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(05/02/07 12:00pm)
Though the April 24 meeting of the Board of Trustees was announced as the annual tuition hearing, students won't know how much tuition and fees will be until July 10. Instead, the presentation was a report on the state of the College's finances and how the College is looking to spend its money next year and in the future.
The board made clear from the beginning that there would be no guidance about tuition at the meeting.
"We will not be proposing scenarios or fees," College President R. Barbara Gitenstein said.
"We are not at a place where we have enough information about the governor's budget," Stacy Holland, board chair, agreed. "This is a State of the Union, so to speak."
Gitenstein said the financial outlook this year for the College is "infinitely better than last year." The governor's proposed budget includes a $1.6 million base appropriations increase and $200,000 to $500,000 to cover the 2007 cost-of-living adjustments in the state-negotiated union contracts, for a total increase of $1.8 million to $2.1 million.
However, in the last six years, College treasurer Barbara Wineberg, said the College has seen a $28.5 million increase in the costs it must shoulder. That includes $7.8 million in base appropriations cuts from the state, $10.4 million in increased salaries, $1.8 million in Outstanding Scholar Recruitment Program (OSRP) and financial aid it has had to cover after the state discontinued that program, and $8.5 million in costs for fuel and utilities.
Thirty percent of the increased costs have been covered by cutting expenses, 5 percent by fundraising and 5 percent by reallocating reserves. The large majority, 60 percent, comes from increased tuition and fees.
Gitenstein said state colleges would be advocating for additional funds to cover increased salary costs. Salary costs are a perennial problem for the College because of the way the College's union contracts are negotiated, she said. State officials in Trenton negotiate higher salaries with the unions, but often do not allocate more money to colleges to make up for the increased cost. This means the College is stuck paying for salary increases it had no say in negotiating, Gitenstein said.
Another area of advocacy is to have the state pick up more of the cost for the New Jersey STARS II program. The program is an extension of New Jersey STARS I, which allowed high school students in the top 20 percent of their class to attend community college free for two years. New Jersey STARS II allows them, once they have completed their associates' degree in two years, to continue on to a four-year state college, also for free. The state only funds $4,000 per student, leaving the College, in many cases, with half the tab when federal need-based grants don't appear for STARS students.
Gitenstein also said she would personally lobby for restoration of OSRP, but admitted the outlook was bleak.
"I think restoration of OSRP is slim to nothing," Gitenstein said. "But I'm going to fight for it because it feels good."
Wineberg said the College has a list of priorities for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
First, the College will have to cover its mandatory increased costs, including salary increases, tuition waivers, fuel and utilities, maintenance and service contracts, and its obligation to OSRP students already enrolled at the College.
Next, the College will look to restore areas impacted by last year's budget cuts. It will first focus on restoring the faculty positions it left vacant and then give back funding to maintenance and restoration, information technology and the various administrative positions that were cut. If there is more money, the College will look to increase funding to secure full-time legal counsel, improve student life and increase Campus Police.
(04/25/07 12:00pm)
The Committee on Academic Policies (CAP) released a new final exam policy for the College. The new policy requires that finals be given during finals week and that they count for at least 15 percent but no more than 50 percent of the grade for a course. As part of the new policy, CAP held a sparsely attended open forum for faculty and students on April 20.
The new policy is designed to make final evaluations a part of many classes and ensure they take place at the end of a semester when students can focus on just finals.
Amanda Norvell, CAP chairperson, said the policy was meant to keep classes from having finals before Final Exam Week.
"It doesn't matter if the class votes to do (the exam) early," Norvell said. Instead, students who might feel uncomfortable voting against a "do it early" proposal can point to the policy as support for holding the exam during the regular exam period.
Christine Leichliter, assistant dean of Art, Media and Music, said professors were feeling pressure to schedule exams before exam week.
"So many faculty come to expect that they're the bad guy if they say no," Leichliter said.
According to the draft policy, regular class work, papers and assignments must be handed in before the last day of classes; they should not be due during the exam week. Furthermore, final papers and projects must be due during the exam week.
According to a footnote, the paper due date policy allows professors time to read and comment on the papers. Without it, papers that came in late may not be given the same attention as professors rush to get grades in.
Though the policy sets standards and values for exams, it stops short of setting specific requirements for professors and classes.
For example, the draft policy says "an evaluation may take the form of an in-class final exam, a take-home final exam, a final paper or a final project."
It goes on to say, "Other formats may be acceptable as well. In each case, the evaluation should be comprehensive or integrative in nature (but not necessarily cumulative)."
Beth Paul, acting provost, said this was a deliberate choice on the part of CAP.
"We have to walk a very fine line to protect academic freedom," Paul said.
Steven Link, Student Government Association (SGA) vice president for Academic Affairs and CAP member, said some proposals were considered by CAP but rejected as being too meddlesome.
For example, Link said CAP considered a requirement that professors assigning final papers be required to use the exam period to discuss or present the papers rather than having them just dropped off.
The proposal died in committee as intruding too much on a professor's discretion to use or not use the final exam period, or whether or not to discuss papers.
Norvell emphasized that the policy may not be right for all classes.
"It's very clear that there are entire types of classes that this won't apply to (such as art classes)," Norvell said. Professors can apply to their chair and dean for an exemption to the policy, if they think the policy doesn't suit their class.
(03/28/07 12:00pm)
Eileen McGinnis, senior vice president at Whitman Strategy Group and adjunct professor of political science, spoke Thursday as part of the political science department's weekly politics forum. McGinnis served as chief of staff for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. McGinnis described her time creating policy at the agency and coming under attack from her own party for being, it claimed, not Republican enough.
McGinnis began her career in constituent relations for Gov. Tom Keane, where she worked her way up from doing "grunt" case work. She worked her way through the ranks and became a speech writer for the governor. She was later tapped by Gov. Whitman as her deputy chief of policy, and then chief of policy, for six years. When Whitman was asked by President George W. Bush to come to Washington as EPA administrator, McGinnis followed as her chief of staff.
McGinnis said she was surprised by the slow pace of policymaking in Washington. At the state level, policy is made much faster and on a much more regular cycle. During her tenure at EPA, only one piece of environmental legislation passed Congress and was signed into law, and that law was 10 years in the making.
"A lot of policymaking at the federal level is building coalitions (among various agencies)," McGinnis said.
McGinnis admitted she wasn't as well prepared as she would have liked to be for the rough-and-tumble world of Washington politics.
Whitman spent her time at EPA "under attack" by her own party, which saw her as too liberal and not sufficiently conservative to head up the federal agency. McGinnis attributed the viciousness to the close 2000 election, which she saw the country as still reeling from when Whitman took office at EPA.
According to McGinnis, presidential advisor Karl Rove opposed her appointment as Whitman's chief of staff, having heard that she was a radical environmentalist. In New Jersey, McGinnis laughed, she was considered quite conservative by environmental groups.
"Washington is a very vicious place," she said. "We were viewed with suspicion by many in the Bush administration."
While McGinnis worked to shape policy, she said her main role as chief of staff was as a "crisis manager" for the administrator. But she did give one case study of how environmental regulations and politics work at the federal level.
EPA was considering regulations to require General Electric (GE) to dredge the Hudson River as part of cleaning up Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) in the river. EPA scientists claimed that it could be done safely, but GE lawyers claimed that dredging would pull up the PCB contaminants and make the situation worse.
Both sides were waiting for a report from the National Academy of Sciences studying the problem. When the report, which was over 1,000 pages long, came out, both sides claimed victory, saying the report supported their side.
In the end, GE agreed to spend $500 million on the river and adhere to strict performance standards for the cleanup. Dredging is two years behind schedule, however, stalled by a lawsuit from local community groups about the impact of the dredging operation on the surroundings.
McGinnis said the GE case told her that the science isn't always the deciding factor, even in environmental cases.
"You'd like to think the science gets you the answer, but it doesn't," McGinnis said. Politics is always part of the equation.
McGinnis encouraged students to pursue a career in politics, saying she was "very fortunate" to do what she's always wanted to do.
"(Politics) is a wonderful opportunity to change the world," McGinnis said.
(03/21/07 12:00pm)
Jeff McMahan, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, delivered his talk "War, Terrorism, and the War on Terror" to a mix of faculty and students in the library auditorium on March 6, giving his vision for an ethically permissible war on terror.
Anti-terrorism operations, McMahan said, are more like police work than war fighting. Yet he said there were some considerations that might make it permissible to kill, rather than arrest, terror suspects.
The essence of terrorism, McMahan said, is that it is an "intentional effort to inflict serious harm onto innocent people, usually because they're part of a group, to terrorize other people part of the same group, usually for a political purpose." Thus, McMahan said, while it captures traditional cases of terrorism, it would also cover things like the United States' use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Key to McMahan's works, on which his talk was based, is the difference between just and unjust combatants. Just combatants are fighters who are fighting for a just cause. The United States in World War II, he said, had a just cause, making its fighters just combatants. Unjust combatants, he said, have an unjust cause. In McMahan's view, it's morally impermissible for unjust combatants to kill even in self-defense during wartime.
He said that terrorists may not have unjust ends, although they do use unjust means. Unjust combatants, in contrast, have a variety of good excuses for their actions. They might have been duped into fighting an unjust war by unscrupulous leaders or misleading propaganda.
McMahan asked how terrorists should be treated by nations fighting them. He said terrorists can't be treated like ordinary combatants; the combatant category exists to restrain war. It promises combatants they will be treated humanely and let go when hostilities are over to go back to civilian life.
McMahan said instead terrorists should be treated like criminals, and anti-terrorism operations should be more like police investigations than war. Yet in police work, there is the duty to take criminals alive.
"There are good reasons for a presumption of a requirement of arrest in anti-terrorist operations," McMahan said. He added that there are several factors that might weigh in favor of killing terrorists on sight.
The three factors that need to be taken into consideration, he said, are that terrorists are generally more dangerous than ordinary criminals, that attempts to arrest terrorists rather than killing them are less effective in protecting innocents, and that it's more dangerous to anti-terrorist operatives to arrest than simply kill terror suspects.
When all three factors are in favor of the anti-terrorist operatives, it would create more danger to civilians to try to arrest terrorists, and capturing them is very difficult compared to killing them outright - it may be justified to kill the suspects instead of bringing them to trial.
"I'm not proposing anything particularly radical here," McMahan said.
He said the right to kill terror suspects comes from the right to protect the innocent. Yet, he said, it doesn't give the government license to kill terror suspects in foreign countries where many innocents might be harmed.
"If there's a terrorist in a hotel," McMahan said, "and you have to attack and kill innocents to get the terrorists, would you be willing to do it if the terrorists were in a U.S. hotel?" If not, said McMahan, it's not justified to do it in a foreign hotel either.
(03/07/07 12:00pm)
Thirteen College Republicans attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. from March 1-3. The conference, considered one of the annual rites for young, politically active conservatives, was attended by speakers ranging from Vice President Dick Cheney to Sean Hannity. It also had its share of controversy, with conservative commentator Ann Coulter calling Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot."
Coulter's remarks came during her address to the conference where she riffed on each of the major Democratic candidates.
"I was going to have a few comments about John Edwards but you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,'" Coulter said to laughter, a few whistles and scattered applause. "So I'm kind of at an impasse. Can't really talk about Edwards."
Each of the major Republican candidates denounced Coulter's remarks as insensitive and inappropriate. College Republicans who attended CPAC agreed to varying degrees.
"Most of us found it tasteless and out of keeping with our principles of private and public virtue," S. Lee Whitesell, senior philosophy major, said. "It was also not in keeping with our mostly shared family values. If you watched the video we laughed, nervously and belatedly, because, well, it was Ann Coulter, and she was denigrating John Edwards."
"I didn't think (Coulter) was as good as she was at other events I've seen her at," Terrance Grado, College Republicans chairman, said. "I like to think of the conservative party as the more civil party. But I wasn't too bothered by it."
Sponsored by the American Conservative Union, CPAC has been running for 34 years. Its sponsors bill it as the "nation's oldest and largest gathering of conservatives," a place where young student activists mix and mingle with older peers. College students make up the largest group, with 62 percent of attendees between 18 and 25.
CPAC is more than a conservative mix-and-mingle, however. It is also seen as a gathering where Republican candidates can make their case to the conservatives that form the party's base. This year, for example, all Republican candidates for president, except for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) attended and addressed CPAC this year. A Washington Post story cited former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's speech at CPAC as a way to "earn some goodwill with an audience not predisposed to support him."
Grado said his mind wasn't made up as to whom he would support in the 2008 Republican primary, but said that CPAC helped him understand each of the Republican candidates better. Grado said he was "extremely impressed" with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who was conservative on all major issues except immigration.
In addition to the various speakers, CPAC featured seminar sessions with decidedly conservative themes, such as "Why Are Liberals Hell-Bent on Raising Our Taxes," "The Left's Repeated Campaign Against the American Soldier" and "Loony Ladies of the Left: How to Combat the Radical Feminists on Your Campus." It also featured more sedate sessions like "State of Campus Conservatism" and "2008 and the Political Landscape."
For College Republicans, attending CPAC was a way to network with conservative organizations and get ideas for campus activism.
Grado said that talking with conservative exhibitors at CPAC gave him a lot of ideas for lecturers and ideas to bring back to the College.
(02/07/07 12:00pm)
The College has issued a safety warning regarding Wal-Mart's No Boundaries 5-Light Multicolored Floor Lamp and other lamps with a similar plastic shade design following two "near misses" with the lamp at SUNY-Fredonia.
Students may not keep the lamp in residence with standard incandescent bulbs, but may either remove them or replace the bulbs with "cool to the touch" compact florescent bulbs that burn at a lesser temperature.
According to a campus-wide e-mail sent by Brian Webb, manager of Risk, Occupational Safety and Environmental Services, regular incandescent bulbs burn at a temperature that melts the shade and releases toxic fumes. The e-mail went on to say that if the melted plastic came into contact with other combustible materials, it could start a fire.
A statement posted by Marne Smith, director of Environmental Health and Safety at SUNY-Fredonia, on her Web site states that one student's bedspread was burned after the shade caught fire. In a separate incident, the shade melted through and began to turn a student's poster brown.
Other colleges received SUNY-Fredonia's bulletin, including the College Health and Environmental Safety Society (CHESS), of which the College is a member. Webb said he became aware of the hazard through CHESS.
Webb's e-mail did not name the lamp, but attached a picture. The pictured lamp is the same as the No Boundaries 5-Light Multicolored, which is sold at Wal-Mart and other chain stores. Webb said he didn't name the lamp or manufacturer because he was worried about the design, not the lamp in particular.
"We don't want to point at Wal-Mart or any other manufacturer," Webb said.
The Wal-Mart Web site does not mention any safety issues with the shade. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said she would look into the issue, but had not called back by press time.
Webb said that because there was no recall on the lamp and the issue did not appear to be electrical, his office decided not to ban the lamp outright, as other schools have. Instead, students will be able to use compact florescent bulbs which use less energy and burn at a lower temperature. Webb said the cooler bulbs were not as likely to burn the shade as standard incandescent bulbs were.
Students who choose not to replace the bulbs can keep the lamp in residence, but cannot leave it plugged in. Students who have not replaced the bulbs and keep the lamp plugged in will be documented by the College's judicial system for keeping a fire hazard, Webb's e-mail said.
If students aren't sure whether their lamp should be used, Webb said to unplug the lamp and ask a Residence Life professional staff member.
For Melissa Zachok, sophomore accounting major, the message came too late. She was studying for fall semester exams when she looked up and noticed smoke filling her room. According to Zachok, her Main Stays brand lamp, which had a shade similar to the No Boundaries lamp, had burned through the plastic. She was able to unplug the lamp in time, but the event was her own close call.
"I'm shocked the smoke alarm didn't go off," Zachok said.
Main Stays is another Wal-Mart private label brand.
According to SUNY-Fredonia's Web site, the lamp's safety issues are being looked into by the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control as well as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. A search of the commission's Web site revealed no mention of the lamp.
(01/31/07 12:00pm)
The College now has a new construction eyesore on its hands, a long trench running along the rear of Green Hall near Brower Student Center. Surrounded by temporary fencing and wooden signs marking a "Temporary Sidewalk," the work is needed to replace aging steam distribution pipes and should be done by March, weather permitting.
According to an e-mail sent Dec. 13 by the Office of Public Affairs, Facilities is working to replace an aging and failing steam line and condensation pipe. Matt Golden, director of Communications and Public Relations, said that the line being worked on was one of the oldest on campus. Golden said that while the work isn't necessarily an emergency, its condition meant that work did have to take place during the academic year.
The trench has temporary fencing around it for pedestrian safety. The fencing cuts off the length of sidewalk that runs parallel to the rear of Green Hall which connects the sidewalks near the New Library and the Social Sciences Building.
To accommodate students and staff going to offices in Green Hall by the rear, crews have constructed a temporary walkway over the trench. Pedestrians can access the rear of the building at each end of the building and through the ramp that leads to the basement. This ramp is the only handicap-accessible entrance to Green Hall and was the reason for the temporary bridge over the trench, Golden said. The front of the building, the Holman Hall side, remains unaffected by the construction. At press time, a construction trailer was located on the grassy quad behind Green Hall and near the New Library, while a backhoe was located near the Social Sciences Building.
The work is scheduled to last a few months, and fencing should be removed by March. Although the office of Public Affairs initially estimated May for the end of the project, Golden revised the date in an e-mail.
Despite the work on the steam pipe, Golden said that steam and hot water distribution to campus should not be affected, except for a few short intervals.
While the construction is significant, its expense was planned for as part of the College's Asset Renewal Plan. The plan is a 10-15 year timeline for the update and replacement of aging College infrastructure.
"(The plan) will help ensure reliable utilities and comfortable buildings going forward," Golden said in an e-mail.
For students going between the New Library and Social Sciences, the construction might be inconvenient, but it should not impact those who need to get into Green Hall, Golden said.
"We understand that many students travel the walkway between Green and Social Sciences and must visit the offices in Green," Golden said. "Our hope is that, by creating temporary paths in those areas that provide access to the doors in the back of the building, we can minimize any inconvenience caused by this project."
(12/06/06 12:00pm)
Republican State Assembly candidate Jay Weber visited the College Republicans on Nov. 29 to talk about corruption in New Jersey, how to reduce it and how Republicans can make a comeback in the Garden State. Weber said that corruption might not be a winning election issue for Republicans, but clean governance is worth pursuing.
According to Weber, unethical behavior in New Jersey is a bipartisan issue.
"We've really earned our reputation as the Louisiana of the North," Weber said.
Weber said the public sentiment is that as long as politicians vote the "right way" for a voter, private conduct doesn't matter.
According to Weber, people generally believe that both Republican and Democratic politicians are the same when it comes to integrity: they both don't have any.
"People just don't believe that one party is more ethical than others," Weber said.
The large size of New Jersey government, from state to municipal, contributes to unethical behavior, Weber said. According to Weber, the approximately $60 billion that New Jersey spends at all levels of government makes for a "big pie" of money that politicians want to get their hands on.
In general, Weber said, politics is a battle between the "taxpayers and the tax-eaters." Tax-eaters, he said, like public employees unions, are strong, powerful and well-organized, whereas taxpayers are not.
Weber also accused the New Jersey Supreme Court of being an activist court. He said its decisions, ranging from Abbott v. Burke, where it required the state to heavily fund urban schools, to the recent gay marriage opinion, took power away from the legislature.
Weber said when the court takes the role of the legislature, it makes voters feel like they can't make a difference, which adds to the apathy in New Jersey politics.
Weber said solutions for cleaning up corruption included a ban on dual-office-holding, where a state legislator holds several government jobs, tougher nepotism bans and an end to pay-to-play, where contractors give campaign contributions and receive contracts in return.
Weber said that he thought that pay-to-play laws were important, but were no "silver bullet." Campaign contributors simply weren't dumb enough to make the contracting arrangements explicit.
A strong U.S. Attorney was important, as was an Attorney General who was serious about the problem of corruption in the state, Weber said. He praised current U.S. Attorney Chris Christie for his work in cracking down on corruption in the state.
Thomas Sales, senior political science major, said that Republicans have failed to cash in on Democratic ethical missteps.
"Republicans failed miserably to make (corruption) a winning campaign issue," Sales said.
Weber said that corruption wouldn't rank on most people's "top three" issues they worried about, but stamping it out was important nonetheless.
While Weber's talk was meant to build on the College Republican's showing of "Street Fight" the night before, a 2005 documentary following Republican challenger Cory Booker's unsuccessful 2002 bid to unseat long-time Democratic mayor of Newark, Sharpe James, Weber also talked about New Jersey politics in general. Weber said he had a "very broad mandate" about what he was to talk about, and he kept his talk informal and question-driven.
Weber called James the "poster boy for abuse and corruption in New Jersey." He cited James' "double-dipping" as mayor of Newark, for which he earns $213,000 more than any state governor or state senator.
Weber emphasized the role of students in local campaign politics and encouraged the College Republicans to make a difference.
"If there's anything we need in this state, it's young, excited, College Republicans," Weber said. "It doesn't take a lot to make a difference."
(11/29/06 12:00pm)
Guster might have radio standards such as "Amsterdam," but did you know the band prefers red wine, soy milk and Odwalla juice drink? All bands have a list of demands, formally called "riders," in their contracts that lay out just what they want - from food, to drinks, to black athletic socks - when they perform. The Signal got a hold of Guster's demands to see just what the band, who performed Nov. 15 at the College, prefers in its dressing room.
For alcohol, Guster prefers California Cabernet, Pinot Grigio and single malt scotch (and, if you're stocking for their visit, they prefer Macallan or Lagavulin). They also have a taste for bourbon, preferring Maker's Mark and Knob Creek. If you want to get beer for the band, pick up a 12-pack of Stella Artois and Newcastle Brown Ale. But, also be sure to throw in six Guinnesses for good measure. Unfortunately, the band had to have its liquor standards met somewhere else. The College nixed these requests in the final form of the contract.
For non-alcoholic drinks, Guster's requests vary. They prefer Eden brand soy milk, but also need half a gallon of 2 percent milk. In case that's not enough, they want a liter of orange juice (freshly squeezed and on ice, of course), and half-liter bottles of spring water (just not Evian). The band also prefers a full tea service, with lemon and a mix of regular and herbal tea, including Earl Grey, Chamomile, English Breakfast, Lipton and peppermint.
Then there's the food. For a Tuesday show, Guster suggests "Italian" for dinner but begs in its rider, "***Please Be Creative***." Because there are vegetarians and tour members with strict dietary requirements, the band demands one meat, one seafood and one vegan entr?e for each show. Whatever the venue serves, though, it must be a "full, 3 course healthy meal, prepared by a chef." It emphasizes that "pizza, fast food, take out, etc. shall not be considered dinner."
For lunch, Guster prefers cold cuts. Not just any cold cuts, however. "All deli meats and cheeses must be organic and fresh. NO pre-packaged meats, NO pre-made Deli trays," the contract stated. All the cold-cuts must remain in their individual deli counter wrappings and kept on ice. As for the meats and cheeses themselves, Guster needs tuna salad, chicken salad, provolone, Swiss and cheddar cheese, turkey, salami, prosciutto and roast beef, all at half a pound. Of course, to please the vegetarians there must be "Tofurky" or "similar Vegan deli slices" with soy cheese.
Guster also has its guilty pleasures. While it might be health conscious with its bag of organic blue chips with black bean dip, the band follows it right up with a bag of Frito scoops. Other snacks include a box of Nabisco gummy snacks and two packs of Dentyne Artic Chill gum.
There are some less traditional requests too. Guster asked for, but did not get, a case of Emergen-C vitamin power, a package of black athletic socks and a DVD, which was supposed to be an "Indie Film or Cult Classic," according to the contract. How to determine whether a film is "mainstream" or "cult classic" was apparently a task to be left to the College Union Board.
Guster is also environmentally sensitive. Its contract states that there "MUST" be recycling bins in their catering area. Not just any recycling will do, however. There must be separate bins for plastics, glass, paper and aluminum. No Styrofoam is permitted.
The Signal received the contract after filing a New Jersey Open Public Records Act request with the College. When a reporter initially asked for the contract from Tim Asher, associate director of Campus Activities, Asher told the reporter he could "absolutely not" have the contract, citing confidentiality.
Nonetheless, the College's addendum to the contract warned that Guster couldn't have confidentiality in its contract. "Be advised that the State of New Jersey, Open Public Records Act provides that all state contracts are public information," the document stated.
(11/29/06 12:00pm)
Faculty, staff, and administrators met Nov. 15 for the second of two open public forums hosted by Beth Paul, interim provost, to discuss the Spellings Report, a comprehensive federal study about the current state of higher education. Conversation focused on how to respond to the report, how to improve access for minorities, and how to justify rising costs to the public.
"There is a lot that's provocative in this report," Paul said. She said the report could be characterized as a symptom of a broader "erosion of trust" in higher education.
The Spellings Report, formally called "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," was produced by a commission of eighteen professors, administrators, and private executives. 62 pages long, it covers what the members saw as the four challenges facing U.S. higher education: accessibility, affordability, quality, and accountability.
Glenn Steinberg, professor of English, said that higher education had to take the lead in transparency. If colleges and universities were the first to propose standards for increased transparency and took steps to implement those standards, they might be able to avoid one-size-fits-all standards from the federal government.
"I'm afraid that many will react defensively (to the report)," Steinberg said.
Matt Golden, director of communications and public relations, took issue with the characterization of eroding public trust in higher education.
"People don't think we're scandal-ridden or irresponsible," Golden said.
Instead, Golden said, the problem was with state legislators who have limited resources.
"It becomes something of a public relations battle," Golden said.
Harold Eickhoff, former College president, said that the public had trouble understanding what it was college educators did. He told a personal story of how his mother asked every summer, "Now that school's out, what are you going to do?"
"Either we reduce costs or we justify the costs (to the public)," Eickhoff said.
Marilyn Bowers, a nurse with Health Services, said she wasn't sure that tuition moneys were being well-spent. While performance of college students has remained stagnant, costs continue to rise.
"I don't know we're getting the results with the money we're spending," Bowers said.
One way to involve the community and justify costs, Brenda Leake, an associate professor of elementary/early childhood education, said, was to get community members who don't send students to the College involved in college life.
"We have this huge facility that goes largely unused on weekends," Leake said. She suggested that the College use these unused resources to run community events, like computer education.
Another topic discussed at the forum was how to get students from the poorest groups of society into college, and how to keep them there.
Larry Gage, director of psychological counseling services, said he was stunned by a chart on page 10 of the report, which showed that it would take 83% of the income of a family in the lowest 20% of earners to send their child to a private four-year college without grant and aid. Even after aid, it comes to 60%.
"How are people going to get into the door and how are they going to stay there?" Gage asked, relating that two of his current counseling clients were struggling with possibly transferring due to the financial burden of college.
For those in the bottom quartile, Ellie Forgarty, associate provost, responded, there was a "participation barrier, not an access barrier" for college. Lower quartile families don't know how the college process works, and colleges need to reach out to help prepare those groups, such as connecting with guidance counselors.
Jim Norfleet, vice president of Student Life, said that colleges needed to look beyond high schools for help, where counselors may not be interested in preparing minorities for college. Norfleet said a colleague when he was getting his PhD related that black churches, for example, were more involved in getting black students prepared for college than their high schools, and financially supported them while in high school.
While the report raised many questions, there are apparently few easy answers for higher education battling rising costs and reduced funding.
"We need to give fresh thought," to the problem of higher education, Paul said.
(11/15/06 12:00pm)
Faculty and administrators gathered to discuss the impact of the Spellings Report, a Department of Education report on the state of higher education in the United States, in the New Library auditorium on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
The discussion, led by interim provost Beth Paul, revolved around how the College should respond to the report and how the College can meet some of the report's challenges.
The Spellings Report, formally called "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," was produced by a commission of 18 professors, administrators and private executives. The 62-page report covers what the members saw as the four challenges facing U.S. higher education: accessibility, affordability, quality and accountability.
The Nov. 7 meeting focused on the same issues. Paul said she wanted the discussion not to just revolve around the report, but to be placed in a "state context," given the recent cuts to New Jersey higher education.
"How can we at (the College) help the public understand the value of higher education?" Sharon Sherman, professor of elementary and early childhood education, said. "(State legislators) don't understand what goes into (teaching) creative people who serve the community."
Sherman said that when she called legislatures during the summer's budget battle, their staffs were mostly interested in education for professions, like nursing and business, not liberal learning.
Several staff members said they saw a problem in communication with the public. They said that the information that supported the value of higher education was out there, but was not being communicated well.
David Prensky, director of the Bonner Center, a program that promotes community-engaged learning, said that the problem wasn't just a lack of effective marketing by colleges.
"If (the public) saw all of what we do here, they wouldn't like it," Prensky said. "The report is a symptom of greater dissatisfaction with higher education."
As the legislature controls the purse-strings, Prensky said that the College had to respond to the legislature's concerns. The College needs to adopt at least some of the suggestions the report makes.
"We need to respond in a way that shows we listened," Prensky said.
The Spellings Report suggests that colleges work harder to partner with high schools to ensure a seamless transition between high school and college. Colleges should also implement cost-cutting measures to increase productivity and simplify the financial aid process, the report said.
"Colleges and universities must become more transparent about cost, price, student success outcomes, and must willing to share this information with students and families," the report said.
The report was criticized as trying to impose on higher education the same data-driven, uniform system that has been placed on high schools.
"This is the higher education version of No Child Left Behind," Sherman said, referring to the act signed into law by President Bush. The act requires that standardized testing be implemented in lower grades and that statistically proven practices be used in teaching.
The "consumer model" of education where students are only going to college to get a job after college was criticized.
"It's a crazy relationship that the public has with us," Michael Robertson, professor of English, said.
While parents often criticize colleges overall, he said that professors receive a lot of respect on an individual level.
Paul agreed that while the dominant mindset is that the workforce wants narrowly specialized workers, the reality is that corporations want broadly educated and skilled students coming out of colleges.
Despite their varying views, the meeting's attendees agreed that engaging the public on the issues in higher education raised by the Spellings Report was vital.
"We need to reach out and talk about these things," Deborah Knox, associate professor of computer science, said. "If we don't, we're just talking to ourselves."
(11/08/06 12:00pm)
For the past week-and-a-half, diners in Eickhoff Hall have been without silverware and ceramic plates. However, many students don't mind the shift, feeling that with plastic forks and knives there's a better guarantee of cleanliness.
According to John Higgins, general manager of Dining Services, the dishwasher has had two problems over the last week-and-a-half. First, there was a computer problem with the machine which required ordering a replacement part. The shop that Sodexho normally works with did not have the part in stock, necessitating a special order.
After that was fixed, the conveyor belt that takes the dishes through the washer broke. According to Higgins, the problem was with the metal rods that work the conveyor. Of the approximately 150 rods, about 50 were bent. The conveyor belt itself was taken for repairs and then brought back and replaced.
As of Monday afternoon, Higgins said that the belt would be repaired in time to have ceramic dishes and metal utensils available for Monday dinner. Styrofoam cups were still in use, however.
"The guy from the shop has been working on it since 9:30," Higgins said in an interview Monday. "I'm hopeful we'll have it ready in time for dinner tonight."
This isn't the first time Sodexho has had problems with the dishwasher. Last October, The Signal reported, Sodexho faced complaints that cups were coming out dirty.
While the plastic trays that students use are still being washed, plates, cups and utensils are not. Instead, Sodexho is using Styrofoam plates and cups, with plastic utensils in place of metal.
According to Higgins, the trays are being washed by being taken down to the Travers/Wolfe dining hall, where they are washed in the dishwasher there.
Higgins said he was "disappointed" that students were eating off disposable plates and using plastic forks and knives instead of the usual ceramic and metal.
"It's more of an inconvenience for students than us," Higgins said. However, as Eickhoff serves 4,000-4,500 meals a day, the waste generated by using all disposable items all the time made it infeasible as a long-term plan.
Students interviewed in Eickhoff Friday night felt that the Styrofoam plates were just as good, or even better than, the ceramic plates Sodexho usually uses.
"I don't mind the plates so much," Trista Altstadt, junior secondary education/English major, said. "It's the silverware. It's hard to cut my chicken."
Others felt that even the utensils are an improvement.
"I feel cleaner eating off of the stuff I know that's new," Scott Rein, sophomore mechanical engineering major, said.
"I actually like the plastic better," Rachel Sherman, sophomore secondary education/physics major, agreed. "You know it's clean."
(11/08/06 12:00pm)
Sister Helen Prejean, a leading death penalty abolitionist and author of the book "Dead Man Walking," which was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon, spoke to a crowd of students and staff at the Mayo Concert Hall in the Music Building on Nov. 2. In her hour-long talk, which focused on the prisoners' and victims' families, she argued that the death penalty degrades the dignity of inmates and doesn't bring families the justice they seek.
Prejean, a Catholic nun from New Orleans, led the audience through her own realization that abolishing the death penalty was a cause worth fighting for. Born to a successful New Orleans attorney and attending an all-girls, white, private Catholic school, Prejean admitted she had never thought about death row inmates.
Prejean said she was exposed to the social justice movement through her work in New Orleans housing projects.
"These kids didn't have a chance," Prejean said. "Poor people are hidden in this country."
Prejean moved on to working at the Adult Learning Center in New Orleans, where a colleague asked her if she would like to be a pen pal with an inmate on death row. That inmate was Patrick Sonnier, the first death row inmate to whom she served as spiritual advisor.
"God's sneaky," Prejean said of the request. She said that she never thought that her pen pal would lead her into life-long work fighting against the death penalty.
While writing to Sonnier, Prejean promised to visit him. When she did, she recalled, Sonnier appeared no different than any other person.
During her work with Sonnier, Prejean admitted she made one big mistake. While she counseled Sonnier, she didn't reach out to the families of the children that Sonnier and his brother, Eric, murdered.
Prejean recalled her book's editor telling her if she didn't admit her mistake, readers would think she was only giving the highs, not the lows, of her work.
Prejean met the parents of Sonnier's victims at the pardon board hearing where Prejean had asked the board to change Sonnier's death sentence to life in prison. One family walked past Prejean, averting their eyes. The other approached her. That's when Lloyd LeBlanc, who had lost his son to Sonnier, invited Prejean to pray at a chapel by his house. LeBlanc said that while he had struggled with the issue, he felt bitterness; he had forgiven Sonnier and did not want to see him die.
"He's the hero of 'Dead Man Walking,'" Prejean said of LeBlanc.
Prejean said that many who lose their loved ones to murder start with wanting the death penalty.
"Almost everyone starts there," Prejean said.
As time goes on, she said, attitudes change. Families argue over the death penalty. Seventy percent of marriages end in the wake of a child's murder. While the justice system claims to be providing closure by executing the one who killed their loved one, Prejean said it doesn't provide the help that victims' families really need.
Families, Prejean said, need counseling and support, not executions, to heal. This principle is what made Prejean form groups to give help to victims' families, even as she works to abolish the death penalty.
Prejean said the death penalty would only be abolished by making clear to politicians that the public supports the move.
"If they don't have the people behind them," Prejean said, "they don't have the moral courage."
(11/01/06 12:00pm)
A small but dedicated group of College and local community members came out in the pouring rain Tuesday, Oct. 17, for a public meeting on the impact of the Lake Ceva dam repair project. The dam project requires draining the lake down to a depth of two feet and is scheduled to be completed by May 31 or sooner, according to William Rudeau, director of Construction.
Community concerns focused on obstruction of walking paths around the College and heavier traffic on Lake Boulevard, a residential street, though ecological worries also were brought up.
Deborah Knox, associate professor of computer science, and her husband Dan, residents of the local Hillwood Lakes community in Ewing, brought up several concerns. Deborah Knox walks to the College and was concerned that the walkway she traverses each day would be obstructed by the work. Rudeau assured her that it would not, and would take steps to make sure that a path to the College around the eight-foot chain link fence around the project would still exist.
The Knoxes were also concerned that construction traffic on Lake Boulevard would clog the road and create additional noise in the area.
"That's a bad road there," Dan Knox said.
Rudeau said that the construction entrance is currently located on Lake Boulevard. However, he said he would be contacting the Mercer County Soil Department for approval to move the entrance to Metzger Drive. While some traffic would still be required on Lake Boulevard to accommodate work on the Lake Boulevard side of the dam, it would be minimized.
Dan Knox also said that he was troubled that a letter mailed to his house indicated that plans for the project were on file at the Ewing Township Clerk's office. He said he took time off from work to inspect the plans and they were not on file.
According to Curt Heuring, vice president of Facilities Management, Construction and Safety, the letter sent to the community was a form letter with language dictated by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). While most builders would file plans with the township or city clerk, the College, as a state institution, gets its building permits and permissions from the state Department of Community Affairs.
Apparently, Heuring said, no one thought of changing the form's language.
For Michael Pesa, senior biology major, the project's troubles aren't about traffic or noise, but about the turtles and other wildlife that call Lake Ceva home. According to the bid documents, the contractor will be required to remove the fish and other wildlife from Lake Ceva and move them to adjacent Lake Sylva.
Pesa's concern is for the turtles he worked with in the lake for two years of biology research. Pesa said that while the contractor can try to remove the turtles before or after draining the lake, each way has its pros and cons.
"They've been there for 30, 40 years," Pesa said. "It'd be a shame for (the turtles) to be overlooked."
The dam has become old and is in need of repair through normal wear and tear, Rudeau said. DEP has been encouraging the College to ensure the project is completed in a timely fashion and takes place as part of a state-wide dam replacement initiative.
The project involves draining the lake down to two feet in the center, a level which the contractor will be required to maintain. Work will then commence on the dam, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, as required by a Ewing Township ordinance.
While the project will entail a lot of work, the end result will leave the lake essentially unchanged.
"After (the lake) is filled back up," Rudeau said, "it will look the same as it did before."
The College completed the bidding process for the project Thursday, Oct. 19. It will take a week, Rudeau said, to go through the bids and award the contract. Draining of the lake will begin around mid-November and will be completed by the end of the month. Work will continue through winter without pause. Dam repairs will begin in January. The contractor, Rudeau said, has been told that even in the event of snow, it is to remove the snow and keep on working.
Rudeau emphasized that he intends to bring the project to completion on its deadline of May 31, or even before.
(10/18/06 12:00pm)
The Chemistry Building was flooded early Thursday morning by an emergency shower that accidentally ran for several hours. All three floors of the building and the basement suffered water damage to ceiling tiles, partitions, insulation and other building components, according to Curt Heuring, vice president for Facilities Management, Construction and Campus Safety.
The shower was turned on by a falling ceiling tile, according to Matt Golden, director of Communications and Public Relations. The flooding caused classes in the Chemistry Building to be canceled on Thursday, though classes resumed on Friday.
According to Heuring, the full extent of the damage is unknown at this time. While some laboratory equipment got wet in the flood, the College is waiting until the equipment dries off to test it for damage.
While the flooding may be over, the headaches for the chemistry department are just beginning. When a reporter visited Monday morning, the entrances to the building from the Chemistry-Biology Building bridge and the Metzger Drive side were blocked off with yellow "caution" tape. A sign on the door told students that "Essentials of Biochemistry" has been relocated to Forcina Hall. It did not indicate for how long the move would last.
Inside, the halls were littered with industrial strength dryers blowing hot air. The floors were riddled with cables and wires for the machines, some covered with tape, some not. A number of tiles had been knocked out, showing the ducts above. Facilities crews had drilled along the base of the walls a series of holes to let the inside wall dry. Blue painter's tape marked the walls.
"We are hopeful that equipment damage has been minimal," Heuring said in an e-mail. "Several chemistry classes and laboratories will need to be relocated, rescheduled or redesigned by the chemistry faculty who have persevered through this flood."
Joyce Gaiser, chemistry department secretary, said the situation was "a mess."
According to Gaiser, teaching labs 218, 313 and 314 have no certain date for going back into use.
"It (has) certainly set us back a little," Pam Schmierer, Chemistry department professional services specialist, said. "But I think the school has responded in an efficient and effective way."
Schmierer said the biggest setbacks came to the hands-on learning parts of chemistry courses, as labs have been delayed or relocated.
Other trouble, though less servere, is with the New Library building. Contractors have been working for the past two weeks on fixing the Exterior Insulation Finishing System (EIFS) around the windows. EIFS is a material used on commercial buildings and homes that works like insulation to conserve energy and keep the building warm.
According to Heuring, the College believes that the library's EIFS was not installed properly during the initial construction. As a result, the contractor is making the necessary repairs without charge as part of a warranty with the College.
While the work has led to portions of the sidewalk around the library and Eickhoff being closed off, it hasn't interfered with the library itself, according to Taras Pavlovsky, dean of the library.
Pavlovsky said he hasn't heard any complaints from library patrons or staff about the noise related to the construction.
Pavlovsky was told the work is to be completed next week.
While the building damage is yet another set of repairs for the College, Heuring said his staff was working hard on the issues.
"Facilities Management, Construction and Campus Safety are working to maintain and improve the campus environment," Heuring said.
(10/11/06 12:00pm)
The Board of Trustees approved allocating $1.3 million for the College's second try at building the Metzger Drive student apartments. The money was allocated to Fletcher Thompson, a Connecticut-based architectural design firm with offices in East Brunswick, at the Oct. 3 meeting.
According to Matt Golden, director of Communications and Media Relations, the money is for the apartment project "going forward" and is not related to the upcoming demolition of the current structures.
The board also approved its annual "wish list" of capital construction projects, submitting a proposed budget of $31.9 million to the state. The list includes a request for $4 million to replace the roofs of the relatively new Science and Biology buildings. The Science Complex roof troubles have been in litigation since Spring 2003.
Other requests include $3.9 million to preserve the Student Recreation Center and $1.6 million to help renovate the Green Farmhouse. The College has been attempting to get the state's help with the farmhouse's preservation, but has been forced to rely on private fundraising and donation efforts so far.
In her president's report, R. Barbara Gitenstein praised the "extraordinary new staff of 26 faculty" that the board formally approved at the meeting.
The College has left a number of full-time tenure track positions open as a result of the state's budget cuts and has been filling the gap with temporary and part-time professors.
Already, Gitenstein said, "the long and tedious" process of forming strategies to get state support for the College has begun.
Private donations to the College are up, according to board member Robert Kayne. He said that even excluding the $5 million endowment from Tom and Carol Loser, donations are coming at double the pace of last year. The College has set a goal of receiving 10,000 private donations in 2006-2007 as part of its "Target 10,000" campaign.
The board approved the resignation of Martin Becker, associate professor of physics, and Matthew McGarry, assistant professor of engineering. It also approved the retirements of Roosevelt Butler, associate professor of business, and Edward Rockel, associate professor of biology.
Jenna Klubnick, alternate student trustee, was sworn in at the meeting. The position, elected by the student body each spring, is non-voting. Next year, she will automatically become student trustee and be permitted to vote, taking over for the current student trustee, senior Daria Silvestro.
(10/04/06 12:00pm)
Students who use peer to peer (P2P) file sharing to download files from other students on campus now have more reason to be wary.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has stepped up efforts to stop illegal music downloads at the College. According to Lynette Harris, director of Community Standards, the College has received 40 notices from RIAA since Aug. 26, close to double the approximately 25 it received all of the 2005-2006 academic year.
When RIAA identifies the Internet protocol (IP) address of a College user, it sends an e-mail to Harris, notifying her that the student associated with that IP address is downloading copyrighted music. Information Technology identifies the user and suspends the student's Internet access. Harris then sets up a meeting with the student, where she explains the illegality and potential consequences of copyright infringement.
"We talk about how important knowledge about downloading is," Harris said. "The meeting is more warning-based."
After the meeting, the student's Internet connection is restored and Harris notifies RIAA that she has met with the student. Harris then gives RIAA the student's identity.
Harris said that while other companies have given notice to the College in the past, this year's spike in complaints comes from Jeremy Landis, an online copyright protection officer with RIAA.
According to Harris, Landis' complaints came as a result of students using the Ares/Warez P2P program.
Several calls to Landis for comment were not returned by press time.
It is unclear who specifically is being targeted - the College or users of Ares/Warez - or if the increased efforts by RIAA are part of its normal enforcement program.
According to Harris, some students said their use of Ares/Warez had occurred some time ago or had only been occasional.
She emphasized that even if a student isn't downloading files, the student's connection may be used to send files to other users.
"Even if they haven't used it in some time, the capability (to have files downloaded) is still available," Harris said.
Harris said some students claimed they had removed the program from their computers, but later found out that it had reactivated itself. She encouraged students to work with ResNet to ensure the program is completely removed.
According to Harris, after the initial warning there are few repeat offenders. While RIAA could sue individual students for damages up to $10,000 per song after the initial warning, Harris said that no students have been sued so far.
In addition to action by RIAA, students could face campus disciplinary action with punishments ranging from disciplinary probation and temporary suspension of Internet privileges to complete loss of Internet privileges.
According to press releases from RIAA, RIAA uses automated programs to log onto P2P networks and download copyrighted music from other users. After a human identifies the music as copyrighted and determines the user is worth pursuing, RIAA sends a subpoena to the user's Internet service provider, or in the College's case, a notice to the College, to discover the identity of the user. RIAA will also take a screen shot of the program being used to download music.
While P2P is not illegal in itself, it is illegal to download copyrighted music from other computers without the permission of the copyright holder.
College campuses have traditionally been a haven for file sharers. Students have fast connection speeds. College-aged students generally see file sharing as more permissible than other age groups.
(09/06/06 12:00pm)
All students at the College will now need their College-issued ID card to get into residential buildings all day, every day. Though the change comes the year following the death of College freshman John Fiocco Jr., officials at the College say that the new access control policy is not a direct response to Fiocco's death or the ongoing investigation.
Chris Chamberlin, director of Operational Services, said there were discussions about switching to 24-hour swipe access prior to last year.
Matt Golden, director of Community and Public Relations, said that in the past, 24-hour swipe was considered but deemed difficult to implement.
"What we learned in the weeks following (Fiocco's) disappearance, when there were hoards of media on campus, was that students in Wolfe Hall asked for (24-hour swipe) to keep media out," Golden said.
In the wake of Fiocco's disappearance, regional and national media reports criticized the College for its open-access policy. In response, the College implemented 24-hour swipe access to Travers and Wolfe for the rest of the Spring 2006 semester.
Under the new access program, any residential student can swipe into any residential building between 6:30 a.m. and 12:15 a.m. This means that between these hours, residential students will have the same access as before as long as they have their ID cards. Because Eickhoff Hall houses the main dining hall and some facilities, such as the offices of Health Services and Residential and Community Development (ORCD), any person with a College ID can swipe into the building while the dining hall is open. After the dining hall closes, access will be restricted to residential students until midnight, after which only Eickhoff residents can swipe into the building.
The three townhouse complexes will have the same access policies as before. Swiping will be required at all times to enter a townhouse, and access will be restricted to the occupants of the particular house.
The new swipe program provides extra protection in addition to the traditional hall security workers that sit at a security desk at the front of each residence building from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night.
All of the same guest policies remain in effect. Students need to sign guests in with the security desk after 8 p.m. Guests need to leave their College ID or a driver's license with the hall security workers.
According to Chamberlin, the 24-hour swipe program is in effect to give students the same sense of security they would have if they lived off campus.
"The system we have implemented provides for a more secure residential experience for our students," Chamberlin said in an e-mail interview. "Our model is to secure the students' 'homes' just as they would if they lived off campus."
College administrators, Chamberlin said, wanted to balance the security of the residence halls with the community that ORCD tries to build.
"In an effort to allow for the development of solid community bonds, we have built in to the program the ability to access other residential facilities during the aforementioned time periods," he said.
The College has considered shifting to 24-hour swipe in the past.
The Student Government Association submitted a plan to ORCD in 2004 to transition to 24-hour swipe access in Centennial and Norsworthy, but it was never implemented. At the time, ORCD cited not wanting to lay off hall security workers and enforcing the guest policy as reasons for not making the switch.
"At this point in time, the research has been completed, benchmarking has taken place and we have the technology to support it," Chamberlin said. "Any operational challenges have been identified, examined and addressed."
College officials emphasized that the switch is a "pilot" program and that feedback from students and staff would shape the direction of the program in the future.
"I'll consult with residents, student leaders and other campus constituencies as the semester progresses to determine whether changes to the swipe program should be implemented," James Norfleet, vice president of Student Life, said in an e-mail.
(08/30/06 12:00pm)
The College will no longer be providing toilet paper to dormitories with private bathrooms, and hall offices will no longer give out trash bags for garbage cans. The change was announced by the office of Residential and Community Development (ORCD) in its annual mailing to students about housing assignments, and comes as the College attempts to cope with $8 million in cuts due to Gov. Jon S. Corzine's budget.
Though a seemingly small gesture, the cuts amount to a 12 to 15 percent savings for the Building Services operating budget, according to Sean Stallings, associate director of ORCD. According to Stallings, the decision to make the cuts was reached at the end of the Spring semester in preparation for the 2007 fiscal year, which began July 1. The decision was made jointly between ORCD and Building Services.
The change will not affect residence halls with public bathrooms, namely Travers, Wolfe, Allen, Brewster, Ely, Centennial and Norsworthy. In these dorms, the toilet paper will be replaced by Building Services as it was in the past. Students in all three townhouse complexes, Eickhoff, New Residence, Decker and Cromwell halls, however, will have to buy their own toilet paper.
Toilet paper and trash bags are available at the C-Store and the bookstore for students unable to get off campus.
Another dorm staple, light bulbs, will be unaffected by the cuts, Stalling said. Light bulbs should currently be in room lamps, and ORCD will attempt to distribute light bulbs as required throughout the year.
"The budget cuts are perhaps more significant than many realize and the College has (made) and continues to make every effort to minimize what costs are passed on to the students," Stallings said in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, this cannot occur in every aspect of operations."
Stallings said the shift will be hard on students who weren't anticipating it, but will help them learn about personal responsibility.
"I believe this will initially be a challenge for those that were not anticipating a change such as this," Stallings said. "However, this change will encourage students to assume increased responsibility for managing their personal needs. Learning to include these types of personal needs into your budget will prepare students for the time when they are in their own apartments/homes and need to provide all of their personal items."
Student reaction was mixed.
"If it's going to save money, it's good," Juan Carlos Bayas, junior finance major, said. "Maybe they won't have to raise tuition so much."
"They could have cut something else out and given us toilet paper," Matt Santos, senior elementary education major, said.
(04/26/06 12:00pm)
At the New Jersey State Police Technology Complex, located in an unassuming building in an ordinary Hamilton office park, the 100 to 120 scientists of the New Jersey State Police conduct forensic analyses that help investigators all across the state.
It was here that investigators determined that the blood found in a dumpster behind Wolfe Hall belonged to freshman John Fiocco Jr., who has been missing since March 25.
The Signal received a behind-the-scenes tour of the New Jersey State Police's forensic sciences laboratory by its director, Thomas Brettell. Brettell explained the process that investigators used to identify Fiocco's blood, from crime scene to final report.
Brettell's office dispatched scientists to the scene behind Wolfe Hall to help search for and collect evidence.
While Brettell was not involved in the investigation, he said that the Kastle-Meyer test is typically performed on possible blood stains, such as those found in the dumpster.
This test uses ethanol, a reagent, and hydrogen peroxide. In the presence of hemoglobin, a component of blood, the reagent turns pink. The test can be completed in six seconds, and while it does not definitively prove a sample is blood, it helps investigators separate rust and ketchup from real investigative leads.
When the test comes back positive, investigators take as much of the item that the blood stain was on as possible. For example, if investigators find a bloody piece of clothing or piece of a rug, they take it. In scenarios where this is impossible, the scientist takes a swabbing.
Brettell said he was unaware of where in the dumpster Fiocco's blood was found, and New Jersey State Police Captain Al Della Fave said that he could not comment on the specifics of the "presently active" case.
Samples are then placed placed in a sealed plastic bag to prevent contamination and taken to the Technology Complex in Hamilton.
At the side entrance to the building, investigators take the sample bag up to a reception desk. Here, the bag is given a case number, entered into the lab's computerized system and given a bar code to track it.
The bag is then placed in the lab's evidence vault until a forensic scientist is ready to work on it. In the vault, the bag is sealed with tape around the edges to prevent tampering before the scientist works on it.
The laboratories themselves are separated from the administrative offices, meaning that only individuals authorized for the labs have access to the equipment and evidence.
Once the evidence is checked out by a scientist, it is then taken to an examination room. Here, the scientist, clad in mask, hairnet, lab coat and eye protection, places the entire piece of evidence on white paper. From this, the scientist removes the blood.
The blood is taken into a separate room where the DNA is extracted. The scientist picks up the sample from an envelope with tweezers and places it in a micro centrifuge to separate out the DNA from the blood.
Through a process called quantitation, the scientist checks the DNA for its degree of concentration. For forensic analysis, one nanogram (one billionth of a gram) of concentration is ideal, and the scientist can use solutions to dilute or strengthen the sample as required.
The scientist copies the DNA found in the blood. The process is informally known as "molecular Xeroxing," in case one sample is ruined during the testing process.
The DNA is placed in a machine that generates a computerized "DNA profile." The scientist focuses on 13 specific locations on the DNA strand, comparing the information from those locations to a known sample. The 13 locations are very well-known to biologists, and the scientist cannot tell anything about genetic disposition or diseases from the locations.
Brettell said that DNA samples from the bone or teeth of a body can confirm a victim's identity.
If it is impossible to get a sample of blood from the suspected victim, the DNA profile is compared with that of his parents.
In the case of Fiocco, police took cheek swabs from his parents. The profiles matched, which meant that the lab could report that the blood at the scene was consistent with being from the offspring of Fiocco's parents.
Technically speaking, DNA sampling cannot prove that two DNA samples are the same. But investigators can estimate the probability that the samples are a match to determine whether the samples could have been from some other individual. Such a chance is incredibly small, as small as one in 244 quadrillion (one followed by 15 zeroes) in some cases.
Usually, Brettell said, if a piece of evidence is not rushed, it can take two to three months for the lab to analyze it and issue a report.
In Fiocco's case, the lab did its work from start to finish in 24 hours. Scientists worked through the evening to set up the test, which was left to run overnight.
Though the lab's scientists can produce impressive results, Brettell said forensic science isn't what "C.S.I." makes it out to be.
"We're doing some amazing things," Brettell said. "But it takes a lot longer to do things (than on TV)."