed since fighting began in March 2011.
On Monday, Jan. 27, investigators submitted a report to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, detailing the extent of abuse toward children by the Syrian government throughout the ongoing conflict in Syria, but the report was only made available to the public on Monday, Feb. 3. Within the report was a detailed listing of “grave violations against children” committed by the Syrian government.
Among the listed violations were accounts of children as young as 11 held in government detention centers with adults, subjected to torture in order to coerce relatives to surrender or confess, according to witnesses.
“Ill treatment and acts tantamount to torture reportedly included beatings with metal cables, whips and wooden and metal batons; electric shocks, including to the genitals; the ripping out of fingernails and toenails; sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape; mock executions; cigarette burns; sleep deprivation; solitary confinement; and exposure to the torture of relatives,” the report said.
In addition, the report noted documented reports of sexual violence against children in government detention, “perpetrated mostly by members of the Syrian intelligence services and the Syrian armed forces” against those who were suspected of being affiliated with the opposition.
The report also noted the use of Syrian children as human shields during operations by the military. In one instance, during Ramadan in 2011, government forces allegedly “used civilians, including at least eight children, as human shields, threatening to kill the children if the opposition did not surrender.”
Fayssal Mekdad, the Syrian deputy foreign minister, said about the report, “I categorically deny there are any children being detained. Those are rumors.”
At the time of the report, the Syrian death toll was at around 100,000, with the 10,000 children included in said figure.
(01/28/14 8:00pm)
On Wednesday, Jan. 22, Israeli officials formally stated that security forces had foiled an Al Qaeda plot to blow up the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv along with the convention center in Jerusalem.
Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, stated on Wednesday that on Dec. 25 it had arrested three Palestinians who were allegedly recruited by an Al Qaeda operative over the Internet.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the attackers had planned simultaneous suicide attacks on the International Convention Center in Jerusalem and the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv.One suspect planned to load a truck with bombs and also provide five terrorists with forged identification papers that would allow them to enter Israel. Three of the bombers would detonate themselves at the International Convention Center, where President Barack Obama spoke back in March 2013. The truck driver would then detonate the truck in order to kill bystanders and rescuers. Meanwhile, the two remaining terrorists would detonate at the entrance to the United States Embassy.
“The recruiter ... told them that he worked for Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over the leadership of Al Qaeda after the Americans killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011,” Haaretz stated.
Despite the nature by which the foiled threat was announced, the United States government has not confirmed the threat. According to NBC News, several officials stated that they “could not verify the Israeli report ... particularly the purported link to Al Qaeda — even though U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies communicate closely and frequently.”
NBC News added that a senior State Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity said, “The validity is something we’re still looking at.”
Whether the foiled terrorist plot was the work of Al Qaeda or a different organization, it remains common knowledge that embassy attacks have been an Al Qaeda calling card for over 15 years. On Aug. 7, 1998, multiple car bomb attacks killed or wounded over 4,000 people at United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Dar Es Salaam and Tanzania. And on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the embassy in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, resulting in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In all of the attacks, the assailants had affiliations with Al Qaeda.
(12/03/13 7:14pm)
Tony Award winning actor, poet and spoken word artist Lemon Andersen gave a speech on “The New Latino” in American society at the College on Monday, Nov. 18.
The purpose of the speech was to teach students how his upbringing and the people he knew influenced him as a performer and helped him to see the changing role of Latino-Americans.
Andersen, the winner of the 2003 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for “Def Poetry Jam,” spoke about his upbringing in New York City, in which he was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Norwegian father. While his first name is actually Andrew, he was nicknamed “Lemon-head” in high school because he had the lightest skin of anyone at the school.
“The name stuck,” Andersen said, and he kept the name Lemon into his professional life.
During the speech, Andersen spoke about the cultural shift that has made many Latino-Americans of second through fifth generations take on other cultural trademarks, such as ways of speaking, musical instruments and even methods of performing. However, he added that because of the very diverse set of cultures that make up Latino-Americans in the United States, it would be impossible to make generalizations about all of them.
“I can’t speak for every Latino,” Andersen said. “I speak for those I identify with.”
He added that Mexican-Americans on the West Coast have a very different culture from the Latino-Americans on the East Coast and in New York City.
Andersen also mentioned the importance of education on one’s cultural identity.
“Education changed me,” he said. “I know more about our journey — to the point that I can speak about it, stand behind it (and) identify with it. Identity is about education.”
Andersen added that his education gave him some leverage over other performing poets.
Andersen also detailed his childhood, in which he stated that he often got to watch PBS as a child, especially when his mother would be doing drug purchases in his family’s living room.
“I watched a lot of ‘Masterpiece Theater,’” he said. “My mother was a straight-up drug dealer but loved PBS — she watched ‘Nova’ and ‘Masterpiece’ while selling drugs.”
Andersen pointed out another challenge for him — having the last name “Andersen,” which resulted in him being less accepted in the Latino community as a speaker.
“I just didn’t have the kind of last name that would appeal to colleges (and other schools) during Hispanic Heritage Month,” he said.
Andersen’s writing, performance and work with companies on diversity helped him get over the hump and get the kind of good media coverage to be a good speaker at schools.
The speech concluded when Andersen was asked about his work in such movies as “Inside Man” and “The Soloist.” Andersen stated that he had fun working with such A-List actors as Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Clive Owen and Denzel Washington. However, as for his relationship with director Spike Lee, Andersen said, “(Lee) is my favorite person in the world.”
(11/19/13 5:58pm)
This article was written in response to Nicole Ferrito’s article, “Holocaust education: WWII survivor speaks,” published on Nov. 13.
When I attended Vera Goodkin’s speech at the Education Building last week, I became very emotionally invested because I have family who shared many of the experiences she had. As such, I am extremely grateful that you were willing to give the story a mention on the front page of the latest issue of The Signal.
However, I must make note of a small, but serious issue that I have with the content of the article. The article (twice) references to the name of the person who helped save Goodkin from the holding prisons in Budapest: Raoul Wallenberg. Unfortunately, the article has his named misspelled as “Raul Walenberg.”
While I know this was completely unintentional and maybe not worthy of a reprint/redaction, etc., I would like to go on record as stating that Wallenberg is an honored historical figure and hero in virtually every Holocaust memorial and Genocide prevention organization in the world.
While Goodkin’s discussion about Wallenberg on a personal level may have made this fact less obvious, out of respect to a historical figure who personally saved the lives of tens of thousands of people, I would humbly ask to AT LEAST make those changes on your website — which features the same misspellings.
In all fairness, no one would ever want to be caught misspelling “Abraham Lincoln,” “Barack Obama” or “George Washington” — so to me at least it would be very unfortunate to let Wallenberg, who did so much for human rights and genocide prevention, be the first.
Please note that I am not requesting this out of moral outrage or political correctness, but so I can help properly honor somebody who personally saved the lives of many of my family members as well.
(11/12/13 5:24pm)
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Philosophical Society and the Parliamentary Debate Society sponsored “War of the Words: When Words Collide,” an open forum on the power of concepts and phrases, on Thursday, Nov. 7.
The program featured a spirited debate between members of the Philosophical Society and the Parliamentary Debate Society on four predetermined topics: “Picture vs. A Thousand Words,” “Knowledge vs. Persuasion,” “Vampires vs. Zombies” and “Ancient Greek Life vs. Fraternity Greek Life.” After representatives from both sides were done presenting their arguments, students in the audience were invited to go to the stage and present their arguments on the topic.
In the first debate, “Picture vs. A Thousand Words,” Chris Davis of the Philosophical Society argued for the “Picture” side while freshman biology major Marcus Elias of the Parliamentary Society Debate argued for the “A Thousand Words” side. Davis’s assertion that pictures allow for imagination was refuted by Elias, who stated that words are required for his opponent to even make an argument in favor of pictures.
“I tried to show the descriptive power of words — that you can’t write in pictures without using words,” Elias said after the program.
The second topic, “Knowledge vs. Persuasion,” was debated between senior philosophy major Olivia Froehlich and Victoria Levchenko. While Levchenko argued for persuasion, Froehlich argued for knowledge. The winner of that debate was a member of the audience who stated that the superiority of persuasion has allowed terrible atrocities to occur, including Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Next was “Vampires vs. Zombies,” which was debated between Miguel O’Malley and Jacob Carino. The open forum for the topic yielded the largest number of students speaking out of all four debates and ranged in evidence presented from the flaws of “The Walking Dead” to the “Twilight” series to an episode of “The Deadliest Warrior.”
The fourth and final topic was “Ancient Greek Life vs. Fraternity Greek Life” debated between Steve Schwering and Sean Modri.
Modri’s arguments for Ancient Greek Life centered on the contributions to modern society that the Ancient Greeks made in mathematics and philosophy, while Schwering’s argument for Fraternity Greek Life centered on what fraternities and sororities do for their members.
However, even Schwering conceded that Ancient Greek Life had many benefits — the students in the open forum agreed.
After the forum was over, Froehlich said she enjoyed it.
“It was my first time being here,” she said. “I thought it was a great experience, not intimidating at all.”
(11/06/13 8:32pm)
Robert McGreevy, assistant professor of history at the College, gave the talk, “Understanding Immigration in the States,” to educate students on the differences between the concepts of migration and immigration as it relates to the history of American society on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
“The key difference between migration and immigration is that migrants move from (different) locations within the country,” McGreevy said. “With immigrants, we tend to think of them as moving from one place to another, but this line has become blurred.”
McGreevy explained some of the latest research on the subject of “return migration,” which reveals that a very large portion of people who came to America during the mid-1800s to 1920s returned to their country of origin.
“This challenges the concept of a ‘one-way trip,’” McGreevy said. “In truth, America is not always a land of opportunity.”
McGreevy spoke about the history of Mexican immigration, and the decades of laws that have affected migration from Mexico to the United States. He revealed that prior to World War I there was relatively unrestricted access from Mexico to the southwest United States. He added that there were often no literacy requirements for Mexican workers. Just before World War II, the United States government authorized temporary visas for five million Mexican workers, but did not grant them citizenship. A very large portion of those workers stayed beyond those visas, leading in part to the increased number of Mexican immigrants.
Another fact McGreevy noted was the very lax policy on amnesty that the United States government held. He noted that for many immigrants who were in the United States, there became widespread expectations that even if they were caught illegally, they would still obtain citizenship in the end.
The relationship between Mexican immigrants and the United States has been complicated at times, McGreevy stated. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) excluded many of them from membership. In addition, he stated that the recent cheap corn sales from the United States to Mexico has resulted in severe struggles for Mexican farmers, leading to many looking for work in the United States to make ends meet.
Finally, McGreevy spoke about why there seems to be a change in perception from America being a nation founded by immigrants to a nation where immigrants are destroying the country. He attributed many of the negative perceptions to nativism, adding that many groups have been creating false suspicions to exclude groups of newcomers from positions of power. He cited the harsh quotas imposed on immigrants — even Holocaust survivors — from 1920 to 1965 as only a small example of nativism and even blatant anti-Semitism playing a large role in national policy.
And as for the future of immigration in the United States, McGreevy said he sees a positive outlook.
“We are an immigrant nation. Fifty years from now Latinos will be a much more accepted group – and then we’ll move on to the next group,” he said.
(10/22/13 3:15pm)
A job-search workshop on how to educate students on the mission of the Career Center, its resources and how to use each one was given to a group of students by the director of the Career Center, Deb Kelly, on Friday, Oct. 18.
Kelly began the presentation by stating the mission of the Career Center: to help students find the career path best for them by providing all of the tools they need to get started.
Among the topics Kelly addressed in the presentation were one-on-one interviewing, group interviewing, résumé critiques, talking about oneself in an interview, being able to tell one’s story, accepting or refusing job offers and the benefits of LinkedIn.
The presentation was interactive, as Kelly asked questions to many of the students about their experiences, fields of study, job searches and even what to do when unexpected topics are broached.
While Kelly was hoping to present an innovative online program called Perfect Interview, technical difficulties prevented her from giving the tutorial. In its place, she gave all attendees a leaflet on how to set up the program.
After the presentation, Kelly said that she hoped students would take home the fact that “they are in charge of their job search. There are a lot of resources available (through the College).” She added, “I hope they’ve left knowing there are options and opportunities available for them.”
As far as quantifying the success of the presentation, Kelly stated that she would like to see at least six of the 15 attendees utilize the “Perfect Interview” program in the near future.
“I think that is a good number because if each of those six tell just one other person about the program, it can make a difference for them,” she said.
Ellen Plattman, a junior math and music double major, stated that she gained useful knowledge from the presentation.
“I feel that getting the perfect internship or full-time position is definitely something that students control mostly on their own,” Plattman said. “But the Career Center definitely helps with the process. Giving feedback on résumés and presenting workshops on how to land the perfect interview, as well as all the other workshops that are offered, are very useful tools that the Career Center offers.”
(10/01/13 4:24pm)
This past Thursday, Sept. 26, Don Washington, a political strategist, informed students on how to be an advocate for public policy, and how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was passed through this process.
Washington began the presentation by stating that he was here to direct “not a class, but a tutorial” on advocating for public policy.
“If you aren’t at the table discussing policy, you have no say in what happens,” Washington said.
The content of the presentation consisted of a series of interactive exercises, explaining the “public policy continuum,” the differing viewpoints of the supporters and opponents of the PPACA, and a history lesson on national medical care.
The substance of the PPACA was also discussed, but Washington did not address nor endorse his personal views on the subject.
Washington quickly got the attendees actively involved, pointing to different sections of the room and labeling them as specific viewpoints on health care in the United States, with all students in attendance moving to the parts of the room designed according to their personal viewpoints.
The final part of the presentation was a game of “Affordable Care Act Jeopardy” where Washington asked questions to six of the students about the content of the PPACA and about national health care statistics in a short competition to see who knew more.
Washington revealed that many of the writers he knew worked on creating the PPACA were hired by corporations and law firms.
Washington expressed a bit of frustration in presenting this information. He explained the conflict of interest for companies hiring people who were most aware of how to exploit the corporate loopholes in the PPACA.
“Somewhere there’s a guy with a long black robe laughing manically at the genius of it,” Washington said.
When the presentation was over, Washington stated that he did not judge the success of it based on his ability to get messages across.
“I wanted to get them to think,” he said. “And I want people to remember (what they learned). I wanted to come across clear. You need to be involved, and you need to be aware. These laws are for real. They may seem far away but they’re not. I want them to just be public participants.”
(09/17/13 3:30pm)
The College has been ranked as the number one public college in the northern region for the 20th consecutive year by U.S. News and World Report.
According to a College press release, the 2014 rankings for the Best Regional Universities have the College as the No. 1 public college and the No. 5 overall school among public and private colleges in the north. The College is also the only public college to make the top 10 of the latter ranking.
“The College is one of the best public colleges in the nation,” said Stacy Schuster, associate vice president of college relations. “This year, the opinions of our peers placed us as the top college of our type in the region for undergraduate teaching, and that really speaks volumes to the dedication of our faculty and staff, who consistently work together to provide the best possible experience for our students.”
Additionally, the College earned the No. 1 spot as the best undergraduate teaching school in the country. The press release states that this ranking determines the institutions that are agreed to have the strongest commitments to teaching undergraduates, as opposed to graduate students.
According to the press release, the College has the highest regional average freshman retention rate in the region — 95 percent. And 93 percent of freshmen come from the top 25 percent of their high school class.
As with the Princeton Review rankings from this past summer, members of the College administration were proud, yet unsurprised. Schuster believed that this ranking validated what many in the College community already know.
Students have had a very positive reaction to the College’s ranking as well. On the night the press release was issued, many students immediately rejoiced on social media — with numerous Facebook shares of the press release occurring overnight.
“This news makes me feel proud to be a student at TCNJ,” junior psychology major Izik Gutkin said. “I tried hard throughout high school to be a successful individual and excel in school, and this ranking validates all of the hard work that I have done.”
Gutkin added that what he feels the College lacks in name recognition, it makes up for with its very effective undergraduate program.
“At the end of the day, I will always cherish my time here, and I wouldn’t give it up for any school in the world,” Gutkin said.
(09/10/13 5:00am)
Last week, The Signal released part one of the two-part story on the changes to the College. This week, the story concludes with a detailed account of the construction efforts on the Library Café and Cromwell Hall. The Cromwell renovations cost $7,257,000, according to Stacy Schuster, associate vice president of College Relations.
Costs of Construction
The renovations to the Library Café and Cromwell Hall were costly. According to Schuster, the Library Café construction is costing a total of $499,000. The Library Café underwent major changes to the serving area, but not the sitting space. Cromwell, on the other hand, went through changes in many significant areas of the building. A large sum of money was put into it, and students were anxious to see and experience the results.
Cromwell Hall Renovations
Returning students will notice that the renovations to Cromwell Hall, which took place during the entirety of the last two semesters, are finally complete.
Updated plumbing throughout the building was one of the new features, as well as new bathrooms, bathroom fixtures and fittings. The new floors, wall finishes and roof will help the visual of the building, as will corridor finishes, such as floors, walls, accent features and lighting. Some new electrical work was also done, including new wireless throughout the building.
The building lounge was gutted and brought about big changes. The laundry room was also revamped and the floor lounges received new floors, ceilings, fixtures and fittings. A new entrance lobby, as well as lobby millwork and casework, were also part of the additions. Finally, there was an installation of security phones.
The renovation of Cromwell Hall had been under discussion and part of the College’s asset renewal plans for many years, according to Schuster.
The architect for the project was approved by the Board of Trustees in December 2010, and the design took approximately one year.
Schuster said the hazardous material abatement started in May 2012. The construction itself started in July 2012 and was finished this past August, totaling 15 months of construction.
However, the overall project is not entirely finished, Schuster stated.
A few remaining details, which include building signage, glass and door installation in the lounge and column covers, are not yet finished, but should be completed around next week.