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(04/30/08 12:00pm)
Despite the discovery of lead on the turf two weeks ago, commencement ceremonies will take place at Lions' Stadium this year, according to College officials.
"I am extremely pleased that we should be able to resolve this situation in an effective and responsible manner," R. Barbara Gitenstein, College president, said in a mass e-mail.
Work crews last week began removing the nylon-fiber turf, which was found to contain more than 10 times the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's residential soil cleanup criteria for lead after a New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) survey.
According to College officials and DHSS staff, laboratory test results on dust collected from the turf should be available in three to five weeks to determine how much lead the turf released into the air.
The effects of the elevated lead content and whether or not the lead can be absorbed into the human body are still unknown, though a DHSS press release said children under the age of 6 would be most at risk.
According to Curt Heuring, vice president for Facilities Management, Construction and Safety, Health risks were of great concern for the College.
"The health and safety of the community is a top priority of the institution and identifying a potential health risk is consistent with those values," Heuring said.
In the meantime, the sublayer under the turf was determined to be safe for commencement ceremonies.
"The sublayer was tested already and showed no elevated lead content," Matt Golden, executive director of Public Affairs, said, adding that the physical condition of the sub-layer has yet to be determined.
According to Gitenstein, because the turf was approaching the end of its usefulness before the lead was discovered, the College already allocated funds for the turf's replacement. As a result, College officials were able to immediately initiate the removal process.
"The process began as early as the first day when we heard that the turf was contaminated," Gitenstein said. "We were able to move more quickly on the replacement because we could declare the replacement an 'emergency' and because we had in fact already allocated resources for replacement of the turf in our asset renewal plan."
According to College officials, no adverse symptoms related to the lead contamination have been reported so far.
While the turf will not be entirely removed before commencement, as ceremonies are only held on a portion of the field, the replacement will likely be completed for use in summer events.
"Women's lacrosse and intramural sports were displaced," Golden said, "but it appears the new turf will be available for summer camps and Special Olympics."
(04/16/08 12:00pm)
Lions' Stadium was closed Monday afternoon by recommendation of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) after it found high levels of lead in the stadium's nylon-fiber turf.
The stadium will remain closed until at least May, according to Matthew Golden, executive director of Public Affairs.
DHSS performed a random, voluntary sampling of 12 municipal and college fields across Mercer, Bergen, Hudson and Morris counties during March, following the discovery of lead contamination in an artificial recreational field in the Ironbound section of Newark in fall 2007.
Lions' Stadium, along with Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, was found to be one of two sites that also contain elevated lead levels.
DHSS made public Monday that it found lead concentrations of 4,100 milligrams of lead per kilogram of fiber in Lions' Stadium. While there are no national guidelines for safe lead levels in artificial fields, these levels were more than 10 times greater than the New Jersey Environmental Protection Agency's 400 milligrams of lead per kilogram residential soil cleanup criteria.
According to Eddy Bresnitz, deputy commissioner and state epidemiologist for DHSS, his staff is looking into dyes used in the manufacturing of nylon-fiber turf as a cause for the lead contamination. The DHSS is investigating dust contamination on the turf in addition to the fiber contamination.
"At this point, we've only performed a limited study just of the fibers found on the fields," Bresnitz said. "Of course, we're going to perform further laboratory tests, including a sampling of the dust."
According to a DHSS press release, it is unknown at this time whether the lead found in Lions' Stadium's turf can be absorbed into the body as readily as that found in lead paint. Specialized tests are pending and expected by early May, at which point further action for the stadium will be determined.
"Based on the limited information we have at this time, the (d)epartment's assessment is that there is a very low risk of exposure," the press release read. "The risk of exposure can be reduced by proper maintenance of the field, including wetting down the field. Users of the field should wash properly and ensure that their clothing is washed after play."
According to Bresnitz, children under the age of 6 are at the greatest risk for adverse affects due to lead exposure, as their brains are still developing.
The closure of Lions' Stadium has thrown many campus events, including club and intramural sporting events and Commencement 2008, into limbo.
"The College is currently evaluating options of rescheduling or relocating some events as well as future use of Lions' Stadium," Matthew Golden, executive director of Public Affairs, said.
"We're concerned," Debbie Simpson, intramural coordinator, said. "It's upsetting because they're taking a facility that is used so much and affects so many people."
According to Simpson, the College has contacted the Ewing Township Recreation Department for advisement.
"They have been very good to us in the past," Simpson said.
The College's soccer field was also tested as part of the sampling, but was not found to contain lead above lab reporting standards.
This came as good news to the lacrosse team, which will use the soccer field for the rest of its season.
"I was very concerned when I first heard of the news, but we have received an OK to have lacrosse lines painted on the turf within the soccer stadium," Sharon Pfluger, coach of College lacrosse team, said via e-mail, though the lead contamination forced the cancellation of Tuesay's home game.
The DHSS has requested aid from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for further national investigation of the turf used in recreational, residential and commercial nylon-fiber fields, according to a letter to CPSC Executive Director Patricia Semple, dated April 11.
"This is a potential consumer safety issue with national implications, since these turf products are widely distributed," Heather Howard, DHSS commissioner, said. "While we are doing additional testing on the samples, we recommend that field managers exercise caution to protect against potential exposures for those who use the fields where high lead levels were found."
According to Bresnitz, the manufacturer of the turf, AstroTurf LLC, was notified of the results after the first test findings from Newark in 2007.
The DHSS praised the College's cooperation during the investigation.
"Both Hoboken Mayor David Roberts and (the College) have been extremely cooperative," the DHSS press release read, "and will continue to work with the (d)epartment on the best course of action."
-Additional reporting by
Allison Singer, Sports Editor
and Kristen Lord, Nation & World Editor
(04/09/08 12:00pm)
A leak from a burst pipe in Brewster Hall forced a partial evacuation of the building for several hours Saturday evening. Almost all students were allowed to return to their rooms that night, but the building will be without hot water for an indefinite period of time.
The 3-by-5-foot pipe on the third floor of Brewster burst and began leaking at about 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, according to office of Residential Education & Housing (ResEd) staff.
The leak was heavy enough to cause flooding, which seeped down to the second and ground floors of the building, damaging ceilings, walls and some student property and equipment.
"Students and staff reacted quickly, minimizing damage by covering possessions and equipment with plastic," Matthew Golden, executive director for Public Affairs, wrote via e-mail.
Students were told to either place their valuables up high before leaving their rooms, or to take them with them.
Mary Shaw, sophomore early childhood education and women's and gender studies major, was out of her ground-floor room at the time of the flooding, but received notice of the incident by phone from her roommate.
"She said we had been told to get all our valuables out," Shaw said.
Leakage was largely limited to the low side of the building.
"We went door to door to tell students that they would have to leave the building," Constance Acquah, Brewster office assistant (OA), said.
Facilities staff were at the scene almost immediately, according to ResEd staff and residents.
"They were really efficient," Shaw said.
Facilities staff cleaned out the water from hallways with industrial vacuums and removed damaged materials from the building in trash bags.
Two rooms, 201 and 202, suffered significant damage during the flooding and will require repairs throughout the week.
"The leak was fixed that evening, and we are replacing drywall ceilings in rooms 201 and 202, which should be completed by Friday," Golden said.
According to Chelsea Ray, assistant residence director, 40 to 50 students were cleared from the building before Kathryn Leverton, associate vice president of Facilities and Administrative Services, said it would be safe for students to return to their rooms that night.
"There's a little bit of mess, but it wouldn't have been anything to displace students for any significant period of time," Ray said.
Shaw said that while some damage to ceiling tiles was noticeable on the ground floor, the damage was minimal compared to the two floors above.
Eight humidifiers remained in place Monday to facilitate drying.
In all, the incident was minor compared to flooding in New Residence Hall last year, which displaced some residents for a night.
"I don't think it was as bad as New Res.," Shaw said. "It definitely wasn't as bad as that."
(02/20/08 12:00pm)
The College on Feb. 14 announced it had received a $1 million anonymous gift, marking the largest anonymous donation in the College's history and tying for the second-largest overall donation. The donation is one of many contributions and investments made in the last year that have pushed the College's overall endowment to more than $16 million.
Transference of the donation was arranged through Wells Fargo Bank on the stipulation that $750,000 of the donation go to support scholarships for "underrepresented groups." According to College President R. Barbara Gitenstein, the conditions of the donation do not specify what groups those might be.
Spending of the remaining $250,000 of the donation was unrestricted, and will likely go to the College's endowment fund. Much of that money may still see its way to direct funding of students' educations.
"The vast majority of our endowments go toward scholarships," John Marcy, vice president for Development and Alumni Affairs, said.
The identity of the donor remains unknown to anyone on staff at the College, according to Gitenstein. While arrangement of the donation was known to staff members since the beginning of the Spring semester, College officials waited until Feb. 14 to announce it to the public after verifying its legitimacy, making it a rather hefty Valentine's Day gift.
The donation drew national attention.
"This week, an anonymous donor gave The College of New Jersey a million-dollar gift," Conan O'Brien said on the Feb. 15 broadcast of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." "The dean of the College said, 'Great, now we can afford to move the College out of New Jersey.'"
Officials at the College had a slightly more upbeat assessment of the donation.
"I think people in general are pleased with the College and it's being reflected in the endowments we're receiving," Marcy said.
Between 2006 and 2007 alone, the holdings of The College of New Jersey Foundation, Inc., the not-for-profit fundraising arm of the College, jumped from $8.3 million to nearly $16.4 million, according to figures provided by Peter Manetas, director of Development.
"We have worked very hard on educating our alumni and prospective donors on the importance of a healthy endowment," Gitenstein said via e-mail. "The endowment has also increased tremendously from wise investment."
While the endowment pool at the College has grown rapidly in recent years, it pales in comparison to holdings at other local colleges and universities.
The University of Delaware held a $1.2 billion endowment, Rutgers University held $549 million and Rowan University held $147 million as of 2007, according to figures from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Among colleges and universities ranked ahead of the College in U.S. News and World Report's list of "America's Best Colleges 2008" under the "Universities-Master's (North)" category, Villanova University held $278 million, Providence University held $136 million, Fairfield University held $209 million and Loyola College in Maryland held $157 million.
"(The College's endowment) is small when you look at comparable colleges and universities in the area. We've done a great job, but we've still got a way to go," Marcy said.
College officials say the endowment fund will become increasingly essential to the sustainability of programs at the College in the face of decreased funding to higher education from the state and increased inflation.
"Endowments and other non-state sources will be more and more important in the years to come," Gitenstein said. "Without these additional resources, we will not be able to maintain our edge of excellence."
"The state has sort of methodically decreased its spending for colleges. So these donations are becoming more and more vital to our continued success," Marcy said.
Marcy also stressed that current students should consider becoming donors after they've graduated.
"Both the past and the future of the College are tied to endowments like these," Marcy said. "We hope students consider giving to their college once they're alumni. The generosity of our alumni is a huge component to our continued success."
The largest gift in the College's history came from Tom and Carol Loser in 2006, when they donated $5 million to support the School of Nursing, Health and Exercise Science. Tom Loser also holds the record, now tied, for the second-largest donation in the College's history after he donated $1 million for the naming of Loser Hall.
(02/13/08 12:00pm)
Faculty members from an array of disciplines gathered for a symposium on Feb. 6 in the Business Building lounge to answer a seemingly simple question: "Is health care a right or a privilege?"
"You cannot have a right or social justice without universal health care," Regina Kenen, professor emeritus of sociology, said.
The symposium's discussion panel consisted entirely of faculty members from the College, encompassing such areas of expertise as nursing, sociology, philosophy and economics.
Kenen voiced the opinion that the United States' lack of universal health care is connected to the nation's relative inefficiency and lackluster treatment of the poor when compared to other industrialized nations. She cited data from The American College of Physicians and the World Health Organization illustrating the United States' low scores on quality of health care.
But Kenen's estimation of the U.S. health care system was not shared by some of her fellow panelists.
"I think we have the best health care in the world," Bozena Leven, coordinator for the international business program, said.
Leven argued that while the government has an obligation to regulate large insurance, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, the government should also be careful not to discourage companies from continuing to make breakthroughs in medical science.
"When you think about the research and development that goes into health care, it's one of the highest costs," Leven said. "And when you have government restricting it by controlling costs, you may have a situation where (pharmaceutical companies) are not willing to take a long time to develop a drug if there's a risk that it's not approved."
Melinda Roberts, professor of philosophy and religion, argued that prioritized distribution of medical treatment will be inherent to any health care system, whether it is private or government-controlled, but that does not mean the system has to be unfair.
"I have a plea here, and it is that we not talk about maximization and efficiency on one hand and equity and fairness on the other hand," Roberts said.
Roberts argued that cost-effective analysis could be used to determine how treatment is distributed by maximizing the number of quality-adjusted life years given to patients per dollar spent. Roberts acknowledged that this system has some controversies surrounding it, including accusations of ageism.
Leslie Rice, assistant professor of nursing, spoke of her service at the Trenton Adult Health Clinic and how such clinics can serve as models in relieving the strain on overburdened emergency rooms, a problem in the treatment of patients without primary physicians.
While Rice was able to shed some light on how health care providers attempt to treat those in need, she was unable to answer the biggest question of the symposium.
"Is health care a right or a privilege? I don't know," Rice said. "All I know is that if people just got sick and died the minute they got sick, then this wouldn't be an issue. The problem is, people don't. They get sick and they stay sick for many, many, many, many, many, many months. And it is a drain on the whole health care system, on the way they're treated, on the way . hospitals are set up and the way they're treated at hospitals."
The symposium drew a large crowd of faculty, students and members of the surrounding community.
Maria Delacruz, senior marketing major, said that while she found the symposium informative, she felt the panelists strayed off-topic.
"I felt like nobody really answered the question of whether health care is a right or a privilege," she said.
But Marisa Schweber, freshman English major, said she thought the panelists did an admirable job of tackling an unanswerable question.
"I think because there were so many different panelists with different areas of expertise, you got a lot of different perspectives on the subject," she said. "You see there's no right answer to the problems in our health care system."
(02/06/08 12:00pm)
Faculty, students and experts on environmental issues gathered in the Library Auditorium on Jan. 31 to participate in what was billed as "the largest teach-in in U.S. history."
More than 1,100 college and university campuses in all 50 states were slated to participate in learning events as part of Focus the Nation, a national series of coordinated teaching events dedicated to discussing solutions to global warming.
The College's participation in Focus the Nation included the showing of several informational videos on global warming and a panel discussion featuring local experts on energy and natural resource conservation.
Chris Sherring, operations adviser at WorldWater & Power, discussed solar energy solutions, emphasizing his belief that it is a consistent, viable and cost-effective means of generating power.
"If we covered a 10-mile-by-10-mile area with solar panels, we could make the U.S. completely self-sustainable," Sherring said.
Bill Valocchi, supervising planner for the city of Trenton, said Trenton is looking at ways of re-using existing buildings and purchasing easily-replenished materials as a way of conserving natural resources in construction.
"If we want to be sustainable in our field and if we want to build for the future and basically give the next generation a quality of life that we had or better, we have to understand that we cannot deplete resources faster than we can regenerate them," Valocchi said.
Ralph Copleman, executive director of Sustainable Lawrence, explained how his company seeks to reuse and recycle existing items and materials for use in everyday products, demonstrating a spray bottle made from a used cola bottle as well as a zip-up pencil case made from old juice packets.
Rep. Rush Holt, D-12th District, phoned in to the discussion from his office in Washington, D.C. Holt, who is also a physicist, said action in Congress on the global warming issue has been relatively slow.
While he praised the passage of the Transportation Reauthorization Bill as a plan for alleviating congested roadways, thereby reducing carbon emissions, he bemoaned Congress' seeming lack of political resolve on global warming.
"We don't really see yet the comprehensive, really revolutionary developments that are needed," Holt said.
Kirby Torrance, field canvass director for the New Jersey Environmental Federation, agreed with Holt, but went a step further in identifying the cause of this perceived idleness on the part of Congress.
"The reason that Congress does not yet feel the urgency is that we don't," Torrance said.
When asked during a Q-and-A session what young people can do to help reduce global warming, Torrance was quick to respond.
"Eat less meat," he said, explaining that the fuel costs that go into meat production are high relative to other consumer products.
Freshman open options major Theresa Bucklaew said she found the Focus the Nation event informative.
"It was interesting to see the different changes that I can make in my life to help solve this," Bucklaew said. "I'll probably tell my mom to start unplugging the appliances when they aren't in use."
The event at the College's campus was organized by Winnie Fatton, executive assistant at the Municipal Land Use Center at the College, in coordination with the President's Climate Commitment Committee.
(01/30/08 12:00pm)
As flu season blows onto campus, Health Services is advising students to take extra precautions to avoid catching the virus.
"We're trying to be more proactive," Janice Vermeychuk, associate director of Health Services, said. "We don't want to wait until we have a lot of cases on our hands."
As a result of this desire to be more proactive, Health Services released a campus-wide e-mail last week reporting the confirmation of a flu case on campus and cautioning students about the risks of catching and spreading the flu.
"We have had two confirmed cases at this point," Vermeychuk said Monday afternoon.
"These are diagnosed through a lab test we perform here at Health Services. It's not based on symptoms. It's typical that we see a lot of flu cases on campus each year, but the first case came early this year, so we took it upon ourselves to notify students to be careful."
Also reported in the e-mail advisory was an increase in the number of gastrointestinal virus diagnoses on campus.
Students were advised to wash their hands regularly, avoid hand contact with their eyes and mouths and avoid attending class if sick.
"The ideal situation would be for the patient to go home and rest. But we recognize that that isn't always possible and that students might not be in good enough condition to drive themselves home," Vermeychuk said.
In the waiting room at the Health Services office in Eickhoff Hall, a sign instructs students seeking treatment for a cough to wear a surgical mask while they wait, so as not to spread their cold or flu to other students.
Vermeychuk said in the future, the staff at Health Services plans to release similar health advisories during outbreaks of other illnesses.
Symptoms of the flu include cough, muscle aches and high fever.
Symptoms of the gastrointestinal virus include vomiting, diarrhea and some stomach cramping.
(11/07/07 12:00pm)
A report released by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI) two weeks ago listed the College's debt at $350 million and produced an allegation of political interference on the College's Board of Trustees dating back to the McGreevey administration.
The report, titled "Vulnerable to Abuse: The Importance of Restoring Accountability, Transparency and Oversight to Public Higher Education," arrived at its debt total for the College using 2004 figures acquired by Moody's Investor Services, a corporate financing and risk management firm. The College's debt was reported as being higher than that of any other public college or university in the state.
"It is true that like several other state institutions, (the College) has invested heavily in first class facilities and thus incurred debt," College president R. Barbara Gitenstein said in a press release posted on the College's home page. "We did so because we thought it was the responsible thing to do as educators. Had we not made these investments, 19-year-old science labs and classrooms would be out of date and unable to accommodate the type of work currently being done there."
However, according to 2007 figures provided by Barbara Wineberg, treasurer for the College, the debt most recently was estimated at $337 million. Gitenstein pointed out that much of the reason for the College's shortage of funds derived from a decade's worth of reductions to state higher education funding, including the 2006 cuts when the College lost more than $8 million in state funding.
Since the late 1980s, the College has been involved in a vigorous construction and renovation program, which was paid for largely with College bonds. These projects included construction of the New Library, the Social Sciences building, the School of Business building and the Science Complex. Only the library was built using state bonds, though it was still largely funded through College bonds, according to Gitenstein.
"(The College) has a comprehensive capital financing plan to cover all bond debt. The plan extends to the retirement of all current debt," Wineberg said via e-mail.
"I think it is important to note that we began this discussion of greater public accountabilities at least as early as 2002 with a major review of board structure and a following of the principles of Sarbanes-Oxley," Gitenstein said via e-mail. "This was before the SCI investigation began, I believe. It was just good management, we thought."
In addition, the College also adopted the certification of financials by the president and treasurer as a practice and established capital facilities and capital asset-renewal plans.
However, a more contentious point raised by the SCI report is the allegation of political interference on the Board of Trustees, which surfaced after the testimony of Thomas A. Bracken before an executive session of the SCI. According to the report, Bracken, a former member of the College's Board of Trustees, testified under oath that in 2002, after the expiration of his term on the board, he received a call from the office of then-Gov. James E. McGreevey and was asked if he would be interested in being reappointed to the board. Bracken testified that when he indicated he would be interested in the reappointment that the former governor then told him that a reappointment would be forthcoming.
However, Bracken was never reappointed to the board. According to the report, he testified that he received a call from the governor's office informing him that the decision to reappoint him had been rescinded. Bracken testified that when he asked why he had not been reappointed, he was told that it was because he had voiced opposition to the governor's policy on corporate taxes. Bracken was, at the time, CEO and president of Vineland-based Sun Bancorp, Inc.
While Bracken's claims of political interference on the Board of Trustees were included in the SCI report, his testimony is not open to the public.
"Some of our inquiries involve subpoenas and some involve documents that aren't public record, so we aren't at liberty to open that testimony entirely up to the public," Lee Seglem, spokesman for the SCI, said.
While Gitenstein said she had heard Bracken's claim before, she took issue with the idea that this anecdotal evidence of a past, isolated incident should reflect on the current board.
"We are extraordinarily fortunate at (the College) to have a board comprised of dedicated and talented individuals who devote unbelievable time and energy to providing for the welfare of the College and its students," Gitenstein wrote in the press release.
In an effort to keep this process transparent, College officials adopted accounting practices in keeping with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which the SCI recommended in the report.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, a federal law drafted in the wake of several corporate trading scandals, requires all publicly traded companies to comply with a series of guidelines to promote transparency and accountability in corporate financing. While the College is not a publicly traded company, the administration has adopted practices such as Audit Committee oversight for auditor activities, rotation of audit partners and certification of the CEO and CFO, all in keeping with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
With only two references throughout the report, the College was far less scrutinized by the SCI than other higher education institutes in the state. The investigation into higher education was initiated following a corruption scandal at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), when federal monitors concluded that the school paid millions of dollars in illegal fees to physicians.
While the SCI found that UMDNJ has since improved its practices, commissioners found additional evidence of procurement abuses and waste at the university, including "favored treatment of vendors in exchange for personal gifts and benefits for university employees."
The SCI also found evidence of "questionable and undocumented travel, business and expenditures and lack of budgetary and accounting transparency" at Rutgers University.
The SCI report lists several recommendations for instituting increased accountability and transparency in New Jersey's public colleges and universities, including the elevation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHE), the regulatory body that supervises public colleges and universities in the state, into the governor's cabinet, as well as an "overhaul" of the composition of state college and university governing bodies, such as the Board of Trustees. To this, Gitenstein took serious issue.
"Investing this kind of responsibility in CHE is unwise, not just because they do not currently have the resources and expertise which exists in other places," Gitenstein said via e-mail. "To assume these responsibilities would result in adding a tremendous layer of administration in CHE (which would necessarily take resources from direct instruction/student support)."
Gitenstein also expressed concern that increased authority in the CHE would result in a situation similar to that under the state's Department of Higher Education, which was dismantled in 1994 by the Higher Education Restructuring Act after it was determined that the department's structure was too convoluted and bureaucratized.
But Seglem said the SCI has no interest in returning to the days of the Department of Higher Education.
"Right now, you have a situation where there's no accountability or transparency at these institutions for the people who invest in them and pay taxes," he said. "We want to strengthen the internal regulatory bodies at these institutions, not weaken them. We're not looking to control their operations. They should be expanded. They should be empowered. They should be given the authority to correct the problems we've identified, but with transparency."
Taxpayers contribute more than $1.5 billion in funding to higher education each year, according to the report.
In addition to being made public, copies of the SCI report on higher education were sent to the Office of the Governor, the State Legislature, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, the CHE, The New Jersey Education Finance Agency and all institutions of higher education, both public and private, in New Jersey for further action.
The 189-page report was the result of a 2-1/2-year investigation by the SCI into higher education.
(10/17/07 12:00pm)
The creation and restoration of several new administrative positions this year marks a slow return to normalcy following the massive cuts to higher education in the state's 2007 fiscal budget, according to College officials. And while more cuts to the state budget might be on the horizon, they say the positions are secure.
The College is currently searching for a Campus Police chief, a general counsel, a replacement provost, an assistant director of Student Activities and an associate director of Leadership Development.
"Over the last five years, we have experienced significant cuts from the state, and during that time we were able to protect our investment in safety and our investment in the academic core," College President R. Barbara Gitenstein wrote via e-mail. "During that time, we cut positions (without layoffs) and provided a responsible budget to continue the College enterprise. As a result, the majority of the cuts were in the staff/administrative side."
Thirty-nine administrative positions were dropped in total during the budget cuts, according to Wineberg.
But Gitenstein said a number of investments made by the College enabled administrators to expand their staff this year.
"We always knew that at some point we would have to reinvest in administrative/staff personnel, but through these difficult decisions, we created a pool of resources by the cuts to which was added resources that came our way by additional state support this year, and additional resources from a larger freshman class last year and this year," Gitenstein wrote.
But Gitenstein also noted that while the administrative staff is growing again, the College still has one of the lowest percentages of senior administrators in the entire State Association of State Colleges and Universities.
However, College officials are still in the position of having to react to potential state budget cuts in the future. Last week, Gov. Jon S. Corzine called on Cabinet members to submit plans to cut as much as $3 billion from the state's 2009 fiscal budget. According to an anonymous state official quoted by The Star-Ledger, the cuts being considered include funding to public colleges.
When state funding to higher education was last slashed in the 2007 fiscal budget, the College saved $1.5 million as a result of the elimination of vacant administrative positions, according to Wineberg.
"The strategy for addressing past and future budget cuts is determined by several factors and is usually a combination of expenditure cuts, revenue enhancements and the extent of the state budget cut," Wineberg wrote via e-mail.
Wineberg said the College would try to avoid increasing the number of freshman enrollments as a means of compensating for any lost state funding, should cuts occur.
In the meantime, administrators say they are happy to be growing their staffs. Tim Asher, director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, devised a proposal that led to the creation of the new assistant director of Student Activities and associate director of Leadership Development positions.
"The goal is to create a vibrant (College) experience, where students want to get more involved, learn and have fun," Asher wrote via e-mail. "And the key to making all of this possible is the support we have received to hire two new professional staff from the president and Board of Trustees."
(10/03/07 12:00pm)
A burglary last month revealed that the window screen alarm systems in Townhouses were not functional. But College officials say the alarms will probably not be back online until Winter Break.
In late August, Access Control, with oversight from the Card Services Task Force and a steering committee, completed an upgrade to the College's Blackboard system, which controls all dining hall registers, door swipes and security systems on campus.
But according to Sean Stallings, director of Residential Education and Housing, his staff was not notified until after a break-in at Townhouses West that this upgrade had resulted in the loss of support for the window screen alarm system in all Townhouse complexes.
"It didn't become clear to us that the alarms were not working until after that incident," Stallings said. "We notified residents as soon as we knew to lock their windows and just take extra precautions because the window alarms are not working."
According to Campus Police, a student reported that a burglar had broken into her Townhouse apartment on Sept. 5 sometime between 6 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. A laptop computer and an Old Navy canvas bag were reported missing.
A police investigation revealed that the suspect entered the room by cutting or ripping a window screen and bending the screen frame up from the bottom. The alarm, located on a wall near the Townhouse West residence office, failed to sound. The total value of the stolen laptop was reported as $1,510. No suspect has been charged in the incident.
The next night, Sept. 6, Nicole Vitelli, Townhouses Complex Coordinator, sent out an e-mail directing all housing assistants in Townhouses to notify residents about the alarms.
"We want to let everyone know that as soon as we (ResLife) got this information, we passed it along," Vitelli wrote.
Residential Education and Housing staff distributed fliers to Townhouse residents advising them to keep their windows locked when out of the house.
According to Chris Chamberlin, assistant director for Administrative and Environmental Services, Access Control did not anticipate that support for the screen alarms would be lost.
"It was not known before the project was undertaken," he said via e-mail. "The screen alarms are a very small part of the Blackboard system."
Access Control is in the process of installing a new Honeywell screen alarm system, which Chamberlin says will be an improvement over the old Blackboard system. Instead of a local alarm, the new Honeywell system will directly notify Campus Police when it detects a break-in.
While installation of the new screen alarm system is set to be completed during Winter Break, Chamberlin wrote that the project might be completed sooner.
However, Stallings advises students in Townhouses to be cautious under any circumstance and to keep their windows locked when out of the house, even after the screen alarm system is back online.
"Any alarm can fail, and most residence halls don't even have screen alarms," he said. "What we don't want is for students to behave in a way that might invite a burglary. And that's, you know, not to blame the victim. I'd just tell students to be a little precautious and to be mindful of their circumstances."
(10/03/07 12:00pm)
New Jersey chapters of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) voted to ratify a new four-year contract last week.
The union represents over 7,000 faculty and staff members at public colleges and universities across the state including faculty and staff at the College.
The contract, negotiated with the state, passed with 1,450 ballots cast in favor of ratification and only 134 votes against ratification. Ballots were due on Sept. 27.
The wide margin can be credited to the union leadership's push for "Yes" votes from its members.
"They always do what we tell them," Ralph Edelbach, president of AFT Local 2364 and associate professor of technology studies at the College, joked. "It was a good contract and, all things considered, we'd have been foolish not to take it."
While some concessions were made during AFT bargaining, including a 1.5 percent salary deduction for health benefits, Edelbach said that, were the union to go back to the bargaining table, it would likely be offered a worse contract from the state.
"If you look at the condition that the state is in economically now from where they were when we negotiated this, we can be pretty sure that they wouldn't offer as good a contract to us now," Edelbach said.
The benefits of the contract for faculty and staff members include increased numbers of permitted sabbaticals, increased summer session pay and 40 percent tuition waivers for children, spouses and civil union partners. The contract also includes a scaled 13 percent salary increase over the next four years: 3 percent increases for the first two years and 3.5 percent increases for the last two years.
A tentative agreement with the state was reached back in July, though it was not ratified into a contract until last week. The previous contract for AFT workers expired at the end of June, though the new contract retroactively covers the time between the old contract's expiration and the new contract's ratification.
AFT members join Communications Workers of America members at the College, whose union ratified an agreement back in April, as contracted employees of the state through 2011.
(09/12/07 12:00pm)
Using pepper spray to subdue him, Campus Police arrested a College student on Sunday, Sept. 2, after he allegedly hit an officer in the head with his elbow and resisted arrest.
A Campus Police officer encountered Jonathan Waltz, sophomore open options science major, staggering in a drunken state near Parking Lot 17 at about 4 a.m. the morning of Sept. 2, according to Casey DeBlasio, public information officer for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.
The officer reportedly attempted to convince Waltz to seek medical attention, calling for assistance. But Waltz signed two "Refusal of Medical Attention" forms, one for the Lions' EMS squad and one for the Ewing EMS squad.
At this point, an officer took Waltz to Campus Police headquarters to await the arrival of family members who had been called to pick him up.
However, while he was initially reported to be non-threatening, police allege that Waltz became violent when family members arrived at about 5 a.m, as he demanded that he be allowed to leave on his own.
According to a complaint submitted to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office by Campus Police, Waltz repeatedly used his elbow to hit Patrolman James Lopez in the head and body, at which point police sprayed an aerosol pepper spray in his face to subdue him.
"He was being restrained for his own safety," DeBlasio said. Lt. James Lopez (no relation) said while it is rare that a student is charged with assault against a police officer on the College's campus, it is not unheard of.
"We've had to use pepper spray before, but it isn't often that we do," Lt. Lopez said.
Pepper spray, a non-lethal inflammatory chemical agent often used in riot control, irritates the eyes to cause tears, pain and temporary blindness when sprayed in the face of an attacker and can also cause a burning sensation on the skin. According to medical studies, these effects usually wear off in 45 to 60 minutes.
The New Jersey Attorney General's "Use of Force Policy" defines pepper spray as a "mechanical force" and instructs that police officers may use such mechanical force "to protect (an) officer, or a third party, from unlawful force."
"We follow the Attorney General's guidelines," Lt. Lopez said.
Police charged Waltz with one count of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting arrest.
Waltz gave no comment when reached by telephone.
(04/25/07 12:00pm)
The glazed-over faces of survivors of the conflict in Sudan haunted Saturday's "Darfur: Advocacy and Education" presentation in Forcina Hall.
The vacant, far-away eyes could be seen again and again in slides shown by Jerry Ehrlich, a 72-year-old pediatrician from Cherry Hill who traveled to Darfur as part of Doctors Without Borders. "That's Post-Traumatic Stress," he said, identifying the condition seen on the sullen faces.
Ehrlich was joined by U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, a 1975 graduate of the College, in a presentation to raise awareness of the conflict in the Darfur region of the African nation of Sudan. Smith traveled to Sudan in 2005 to tour refugee camps and meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Since 2003, Sudan's government, with the aid of the Janjaweed militia, has been engaged in suppression of the non-Arabs living in Darfur in retaliation for a rebellion that erupted in southern Sudan in the 1980s and continued through the 1990s. Many, including Smith and Ehrlich, characterize it as genocide.
The United Nations estimates the death toll at over 400,000, while more conservative estimates say there have been between 200,000 to 300,000 lives lost. More than 2.5 million people have been made refugees by the conflict and now live in camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.
"The level of slaughter by the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government caught the world . somewhat by surprise," Smith said.
Smith noted reluctance on the part of the international community to refer to this conflict as genocide. "Once you brand it genocide, they have to fall in line and do more about it than they've done so far," he said.
Smith warned against inaction. "Despotic regimes take note when nothing is done or little is done or the reaction is ineffective or feckless, and that is what happened in Darfur," he said.
Members of the United Nations have threatened military intervention but are hindered by China's presence on the U.N. Security Council. China is a known economic supporter of Sudan.
Smith said there are about 5,000 peacekeeping troops from the African Union in Sudan today, but that this is not an ideal number. "Experts say that 21,000 will make a difference," he said.
After Smith finished speaking, he turned the floor over to Ehrlich.
"This is the only legal slide you're going to see here today," Ehrlich said when a photograph of two "peace and unity" flags he took in Darfur appeared on the screen. "My thoughts on this?" he asked. "An absolute joke."
Ehrlich's next slide showed a crayon drawing of planes bombing a village. Dead bodies lined the ground while houses burned. "This is Darfur through the eyes, the mind and the heart of a 10-year-old boy," Ehrlich said.
When Ehrlich traveled to Darfur in 2004, he brought crayons and paper with him so the children in the Kalma refugee camp could draw. He also brought a camera to take pictures of the camp, but found he had to do so secretly. "In order to take pictures of Kalma camp, you had to get a special permit when I was there and you had to be escorted by a member of the Sudanese government," he said. "They did not want you to have pictures of Kalma camp."
Ehrlich smuggled his photographs out of the country, hidden inside a copy of The New York Times.
Ehrlich's photographs depicted dozens of emaciated people living in the Kalma camp.
One 2-year-old was shown on the ground, his thin arms draped over his chest, where every rib could be seen. "He is very, very vulnerable, his lungs to malaria, his intestines to diarrhea," Ehrlich said.
Ehrlich wrapped up his presentation on a note of introspection. "People say, 'Jerry, what the heck did you accomplish in Darfur? What did you accomplish in this place of such atrocity?'"
Ehrlich then revealed his final slide, a picture of a young woman holding her baby in her arms, a smile on her face. It was the first smile in any of Ehrlich's slides.
"This is what I want to remember about Darfur," he said. "The look on her face."
(04/25/07 12:00pm)
With a little luck and the fast work of employees in Grounds and Landscaping, the College was able to avoid large-scale flooding on campus during last week's nor'easter.
The storm, which forced acting Gov. Richard J. Codey to declare a state of emergency in New Jersey, dumped five inches of rain on Ewing and caused flood damage to hundreds of homes in the region.
On-campus workers were prepared to deal with the deluge.
"My guys were out there cleaning out the gutters and making sure that the drains were clear when it started to come down," Tom Hasty, head grounds worker, said.
Hasty praised his grounds crew and on-campus plumbers for staying on top of the situation and making sure that water accumulation on the ground was minimal.
Nevertheless, Hasty recognized that there are still trouble spots on campus where large puddles tend to form during rainstorms.
These include the sidewalk between the New Library and Eickhoff Hall, the lawn in front of Green Hall and the area surrounding the parking lot by Decker Hall.
Hasty said that ensuring proper drainage is a matter of locating these trouble spots on campus and marshalling the resources to fix them, usually as a construction project.
"In some cases, like with the trails leading to Brower, you just have concrete that has settled, and there's no drain there to empty it," he said.
Plumbers recently installed drains at the side of the Wolfe Hall dormitory. For safety's sake, a temporary retaining wall was erected in the area before the nor'easter hit.
Ironically, the only spot that flooded at the College during the nor'easter, according to Hasty, was the Facilities parking lot, where Grounds and Landscaping workers park their cars.
Other locations across the county and in western New Jersey were not so lucky or well-prepared.
Despite the five inches of rain, Lakes Sylva and Ceva did not flood during the nor'easter.
According to Hasty, the College follows a dam emergency plan to make sure that the two lakes on campus do not overflow onto the grounds.
"We monitor the dam monthly to make sure we know where the water levels are so we can prepare for when a big storm is about to hit," he said.
When water levels become dangerously high, workers open flood gates to allow water to safely drain from either of the lakes.
"Basically, it's a never-ending cycle," he said. "On rainy days, it's our main concern to just get out there and make sure that the drains on campus and the gutters on the road in front of the school are clear."
Hasty said he was both relieved and impressed to see that so little flooding occurred on campus.
"Five inches, that's a lot of water," he said. "But we didn't see as much water on the ground as you'd expect for this kind of storm."
"I've seen a lot worse," Hasty said. "Overall, we were pretty good."
Areas along the Delaware River and many streams surrounding it were flooded following the storm.
According to an April 18 article in The Star-Ledger, Codey said more than 5,000 people evacuated their homes as a result of flooding that caused "tens and tens and tens of millions" of dollars in damage.
Many more were left without power for several days.
Codey called on President Bush to declare New Jersey a major disaster area before water began to recede during the week.
The storm formed when a cold front from the west collided with warmer air moving up from the south.
It was further powered by cold air from the Arctic, resulting in several days of rain.
(04/18/07 12:00pm)
The Lion's Eye literary magazine debuted on Wednesday, April 11, after a semester of financial troubles put its publication in doubt.
On Feb. 16, the Student Finance Board (SFB) revoked $2,650 in funding from the Lion's Eye. The money had originally been awarded for publication of the magazine during the fall semester. After Lion's Eye members were unable to meet deadlines for a fall publication, the money was taken back. SFB policy mandates that funds be spent during the semester in which they are awarded.
However, members of the Lion's Eye were able to reach a compromise with SFB that returned about $2,000 to go toward printing. As part of this compromise, the Lion's Eye must turn over most of the money it raised through fundraising to SFB.
"SFB accepted some miscommunication on our part and Lion's Eye accepted some on (its)," Jon Borst, SFB executive director, said.
That miscommunication revolved around the date by which the money was set to be spent. Members of the Lion's Eye said they did not know that the money would be revoked after the fall semester until after SFB took it back.
"Basically, what happened is that we weren't aware of the deadline," Kathy Loglisci, issue editor for the Lion's Eye, said. "But we worked it out with Jon Borst."
After meeting with Borst, members of the Lion's Eye agreed to make cuts in their spending in order to meet their new budget.
The magazine was originally going to be eight inches by 11 inches, but the members of the Lion's Eye chose to shrink it down to six inches by nine inches. They also decided to remove most of the color from the issue, though not from the cover. These decisions helped save them $500.
Members of the Lion's Eye said they were grateful for the flexibility SFB showed.
"We're very glad to see that they're willing to sit down and talk things out with us," Laurie Gumbs, executive editor of Lion's Eye, said.
The magazine made its formal debut at a reading held by the Lion's Eye staff in the Bliss Hall lounge.
Prizes were awarded to junior art education major Jen Braverman, senior art education major Hollie Chicalese, junior English major Josh Page and senior English major Devin McKernan for poetry and art submissions. Chicalese and Page were not in attendance.
"We didn't advertise, so this isn't a huge turnout," Loglisci said. "But that's all right. It's more intimate this way."
This year, Lion's Eye is being released in the same semester as The Siren, the College's other literary magazine. Traditionally, SFB has mandated that Lion's Eye and The Siren not use Student Activities Fund financing to print in the same semester, so as to avoid competing with one another.
An exception was made this year due to Lion's Eye's monetary difficulties.
Next year, The Siren is scheduled to print in the fall semester, while Lion's Eye is scheduled to print in spring.
(04/11/07 12:00pm)
During their March budget retreat, members of the Student Finance Board (SFB) elected to appropriate money from the Student Activity Fund (SAF) in order to keep the outdoor recreation award alive.
The award, a $14,000 fund traditionally allocated by the College as part of its annual budget and doled out by SFB to student organizations, was in danger of being eliminated at the end of the semester, sacrificed as part of sweeping budget cuts across campus.
But the decision to bankroll the award through SAF funds will save it for at least one more year, according to Jon Borst, SFB executive director. In addition to funding the award with SAF money, SFB members chose to up the total given out to $15,000 a year.
"The College removed the direct funding from its budget this year, so we didn't have a source of money to keep this going beyond this year," Borst said. "But then the board did decide to appropriate $15,000 in SAF funds for the next fiscal year."
As a result, the outdoor recreation award will continue to be given out to both SAF and non-SAF funded student organizations during the 2007-2008 school year.
"SFB recognized that this is something that students look forward to and that it's something that gives student organizations a chance to do something outside their normal functions," Borst said.
"It's such a wonderful program and I'm very glad to see that SFB is funding it," Tim Asher, associate director of Student Activities and SFB advisor, said.
The award is intended to pay for off-campus activities for student organizations. It originated with the sale of the College's Mohican cabin in the 1970s, which was used by student organizations for weekend retreats. The money generated from that sale was divied out for use in outdoor recreations until it ran out.
Since then, the College has paid for the outdoor recreation award out of its annual budget. This is the first year that College officials have chosen not to fund the award.
As for the future of the outdoor recreation award, Borst said it would depend on the action of future SFB board members.
"I can't speak for future boards," he said, "but I would expect that they would probably continue to use money from (SAF) if funding from the College is not restored."
This semester, SFB has been relying on money held over from previous years in order to give out awards. Asher estimated this amount to be around $10,000, but Borst indicated that it was dwindling fast.
"There are only a few thousand dollars left before we're tapped out for this year," he said.
(04/04/07 12:00pm)
On Saturday, the College held its annual Accepted Students Day, a series of open-house events and information sessions designed to convince high school seniors that the College is the right place for them.
However, this might prove a harder sell in a year that has seen large-scale cuts in the College's budget, including the elimination of the Outstanding Scholar Recruitment Program (OSRP).
"That was definitely a concern of ours," Christina V. Puglia, senior Admissions counselor, said. "But we did a comparison between ourselves and some of the schools in the immediate area, and we found that the cost of four years at (the College) is still very competitive, even without the OSRP program."
Even so, the emphasis at the "Funding Your Education!" presentation held as part of the Accepted Students Day events was on encouraging potential incoming students to find their own scholarship and loan opportunities.
While no mention was made during the presentation that OSRP had been cut, Robert Alston, associate director of Student Financial Services, directed accepted students to the College's student financial assistance Web page to fill out an electronic form reporting any scholarships that students had obtained independently.
According to Puglia, many students have already filled out applications for merit scholarships from the College and some have received notice of their awards. But these merit scholarships do not come close to matching OSRP scholarships in terms of the number of students who receive them, according to Lisa Angeloni, dean of Admissions.
"We can give out about 900 scholarships to incoming students," Angeloni said. "That's not that much when you compare it to the OSRP ones."
The College is also unable to match the full-ride scholarships that existed under OSRP. The highest merit scholarship given out by the College is $8,000. The yearly total undergraduate cost for in-state students last year was $19,416, while the cost for out-of-state students was $25,962. And those numbers are likely to increase next year, according to Alston. He said that tuition may not be set definitively until June or July.
Angeloni noted that there was at least one benefit to the way in which the new merit scholarship program is administered. "The way OSRP worked is, it was automatic and the state distributed the money," she said. "If a student's class rank was just a fraction of a point below the top 10, we couldn't give him that extra money. Now that the College is in charge of distributing awards, we can look and compare how competitive the schools are and see that, if that person has just below a certain class rank but is at a very competitive school, we can give him the money."
However, it still remains to be seen whether the reduction in the number of scholarships that can be awarded to incoming freshmen will have an effect on how many students actually choose to come to the College.
"In his case, it probably won't have an effect," Dennis Sheppard said in reference to his son, Michael Billings, a student at Lawrence High School who is considering attending the College in the fall. "But we have another (child) on the way up who it probably will."
(03/07/07 12:00pm)
The Communications Workers of America (CWA), the public workers' union that represents approximately 225 faculty and staff members at the College and more than 40,000 workers across the state, struck a deal early Monday morning with state negotiators for a new four-year contract.
As part of the agreement, CWA workers will receive a 13 percent pay raise over the next four years. This is the first time in 15 years that the CWA contract will not include a wage freeze. However, employees will also be required to pay for their health benefits for the first time in state history. The total wage increase amounts to a 12 percent compounded wage increase after these deductions.
The state's initial offer to CWA would have resulted in a 1 percent increase in wages over the four years, with employees paying 10 percent into their health benefits.
But after 18 months of negotiations in an atmosphere of economic uncertainty as the state attempted to balance its budget, CWA was able to reach a provisional settlement Monday.
"Rather than having the Legislature unilaterally impose pension and health care givebacks on us, we have negotiated a contract that provides real economic security for our members while providing responsible leadership on the very real problems of pension and benefit costs," Chris Shelton, CWA District One vice president, said in a message posted on the CWA Web site. District One represents New York, New Jersey, New England and eastern Canada.
Speaking on March 1 before the provisional settlement had been ratified, Susan Ciotti, the CWA branch officer for the College and professional services specialist for the honors program, expressed approval of the figures CWA had been able to reach through negotiations.
"It's not bad, considering the state of the state," she said, referring to the budget crisis.
While the contract does provide employees with increased wages, it may not increase their spending power. Department of Labor Consumer Price Index estimates project that the cost of living across the country is likely to increase by almost 11 percent in the next four years. In addition, the state has raised its sales tax by 1 percent since the last time CWA contracts were negotiated.
CWA is not the only union representing employees at the College with contracts expiring this year. New Jersey chapters of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are also in contract negotiations with the state this year.
"What the state offers (the CWA) usually sets the course for other negotiations," Ciotti said.
Ralph Edelbach, president of AFT Local 2364 and associate professor of technology studies at the College, believes the needs of the faculty go beyond pay raises.
"You need to be able to attract people to the job, not only with salaries and benefits that are enticing, but with equipment and resources that will allow them to do research and make it worthwhile for them to work here," he said.
AFT has until March 16 to present its demands to the state.
Nagesh Rao, assistant professor of English and member of AFT, is printing an unofficial newsletter to keep his fellow union members at the College up-to-date on the ongoing contract negotiations. He is hoping that AFT will be able to avoid a contract that requires employees to pay for their health benefits.
"If we accept that, it sets a precedent that the state can charge us for health benefits," he said. "In future negotiations, it's not going to be about whether or not they can charge us, it will be about how much."
However, Edelbach noted that any change to the health benefits offer must be appealed to the state legislature, as state negotiators do not have the authority to amend it. Representatives from the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, which conducts negotiations on the part of the state, were not available for comment.
The state is not alone among employers across the country in looking to slash costs by having employees pay into their health plans. According to statistics from the National Coalition on Health Care, the average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 143 percent since 2000. In 2006 alone, health insurance premiums rose by 7.7 percent - twice the rate of inflation.
"It starts in the private sector," Rao said. "The state sees that private companies are cutting costs by increasing the cost of health benefits, so they want to do the same."
Both Rao and Edelbach expressed hope that students at the College will take an active role in supporting the faculty during contract negotiations.
(02/21/07 12:00pm)
The Student Finance Board (SFB) revoked $2,650 in funds for the Lion's Eye literary magazine on Friday. Members of the Lion's Eye editorial staff had intended to use those funds to print an issue of the magazine this semester.
SFB allocated the $2,650 to Lion's Eye in the fall so that it could print an issue last semester. However, Lion's Eye did not spend those funds in the fall.
SFB policy mandates that money allocated for one semester must be spent in that semester. As a result, SFB reclaimed its money this past week.
Members of the Lion's Eye had intended to print an issue in either the first or second week of March, a printing which is now threatened by a lack of funds.
Part of the problem with funding for the Lion's Eye arises from the presence of two literary magazines on campus at the College. SFB funds the Lion's Eye in the fall and the Siren in the spring. In previous years, both literary magazines were funded at the beginning of the Fall semester to spend their budgets throughout the year.
This year, SFB expected each magazine to print in the semester for which it was funded, so that two competing SFB-funded literary magazines would not be released on campus at the same time.
"SFB didn't put a deadline on the money. So as far as we know, we're all right," Laurie Gumbs, executive editor of the Lion's Eye, said on Monday, before she had been made aware that funding had been revoked.
"Laurie should be aware (of the budgetary provisions) as she signed off on her approved budget for this year, where it clearly states that the money is to be used in the fall," Jon Borst, executive director of SFB, wrote in an e-mail to The Signal.
"I was actually with the executive editor of the Siren and we went up to SFB to clarify this. They gave us our money in the fall and Siren gets funded in the spring, but we couldn't put the money to use in the fall," Gumbs said.
Gumbs said that members of the Lion's Eye editorial staff had difficulty organizing submissions and meeting the deadline for a fall printing. She also said that problems with its printing service resulted in delays.
Gumbs also said that, despite not printing in the fall, the Siren was allowed to publish a fall issue online.
However, Borst indicated that SFB is not likely to be sympathetic to the Lion's Eye's plight.
"If the Lion's Eye does intend on publishing for the spring, the organization will have to present a request for funds through the Special Appropriations process. Because the Lion's Eye did receive funds for a fall publication but failed to spend that money, or notify the Board of any problems, it is unlikely that the Board will fund a request for Special Appropriations funding," he wrote.
Another problem for the Lion's Eye results from a contest it ran last semester. Members of the Lion's Eye called on artists and poets on campus to submit their work for special placement in the literary magazine. The winning artist was to have his or her work placed on the cover of the magazine, while the winning poem would be specially indicated inside.
After Gumbs was notified that SFB had revoked funding for the spring semester, she declined to comment to The Signal.
The difficulties for the Lion's Eye follow revisions in SFB's policy regarding funding requests by student organizations made in the fall. Student organizations can now only revise their budgets until October.
(02/14/07 12:00pm)
The office of Health Services has reduced its hours of operation and concentrated its staff scheduling this semester in an effort to better serve students at the College.
Health Services will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Prior to this semester, the office had been open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
However, despite this reduction in hours, the staff at Health Services is hoping to process students more quickly this semester.
After surveying students who had been scheduled for appointments at Health Services after 6 p.m. last semester, administrators found that it might be beneficial to provide students with more opportunities to be seen earlier in the day.
"The results of the survey showed that the majority of students preferred an earlier appointment, but none were available," Janice Vermeychuk, associate director of Health Services, wrote via e-mail.
By cutting the evening hours and scheduling the evening staff earlier in the day, administrators hope to increase the efficiency with which students' needs are met.
"More appointment slots would be available during the times of heaviest demand because more clinical staff is in Health Services," Vermeychuk wrote. "Our goal is to see people within 15 minutes of their scheduled time."
Other than schedule adjustments, no changes to the staff at Health Services have been made.
By cutting out the evening hours, the Health Services staff has also been able to eliminate dinner breaks and stagger lunch breaks to create more appointment slots. According to Vermeychuk, students now have a better chance of securing a same-day appointment than they had in previous semesters.
This change is also designed to help address another concern that had been raised with regard to confidentiality.
"During the evening hours, they had students working at the reception desk," Magda Manetas, executive director for Student and Residential Development, said. "This created a problem of privacy and confidentiality for some students seeking care at Health Services."
According to Vermeychuk, students seeking an appointment can now enjoy a greater sense of privacy as they are now no longer met with student workers at the front desk.
Vermeychuk sent a campus-wide e-mail informing all students of the new Spring 2007 hours, and Manetas announced the change in office hours at Health Services to the Student Government Association at their Jan. 24 meeting. According to Vermeychuk, they have received no feedback with regard to the change.
Vermeychuk proposed the reconfiguration of hours in August 2006. It was approved by Jim Norfleet, vice president of Student Life, as a pilot program in late December 2006.
At the end of the semester, student satisfaction surveys will be used to assess the effectiveness of the change. Students can complete the surveys year-round on the Health Services Web site (tcnj.edu/healthservices). An e-mail invitation to fill out the surveys will be sent to all students in March.