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(04/26/06 12:00pm)
"Hi, my name is ______, and I'm here for the sex." That's how some students introduced themselves at last Tuesday's sex toy workshop, sponsored by Voices of Planned Parenthood (Vox) and Lambda Theta Alpha.
The workshop drew an unexpected crowd - nearly 40 students crowded into the Women's Center to learn about sensual products and sexual stimulation.
The presenter, Courtney Huston, is a consultant for Passion Parties, a company that sells sensual products - including vibrators and other toys, but also massage lotions and the occasional educational book (sample title: "The Complete Manual of Sexual Positions").
Like a Mary Kay consultant, Huston sets up parties where women can view and purchase products in their own homes. But unlike the makeup business, Passion Parties sells products more popular at bachelorette parties than at the beauty parlor.
"I'd like to start off with some of our edibles," Huston said, passing around Nipple Nibblers, a fruit-flavored gel that can double as a lip gloss (added tingling sensation!).
Some products are aimed at women exploring their bodies with a partner, Huston explained, holding up some edible chocolate powder.
Attendees could sample flavored massage lotions, warming gels and Pure Instinct, a pheramone-based fragrance that picks up the wearer's individual scent.
And of course, there were the sex toys themselves. There was Passion Parties' most popular vibrator, the small silver Bullet, as well as a few others from the catalog: the eight-inch Pink Passion and the Jelly Osaki, a bright purple vibrator with a rotating shaft.
"(Our business is) all private parties, that's the magic of it," Huston said.
Many women, Huston said, wouldn't feel comfortable walking into a sex toy shop, but they enjoy the chance to see products up close within the comfort of their own home and among friends.
Kathy Loglisci, secondary education/English major and Vox president, said she was "floored" by the number of people who showed up.
She expected that the party would be full of Vox members; she had not anticipated the number of people who had heard about the event through word of mouth.
Loglisci said that the goal of the event was to promote the idea that "self-sex is safe sex" - that masturbation is healthy, and it allows people to discover their preferences on their own.
"I think people like learning about sex toys for two reasons," Loglisci said. "One, because they're interested in pleasure, whether it's their own or their partner's. Two, because toys are considered so taboo that there's a lot of curiosity surrounding them. You never learn about sex toys in health class."
(04/26/06 12:00pm)
For future educators, an important part of teaching is dealing with diversity in the classroom. In an effort to give back to the community, students and faculty from the College opened a mini-museum on March 29 to teach children from second to sixth grade about overcoming stereotypes and accepting diversity.
The exhibit "Face to Face: Dealing with Prejudice and Discrimination" is located on the first floor of Forcina Hall and is the product of a partnership between the College and Kidsbridge, a Trenton-based nonprofit organization dedicated to educating children about diversity.
Students and faculty from different departments of the College are involved in the mini-museum. Early childhood and elementary education majors use the museum to plan lessons and work with children in a non-classroom environment.
Psychology students observe children's behavior and assess their learning at the exhibit. Graphic arts students designed the mini-museum's posters and letterhead, while other art students designed decorations and murals. The mini-museum also partnered with the Bonner Center, which coordinates community-campus outreach efforts at the College.
Debra Frank, assistant professor of elementary and early childhood education, said that her involvement with Kidsbridge dates back several years to when she sought out resources for a course in multicultural storytelling.
Early childhood and elementary education, Frank said, doesn't have required coursework in race and ethnicity. Instead, she said these issues are "infused in every part of our program." Frank said an important part of teaching is recognizing individual differences. "It's not just about tolerating differences, but celebrating differences," Frank said.
Exhibits in the mini-museum include the Peace Diner, which shows students constructive ways to respond to name-calling. Students can choose from a wall of printed suggestions (walk away, tell a grown-up, tell the bully your real name) or write their own response ("just mind my business and keep walking home," "tell them to get out my face").
Other exhibits include a Name Shredder, where students can write a hurtful name on a piece of paper and watch it be destroyed. In an interactive "Name that Stereotype" booth, students can test their ability to identify negative images. All exhibits have instructions and explanations in both English and Spanish.
A wall labeled "Signs of the Times" shows photographs of signs that banned people of color from all-white establishments. "Signs" also gives information on the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, Japanese internment during World War II and the treatment of Native American, Jewish and Mexican migrant workers.
The photographs, Frank said, are especially powerful because they "show kids that (discrimination) is real, not just something somebody thought."
The exhibit also includes a resource library, with books about characters who face discrimination and space for children to do art projects.
Another element of the museum is an improvisational show, where students from the College perform and give visiting students the opportunity to interact and show what they've learned.
Tabith Dell'Angelo, assistant professor of elementary and early childhood education, modeled the show after Full Circle Theater, a group she performs with in Philadelphia.
Visiting students come to the show right after their experience in the mini-museum and suggest ideas for the College students to act out. "Our hope is that this experience gives the students a novel way to interact with these ideas - they see their suggestions and scenarios being acted out," Dell'Angelo said. "Some of them come up on stage and play with us; they laugh and participate a lot."
Frank said that the improvisational group is great training for education students, because being a good teacher is often like a performance.
"It's always a good thing when you find an activity where you come out different, where you break out of your inhibitions," Frank said. "I know this will have a lasting impact on (College students) for having done it."
Frank said that the mini-museum is also in the process of coordinating programs with other departments at the College, such as counselor education and special education.
Lynne Azarchi, executive director of Kidsbridge, said that her joy in working with the College was the establishment of a partnership that benefits both the school and the outside community.
"I am very grateful to the College for providing this opportunity to Kidsbridge so that we may educate and provide this special opportunity to kids from Mercer County," Azarchi said. Bringing low-income children to a college campus "gives them something to aspire to," she said. "For us, that's very rewarding."
(04/12/06 12:00pm)
If a conductor's heart is pounding, can the audience feel it? Teresa Nakra, assistant professor of music at the College, looks at how music affects our emotional states - and how those feelings might transfer from the conductor of a symphony orchestra to those watching in the audience.
Using sensors that measure outward emotional indicators like muscle tension, heart rate and galvanic skin response, Nakra measures how musicians, conductors and audience members respond to the musical experience.
In March, Nakra conducted a pilot study with the College's Symphony Orchestra, wiring up assistant music professor and conductor Philip Tate and five student musicians as they played. Data from this pilot study served as a basis for the "crazy, huge" study she and researchers from McGill University conducted Saturday with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In the experiment, conductor Keith Lockhart (of the Boston Pops) wore a "conductor's jacket" that Nakra designed, which held 10 different types of sensors. Five musicians - a bassoon player, bassist, violinist, trumpet player and percussionist - were also hooked up to sensors that fed their data to a backstage computer.
Members of the audience wore sensors that measured galvanic skin response, or had sliding indicators where they self-reported their emotional intensity in response to the music.
Nakra said she would be looking for correlation between the musicians' and audiences' reactions. Musicians' heart rates, for example, might speed up at certain parts of the music, and the audience could have the same reaction.
"We think that maybe as the emotional intensity ratchets up on stage, that we'll also see the same emotional intensity ratchet up in the audience, but maybe delayed by two seconds, or maybe not ratcheting up quite as high. We don't know," Nakra said.
McGill University will conduct a follow-up study by playing a videotape of the performance to an audience, comparing the emotional difference between a live performance and a prerecorded one.
"We think that the audience watching the videotape is not going to have as high of an emotional reaction as the audience that was there live," Nakra said. "But we don't know. So we'll find out."
To Nakra, the basis of the experiment is both a personal and philosophical question.
"It's an ancient mystery about why music exists," Nakra said. "At the college level, we offer courses in music, courses in jazz and in music literature and history of music . but we often don't take a step back and say, well, why do we have music at all?"
Philosophers and theorists, Nakra said, have suggested that the reason we have music is to offer emotional solace - influencing us in ways that we find pleasing, helpful or therapeutic.
So, if the value of music is in its emotional influence, how exactly does that influence work? To answer this question, Nakra and her fellow researchers borrowed methods from the field of psychology, using sensors that measure degrees of emotional excitation. Then, they built a system that would measure a live performance.
"It's a very simple concept," Nakra said. "It's a very hard thing to actually build that and to make that all happen."
When Nakra started teaching at the College last fall, she said, the music department, and Tate in particular, supported her research and encouraged her to bring her research to the College.
"(Tate) saw how the (the College) orchestra could be not just an educational experience for the students, and a chance for them to improve their individual instrument skills, but also as a vehicle for research, a test bed," Nakra said. "So I'm very grateful to Tate for making the orchestra, in a way, a very significant part of this research project."
Nakra said that she plans to use the College orchestra in her future studies.
As for the question of why we have music at all, Nakra said she isn't looking for a definitive answer.
"When people think about that question, they come back to the fact that music influences our emotions," Nakra said. "In a way that is pleasurable, and makes us feel as if we are not alone."
(03/22/06 12:00pm)
Recently, the College has become home to high-profile literary events, like last semester's Walt Whitman Symposium and Monday's Thornton Wilder Society panel.
Formed in October 2000, the Thornton Wilder Society is dedicated to "preserving and expanding" the legacy of the novelist and playwright.
Wilder is the only writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in both fiction and drama.
The society also welcomes Lincoln Konkle (commonly known as "Linc"), associate professor of English, as its new executive director.
For the past three years, Konkle served as the society's "Answer Man," on their Web site, providing answers to other scholars' queries about Wilder's life and work.
Based on his work with the society and his book "Thornton Wilder and the Puritan Narrative Tradition" forthcoming from the University of Missouri Press, Konkle was asked to take the post.
The purpose of holding this event at the College, Konkle said, was "to mark the beginning of the College becoming the home of the society," to celebrate this new connection and call attention to both the Thornton Wilder Society and the College.
The panelists were chosen for their prestige and connections to Thornton Wilder. Konkle said he wanted to include a playwright, a novelist and an actor.
Edward Albee, who Konkle called the "greatest living American playwright," has spoken previously about Wilder's impact on him. Joyce Carol Oates, a prolific fiction writer and Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton, once reviewed one of Wilder's novels.
Emily Mann, artistic director of McCarter Theatre, directed a production of Wilder's play "The Matchmaker." Marian Seldes, who Konkle calls "probably the greatest American actress," has appeared in plays by Wilder and Albee and directed by Mann.
Wilder's life and work are also intricately tied to New Jersey. Wilder taught French at the Lawrenceville School in the 1920s while he earned his master's degree at Princeton University, and the influence of the Garden State shows in his writing. "(Wilder) evidently became fond of New Jersey," Konkle said, noting that New Jersey served as a setting in his novels and plays more than any other place.
Wilder used New Jersey locales in the 1931 one-act play, "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden," the 1942 play "The Skin of Our Teeth," and the first draft of the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."
Konkle's own scholarship looks at Wilder's work in the context of early American literature. "(Wilder) is always discussed in terms of European influences," Konkle said. "And no one really looked at his novels and plays in depth in an American cultural context."
Konkle's book examines how vestiges of New England Puritanism exist in Wilder's works.
"America is very broad, and there's all these different ideas about America and American literature," Konkle said. "And I think someone could now look at Wilder and say, 'well, apart from this Puritan context, he's American in this sense too.'"
Konkle said becoming home to an author society brings a new level of prestige to the College. But the College is also an appropriate home for Wilder's society because its mission is in keeping with the spirit of Wilder's life and work.
"Before he published anything formally, (Wilder) was a teacher," Konkle said. "He very much thought of himself as a teacher, and I think he would be delighted that the society honoring his works is at a college that trains teachers. (Wilder) believed in education, worked in education, so I think he would be very happy that (the College) is the home of the society."
(03/01/06 12:00pm)
Most students don't expect to have a feature film under their belt just a year out of college. But that's exactly what alumnus Peter Matkiwsky did - and his original full-length feature "The Bonnie Situation" screened last Wednesday in the New Library Auditorium.
"The Bonnie Situation" (the name, as you might have guessed, comes from a chapter in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction") is the story of Peter, a recent college graduate who returns home to find that Stacey, his girlfriend of five years, has dumped him via answering machine.
Finding Peter still stuck on his overbearing, manipulative ex-girlfriend, his goofball friends take matters into their own hands, setting him up on disastrous dates and plotting to "take care of" Stacey.
Meanwhile, Peter finds a new love interest in Bonnie, a perky bartender who's not all she appears to be.
Matkiwsky, the screenwriter, producer and director, started working on the film after graduating from the College last year.
He wrote the screenplay for his senior practicum in communication studies.
"I had a degree and a script," Matkiwsky said. "And I thought, well, I don't want to get a real job, let's make a movie."
Matkiwsky raised $27,000 and formed Poison Apple Pictures, a production company, with the help of his former College roommate Ronnie Lubischer. Lubischer, who collaborated with Matkiwsky on scripts throughout college, also plays a part in the movie.
With about a dozen New York City-based professional actors (recruited on mandy.com and craigslist.com), hometown friends recruited as extras and a handful of production people, they brought "The Bonnie Situation" to life.
The movie was cast in November 2004, shot from February to June of 2005, edited over the summer and finished in December, a mere two days before its premier at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City.
Philip Asta, a New York-based actor who has worked off-Broadway and in a number of student films, was an automatic choice for the role of Peter. After seeing a slew of bad actors at auditions, Lubischer said Asta walked in and blew them away. "As soon as he left, we said, 'that's going to be the Peter character,'" he said.
Asta said this is his first lead role in a feature film.
"I read the script and I liked the flow and the pace of it," Asta said. "Plus the fact that (Matkiwsky) was going all out."
There were good times on the set. "Everybody else there was (a) real actor, so I was nervous at first," Lubischer said of playing the dim-witted Eugene. "But after the first day I relaxed, everything fell into place."
The film's bar scenes were shot on-location in Hoboken at the Tonic Bar and Lounge and the Gaslight Restaurant, which Matkiwsky said generously gave them three full days of shooting apiece.
"Free beer also," he added, "which isn't a good thing if you're directing."
One thing that stood out about "The Bonnie Situation" was its high-quality visuals.
Matkiwsky attributes this to Jefferey Chu, the director of photography, and Nat Aguilar, who called himself the "rambo of lighting." (They also had "one sound guy who held the boom mic and mixed at the same time," he said.)
The movie was shot with digital cameras, which both cut costs and helped the editing process.
Asked if the movie had any real-life basis, Matkiwsky said that his ex-girlfriend had not seen the movie - yet.
The characters, he said, are loosely based on friends of his.
"We'd take someone we knew," Matkiwsky said, "and say 'how can we make him the ultimate character?'"
Poison Apple Pictures has a few more original film ideas lined up, based on Lubischer's work as a creative writing minor at the College.
Their next project is "Lee Wang Makes Varsity," a high school basketball movie that Lubischer describes as "off the wall."
"It's Bad News Bears meets Napoleon Dynamite," Lubischer said.
"With a little John Hughes mixed in," Asta added.
They also hope to get industry attention for "The Bonnie Situation," which will be screened at CineSpace in Los Angeles later this month.
(02/22/06 12:00pm)
More than 145 people crowded into Science Complex room 101 last Wednesday, some curious, some armed for debate.
The event was a presentation on intelligent design (ID), the concept that the origin of life is better explained as the work of an intelligent designer than by the mechanisms of evolution.
ID has recently been getting national attention due to a Dover, Penn., court case which ruled in December that ID was a "re-labeling of creationism," "not a scientific theory" and was "unconstitutional to teach . as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom."
The presentation consisted of a showing of "The Privileged Planet," followed by a question-and-answer session with Robert Kaita, a research physicist from the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University.
The hour-long video presentation suggested that the statistical improbability of life forming on earth, as well as humanity's ability to discover, supported the idea of a higher design and purpose.
The event was sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Protestant Bible Fellowship. The Physics Club was asked to co-sponsor the event and declined.
Before the event, members of the Progressive Student Alliance and the TCNJ Socialists handed out papers at the door describing the lack of support for ID in the scientific community and urging for separation of church and state.
Participants in the question-and-answer session were allowed 30 seconds to speak and one follow-up comment. Despite these limitations, the debate lasted almost two hours.
Students questioned the scientific validity, history and logic of ID, as well as why an event that claimed to be scientific in nature was sponsored only by religious campus organizations.
"What is intelligent design?" asked senior biology major John Pennisi. "What can I take into the lab and test?"
Kaita described ID as "being able to set up a series of criteria to decide whether something is designed or not." He compared ID methods to detecting a picture on the back of a coin, an answer that Pennisi said evaded the question.
"You've published 300 scientific papers," Anthony Milici, senior English major, said, citing the lack of scholarship on ID. "Is there a reason number 301 can't be on intelligent design?"
Kaita said he already used the principles of ID in his work, and such a paper would not be relevant to his field.
Milici also pointed out that the argument presented in the film was a philosophical contradiction. Kaita finally said that Milici's question was "difficult," and, like many other questions that night, "beyond the realm of science."
Members of the sponsoring groups were pleased with the turnout. "In an educational institution such as (the College), more conversation is better than less, and there is no topic that should be off limits from questioning," Logan Liskovec, senior English major and outreach coordinator for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, said. "What matters is that we worked with our differences and our uneasiness and had the discussion."
Danielle Dalafave, associate professor of physics and an organizer of the event, said she believes in the validity of the ID approach. "The physical constants, for example, are a strong indication that there is something beyond nature," Dalafave said. "(But) if I did not believe in God, I would not act on my conviction."
"Religion is a valid way of knowing," Donald Lovett, associate professor of biology, said. "It's one of the valid ways we know. The problem is, it's not science."
Both Kaita and Dalafave maintained that ID opponents fail to consider the possibility that evidence in nature points to the existence of a designer.
"We're not saying that there is or is not God," Lovett, who is also an ordained elder in Ewing Presbyterian Church, said. "What we're saying is science cannot address the 'why.'"
The Discovery Institute, which produced "The Privileged Planet" and at which Kaita holds a fellowship, calls itself a "secular think tank" concerned with issues of economics and public policy.
Its Center for Science and Culture (CSC), which is at the forefront of the ID movement and concerns itself solely with ID issues, has been criticized for spending the majority of its budget on public relations rather than research. A 1999 document known as "the wedge" says one of the CSC's goals is to "replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."
A larger crowd is expected on March 28, when author, leading ID proponent and Discovery fellow William Dembski is scheduled to speak at the College.
A request is also pending for Brian Alters, a professor of science education who served as an expert witness on the side of evolution in the Dover trial, to speak at the College on April 12.
(02/08/06 12:00pm)
They weren't facing off for a position with Donald Trump, but students at "The Lion's Apprentice" on Tuesday were ready to do business.
Modeled after the NBC reality series "The Apprentice," the competition involves six teams of students who will show their creativity, teamwork and leadership skills in a series of weekly challenges.
With the Business Building lounge set up as "The Lion's Den," a panel made up of judges from the College and outside businesses will evaluate the teams.
As part of the competition, students will have the opportunity to work with "real world" clients, including the Trenton Thunder, Bloomberg LP and a regional music and movement center.
Each week, one of the six teams will be eliminated, and the competition will conclude with a grand finale on March 28. There will be six challenges in all.
During week one of "The Lion's Apprentice," the teams were introduced to the panel of judges and briefed on the rules of the competition. They were also given details about the first in a series of six challenges.
The first challenge of "The Lion's Apprentice" is to design a theme meal for Eickhoff Dining Hall. Teams will have to think up an appropriate theme, plan a menu, decide on decor and design marketing materials to promote its meal. Marketing materials could include posters, online advertisements and radio announcements. The winning team will have its theme meal served in Eickhoff and advertise its event to the campus.
"As you can see, your first task is timely, strategic and challenging," Christine Zelenak, assistant dean of the School of Business, said.
The theme meal challenge was presented by Karen Roth, director of Auxiliary Services, John Higgins, general manager of Dining Services, and Joanna Hower, coordinator of marketing at the College.
The prize for the first challenge is an upscale meal for the winning team.
The panel of judges includes James Conroy, executive in residence for the School of Business, Ceceilia O'Callaghan, director of the Office of Career Services, Debra Kelly, assistant director of Career Services, Kristin Appelget, president and CEO of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce, and David Stryker, assistant treasurer of Risk Management at Bristol-Myers Squibb and a member of the Board of Advisors for the School of Business.
"(Since) I'm a senior, this is a chance to take what I've learned in class and do it hands-on," David Boudwin, senior business major, said. Plus, he said, the competition offered many potential networking opportunities.
Brian Gross, sophomore finance major, said he was interested in "The Lion's Apprentice" because it seemed different from anything the College had to offer.
"Networking was definitely a big part of it," Gross agreed.
The next challenge of "The Lion's Apprentice" will be announced on Feb. 14 in the Business Building lounge. Since the next piece of the competition will take place on Valentine's Day, it will be a Valentine's event, complete with cake. The teams will present their team meals, and after one team is eliminated, the five remaining teams will advance to the next stage in the competition.
"The Lion's Apprentice" was developed by Emmanuel Osagie, dean of the School of Business, in conjunction with Alfred Pelham, associate professor of marketing, and David Puskar, of Bloomberg LP and an alumnus of the School of Business.
The goal of the competition, the School of Business said, is to "identify student's leadership skills and their ability to deal with conflict and take risks."
At the close of Tuesday's event, Osagie addressed the teams about the importance of working together. He cited that the reason that Kwame Jackson, a contestant from the NBC show who recently spoke at the College, didn't win the first season of "The Apprentice" was because of a lack of teamwork.
"I cannot overemphasize the importance of teamwork," Osagie said.
There are six challenges in all, and the winner will be announced in a grand finale on March 28.
"There is a big prize for the winner," Osagie said, "but we aren't saying yet."
(02/01/06 12:00pm)
February is Black History Month, and student organizations and departments at the College have been working hard to bring a diverse lineup of events to the campus. With topics ranging from hip-hop to Afro-Caribbean culture to the famed legacy of the Negro Baseball League, the College's Black History Month programming aims to educate, entertain and raise cultural awareness.
Sankofa, formerly known as the African-American Culture Awareness Association or AACAA, is the student organization in charge of student-oriented events for the month. The name Sankofa is an Akan word which means "looking back to move forward" - a representation of the organization's mission to provide programming that reflects the history and accomplishments of all groups within the African Diaspora.
Of the name change, Sankofa President Yukela Williams, junior communication studies major, said, "we recognize that not everyone (within the African Diaspora) is black or African-American, and we want our programming to reflect that."
Part of the way in which Sankofa aims to reflect the diversity present among students of color at the College is by sponsoring events with other cultural organizations, such as Uni?n Latina and Chi Upsilon Sigma Sorority. These events include a showing of the documentary "When the Spirits Dance Mambo," which is about the impact of Afro-Cuban religions in Cuba and internationally.
A lecture by City University of New York professor Marta Moreno Vega will connect West and Central African traditions to current cultural practices in the Americas.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is sponsoring "A History of Stepping." Sankofa, Chi Upsilon Sigma and the College's chapter of the National Council of Negro Women are cosponsoring a lecture on "The Politics of Black Hair and Beauty."
The second week of February is also AIDS Awareness Week, sponsored by the Black Student Union (BSU) and Sankofa. The opening ceremony will be held Monday in Brower Student Center and will feature a guest speaker who is living with the virus, a gospel choir and a flow dance team. AIDS awareness wristbands, condoms and information pamphlets will also be distributed.
On Feb. 7, which is National Black AIDS/HIV day, free HIV/AIDS testing will be held in Brower room 202. Next Thursday, BSU and Sankofa will be hosting "Let's Talk About AIDS," a short film and discussion of AIDS in the black community.
The office of Equity and Diversity, along with several other departments, has also sponsored programming for Black History Month.
Jerusalem T. Howard, director of Equity and Diversity, said planning for Black History Month began about six months ago and included representatives from the offices of Campus Activities and Career Services, the Educational Opportunity Fund and Sankofa.
"The planning group wanted to make Black History Month a celebration for all members of (the College) community," Howard said. "(This) was made possible by having many different partners of (the College) community work together to make the celebration a great success."
Events include a historical lecture on the Negro Baseball League on Feb. 13, a discussion of legal issues in higher education on Feb. 15, a day of programming about how to start and grow your own business on Feb. 22, a discussion of the church in the black community on Feb. 23 and a panel on Rosa Parks on March 1.
Black History Month will conclude with a closing ceremony and cultural night on Wednesday, March 1 in Brower Student Center.
The theme this year is "Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions."
The event will feature performances by the Afro-American-Caribbean drum and dance troupe Kuumba, the College's Gospel Choir Ministries and appearances by Greek organizations from the College, Rutgers University, Rider University and New Jersey Institute of Technology. The event will also include a free West African cuisine buffet.
For more information go to tcnj.edu/blackhistory.
(01/25/06 12:00pm)
With 31 murders, 2005 was the deadliest year in Trenton's history, up from 18 in 2004.
The rising murder rate appears to be part of a larger trend in cities in New Jersey. Out of New Jersey's "big six" urban cities - Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Trenton and Camden - only Camden saw a decrease in 2005.
Of the 31 murders in Trenton in 2005, police believe that 22 were gang-related, and a count by The Times of Trenton indicates that 23 of the 31 were gunshot slayings committed in public.
According to the New Jersey State Police Uniform Crime Report, Trenton has not had 20-plus killings since 1990, when it had 21. The highest previously recorded number in Trenton was 27 in 1979.
Police don't know the exact reason for the increase, but they attribute the spike to a relatively small population and escalating rivalries between gangs.
"We have a pretty good idea of who the street gangs are, what their rivalries are," Trenton Police Department spokesman Peter Page said. The department keeps a violent offender database, which currently holds fewer than 50 names.
"The perpetrators and victims in these crimes are demographically very similar," Page said.
The victims and perpetrators, he said, are disproportionately young black males and people with criminal histories. "What we're seeing is violent crime highly concentrated within the same group of people," Page said.
John Krimmel, associate professor of criminology, said that gang violence typically takes place for a few reasons.
"If gang members are killing each other, it's over turf issues, over manhood, over saving face," Krimmel said.
Krimmel also said that when cities experience a rise in homicides, it can often be attributed to a shift in demographics and elevating disputes that have no other outlet.
"With that, you have the possibility of emerging gang conflict, and the resolution of that conflict is death," he said.
Murder rates have risen nationally as well. According to FBI reports, murders nationwide rose by 2.1 percent in the first six months of 2005, and 3.2 percent in cities with populations of 50,000 to 99,999 (Trenton has a population of 85,000). Other crimes, such as rape and arson, have shown a significant decrease nationally.
Philadelphia and Baltimore also experienced a surge in the murder rate in 2005, while the murder rate in New York City is at its lowest since 1963.
(11/30/05 12:00pm)
Last month, geology professor Marty Becker and five students spent three days fossil hunting along the banks of Arkansas' Ouachita River. They weren't looking for dinosaur bones, but for sharks' teeth and other fossils from a prehistoric ocean that once covered much of the United States.
"It's one thing to see fossils in a textbook," Ben Daniels, junior physics major, said. "It's something else to pull one out of a stream. It makes it so much more real."
According to a popular scientific theory, a meteorite impacted the earth 65 million years ago, landing right off the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and wiping out the dinosaurs. But the dinosaurs weren't the only animals that disappeared.
"Simultaneous with the dinosaurs going extinct, many species of shark went extinct," Becker said. "You had all these animals living together in this gigantic ocean, and then, 65 million years ago, that's the end. They're replaced by completely new species. From a geological perspective, the extinction appears almost instantaneously."
In his research, Becker studies sharks and related animals from the Cretaceous time period, approximately 65 to 80 million years ago.
The fossils in Arkansas are the subject of an upcoming paper in The Journal of Paleontology. This is Becker's fourth time visiting the site.
The Arkansas site was a previously undiscovered piece of the prehistoric coastline which reached from New Jersey to Texas and up to North Dakota. Shark fossils had been found in every other state along this former coast.
"Connecting the relation of these things is incredibly important for someone who studies paleontology," Becker said. "Arkansas was the last remaining piece of the shark puzzle, and we got it."
Some of the fossils they found were lying near the surface of the ground, mixed with dirt and gravel. Others took a sledgehammer to uncover.
"We pulled limestone slabs out of the river, and the bottoms of them were just covered with teeth," John Gannon, junior physics major, said.
In addition to sharks' teeth, they found mollusk fossils known as ammonites. These mollusks are known as "index fossils." Since they died out during a very narrow margin of geologic time, ammonites allow scientists to accurately determine the age of surrounding fossils.
They also found the teeth of stingrays, sawfish and enchodus, a prehistoric fish similar to a salmon with barracuda-like teeth. The site also had sedimentary structures in limestone that preserved the rippled shape of a beach.
Becker's students agreed that the hands-on experience was a valuable one.
"Being out in the field, you learn so much more about where to look for stuff than in two semesters in class," Gannon said.
"I was always interested in paleontology, but I never had the chance to do anything like this," Daniels said. "It's really been an inspiration to me. I definitely want to go on more digs."
The students also agree that traveling to a different part of the country was an interesting experience, with its local culture and catfish buffets. The time they spent traveling also brought them closer together.
"We really got to bond with the professor and other students," Catherine Jedrzejczyk, senior physics major, said.
Now, bucketfuls of gravel from the trip wait in Becker's lab to be sifted through.
Next semester, Gannon will be studying the taphonomy (the process of being buried and fossilized) involved in the site, while Daniels will work on identifying the different species of ammonites they found.
One gets the sense that Becker's students are in awe of finding something from so long ago. While on the trip, Gannon said he almost cut himself on a shark's tooth and realized, "you've got something that's 65 million years old, and it's still sharp enough to prick my finger."
"I can't wait to return to this site again," Becker said. "It holds so much promise for research and exposing students to the excitement of fossil discovery."
(11/16/05 12:00pm)
The College's Institute for Education Design, Evaluation & Assessment (IeDEA) has been awarded two grants totaling $505,781 to assist the New Jersey Department of Education's Office of Licensure and Credentials' (NJDOE-OLC) research on the current status of alternate route programs in New Jersey.
The project is a partnership between the IeDEA, which is a recently formed entity under the office of Institutional Research and Assessment; the New Jersey Department of Education; the National Center for Alternative Route Certification and the National Center for Education Information.
The research looks at formal alternative route instruction programs, which allow individuals who do not have a degree in education but who have at least a bachelor's degree to become licensed teachers.
Programs are operated by colleges and universities or by district consortia.
According to Raymond Barclay, director of the College's office of Institutional Research and Assessment, there has not been a great deal of research on the effectiveness of alternate route instruction.
"No one in the country has done this kind of evaluation," Barclay said. "People have looked at pieces, but we're taking a holistic approach looking at the transition between training and the classroom."
The research will be conducted in two phases. The first phase surveyed alternative route participants about the instruction they received.
The second phase is an "in-depth analysis" that would examine issues of teacher preparedness, program characteristics and program effectiveness. Research questions include the effect of mentoring on alternate route teachers, and whether participants complete training and continue to teach.
The initiative will also look at issues of gender and ethnic diversity among participants in alternate route programs.
Part of the challenge of the research, Barclay said, is the variation in types of instruction at sites across the state.
Currently, there are at least 14 alternative route programs at colleges and universities in New Jersey, and 38 alternate route instruction sites. Sites in Irvington, Teaneck, Elizabeth, Camden, Montclair and New Providence are operated by district consortia.
One of the primary goals of alternative route certification, Barclay said, is to address the growing teacher shortage. It is also important to show how different agencies and colleges can work together on a large-scale project, Barclay said.
Funds for the initiative are provided by the U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant Program, a federally funded project to support states in redesigning teacher preparation, strengthening alternative route programs and retaining well prepared teachers.
About 10 percent of the grant money will go to the College itself for being a partner in the research. This will go toward indirect costs, such as the use of College buildings and office space.
"I think (this research) is a great idea," Heather Rodgers, senior English major, said. She plans to become a high school teacher via alternative route certification.
By opting not to major in education, Rodgers said she was able to take subjects that will allow her to bring more to the classroom as a teacher.
She still has concerns about using the alternative route certification.
"I myself worry about how prepared I would be, and how districts would look on that when I go to get a job, if (alternative route) would help me or hinder me," Rodgers said.
Barclay said the initiative will serve as a basis for further research, including comparison between traditional and alternative route programs.
"We hope that this will serve as a baseline for subsequently looking at the impact (alternative route) teachers have on students," he said.
(11/09/05 12:00pm)
Last week, the Asian American Association (AAA) kicked off Experience Asia, a month of programs featuring speakers, movies, events and performances. The opening ceremonies, which took place Wednesday in Brower Student Center, showcased both traditional and contemporary Asian cultures through music, dance and poetry. This was followed on Friday by FantAsia, a themed social and game night.
"The purpose of these different events is to spread Asian-American cultural awareness," Jenny Shin, vice president of public relations for AAA, said. The senior sociology major added that the opening ceremonies "were like a variety show."
The first act of the opening ceremonies was Brooklyn-based alternative rock band Johnny Hi-Fi. The band has released two albums, toured Asia, and hosted two shows on MTV Chi, a new Chinese-American music channel.
"The underground movement of Asian-American musicians is doing very well," lead singer Eric Hsu, also known as Johnny Hi-Fi, said. "I think it's only a matter of time before they break into the mainstream."
The Archana Dance Academy, an Indian dance group based in Bucks County, Pa., performed two routines.
The first routine, academy director Shaily Dadiala said, was a classical dance based on the Bharatnatyam and Kathak styles, with "regimented styles, acting and emoting." The second, a more contemporary folk dance, had movements that were "highly energetic, and the music is faster-paced," Dadiala said.
Yang Yi, an internationally acclaimed musician, performed on the guzheng, a 21-stringed Chinese instrument.
Creative writing adjunct professor Debora Kuan read her poetry, which dealt with conflicts she encountered growing up Chinese and Mormon.
Students could sample a variety of Asian foods.
The last act of the night was SulPoong, a student-led Korean drum troupe from the State University of New York in Binghamton. Their style of drumming, known as Poongmul, originated as a celebration of planting and harvesting.
Saathiya, the College's South Asian fusion dance team, performed as an encore. The 20-member ensemble, which had just returned from a competition in Washington, D.C., regularly performs a combination of Indian and Western styles, including hip-hop.
"Since India itself is so rich in its culture, we try to combine all those styles," Komal Gala, senior biology major said.
Linh Duong, sophomore business management major, said she appreciated how the event incorporated both traditional and new cultural influences. She also said that her experience with AAA had been positive.
"It's great organization for Asians to bond together at (the College)," Duong said.
Sampling from a wide variety of Asian cultures was also important.
"It's fine to showcase one particular culture," Diana Ling, committee co-chair of Experience Asia month, said, "but we always try to create a balance, so that people can learn about as many cultures as possible."
On Thursday, AAA hosted a bubble tea workshop, where attendees learned how to make the popular tapioca-bubble drink.
While last Wednesday's ceremonies featured a variety of performances, Friday night's FantAsia in the Cromwell Main lounge was a more interactive event.
Students could learn origami, play the Japanese number puzzle Sudoku or the Chinese tile game mahjongg. They could also compete at Dance Dance Revolution, which the Japanese club had set up on a projection screen.
"We'd just like to get people to come in and experience new things with us," Jon King, senior psychology major and AAA president, said. "(FantAsia) used to be strictly to educate, but now we're trying to educate and build camaraderie with the rest of the group."
Part of the purpose of FantAsia was also to drum up excitement for Mystique of the East, a variety show that AAA puts on in the spring.
Events for the rest of Experience Asia month include movie nights and speakers. Tomorrow, Sheridan Prasso, author of "The Asian Mystique," will be giving a "True Colors" discussion about media portrayal of Asian stereotypes.
(11/02/05 12:00pm)
When Lisa McCarthy met Emma Dorre, she described the experience as "amazing." Dorre, formerly a head teacher in Manasquan, is almost 100 years old. She also graduated from the College (then known as the Normal School) in 1925, making her one of the many memorable alumni McCarthy has met in her job as the College's director of Alumni Affairs.
"She had great memories, remembered quite a bit," McCarthy said. "She had professors whose names are now on buildings. It was fun to hear what college was like back then, when college wasn't something that everybody did."
The main job of the office of Alumni Affairs, McCarthy said, is to keep in touch with 60,000 alumni. They also work closely with the Alumni Association board to plan events across New Jersey. In the weeks before Homecoming, the office of Alumni Affairs was busy planning events where alumni could reminisce with old friends and reconnect with their college experiences.
Alumni events for Homecoming included reunions for class years, organizations and sports teams. The Lions Pride Brunch, an annual event to honor the anniversary classes, was held in the student center. Later, the class of 1950 held a 55th reunion dinner buffet, and the class of 1955 celebrated its 50th anniversary at a golden reunion dinner.
The School of Nursing, which had its first graduates in 1970, also had a luncheon. Other groups that met were Women in Learning and Leadership, The African-American and Latino Network of TCNJ (TALANT) and former Ambassadors.
The men's swim team held an "alumni vs. rookies" meet. The sundial lawn was set up as the Sesquicentennial Alumni Garden, where alumni could mingle during the day and see the finale fireworks Saturday night.
"Really, it's the friendships that bring people back to the College," McCarthy said. "Some people met their best friends here, in some cases their life partners."
One new addition to the College is the Alumni Grove, located between Eickhoff and the New Library. "We picked (the location) because it is central to the campus," McCarthy explained. "And alumni are central to the future and success of the College. So what better place to put it than in the center of campus?"
The bricks in the Alumni Grove will be engraved with the names of College alumni. Alumni can purchase a brick for the grove. McCarthy hopes once students graduate, they will want to see their name in the Alumni Grove.
"The hope is that will start the trend of giving back to the College every year," McCarthy said. "Financially, with their time and staying connected to the College, because that's an important process to start."
McCarthy, who became acting director of Alumni Affairs six months ago and recently took over officially, has been working for the College for 18 years. A 1988 graduate of the College, she worked for Residence Life as a Residence Director while a graduate student. She has also been in charge of the lottery process, and worked for the Athletics department.
Reconnecting with alumni, McCarthy said, is a very rewarding experience.
"It typically brings back fond memories, fondness for the school and a smile on their face," McCarthy said. "That's what I like, because I have (those memories) too."
McCarthy said she's also always interested to learn how alumni's experiences at the College influenced them afterward.
"I always ask, 'Did we do our jobs? Did we prepare you?'" she said.
Fortunately, the answer from College alumni has been a resounding yes.
"Every single person I've talked to has something that happened here that was instrumental in their life later on," McCarthy said, explaining that experiences at the College impact former students' personal and professional lives.
McCarthy also asks future alumni to share their post-college experiences.
"When someone graduates, we want to hear from them," McCarthy said. "We want to hear their successes. And that's what sells the College. When we have successful alumni, that's what creates a successful school."
(10/12/05 12:00pm)
Some American students say that studying abroad is the opportunity of a lifetime - the chance to live in a foreign country, speak other languages and experience other cultures firsthand. For those looking to escape the everyday environment of the College, it may seem strange that some international students choose to study abroad here.
Yet, as international students Marie Bubenzer and Klint Rivett describe, the College provides not only the chance to become immersed in American culture, but also a sense of community and opportunities for student involvement.
This semester, the College is hosting international students from Germany, Australia, South Africa and Sweden. Each stayed with a host family for a three-day orientation period before the beginning of classes.
Bubenzer, who majored in political science and American studies at the University of Frankfurt and is now working toward her masters degree, described the experience of living abroad and learning about new cultures as a "wonderful thing." Originally from Hamburg, she is part of the College's direct exchange program with the University of Frankfurt.
Bubenzer is president of the College's German Club. The club has weekly meetings where students can practice speaking German with exchange students over lunch and also sponsors trips and German movie nights.
One of the biggest differences between Frankfurt and the College, Bubenzer said, was the campus environment. In Frankfurt, there were more than 10,000 students. There were university sports, but it was difficult to be involved, which is a contrast to how extracurricular activities are offered at the College.
"I think the students here merge together as a community somehow," Bubenzer said. "I think I have more of an identification here than I had with the university in Frankfurt."
In addition to the sense of community she found at the College, Bubenzer said she was impressed by the low faculty-to-student ratio. While she thinks that
school should foster a sense of independence, she was impressed by the helpfulness of the faculty.
"You can even call them on the weekend," she said.
Bubenzer, who has visited the United States a number of times before, said that she chose to major in American studies for two reasons - her interest in different cultures, and the need to understand the United States as a world power. She attended the recent protest in Washington, D.C., and described the "power of the people" as "amazing."
"It's like going way back in the days of American history," Bubenzer said. "I'm glad that I live today, that I am here."
Rivett is a senior business major from Macquarie University in Sydney. One of his reasons for choosing an American school was to experience living on a college campus. Like Bubenzer, he said that the level of student involvement, and the opportunities to get involved, were much greater than at home in Australia.
Rivett is president of the International Club, which was started as a group for exchange students. Rivett is also involved in starting the College's chapter of Business Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that raises money for Africans living with HIV and AIDS.
Rivett said that living in the United States has been a bit of a culture shock.
"You grow up watching so many American (television) shows, you don't take into account how differently things are done," he said. "But that's what makes going on exchange so rewarding, all the little things they don't bother to tell you about."
For example, Rivett says, Americans are very time-conscious and eat different food.
"But I was prepared for that one," Rivett said. "Americans aren't the healthiest eaters in the world. That said, one of my favorite meals in America so far was at the diner having a burger, chips and a chocolate shake."
Rivett has already started sending home souvenirs from the College, including a "TCNJ Mom" T-shirt. When asked what he misses about home, Rivett described sitting by the harbor.
"Sydney is such a beautiful city," he said.
He also said he misses everyday things.
"You miss your friends - of course you're going to miss that," Rivett said. "But in no way am I saying that I want to go home tomorrow."
(09/28/05 12:00pm)
You may have seen figures in dark clothing lurking around campus at night, hiding behind buildings and bushes. It's all in the name of a game, but not just any game. This is TCNJ Manhunt.
"Manhunt a game of strategy, wits and cunning," Rudy Basso, freshman English major, said. "It's not for the weak."
For those unfamiliar with manhunt, the game is a combination of hide-and-seek and tag that is played in the dark.
The premise is relatively simple - one team hides while the other seeks. Members of the seeking team have to tag members of the hiding team, and the team that catches the most players wins.
Manhunt is now an official campus organization, and it has garnered an enthusiastic following. Over 130 people gathered at Brower Student Center for the first game of the year. Last week's game attracted over 120 players despite unfavorable weather conditions. TCNJ Manhunt also has its own ever-expanding group on facebook.com.
The club's executive board includes Chris Rindosh, senior mechanical engineering major and president of TCNJ Manhunt, Brian Schlesinger, senior electrical engineering major and club vice president, Shawn Silverstein, senior biology major and club treasurer. Last spring, they organized a manhunt game among friends. The game ended up drawing over 70 people through word of mouth, and Schlesinger and Siverstein thought it would work well as an organized club.
Manhunt games take place about every two weeks, on Friday or Saturday nights. Players meet at the student center and split into teams, which are designated by red or blue armbands.
The area of game play is limited to inside the Metzger loop, barring any parking lots, construction sites and interiors of buildings. The teams set out on two to three rounds of hiding and seeking, which typically last until midnight.
Many players show an intense dedication to the game. Rindosh, Schlesinger and a few others show up to play dressed in camouflage. Silverstein covers his face like a ninja.
"It's a way of life," Dan Scapardine, freshman political science major, said of manhunt. "It's about survival of the fittest."
Steven Conlon, freshman open options major in the School of Business, claims to "eat, breathe and drink manhunt."
A number of participants declined to comment on the game, in order to prevent revealing their strategies or hiding spots.
The vast majority of players are students from the College, but other people can play as well.
"I think it's awesome that people do this, especially in college," Patti Snair, a junior at Old Bridge High School, said. "It's the most random idea ever. It's completely ridiculous and I love it. I chased some guy into a tree last week."
Joyce Lee, freshman English elementary education major, said the best part of manhunt is the social experience.
"There's no club that's better than this," she said. "The executive board members are all good friends and they're all really passionate about the game. It's great because it gives people something to do instead of partying. It brings off-campus kids here, and it's a great way to meet people."
But there are even more plusses.
"(The club) also promotes leadership, because people who are usually really shy get into it," Lee said. "And it promotes friendly competition. You'll see people around school from the other team, and you can joke and try to intimidate them, and you'll have that bond from manhunt."
Rindosh, Schlesinger and Silverstein agree that the best part of manhunt is the bond that people form from playing these games.
"You get a lot of good stories out of manhunt," Rindosh said. "And you meet so many people. I'll see someone around campus, and I'll recognize him because I found him hiding in the bushes behind Armstrong."
"It's especially good for freshmen because they'll come with their floor," Schlesinger said. "It gives people something to do on the weekends."
Future plans for the club include variations on the game of manhunt, including games like capture the flag and jailbreak. They urge anyone interested to come out and join the game.