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(02/23/05 12:00pm)
Kweisi Mfume, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), addressed the College community about civil rights in the United States as part of the College's Multicultural Lecture Series and in conjunction with Black History Month.
Mfume identified various problems associated with race relations in government and society, and called upon students to reason, to think and to act on these issues now. He also reminded students that as the nation's future leaders they will face challenges both new and inherited.
"The bulk will fall on you," he said to students, "it's in your hands."
Mfume believes that the consequences of the government's current policy of ignoring the deficit and spending superfluously will fall on the shoulders of our generation, economically and socially. One example of such copious spending cited by Mfume is our continued presence in Iraq.
"Our government should be less concerned with building the economy in Iraq and more concerned with building the economy of America," he said.
He noted that poverty levels are unacceptably high, there are huge racial gaps in earning and health care and public education is under attack. Additionally, less than seven percent of elected officials in the country are blacks or Latinos, a political shortcoming according to Mfume.
"The haves have more and the have-nots have nothing at all," he said. To change this, however, all affected people must take action today, Mfume said.
"(Dr. Martin Luther) King said 'tomorrow is today,'" Mfume said. "Now is the time and today is in fact the day to recommit ourselves to sharing the dream."
Mfume believes the government must not only concern itself with minority job creation, but that its goals should be more widespread, encompassing social programs for the welfare of the entire community. "We should challenge the president and the members of the House and Senate to stand with us on the issues of today," Mfume said.
Mfume added that it's understandable for African-Americans to take issue with community-specific problems - disease disproportionately affecting the race, denial of loans and insurance and song lyrics that degenerate the culture are problems directly associated with the African-American community. African-Americans, however, must realize that it is up to them to define themselves in order to improve conditions within society, he said.
"You ought to say, 'we have a problem,'" he said. " Don't spend all your time blaming white people."
Mfume encouraged all minorities to form coalitions to deal with pressing social issues. He said minorities should act as a family drawn together by a common need and condition - "a mutual affliction to reason and think."
In an effort to expedite this type of reform, Mfume, during his term as NAACP president, created a six-point action agenda focusing on civil rights, political empowerment, educational excellence, economic development and youth outreach. The association continues to uphold his plan.
When asked about President Bush's refusal to speak at the NAACP's annual convention for the fourth straight year, Mfume said that this has led to increased animosity between the Bush administration and the black community.
"He's the first president since Herbert Hoover to cut off all communication with the NAACP," Mfume said.
The president did, however, meet with Mfume once for a one-on-one conversation. They discussed religion, the economy and social security. Mfume said that he hopes that this conversation can be built upon to re-establish good relations between the Bush administration and the NAACP.
Mfume served as a member of Congress from 1986 until 1996, when he became president and CEO for the NAACP. He retired from the position on Jan. 1 of this year.
(02/09/05 12:00pm)
The second floor of the Roscoe L. West Library looks nothing like the first. Where the ground level is stocked with copiers and computers, students on cell phones and shelves of bestsellers, the upper level could have been built in the 1930s along with Green Hall. Its green- and brown-tiled corridors lead to heavy wooden doors with golden room numbers etched onto them.
Room 214 is tucked into a distant corner. One would expect to see "Private Eye" embossed on its opaque window. But when the library archivist unlocks the door with a modern key, his first task is to turn off the alarm system. For this hidden room guards some of the most precious volumes of campus history - complete issues of The Signal since its first press run in 1885.
Red and blue bindings - ranging in size from magazine to broadsheet newspaper - fill an entire bookshelf. Their spines tell of issue dates and volume numbers, starting with Volume I, Issue I. Currently, The Signal boasts volume number CCXXII, which translates to 122. Some editors may have miscounted along the way (who is fluent in Roman numerals nowadays anyway?), because 2005 will mark the 120th anniversary of the publication. But the editors of the very first issue -December 1885 - could only start with I.
Little did they know that their scholarly literary magazine would take the form of a quarterly and a monthly before being suspended, only to be revived as a bi-weekly broadsheet before ultimately transforming into a weekly tabloid. Editors of the 1885 issue might roll in their graves if they saw the current one; but the publication has changed with the times, as the role of any newspaper is to keep up with them.
This, then, is a history of The Signal, The State Signal - "our Signal," as its original editors referred to it in their very first editorial in December 1885.
"Our Signal"
"It was a pretentious sheet from the first." That is how the editors of the December 13, 1929 broadsheet issue of The Signal described the original version - a literary magazine divided into "editorials" and "contributions."
Its role was to be the "official organ of the State Schools." At the time, the College was divided into two schools: the Model School (a prep school) and the Normal School (the College). The Signal was published by the Model School, which prepared students (predominantly male) for college and harbored a number of great literary societies. Hence, The Signal published essays more so than news.
All seven editors were men, with Frank B. Lee serving on the top rung as managing editor. In their first editorial, they acknowledged that their endeavor would be "our SIGNAL in the interests of the students of the Model and Normal Schools."
The editors maintained a scholarly, professional magazine with essays that flaunted a fantastic command of the English language. Take, for example, a January 1886 editorial on hazing:
"Ninety-nine men out of every hundred who enter schools or colleges respect the position taken by their fellows and pass through their course without molesting or maltreating their scholastic friends. By so doing they evince those gentlemanly instincts which are the results of good breeding. But the one man of the hundred ... is not fit to be in the society of high-minded, studious men. The school is no place for the hazer, he is better suited for the prize-ring."
Pieces like this support the 1929 Signal editors' accusation of the literary magazine being pretentious. But other local publications of the late 1880s had only praise for the new magazine. In a section titled "Kind words from our friends," Signal editors received praise from The Trenton Times and New York World:
"It is an admirable school paper in every respect. We wish it a large measure of success," The Trenton Times said.
New York World said, "There are seven editors and a whole school of reporters, so it ought to be a success."
Its advertisers also praised the magazine. They purchased pages of ads for their products - neckties, suits, hats and haircuts - in traditional late 19th century typeset. By March 1886, The Signal was on sale at all New Jersey State Schools, Brearley & Stoll's department store, Union News Company and The Pennsylvania Railroad at ten cents per copy.
Into the 20th century
By 1887, The Signal had a circulation of about 700 and became a quarterly magazine in 1889. It took on a new masthead with an illustration of an important campus building and ran a sole literary essay on the front page.
In 1894, The Signal once again became a monthly, and would remain that way until its mysterious suspension in 1918.
During that 24-year time period, however, The Signal took on a more feminine tone. Women's names started appearing in the staff box. For its 25th anniversary edition, Mary, Margaret, Jane, Anna, Elanor and Edith were in charge of the publication. On its front page was an essay on someone's summer experience at a girls' camp, and inside, the editors ran "compositions from the fourth and seventh graders."
The change is possibly attributed to The Signal passing into the hands of the Normal School, or the teacher's college, rather than the Model School. There is no exact takeover date for this, but the change in content clearly signals a change in publishers.
In 1918, however, The Signal went on an 11-year hiatus. The most likely reason was a lack of funds, even though the 25th anniversary issue was full of ads.
During this time, attempts were made to keep The Signal alive. Scattered between the official bound volumes in the library are independent issues of The Signal. One, from 1919, is a thin magazine with a pale green cover, adorned with the flag and the state seal of New Jersey. Its content focused on student organizations and campus happenings.
Such attempts, however, were futile and The Signal was lost until December 1929.
"Signal's On!"
On the shelves of the library archives, bound volumes of The Signal take on noticeable changes in 1929. Their bindings are blue, not red, and the issue size grows from that of a literary magazine to that of a broadsheet newspaper.
With the advent of the Student Activity Fee in Fall 1929, The Signal was able to start publishing again - this time as a bi-weekly, broadsheet newspaper.
Since the editors of the December 13, 1929 issue did not want to model their publication after the original "pretentious sheet," they decided to focus their content on school news, editorials and sports. Their Signal would be "typical of the progressive spirit so apparent today in our student body."
This was no jab at the original editors of The Signal; the first editorial praises the first Signal as having the largest circulation of any college publication in the East in 1890 and praises the original editors for setting a worthy goal for the new staff.
With much text, heads, and subheads, the new Signal looked like The New York Times, without pictures.
For the first time, its staff had an Editor in chief, who commanded news, art, social and assistant editors. A staff of reporters and typists was also acknowledged in the staff box.
The paper would keep this format for the next 30 years or so, making only one major editorial change: its name. In May 1930, it became The State Signal - a name that more accurately reflected its role as a medium for New Jersey schools. At this time, Liberty and Prosperity also made an appearance on the flag - another testament to the publication's role as a state medium.
Centennial Celebration
The headline jumped off the top of the page in a bold Times font: "Trenton begins one hundredth year with record freshmen enrollment." It was September 15, 1954, and it was the beginning of Trenton State College's centennial celebration.
Through May 1956, The Signal covered the College's anniversary extensively. October 9, 1955 marked a special centennial issue. Four editions of The Signal ran, each encompassing 25 years of College history. Each edition was written in the present tense.
For the 1855-1880 edition, the lead headline was "Cornerstone laid for New Jersey's first state normal school by Gov. Rodman M. Price."
The 1930-1955 edition commemorated The Signal's 50th anniversary, announcing that archival issues of The Signal from the library's collection would be on display for all to view.
Throughout this time, the staff remained predominantly female and maintained a bi-weekly circulation. It kept its text-heavy New York Times layout, but photographs were more abundant than they were in the early 1930s issues, especially in the sports section. This would lay the grounds for the next major change in publication: becoming a weekly.
The Signal goes weekly
In the present office of The Signal, the editors keep a well-preserved copy of the April 9, 1965 State Signal. The typeset still looks as if it was carefully placed on an ancient press, and the actual paper was thicker, heavier and brighter.
Today's editors think of how much easier the editors of the 1960s had it. They only had to produce six pages of newsprint per week. However, they did not have Macintosh, Adobe InDesign or the Internet to make their production nights quicker and easier.
Editors of the 1960s, in fact, had a lot to worry about. The times were changing. Their paper was taking on an even more progressive stance. The lead story for the April 9, 1965 issue was about a symposium on evolution and what problems teachers may encounter while trying to teach it.
The demographic of the College's readers was changing too. State schools began to become more separate from each other. By 1972, the name "State Signal" was retired and became, once again, simply The Signal.
The Signal of the 1970s was clearly no longer a typeset publication. Editors experimented with new means of printing and formatting. Most noticeably, it became a tabloid. The newsprint also became thinner - the kind that yellows in time - and articles reached beyond campus events.
It had an apparent liberal lean (the November 1, 1972 editorial headline was "the vote against Nixon") and more attention to national events. Its flag appeared in the center of the page, directly above the fold, which was common for tabloids in the 1970s.
Through the end of the decade, The Signal increased in size almost every year, maintaining a 24-page issue well into the 1980s. Those pages included progressive issues, such as birth control and a sexual health column.
It wasn't until the 1990s that the paper was subdivided into sections, including News, Opinions, Features and Sports. Editors then also dabbled in color printing but stuck mainly with black and white.
Volume CCXXII
Traces of the 1990s Signal can be detected in today's volume. Today's Signal is still a weekly tabloid broken into sections - News, Opinions, Features, Entertainment and Sports. The flag is modernized, and each issue is printed in color.
About 20 students work on staff - 16 in the editorial department and four in the business office. It is funded entirely through ad revenue; gone are the days of assistance from the Student Activities Fund. That disappeared just as the "neckties, suits, hats and haircuts" advertisers did.
Some qualities of the 1885 version still stand. The Signal is still a recognized publication within the state. It was named the First Place winner of the General Excellence category in the New Jersey Press Association's "Better College Newspaper Contest" in 1997, 2001 and 2003.
It is still "our SIGNAL in the interests of the students" of The College of New Jersey.
And like the editors of the December 13, 1929 issue of the new, bi-weekly Signal said, "Its form has changed many times, but it has always been 'The Signal.'"
(10/13/04 12:00pm)
Barbara Ehrenreich appeals to college students. She opens her Community Learning Day keynote address with remarks about underage drinking.
"Make it legal," she insists in a common-sense tone that is condescending to policy makers.
Students cheer to that. They know Ehrenreich is not just pandering to them because most of them read her book, "Nickel and Dimed," for summer reading. They're well aware of her left-leaning politic.
Ehrenreich has become one of the most well known activists for the poor and women's rights. She's a journalist who shuns objectivity to provoke social change. During her keynote speech on social inequality, she revealed what she learned as an undercover low-wage worker in the United States and voiced the changes she believes need to be made in government to influence the state of national poverty.
Ehrenreich has always paid attention to poverty. Hers are blue-collar roots in Butte, Montana. During her lifetime, she saw her father rise out of a job as a miner to become a comfortable, middle-class executive.
"It was like going on a tour of the social class system of America, except for the top parts," she said.
This has had a major influence on her writing. She's always been conscious of the struggles of low-wage workers. But when she suggested to an editor at Harper's Magazine that "some writer" should go undercover and try to live like a low-wage American, she had no idea how closely she would experience that lifestyle.
Over three months, she would take on six jobs and live in three different cities. She was a waitress at two restaurants and a hotel maid in Key West, a housemaid and nursing home assistant in Portland, Maine, and a Wal-Mart employee in Minneapolis.
Ultimately, she was not successful in making ends meet. With housing costs, taxes, childcare and food, she said she often wound up in negative numbers.
Still, the federal government did not classify Ehrenreich as living "in poverty."
"If you calculate what people really need to live on at a very basic level, you come up with very different numbers," she said. "Some of the numbers that different groups - including the Department of Labor - have come up with recently range from 20 to 33 percent of the population really living in poverty."
But what exactly has she learned about living in poverty? Each job she took on required a lot of memorization and hard work, she said.
"I never use the word "unskilled" anymore to describe any job. All jobs take skill, intelligence, and a great deal of concentration."
Before her speech, Ehrenreich answered a few questions about her book and her politic.
Question: How did you manage to blend in with low-wage workers without revealing that you were a middle-class person with an education?
Barbara Ehrenreich: I didn't have to pose. It didn't take any acting, I was myself. Same hair, same clothes. You don't have to dress up very much for interviews for these kinds of jobs. I blended in all too well. Funny story - I had a book signing in Key West when the book came out and a woman came up to me and she said, 'Oh I worked at Gerrys,' so called, the same place I had worked. And she said, 'I saw you when you were there for an interview. I knew right away you were hiding something.' I thought, 'oh my God, I guess she could tell I was really middle- class.' She said, 'I knew you were just out of a shelter or jail.' Oh, well, time for a makeover.
Q: I know you originally studied the sciences in college. Why the switch to social advocacy?
B.E.: I studied many things. I studied chemistry in college, then I switched to physics, switched to bio. Then I got involved in the anti-war movement and finally decided I did not want to be an experimental researcher. I wanted to be some kind of social change agent. It was growing throughout the '60s. A lot of people in my generation dropped their careers they had prepared for to become activists.
Q: I understand you were born into a family that typically didn't go to college.
B.E.: Mine were blue-collar roots in Butte, Mont. The men were miners or railroad workers. My father had an amazing ride out of the mines and by the time I was in my teens, we were quite comfortably middle-class, and he'd become an executive. It was like going on a tour of the social class system of America, except for the top parts. It's something that sticks in your mind. These are your roots. Your cousins are miners, waitresses, factory workers - that's family.
Q: And does this have an influence on what you write about today?
B.E.: A big influence. I was always aware, or if I didn't want to be, I was made aware in college that my background was culturally different. My family read a lot but we didn't know music or ballet or anything.
Q: How was your experience as a guest columnist for The New York Times this summer?
B.E. I replaced Tom Friedman. That was a very intense experience. I'm not used to coming up with two essays per week. That was all I could concentrate on for about five weeks. But I enjoyed it a lot.
Q: I know you wrote a column defending Moore from the criticism that he is a member of the 'liberal elite.' If someone accused you of being the same, how would you respond?
B.E.: I have become more 'financially elite' thanks to royalties from this book, so some of that applies (to me). But I'd written about that years and years ago in a book called "Fear of Falling." It's that old conservative trick of pawning off anybody who speaks up for the underdog and saying, 'oh well, they're really an elitist.' It's entirely the other way around. If you listen to the populist right-wing broadcast people like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, they're not taking the side of the little guy or gal. They're taking the corporations' side. They're taking the side of the powerful and the wealthy again and again. No matter how much they want to put down people who drink chardonnay and eat French cheese or something, they objectively represent the elite, so there's been a very clever kind of Orwellian inversion there.
Q: I also saw your article comparing George W. Bush to King George III.
B.E.: That was my daughter's idea. I have to give her credit. My daughter's a human rights lawyer and she said, 'mom check out the Declaration of Independence.' And I said, 'wow, did I ever read past the first paragraph?'
Q: So you have strong feelings about the upcoming election.
B.E.: I have extremely strong feelings about this election. I think the war makes us a lot less safe. It's quite apart from both the tragic deaths of both Americans and Iraqis and people of other nationalities. The war has been terrific propaganda for Islamic fundamentalist insurgents throughout the world, and it terrifies me. You might call me a security mom or grandmom. I have two tiny granddaughters now and I am terrified about the world they're inheriting.
Q: So you are leaning left this election?
B.E.: Oh yes, I have never been so emotionally dependent on one man as I am now. Co-dependent on both men actually. (Kerry) wouldn't have been my choice though. I preferred Kucinich and Dean, but I will do anything ...
Q: As a journalist, I know that desire to be able to nudge the world a little. How do you feel your book and your writing have contributed to social activism and solving problems like poverty in the United States?
B.E.: I wish I could tell you I've done more. Very soon after the book was published was Sept. 11 and it just erased all these issues from the national mind. I think we've been fighting our way back to attention on domestic dangers like extreme poverty. I am proud though, that many affluent people tell me that the book opened their eyes to things they hadn't thought about before. Poor people in low-wage jobs tell me they feel well represented - that I portrayed their jobs well, and that's very heartening to me. Getting a lot of views from people trying to make change, that makes me feel good.
(10/06/04 12:00pm)
Amy Benson sits on a plush red chair against the mahogany walls of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Her chocolate suit is as rich as the wood behind her, and is offset by tinsel-like threading interwoven throughout the skirt and jacket set. The threading reflects a golden-green color that matches Benson's hazel eyes and blond, tousled hair.
Hers is a look of confidence. She is a professional, independent woman who teaches, writes and lives Uptown - and wears $300 Jones New York suits from Bloomingdale's.
Well, not exactly. The Amy Benson pictured on page A36 of Sunday, Sept. 26's New York Times is hardly the one who teaches creative writing classes at the College.
The visiting professor was selected for Bloomingdale's "Portrait of a Lady" ad series, which takes real, professional women - not models - and has them model designer clothes.
Clothes, that Benson says, she is not necessarily able to afford.
"I've never been able to shop in Bloomingdale's all my life," she said in her adjunct office in Bliss Hall. She laughed when asked if the ad was true-to-life. It doesn't accurately capture the youthful, laid-back, unrestrained writer Benson is.
But, like the other women the series features, the ad gives a brief portrait of the lady who poses for it. Benson is labeled "The Modern Memoirist" whose latest project is a memoir, "The Sparkling-Eyed Boy: A Memoir of Love, Grown Up."
It then quotes her literary ideas about fashion: "I use my imagination to make something completely mine. That's also my approach to style."
Benson said she originally wrote a different quote for the company to use, but they called her back asking for "something about fashion" instead.
"It seems crazy," she said about being selected for the advertisement. "It seems like someone else."
When Bloomingdale's asked Benson's publicist if she had anyone in mind for the series, she called Benson. After sending in a photo and description of her life and work, Benson and one other writer were selected for the photo shoot at the historic Algonquin Hotel.
"They wanted to capture something older, more classic," Benson said. The Algonquin was the perfect place - a literary landmark where writers like Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood drank, dined, debated and set the literary standard for their time. The hotel lobby's mahogany
pillars, writing desks and antique furniture make the Algonquin look just as it did when these literary giants thrived in it.
Benson entered that lobby via a flight of stairs from the second floor - where the dressing room was located - in a pair of spiky high heels.
"I had to totter down the stairs, holding onto things as we went down," she said. This was embarrassing, she said, because people were standing around the set of the shoot, trying to see if they recognized the models.
"People were just hanging out, looking to see if they knew who I was," she said. It was easy to mistake Benson for a famous model, since a makeup artist had worked on her for 20 minutes and a hair dresser had ruffled her short, blond hair into a messy but stylish 'do.
It was a fast photo shoot for Benson, the other writer and a "real model, not a regular person," as Benson called the third woman. It took place in June, and the series began running in The Times at the end of August.
The other writer's ad ran in The Times a week prior to Benson's ad. Another ad featured a female architect, and Amy Sohn, the sex columnist for New York magazine, appeared in one as well.
"That was my first and last time modeling," Benson said. She'd much rather write and teach.
At the College, Benson is filling in for professor Cathy Day, who is touring the country promoting her new book, "The Circus in Winter." She has also taught at the University of Alabama, Northwestern Missouri State University and Rutgers University.
She has never strayed too far from higher learning. Growing up in Detroit, Benson received her undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alabama.
She worked three years towards a Ph.D. from Rutgers, but never finished her degree. "I wanted to focus on writing as opposed to academic work," she said. She felt her family was more disappointed than she was.
"No one in my family graduated high school, except my mom," she said. "They all quit when they were like 14. Their expectations (of me) were high. I think (the Ph.D.) meant more to them than it did to me."
Instead, she wrote, and recently published her first memoir, "The Sparkling-Eyed Boy." In it, she draws upon experiences from her summers on the Michigan Island peninsula that juts over the mitten. The book explores the division between the island's rural setting and Benson's urban lifestyle, and how children on the island - one boy in particular - try to fit in to society.
Benson is currently working on something she describes as a mixture of fiction and non-fiction - an account of the occupation forces in Germany during World War II and their relationship with German women. Her uncle was an American who had been a part of the occupation forces, so she is using much of his first-hand experience in the novel.
She writes from New York City, her place of residence for a little over a year. In that short time, she is already living the life that most writers who flock to New York City dream of - a newly published work and publicity in The New York Times.
Still, she says, she can't believe this is her life. She loves New York City, even though she finds it can be a difficult place to write.
"It can be distracting," she said. "There's this sense of history and great writers, but there's also a pressure that comes with that. There's just so much going on it's hard to concentrate sometimes."
Especially when she is living up to being the poster girl for a portrait of a lady.
(09/15/04 12:00pm)
As both an alumnus and member of the math department faculty, William Hausdoerffer participated in the College's 100th birthday celebration.
Fifty years later, the 1936 Trenton State Normal School graduate was back to celebrate the College's 150th birthday, kicking off the Sesquicentennial Celebration with the lighting of the cauldron last Wednesday in Brower Student Center.
"There was no lighting of a cauldron, but we had a big dance one weekend, lots of newspaper publicity and parades," Hausdoerffer said, reflecting on the centennial-year celebration. "This reminds me of that a little bit."
Though the College has changed since Hausdoerffer's time as a student - there is now only one central campus, and dorms are co-ed - he finds much of the celebration the same. The current president spoke of the institution's accomplishments, the cheer and dance teams encouraged the crowds, and students and alumni alike gathered to witness a milestone in the College's history.
Originally scheduled to take place on Quimby's Prairie, the student center became the final destination of the torch used to light the Sesquicentennial cauldron. It was passed off for six miles by volunteers who ran it to campus from the College's original location on North Clinton Avenue in Trenton.
"I never ran six miles in my life but I wanted to do it for the school," Sean O'Grady, class of 2004, said.
"It was hot, it was humid," Anne DeGennaro, class of '83 and member of the Sesquicentennial Planning Committee, said. But she cheered "amen" when commended for running the full six miles.
Rain Plan B brought the torch through the middle of the student center to the outdoor food court, where it was lit by a potential member of the class of 2025. Harrison Fehn, 5 months old, was chosen to light the torch in honor of the College's future.
"He did it with a little help from mom and dad," said mother Heather Fehn, who works as an assistant to College President R. Barbara Gitenstein's cabinet. Her husband, Jack, is an institutional controls technician for the College's Energy and Central Utilities office.
Jack and Heather hope Harrison chooses to attend the College, where the couple met and subsequently married at a ceremony in the Allen Drawing Room.
"We'll talk about it in 16 years," Heather said. Jack said he is more eager to keep Harrison around so that he can keep an eye on him while he works.
Over the low racket of the student activities fair, which was simultaneously taking place in the student center, Gitenstein and Robert Gladstone, chair of the Sesquicentennial committee, led the half-hour event ceremony.
Awards were handed out for the name-the-ice-cream-flavor and cheer contests. Freshman Megan O'Reilly won the ice cream naming contest with "Sesqui-mint-tennial," and senior Laureen Biruk's cheer took first place. The Lion Mascot - originally dubbed Linus, although not called by this name for decades - was renamed "Roscoe," after former College president Roscoe L. West.
(09/15/04 12:00pm)
"I miss you."
They're all saying it - some fighting tears, their voices cracking, broadcasting the raw emotion that is rarely seen on television news.
Others are more composed. They add "god bless," and "never forget you," with the congeniality of politicians.
But for the family members reading the names of some 3,000 victims at Ground Zero, words do not seem to suffice.
Just as they have not captured the pain, the loss, the devastation of Sept. 11, they have never been arranged in an order that gives a clear explanation for that day - not from Tom Kean's Commission, not from an over-extended war on terror.
So family members, as well as those who weren't directly affected, rely on that gut-originating sense of missing to try to explain, or rather, to understand, the gaping holes - at Ground Zero, and in their lives.
Likewise, I have no explanation for my tears. I didn't lose anyone on Sept. 11, and I've never lived in New York City.
But I have become closer to it. On clear summer nights in Hoboken, we stare at the Manhattan skyline for hours from the PATH pier.
We're awed by the blue lights of the George Washington Bridge in the north, the late-night white lights of office buildings, the rainbow tower of the Empire State Building and the flow of headlights and tail lights on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
The southernmost part of our panorama is downtown Manhattan. It's less spectacular - no huge buildings, no bright lights.
But I wonder how I'd feel if the blinking red signal of the World Trade antenna had once been a part of my picture.
The closest thing to an explanation I've come up with came from a little girl.
She was a quick clip on NBC's coverage of the third anniversary memorial reading of victims' names.
She was standing by a reflecting pool that was almost filled with roses at the bare bottom of Ground Zero.
Only her mother stood next to her, black sunglasses hiding the mascara washing off her eyes.
Overflowing with roses, the reflecting pool spilled tears over its edges, crying with scores of others grieving around the pair.
But the girl tapped her feet, pointed and stared at the roses, as any fidgety child would.
Her mind was probably fixated on getting her hands on the pretty pillows of pink, yellow and purple.
She couldn't have been more than three years old.
That means she's probably never met her father, the man her mother has obviously been mourning over even before she was born.
While the rubble on the floor of Ground Zero is now only rocks in a sandbox to the little girl - rather than the Athenian spolia pit the rest of the country sees it as - I wonder how she'll feel in 10 years as a teenager without a father.
She'll start asking about him - what was he like, what did he do?
Then she'll get into the Hard Question - WHY did he die that day?
Like us, she'll probably have no explanation. But she, too, will come to know that feeling of Missing, just like I've come to know it three years later.
This vague void is the only concrete feeling I have about Sept. 11. I would never condone the actions of the terrorists, but I feel a good percentage of Americans don't understand the desperate economic and sociopolitical situations in the Middle East that ultimately breed a militant ideology.
Americans are definitely not shining examples of morality or prudence.
But I wonder just how many lives were reformed or put into perspective that day.
Judging by the images on this third anniversary broadcast - the mother holding the framed picture of her late son, the widow with the black bow crying into the suit jacket of Gov. James E. McGreevey - it's clear that life in America is changed forever.
The 'Empty Sky' Memorial in Liberty State Park that was dedicated Sept. 10 is a testimony to that.
It tries to fill the void left by the towers, but like most other attempted explanations, it doesn't.
It simply reinforces the sense of missing left in the wake of Sept. 11, serving as a reflecting point for all affected passersby.
(02/04/04 12:00pm)
Lindsay Nahm turned off the lights in her first-grade classroom and her students immediately stopped chattering. Calmly, quietly, each student sat still in his or her seat - until one child flicked on a flashlight, held up a black colored-paper cutout of a fish, and started casting shadows on the blackboard.
He was quickly joined by other students and their paper puppets and began putting on a simple show that evoked giggles and wonder from the rest of the classmates.
Their antics didn't elicit a scolding from Ms. Nahm, or worse - detention or extra homework. In fact their show was so entertaining that New Jersey Network (NJN) requested to videotape their performance for a segment on their documentary, "Classroom Closeup - NJ."
The puppet show wasn't random obnoxious child play. It was a 3-week-long program called "Bright Ideas Playhouse" that was a unit, or lesson, of Children Designing and Engineering - a program developed by the department of technological studies at the College that attempts to challenge young students to solve practical problems related to real-world settings.
"They learned the science of light and shadows, and they learned math and how to gather info," Pat Hutchinson, developer of the Children Designing and Engineering (CDE) program, said. "What they learned, they used to make the puppets and that's the technology part."
Ms. Nahm's students at the Spruce Run School in Clinton Township, N.J., put on their performance for the NJN cameras over the course of a day, showing off the skills they learned from the Bright Ideas Playhouse unit. Their task was to turn a nursery rhyme into a shadow puppet show, calculating lighting and shadows to produce the desired effects on the screen.
For a half-hour every day over a period of three weeks, Nahm taught the lessons of the Bright Ideas Playhouse unit, which involved exploring the properties of light, creating storyboards and learning how shadow puppets are made. For instance, if a puppet is made out of an opaque material, it will cast a black shadow, but if the puppet is translucent, a different color will appear when lit.
"It's amazing for kids to understand that," Hutchinson said. "We give them tests before (the units) and after, and if you just give the post-test to most adults, they usually scratch their heads trying to figure out what happens."
Children Designing and Engineering is a collaboration of the Technological Studies department and New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation. The program is divided into several units, K-2 or 3-5 grade-specific, where each unit is based on a "big challenge" that is inspired by a real New Jersey business. Johnson & Johnson, OceanSpray, Marcal and PSE&G are a few participants. For the Bright Ideas Playhouse unit, CDE worked with Lucent Technologies.
Hutchinson, along with teachers, students and curriculum specialists, spent a day at Lucent Technologies to tour the company and evaluate how they could tie its technologies into something that can be used in every classroom. This was especially complex for Hutchinson, who said that the company gave a "gee whiz" science show that entailed lasers and other extravagant technological devices.
"We had to explain to them that we were trying to find what kind of things they were doing there where kids could use math, science and technology to solve problems," Hutchinson said. "They said that's different from what they normally do with schools. They usually just put on a show and if when they leave, the kids are going 'wow,' they feel they've done their bit."
What CDE hopes to accomplish is a scientific and mathematical approach to technology that gives kids a hands-on experience rather than just a flashy light show. While children are used to being 'wowed,' especially in a culture abound with visual effects, their excitement peaks with hands-on experience.
"Every day, (the kids) asked if we were going to take out the flashlights," Nahm said. "(The unit) is a motivator to get through the day. Even the toughest kids loved it."
As the cameras rolled, students tried to impress with their knowledge. Nahm was impressed by the willingness of her students to participate - even that of her "toughest" student.
"He doesn't usually want to work," she said. "But he went up to (the cameraman) and asked him to film him."
The show, "Classroom Closeup - N.J.," is a magazine program that focuses on innovative education in New Jersey. The 30-minute weekly program features students, teachers and communities who create and participate in successful school projects and events. Nahm's classroom project will be featured in a 5-minute segment of the show.
Such publicity is a great aid to Hutchinson, who is in the process of marketing the educational units. Tucked inside the distant Armstrong Hall, Hutchinson's project operates out of what the department of technological studies informally refers to as the "Center for Design and Technology," which more likely resembles an editorial office than a college department.
The center publishes an online magazine, called Ties, and has a critical mass of writers, graphic designers and support staff who train teachers in the CDE program and publicize their educational endeavor that has been in the works for nearly five years.
"We're currently making presentations to all kinds of groups - school boards, technology education associations, science teacher conventions - that have an interest in supporting these things in school," Hutchinson said. "It's fun. The kids are enjoying it, and when they take science, English and math tests in the future, (it shows) they've really gained in their understanding of these subjects."
The program wil air Mondays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 7 a.m.
(11/18/03 12:00pm)
I remember when I was little and used to want to wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings.
Now, I usually just get into bed at the crack of dawn on Saturdays.
Of course, as we get older, we have different interests (I no longer need to be awake to watch Smurfs), so our schedules are going to be different. We have more work and responsibilities to tend to. So I wonder, if I am going to bed at 6 a.m. and waking up at noon, am I getting enough sleep to function and to carry out these responsibilities?
The search to find the recommended hours of sleep for a college student has been fruitless. I've read everything from "adolescents need nine hours of sleep per night," to "if you feel rested, then you've had enough sleep, and that's it."
According to sleepnet.com, "adults function optimally if sleep time is initiated regularly at about 10 p.m. and lasts until about 6 a.m." I realize this is nearly impossible for a busy college student like myself, so I've come up with my own system of determining how much sleep I need.
Newscientist.com said the average sleep time in the western world is now 6.5 hours, which seems pretty reasonable based on what students and adults that I've talked to have said.
I always try to get about six hours of sleep per night, though I prefer eight.
My schedule rarely ever permits those wonderful new eight-hour nights. But I purposely plan my class schedule to have no classes before 12:30 p.m. I am naturally a night person and rarely go to bed before 3 a.m.
If I go to bed at 3 a.m. and get up at 11 a.m., I will have had eight hours of sleep - perfect.
But it rarely works out that way, with Signal articles and research papers. Sometimes I find myself with a mere four hours of sleep. Now you would think that on these nights I would probably feel my worst, and wouldn't be able to function during the day. But that doesn't usually happen.
After one four-hour night, I find it easier to wake up. I spring up to the sound of my alarm, rather than brush it off with the snooze button for an hour. During the day, I don't have trouble staying awake and I don't feel more irritable than usual.
Sometimes, however, if I have a streak of those four-hour nights, I will start to feel the effects.
I won't get tired - I'll get cranky.
But lack of sleep definitely affects my emotions above all else. Play me a sad song and I'll be weeping in a matter of seconds.
I doubt my reaction is abnormal. Sleepfoundation.org says sleep deprivation often results in reduced energy, greater difficulty concentrating and a diminished mood (that's me).
What I do find abnormal, though, is the fact that I usually feel worse when I sleep for more than eight hours in a night. The next day, I'll usually develop a severe headache and will feel run-down and sluggish.
Of course, Advil aids my aching head, but pill-popping is not a substitute for researching the question that this raises: Does being well-rested have anything to do with the amount of time you sleep, or is it rather the quality of the sleep?
Since the results of such a study will probably take years to produce, I'm not going to waste my time worrying if I sleep enough or not.
It is my principle that sleep will be the sacrifice for papers and homework. Who wants to spend a whole third of their lives asleep anyway?
Six hours, which works out to be a quarter of your life, is just fine for me.
(10/28/03 12:00pm)
Fliers that advertised a drink off competition between the College and Rider University at the restaurant and night club Sambuca two weeks ago prompted many college officials to discourage students from taking part in the event.
The flier read, "TCNJ vs. Rider 1st Annual Drink Off. $1 Shots/ $1 Bottles. Who Can Party Harder? It's Time To Find Out!"
College officials felt advertising such an event on the College campus was inappropriate.
"We were shocked that the College's name was used in an incident of this nature," Lynette Harris, College disciplinarian, said. Harris felt the fliers promoted underage and binge drinking.
"With alcohol and binge drinking also comes those larger problems," Harris said. "Studies show a lot of the time with sexual assault there is a high percentage of alcohol use. You don't want to get involved with the criminal offenses it could bring. We are just thinking about the bigger picture."
The Alcohol and Drug Education Program (ADEP) met to decide what measures to take in response to the flyer. According to Joe Hadge, ADEP director, the organization decided to inform different departments and organizations of the flyer so that they could talk to students about the event.
"Our goal was to make sure
that people were informed about the event," Hadge said. "It wasn't about trying to stop it. Our main goal was everyone's safety."
While departments worked to notify students of the dangers of such an event, allegations were made that a College fraternity was responsible for the fliers.
According an Oct. 16 Trenton Times article, Leslie Gonzalez, owner of Sambuca, claimed she knew nothing of the event. Gonzalez said the bar was booked that night by a student of the College for a friend's birthday party.
Gonzalez could not be reached for comment.
According to an Oct. 17 Trenton Times article, the College will be investigating which fraternity, if any, is responsible for the event.
"It was not a responsibly planned event," Hadge said. The New Jersey department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), Hadge said, will also investigate the situation.
In the end, the drink off did not take place. Ashlee Stetser, senior computer information systems major, went to Sambuca that night to attend the drink off.
She arrived with seven friends and did not expect to pay a cover fee, as the charge for the drink off was to be waived for women arriving before 11 p.m.
However, bouncers asked for a cover fee and then explained that the event was cancelled.
Stetser and friends proceeded to enter the bar and found many undercover cops inside.
One undercover cop asked a member of Stetser's group to show valid ID.
The Trenton Times reported on Oct. 16 that city police officials, state troopers and ABC officials and inspectors handed out 11 hand-summonses to five people for underage drinking and for possession of fraudulent identification.
(10/07/03 12:00pm)
So you want that job at the latest music shop or the big department store. The application is all filled out and you know you can ace the interview. There's only one thing that stands between you and your cash flow.
The drug test.
Not only is the test uncomfortable, but it can also put a major hindrance on your career if the fun you had at last Saturday night's party is detected. But fear not - there are a number of rumors about drugs and the duration of their stay in your body.
Breathe easy, as long as you are not a heroine junkie or chronic marijuana user. Here is the low down on the drug test, according to Hank Fradella, professor of law and justice.
Urine tests typically screen for common drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin and speed. Most employers use the most standard test, which would detect these drugs according to the following guidelines.
Marijuana, after one-time use, can be detected for approximately three days. With moderate use (3-4 times per week), the drug can remain in the body's system for about five days, while heavy use (daily intake) will be detected for 10 days.
Chronic users who smoke pot more than once a day need 21-27 days to completely expunge their system. Most try cleansing methods such as Niacin in order to pass a drug test, but often times to no avail.
"You can flush your system all you want," Hank Fradella, professor of law and justice, said. "It's still going to be there if you're a chronic user."
According to Fradella, more sophisticated measures can even detect the drug for up to three months. Jobs for security officers - such as police and state troopers - have sensitive blood tests that can detect marijuana after an even longer period.
This method is usually too expensive for run-of-the-mill drug testing, however, so regular urinalysis is the most common means of detecting a drug user. Urinalysis is still effective, as it detects all other common drugs.
Amphetamines such as speed will be detected for up to three days. Cocaine will be picked up for 2-3 days, as it is water-soluble and washes out of the body easily. Opiates such as heroin are also water-soluble, and are excreted from the body within two days as well.
So, if marijuana smokers can get in trouble for up to 30 days after their illegal dealings, do heroin users get off easier?
"A junkie wouldn't be able to go eight hours, let alone two days," Fradella said. "If someone recreationally uses narcotics, we can find that out for about 10 days. We catch it quite regularly even if it's just prescription narcotic pain killers."
So heroin junkies and potheads can't pass the test, but what about users of other drugs such as LSD?
"Since LSD is not a huge drug of abuse anymore, it is not in standard screenings," Fradella said. He said LSD is so powerful that a typical dose is not in milligrams, but in micrograms. Because the dosage is so small, standard drug tests will not even pick up traces of LSD.
"When its use is suspected, urine must be collected over a period of many hours, say over the course of a day, and analyzed with very sensitive techniques such as radio-immunoassay or the use of a mass spectrometer," he said.
Typically, one-time users have less to fear than drug addicts. However, drugs have always been the cause of major health and psychological problems. To be assured of a passing grade on the drug test, the best recommendation is to not abuse any substance at all.
(09/23/03 12:00pm)
For 11 hours last Friday, a blackout impaired students' ability to do work, go to class and eventually led to the evacuation of some residence halls.
According to Joe Sullivan, director of facilities, a large tree fell across the main electric line that feeds the campus at 9:30 a.m., breaking the power lines. When the power was not restored by 6 p.m., Residence Life called for an evacuation of Allen, Brewster, Eli, Cromwell, Decker and Eickhoff Halls as well as all three Townhouse complexes.
"We used backup generators in buildings that we felt were safe to be in," Sullivan said. This included using a portable generator to light Eickhoff Hall, so that it was able to serve food to students.
Sullivan said that the portable generators were also used for outdoor lighting as well as for the Brower Student Center, which remained open as a refuge for students with no place to go.
While most buildings have backup generators for emergency lights, exit signs and fire alarms, Sullivan said that most of the backup systems were down by noon.
"Battery powered emergency lights and backup systems are only designed to last a few hours," he said.
Evacuation
With darkness falling and no emergency systems to provide minimal lighting to residence halls, Residence Life began to evacuate students. By 6:30 p.m., students were packing up to go home, waiting at the student center or seeking shelter with friends who lived off campus.
"I was pretty sure the power would be off for a while ... since our emergency lights weren't working," Linda Gallant, junior English major who lives in Townhouses
West, said. "So I thought I might as well just get in my car and go. It was sort of frustrating."
Gretchen Reyes-Cseplo, upperclassmen area director of Residence Life, said that the evacuation was required because there was no power and back-up generators were not going to work overnight. Reyes-Cseplo said that HA's went door-to-door to see how residents were doing and to inform them of the evacuation.
"Considering the circumstances, I think that the HA's and CA's were helpful during the evacuation," Lisa Camasano, junior elementary education and Spanish major, said.
"However, knowing other state colleges had closed due to the hurricane earlier, I think that TCNJ could have been better prepared," she added. "Some commuters were sitting in classes, and there was no organization to tell people what to do."
Restoring the power
Employees at Facilities worked hard to bring power back to campus, some employees working 36-hour shifts.
"We knew we might have problems so we scheduled extra staff who stayed from noon on Thursday until everything was restored on Friday night," Sullivan said.
While the College was prepared, they had to wait for assistance from PSE&G (Public Service Electric & Gas) in order to fully restore power, since the company was responsible for the main feed.
"There was extensive damage, especially in the Southern sector of the state, so we had to wait an extended period of time for PSE&G," Sullivan said.
Power could not be restored to the entire campus at once, so re-lighting of buildings had to be staggered.
Sullivan said that Facilities turned on its own distribution first, then the buildings at separate times. "We didn't want that much power flow at one time," he said.
Between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Friday, everything was repaired and back in service.
Thursday night power troubles
Due to high winds brought on by hurricane Isabel, a number of buildings on campus experienced sporadic power outages on Thursday night as well.
Sullivan said that PSE&G was having problems with its local 13,000-volt system that powers Ewing and Lawrenceville as well as the College.
Because of this, the College had to go into what Sullivan referred to as "isolation" or "idle mode." In this internal system, Sullivan said that it is hard to maintain a balance between output and campus load, causing intermittent outages.
"It didn't work as smoothly as we would have liked," Sullivan said, "so we will be looking at how to improve that performance."
Additional reporting by Teresa Rivas and Amanda Harris.
(09/23/03 12:00pm)
Rain is teeming down in buckets and the wind is blowing leaves and debris all over the place.
My first reaction? I have to get inside - I can't get my hair wet!
While I might be a Bergen County priss who despises the minute that the humidity level rises to over 70 percent, there is something about all the Hurricane Isabel coverage that makes me want to be a storm-chasing reporter.
Maybe it's the thrill of the chase. We all know how much I love to chase.
It would be so exciting to stand on a beach as waves are pummeling the shore. The cameras would roll and I'd stand there in my poncho screaming, "Well, as you can see, a huge storm is currently hitting our coast."
It's all about the visual effects. Of course being at the site of the storm isn't actually enabling me to report on the storm more accurately. But come on - a girl on the beach, wet hair decorating her face - that's a great way to attract male viewers.
The poncho and the wetness wouldn't be my favorite part of the job, but the travel opportunities do entice me. If I were a broadcaster from New York City, I would have been given a free trip to North Carolina this past weekend. Sure, it wouldn't have been a great time to tour, but at least I could say, "I went there. For free."
There's also my sentimental attachment to my childhood fantasies of becoming a weathergirl. I used to wake up at 6 a.m. on schooldays and watch Jim Cantore and Vivian Brown bring me the "current weather conditions." Their presence, plus that awesome "Weather Channel music," made me want to be a meteorology anchor. Then I realized the probability of landing such a job. That's when I came into the College and declaired journalism instead.
But I guess I shouldn't be disappointed with my decision. There are downsides of being a weatherperson. More often than not, you'd have to admit you were wrong, and I really loathe doing that. But how often are you allowed to screw up on your job and have people still trust your predictions as if they were spoken from the Goddess of Weather herself?
And while storm-chasing is fun, I know that it's all about media hype. I usually don't like the way that TV attempts to bring the news to viewers as "infotainment." The storm-chasing reporter certainly classifies as that - it's like one of those reality series, but the weatherperson can never get voted off (that's a plus for me).
But at least storm-chasing for TV is mostly harmless. A storm can't vote me off because it doesn't like the fact that I badmouthed it to other weatherpeople. And I'm not willfully trying to make viewers afraid of anything, because a hurricane in itself is pretty scary.
Despite the chance that I could be blown away with my cameraman, storm-chasing reporting seems like it would be a fun job. I guess I'd just have to get used to being seen with my hair in a big wet mess - even if it is on national television.
(09/16/03 12:00pm)
It's Monday night and the situation is a bit confusing. There's a lot of noise coming from the floor above you, mostly men's voices, screaming "Come on, let's go!" and "Get me more beer."
But isn't that typical of a Tuesday night at the College?
Not anymore. Football season has begun.
With Sunday and Monday night games, as well as multiple Fantasy Football leagues, football culture at the College is taking off into a new season.
But why football? What is it about the game that diverts attention away from studies and into the world of competition, beer and pom-poms?
"It gives guys a reason to bond," Brett Ziller, junior electrical engineering major, said, as he watched the Philadelphia Eagles. "They can let their emotions out during the game. And they can care about something without being considered unmanly."
Whatever the reason, football games have a major impact on the way students spend their Sunday and Monday nights. Eagles, Giants and Jets fans alike gather together to enjoy the sport - and each other. From room parties to gathering at the Rathskeller (Rat) for a beer and the game, the sport has a definitive place in College culture.
"I had about 10 people over here to watch the game," Jeremy Mitchell, junior business major, said of the first game of this season. "We watch all the games together and we play poker, too."
For Mitchell and friends, not only is football season about the sport, but it's about hanging out together as well. With the workload at the College, taking time out to get together with friends is a nice break. And what a better excuse to do it over than football?
"If we had beer, we would have done something," Phil Warren, junior political science major said. "We would have had chips and dip and then just relaxed and watched the game. Especially the Monday night game."
The Rat aids with study breaks too, as Monday night football always makes the big screen.
"Monday nights are the game," Warren said. "It's just tradition. Plus John Madden commentates. He's the best."
Mitchell and his group of friends also went to the Rat for the first Monday night game, and probably will do so for the rest of the season.
But simply watching the games on TV is not enough for some fans. Especially not with the wide range of Fantasy Football hosts to choose from.
Whether it's Yahoo! or ESPN online, fans can create teams and rosters with the click of a mouse. They can then compete against a league of friends who have created a similar virtual team.
"There are 10 people in my league," Mitchell said. "We had a draft online before the season started and we get points for different categories. I know a lot of other people that are in leagues too."
With fantasy's growing popularity, anyone can come up with a team for the sport of their choice - even hockey. The virtual team has become popular for a number of different reasons.
"You feel more involved in the games," Mitchell said. "You have a favorite team that you want to win, but then you are also rooting for individual players on different teams."
Warren joined a Fantasy Football league with 12 of his friends for a similar reason. "It's fun competition and it's bragging rights as well," he said. "I can root for players, not just a team, so it's like a hobby."
So there's fantasy leagues, parties and lots of competition. But where are the ladies? Not counting the cheerleaders, most women at the College tend to have a different attitude towards the game.
When Mitchell and his friends get together, his girlfriend, junior elementary education and psychology major Jennifer Lloyd, merely "stops by." Mitchell thinks it's because she is just "not interested" in the game.
"It's good he has his 'guy time,'" Lloyd said. "But I'm not really interested in football. I don't follow the games or anything."
Lloyd feels that there are a fair amount of women who are interested, but "the majority isn't."
Kristen Begosh, junior psychology major, isn't a part of Lloyd's majority. "I love watching football," Begosh said. "My roommate and I used to fight over whether we would watch the Giants or Eagles games on Sunday afternoons."
However, Begosh said that she only watches "the big games." Other times she keeps the game on in the room while she gets some work done, but said that she would watch with others if she had time.
No matter who watches, it is extremely likely that Monday night noise can be attributed to the Giants, Jets or Eagles.
(09/09/03 12:00pm)
She walked into the classroom, her youthful eyes scanning the roomful of unfamiliar students' faces. To professor and poet Reetika Vazirani, new places and different people were always familiar, a product of her frequent traveling and moving around. Despite her natural poise and grace, no one knew the pain that migration and other tragedies had inflicted on Vazirani's life.
In 2001, Vazirani found herself once again preparing for a new life, a new job - a new identity - this time at the College. Her students were now her family, and her mission was to teach them. About life. About art. About experience.
Their first assignment: take out a piece of paper and a pen. "Just experience the actual act of writing," she said, as recollected by Lauren Mulryne, a student in Vazirani's fall 2001 Short Story class. "Don't worry about WHAT you are writing, but focus on the pen gliding across the paper."
For a woman who was known to be incredibly precise with language, simply writing without thinking about it beforehand would have seemed inappropriate. But much is often unexplainable, and like Vazirani's first assignment, her death on July 16 - along with the death of her two-year-old son, Jehan - lacked a clear explanation.
"We were all shocked when we heard the news," Jean Graham, chair of the English department, said. "We didn't expect it at all. We were appalled and it was just very sad."
According to the July 18 Washington Post article, Vazirani slashed Jehan's left wrist and then her own. Their bodies were later discovered by a friend who responded to a desperate call from Vazirani. Mother and son were found lying next to each other in a pool of blood in the Washington home of friends Howard Norman, a novelist, and Jane Shore, a poet, where Vazirani was temporarily staying.
"I can't imagine the place she must have been in, but she had to be very far from herself," Kim Pearson, associate professor of English, said. "Suicide is hard enough to understand, even though it happens. But I can't understand taking the life of her baby."
While faculty and students knew Vazirani to be pleasant, receptive and easy to approach, Pearson said that her poetry was haunting and revealed someone who was unsettled in her identity.
After being born in India, Vazirani moved to the U.S. when she was six and grew up in Maryland. She lived in China, Thailand, Japan, Cambridge, Tampa, Piscataway and Trenton, among a number of other places, as her parents changed jobs.
Raised by her parents - both professors - Vazirani experienced loss when her father committed suicide. She was only 12 years old.
"For me, it was a disappearance because I was never told that he died," Vazirani said of her father's death to Poets and Writers Magazine. "I read two obituaries sitting at the kitchen table, and at that time, I didn't know what suicide was - I thought it was a disease."
Her dealings with her father's death and her constant migration made it harder for her to fully adapt to one place. As a result, these issues influenced her award-winning poetry.
For her first collection, "White Elephants," she won the Barnard New Women Poetry Series in 1995, and her latest work, "World Hotel," won the 2003 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Most prestigiously, she was awarded the Pushcart Prize in 2000 for her poem, "Daughter-Mother-Maya-Seeta."
"She was a master of the craft," Pearson said. "She knew the exact effect she wanted to achieve - in poetry and in her teaching alike - and she did it consciously but not obtrusively."
For example, Pearson said that when Vazirani would find something unusually horrible - whether it was a newscast, an article or a current event - she would simply say, "That's some fucked up shit."
"It would have so much more of an impact because she chose those words so carefully," Pearson said. "When she said it, she really meant to say it."
While her words were solid, Vazirani constantly struggled with identity. Faculty members who had deeper conversations with her knew a more isolated, uncertain woman.
"What we all knew and saw was that she suffered from a painful sense of isolation that was just so big," Janet Gray, professor of women's studies, said. "I don't know if any of us could have understood it. We tried to help but we don't know if it would have been possible."
Cathy Day, professor of English, said that as writers, she and Vazirani shared the experience of always seeming to be in a new place. Because of this, she tried help Vazirani adjust to her new surroundings by going shopping together and showing her around the College.
But despite the College's welcome, Vazirani once again did not stay in the same place. She took the spring 2002 semester off in order to work on her latest book and to be with her family. She then moved to Williamsburg, Va.., to work as a writer-in-residence at the College of William and Mary. Her latest plans, before her death, were for her and Jehan's father, Yusef Komunyahaa - a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who was teaching at Princeton - to join the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta.
"She was just such an intense person," Gray said. "People will always speculate why she did what she did, but will ultimately find that you can't solve it for anyone else. We are really in the face of a terrible tragedy."
(08/25/03 12:00pm)
Once in a lifetime? How about once in a thousand lifetimes.
That's how often Mars comes within 35 million miles of Earth. And on Aug. 27, humans will be able to view the Red Planet as close as Neanderthals saw it 60,000 years before.
An opportunity to witness the phenomenon that will probably only be seen by 1,000 generations superceding ours should be taken advantage of. The naked eye will have an excellent view of the red-orange planet that will light up the night.
The red-orange glow that will radiate from the tiny sphere is caused by iron oxide in the rocks and sands of the planet, which was named after the Roman god of war due to its blood-red color.
And like a warrior's swiftness, Mars is quickly approaching at a speed of 10 km/s. Only six months ago, the planet was five times as distant.
It will be closest to Trenton at 1:46 a.m. on Aug. 27 (that means late Tuesday night, to most college students). Green Lane is an excellent spot to view all kinds of spacial happenings.
How to watch
Mars will be hard to miss, especially because of its proximity to the moon. Its brilliance and color will give it away as soon as your eye meets the sky.
While the naked eye will enable viewers to understand where the Red Planet gets its nickname from, a telescope is needed to view some of the planet's surface features, such as ice caps and mountain ranges.
Amateur astronomers who have viewed the planet through backyard telescopes have reported great views of Mars's southern polar ice cap. Made of frozen water and carbon dioxide, (i.e. dry ice), it reflects sunlight well.
While not many students have access to a telescope, try the observatory of The Science Complex. If that's not open, Green Lane is the next best place. However, students must beware - with the god of war so near, trouble might be brewing.
Freaky phenomena
Astrologers believe that Mars, since it is so close, is having a profound effect on human behavior. But, before people start blaming the planet for their destructive or careless behavior, here is a breakdown of what astrologers believe the Red Planet affects the most.
Since Mars is the action planet of the zodiac, it is known to be fiery, and Mars does not disappoint. It governs energy, passion, drive and determination. It commands humans to stand up, be noticed and get things done - and yes, Mars does rule the military. Simply put, Mars speaks to the power and confident expression of the individual.
Ambition and competition are also under the influence of Mars. The planet encourages people to face challenges and to be the best they can be - or better. Aggression is part of its plan, although Mars also values courage and honor. Assertion and a daring, fearless nature please this planet.
These conflicting forces make Mars's energy both constructive and destructive. The god of war in Roman mythology, Mars could be brutally violent. While this energy still emanates from the planet, it also harnesses this force for good. This makes stamina, ambition and achievement all part of Mars' mantra.
And to please students, Mars rules our sexuality and sexual energy. But there are still no excuses for brash and "heat-of-the-moment" behavior. This is because Mars also governs weapons and accidents - a dangerous combination. Like a yin and yang balance, the energy of Mars can be helpful, but only if used properly.
The future of Mars
While 36 million miles will probably be the closest humans will ever get to Mars, the College hopes to bring the planet more within the reach of students. In the spring, a series of presentations on the Red Planet will be sponsored by the science department.
"We're going to include landings, life on Mars, and a Mars fiction and fact session, where we hopefully bring in a science fiction writer to tell about myths and truths of the planet," Paula Maas, assistant dean of the School of Science said. The department hopes to spark greater interest in the planet and in astronomy in general, and feels that the Mars phenomenon will spark much attention.
--Information obtained from astrology.com and science.nasa.gov.
(08/25/03 12:00pm)
Sure, I love being a slave to other peoples' desires. Just tell me what to do - anything you want, I'll be right at your feet. I'm yours. My only purpose in this life is to serve you, master.
Some people expect this to be the common scenario of an unpaid internship. After experiencing one myself this summer, I have to say that it's absolutely not true.
While it's not necessarily like volunteering in an elderly person's home, where you are compensated by a feeling of goodness for helping someone out of the kindness of your own heart, the benefits of working for free are tremendous.
I'm sure you hear it all the time - internships are a great experience. Yeah, they are, they look great on a resume, too.
If you actually do something with your summer rather than sunbathe and soak, employers will see that and you'll be a choice candidate. But of course you've heard this all from your adviser.
The real reason why internships are great is because of the connections you can make.
When you make friends with your bosses, and keep in touch with them during the school year.
Maybe when a position at the company opens up, it will be yours.
That is, if you work hard enough. Even though the work you do is free labor, you still have to do it right. If you're a good worker, and the bosses see that, you'll probably be rewarded.
Since I worked at a magazine, I became close with the editors, who felt bad for me having to work three full days a week with no pay.
They gave me a free lance assignment on which I'd be working as a correspondent rather than as an intern. This landed me an extra $200 because I was paid as a correspondent. So it all worked out.
Even if you're not compensated in any monetary way, you probably will have some kind of financial advantage over time.
So what if Merrill Lynch won't pay you for eight weeks of work during your summer.
In the long run, the kind of experience you learned during those eight weeks will probably land you a job that makes big bucks when you're in your thirties and forties.
And thirty and forty-year-olds can be a lot of fun as well. Don't get me wrong, I want to stay in college forever, but there was some feeling of maturity that came over me every morning when I'd get in my car to drive the daily commute.
It gives you a better sense of responsibility, as well as a taste of whether or not you want to continue in your major for the rest of your life.
But it also makes you appreciate your last few semesters at college a little more.
I'd suggest being someone's slave for a few weeks.
The experience and the connections are sexier than Abercrombie clothes and Steve Madden shoes by far.
(04/29/03 12:00pm)
While all students at the College are, of course, driven, motivated and intelligent, choosing a career is not always easy. And not everyone has it all figured out just yet. Four students tell their stories of sucess, future plans and job possibilities.
Helping the Nursing Shortage
As a child, a hospital full of doctors and needles can seem intimidating and overbearing. But when welcomed by Denny Reid's caring, enthusiastic face, those fears disappear in a second.
Reid, senior nursing major, is getting ready to take his love of children and welcoming aura to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Working as a pediatric oncologist for children with cancer, Reid inspires kids who, in turn, inspire him.
"It's the most amazing experience I've ever had," Reid said about his internship at the hospital last summer. The internship was Reid's "in" with the Children's Hospital, as it is one of the most selective and endorsed hospitals in the country.
"There's a big nursing shortage now, but it's such an accredited hospital that they can chose who they want to work for them," Reid said, explaining how competitive his position is.
Yet, Reid's main goal for his career has nothing to do with competition. His love of children and his outgoing personality is his real motivation for going to work everyday.
"I really enjoy patient-to-patient contact," Reid said. "It's not just about being knowledgeable. You have to be able to relate to the kids."
Since Reid does his job so well, some of the patients ask for him by name. During his internship, he met a young girl who took a liking to him. After his internship was over, the little girl came back to the hospital for a bone-marrow transplant. Nervous and unhappy about other doctors and nurses, she requested to speak with "Denny." Even though he was at school, the nurses called Reid and the patient got her wish.
"She was so excited to talk to me," Reid said. "You go in there and put a smile on their face and then their day is that much better. It gives me the inspiration to go to work everyday."
On to Greater Academic Pursuits
Holly Kent is a senior English major with minors in history and women's and gender studies. After graduation, she will be enrolled in Lehigh University for her masters, and eventual PhD in history.
"I chose to go to school for history because I've always loved history, and I'm a history minor," Kent said. "I'm really looking forward to four more years of reading, researching and writing. Plus, the program at Lehigh has several faculty members who focus on American women's history, which is what I want to study. So, it's perfect!"
Kent is glad to be accepted into the program, because she didn't have any alternative plans.
"If school didn't work out - for me, it was pretty much school, or panic," she said. "So I'm really glad that school did work out!"
Kent is unsure what she will do with her degree, but hopes to be working as a teacher or in a museum, instructing people about women's history.
Kent said that the College helped her find her perfect fit in a graduate school. The reference room in the library is filled with books that describe the programs offered by colleges and universities all over the world.
"For people who are thinking about grad school - I would say, number one, start looking really soon - it's a big decision, and the more time you have to think about it, and to go through the application process, the better," Kent advised. "Number two, talk to your professors - they'll know what the good schools are for what you want to study, and will have lots of resources to help you."
Schooling Overseas
Pete Dolcy is a senior history elementary education major who spent the first half of the semester student-teaching in Ireland.
"I suppose I would really like to be teaching internationally (within five years)," Dolcy said. "After Global Student Teaching earlier this semester, I have really taken an interest in seeing the world, and that seems to be the best option out there."
If working internationally doesn't pan out, however, Dolcy plans on returning to school to earn a master's degree in education administration.
"I hope to begin my training in education administration and start on the path toward becoming a school principal," Dolcy said.
Dolcy said that the College provided him with opportunities he would otherwise not have experienced.
"Student teaching both abroad in Ireland and here in Bordentown has really taught me a lot about teaching, both instructing and the small things that go on behind the scenes," he said. "I really feel that the College has prepared me to enter the workforce completely."
The College's Junior Professional Experience program has helped him immensely, he said.
"Most of the districts that I have spoken with have asked questions about programs that they are developing that mirror those that we learn about in our methods classes," Dolcy said.
Teaching in N.J.
With elementary education being one of the premier majors at the College, it isn't easy for all those majors to find a job with a school in the area. Even though the College is known for its exceptional teaching program, Megan Baiada, senior elementary education major, is in the midst of an intensive job search for a teacher's position.
"Hopefully, someone will hire me," Baiada said, explaining how she has sent out resumes to schools all over Burlington County and is waiting for responses.
She hopes to be teaching by September, but is unsure if she will have a job by then. Had she participated in the College's on-campus recruitment program, she said, she might have had a better chance finding work.
Schools from all over the area come to on-campus recruitment and have students sign up for interviews and applications. Baiada didn't sign up for it because she had originally planned to go to grad school. When her plans changed, it was too late to go back to the recruitment program.
"I decided I'm going to go to grad school while I'm working," she said, explaining her change of mind.
While she is not sure of her job status for September, she plans to substitute at schools in her hometown over the summer. She is also involved in Habitat for Humanity, and will be traveling to Kentucky for a week this summer to build houses.
"I haven't been able to do as much as I'd like to," she said. "Trying to get done with school as well as the job search is very hard, because they're both so time-consuming."
(04/22/03 12:00pm)
Whether or not people are in support of the war, one wartime aspect is usually agreed upon: support our troops.
For most people, the troops are a far-off entity who are "protecting our homeland" and "fighting for freedom."
This is not the case for two students at the College, Alison Litvack and Jen Nemmers. Every time the girls hear "support our troops," Nemmers hopes her uncle returns home safe and Litvack misses her older brother.
Nemmers' uncle, Eric Isler, 33, is second in command for his transportation unit, giving orders to a couple hundred men under him. Stationed in the deserts of Iraq, Eric Isler's main job is to refuel tanks as they drive through his area.
"They do it as they're driving because once the tanks stop, they make an obvious target," Nemmers said.
While this seems like a dangerous feat to anyone whose closest experience to the war has been Geraldo Rivera's sand-mapping, Eric Isler is unfearing.
"I think he absolutely loves what he does," Nemmers said. "He can definitely take care of himself."
This self-sufficient, fearless ideology radiates from Nemmers as well and is rooted in the family's close affiliation with the military.
Nemmers was born in Illinois, moved to Florida and finally settled down in Hamilton, N.J., as a result of her parents constantly being restationed.
Her uncle Eric Isler married high school sweetheart Becky, who is now a nurse in the Air Force. They met in the Navy - Eric, an electronics professor and Becky, his student.
Stationed at a Texas base with her two sons, Becky Isler is awaiting a call to serve at any time. Nemmers said that the boys are raised with military strictness, but will get a nice break if mom gets called to serve. They'll then be living with their grandparents in Florida.
"Those two boys are so full of energy but they're very disciplined," Nemmers said. "Unless they're with my grandparents, then they're very spoiled."
While the family is usually close, it is hard to keep in close contact with Eric Isler when he is constantly moving around Iraq. The best they can do is quick, one-line e-mails that say "I'm OK," or "Love you guys."
"War is war," Nemmers said. "It has to happen. You may or may not like it, but people are people and you have to give your support."
Alison Litvack knows Nemmers' steadfastness, having to deal with her brother, Michael Litvack, 24, being in short contact and always on the move through Kuwait and Iraq.
"I don't know exactly what he's doing right now - he can't tell us before he goes," Michael Litvack said. "He can only contact us when he gets there."
Since he works with the army's communications department, Michael Litvack is not fighting on the front lines. Litvack said that Michael Litvack isn't involved in combat, but he is trained in it. His main duty is to make contact with the Iraqi people after the military forces have swept through their towns. He speaks with them, consoles them and gives out food.
"It's less dangerous, so we're happy about that," Alison Litvack said, concerned about Michael Litvack, who is "quiet, but when he says something, it's really funny."
Michael Litvack's genuine character had him return to the military after completing his four years of service. He had originally enlisted in order to pay for college, but after Sept. 11, his plans changed.
"He knew we would be going to war so he didn't want to leave his friends who were still in the military," Alison Litvack said. Michael Litvack's dedication has enabled him to travel all over the U.S., in Africa and most recently, through the Middle East. He has his family's support no matter where he is.
"We're all for the war," Alison Litvack said. "So many people have turned their backs on the idea of war and that's really upsetting to people with family over there because it's like turning their backs on us. They are just defending our freedom and trying to help the country, enabling us to enjoy our freedom."
Both Jen Nemmers and Alison Litvack constantly think of their loved ones, but seem to be confident of their safe returns and a victory for the U.S.
Mark Lopez, student of the College, was deployed for military service in Iraq. He has been training 16 hours a day and would appreciate any correspondence. He can be reached at: Pfc Lopez, Mark, 254 Transportation Co., Building 5952, Fort Dix, N.J., 08640.
(04/22/03 12:00pm)
Yellow Ribbons are being tied all over lampposts outside the student center as well as on students' jackets and residence hall room doors. Yet, there is more to the ribbon than meets the eye.
Yellow Ribbon Wearers
On the gray peacoat that she wears every day, Christine Brower, sophomore elementary education and psychology major, displays a yellow ribbon made from thin, ribbed material usually used for decorative gift-wrapping.
Although she has no relations or acquaintances overseas, she has the same hopes that troops will return home safely. And her views on the war itself are somewhat reminiscent of the 1960s.
"I'm not really for the war, but I support our troops," Brower said. "But if I had it my way, we would all live like that Beatles' song, 'Imagine.'"
While other supporters do not wear their support on their sleeves, they make their point just the same by putting yellow ribbons in their Instant Messenger profiles. The tiny graphic glows bright yellow next to slogans of "God bless our troops" or can even stand alone.
"The yellow ribbon is a sign of support and having it in my profile shows other people where I stand," Jeff Kearns, sophomore management major, said.
"I believe the purpose it serves is to remind people that there are fellow Americans doing their job in Iraq and we should support them and their families," Matt Ziegler, sophomore accounting major, said, justifying his electronic yellow ribbon. "In this time, Americans need to come together and and look beyond the politics of the war."
Students Showing Support
Lambda Sigma Upsilon, Delta Sigma Pi, Student Government Association and the Inter Greek Council have collaborated to bring more yellow-ribbon support during their "Support Our Troops Day" last Friday. Yellow ribbons were given out, but the efforts also included letters to troops and donation collections.
Delta Sigma Pi, professional business fraternity, asked for a donation in exchange for a ribbon. They were also selling "Support Our Troops" T-shirts for $8 each. Last week, they raised over $1,500 and are planning to send the money either directly to troops in cash or in the form of phone cards.
"We had a lot of people say that they knew people over there," Vicki Hall, sophomore international business major, said.
Wes Underwood, member of Delta Sigma Pi, went to a naval high school academy and knows colleagues overseas.
are you seriousJen Nemmers, also a Delta Sigma Pi member, has an uncle in the ground forces in Iraq. It is for these troops in particular that the fraternity decided to participate in the day.
Lambda Sigma Upsilon wanted to send its support directly to the troops. Members had paper, pens and kind words for their letters where students wrote their warmest wishes to overseas forces. All of their collected donations were being sent to the Red Cross.
"Apparently, more people like to donate rather than write," Giuseppe Ilaria, member of Lambda Sigma Upsilon and senior math education major, said as only one letter had been written at the beginning of its event.
The fraternity also had a banner full of autographs and writings to be sent overseas. Full of multi-color markings, the banner contained slogans of "come home safe," "stay strong" and "thanks for your dedication."
History of the Ribbon
The tradition of wearing yellow ribbons may date back to the Civil War when the U.S. Cavalry wore yellow trim on their uniforms. Women who were married to or dating soldiers wore yellow ribbons as they waited for their men to return from battle.
The yellow ribbon debuted on movie screens in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," a 1949 western starring John Wayne. A U.S. Cavalry post is trapped far out in the Indian country and the story centers around a veteran captain about to return. Meanwhile, loyal wives play out the saga from their homes.
More modern records of the ribbon being used come from an incident that occurred on a bus bound for Miami, Fl. A prisoner who had just been released was on his way home. He had written his wife to let her know he still loved her and wanted to be with her. He asked her to tie a yellow ribbon around the lone oak tree in the Town Square of White Oak, Ga, if she still had feelings for him and wanted him to be with her. Of course, he found the ribbon there, and other bus passengers spread the story.
Songwriters Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown got word of the tale and wrote their hit song, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree" in 1973. However, they changed the story into one about a Civil War soldier, a stagecoach and yellow ribbons.
The song became a hit again in 1981 when the 52 hostages in Iran were returned after 444 days of captivity. By then, the yellow ribbon had become a national symbol of support and loyalty.
By the time of the 1991 Gulf War, yellow ribbons were everywhere - pinned on jackets, tied around trees and anywhere else they could be displayed.
If a yellow ribbon is displayed today, it is usually assumed to be associated with a war that is going on. No matter how it originated, it is now known for it support of those who are doing their country a service. Its vibrant yellow voice echoes "we love you, we miss you and we're with you every step of the way until you're home, safe."
- Information obtained from www.wcity.net/ServiceStar/YRHistory.html.
(04/15/03 12:00pm)
Sigma Pi's black 3 foot x 5 foot fraternity banner was stolen by sophomore fine arts major Christopher Watson from the Brower Student Center, after hours, on April 6.
Watson said the theft was in retaliation to a pizza theft that occurred in Cromwell Hall earlier that evening.
According to Watson, members of Sigma Pi were holding a weekly meeting in the main lounge of Cromwell when he had a pizza delivered to his residence hall.
When he arrived, the delivery man left the pizza on a table near the main lounge for a minute while he went into the men's bathroom.
When Watson came to pay for his food, he and the delivery man found both the pizza and the delivery bag missing.
During that time, Watson said that a Sigma Pi meeting had adjourned. Upon further investigation, he found the delivery bag outside the Cromwell main entrance. The pizza had been eaten and Watson assumed brothers of Sigma Pi had eaten it.
According to the Cromwell Hall office, Sigma Pi has the main lounge reserved every Sunday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
In retaliation, Watson walked into the student center and remained hidden in a conference room until after the building had closed. He then stacked tables and used a makeshift pole to tear the banner from its spot on the wall.
Afterwards, he took pictures of himself with the banner and posted them on his Web site, which lead to his conviction. On the Web site, Watson posted his version of the story, along with pictures of himself holding the banner. According to a post on Watson's Web site, he said he would return the banner if the brothers of Sigma Pi return his pizza with a signed letter of apology.
"I just wanted Sig Pi to give me back my pizza and an apology," Watson said.
Sigma Pi fraternity president Mike Rieker received the link to Watson's Web site through another brother. Rieker and another brother went to Watson's room in Cromwell Hall to get the banner back, without the intention of appeasing to the Web site's request pizza and an apology.
Watson was not in his dorm room at the time, so Rieker left without confronting him.
"As far as I know, no one from my fraternity stole any pizza," Rieker said. "What I do know is that this whole incident has been blown out of proportion."
"Handling the matter peacefully was our main objective and police involvement was the last thing we wanted," Rieker added.
"Somehow, the police found out before we talked to him," Rieker said. "Sigma Pi did not contact the police. However, since the police did get involved, what happens to the kid is all up to them."
According to Ray Nesci, professional services specialist for Campus Police, "Information from Sigma Pi is not available yet," which confirms that Sigma Pi did not file a complaint with Campus Police.
"I figured I would deal with Sigma Pi itself," Watson said. "I didn't intend for this to happen. I didn't need to be cheered on and I wasn't concerned with what others thought of it."
"I know the reason they are most upset is because I stayed in the building after hours," Watson added.
"The fact that he remained after closing has resulted in the trespassing charge," Nesci said.
According to Nesci, Watson has been charged with theft and tresspassing. He has a hearing with the Ewing Municipal Court which has been postponed until further notice, where the court will decide his punishment.
Watson also has to face the College's judicial board, which will enforce its own punishment. The College's punishment could be on one of four levels: a written warning, probation, removal with held obeyance or removal from campus housing.
As a result of this incident, the Brower Student Center is working with Campus Police to ensure that the building will be secure in the future.
"Really we're going back to the drawing board to security of the building during the later hours and that would include our staff, Campus Police and security," Mike Puccio, manager of the Brower Student Center and quality assurance, said.
"We are also looking to upgrade the overall security system in the building that includes security camera's and an alarm system," he added.