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(11/15/06 12:00pm)
Voter registration at the College was problematic this year because Student Government Association (SGA) members were unable to move into the College earlier due to budget cuts.
Michael Strom, SGA vice president of Legal and Governmental Affairs, said SGA members were not allowed to move in a week earlier than everyone else, as they had in previous years, due to budget cuts. As a result, the voter registration drive was not discussed until the second SGA meeting, three weeks after it would have been discussed in past years.
In addition to the delayed beginning of the drive, there were scheduling problems. SGA worked with Lambda Theta Alpha when the drive started and members of both organizations sat outside Eickhoff registering voters for about four hours per day for three weeks, according to Strom.
Despite the delayed start, about 120 people registered. Their registrations were sent in the mail a week before the one-month registration deadline, with the exception of those who registered in Ewing. Those registrations were driven into Trenton by SGA members.
"We encouraged many people to register in Ewing because it is much simpler voting in a station close to (the College) than going home," Strom said. "Because . we didn't trust the speed of mailing, the only registrations we did close to the one month mark were (in the) Ewing area."
For some first-time voters, however, registering in Ewing was an issue. Kaitlin Drew, freshman deaf education/English major, was told to register in Ewing after asking about an absentee ballot. However, Drew does not have a car on campus and thus had no way to get to the polls.
"I was disappointed that I missed the opportunity to vote because of misinformation," Drew said.
"Everyone who registered outside of Ewing should have come back to get an absentee ballot or should have gone home to vote," Strom said. "If people were unable to get to the polls, they should have registered at home and applied for an absentee ballot, or arranged with someone to help drive them."
An absentee ballot drive was also held by SGA. The drive included sitting outside of Eickhoff for a week and creating drop boxes in the residence halls, Strom said. These were mailed out in two shifts - one on Oct. 23, and the other on Oct. 27. Absentee ballots were due Oct. 31.
Although an absentee ballot drive was held, some voters felt they did not receive enough information.
"I registered in my hometown and I wanted to fill out an absentee ballot," Brianna Glynn, freshman biology major, said. "But I wasn't sure how to do that and I wasn't able to find out any information that was readily available from the school."
Strom said the voting drive held this year was bigger than ones held in previous years.
Despite the increased SGA efforts, voters such as Qasim Husain, freshman biology major, felt not enough was done on campus to encourage voting.
"I never even heard anyone on campus even talk about voting or the election," Husain said. "It is pretty sad the school and organizations here did nothing to change that."
(11/01/06 12:00pm)
After dozens of faculty members complained about the hostile conduct of Campus Police, the faculty senate decided to take action.
According to Faculty Senate President Michael Robertson, the faculty has three main complaints about Campus Police.
The first is the attitude of the police. "Too many of the police officers have an extremely aggressive and hostile attitude," Robertson said.
Robertson said many faculty members felt like they were treated as criminals when dealing with Campus Police.
The second issue is overzealous enforcement, according to Robertson. The faculty is upset that officers spend their time on issues that have no effect on the security of the campus, such as checking for any cars with expired registrations and towing them if they do.
Robertson also said that many faculty members in the science and arts departments have faced "unremitting harassment" when trying to drop off equipment.
The third faculty complaint concerned the "effect of all this on the visitors to our campus," Robertson said. He said he has heard multiple reports of visitors facing hostile attitudes from the police.
"This hostile, confrontational atmosphere destroys the community of the College," Robertson said.
These issues first came to the attention of Robertson in September, when a colleague mentioned hearing three separate complaints about Campus Police - two from faculty members and one from an administrator. The person suggested the faculty senate investigate, so Robertson called the three people who had complained about Campus Police.
They sent Robertson to other faculty that had experienced similar issues. Within two weeks, Robertson contacted several faculty members who had complaints about Campus Police.
As a result of these initial complaints, Robertson and Faculty Senate Vice President Deborah Compte set up a meeting with Curt Heuring, vice president of Facilities Management, Construction and Campus Safety, and Kathryn Leverton, associate vice president for Administrative and Environmental Services.
However, the majority of the faculty was unaware of this meeting, and at 1 a.m. on Oct. 11, a faculty member wrote a complaint on the faculty list-serv.
"(The e-mail) unleashed a flood," Robertson said. By the time he checked his e-mail at 9 a.m., there were dozens of e-mails complaining about Campus Police.
Robertson e-mailed the faculty and explained that he had already been investigating, and informed them of the meeting the following day. He also invited people to send complaints to him directly, and went to the meeting with a thick stack of complaints.
At the meeting, Robertson and Compte proposed a joint committee with members from the Faculty Senate, Staff Senate and Student Government Association (SGA).
A resolution to form a committee to "consider ways to strenthen relations between Campus Police and the broader campus community" was proposed Oct. 18 to the faculty senate, staff senate and SGA, and passed, according to Compte.
The committee will forward its recommendations to College President R. Barbara Gitenstein and Heuring by the end of the semester.
Christine Cullen, SGA executive president, said James Gant, SGA executive vice president, Steve Viola, junior class representative, and Mohammad Amer, freshman class president, will join the committee.
"Any faculty member is grateful to have Campus Police . aiding the security and safety of the campus," Robertson said. "But the law can be enforced while still maintaining a caring, respectful community."
"We take this issue very seriously," Matthew Golden, director of Communications and Media Relations said. "But (we) also believe our Campus Police officers have long been positive and valued members of our college community."
Robertson said he and Compte spoke with Gitenstein, interim provost Beth Paul, Heuring and Leverton throughout this process.
"Every one of those four people is aware of this problem and genuinely wants to bring the campus community together to work on this problem," he said.
(09/13/06 12:00pm)
This year is the first year in the College's history that students with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to learn on campus.
Six students have this opportunity because of the College's Career and Community Studies (CCS) program, a program designed to give students with intellectual disabilities a chance for postsecondary education.
The six CCS students began the program with orientation on Aug. 28 and are currently taking classes on campus. John Russo, a CCS student, said that he likes both his classes and the campus, and that the program is fun.
Joey Clawson, a fellow CCS student, agreed. "It's cool to know faces on campus," he said.
Dr. Jerry Petroff, co-director of CCS, is "more than thrilled" about CCS. "I don't see why this can't work," he said. "And we're out to prove that."
CCS is funded by a grant from the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS). The grant is for $50,000 a year for three years, starting in September 2005.
Although the grant was pushed forward by NDSS, the funds are from a personal grant given by Barnes & Noble, Inc. CEO Steve Riggio and his wife Laura, who have a teenage daughter with Down Syndrome.
The idea to start the CCS program at the College came from Professor Rebecca Daley, CCS program coordinator, and Dr. Rick Blumberg, CCS co-director, when they both served on a steering committee started by NDSS.
Postsecondary education is "something that's emerging in the field of disability," Daley said.
Petroff agreed. "Everybody deserves the right to continue learning and to have the college experience," he said.
About a year after sitting on the committee, Daley, Blumberg and Petroff developed a grant proposal to NDSS. Once they received the grant, they had one year to set everything up for the program.
The first year was spent coordinating the infrastructure, such as setting up an advisory committee, developing an application and interview process, deciding on what basis the program would accept or not accept an applicant and introducing the campus to the idea that intellectually disabled students would be coming.
In order to spread information about CCS, Daley, Blumberg and Petroff met with the Student Government Association (SGA), spoke in front of both the faculty and student senates and tried to talk about the program to other professors as well as with students. In addition, an open house was held last March for professors and other members of the community to learn about the program.
The next step for the program is to find professors who are willing to integrate students with disabilities into their classes.
"(There are) lots of classes on campus that could be possible," Daley said. "We just have to reach out to faculty to make that happen."
According to Blumberg, "everyone has been enthusiastically supportive." Some professors already began to involve CCS students in their classes, and "other faculty have expressed an interest in working with us," he said. They also received support from the dean of the School of Education, Dr. William Behre, as well as College President R. Barbara Gitenstein.
In addition to support from the faculty, students have also been supportive. "I've never seen so much enthusiasm for this program, and it came from the (College) students," Daley said.
Kelly Allen, a mentor for CCS students, agreed. "Everyone on campus has been really supportive and welcoming," she said.
Daley believes the program will be successful not only for the students in CCS, but for the College's students as well, who can apply to be mentors for the students with disabilities. "I think it's going to work well for our students at (the College) in terms of giving them opportunities to be mentors and (working) with people with disabilities," she said.
"I believe that this program will be successful because of the student mentors (who) are volunteering their time to support our students as they become part of the (College) community," Blumberg said.
According to Allen, "It's a great opportunity for (College) students and CCS students."
In the future, CCS will continue to accept six students a year. The students will be at the College for four years, and will pay student fees, similar to tuition. When the grant runs out, student fees will sustain the program.
A typical day for a CCS student runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the CCS Web site. In addition to taking classes at the College, students will have the opportunity participate in internships.
At the end of four years, CCS is expected to have given its students increased maturity, more opportunity for independent living and social skills. The students will go through "the same types of positive changes . that every freshman goes through," Daley said.
According to Blumberg, "I see our students having the same variety of social and academic experiences that other (College) students enjoy."