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(09/23/15 10:41pm)
By Sydney Shaw, Jessica Ganga and Kimberly Ilkowski
News Editor, Features Editor and Arts & Entertainment Editor
Big eyes, empty stomachs, can’t lose. On Saturday, Sept. 19, three friends set out to conquer the Trenton Food Truck Festival, boasting a wide variety of diverse cuisine. With determination Signal Editors, Jessica Ganga, Kimberly Ilkowski and Sydney Shaw discovered what special creations the food trucks had to offer.
Hosted by Trenton Social, the festival brought in an array of guests including local residents and college students alike.
The first stop on their journey was Flying Crust, a gourmet pizza and wing truck. The large vessel beckoned the girls and showcased a monster menu of crazy pizza topping combinations and endless wing sauce options.
Unfortunately, Flying Crust’s pizza was so popular that by the time the girls arrived, only wings remained. Shaw opted for a classic food truck staple — barbecue wings. The sweet, yet, tart sauce complemented the wings, but didn’t drown them. The chicken itself was lightly breaded and fall-off-the-bone tender. She would later be heard bragging that they were the best she ever had.
While Shaw savored her last few bites, Ganga and Ilkowski ventured further into the festival to find their first meal of what would be a long, Tums-necessary day. They were quickly drawn to the bright yellow Korean fusion truck, My Four Sons.
Ganga read all of the appetizing options on the menu, unable to decide what the best meal would be. Tacos, rice bowls, dumplings, oh my! She decided on the veggie dumplings smothered in a sweet and tangy sauce.
When Ganga's name was finally called to get her food from the truck, her eyes lit up with pure joy. “Thank you for waiting,” said the woman who handed her the food. No, thank you.
The dumplings were served over fresh greens, a Kim slaw and covered with a spicy mayo. She fell in love with the greasy goodness after her very first bite. It was no surprise that she would end up cleaning the entire bowl.
After much deliberation and one false trip up to the register only to change her mind moments later, Ilkowski eventually chowed down a heaping portion of “Mac N’ Chi.”
The noodle dish came drenched in a three cheese sauce and topped with chunks of pork belly. Ilkowski may have shed a tear at its pure deliciousness, although it could have also been the extreme temperatures of the Sriracha sauce she poured on top of her dish.
With Instagrams snapped and a sluggish nature to their step, the friends pushed onward. Live music filled the venue thanks to local bands and solo artists. The girls soon realized back-to-back covers of “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston and “Last Nite” by The Strokes was something they had no idea they needed so badly.
The trip down memory lane aside, they couldn’t help but notice a large congregation forming outside of Luigi’s Homemade Ice Cream. Adorable and vibrant cartoons lined the truck’s walls which depicted the vendor’s hidden gem — the creamy bun.
A dangerously delightful mix of ice cream filled donuts, festival goers were able to concoct yummy creations by choosing their own flavor of filling (cereal milk, Nutella, s’mores or dulce de leche) and toppings (Fruity Pebbles, Oreo crunch, walnuts or Cinnamon Toast Crunch.)
The warm, glazed donut gods smiled down upon them, as they were the last three to buy the cereal filled donut before the truck sold out.
Ganga’s heart was happy after she she took a bite of the gooey donut and ice cream duo. The donut was served warm and was perfectly glazed. On the inside, the cold cereal milk flavored ice cream was sweet and tasted as if Ganga was slurping up her last bit of milk from her cereal bowl. The Fruity Pebbles added some crunch to the sugary treat. To quote Lizzie McGuire, “This is what dreams are made of.”
Ilkowski wondered what she had done in a past life to deserve eating such a perfect pastry. In that moment everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
From the very first bite, Shaw knew she would live to regret the decision to eat the whole creamy bun. She did it anyway, and it was worth it.
With food comas on the horizon, the friends thought their best option would be to close out the day’s festivities by cleansing their bodies with vegan smoothies. The shiny, red Try Vegan truck inspired the girls to do just that — trying pure ingredients obliterated in a blender.
Something about the mixture of spinach, pineapple and banana called out to Ilkowski, so she opted for the Greegan smoothie. She became a bit antsy when a random woman cut her in line and mumbled confusing questions at the doe-eyed boy at the window. When she was finally graced with her smoothie she was pleasantly surprised to find the pineapple flavor dominated the drink, yet wasn’t overpowering. If she said this didn’t make her consider veganism for just one second, she would be a filthy liar.
Shaw’s classic strawberry vegan smoothie was much less sweet than she expected — a refreshing experience after polishing off the creamy bun ice cream. The smoothie was blended to perfection — not too thick, not too watery — with tiny bits of strawberry throughout. It was so good, she ended up dropping a dollar in Try Vegan's tip jar. Shaw gives this particular drink a 9 out of 10, only wishing there weren’t so many strawberry seeds in it.
Like Ilkowski, Ganga’s heart was set on the Greegan smoothie. Something about spinach in a smoothie intrigued her. She eagerly gave her order to the young Justin Bieber look-alike. When she was presented with the green concoction she did taste mostly pineapple as well. Here and there, the slight flavor of spinach could be tasted, but Ganga sipped on. With her stomach full, Ganga knew this was the perfect way to end her Trenton Food Truck experience.
There were many more food truck options, like authentic Peruvian food at RUNA Peruvian Cuisine and pork roll delicacies at Johnny’s Pork Roll, but if the girls had attempted to put a single extra bit of food in their mouths, explosion would be imminent.
(09/22/15 7:53am)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
According to an email sent to College faculty, staff and students on Monday, Sept. 21, junior Daniel Thielke died on Saturday, Sept. 19.
Thielke, a computer science major and resident of Hillsborough, N.J., was in his fourth year at the College.
“Our TCNJ family has faced a number of losses recently,” President R. Barbara Gitenstein wrote in an email announcing his death.
Thielke’s family has not shared any additional details and has requested that arrangements remain private, according to Gitenstein’s email.
The College first sent out an email and made phone calls announcing Thielke’s death to faculty and students in the computer science department prior to sending out the campus-wide email announcement, Angela Chong, dean of students, told The Signal.
This was done “so that members of our community who were closer to him wouldn’t be hearing it for the first time in a campus-wide email,” Chong said.
Thielke is the College’s fourth student to die in the past four years. His death comes just over two months after former assistant provost Pat Donohue died in mid-July.
Thielke is from the same hometown as former student Paige Aiello, who died in April 2013.
“He kept to himself a lot, but he was always there to talk to,” said senior Dylan Short, Thielke’s freshman year roommate. “He was incredibly smart and a great programmer. Everyone liked him, we called him Dan the Man.
“While he was a man of few words, he was a good listener and always laughed at my jokes. He was a good roommate and he will be missed,” Short said.
Alyson Garrone, whose son Bobby lived on Thielke’s freshman floor, said he was a great friend.
“He was brilliant,” Garrone said on behalf of her son. Bobby often worked in computer science study groups with Thielke. “He was so intelligent and always the first to help someone out. This is unbelievably sad.”
In the wake of this loss, the College administration is emphasizing the importance of offering support to fellow classmates.
“This has been a really tough time for our campus community,” Chong said. “We have lost a number of people, and I think it’s a time for us to really show each other compassion and be alert for people who are struggling with this news and grieving as a community, and to know that there is help out there for everyone.”
Gitenstein’s email detailed the resources the College has available for students and faculty struggling with this loss: Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), TCNJ Clinic and TCNJ Campus Police.
“Regardless of the little info we have right now, a loss is a loss and people will need support because they’re grieving the loss of a friend, a classmate, a student,” Chong said.
(09/16/15 8:50pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
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Don’t drink too much alcohol. Use the “buddy system.” Dress modestly.
In a culture that teaches women not to get raped instead of teaching men not to rape, Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL) took a stance against sexual assault with the annual March to End Rape Culture: SlutWalk on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
“Rapists aren’t the monsters we imagine in our heads,” said political analyst and key speaker Zerlina Maxwell. “Rapists are just regular people who chose to violate consent.”
Maxwell, who has written about the subject for outlets such as CNN and Marie Claire, denounced the idea that victims of rape are responsible for the attack.
“Rape is not a side effect of drinking too much,” she said. “Wearing a certain outfit is not an invitation to be violated.”
Students who attended the march wore a wide array of outfits, many of which might be considered “revealing,” in order to fight the stigma that an outfit is an excuse to take advantage of someone else.
Jennie Sekanics, co-executive chair of WILL and senior English and women’s and gender studies double major, dressed in a Catwoman costume for this year’s event.
“I’m Catwoman against catcalls,” she said.
Katie Yorke, co-programming chair of WILL and senior Spanish and international relations double major, opted for long sleeves and pants.
“I was going to dress in a crazy outfit,” she said, “but just this morning, I was catcalled wearing this outfit.”
Maxwell places catcalling in the category of “unhealthy masculinity.”
“Why are you looking at me like I’m a piece of meat?” she asked. “I’m not here for you to look at. I’m a person.”
According to statistics Maxwell shared before the march, one in five women will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape at some point in her lifetime. For women in college, one in four will be victims.
Maxwell encouraged students to help reframe the conversation surrounding sexual assault by asking different questions.
“We should be asking why the rapist didn’t ask for consent,” she said. “We should ask why he didn’t stop when she said ‘no.’ We should never ask her what she was wearing. We should never ask her why she drank so much.”
Maxwell shared parts of an article she wrote for ebony.com entitled “5 Ways We Can Teach Men Not to Rape.” In her list, she encourages everybody to teach young people about legal consent, how to express healthy masculinity and to believe survivors who come forward.
“When a friend tells you that they have been the victim of a rape, you shouldn’t ask, ‘Are you sure?’” she said. “You should ask, “Are you OK?”
Maxwell also delved into the rumor that a large percentage of rape accusations are false or made up.
“The idea that people make it up (being raped) all the time is just not true,” Maxwell said. “It mirrors other crimes in the sense that the number of people who falsely claim their car was stolen is the same number of people who falsely claim to be raped.”
According to Maxwell, research and reports show that only about two percent of alleged rapes are deemed false.
She went on to explain that many rape cases are labeled false because there was not enough evidence for a conviction, which does not necessarily mean that no rape occurred.
“Having Zerlina speak here on our own campus was so surreal,” Sekanics said. “I remember freshman year when my friend and I would just watch videos of her on the ‘Hannity Report’ and ‘O’Reilly Factor.’ I remember us being in my dorm together saying, “How amazing would it be to meet her?’”
After Maxwell’s presentation, students marched around campus in solidarity against sexual assault, rape and other acts of gender-based violence.
“There’s just an incredible feeling that comes with demanding justice and doing it in a way that demands your attention, such as through our chanting and marching,” Sekanics said. “SlutWalk is so important to have each and every year because rape culture is alive and present.”
About 200 students attended the march, along with Maxwell and her mother.
“However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no,” students chanted. “Yes means fuck me, no means fuck you.”
At the end of the evening, the students gathered together and shouted out the last few chants, a powerful display against sexual assault.
“This is one of my favorite events of the year,” said Mary Burns, a senior sociology and women’s and gender studies double major and a SAVE peer educator for Anti-Violence Initiatives. “There's nothing better than walking around campus cursing about challenging rape culture. I’m so proud to go to a school where so many people are so unabashedly enthusiastic about ending sexual violence.”
(09/16/15 6:21pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
For students at the College without access to a vehicle, a solution has arrived in Campus Town. The PRC Group has implemented a car-share program through Enterprise and Nissan, which opened earlier this month.
All students, including freshmen, are able to rent a car. Currently, two are available. By signing up, students can use the rental service at age 18, rather than the typical rental age requirement of 25, according to Greg Lentine, director of university campus development for PRC Group.
“Every time I drive past, I see one or both of the cars gone,” Lentine said. “When Enterprise called us and asked to do this program, we knew it would be something big.”
According to the Enterprise CarShare website, hourly rates for students at the College begin at $4.95, while daily rates start at $44. These prices will last through Thursday, Dec. 31, after which prices will rise to $7.50 per hour.
In order to rent a car, students must first become a member online at enterprisecarshare.com/tcnj. There are $15 and $20 yearly membership options, but with the promotional code “1tojoin,” students can purchase a full year membership for $1 through Thursday, Dec. 31.
“There are permanent parking spots for Enterprise CarShare cars in the Campus Town parking lot,” said Jonathan Sheridan, a junior finance major at the College and the liaison for Enterprise CarShare. “The idea is that students can take these cars as they please.”
According to Sheridan, students should receive a membership key fob in the mail within about a week of becoming a member.
Once they have their fob, they can use the Enterprise CarShare website or app to reserve a time they would like to use the car,” he said. “At that time, they go to the car and wave the fob over the windshield. The actual keys will already be in the car, and they’re good to go.”
Enterprise’s website contains video tutorials for becoming a member, reserving a car and fueling up the rental car if it is running low on gas. Since fuel is included in the price of the rental, there is a fuel card in the glove compartment of each vehicle to pay with at the pump.
The cars were delivered to the College with only around 40 miles on the odometers, according to Sheridan.
“The cars are brand spanking new,” Sheridan said. “They are beautiful and eco-friendly, fuel-efficient Nissans.”
Since there is no physical office for Enterprise CarShare, Sheridan encourages students to reach out to him at sheridj2@tcnj. edu with any questions about the program.
“It’s been in the works for a while, so I’m glad it’s up and running,” Lentine said. “I think it’s the perfect addition to Campus Town.”
(09/01/15 9:17pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
Starting this semester, it’s one-stop shopping at the College for campus calendars, engagement opportunities, community service logging and more.
Lion’s Gate — a new online resource — is “the hub of information for student organizations, academic and campus departments,” Vice President for Student Affairs Amy Hecht wrote on Friday, Aug. 21, in a campus-wide email about the site.
“When I first arrived in January as the assistant vice president for Student Affairs, many students and colleagues told me it’s difficult for students to know all the ways to engage in campus life outside the classroom,” Elizabeth Bapalosa said. “There are many opportunities to be engaged, such as joining and taking on a leadership role in a student organization and attending events and workshops.”
Given that so many students at the College use technology to communicate with each other, the Division of Student Affairs and the Student Finance Board purchased the CollegiateLink system (re-named Lion’s Gate), according to Bapalosa.
"Just communicating events happening on campus and student organizations that students can join is just the tip of the iceberg of what Lion’s Gate can do for our community,” she said.
Lion’s Gate includes a free mobile app with the capability to track attendance at events by using a swipe card reader. It also allows students to track their engagement experiences by building an engagement transcript that can be easily downloaded as a PDF to share for potential internships, future employers and graduate school admission offices.
Besides tracking events and student engagement, community service hours can be logged and electronically verified using Lion’s Gate.
Organizations can also run organizational and campuswide elections using the system. According to Bapalosa, Student Government will use Lion’s Gate to run their campus-wide elections from now on.
“We anticipate that by Spring 2016, all SAF-funded organizations will have all their SAF funds viewable on their Lion’s Gate organization’s profile,” Bapalosa said. “This was one of the reasons why the Student Finance Board is helping pay for the system each year.”
Launching Lion’s Gate has been in the works for well over a year. According to Bapalosa and Hecht, a campus-wide committee researched a number of different systems and determined that CollegiateLink was the best system available in the Fall 2014 semester. The College then held a campus-wide naming contest in April, which is how the name “Lion’s Gate” was selected.
This summer, student organizations registered by building an organizational account on Lion’s Gate in order to stay recognized by the Office of Student Activities, Bapalosa said.
“As of August 30, 2015, there are 1,414 TCNJ students, faculty and staff using the system,” Bapalosa said. “Over 270 organizational accounts are on Lion’s Gate, with over 175 events posted by them.”
According to Hecht, training is available for those interested in learning how to post events on Lion’s Gate, build an organizational account, track event attendance and use other tools available through the software. The first training session is on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 1 p.m. in Business Building 225. The Office of Engagement staff can provide one-on-one trainings by request.
(07/08/15 3:07pm)
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It was not just College officials who officially broke ground at the site of the future STEM building, which will house the biomedical engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering departments, on Tuesday, July 7 on Quimby’s Prairie. Miniature robots with shovels helped perform the honors.
The 89,000-square-foot building, as well as a 26,300-square-foot chemistry addition to the Science Complex, will increase the number of STEM classrooms at the College by 60 percent, according to Dave Muha, the College’s spokesman.
“We’ve been talking about this for two years now,” Muha said, “so it’s exciting to see it finally happening.”
The cost of the project totals $75.4 million, $40 million of which came from the Building Our Future Bond Act, while $1 million is coming from the New Jersey Higher Education Technology Infrastructure Fund. The College is also funding the project with $2 million from its new fundraising campaign.
"Making investments like this makes a direct investment in the state of New Jersey,” State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said before the groundbreaking. “When we're done, we have to go back and talk to the voters again because this initiative is welcomed, but wasn't enough.”
Sweeney believes projects like this one will encourage more students to attend college in-state, rather than seeking STEM programs at other universities.
“This project embodies the type of investment strategy that recognizes the intersection of education, progress in technology and economic growth,” he said, according to the event press release. “It is important that government, our colleges and universities, and the private sector work together to make the most of our skills and resources. The bond funding is helping to make this happen.”
Sweeney, along with Student Government President Casey Dowling, Board of Trustees Chair Jorge Caballero and the College’s President R. Barbara Gitenstein shoveled dirt away from the site, marking the official start of construction.
Miniature Nao robots also helped with the groundbreaking, toting tiny shovels. Nao is a humanoid robot about two feet tall, developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics.
The new STEM building will include a robotics lab, where students can design and build robots like the ones demonstrated at the groundbreaking. The Robotics Club, headed by Dean of Engineering Steven Schreiner, was officially recognized by Student Government in November 2014.
Besides a robotics lab, the new STEM building is also set to feature thermo-fluids and biosafety level-2 testing labs, a design studio and a metal fabrications and assembly workshop. A two-story wing connecting the STEM building and Biology Building will feature a cafe, complete with tables and seating.
The chemistry addition will house a multidisciplinary “super” laboratory suite with two organic chemistry labs, storage rooms, a prep lab and study spaces.
“We’re not building this building because we hope to have good STEM programs," Gitenstein said. “We’re building on success here and we're giving these already-strong programs the support and facilities they need and deserve so we can continue to serve our state's economic workforce needs.”
The project’s completion is slated for August 2017.
(Photos courtesy of Dave Muha, New Jersey Senate Democrats and News Editor Sydney Shaw)
(05/06/15 11:39pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
One thousand one hundred backpacks were scattered across the Green Hall lawn, impossible to miss for students walking to and from classes on Tuesday, April 28. The backpacks, some of which bore personal stories, represented the 1,100 college students who die by suicide each year in the United States.
Send Silence Packing, a powerful traveling public education display hosted nationally by Active Minds, aims to raise awareness about mental health issues, remove mental health stigmas and lower suicide statistics by using donated backpacks to give a face to the students lost to suicide each year.
“We want to work to start a conversation about mental health,” said Mimi Tohill, a road trip staffer for Active Minds. “At most colleges we go to, a student will come forward and ask if they can contribute a story about a loved one they lost to suicide.”
According to Tohill, about a third of the backpacks were accompanied with stories written by parents, siblings, friends and significant others of students around the country who have committed suicide. Many of the stories included photos of the students who lost their lives to suicide and personal memorabilia, such as college pendants.
“I just want you to know that you were a beautifully fantastic person,” one story read. “We all loved you and you never let me down.”
Besides the overwhelming backpack display, signs around the lawn shared statistics and motivational messages, such as “50 percent of college students report suicidal ideation at sometime in their life” and “seeking help shows strength.”
“I’ve had a lot of mental health issues,” said president of the College’s chapter of Active Minds Sarah Perry, who didn’t hesitate to share her history of struggles with mental health. “It’s about starting a conversation and offering a safe space for students, so I’m not afraid to admit it.”
According to resources available at the exhibit, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. With three students from the College committing suicide in the past two years — senior Paige Aiello in May 2013, freshman Michael Menakis in April 2014 and freshman Sarah Sutherland in October 2014 — the demonstration was approved to appear at the College with the hopes of reaching students who are struggling with mental health disorders.
“We haven’t received any negative feedback yet,” Perry said. “For some students who have dealt with or are currently dealing with issues like depression or suicide, the display may act as a trigger and bring up a lot of emotions.”
In order to assist students who are triggered by the display, volunteers from TCNJ Clinic were available to talk near a table in front of the wall on the Green Hall lawn. The table contained a plethora of resources for students who may be struggling with depression.
“We have pocket guides to mental health, pamphlets on how to help a friend, magnets with local resources and hotlines and more,” Tohill said.
There were also crisis intervention resources for particular demographics, including LGBTQ individuals, blacks, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, student-athletes and veterans.
“Instead of it being seen as a weakness, we want students to know that reaching out for help is a strength,” Tohill said. “There is a space to talk about how you’re feeling.”
Members of the College’s chapter of Active Minds walked up and down the diagonal paths that crisscross the Green Hall lawn, handing out informational flyers and letting students know that they are not the only ones struggling.
“We may often suffer in silence,” one of the more prominent signs of the day read, “but we do not suffer alone.”
(05/06/15 9:11pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
From films abounding with pining and romance to futuristic sci-fi thrillers, this year’s annual Campus MovieFest boasted the wide array of talented student filmmakers at the College.
The premiere, held at the Kendall Hall Main Stage Theatre on Tuesday, April 28, included screenings of the top 16 student-created films. It also concluded with an awards ceremony that determined which films would head to Hollywood for the annual summer screening of the best Campus MovieFest films.
Top films from the evening included “Paramnesia,” a production depicting an artificially intelligent robot who believes he is a human; “Archie,” in which a young woman helps a college filmmaker produce his first romance movie by exposing her true feelings for him; “The Work Force,” which features a man who will stop at nothing to finally get a job; and “OK Cupid,” a poem-turned-film about the struggles of dating in a digital world.
According to the competition rules, teams were given one week to write, film and edit a five-minute short film. This year 61 teams from the College participated.
The winners of the coveted Silver Tripod Awards were selected by the Distinguished Filmmakers Network and awarded to three films who succeed in specific areas, including Best Cinematography, Best Directing and Best Special Effects.
The cast and crew of “Archie” took home the Silver Tripod for Best Cinematography. Senior history major Michael Cort, the mind behind the story and the creator of the movie, is no stranger to filmmaking — his short film “Twitch Plays College” won Best Comedy in last year’s Campus MovieFest and was screened in Hollywood last summer.
“I created the entire thing by myself, so I was taking on a huge amount of responsibility,” Cort said about “Archie.” “This worked for me last year so I figured, why not? I’ll lose a lot of sleep for a few days, but the finished product is going to be my exact vision and that’s more important to me than sleep.”
Unlike most of the films screened during the premiere, the only sound in “Archie” was the music added during editing.
“Images alone are more powerful than some people give them credit for and I feel like ‘Archie’ accomplished more in five minutes as a silent film than it would have if I had chosen to weigh it down with dialogue,” Cort said. “This was only made possible by Sean (Harshman) and Kim (Ilkowski) who were absolutely brilliant with their expressions. They sold the story without having to say a word, and I think that’s a powerful thing.”
A sophomore journalism major and the features editor at The Signal, Ilkowski’s expressions earned her the Best Actress award for her role as Clara in “Archie.”
The Best Actor award went home with senior marketing major Garrett Verdone, a cast member from “Paramnesia,” which also earned the Silver Tripod for Best Special Effects and Best Production Design.
Verdone plays Alex, a seemingly ordinary individual who attempts to decipher which of the two responses on his computer screen was sent from a human and which was automated by a robot. The tables are turned, however, when the test administrator reveals that Alex himself is the robot — programmed with detailed memories and complex emotions.
“Wait! Please,” Verdone desperately cries in the film. “Please stop. I’m a person.”
His convincing performance, along with flawless special effects and editing done behind the scenes, launched “Paramnesia” straight to Hollywood.
“Due to scheduling restraints, we had to film everything in one day on Saturday, leaving us no room for pickups and only three days for post-production,” film creator Joshua Lewkowicz said. “A few sleepless nights later, we finished barely on time!”
Lewkowicz, a senior interactive multimedia major with minors in communication studies and marketing, credited sophomore interactive multimedia major Ryan Laux with the 2D Visual Effects, creating the holographic screens and cleaning up the film.
Sophomore interactive multimedia major Chris Lundy composed the musical score for the film. Senior interactive multimedia major Andrew Kuserk modeled and animated the “creepy robotic elements seen in the back of Alex’s head” at the end of the film, according to Lewkowicz.
The team’s film, “Iris,” won Best Picture at the College and Best Special Effects in the country at last year’s Campus MovieFest.
Inspiration for the film came from the actors themselves, who Lewkowicz described as talented writers and improvisors.
For junior psychology major Andrew Edelblum, the inspiration for his film “OK, Cupid” came from a poem he penned in January.
“I actually made my first online dating account (then),” Edelblum said. “I was feeling pretty lost and disillusioned about love at the time, so my thoughts were far from optimistic. But after reading ‘OK, Cupid’ to different crowds over the past few months, it became an instant favorite.”
“I’m not about to go investing my time into some website where compatibility is based around a series of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions,” Edelblum recites during his film.
He goes on to give viewers some insight into the relationship he had before he made his OK, Cupid account, describing himself and his ex-girlfriend as “two starry-eyed cartographers charting maps of one another, slowly and carefully.”
But after two years, Edelblum says the pair traveled into territory they no longer wanted to explore.
“OK, Cupid” was a winner of one of the Jury Awards, which are given to the top four best movies. The award was also bestowed upon the cast and crews of “Archie,” “Paramnesia” and “The Work Force.”
“I had a loose idea for ‘The Work Force’ back in October,” said Folake Ayiloge, a junior communications studies and interactive multimedia double major. “When I saw my movie title appear on the big screen as a winner, I nearly burst into tears. It was surreal.”
Ayiloge celebrated her 21st birthday on the night of the premiere, making it an even more memorable win. This year’s premiere was special for several other student filmmakers, as well, marking their last Campus MovieFest before graduation.
“It meant the world to me that I could have this be one of my last big moments in college,” Cort said. “I’m going to miss this terribly, but hopefully we’ll be able to throw some money together and go to Hollywood, so who knows? Maybe the journey isn’t over yet.”
As for Edelblum, the Campus MovieFest this year proved to be the start of a new journey in itself.
“It’s amazing how much this whole experience means to me,” he said. “(Calling the experience) a turning point would be an understatement.”
(04/15/15 4:17am)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
When R.J. Mitte started elementary school, he didn’t think his leg braces were abnormal. He believed everyone had to go to occupational and speech therapy, just like he did.
Mitte learned very quickly that was not the case, however, when a fellow classmate asked him, “What’s wrong with you?”
The “Breaking Bad” co-star, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a toddler, spoke at the College on Thursday, April 9, to discuss how he has learned to turn adversity into strength and how to prevent fear from taking control of one’s life.
“Adversity can be as simple as someone blocking your way and preventing you from going where you want to go,” Mitte said in an interview with The Signal. “I never really looked at any of my challenges as adversity. I always looked at them as strengths and as knowledge.”
Cerebral palsy (CP), a condition marked by impaired muscle coordination, can result in muscle tone that is either too tight or too loose. Mitte counts himself lucky that his form of CP causes his muscles to contract.
“That means I could try to fix it,” Mitte said. “I grew up having leg braces and going through casting. I went through feet binding for years, just constantly working on taking control of my body. That in itself is an adversity, but that’s part of life. That’s my normality. I grew up with this. I know this. I can handle this.”
Although Mitte’s condition is something he’s always been able to handle, it hasn’t always been easy.
“I’ve dealt with bullies and with people who didn’t understand me,” Mitte said. “I dealt with people who thought I was weird.”
Because of this, he urged students to be aware of their surround-
ings and aware of others.
“We are all capable of amazing acts,” Mitte said. “But we are also capable of evil acts.”
During the lecture, Mitte told a story about an elderly woman who he watched slip and fall in a hallway. He expected someone to rush to her aid, but instead, he saw the opposite — people moved away from her. Some even stepped over the woman to continue on their way. When Mitte hurried over to assist her, he realized something about people.
"No one wants to be the first to step out of their realm of comfort and take a risk,” Mitte said. “’But you can’t let that fear rule your life.”
He described the fear one of his friends felt after applying for a job and not hearing back from the company for a while. Finally, Mitte’s friend was called to the office and told why he did not receive the position.
“They gave him a booklet of all his Facebook posts, all his tweets, everything he had posted online,” Mitte said.
He advised students to carefully monitor their online presence, explaining that even if a page says it is “private,” it might not be. Posting irresponsible or inappropriate content online can have severe consequences, according to Mitte.
“People can find you by the click of a button,” Mitte said, “and you have to be able to protect yourself and protect your family.”
He drew a parallel between protecting your loved ones and “Breaking Bad,” the AMC show Mitte co-starred on as Walt Jr., the son of a chemistry teacher turned drug manufacturer.
“The thing about ‘Breaking Bad’ which really is amazing is that it does have so much realism to the show,” Mitte said. “The main concept of it, to me in particular, is, ‘How far are you willing to go to provide for your family?’”
Mitte thinks the violence portrayed in the show is realistic, as well.
“I think the violence and what we showed in ‘Breaking Bad’ wasn’t gratuitous, it wasn’t over exaggerated,” he said. “We’re not in a soft environment. This world is very dangerous. We do have violence. We do have corruption, and we do have a lot of manipulation.”
Mitte encouraged students to fight against manipulation and fear by accepting the life path each individual is on and by remaining true to oneself.
“Don’t allow people to convince you that you’re wrong. Don’t allow people to manipulate you,” Mitte said. “If you continue to try to please other people, you will lose who you’re meant to be.”
(04/15/15 4:13am)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
It was no surprise that Colin Meloy began The Decemberists’ concert in New York City on Monday, April 6, with the opening track from the band’s latest album, “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.”
It was, however, a revelation that before “The Singer Addresses His Audience” ended, Meloy had managed to make the sold-out Beacon Theatre — with a capacity of nearly 3,000 — feel like an intimate space.
On “Singer,” Meloy belted out in his clear, incisive voice, “We know we belong to you. We know you built your lives around us.”
This acknowledgement precedes a confession: “We know you threw your arms around us in the hopes we wouldn’t change, but we had to change some.”
The Decemberists’ evolution since its formation in 2000, both lyrically and instrumentally, is particularly conspicuous on its latest LP. The band has moved away from its trademark folksy sound, in addition to utilizing less of its infamous literary finesse. There were far fewer “parapets” and “irascible blackguards” than on past albums. It is a topic the band recognizes on a few new tracks, including “Anti-Summersong.”
Meloy sang, “I’m not going on just to sing another summersong,” referencing the catchy track from 2006’s “The Crane Wife.”
“I know New York is a city full of shy people who have a hard time expressing themselves,” Meloy said, gently mocking the crowd for remaining in their seats during that particular song. “I will break you before the night ends.”
And he did just that with a chilling performance of “Make You Better,” a powerful track fraught with nostalgic pining from the new album. Here Meloy sings, “I needed you to make me better, but we’re not so starry-eyed anymore.”
Besides the several songs pulled from “What a Terrible World,” the band performed an artillery of tracks from its back catalog, including an extensive, four-song block from the 2009 rock opera, “The Hazards of Love.”
The audience furiously clapped along to “The Rake’s Song,” a pucky track during which Meloy — bathed in a malicious red light — plays a widower who feels no remorse after killing his children in order to be rid of the responsibility of raising them.
Before the band returned for a double encore, it ended, ironically, with “A Beginning Song.”
Not only have The Decemberists changed over the past decade and a half, but the world they live in has, as well — a fact Meloy pointed out during the first song of the encore, “12/17/12.” The song serves as a poignant reaction to the Newtown, Conn. school shootings.
“Here with my heart so whole while others may be grieving, to think of their grieving,” Meloy sang. “And O my god, what a world you have made here. What a terrible world, what a beautiful world.”
For the final encore, The Decemberists returned to “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” from 2005’s “Picaresque,” a gypsy-folk odyssey that boasts the band’s knack for storytelling.
“The first thing written was the scream, and I wrote the song around it,” Meloy said. “I worked on the scream for a long time, alone in my room, screaming.”
Multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee played the anguishing mother who, on her deathbed, instructs her son to avenge her death by finding her runaway, roustabout lover. At the end of the song, both the son and his mother’s lover miraculously survive a whale attack when they “slip between his teeth” and end up together in his belly.
“Three-quarters of the way through this song,” Meloy directed, “I want you to scream like you’re being swallowed by a whale. But since you’re New Yorkers and you’ll do whatever you want, and since time is relative and you won’t know when it’s three-quarters of the way through the song, there will be a signal.”
The signal came from guitarist Chris Funk, who made a giant biting motion with his arms. The whale itself made an appearance in the form of a gigantic wooden cut-out, chomping his jaws across the stage and eating up the entire band as Conlee’s order escalated in tempo: “Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters, drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave.”
The audience may not have left the show “rioting all up the Upper West Side” as Meloy had intended, but it is safe to say The Decemberists’ first New York show in four years was an epic one.
(04/01/15 11:48pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
Analyzing the intersection between race and policing in America has become a more prominent conversation on the heels of the deaths of unarmed black men such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.
Charles Blow, visual op-ed columnist for the New York Times and author of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” questioned the sources and extent of systemic discrimination in a critical discussion with students on Tuesday, March 24, in the Education Building.
“No one denies that police officers have hard jobs,” Blow said. “When a job is done well, it keeps communities safe and society civil. But the way that is accomplished is that officers must encounter a disproportionate number of people who break the law.”
Blow presented the possibility that officers’ fears may be heightened — “and their trigger finger made more itchy” — in high-crime areas because they are more worried about making it home to their families than about the people they encounter making it home to theirs.
“If you overwhelmingly see the bad in people, does it diminish your impulse to search for the good?” he asked. “When is the line crossed from protecting and serving to occupying and suppressing?”
Police are not the only group of individuals who project bias onto others, though, according to Blow.
“Prejudice is a societal poison. Each of us is in danger of ingesting it,” he said. “We are all constantly making judgements, but most of us are not wearing a holster with a gun. That is when the ante is upped about the nature and quality of those judgements.”
Blow told the story of 12-year-old Rice, who was shot down in a park in Cleveland last November when police thought his toy gun was real.
“Not only is the shooting itself disturbing, but the failure to render aid is unconscionable,” Blow said.
For four long minutes, Rice lay on the grass, bleeding out but still alive, while none of the officers hovering about him made an attempt to administer aid.
According to Blow, the same apathy about the immediate administration of care is echoed in other cases.
“After George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman mounted him and stretched his arms wide to prevent him from even clutching the spot where the bullet had entered his body,” Blow said. “Trayvon Martin was still alive. After officers choked Eric Garner until he fell unconscious, no one administered CPR. Instead, they checked his pockets for cigarettes. Garner was still alive.”
Blow went on to bring Ferguson and the murder of Brown into the conversation, explaining that after Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown, Wilson didn’t check to see if Brown was breathing or if he had a pulse. Brown’s body lay in the street for four hours.
“This list goes on, quite literally, ad nauseam,” Blow said.
Blow also shared significant statistics about marriage and birth rates in Ferguson — and in black communities in general — to illustrate structural racism inherent in our society.
“Married black women used to have a higher birth rate than married white women,” he said. “But that birth rate for married black women has dropped dramatically to the point that (it) is significantly lower than that of married white women.”
This causes the birth rates of unmarried black women to appear extremely high in comparison. Blow also attributes this misconception to the explosion in the incarceration rate in the U.S. during the last few decades.
“This trend has disproportionately ensnared young black men, sucking hundreds of thousands of marriage-age men out of communities,” Blow said.
He used Ferguson as an example, where, according to Forbes, half of young black men are ‘missing’ from the community. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, while there are 1,182 black women living in Ferguson between the ages of 24 and 25, there are only 577 black men in that same age group.
“There are two young black women for every young black man in Ferguson,” Blow said, “and we ask ourselves about marriage rates.”
Blow said blacks are overrepresented in the media as crime suspects, and whites are overrepresented as crime victims, further warping the facts and playing into systemic biases.
He cited Lisa Bloom’s book, “Suspicion Nation,” in which she discusses how the standard assumption is that criminals are blacks and blacks are criminals.
According to Bloom’s book, in one study, 60 percent of viewers who viewed a crime story with no picture of the perpetrator falsely claimed seeing one. And of those, 70 percent believe that the person they saw was black.
“When we think about crime, we ‘see’ black, even when it is not present,” Blow said. “We have to separate mythology from the truth.”
The first step in doing so, as Blow suggests, is to open our eyes to daily instances of racial bias. To understand what racial bias is, where it occurs and how it crosses ethnic and racial lines is crucial toward achieving justice.
“Racism is interpersonal and structural. It is current and historical. It is explicit and implicit. It is articulate and it is silent,” Blow said. “Biases are pervasive, but can also be spectral, moving in and out of concentration without notice, leaving no trace, even without our own awareness.”
(03/11/15 2:21pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
In a collaborative oral proficiency hour between international and communication studies students, a game of “human bingo” sparked a class-wide conversation about students’ families, hobbies and hometowns — proving that individuals from countries around the world are more alike than not.
Students from the English as a Second Language (ESL) program and from Professor Yifeng Hu’s Intercultural Communication class (COM 411) came together to practice language skills and learn about other cultures on Wednesday, March 4.
Led by junior Spanish major Eileen Goepfert, the oral proficiency hour brings together international students from Brazil to West Africa.
Goepfert passed out a human bingo grid containing statements such as “someone who can speak three languages,” “someone who wants to be a teacher” and “someone who likes to watch American football.” Students then had the opportunity to walk around the room, chatting with individuals from other countries to find peers who fit the categories on the bingo board.
Freshman biology and secondary education double major Kadidia Sylla shared that she can speak four languages — English, French, Arabic and Bambara, a language spoken in her home country, Mali.
“Bingo is the same here as it is in Mali,” Sylla said. Iago Duarte, a junior nursing major, said the game is played in Brazil, as well.
During the bingo game, Vinicius de Azevedo Siqueira, a senior studying at the College this year from Brazil, told classmates that he wants to be a civil engineer.
“All of the Brazilian students are here on a scholarship from their government,” Goepfert explained. “Most of them are studying science or engineering.”
The next activity was speed dating, where pairs of individuals stood in a circle and were asked to spend one-minute answering a question.
When Goepfert asked students to talk about a “book that changed you,” Duarte shared that he loves reading the “Harry Potter” series — a hobby that many American students from Hu’s class shared.
“We’re all different, but we’re all similar, too,” Goepfert said.
Communication students from Hu’s class utilized the meeting between classes as a way to learn about other countries and to teach visiting students about American culture.
“It was great that we were able to talk to students from different countries so we could see the similarities and differences amongst us,” senior communication studies major Sydnee Weinbaum said. “I was able to interact with people of different cultures and share with them American customs, as well.”
Hu’s course stresses the importance of developing one’s ability to communicate effectively with people from diverse cultures and appreciate various ways people differ from each other.
“By interacting with international students, my students were able to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned in the class,” Hu said. “I think it enhances students’ intercultural communication competence.”
International students used the meeting as an opportunity to practice their English.
“These students are so motivated to learn English,” Goepfert said. “I thank my lucky stars every day that I was born in this country and grew up speaking the language. I think English is the hardest language to learn.”
But according to Hu’s students, it was nearly impossible to tell that English is not these students’ first language.
“They speak so well,” said Jenna Fleck, a junior communication studies major in Hu’s class. “It’s really interesting to get one-on-one time with people from other cultures that you wouldn’t normally get to talk to.”
ESL coordinator Amy Moyer plans on arranging similar meetings between ESL and communication studies classes in the future.
“It was a really productive collaboration between the two classes,” Moyer said. “I think we should definitely plan for more. It really is a win-win situation for both groups.”
During the oral proficiency meeting, Hu — who was born in China — reflected on her time at Penn State University, where she received her Ph.D. degree.
“In the ESL classes for international students there, we didn’t really get to talk to the natives, so this would have been a great opportunity,” she said.
Many of the international students at the College also spoke about how the collaboration between the classes was an uncommon, yet beneficial, experience.
“It’s so important when you live abroad to talk to the people in the culture you are living in,” said Jeymyson Alves de Sousa, a student from Brazil. “But it’s hard because it’s easier to talk to each other in our native language. So this was a nice opportunity to talk to Americans.”
(02/26/15 9:17pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
The last time A Great Big Pile of Leaves performed in New Jersey, the stage at Asbury Lanes collapsed under the weight of the indie-rock unit, their instruments and over a hundred fans.
The band’s show at the Rathskeller on Friday, Feb. 20, was not nearly as rowdy, but according to frontman Pete Weiland, it was just as energetic.
“The first two times we played here, less than half the tables were full, and everybody stayed in their seats,” Weiland said. But on this night, dozens of students flocked to stage and danced through the 45-minute-long set.
Before Leaves took the stage, the College’s own Gianna’s Sweet Debut opened the night with its punk-rock sound.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” lead singer and guitarist Chase Destierro said before the show. “But hey, even Jay-Z gets nervous. Or at least I hope so.”
Destierro, along with guitarist Matt Decker, bassist Scott Calhoun and drummer L.J. Dosono, performed songs such as “Accurate Self Appraisal” and “Rest in Peace, Hopes and Dreams.”
“We have a house show or two planned, and we’ve been preparing for the release of our EP,” Destierro said after the set.
The EP, titled “Barely Getting By,” took the band just three months to complete, compared to the two years it took to put together its first effort, “North to the Future.”
New Jersey natives Accidental Seabirds performed next, opening their acoustic set with “Untitled 16.”
Vocalist and guitarist Jesse Lee Herdman and usual drummer Alex Letizia sat side-by-side, trading banjo and guitar every few songs.
“We’ve been doing the two-piece thing since May,” Herdman said after the show. “It’s a little easier to pack into a car and find a place to sleep when it’s just two people. It cuts the cost of touring in half.”
Letizia taught himself to play guitar and Herdman learned the banjo so the duo could perform their inventory of songs acoustically together.
“Playing guitar really pulled me out of my element,” Letizia admitted. “I’m used to drumming.”
He and Herdman have traveled all the way up and down the East Coast and as far as the West Coast during their current tour, occasionally joined by bassist Anthony Defabritus.
The pair has proven to not only be talented musicians, but innovative ones, as well. The band personally cut six-packs apart and stitched pieces of the boxes back together to make CD sleeves for their full-length album “The Greenpoint Spill.”
They also handmade a percussion instrument that Letizia controlled via foot pedal during the set.
“It’s made from beer bottle caps and fishing line,” Herdman said. “Alex literally popped holes in 300 bottle caps.”
Accidental Seabirds played “Black Horse Blues,” a secretly recorded single, as well as fan favorites such as “Where are you, how’s your son?” and “The Appearance of New Animals.”
When headliner, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, took the stage, students clamored to the front of the Rathskeller and earnestly sang along to hits like “We Don’t Need Our Heads” and “Snack Attack.”
For Weiland, drummer Tyler Soucy, bassist Tucker Yaro and guitarist Matthew Fazzi — ex-member of Taking Back Sunday — this was their first time headlining a show at the College. The band opened for The Narrative in 2011 and for Casey Crescenzo of The Deer Hunter in 2012.
The Brooklyn-based band was signed to Topshelf Records in 2011 and has since toured with Hellogoodbye, Say Anything and other major groups.
“Tonight was just incredible,” Weiland said. “A Great Big Pile of Leaves will keep coming back to play for as long as you keep inviting us back.”
(02/18/15 6:48pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
Students from the College joined a worldwide ceremony of remembrance following the murders of three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Muslim Student Association hosted a candlelight vigil in the Alumni Grove on Thursday, Feb. 12, to honor the memories of 23-year-old Deah Barakat, his 23-year-old newlywed wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her 19-year-old sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. The three individuals were fatally shot in their apartment around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
“It’s not uncommon for us to hear about Muslims being shot or run down or harassed,” said Sarah Cassim, president of the Muslim Student Association. “But I think this one, particularly, hit a lot of students because these were students.”
The students’ 46-year-old neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, has been charged with three counts of murder. According to The New York Times, police are investigating whether religious hatred contributed to the killings.
“When Muslims are murdered in North Carolina, Jews in Paris, or Christians in Nigeria, the world is diminished,” Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Benjamin Rifkin wrote in an email encouraging students to participate in the vigil.
During the ceremony, dozens of students gathered to light candles, pray and mourn.
“When the MSA came together to plan the vigil, a lot of members were saying, ‘It could have been any three of us sitting in this room, and just like that, we’d be gone,’” Cassim said.
Before the vigil began, Cassim announced that there were going to be prayers recited in Arabic.
“This is not to alienate anybody who is not Muslim,” she said, “but just to remember and honor the fact that the people who died were Muslims.”
According to Cassim, many MSA members at the College are deeply mourning the Chapel Hill students’ deaths.
“These three people served their community in every way possible,” she said. “Deah had a fundraiser to go to Turkey to serve Syrian refugees. We really related to them because a lot of our MSA members are also heavily involved in philanthropy.”
The fundraiser, which is posted on the online fundraising site, YouCaring, aims to provide dental care to refugee students in Rihaniya, Turkey. Since Deah’s death, donations have climbed to $422,331 — exceeding the goal of $20,000 over 21 times over.
Cassim encouraged students to donate to the Syrian Dental Relief program during the vigil.
“His parents have asked that the fundraiser be kept alive so that the work he started in his life will not end because of his death,” Cassim said.
Across the globe, people are taking to social media to share the link to Deah’s fundraiser, as well as expressing anger over the murders and sympathy for the victims’ families by utilizing the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter.
“They were just three, young, beautiful people who were shot out of nowhere,” Cassim said. “Be that it may have been sparked by a dispute over parking, three people were still shot in their apartment.”
Hicks, who turned himself into police, admitted that he killed the three students over a prolonged dispute over parking. The victims’ families, however, are certain their children’s religion was the motivator. The incident has sparked debate over when it is appropriate to use the term “hate crime.”
Regardless of the motive, students attended the vigil not to focus on how Deah, Yusor and Razan died, but to honor the students’ memories and celebrate their lives.
“I think this tragedy is something we can all connect to on a human level,” said Andrew Edelblum, a junior psychology major who attended the event. “The vigil allowed for anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, to really come together and think about that.”
Edelblum hopes the vigil may help students see the world through a new perspective.
“Chapel Hill is a stark reminder that acts of terrorism are occurring inside our own country, that acts of terrorism are not the result of any specific group of people,” Edelblum said. “We lost three special lives earlier this week, and that’s something I think everyone who attended the vigil feels very strongly about.”
(02/04/15 3:26pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
Co-sponsored by Inter-Greek Council and Student Government, the dance-a-thon TCNJam was held in the Brower Student Center on Saturday, Jan. 31, to raise money and awareness for the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation.
The organization funds pediatric cancer research and encourages people to “Live Like Andrew,” meaning that individuals should set goals, strive to be their best, show affection and be comfortable with themselves.
The event, which lasted from noon to midnight, is comparable to Penn State’s “Thon.”
“Everyone has been working so hard for so long,” said Navid Radfar, a senior biology major who was instrumental in organizing the event with his Student Government committee. “To see it finally come to fruition is amazing.”
The area where students usually sit and eat food from the Lions Den during Meal Equivalency was cleared and decorated for the all-night dance party. Colorful streamers wound around the cement pillars, balloons were tied everywhere and signs bearing inspirational messages were hung on the walls.
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference,” one read. Other signs encouraged participants and their teams to donate to the B+ foundation.
Of the 27 teams, at least five individuals had to be dancing for the full 12 hours.
“It was amazing,” said junior history and secondary education double major Dane West, who attended TCNJam to represent his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. “I’ve never been a part of an event like that before. To see all of Greek Life and Student Government come together to raise that much money was honestly inspirational.”
As the night wound down and the lights turned off, the Student Center turned into a sea of students wearing glow-necklaces and was flooded with colorful lights.
In addition to the dance-a-thon, there were arcade games, air hockey tables, a DJ contest and zealous matches of Dance Dance Revolution. TCNJam was also replete with a corn hole tournament, minute-to-win-it games and musical chairs.
“There was a Zumba session as well,” West said. “And some of the B+ heroes were there, so it was awesome to see them, too.”
The “heroes” are children who have beaten cancer. Select on-campus organizations supported the B+ Foundation by spending time with them, Radfar explained.
“My fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, has a hero named Will who beat cancer,” he said. “We took him to a football game and raised money for him.”
The fraternity hung a banner for Will at the event decorated with images of his favorite things, such as Batman and the New York Giants.
Many of the heroes were in attendance at TCNJam and were presented with gifts during the activities.
At the end of the evening, students held up signs that read “$50,566.54 for our heroes.”
“I hope we get even more organizations involved next year,” West said.
Last semester, TCNJam was shot down by the Student Finance Board, and the event scheduled for Monday, Nov. 8, had to be cancelled. It was later approved for $30,000. Additionally, a 5K was held in November to raise money and awareness for the B+ Foundation and TCNJam.
(02/02/15 11:47pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
This semester, the College is enforcing a policy that will restrict students’ dining options. According to the Dining Services website, “If a student takes advantage of Meal Equivalency, access to The Atrium at Eickhoff is no longer unlimited, as access will be prohibited during the Meal Equivalency period.”
With college students facing so many yearly expenses from tuition to housing to textbooks, lessening the value of a meal plan exploits students and disrupts their daily routines.
The College’s Dining Services Twitter account explained on Wednesday, Jan. 7, that this has always been the intent of the College, but “the register system did not allow us to set the proper parameters until a recent upgrade.”
One student replied and inquired, “Was that upgrade financed by the revenue generated from your overpriced food?” It’s not a bad question.
I have Carte Blanche B, the smallest plan that gives me unlimited access to the dining hall all day, along with 250 points to spend. It cost me $1,920.96 for the fall semester and $1,824.39 for the spring — a whopping $3,745.35 for the year.
An ABC News article from July titled “How Do Median Income Families Spend Money?” estimates that $100 a week for groceries is enough to feed a family.
But let’s say $100 is only enough to cover a single college student’s meals for a week. Multiply that by the number of weeks students at the College spend living on campus in a school year and the total comes to about $3,400. Adding those 250 points back onto the total still doesn’t meet the cost of my meal plan.
The bottom line is students aren’t receiving any special deals when purchasing a meal plan, which is why the incentive of Meal Equivalency is so important.
“For added flexibility and variety,” the website states, “Meal Equivalency allows a Carte Blanche meal plan holder to forgo unlimited swipes into The Atrium at Eickhoff during the Meal Equivalency period for $7.25 worth of food at The Lions Den, The Library Cafe, The Rathskeller, Education Cafe and KinetiCart… Using Meal Equivalency at these designated locations will prohibit you from entering The Atrium at Eickhoff during Meal Equivalency period (11:00 a.m. — 1:30 p.m.).”
Many students utilize Meal Equivalency as a substitute for lunch, but others use it in addition to eating a meal in the dining hall.
Some students use Meal Equivalency to get a coffee from the Library Cafe before entering Eickhoff to eat a real meal. Others use Meal Equivalency to get a couple protein bars from KinetiCart before a workout, and then head to the dining hall afterwards. This new policy now only allows students to purchase these items at the cost of their points or instead of a quality lunch from the dining hall.
Another student, sophomore health and physical education teaching major Monica Murphy, expressed concerns on Twitter about limited gluten-free options on campus. If she wants to eat lunch in the My Zone section of the Atrium at Eickhoff to ensure her meal has not been contaminated by gluten, she must forgo Meal Equivalency every day.
Furthermore, if a student goes to Eickhoff to eat at 11 a.m. and then gets hungry again before 1:30 p.m., they can return to the Atrium and eat there again. If a student eats at the Lion’s Den, however, and is hungry again before 1:30 p.m., they have no dining options that will not cost them points.
This new policy, or rather the enforcement of it after four years, forces students to pay more money for fewer dining options, makes planning meals more difficult for students and is harmful to individuals with dietary restrictions. The College should reconsider its policy and return to the system that has worked for the past few years.
(01/28/15 7:47pm)
By Sydney Shaw
News Editor
For the first time in the College’s history, 23 students spent a winter session in Havana, an epitome of the burgeoning thaw in American-Cuban relations.
The trip occurred just a month after President Obama ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the island and the opening of an embassy in Havana in a surprise announcement that outlined plans to stamp out the last remains of Cold War tensions.
Students were immersed in the culture of Cuba’s capital city from Sunday, Jan. 5, to Saturday, Jan. 18, for the class “Landmarks: Art and Culture of Cuba,” a visual arts and art history collaboration. These two weeks consisted of salsa dance classes, trips to museums, cultural scavenger hunts and exploring famous edifices around the city. The trip also presented students with a view of Cuba’s past and present that has persisted, largely unchanged, for several decades.
“It’s pretty incredible to think that we were some of the last people to see Cuba as it has been for over half a century,” said Christine Garrity, a senior secondary education and Spanish double major who attended the trip.
Dr. Lois Fichner-Rathus, professor of art history, was instrumental in initiating the project. She went on the trip as program director, along with associate art professor Anita Allyn and art professor Elizabeth Mackie.
“My favorite part was probably the trip we took to a farm called Finca La Coincidencia,” Garrity said. “The farm was huge, and apart from harvesting crops, it also served as a sort of outdoor art exhibit that hosted all different types of pieces from a number of different artists.”
Students decorated ceramic pots at the farm to bring back to the states — with a promise, however, that they would one day return to the farm to redisplay the pots.
“It really was just a lovely and serene place to be,” Garrity said.
According to Garrity, many Cubans hope Obama’s words are not simply sweet sentiments, but will bring about real change and help transition the country into the 21st century.
“Cuba is so advanced in terms of taking care of its people, especially in educating them, and yet internet is practically impossible to come by,” Garrity said. “When you have (internet), it takes five minutes to load every page. And there are medicinal shortages, as well. The embargo that the United States has put on Cuba has hurt the people more than the government.”
According to students, there is a billboard in Havana that reads, “The embargo: the longest genocide in history.”
“Educational activities may be conducted despite the current trade embargo with Cuba, but these activities are monitored quite strictly, and CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) must have a license from the U.S. government to support our program there,” director of Center for Global Engagement Jon Stauff said.
According to Stauff, students flew to Miami, Fla. on Sunday, Jan. 4. From there, they flew to Cuba on special charter flights arranged according to the rules set by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which regulates the flow of people between the U.S. and Cuba.
As tensions ease, it is anticipated there will be fewer restrictions on travel, banking and intergovernmental activity between the United States and Cuba in the future. The embargo has yet to be officially lifted by Congress, but Obama has continued to lay the foundations for its repeal.
“When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new,” Obama said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 20. “Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere, removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba … and this year, Congress should begin the work of ending the embargo.”
“I’ll be happy to see (the embargo) end so that students can get the materials they need and Cuba can better begin to connect with the world,” Garrity said.
(12/04/14 10:39pm)
By Sydney Shaw
Opinions Editor
Director of Recreation Robert Simels opened the Student Government general body meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 19, with a proposition.
“The Office of Recreation is looking into charging a $25 flat-rate fee per semester to participate in group classes in the Travers/Wolfe lounge,” Simels said.
If the fee were to be implemented in the future, the revenue it generates would serve to partially fund costs for equipment and instructors.
Later in the meeting, Carly Bergstein, the Program Director of The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, thanked the College for donations to her organization. The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation conducts research to find cures for childhood cancer and to find less harsh treatments. It also financially assists families in need.
The College is scheduled to participate in TCNJam at the end of January. Comparable to Penn State’s Thon, the event will support The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. It aims to spread the message “Live Like Andrew,” meaning to set goals, strive to be your best, show affection and be comfortable with yourself.
Afterward, Vice President of Administration and Finance Kyle Holland encouraged students to eat at Chipotle for a fundraiser on Monday, Nov. 24, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m, during which 15 percent of proceeds went to Student Government.
Vice President of Equity and Diversity Javier Nicasio reminded students to attend PRISM’s World AIDS Day Vigil, co-sponsored by Student Government, on Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. on the Sundial Lawn. World AIDS Day is an opportunity for individuals worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for those living with the virus and remember the people who have died.
Before the meeting concluded, the Freshman Class Council announced that it is working toward creating a Freshman Formal tentatively scheduled to take place in February.
(11/19/14 9:13pm)
By Sydney Shaw
Opinions Editor
In the wake of the College’s decision to grant student athletes priority registration, other busy students are crying foul.
Countless students on campus suffer with time conflicts between classes and obligations to clubs, organizations and jobs. By allowing students who participate in athletics to register for classes early, it overlooks the contributions of non-athletes at the College.
Members of Student Government, for example, have multiple committee meetings and a general body meeting to attend at set times each week. Shouldn’t those students who provide such an important service to the campus community be allowed to schedule their classes around their preexisting responsibilities?
Cast and crew members in productions organized by TCNJ Musical Theatre and All College Theatre have hours of rehearsal every week that often conflict with class times. Are their contributions to the College less important because they are not performing on a field? Or perhaps it is because their ticket sales do not generate as much revenue for the College as football, basketball and field hockey games do.
Members of the College Union Board, Art Society, Synergy Dance Team and even The Signal suffer from time conflicts with classes, as well.
The most distasteful part about this new policy is the fact that priority registration was recently taken away from students with disabilities. Comments on the change.org petition “Reconsider the Priority Registration for Varsity Athletes,” penned by Danielle DeGraw, state that the College thought the practice was unfair. But now, transferring that privilege to athletes is somehow justifiable.
An argument in defense of priority registration for athletes is that their performance reflects that of the College. If students can schedule every class to fit perfectly around their practice and competition schedule, the team is more likely to be present, focused and successful.
One respondent on the petition pointed out, however, that honors students do not receive priority registration. A high number of students taking honors classes reflects even more highly on the College than a strong athletic program. In fact, every organization on campus reflects highly on the College, not just sports.
I enrolled at the College knowing it would help me advance academically and prepare me for a career in my field. I knew before I started as a freshman that the College is a Division 3 school and I did not expect this to be a heavily sports-oriented campus. Having school spirit is incredibly important, but not to the point where athletes are held at an elitist status over non-athletes. Academics should be priority over athletics.
Registration is already a nightmare. As a sophomore, I registered on the seventh day to find that not a single section required for my major or minor was open. I managed to pick three liberal learning classes, but did not enroll in the very few open classes remaining that could satisfy requirements because they conflict with other organizational requirements. Giving priority registration to athletes just makes the registration process even more difficult for non-athletes, who make up a majority of the campus community.
Athletics should do its best to conform to academics, not the other way around. When younger students are able to enroll before upperclassmen simply because they participate in a sport, it makes a patent statement that non-athletes are less important and do not deserve the same privileges.
(11/18/14 8:31pm)
By Sydney Shaw
Opinions Editor
The College now has more opportunities to host tournaments on campus, whether it be one robot pitted against another or Kirby vs. Charizard in a match of “Super Smash Bros.,” as the Robotics Club and Competitive Gaming Club were officially recognized by Student Government at the general body meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
The Robotics Club, headed by Dean of Engineering Steven Schreiner, aims to help students develop skills in engineering by teaching them to build and program robots.
Schreiner has already provided a few Nao (pronounced “now”) robots for the club. Nao is a humanoid robot about two feet tall, developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics.
“They can talk and interact with each other,” junior Robotics Club president Sarah Dresher said.
Dresher explained that the club plans to engage the College community by having talking robots at different events around campus.
“We want to have the Nao robots at Accepted Students Day,” Dresher said. “We can program them to give prospective students a tour of Armstrong Hall, for example.”
If designing tour-giving robots sounds like an overwhelming project, have no fear: The club hosts special workshop meetings to inform students who might not be so savvy regarding microprocessors, IR sensors — which measure distance — and other information necessary to construct and use their own robots.
“There are firefighting robot competitions where robots are programmed to find a candle in a maze and extinguish it,” Dresher said. “In the robo-waiter competition, the robot has to deliver a tray of food.”
The club has competed in the Micromouse Competition before, during which small robot mice solve a 16 square- inch maze.
Governmental Affairs found no weaknesses with Robotics Club and voted unanimously in favor.
Competitive Gaming Club serves to create a community of passionate gamers to participate in “League of Legends,” “Super Smash Bros.,” “Starcraft” and other tournaments.
President Mitch Vaughn plans to analyze and teach game strategy during club meetings. “We want to provide gamers the opportunity to test their skill against their friends and other students at tournaments,” he said. “‘Super Smash Bros.’ is incredibly popular on campus right now.”
Vaughn wants to add Pokémon to the list of tournaments once the club is up and running.
Competitive Gaming Club did not seek out club status to obtain Student Finance Board funding, but wants to use its new recognition to book rooms for meetings and tournaments and to advertise with flyers around campus.
Governmental Affairs voted all in favor with one abstention.
Later in the meeting, Vice President Mike Chiumento announced that Dean of Recreation Rob Simels will be speaking next week about the recreation organization. On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Simels is hosting a Wellness event at 6:30 p.m. in Roscoe 201, at which people will be sharing personal stories and connecting with others.
Vice President of Equity and Diversity Javier Nicasio announced that PRISM’s World AIDS Day Vigil will be held on Monday, Dec. 1. First held in 1988, World AIDS Day is an opportunity for individuals worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for those living with the virus and to remember the more than 3.5 million people who have died from the disease.