Ramapo Magazine Fall 2009 by Ramapo College

FALL/WINTER 2009

COVER STORY:

The Birch Mansion at Ramapo College

PAGE 12

Ramapo College Celebrates 40 Years: Four Decades of Educational Excellence

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FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

COLLEGE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Peter P. Mercer, Ph.D. President

Cover story The Birch cows freely roaming around the Copper Beech tree behind the Birch Mansion pre Ramapo College.

Beth E. Barnett, Ed.D. Provost

As the first snow falls on campus it does more than contribute to the natural beauty of Ramapo College; it also marks the end of the fall semester and the arrival of another cohort of Ramapo students. In this our 40th year, we welcomed the largest freshmen class in our history to campus and, in keeping with College tradition, I greeted each of them as they passed through our iconic Arch following First-Year Student Assembly. The 939 members of the class of 2013 hail from every county in New Jersey as well as from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Arizona and six foreign countries. They were chosen from more than 5,112 applicants and comprise the top 23 percent of their high school senior class with a mean combined (Verbal and Mathematical) SAT score of 1,157. A Ramapo education is in great demand, throughout New Jersey and beyond – a testament to the four decades of educational excellence fostered at Ramapo by scores of dedicated professors, administrators and support staff. This year’s increase of 20 points in the mean SAT scores of our applicants is a solid indicator that we are recognized as valuing academic excellence and that there is real perceived value not only in a public Liberal Arts Education, but specifically in a Ramapo College education. Our steady climb in the U.S. News and World Report rankings continues as we advanced two positions in the 2010 edition. I wish each of you a wonderful 2010. PETER P. MERCER, Ph.D.

President, Ramapo College of New Jersey President Peter P. Mercer with graduating seniors at the Leadership Awards Dinner

Ramapo Magazine

FALL/WINTER 2009

President Peter P. Mercer with students in front of Laurel Hall

Cathleen Davey Vice President for Institutional Advancement Dorothy Echols Tobe, Ed.D. Chief Planning Officer BOARD OF TRUSTEES A. J. Sabath ‘93 Chair BOARD OF GOVERNORS Robert Tillsley Chair Jonathan Marcus '93 Alumni Association Board Chair Margaret Mullen Friends of Ramapo Board Chair

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

RAMAPO MAGAZINE STAFF Cathleen Davey Editor-in-Chief

F E AT U R E S

Anna Farneski Executive Editor Mary Cicitta Managing Editor Cynthia Burns Foundation Editor Carolyn Herring Photo Editor

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DESIGN: Words and Pictures Creative Service, Inc. This magazine can be made available upon request in alternate media. Requests should be directed to: 201.684.7611 Alumni contact and change of address: Purvi Parekh at 201.684.7115 STUDENT AFFAIRS CONTACT: Miki Cammarata at 201.684.7591 Ramapo Magazine is produced by the Office of Marketing and Communications.

President Peter P. Mercer with staff and students on move-in day

Visit our Web site at www.ramapo.edu

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Feature

Ramapo College Celebrates 40 Years: Four Decades of Educational Excellence

Cover story

The Birch Mansion at Ramapo College

Ramapo's Environmental Legacy

Four Decades in the Making, Ramapo's Focus on Environment Endures, Grows

D E PA R T M E N T S

College news Faculty news Foundation news Alumni news Grant news Social networking Class notes Alumni in the spotlight Datebook Courts and fields Tribute to a Founder www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

COLLEGE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Peter P. Mercer, Ph.D. President

Cover story The Birch cows freely roaming around the Copper Beech tree behind the Birch Mansion pre Ramapo College.

Beth E. Barnett, Ed.D. Provost

President, Ramapo College of New Jersey President Peter P. Mercer with graduating seniors at the Leadership Awards Dinner

Ramapo Magazine

FALL/WINTER 2009

President Peter P. Mercer with students in front of Laurel Hall

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

RAMAPO MAGAZINE STAFF Cathleen Davey Editor-in-Chief

F E AT U R E S

Anna Farneski Executive Editor Mary Cicitta Managing Editor Cynthia Burns Foundation Editor Carolyn Herring Photo Editor

12 16

President Peter P. Mercer with staff and students on move-in day

Visit our Web site at www.ramapo.edu

22 24 26 30 32 33 34 38 39 40 41

Feature

Ramapo College Celebrates 40 Years: Four Decades of Educational Excellence

Cover story

The Birch Mansion at Ramapo College

Ramapo's Environmental Legacy

Four Decades in the Making, Ramapo's Focus on Environment Endures, Grows

D E PA R T M E N T S

College news Faculty news Foundation news Alumni news Grant news Social networking Class notes Alumni in the spotlight Datebook Courts and fields Tribute to a Founder www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Feature 1968

November 1968: New Jersey voters approve a $202 million referendum for the addition of college facilities. Of this amount $15 million is earmarked for two new state colleges that would become Richard Stockton State College in Pomona and Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah.

1969

June 25, 1969: George Potter, vice president for academic affairs at Grand Valley State College, accepts the position as the first president of Ramapo College.

1971

October 20, 1971: Potter is formally inaugurated.

Four Decades of Educational Excellence

Academics

Edward I. Saiff already enjoyed a promising position teaching biology at Rutgers University when he interviewed for a job at little-known Ramapo College of New Jersey in the summer of 1972. With an enrollment of fewer than 1,200, Ramapo had just completed its first year of classes. Of course, within the academy, leaving a major public university that was older than the very nation for a tiny state college still in its infancy was hardly considered the fast path to success. Didn’t matter. Saiff liked what he saw at Ramapo. He liked the idea of getting in on the ground floor. He especially liked the nontraditional academic program, which emphasized teacher-student interaction and embraced interdisciplinary curriculum as a defining model for an institution founded as New Jersey’s official public liberal arts college. He took the job.

By Chris Hann

This year Ramapo College of New Jersey celebrates its founding in 1969, and it’s unlikely that anyone around back then would recognize the place today. When classes opened in September 1971, the campus consisted of an old mansion being used for administrative offices and a single academic building being used for, well, everything else.

To commemorate Ramapo's birth 40 years ago, a package of stories was compiled that document the school, from a nearly barren hillside to a vibrant village of a campus, from a seed of an idea to a fully flowered philosophy of higher education. It cannot possibly tell all the stories that Ramapo has wrought over these two score, but in these pages you’ll read about many of the people who have been instrumental in helping to define what has become, in the words of Provost Beth Barnett “a grownup institution.” Some of them, such as biology Professor Edward I. Saiff and Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance Richard Roberts, have been around nearly since Day 1. (Registrar Cynthia Brennan, a member of

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Ramapo’s first graduating class, likes to joke that “I’ve been around longer than the buildings but not as long as the trees.”) Others, such as Peter Rice, the director of admissions, and Emma Rainforth, a professor of geology and acting vice president for curriculum and

assessment, have come on board only in recent years. Together they help ensure that Ramapo stays true to its roots as New Jersey’s public liberal arts college while guiding its innovative course to the future.

1972

September 16, 1971: Ramapo opens its doors to 1,186 students for its first semester of classes.

RAMAPO COLLEGE CELEBRATES 40 YEARS

“Everybody who was hired in those first eight or ten or 15 years took a flier on the institution,” Saiff says. “You had to be adventuresome. You had to have a sense that your vision was better than hundreds of years of a certain way of doing business.” Ramapo began the process of carving out its own identity shortly after its official founding in 1969. Led by President George T. Potter, the faculty and administration set out to put into practice their ideas of what a decentralized college campus should look like. “The

December 1972: The first student housing is completed. After some initial delay, the first phase of the College Park Apartments houses approximately 300 students.

emphasis on interdisciplinary and independent programs of study will, we hope, permit students and faculty to be more imaginative,” Potter said at his official inauguration, on October 20, 1971. Class size would be small, as would student-to-faculty ratio. The grading system would be simplified: Students would receive an A, B, C, or S (for satisfactory). Any lesser grade received no credit and thus did not appear on a student’s transcript, which reflected only those courses completed successfully. There would be no departments, and thus no department chairs. The Faculty Senate would consist of professors, students, staff, and administrators. And everything the new college wanted to do had to be approved by a state Department of Higher Education that sided strongly with tradition. Of the regulators in Trenton, Saiff says, “I don’t imagine they understood how we were able to move forward with those disparate groups running the place. We had a president who didn’t even have his terminal degree. He had a master’s degree but he

But not everyone. On December 5, 1975, the college celebrated the most important milestone in its brief history when the Middle States Association of Colleges and Universities declared Ramapo fully accredited. A report prepared by a Middle States team that visited the campus for four days in September gushed at Ramapo’s early success. “It impresses those who visit it as an institution where students, staff, and administration work together toward developing goals, freed at least in part from many of the inhibiting traditions and moss associated with existing academe,” the team wrote. “The state would do well to continue to supply the appropriate support which a college of this exciting and innovative nature requires.”

The report cited in particular Ramapo’s commitment to interdisciplinary study. It was that very commitment that helped persuade Provost Beth Barnett to come to Ramapo four years ago. Barnett says the college’s interdisciplinary approach helps Ramapo students become critical thinkers. “You’d have trouble being a critical thinker if we couldn’t bring in other disciplines,” she says. “It forces them to look at things from different perspectives. It makes for an extremely dynamic environment.” Students in the School of Theoretical and Applied Science, for example, were required to take at least one course from a curriculum called Science in Cultural Perspective, whose offerings included Science and Law, the history of Scientific Ideas, and Computers and Society. A literature professor taught science fiction. A philoso-

didn’t have a Ph.D. Some people looked down on us for that.”

1. Members of the graduating class of '78 2. President Potter meeting with staff and faculty 3. Professor of Biology Eddie Saiff conducting research in 1977 4. President Potter with trustees at Ramapo groundbreaking 5. Campus 6. Student in library c. 1970's 7. Professor of Art, Judith Peck 8. Professor Emeritus of Literature, Carol Hovanec

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Feature 1968

1969

June 25, 1969: George Potter, vice president for academic affairs at Grand Valley State College, accepts the position as the first president of Ramapo College.

1971

October 20, 1971: Potter is formally inaugurated.

Four Decades of Educational Excellence

Academics

By Chris Hann

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

1972

September 16, 1971: Ramapo opens its doors to 1,186 students for its first semester of classes.

RAMAPO COLLEGE CELEBRATES 40 YEARS

December 1972: The first student housing is completed. After some initial delay, the first phase of the College Park Apartments houses approximately 300 students.

didn’t have a Ph.D. Some people looked down on us for that.”

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Feature

1973

1973: A student committee chooses the fast-paced Roadrunner as Ramapo’s official mascot.

May 20, 1973: Ramapo conducts its first graduation ceremony. After two years of classes, 124 transfer students are awarded degrees. Fifteen are honors students. Harrison Salisbury, prolific author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times, delivers the commencement address.

1973: The first phase of a long-range student housing building program (Buckeye, Elm, Hickory, Holly, International, Mimosa, Palm, and Science Halls) is completed. Phase II follows three years later.

1975

December 5, 1975: The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools declares Ramapo fully accredited.

1979

1979: The Lodge, housing designed for students with disabilities, opens.

1975: The Student Center is completed. Later named in honor of Ramapo President Robert A. Scott.

Student Life

pher taught bioethics. “We wanted to make sure that students, in addition to understanding their science, understood how it is that their science intersected with society,” Saiff says.

Even stewardship of the curriculum crossed disciplines. Professors who wanted to make significant changes in requirements for a major needed to get their proposals approved first by an Academic Review Committee, then by the entire faculty. “You go to any other university, the faculty members don’t even know each other in different departments,” Saiff says. “I can’t imagine any other institution where the input of a biology professor would be welcomed by a history professor.”

The increasing number of Ramapo students studying abroad—in Spain, Italy, India—or in the American West helped bolster the pillars regarding international and intercultural understanding. Experiential learning opportunities were not only encouraged but required. Each student had to accumulate five hours of experi4

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ential learning in each course. A.J. Sabath, Ramapo class of ’93 and chairman of the Board of Trustees, says his education proved critical in his career in state government, where he served as commissioner of the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development and later as chief of staff to the state Senate president. As a student, Sabath worked on the re-election campaign of state assemblyman (and Ramapo professor) Ben Mazur. Under the guidance of social work professor Mitch Khan, he organized tenants in some of New Jersey’s largest cities. “There was an opportunity to advocate and organize and do it professionally,” Sabath recalls. “That’s what I was doing at Ramapo. Professionally, it’s one of the things that’s aided me the most. That experiential learning – how government does or doesn’t work – was the most beneficial to me.”

Of course, over four decades much has changed in Ramapo’s academic universe. The twice-yearly seminars once required of seniors were dropped. Where the faculty of Ramapo’s five schools once elected their deans, the Schools of Business and American and International Studies have hired deans from outside the college. In 1995 Ramapo introduced its first master’s program, in liberal studies. Next September it hopes to start its newest master’s program, in sustainability.

9. Provost Beth Barnett speaking with students 10. Ramapo sign with original logo 11. Board of Trustees Chairman, A. J. Sabath '93 as a student 12. Students in the 1970's

The faculty itself has evolved dramatically, from about 50 original full-time professors to 212 today.

While the curriculum has faced constant scrutiny – and, four years ago, an overhaul – Ramapo maintains many of its core academic values. Class sizes remain small, 23 student on average, as does student-to-faculty ratio, 18:1. In recent years the college’s national profile has risen. In 2005, U.S. News & World Report ranked Ramapo the leading public comprehensive college in the North. “I always joke that my degree has gotten more valuable since I graduated,” Sabath says. Ed Saiff never left Ramapo after accepting that job offer back in 1972. This academic year is his 38th on campus. On a shelf in his cluttered office he keeps a framed memento given to him by a former student, Sara Pagliaro, class of ’02. It contains a quotation from the author Henry James that reinforces everything Saiff and his colleagues have worked toward for the past 40 years: “A teacher affects eternity,” it reads. “He can never tell where his influence stops.”

1. Students prepare 9/11 memorial in 2008 2. Members of the men's baseball team collect Toys for Tots

In the beginning – that would be 1971 – there was a pool. That’s right, a swimming pool. On the Ramapo campus. Right behind Birch Mansion. Shared by all. Sure, it was a pretty sweet way for a 19-year-old to spend a steamy Friday afternoon, plunging in for a cool dip, then hanging out poolside, chatting up new friends and mentors. But the pool was something more than that. It was a metaphor for student life at Ramapo, for the nontraditional, collaborative experience that welcomed the college’s earliest students. After all, on how many campuses could you lay out on your beach towel alongside that of your favorite professor while discussing, say, Jungian theory of psychological archetypes?

Today the pool is both a fond memory – it was closed and covered over in the 1980s – and a reminder of how far student life at Ramapo has evolved in the college’s brief but rich history. Oh, there was a vital campus life in those heady early days, complete with regular protests by students and faculty alike. A student newspaper, titled simply The Paper, began publication just one month after classes started. But Ramapo was still almost entirely a commuter school. By dusk, the campus was bereft of most of its student body. Not so in 2009.

The athletic department offers intramural and recreation activities, as it did 38 years ago, but today, the original programs of bowling and tennis, are joined by flag football, basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and ultimate frisbee, to name just a few.

“We’re making a more conscious effort to link our activities to curriculum,” Chang says. “There’s always been this sense of partnership at Ramapo that’s unique in higher education. We try to look at everything we do in Student Affairs as supplementing what’s happening in the classroom.”

From the campus radio station to student government to intramural sports, Ramapo students today engage in nearly 100 clubs and organizations representing social, cultural, academic, political, community service, recreational, and fraternal interests. A club for dancing? For nursing students? For students of Caribbean ancestry? Check, check, and check. Athletics were so limited in the early years, with no home facilities they were quickly dubbed the “Roadrunners,” as they played all games “on the road.” Today Ramapo is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III, sponsoring 22 intercollegiate sports teams. Eighteen of the teams compete in the most prestigious DIII conference in the country, the New Jersey Athletic Conference, while other teams compete as

Ramapo’s Office of Student Affairs coordinates a daily whirl of activity, from “queer peer services” for gay and lesbian students to off-campus adventures. On the day before classes started in September, a busload of first-year students accompanied Patrick Chang, an associate vice president for student affairs, and his wife, Anne, on a walking tour of midtown Manhattan.

members of the Northeast Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA), Metropolitan Conference, The Eastern Conference Athletic Conference (ECAC), and Skyline Conferences. Today, the Roadrunners are so popular that the student group, the Ramapo Rowdies, pack the stands at home events in support.

An active student body is something of a Ramapo tradition. In the early years, with the country mired in the Vietnam War and Watergate unraveling the Nixon presidency, student protests became a campus fixture. Early on, Ramapo earned a reputation as “that hippie school,” a standing that carried a certain appeal. “Ramapo, with all of its new ideas, was very attractive,” remembers Registrar Cynthia Brennan, who, as a student, transferred to Ramapo in 1971, the first year the college www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Feature

1973

1973: A student committee chooses the fast-paced Roadrunner as Ramapo’s official mascot.

1973: The first phase of a long-range student housing building program (Buckeye, Elm, Hickory, Holly, International, Mimosa, Palm, and Science Halls) is completed. Phase II follows three years later.

1975

December 5, 1975: The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools declares Ramapo fully accredited.

1979

1979: The Lodge, housing designed for students with disabilities, opens.

1975: The Student Center is completed. Later named in honor of Ramapo President Robert A. Scott.

Student Life

pher taught bioethics. “We wanted to make sure that students, in addition to understanding their science, understood how it is that their science intersected with society,” Saiff says.

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

9. Provost Beth Barnett speaking with students 10. Ramapo sign with original logo 11. Board of Trustees Chairman, A. J. Sabath '93 as a student 12. Students in the 1970's

The faculty itself has evolved dramatically, from about 50 original full-time professors to 212 today.

1. Students prepare 9/11 memorial in 2008 2. Members of the men's baseball team collect Toys for Tots

Ramapo magazine

Feature

1980: The four-story Ramapo Library opens. Later named for George T. Potter, the college’s first president.

1982

1980 held classes. “In some ways it was hard to tell the faculty from the students. Everything at Ramapo was very consultative.” That connection – that vibe – defined a student life that quickly found its voice. The Paper editorialized in favor of an immediate withdrawal from Southeast Asia. Students tried to block Marines from recruiting on campus and burned Nixon in effigy. Guest speakers commonly arrived on campus from the far-left fringe of American political life, among them Jane Fonda, Ralph Nader, and James Farmer, the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality.

At the same time, George Potter, Ramapo’s first president, and his wife, Laurie, were advocating for the disabled. Richard Roberts, the associate vice president for administration and finance, remembers that Potter and top administrators spent one day each school year trying to negotiate the campus in a wheelchair, itself an exercise in experiential learning. It was no accident that Ramapo also acquired a reputation for building one of the first barrierfree campuses in the metropolitan area. But at Ramapo and across the nation, student political activism tempered in the late 1970s and ’80s, to be supplanted by other interests. When Chang arrived on campus in 1989—he had been the director of student activities at New York University—he was put in charge of organizing a Greek system. Some on campus questioned the move, believing that the establishment of fraternities and sororities conflicted with Ramapo’s egalitarian roots. Today, however, Ramapo is home to 22 Greek organizations, whose growth over the past 20 years has been fundamental in the expansion of student life.

1. College Park Apartments (residence halls) refurbished 2. Students celebrate Octoberfest '08 at the Ramapo Bandshell.

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1985

undergraduates. Miki Cammarata, an associate vice president for student affairs, says their numbers have helped make her job easier, “because you have a critical mass.”

As co-leaders of Ramapo’s Office of Students Affairs, Chang and Cammarata have logged a combined 44 years on campus, with neither one seeming to have lost an ounce of enthusiasm for the work. “I’m very lucky to be in a job with such great vitality and dynamism and change,” Cammarata says. “It’s an ever-changing environment, and students make it that.”

Chang and Cammarata each lived on campus when they first arrived at Ramapo. In fact, Chang still does.

Twenty years ago he and Anne moved into the College Park Apartments, Ramapo’s first dorms. They’ve never left. Today, students live on either side of them. Since the day they moved in, the Changs have enforced an opendoor policy. Their annual Thanksgiving dinner, attended by students, staff, faculty – pretty much anyone who has no place to go for the holiday – has become a campus tradition. Attendance has reached as high as 24, invariably including a contingent of international students. One of them, alumna Vivian Nillson, lives in

The other significant factor has been the rising number of residential students. This school year more than 3,000 students live in campus housing, more than half of Ramapo’s

1984

1982: After many successful seasons, the Ramapo men’s golf team becomes the college’s first national champions.

1984: Ramapo’s baseball team defeats Marietta College to secure the national championship.

Brooklyn, where she’s completing her doctoral studies in international education at the City University of New York. But each November she returns to the Ramapo campus to share Thanksgiving dinner with the Changs.

“It plays a significant part when you are really a part of that community,” Chang says of his two decades living on campus. “It’s really a return to the traditional higher ed structure. It changes the whole atmosphere, to have an adult there. You’re not a parent. You’re somebody they can talk to, and throw things off of, and not be judged.” It also carries on a collaborative tradition at Ramapo, begun at the beginning, when those early pioneers first bonded around that swimming pool.

Admissions

Nancy Jaeger had a major-league challenge on her hands. It was October 1970. She’d just been hired as an admissions counselor at Ramapo, a college so new that ground had not yet been broken on its 300-acre campus. It was Jaeger’s job to sell the school, to convince high school seniors and their parents – as well as adults who might have delayed their college education to start a family, go to work, or go to war – that Ramapo was the place for them. The college set a goal for its first semester: 800 students. There was just one problem. “We had nothing to show them, other than the academic building, which was still under construction,” Jaeger recalls. “We had this little gray binder that talked about what we would do academically. They really took it on faith that we’d be open then. There was amazing interest, especially in North Jersey.”

By the time the new college held its first classes, on Thursday, September 16, 1971, enrollment had grown to nearly 1,200. (Cost of tuition that first year: $175 per semester.) The amazing interest that Jaeger had witnessed was a sign of things to come. As those early years unfolded, she realized her job was not so difficult after all – as long as she could convince prospective students to come for a visit.

June 1985: Robert A. Scott, 45, formerly the director of academic affairs at the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, is formally inaugurated as Ramapo’s second president. The Board of Trustees chose Scott from among 235 candidates for the job. Ramapo is designated New Jersey’s public liberal arts college.

1986: Pine Hall is completed. The newest residence halls on campus have 350 beds.

1986

1990

1990: Linden Hall opens.

Through the 1980s the construction of residence halls guided the evolution of Ramapo’s student body. Classrooms became more racially and ethnically diverse and the number of international students rose. Today, 4 90 percent of full-time Ramapo students live 3. Class of 2013 move-in day 4. McBride House, now home of Admissions on campus. “One of the biggest life experiences I got out of Ramapo was that multiracial, multiethnic experience,” Sabath says. “I matured as a human being as a result of that experience.” “The facilities were all new. The campus was beautiful,” Jaeger says. “If we could get the 1n 1993 Ramapo introduced Immediate students to campus, we could sell them on the Decision Days, in which qualified high school school. It became a very important part of our seniors toured the campus, sat in on a class, marketing campaigns – get them to campus, and met with admissions counselors and show them the facilities, show them the faculty.” professors. By day’s end, they would learn whether they were accepted to Ramapo. It worked. Enrollment blossomed – to 2,463 The practice continues today. “Immediate students in September 1972, to 3,105 a year later. By 1976, Ramapo’s enrollment approached Decision Days really helped put us on the map,” Jaeger says. “Initially we were the only 4,000, including more than 1,200 part-time school in New Jersey doing this.” students. From the start Ramapo reached out to nontraditional students – women returning to These days, Ramapo’s rising academic school, veterans returning from war – and to stature plays a big part in the college’s applistudents with less-than-stellar academic histories. cant pool. Last year the average applicant score on the math and critical reading sec“Over the years we had programs for stutions of the SAT rose 20 points. The average dents who may not have been the highest achieving, but who we thought were special,” score for admitted students is 1,166. This fall U.S. News & World Report ranked Ramapo says Jaeger, who was named director of adfifth among public colleges and universities in missions in 1991, a post she held until retirthe Northeast. “The kids are high-achievers ing in 2007. “We were always more than in the classroom, but they really strive for willing to take a chance on these students. social engagement,” says Peter Rice, who Some of those students turned out to be our succeeded Jaeger as director of admissions. highest-achieving students. It was just the “They’re very involved in community service, right place for them.” in political activity. I’m blown away by the One of those students was A.J. Sabath, who completeness of the Ramapo students.” says he arrived at Ramapo in 1988 as “the The recent success has translated into a pair of quintessential underachiever.” But in the colenrollment milestones: In 2008 Ramapo lege’s intimate setting, with small classes and professors who knew his name, Sabath thrived. fielded 5,800 applications, the most ever. This fall the college admitted 947 freshmen, making Of his time at Ramapo, Sabath says, “I don’t the class of 2013 the largest in school history. think I could have succeeded in any other environment.” www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Feature

1980: The four-story Ramapo Library opens. Later named for George T. Potter, the college’s first president.

1982

1. College Park Apartments (residence halls) refurbished 2. Students celebrate Octoberfest '08 at the Ramapo Bandshell.

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

1985

undergraduates. Miki Cammarata, an associate vice president for student affairs, says their numbers have helped make her job easier, “because you have a critical mass.”

Chang and Cammarata each lived on campus when they first arrived at Ramapo. In fact, Chang still does.

The other significant factor has been the rising number of residential students. This school year more than 3,000 students live in campus housing, more than half of Ramapo’s

1984

1982: After many successful seasons, the Ramapo men’s golf team becomes the college’s first national champions.

1984: Ramapo’s baseball team defeats Marietta College to secure the national championship.

Admissions

1986: Pine Hall is completed. The newest residence halls on campus have 350 beds.

1986

1990

1990: Linden Hall opens.

Ramapo magazine

Feature

1996: Ramapo celebrates its 1st Founders’ Day.

January 1995: The first class of 27 graduate students begin Ramapo’s first master’s program, in liberal arts.

1996

Campus

When Roberts was hired at newly formed Ramapo College of New Jersey in 1970, there was no real campus to speak of. But construction began that year on the glasswalled Academic Building, better known today as the “L,” and part of it was completed by the time Ramapo’s first students enrolled in September 1971. At the time, the building contained not just classrooms but science labs, the bookstore, a small library, faculty offices, and what passed for a cafeteria. “Everything happened in that L,” Roberts says.

How times have changed. It’s been 40 years since Ramapo’s founding on a 320-acre portion of an estate once owned by Stephen Birch, a founder of the Kennecott Copper Company, and in that time the once spartan hillside in the Ramapo River Valley has blossomed into a fully formed college campus. Starting with student housing and extending across all facets of college life—academics, recreation, religion, the arts – construction on campus has persisted almost without interruption. The Student Center was built in three phases, from 1973 to 1990, and later named for Robert A. Scott, Ramapo’s second president. A four-story library named for

founding President Potter opened in 1980. Athletic fields of all stripes sprouted across 38 acres of college property west of Route 202. In the past 10 years alone, Ramapo added the 2,200-seat Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center, the Anisfield School of Business, the Sharp Sustainability Education Center, the Russ and Angelica Berrie Center for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Sala-

1999

2000

1999: Oak Hall opens. It is later named for Pam Bischoff, Ramapo’s longtime vice president for student affairs.

2000: Maple Hall opens. It is later renamed for Nancy Mackin, Ramapo’s longtime dean of students.

2001: Ramapo buys the mansion once owned by Theodore Havemeyer, president of the American Sugar Refining Company, and renovates it as the home of the college president.

2001

July 1, 2001: Rodney David Smith, a former program coordinator at the Harvard Institute for Educational Management, is formally appointed as Ramapo’s third president. In five years at Ramapo he is instrumental in founding the Roukema Center for International Education.

2002

2002: The Village, with the Thomases Commons, a series of residence halls reserved for more than 500 Ramapo seniors, opens.

meno Spiritual Center, and Laurel Hall and The Overlook, both nine-story residence halls. Many of the buildings were financed by donations from alumni and other college supporters. Most notable, perhaps, has been the construction of student housing, which made possible Ramapo’s transition from a commuter to residential college. Where Ramapo’s earliest students were housed in less-thanPhoto courtesy of Paul Toronidis '10

1995

1999: The Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts opens, named for benefactors Russ and Angelica Berrie.

four-star motels along Route 17, today they enjoy some of the most modern and spacious accommodations on any campus in America.

Roberts has overseen it all. He’d recently graduated with an MBA from Columbia University when he heard about a new state college being planned in Bergen County. He was hired as the assistant director of business services, in charge of all manner of college finances. He also monitored payments to the many contractors who were helping the new campus take shape. In 1986, when a new law gave state colleges more autonomy over campus construction, Ramapo’s board of trustees appointed him contracting officer. “We hire the architects, we engage the contractors. So

it totally falls on us,” Roberts says. “We are masters of our destiny, in effect.”

Ramapo’s destiny has been guided from its founding by the master plan created by the team of architects hired to plot the long-term growth of the campus. The architects sought to emphasize Ramapo’s stunning setting, aiming to preserve as much of the natural landscape as possible. It designated Birch Mansion, the Carriage House and the McBride House, the only buildings on the site at the time, as architectural focal points around which the campus would be built. The master plan conceived of a pedestrian core, with a main campus road that would ring the property. It called for allées of pine

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1. Anisfield School of Business 2. (L-R): Nobel Laureate Dr. George Wald, New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, Ramapo President George T. Potter and Mrs. Laurie Potter at the TAS Science Building Dedication 3. Ground breaking for The Angelica and Russ Berrie Center for the Performing and Visual Arts in 1998 4. Beginning construction of academic building in 1970 5. Academic building 2006 6. Overlook Residence Hall 2004 7. Robert Scott, Ramapo president from 1985-2000 8. Rodney Smith, Ramapo president from 2001-2004 9. Peter P. Mercer and Professor of Art, Judith Peck

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1996: Ramapo celebrates its 1st Founders’ Day.

January 1995: The first class of 27 graduate students begin Ramapo’s first master’s program, in liberal arts.

1996

Campus

1999

2000

1999: Oak Hall opens. It is later named for Pam Bischoff, Ramapo’s longtime vice president for student affairs.

2000: Maple Hall opens. It is later renamed for Nancy Mackin, Ramapo’s longtime dean of students.

2001: Ramapo buys the mansion once owned by Theodore Havemeyer, president of the American Sugar Refining Company, and renovates it as the home of the college president.

2001

2002

2002: The Village, with the Thomases Commons, a series of residence halls reserved for more than 500 Ramapo seniors, opens.

1995

1999: The Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts opens, named for benefactors Russ and Angelica Berrie.

four-star motels along Route 17, today they enjoy some of the most modern and spacious accommodations on any campus in America.

it totally falls on us,” Roberts says. “We are masters of our destiny, in effect.”

Ramapo magazine

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Ramapo magazine

2004

2004: The Overlook, a dramatically designed nine-story residence hall, opens.

July 1, 2005: Peter Philip Mercer, formerly the vice president and general counsel at the University of Western Ontario, is appointed as Ramapo’s fourth president.

2005

2005: The Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center, named for the former U.S. Senator and National Basketball Association Hall of Famer, opens.

2006: Laurel Hall, a nine-story residence hall, opens.

trees throughout campus and for grassy berms to be built along Route 202, near the south entrance, to obstruct the view of large parking lots from passing drivers. “They wanted to see as much green as possible, and we’ve tried to respect that vision,” Roberts says. “We tried to make the buildings fit the landscape, as opposed to the other way around.” 2

2008

As for the two buildings that came with the landscape, both were put to good use. The McBride House had been built in 1890 as a guesthouse on the estate of Theodore Havemeyer, a founder of the American Sugar Refining Company, who sold most of his 1,000-acre property to Stephen Birch in 1917. Today it’s the home of Ramapo’s Office of Admissions. In 1993 the College named the property in honor of the

2008: The Anisfield School of Business opens. The building was named for former Board of Trustee member and long-time College supporters and benefactors, Millicent and Richard Anisfield.

J. Nevins McBride's family of Frankln Lakes, which had provided a gift to renovate the house. Birch Mansion, which Havemeyer had built in 1899 as a wedding gift for his daughter Lillie, was remodeled and turned into office space for the college president, provost, and other administrators. More recently, in 2001, the college purchased Havemeyer’s three-story, 9,900square-foot Italianate home, built in 1849. Today it’s the official residence of the Ramapo College president.

2010

Spring 2010: The Sharp Sustainability Education Center, built with state-of-the-art green technology such as a geothermal heating and cooling system, opens.

The growth of the campus continues. On an easel inside his office at Birch Mansion, Roberts keeps a site plan for yet another project. For Roberts, who celebrates his own 40th anniversary at Ramapo next year, all the construction has kept him busy, and rooted. “That’s why I’ve been here so long,” he says. “Every day is different. If it was boring, I wouldn’t have stayed.”

Photo courtesy of Molly Stern '10

Feature

1. Trustees Pavilion 2. The Reverend Dr. Vernon C. Walton, Lisa Jackson, then New Jersey Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, currently the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Peter P. Mercer at the Ground breaking for The Sharp Sustainability Center in September 2007 3. The Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony in April 2005 4. The Berrie Center 5. The Angelica and Russ Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony in 1999 6. Maple Hall (now Nancy Mackin Hall) 7. George Potter with model for College 8. The Salameno Spiritual Center nearing completion in 2009 9. Oak Hall (now Pamela M. Bischoff Hall) 10. Laurel Hall 2006 5

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2004

2004: The Overlook, a dramatically designed nine-story residence hall, opens.

July 1, 2005: Peter Philip Mercer, formerly the vice president and general counsel at the University of Western Ontario, is appointed as Ramapo’s fourth president.

2005

2005: The Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center, named for the former U.S. Senator and National Basketball Association Hall of Famer, opens.

2006: Laurel Hall, a nine-story residence hall, opens.

2008

2008: The Anisfield School of Business opens. The building was named for former Board of Trustee member and long-time College supporters and benefactors, Millicent and Richard Anisfield.

2010

Spring 2010: The Sharp Sustainability Education Center, built with state-of-the-art green technology such as a geothermal heating and cooling system, opens.

Photo courtesy of Molly Stern '10

Feature

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Ramapo magazine

Cover story The Havemeyer’s daughter, Lillie, married the estate’s superintendent, John Meyer. Despite some anxiety about the marriage, the parents built the couple a villa on the eastern side of Ramapo Valley Road. The red brick Queen Anne style mansion was begun in 1887 and completed in 1890 at a cost of $100,000. The mansion contained about 15 rooms for use by the Meyer family, plus servants’ quarters, kitchen, a butler’s pantry featuring a large silverware safe and an extensive cellar with vaults for the safeguarding of wine and other family possessions. A matching gatehouse was also constructed near the road. The Birch Mansion today

The original carriage house, now the College’s Print Shop

THE BIRCH MANSION AT RAMAPO COLLEGE By Ronald Kase Associate Vice President and Director, Grants Administration

Ramapo College’s core academic wing surrounds the regal Birch Mansion. The Mansion in the College’s central quad was named for Stephen and Mary Birch. The structure has great historical significance to the College, the region and the country. The sitting room, now the President’s office suite

The York Room is now used for conferences, meetings and special events

By the middle of the 19th century, the beginning of the Gilded Age, wealthy New Yorkers began to establish homes and estates in the scenic Ramapo Valley in northern New Jersey. Theodore Havemeyer, a wealthy sugar refiner and a leader in the formation of the National Sugar Trust, purchased property owned by Henry Hagerman on the north side of Ramapo Valley Road (Route 202) in 1878. After procuring additional property, a 3,000 acre state-of-the-art Jersey dairy farm was developed and profitably operated until the early 20th century.

Above: Steven Birch, Jr., with one of the “Birch” bulls

There he developed a major copper find, and with the help of Theodore Havemeyer who introduced him to Daniel Guggenheim and J.P. Morgan, two of America’s richest men, the Kennecott Mining Company was formed with Birch as its president.

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Theodore Havemeyer died in 1897. In addition to his Manhattan residence and Mountainside Farm, as the New Jersey property was known, Havemeyer owned a mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island among the great summer cottages built by three Vanderbilts, an Astor and August Belmont.

In 1900, three years after Havemeyer’s death, tragedy struck the Meyer family when Lillie died in the mansion from an accidental gunshot wound. There are some longtime Ramapo College employees that claim they have seen Lillie’s ghost drifting through the mansion’s halls late at night. Earlier this year, a group of students fascinated by the mansion’s history slept over, hoping to see her ghost. Unfortunately their sleep wasn’t interrupted.

Birch displayed an inquisitive and entrepreneurial spirit that the Havemeyers encouraged and funded by sending him to Columbia University where he graduated from Columbia’s School of Mines with a graduate engineering degree. Theodore Havemeyer and his wife Emily, a daughter of the Austrian Consul General of New York, had nine children. A young man, Stephen Birch, tutored the children. Birch displayed an inquisitive and entrepreneurial spirit that the Havemeyers encouraged and funded by sending him to Columbia University where he graduated from Columbia’s School of Mines with a graduate engineering degree. The Havemeyer family then financed an exploratory trip to Alaska for Birch in 1899 where minerals had been discovered that were needed for emerging American industries. Aerial campus shot taken in October 2009

The mansion’s mansard roof was slate that was most likely cut in a quarry in Westchester County, New York and floated across the Hudson River on a barge. The roof has been maintained to this day using similar slate. The mansion was heated by a huge furnace that was fueled by coal brought to the firebox by a conveyer system. Extensive planned gardens

surrounded the mansion and the breakfast room overlooked beautiful plantings that flourished throughout the growing season.

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The original carriage house, now the College’s Print Shop

THE BIRCH MANSION AT RAMAPO COLLEGE By Ronald Kase Associate Vice President and Director, Grants Administration

The York Room is now used for conferences, meetings and special events

Above: Steven Birch, Jr., with one of the “Birch” bulls

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surrounded the mansion and the breakfast room overlooked beautiful plantings that flourished throughout the growing season.

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Cover story

By 1917 the surviving children of Theodore Havemeyer decided to sell the mansion and 730 acres of the estate to Stephen Birch. Birch’s renamed Kennecott Copper Company had become the largest producer of copper in this country and held 15 percent of the world’s known copper. At its peak in 1940, Kennecott employed 29,000 and had $177 million in sales.

In 1938 Kennecott’s Alaska mines closed, but Birch had found alternative sources of copper in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Chile. The same year he founded the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation to support humanitarian organizations. The Foundation has continued its exceptional support of health organizations, historic conservation, literacy projects, a major aquarium and diverse programs that include the baseball museum at San Diego State University. Stephen and Mary Birch had two children, Stephen and Mary. For the marriage of Mary to Patrick R. Patrick in 1920, the Birch family added the beautiful York Room to the Birch Mansion for their wedding ceremony. After her father’s death, the Birch Foundation was guided for

many years by Mary Birch Patrick who carried on her father’s philanthropic interests.

The York Room’s elaborately carved walls and ceiling were created by craftsmen from England who had produced the beautiful carved woods and plaster found in English manor

that are balanced on the elaborate banister. Looking up the dark wood staircase, one can imagine being transported to an English manse or a grand house on the Scottish moors.

Looking up the dark wood staircase, one can imagine being transported to an English manse or a grand house on the Scottish moors. houses. The curved window wall in the front of the York Room wrapped around a circa 1919 Steinway concert grand piano. The York Room continues as a concert venue where chamber music performances and recitals are held. The room’s oversize fireplace features a carved sandstone mantel and surround that supports intricate wood designs and figures that rise up to the carved plaster ceiling.

The mansion’s main entry foyer walls are covered with maple paneling that still has the original finish. The central staircase is enhanced by extensive carved wood gargoyle type figures

Windows of the York Room

President Potter with Mary Birch Patrick

In 1969, the Birch estate was sold to the State of New Jersey for the development of a new public college in northern New Jersey. The three original buildings, the mansion, the gatehouse and a five bay local fieldstone garage, became the center of Ramapo College; a new liberal arts college that has distinguished itself by offering an innovative interdisciplinary curriculum that features small classes and high quality student centered education. The College’s symbol, the red stone arch, had been moved to the estate from the Havemeyer residence on 38th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan by Stephen Birch soon after he acquired the property. It’s been said that Stephen Birch wanted to honor the memory of Theodore Havemeyer who helped Birch become one of the most important industrialists in the United States. The arch is in the center of the academic structure. Each fall, students participate in an Arching Ceremony, the College’s traditional welcome. Symbolically, they pass under the arch again in a procession to commencement exercises.

The main lobby of the Birch Mansion

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The Birch Mansion is the College’s heart and soul. It’s a fitting designation because Stephen Birch began his association with the Havemeyer family as a tutor. He taught the nine Havemeyer children mathematics and the classics. Now on the same paths trod by Birch and his family are students attending Ramapo College of New Jersey.

The mansion houses the College’s administrative offices, and care has been taken to preserve the historic structure. The gatehouse was named the McBride House, and is the location of the Office of Admissions, the first place potential students and eager parents stop on their initial visit to campus. All around the mansion are the impressive buildings that make up the Ramapo College campus. For 40 years the College has carefully and tastefully added to the original buildings. Hundreds of native trees were planted and flowers abound. The old growth trees have been saved and the campus is a pleasant place to walk and to see the seasons change. It is a great place to go to College. Stephen Birch would have approved.

Birch Mansion 2008

Birch Gardens under construction

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Cover story

many years by Mary Birch Patrick who carried on her father’s philanthropic interests.

The York Room’s elaborately carved walls and ceiling were created by craftsmen from England who had produced the beautiful carved woods and plaster found in English manor

that are balanced on the elaborate banister. Looking up the dark wood staircase, one can imagine being transported to an English manse or a grand house on the Scottish moors.

The mansion’s main entry foyer walls are covered with maple paneling that still has the original finish. The central staircase is enhanced by extensive carved wood gargoyle type figures

Windows of the York Room

President Potter with Mary Birch Patrick

The main lobby of the Birch Mansion

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Birch Mansion 2008

Birch Gardens under construction

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Sustainability

RAMAPO’S ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY FOUR DECADES IN THE MAKING, RAMAPO’S FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT ENDURES, GROWS

By Chris Hann

Emma Rainforth describes the Sharp Sustainability Education Center as a cuttingedge laboratory for Ramapo students to explore issues related to sustainable living. But the squat, whitewashed building at the southern tip of the campus is hardly the college’s first innovative step in environmental education. That commitment dates to Ramapo’s very birth: In 1971 the first school created by the newly opened college was the School of Human Environment.

The composting area with wood framed bins teeming with earthworms. After composting, the remains were returned to the gardens. And, on tours led by students, visitors were given clumps of composted soil to hold in their hands while lectured about the value of soil (never to be called dirt).

The Alternate Energy Center, showing components of the center: a water pumping windmill that stored water and provided gravity pressure to send water throughout the approximately 4 acre site, the Jacobs Generator, an electricity-producing windmill erected circa 1976, and the passive solar greenhouse.

“Almost since the day the College was founded there’s been an environmental flavor to the curriculum,” says Emma Rainforth, an associate professor of environmental science and geology and the director of the sustainability center

Four decades later, Ramapo’s focus on environmental issues is more widespread than ever. The college offers majors—and more than 30 courses—in environmental science and environmental studies. The Institute of Environmental Studies, chaired by longtime Ramapo professor Michael Edelstein, coordinates faculty research, organizes environmental conferences, and plans campus-wide sustainability projects. New campus construction has employed the latest in sustainable materials and technology, and dining halls have done away with food trays, a practice that’s been shown to reduce food waste. Ramapo students and faculty operate the education program at the Meadowlands Environmental Center. Students take part in 16

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Students at Ramapo’s recycling shed, a student-initiated project circa 1977, one of the first and best full service recycling projects of its kind.

competitions that reduce energy use and promote recycling. Ramapo President Peter Mercer signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, vowing to cut the college’s greenhouse gas emissions. And next fall Ramapo plans to begin accepting students into a new master’s program in sustainability. Even Ramapo’s long-term strategic plan identifies sustainability as a fundamental principle: “All strategic goals and objectives must be consistent with the commitment to environmental, social, and economic sustainability by the College.”

One of the earliest and most vital symbols of the College’s focus on sustainable living was the Alternate Energy and Environment Center. Students and faculty members, under the direction of Professor William Makofske, built the complex in 1975 in response to the energy crisis, which had left frustrated drivers waiting in long lines at gas stations across America. The center, which included a solarheated classroom and greenhouse, was designed to demonstrate alternative methods of producing and using renewable resources, especially energy, food, and shelter. Students maintained an organic garden, a composting bin, and a water-pumping windmill. A tree

The solar greenhouse with the recycling shed and Jacobs Generator tower to the right. In the foreground is a vertical windmill that was part of an experimental program built to test windmill designs.

farm provided trees to be transplanted throughout the campus. A greenhouse provided seedlings for the garden, which helped prolong the growing season. And proceeds earned by a student-run recycling center helped finance the entire operation.

The Alternate Energy Center was removed around 2000 to make way for The Village, a collection of residence halls built for Ramapo seniors. But its impact represents an essential chapter in Ramapo’s environmental legacy. “We were the first institution in the country to really get into renewable energy design at the undergraduate level,” says Edel-

stein, who still keeps a sign from the center in his office. “Our program always exemplified the four pillars of the College. It was exactly the kind of interdisciplinary, global, multicultural, experiential program that was envisioned when the College was created.” The Institute of Environmental Studies, created in 1984, has helped advance Ramapo’s sustainability efforts. In the 1990s the institute used a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to make Ramapo’s curriculum more environmentally conscious across all fields. Edelstein says the project was designed to impart lessons on ecological literacy –

(L-R): James Florio, New Jersey Governor from 1990-1994 with Professor of Psychology, Michael Edelstein at the Green Meets Green Expo

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RAMAPO’S ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY FOUR DECADES IN THE MAKING, RAMAPO’S FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT ENDURES, GROWS

By Chris Hann

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Students at Ramapo’s recycling shed, a student-initiated project circa 1977, one of the first and best full service recycling projects of its kind.

The solar greenhouse with the recycling shed and Jacobs Generator tower to the right. In the foreground is a vertical windmill that was part of an experimental program built to test windmill designs.

(L-R): James Florio, New Jersey Governor from 1990-1994 with Professor of Psychology, Michael Edelstein at the Green Meets Green Expo

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Sustainability

throughout the state: 1) a reduction to 1990 levels by 2020; and 2) a further reduction to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.

Rainforth is confident that Ramapo will meet both goals. “Because we’re already working on it,” she says, “we’ll be getting there faster.” Mercer was persuaded to sign the Climate Commitment by a group of Ramapo students who, on the President’s challenge, collected 750 signatures on a petition. Among them were Paul Coraggio of Hazlet, then a freshman, and Allison Petryk, a senior from Vernon. They later founded a student environmental group, 1STEP (Students Together for Environmental Progress), that has organized a series of projects aimed at promoting awareness of sustainability issues.

Emma Rainforth, Assistant Professor of Geology

Group members help tend the organic garden at Havemeyer House, a project led by Jacqueline Ehlert-Mercer, a registered dietician and

the wife of the Ramapo College’s president. The group’s Give and Go program encourages students to recycle items—food, clothing, electrical supplies—that they typically throw out at the end of each semester. Coraggio says 1STEP members gather the items and deliver them to St. Andrew’s Church in Waldwick, which in turn distributes them to needy families. Another campaign, Do It In The Dark, encourages students to turn off lights that are not in use. “It’s perfect for the college crowd,” Coraggio says, “because the name sort of makes you wonder.”

1STEP sponsors Green Facts, a month-long competition between Ramapo’s eight dormitories, in which students vie to reduce their energy use and expand their recycling efforts. Coraggio says 1STEP estimates that Ramapo has saved $47,000 in energy costs as a result of the Green Facts competitions, which began in the spring of 2008.

(L-R): Allison Petryk with President Peter P. Mercer and Paul Coraggio at the sustainability committment signing.

defined as “the wisdom and knowledge needed to create and maintain a sustainable society” – into the broad curriculum of an undergraduate liberal arts college.

In recent years the institute has organized conferences on sustainability attended by as many as 5,000 people, and it was the original host of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS), a coalition of more than 40 colleges across the state. NJHEPS has returned to Ramapo College this year and will make its home in the new Sustainability Center under the leadership of Emma Rainforth. In 2007, using grants from the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy, the institute embarked on a variety of research and public education projects. Makofske led a project that audited energy use at small- to mid-size nonresidential buildings – such as churches, libraries, and small 18

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businesses – and taught managers of those properties how to reduce their energy consumption. In November Edelstein organized the Green Meets Green Conference and Expo, a two-day environmental education summit on the Ramapo campus.

It was during Green Meets Green that President Mercer signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, in which some 600 college presidents recognize “the unprecedented scale and speed of global warming and its potential for large-scale, adverse health, social, economic and ecological effects.” Mercer’s signing of the climate commitment obligates Ramapo to take steps to achieve “climate neutrality” as soon as possible. With that goal in mind, the college is conducting a survey of greenhouse gas emissions and exploring energy savings in buildings, transportation, renewable energy sources, and recycling.

“Sustainability penetrates every issue. In medicine, climate change has been shown to spread epidemic diseases. For business majors, green is the new black. Everyone is trying to go green.” PAUL CORAGGIO

Some of those obligations mirror initiatives to which Ramapo already had committed. The college earlier had set a policy that all new construction on campus would adhere to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver standards, as determined by the U.S. Green Building Council. Ramapo is also taking steps to adhere to Executive Order 54, signed by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine on February 13, 2007, which sets two goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions Students working with Jacqueline-Ehlert Mercer (second from front right) in the Edible Garden in April 2009

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throughout the state: 1) a reduction to 1990 levels by 2020; and 2) a further reduction to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.

Emma Rainforth, Assistant Professor of Geology

Group members help tend the organic garden at Havemeyer House, a project led by Jacqueline Ehlert-Mercer, a registered dietician and

(L-R): Allison Petryk with President Peter P. Mercer and Paul Coraggio at the sustainability committment signing.

defined as “the wisdom and knowledge needed to create and maintain a sustainable society” – into the broad curriculum of an undergraduate liberal arts college.

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Sustainability Coraggio says he hopes that 1STEP will build on Ramapo’s tradition of sustainability, a topic once again finding wide appeal among college students. “Sustainability penetrates every issue,” Coraggio says. “In medicine, climate change has been shown to spread epidemic diseases. For business majors, green is the new black. Everyone’s trying to go green.”

Ramapo’s newest and boldest attempt to go green is the $1.3 million Sustainability Education Center. A successor of sorts to the Alternate Energy Center, the sustainability center will serve as a centerpiece for Ramapo’s environmental curriculum. With its south-facing windows, photovoltaic panels, waterless urinals, and geothermal heatingand-cooling system, the center is designed to maximize its use of solar energy and mini-

Installing the thermo heating/cooling coil at the SEC in December 2008

(L-R): Joe Fontanella, Project Manager for Prestige Mini, Alex Sim and Peter Carson, Ramapo College class of 2010 Environmental Studies majors, and Christopher Turner, Vice President for Prestige Mini. Alex and Peter are helping to design a green building which will become the new location for Prestige Mini.

mize its use of water and electricity. The geothermal system, a 70-by-100-foot underground network of coils filled with fluid, will transfer cool air into the building in the summer and warm air in the winter. Plans also call for the construction of a greenhouse and the planting of an organic garden.

the building options that are available,” she says. “This is state of the art. This is what you can do when you actually have access to state-of-the-art materials.”

“We will literally see minute to minute what the building’s energy production and consumption rates are.” EMMA RAINFORTH

The center’s 700-square-foot classroom can accommodate 35 students, and a 175-squarefoot office will contain hardware that will track the building’s use of electricity. “We will literally see minute to minute what the building’s energy production and consumption rates are,” Rainforth says.

(L-R): Corporate Vice President of Sharp Electronics, David Alai, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Cathleen Davey and President Peter P. Mercer tour the Center.

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The center is expected to be utilized as a meeting place for Ramapo student groups, such as the Environmental Alliance, says Rainforth, and a learning center for people of all ages throughout northern New Jersey. “We’ll use it for outreach, so people can see

April 2009 panel on sustainability at Ramapo

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Installing the thermo heating/cooling coil at the SEC in December 2008

the building options that are available,” she says. “This is state of the art. This is what you can do when you actually have access to state-of-the-art materials.”

“We will literally see minute to minute what the building’s energy production and consumption rates are.” EMMA RAINFORTH

(L-R): Corporate Vice President of Sharp Electronics, David Alai, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Cathleen Davey and President Peter P. Mercer tour the Center.

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April 2009 panel on sustainability at Ramapo

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College news

More than 30 applicants from all over the world along with family, and staff from the Newark field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services became naturalized citizens.

Salameno Spiritual Center

In the spring, Ramapo College of New Jersey will open the doors to the new Salameno Spiritual Center on campus.

Modeled after the United Nations Meditation Room, and the Parliament of World Religions, the center will be open to all cultures of the world for tranquility and reflection. The spiritual functions of the center are enhanced by the setting along Kameron Pond, a campus focal point, and also by the garden landscaping.

The Salameno Spiritual Center is made up of the Padovano Peace Pavilion, the McBride and Marino Meditation Rooms, and two entry buildings that host storage, bathroom facilities and a kitchenette. This summer a series of construction crews worked on the project, including a team of Mennonite men. The project would not be

The Havemeyer Edible Garden at Ramapo College In the summer of 2006, President Peter P. Mercer and Jackie Ehlert-Mercer founded the Havemeyer Edible Garden on the grounds of the President’s residence. Aided by financial

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Constitution Day completed without the support of Catholics at Ramapo United, Daniell Family Foundation, Inc. (Paul and Holly Miller), David and Eleanore Rukin Philanthropic Foundation, Dr. Anthony and Theresa Padovano, Dr. Ronald J. and Kathleen Kase, Fred J. Brotherton Charitable Foundation, Mann Family Foundation (Emily and Sam Mann), Rose and Andrew Mainardi, Jr., Gail and Anthony J. Marino, Eugene S. Dubicki, Judy and George M. Webster, Jeffrey A. Nightingale, Theresa and Lawrence Salameno, Elizabeth and Ralph Mastrangelo, Phyllis and Richard Roberts, Thea and Samuel Schnydman, Pam and Peter W. McBride, Rebecca H. Kraus, Robert and Shirlee M. Caruso, Ray Corbett and Ms. Cathleen Davey, Frances K. and David Hackett, Karen B. Booth, Carlo and Kathleen R. Mainardi, Ed and Roberta Saiff, Robyn Herbst, PepsiCo Foundation, Reverend George Mader, Rolex Watch USA, Inc., Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Schwartz Family Foundation (Cipora Schwartz), Student Activities Revenue Management, and TAM Metal Products, Inc. C. Elezovic contributions from community supporters, Ehlert-Mercer transformed an arid and rocky patch of land into a fertile Edible Garden filled with hybrid tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, lettuces, radishes, carrots, sprouts, cucumbers, herbs and peas. A garden on the grounds of a President’s house is not new. However, the Havemeyer Edible Garden’s mission focuses on sustainable eating and nutrition programs aimed at motivating learners to make healthier and local food choices. Ehlert-Mercer's commitment to nutritious and sustainable eating is rooted in her professional background as a registered dietician and nutrition researcher. She believes that an edible garden enables students and teachers to translate sustainable food practices and nutrition information into healthier lifestyle practices.

Established on more than 150 college campuses across the United States, the American Democracy Project (ADP) is a national organization that seeks to foster an intellectual understanding of civic engagement.

The ADP seeks to increase the number of undergraduate students who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful civic actions by asking participating institutions to review and restructure academic programs and processes, extracurricular programs and activities, and the institutional culture. It also helps focus the attention of policy makers and opinion leaders on the civic value of the college experience. The ADP committee at Ramapo College of New Jersey has been creative in both program planning and delivery for the observation of Constitution Day. On September 17, the campus celebrated the 222nd anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution and hosted a naturalization ceremony in the Trustees Pavilion. The event featured speakers Murray Sabrin, a professor of finance in the Anisfield School of Business and naturalized citizen, and Peter P. Mercer, president of Ramapo College. C. Elezovic

In its fourth growing season, this year the Havemeyer Edible Garden at Ramapo College continued its tradition of promoting sustainability, nutrition, and obesity prevention through an edible garden based curriculum that gives students experience in sustainable eating and nutrition. On June 16, joined by a friend, founders enjoyed the local bounty of the summer at an “organic 100-mile dinner” hosted at the historic Havemeyer House. “What better way to demonstrate our gratitude for their support than by hosting a dinner that included herbs and vegetables from the garden and an array of locally grown and produced foods,” said Ehlert-Mercer. Unintended consequences - a flurry of donations - followed the dinner and a total of $4,500 in donations were made to support the garden’s projects this year.

Marcial Ayala, The Wave, acrylic, Thompson Collection, Ramapo College

Ramapo College's Anisfield School of Business New Home of Eastern Economic Association In July, Ramapo College of New Jersey became the new home to one of the nation's foremost associations dedicated to the promotion of scholarly and educational exchange, research and discussion of economic affairs – the Eastern Economic Association.

The Association is housed at the Anisfield School of Business and Dr. Alexandre Olbrecht, associate professor of Economics at Ramapo and a Research Associate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, is the Association's new Executive Director.

“I am delighted that the Eastern Economic Association has found a new (L-R): Dr, Alexandre Olbrecht home at Ramapo and ASB Dean Lewis Chakrin College,” said Professor N. Gregory Mankiw, EEA President and Professor of Economics at Harvard University. "I am confident that the Association will continue to thrive there and will remain a leading force bringing economics educators and researchers together to advance the field." Established in 1974, the Association publishes the highly acclaimed Eastern Economic Journal,

which presents methodological and philosophical as well as empirical and theoretical papers from all areas of economics. In addition, the Association hosts an annual conference on the Eastern Seaboard that draws more than 1,000 presenters from throughout the world. Current and past executives of the Association include renowned thought leaders in the field of Economics. The Association's executive committee has been led by Nobel Laureates including Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Lawrence R. Klein, James Tobin, Robert M. Solow and Thomas Schelling. Recent past presidents include former Federal Reserve Bank Governors Frederic S. Mishkin and Alan S. Blinder.

"The mission of the Anisfield School of Business is to prepare students for success in their business careers through the strategic integration of the business disciplines and the liberal arts," said Dean Lewis Chakrin. "In these difficult economic times, it is more important than ever for business students to be well versed in the study of Economics, a traditional liberal arts discipline. The fact that the prestigious Eastern Economics Association has chosen the Anisfield School of Business as its new home, attests to the quality of our business program and our commitment to our mission." Ramapo’s Chorale group at the shrine of the Blessed Virgin in Manila. Front Row: (L-R): Allison Snyder, Lori Mendez, Heather Gonci, Jessica Abrams, Amanda Svetlak, Alisa Smith, Jessica Patterson, Lisa Lutter, assistant professor of Music and director (not pictured, Anne Liberman) Back Row: (L-R): Jason Arena, Adam Posluszny, Tom Curran, Karl Cepeda, Jimmy Santos, Greg Elfers, Tom Mazarella, and Michael Coviello

Manila. They sang in two different churches as part of a high mass, one of which was St. Augustine’s, the oldest church in the Philippines.

Ramapo’s Chorale Groups

Last summer the Ramapo Chorale groups competed in Prague and won seven medals at an international competition. This summer, Dr. Lisa Lutter accompanied 16 Ramapo students to Guam to participate in the 10th Anniversary of the Pacific Summer Music Festival. Rather than competing, the students gathered to sing and enjoy the culture of Guam and

The students viewed paintings, statues, religious manuscripts, and relics dating back to the Renaissance.

Art Galleries

Did you know that the New York Times art critic has named our art galleries as one of their favorite college galleries in the Northeast? Many don't realize this hidden treasure exists on campus.

Assistant Professor/Art Painting/Drawing, Contemporary Arts, Jackie Skrzynski, Beamish Boy, charcoal, pastel and colored pencil

The Ramapo College Art Galleries presented a lively spectrum of expressions in the fall. In September, incoming assistant professor of painting and drawing Jackie Skrzynski was showcased in a mid-career survey. Skrzynski makes provocative drawings and paintings that feature compelling references to her own family experiences and the feral nature of domestic life. Her innovative imagery is influenced by art history and mythology, and includes hybrid human and animal forms. In November, the galleries mounted a one-person exhibition by internationally renowned Mexican painter Marcial Ayala, whose dreamlike scenes represent the villages and landscapes of his native region of Guerrero with entrancing and mysterious flair. Ramapo donor Selden Rodman helped bring Ayala to the art world's attention, and the exhibition mixed works from the Thompson and Rodman Collections at Ramapo College with a large number of loaned pieces from Washington D.C. collector Tyler Cowen. Ayala’s work is also currently featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Other fall Berrie Center exhibitions included “Larry and Paulette’s Funhouse: The Brill Collection,” a colorful grouping of North American self-taught artists from a private collection, and “Re-Casting Site,’ our prestigious Ramapo Curatorial Prize exhibition curated this year by Terri Smith, and co-organized with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. The year ends with the senior thesis exhibition.

Adam Posluszny, Ramapo Class of 2010, said “we went to the opposite side of the world, and found people there that were just like us. It was clear that everyone there loved music, and when such a group gets together and starts doing what they do best, the shared joy in a beautiful song just might be the best thing in the world.” C. Elezovic www.ramapo.edu

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College news

More than 30 applicants from all over the world along with family, and staff from the Newark field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services became naturalized citizens.

Salameno Spiritual Center

In the spring, Ramapo College of New Jersey will open the doors to the new Salameno Spiritual Center on campus.

Ramapo magazine

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Marcial Ayala, The Wave, acrylic, Thompson Collection, Ramapo College

Manila. They sang in two different churches as part of a high mass, one of which was St. Augustine’s, the oldest church in the Philippines.

Ramapo’s Chorale Groups

The students viewed paintings, statues, religious manuscripts, and relics dating back to the Renaissance.

Art Galleries

Did you know that the New York Times art critic has named our art galleries as one of their favorite college galleries in the Northeast? Many don't realize this hidden treasure exists on campus.

Assistant Professor/Art Painting/Drawing, Contemporary Arts, Jackie Skrzynski, Beamish Boy, charcoal, pastel and colored pencil

Ramapo magazine

Faculty news New Faculty Hires

Student, Faculty Collaborate on Stem Cell Research

New faculty members, including visiting and temporary professors, attended a two-day New Faculty Orientation in August, sponsored by the Provost’s Office, designed to explain services available to them and students. Since 2004 the College has maintained its commitment to adding five new faculty lines a year to replace retiring faculty and support our academic mission. The net number of tenured and tenure-track faculty has grown from 195 in 2004 to 215 this year.

By Courtney Elezovic

Professor of English, Frances Shapiro-Skrobe

English Professor Will Nominate Scholars for Fulbright-Hays Program Economics Professor Named to Finance Ministry in Liberia

Assistant Professor of Economics, George Gonpu, Ph.D.

George Gonpu, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Economics in the Anisfield School of Business, was appointed deputy minister for Budget, Ministry of Finance in the Republic of Liberia. The professor is on a leave of absence from the College.

In a letter congratulating the professor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia’s president, welcomed Gonpu’s ability to make a “meaningful contribution as we strive to move our country forward in a process aimed at enhancing peace, reconciliation and development.”

Gonpu began teaching at Ramapo College in 2000. The professor holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois, a Master of Arts from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Liberia. 24

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(L-R sitting): Sarah Stackhouse, CA, Desi Budeva, ASB, Shalie Simms, ASB, Julia Ivanova, ASB, Shaziela Ishak, SSHS, Kathryn Krase, SSHS, Rebecca Root, AIS and Naseem Choudhury, SSHS. (L-R 1st row standing): Jackie Skrzynski, CA, Laura Nicholas, AIS, Daniel Skinner, AIS, John McLaughlin, SSHS, Nick Salter, SSHS, Paul Reck, SSHS, Rick Nunez, ASB, Nelson Jay Carreon, TAS, Maan Aubed, AIS, Sandra Suarez, TAS, Christina Smith, CA, and Giuseppe Sorrentino. (L-R 2nd row standing): Stephen Larson, ASB, Donovan McFeron, John Thomas, ASB, James Gillespie, TAS, Sarah Bolton, TAS, Ashwani Vasishth, SSHS, Dominique Johnson, SSHS, Gladys Torres Baumgarten, ASB, Juan Cabrera, ASB, John Peffer, CA.

Journalism Professor Key to Obtaining Nonprofit Status for Institute for Justice and Journalism

Edna Negrón, an associate professor of Journalism in the School of Contemporary Arts, is one of four founding board members of the Institute for Justice and Journalism who will guide the organization in its new independent, nonprofit status. She was among an initial group who conceived the Institute's blueprint in 2001. The Institute offers working journalists fellowships and support to pursue stories on complex justice issues including immigration, criminal justice and the environment. Formerly housed at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, the Institute will be based at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, California. The Institute sought nonprofit status when funding from the Ford

Foundation, which had been provided for nine years, ended this year.

“The work of the Institute is more relevant and important now Associate Professor of than ever,” said Negrón. Journalism, Edna Negrón “Journalism is undergoing unprecedented challenges at a time when the stories of America's emerging mostly under covered communities need to be told.”

The Institute has sponsored fellowship programs involving more than 200 journalists and has provided direct support and resources to journalists who aim to raise the standards of justice reporting across media.

Frances Shapiro-Skrobe, Ph.D., a professor of English in the Teacher Education Program of the School of Social Science and Human Services, accepted an invitation from The Institute of International Education (IIE) to serve on its National Screening Committee for English Teaching Assistantships in South America. The appointment, which begins with the fall semester, is for three years.

The IIE conducts scholarship competitions for U.S. graduate students who pursue study, research or professional training abroad under the Fulbright-Hays Program sponsored by the United States Department of State.

The National Screening Committee, to which Shapiro-Skrobe was named, is comprised of specialists and authorities in various fields. The Committee will review approximately 75 applications for the Fulbright-Hays Program and nominate candidates.

Previously, the professor received a prestigious Fulbright-Hays Junior Lectureship and served as a visiting professor of Linguistics at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo in Trujillo, Peru. There, she taught linguistics courses and trained English language teachers.

Dr. William Mitchell, Associate Professor of Genetics, with Daniela Georgieva working on Daniela’s stem cell research project

In April, more than 30 undergraduate students presented their findings at Ramapo College’s annual School of Theoretical and Applied Science Student Research Symposium. Representatives from regional research companies attended, which created a professional conference atmosphere for the student-faculty collaborative research events. Among the students was Daniela Georgieva, who works with Dr. Thomas Owen, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, and Dr. William Mitchell, an Associate Professor of Genetics.

A member of Ramapo’s Class of 2010 with a double major in Biology and Chemistry, Daniela presented a paper and poster on the Development of an Intervertebrate Cell Culture Method for Lumbriculus Variegates (mud worms). Her project was so successful that the professors have offered her a chance to work with stem cells for her senior honors project.

Daniela is one of the 25 to 30 students who conducted research projects with science and mathematics faculty sponsors each semester. Most are enrolled in the TAS Research Honors curriculum; others do so as independent studies. In Daniela’s case the stem cells, derived from adult tissue samples, are undifferentiated

cells that multiply by cell division to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues; they are not embryonic stem cells. They have primarily been studied in model organisms such as mice, where it was discovered that inhibition of the enzyme C would lead to increased bone production. While such testing has been performed on rat cells, Daniela and her professors are taking stem cell research to uncharted territories by working with human cells. Daniela, who left her home in Bulgaria to study science at Ramapo, said she believes the field of stem cell research holds great promise for medicine and healthcare. “These sorts of projects allow students to get hands-on experiences about the technology and science they read about in class,” said Dr. Owen. “It gives them the chance to invest in the work and take ownership. It feels good to see someone get it.” The student-faculty collaborative research projects continue from year to year, allowing students to participate while creating databases of critical information. As the projects become more sophisticated and the results promising, more funding is sought from competitive research grants to further the work.

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Faculty news New Faculty Hires

Student, Faculty Collaborate on Stem Cell Research

By Courtney Elezovic

Professor of English, Frances Shapiro-Skrobe

English Professor Will Nominate Scholars for Fulbright-Hays Program Economics Professor Named to Finance Ministry in Liberia

Assistant Professor of Economics, George Gonpu, Ph.D.

Ramapo magazine

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Journalism Professor Key to Obtaining Nonprofit Status for Institute for Justice and Journalism

Foundation, which had been provided for nine years, ended this year.

Dr. William Mitchell, Associate Professor of Genetics, with Daniela Georgieva working on Daniela’s stem cell research project

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Foundation news Golf Outing Strengthens Links With Corporate and Individual Donors

With a radiant blue sky as a backdrop, 100 golfers took to the links on July 27 for the Ramapo College Foundation’s 22nd Annual Golf Outing at the Tuxedo Club. Participants enjoyed lunch, a round of golf, skills challenges, an auction and a raffle, dinner on the patio and left with a goody bag in hand. Members of the Golf Committee, chaired by Donald Mahoney ’73, expressed their gratitude for golf outing sponsors: Prudential; McCarter & English, LLP; Century 21 Construction; The Prestige Family of Fine Cars; O’Connor Davies Munns & Dobbins, LLP; BMW of North America, LLC; Inserra ShopRite Supermarkets, Inc.; Lakeland Bank and also the hole-in-one contest sponsors and tee and green sponsors. The event raised funds for student scholarships, faculty and student research opportunities and campus capital projects.

A Way To Provide Leadership Gifts

To build upon the solid foundation of support, the Ramapo College Foundation launched The Stephen and Mary Birch Fellowship, which recognizes and encourages leadership-level gifts to Ramapo College. It is open to graduates, parents, friends, faculty and staff members who make unrestricted annual contributions. Through their gifts to the Annual Fund, Fellowship members support scholarships, faculty research and professional development, academic and extracurricular programs and faculty positions. The Golf Committee included (L-R): Thomas Palmer of DAF Products, Steve Napolitano of SNS Architects and Engineers, Ned Lipes of Stryker Orthopaedics, Frances Hackett ’80 of Prudential, Debra Perry ’85 of McCarter English, Gregg Gerken of TD Bank, Committee Chair Donald Mahoney ’73 of Mahoney, Rock & Rock, LLC, John Brewster ’75 of UBS Financial Services Inc. and Thomas Mahoney ’86.

Seated: Richard and Millicent Anisfield. Standing: Carole Schaefer, President Peter P. Mercer and Jackie Ehlert-Mercer at the Annual Appreciation Barbecue. The barbecue is sponsored each year by the Ramapo College Foundation to show appreciation for the continued enthusiasm and assistance from Board members.

A foursome of members of the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees consisted of (L-R): Robert Tillsley, Mike Dudas, Roy Putrino and A.J. Sabath ’93.

BMW of North America, LLC generously donated the use of a BMW Z4 for two weeks as a raffle prize. The lucky winner was Anthony J. Marino of Century 21 Construction. Others in attendance were eager to get the feel of the wheel, if even for a moment. Seated in the car, Golf Committee members Frances Hackett '80 behind the wheel and Debra Perry '85. (L-R standing): Liz Kloak and Kathleen Mainardi of the Ramapo College Foundation, Joan Mooney of BMW, Golf Committee member Gregg Gerken of TD Bank, Jack Kelly, Charlotte King and Kevin Rustad of BMW, Golf Committee member Ned Lipes of Stryker Orthopaedics, Cathleen Davey, executive director of the Ramapo College Foundation, Donald Mahoney '73, chairman of the Golf Committee, Golf Committee members Thomas Palmer, John Brewster '75, Thomas Mahoney '86, Steven Napolitano and John Park, a Ramapo College student who interned at BMW.

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There are four membership levels or gift circles. To become a member of the Scholars’ Circle, a minimum Annual Fund gift of $500 is required. There also is a Deans’ Circle and a President’s Circle and membership continues to the

It’s easy to become a member of The Birch Fellowship and to give a leadership gift. Among the options are split payments, automated payments using a credit card and matching gift programs. For more information about The Birch Fellowship, administered through the Office of Annual Giving, please send an e-mail to giving@ramapo.edu or call 201.684.7141.

Annual Appreciation Barbecue

Sponsored by O’Connor Davies, the foursome of (L-R): Brian Duffy, Brian Flynn, President Peter P. Mercer and Anthony Marino at the 22nd Annual Golf Outing.

Trustees’ Circle for donors of $5,000 and above. The benefits of membership are based on the gift circle and may include an invitation to the President’s Holiday Party, a specially designed membership pin, tickets to a Berrie Center event, a Ramapo College calendar and dinner with Dr. Peter P. Mercer, president of the College. Within The Birch Fellowship, an Associate Program recognizes significant charitable contributions made by recent graduates of the College’s undergraduate program.

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Thomas Srednicki and Frank Shapiro Receive Mission Award Board of Governors members Frank Shapiro and Thomas Srednicki received the Ramapo College Foundation Mission Award in recognition of their distinguished service to the Foundation and the College and for helping to fulfill the Foundation’s mission to provide “the resources that make the difference in Ramapo College’s quest for educational excellence.”

Continued Commitment to Sustainability Spurs Contribution Cassandra Maurer Childs ‘80, known as Sandi since she was a student at Ramapo College, recently logged on to the College’s Web site to obtain information about the Alumni Association. While perusing, she read about the construction of the Sharp Sustainability Center; this inspired Childs to send a leadership-level contribution. Childs had worked at the Alternate Energy Center (AEC) in the late ‘70s and was responsible for its recycling program. What began with three barrels, culminated in 1980 with the construction of the post-and-beam recycling center built by students and staff. With her Annual Fund gift she wrote, “I was involved in the AEC and I'm excited about the Sustainability Center as its successor.” Childs believes corporate sustainability commitments are important. She is director, Recycling Projects for Coca-Cola Recycling, LLC, a company formed in 2007 to address Coca-Cola’s packaging footprint by recovering and recycling aluminum cans and polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles and to increase the use of the recycled materials to make new bottles and cans. She assists CocaCola business partners including NASCAR and professional baseball teams with implementing recycling programs. Says Childs of her time at Ramapo College, “At the AEC I learned that hands-on work is necessary to build environmental policies that make sense and can be translated into effective, efficient and sustainable systems.” After graduating Ramapo College, she studied mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University and completed a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Programs at the University of North Carolina.

(L-R): Board of Governors Chairman Robert Tillsley, Thomas Srednicki, Frank Shapiro has been a member of the Shapiro and President Peter P. Mercer. Srednicki and Shapiro received the Foundation Board of Governors since Ramapo College Foundation Mission Award. 2005. He has served as co-chair of the DistinSrednicki serves as chair of the Board of GoverChilds explains that her spontaneous and genguished Citizens Award Dinner for the past three nors Investment Committee and is a member erous Annual Fund contribution to Ramapo years and has been instrumental in helping the of the Business Partners Committee and the College was made because she felt a need to College secure significant support for that event, Anisfield School of Business Advisory Board. mark the building of the Sharp Sustainability the Bill Bradley Recreation Center, the Business He retired from The Bank of New York where Center with a gift. Partners program and the Golf Outing. Shapiro he was responsible for managing and developis a former senior vice president of human reing the bank’s Government Banking Business in sources and administration for Konica Minolta the nation’s southern states. Photo Imaging USA. Prior to the merger of Konica and Minolta, he was executive vice presi- Instituted in 1998, the award is presented each www.ramapo.edu Ramapo magazine 27 year at the Foundation’s annual meeting. dent and CFO of Konica Photo Imaging USA.

Foundation news Golf Outing Strengthens Links With Corporate and Individual Donors

A Way To Provide Leadership Gifts

A foursome of members of the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees consisted of (L-R): Robert Tillsley, Mike Dudas, Roy Putrino and A.J. Sabath ’93.

Ramapo magazine

Annual Appreciation Barbecue

Sponsored by O’Connor Davies, the foursome of (L-R): Brian Duffy, Brian Flynn, President Peter P. Mercer and Anthony Marino at the 22nd Annual Golf Outing.

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Foundation news

Ramapo College Business Partners

(L-R): Robert Tillsley, chair of the board of governors, Congressman Scott Garrett, President Peter P. Mercer, Lawrence Salameno, director and executive vice president of Permal Group Ltd., and Permal Group Inc., Peter McBride, member, board of trustees

Ramapo College Foundation’s Business Partners Program hosted a round table luncheon with Congressman Scott Garrett and businessman Lawrence Salameno in June. Representatives from Century 21 Construction, TD Bank, Benjamin Moore, Sharp Electronics, Stryker Orthopaedics, BMW of North America, CIT Group, Liberty Subaru/Hyundai, McBride National Services, Myron Corporation, Lakeland Bancorp Inc., Dator Commercial Real Estate Agency, The Hertz Corporation, Prestige Motors Inc., Lakeland Bank, BASF and Coldwell Banker gathered at the Havemeyer House to discuss economic trends and the future of business.

President Peter P. Mercer greeted the group, thanked them for their partnership and encouraged them to utilize the many resources available to them via the Business Partners Program. Businesses support the College with an annual unrestricted gift, and in return they receive benefits such as use of campus conference facilities, priority consideration in hiring interns and cooperative education students and other benefits. Congressman Garrett discussed the economy from the federal perspective. Garrett shed light on bills recently passed in Congress, particularly the Stimulus Bill and how those monies will be distributed to support higher education and industry in New Jersey.

Mr. Salameno, director, Permal Group Ltd. and executive vice president & director, Permal Group Inc., shared his thoughts on the investment side of the financial equation. “There is good news and there is bad news,” he said. “The good news is that our financial system will not implode. The bad news is that this recovery will not be like any other recovery.” Based in Manhattan, Permal Group is one of the oldest and largest alternative asset management firms. Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Cathleen Davey, thanked all attendees for helping Ramapo provide more opportunities for students via research, scholarships, internships and study abroad and supporting the four pillars of a degree from Ramapo: international education, interdisciplinary curriculum, experiential learning opportunities and intercultural understanding. Courtney Elezovic 28

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Four New Members Appointed to Board of Governors

Robert Tillsley, chairman of the Ramapo College Foundation, announced the appointment of Patricia Davino, a banking executive, Jonathan N. Marcus, Esq. ’93, Wayne E. Orchowski, an automotive industry professional and Carol D. Schaefer, ’84 to its Board of Governors. Each was appointed to a three-year term.

“We are fortunate to have the leadership and commitment of Carol, Patricia, Jonathan and Wayne on our Board of Governors,” said Cathleen Davey, executive director of the Ramapo College Foundation. “They will advance our strategic goals and enhance our partnerships with members and businesses in the community.” Patricia Davino is vice president/ branch sales manager for Valley National Bank, managing the corporate office. She’s also held positions with Interchange Bank and Midland Bank.

Jonathan N. Marcus, Esq., ’93 is assistant general counsel at KPMG LLP in New York. He serves as a director on Ramapo College's Alumni Association's Board of Directors, as chairman of the KPMG Ramapo Alumni Chapter and is a founding member of the Alumni Advisory Board of the College's

Concert at the Meadowlands

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performed a "Salute to America,” a selection of patriotic tunes, American popular music and opera favorites on June 27 in DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst. The concert was presented by the Ramapo College Foundation and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

Jonathan N. Marcus, Esq. ’93

Patricia Davino

Carol D. Schaefer, ‘84 A.C.S.W.

Wayne E. Orchowski

School of American and International Studies. He received the College's President's Award of Merit at the May 2009 Commencement.

Wayne E. Orchowski is vice president of the eastern region of BMW of North America, LLC where he is responsible for leadership of all sales, marketing, post sales and dealer development in the region. He has been with BMW for 24 years serving in various locations and managerial positions.

Until her retirement in 2006, Carol D. Schaefer, ’84 A.C.S.W., maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Ridgewood, New Jersey specializing in individual, couples, adolescents and family counseling. She is a clinical supervisor and instructor at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale Medical School. In 1998, Schaefer received Ramapo College’s President’s Award of Merit.

Singing and Dancing The Night Away

Concert-goers spread across the lawn of the Bandshell to listen to rock classics performed by Bargain, a Who tribute band, to kick off the 2009 TD Bank Summer Concert Series. Held on four Thursday evenings in July, the lineup also featured Neil and the Diamonds, 2U, a U2 tribute band and Asbury Fever, which played Bruce Springsteen

hits. The Ramapo College Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of additional concert sponsors, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Rockland Electric Company, Ramapo College Alumni Association and Friends of Ramapo.

Receive Lifetime Income with a Charitable Gift Annuity

You can support Ramapo College while generating a healthy level of income with a charitable gift annuity (CGA). A charitable gift annuity represents a contract between you and Ramapo College. You make a gift to Ramapo College and in return, you receive income for life. Many of our donors create a charitable gift annuity to later fund an endowment benefitting Ramapo College students.

Charitable Gift Annuity Rates – Single Life

CGAs offer a number of attractive benefits: Guaranteed Income: Ramapo College pays you, or up to two beneficiaries, payments for life. When you transfer low-yielding stocks or cash from a money market account to a Ramapo College annuity with a higher rate of return, your income will increase. Tax Benefits: Your CGA offers an immediate charitable income tax deduction; in addition, a portion of the payments may be tax-free.

Safety: The Ramapo Foundation’s assets are used to secure and guarantee your payments.

Example: a 75 year old receives 6.3%

Flexibility: Your CGA may be created with gifts of cash or marketable securities. Philanthropic Opportunity: Your CGA may be designated for any area of the College you wish to support, or left unrestricted, to be used for critical needs and priorities.

Age 60 65 70 75 80

Current Rate 5.0% 5.3% 5.7% 6.3% 7.1%

American Council on Gift Annuities

To learn more about gift annuities, Please contact Ellen Dudas, Planned Giving Officer, at (201)684-7005 or mdudas@ramapo.edu. Information is also available at www.ramapo.edu/plannedgiving The information in this publication is not intended as legal or tax advice. Please consult your legal and tax advisors. Individual state law may impact your results.

Holocaust survivor establishes the Survivor to Survivors Endowed Scholarship Mr. Josef Ross, a Holocaust survivor, was liberated from the Terezin Concentration Camp by U.S. troops on May 9, 1945. Mr. Ross promised himself he would find a way to thank the country that liberated his camp and welcomed him as an immigrant. Joe and his wife Roz, made good on his promise by establishing the Survivor to Survivors Endowed Scholarship at Ramapo College. The intent of this scholarship is to benefit those who served in the armed forces in recent conflicts.

This year’s recipients of the Survivor to Survivors scholarship are Heather Freeman and Tim Cairns. Heather served a one-year tour of duty in Tikrit, Iraq in 2006. Tim spent 2008 in Baghdad as support for Special Forces.

(L-R): Heather Freeman, Josef Ross, Roz Ross and Tim Cairns

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Foundation news

Ramapo College Business Partners

Ramapo magazine

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Four New Members Appointed to Board of Governors

Concert at the Meadowlands

Jonathan N. Marcus, Esq. ’93

Patricia Davino

Carol D. Schaefer, ‘84 A.C.S.W.

Wayne E. Orchowski

School of American and International Studies. He received the College's President's Award of Merit at the May 2009 Commencement.

Singing and Dancing The Night Away

Receive Lifetime Income with a Charitable Gift Annuity

Charitable Gift Annuity Rates – Single Life

Safety: The Ramapo Foundation’s assets are used to secure and guarantee your payments.

Example: a 75 year old receives 6.3%

Age 60 65 70 75 80

Current Rate 5.0% 5.3% 5.7% 6.3% 7.1%

American Council on Gift Annuities

(L-R): Heather Freeman, Josef Ross, Roz Ross and Tim Cairns

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Alumni news

New Alumni Summer Reunion

There was a lot of laughing, talking and catching up going on at the annual New Alumni Summer Reunion held at Bar-A in Belmar, New Jersey on July 18. A not-just-forRamapo College event, the College had the largest representation of recent grads with 125 in attendance. A trivia contest, during which all Ramapo alumni won something, was especially popular. Pictures of the event may be found on http://www.ramapo.edu/alumni/gallery/ind ex.html and on Facebook, http://tinyurl.com/OfficialRamapoAlumni.

(L-R): Frank Saulter, Olga Manukhina '08, Brianna Marte '07 and Marcus Ellison at the 2009 summer reunion in Belmar, New Jersey

Ramapo Alumni at the first Alumni Career Development Series presentation in June

Alumni Gain Insight on Navigating the Economy

Thirty alumni gathered in the Trustees Pavilion on June 23 to gain insight on “How To Develop a Personal Marketing Plan in Order to Navigate Today’s Economy.” This Alumni Career Development Series featured a presentation by Christopher D’Marco, executive vice president, Change & Response Strategies, LLC. The career program was offered as a service to those within the Ramapo community who are concerned about their futures in light of the difficult economic climate.

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The program was sponsored by the Career Services Committee, a subcommittee of the Alumni Board of Directors, with representation from the Cahill Center. The Committee, in partnership with the Cahill Center, is planning future career development events. Committee members Kim Albano ‘82, Jonathan Marcus ‘93, Richard McDowell ‘77, Marianne Picinic ‘98, Peter Seminara ‘00 and Donna Mainardi Singer ‘78 invite alumni to send recommendations for future programs to alumni@ramapo.edu.

Alumni are encouraged to continue to network with each other on Ramapo College’s LinkedIn page (keywords Ramapo College of New Jersey – Alumni) or on Facebook, http://tinyurl.com/OfficialRamapoAlumni.

s n o i t a l u t a r Cong Ramapo Magazine Fall/Winter 2009 Edition Congratulations to the winners of the Alumni: Stay in Touch contest! Stay in Touch is a way for alumni to keep in contact with Ramapo events and news. Prizes include an 8GB Silver iPod Nano, and 2GB Ramapo USB flash drives. Thank you to all who participated in the contest. The winners are as follows:

Chuck Givonetti ‘84 of Brockton, MA., Sarah Ann LoFaso ‘87 of Waterbury, CT., Michael A. Plick ‘90 of Cranford, NJ., Jennifer Brandt DiPompeo ‘95 of Mountain Lakes, NJ., Helen Schoenknecht ‘98 of Franklin Lakes, NJ., Patricia Gruber ‘76 of Franklin Lakes, NJ., Charles Lane ‘78 of Oakland, NJ., Kevin O’Connell ‘82 of Ridgewood, NJ., Laura Gardner ‘85 of Ringwood, NJ., Shabnam Tobaccowala ‘97 of Saddle

River, NJ., Corinne Siwiec ‘07 of Paterson, NJ., Michele Neats ‘01 of Dumont, NJ., Matthew Nagel ‘07 of Blairstown, NJ., George Borowski ‘03 of Toms River, NJ., Al Lendino ‘78 of St. Augustine, FL., Peter Kowalcyk ‘07 of Pensacola, FL., Joseph Phillips ‘97 of Columbus, OH., Satish Kauta ‘95 of Lake Forest, IL., Vito Cracchiolo ‘75 of Phoenix, AZ., and Adele Schwartz ‘92 of San Diego, CA. www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Alumni news

New Alumni Summer Reunion

(L-R): Frank Saulter, Olga Manukhina '08, Brianna Marte '07 and Marcus Ellison at the 2009 summer reunion in Belmar, New Jersey

Ramapo Alumni at the first Alumni Career Development Series presentation in June

Alumni Gain Insight on Navigating the Economy

Ramapo magazine

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Ramapo magazine

Grant news

Social networking Ramapo Social Networking with Facebook, Twitter By Courtney Elezovic

National Science Foundation Grant

Scott Frees, Ph.D., assistant professor of Computer Science, was awarded a two-year grant in June to study virtual reality by the National Science Foundation. The $98,780 award, “Modeling and Exploiting Interaction Context in 3D User Interfaces,” also provides opportunities for undergraduate students to participate as research assistants in faculty-led research.

New Jersey Meadowlands Commission

Thomas Owen, Ph.D., assistant professor of Microbiology, was awarded a $6,000 grant in May from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission for a study, “Microbial Diversity in Marshes: Development of Research Tools and Educational Materials.” The grant funds two student research associates who will take sediment samples in the Meadowlands marsh that will be analyzed in the laboratory using molecular biology techniques.

Health Resources Services Administration

Kathleen Burke, Ph.D., assistant dean of Nursing, was awarded two grants totalling $30,000 in May from the Health Resources Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provide scholarship support for undergraduate and graduate nursing students that have financial need and are members of historically underrepresented groups.

National Institutes of Health Grant

Christian G. Reich, Ph.D., assistant professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, was awarded a $187,500 grant in May from the National Institutes of Health to continue research he began while affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The research seeks to uncover the reason for mood disorders such as major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder that affects 20 million Americans. His research focuses on endocannabinoids, the neuromodulators implicated in regulating stress and anxiety.

Ramapo magazine

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With the growing popularity of online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, it comes as no surprise that students are no longer the sole users of these sites. Ramapo has jumped into the fray of modern technological communication by staking claim to Facebook and Twitter on-line identities. Created in 2004, Facebook quickly became the “it” site for students to keep in contact with friends. Twitter, created in 2006, supporting the same audience, feeds the hunger for the real-time play-by-play text messaging. Together, these social networks have introduced the phenomenon of crowd sourcing to the average person.

While Twitter does not allow mass invites and wall posts like Facebook, it is steadily growing in popularity and it came in handy during the 2009 Commencement ceremony. Via Twitter, families and friends of graduates were able to log in and follow the proceedings. The account was updated as the students began lining up, arching and then making their way to their seats.

“We can engage a greatly expanded spectrum of alumni and stay connected to them as they advance in their professional and personal lives.” To view the College’s Facebook and Twitter pages, simply visit our homepage at: www.ramapo.edu.

“Using Facebook has expanded our community and changed it in subtle ways, creating new possibilities and opportunities for our Alumni Office,” said Cathleen Davey, vice president of Institutional Advancement and executive director of the Ramapo College Foundation.

On Facebook, you can find the College on the fan page, “Ramapo College of New Jersey” or the Alumni Association on a group page, “The Official Ramapo College Alumni Association,” which allows alumni to keep up-to-date on news and recent developments at the College. Want to find out when the next alumni reunion is? You’ll have to check out their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/RamapoCollege. The fan page keeps students, faculty, staff, and alumni current on campus happenings such as guest speakers, College-wide events and general campus news. Both vehicles are a great addition to the traditional forms of communication that we currently employ.

ACE/Wal-Mart Veterans Grant A $100,000 Success for Veterans Award Grant to expand services for veterans was received by Ramapo College in April on behalf of nine New Jersey state colleges and universities. Awarded by the American Council on Education and the Wal-Mart Foundation, it was one of 20 grants given to colleges and universities across the country.

The grant will support efforts to create veteransspecific orientation programs, expand on-cam-

pus veterans’ service centers and increase capacity for counseling and psychological services. ACE received nearly 250 applications for the grant. The Ramapo College project is unique because it sets up a system in New Jersey’s state colleges and universities to welcome veterans as students and offer workshops and seminars on issues that impact veterans when they become college students.

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Grant news

Social networking Ramapo Social Networking with Facebook, Twitter By Courtney Elezovic

National Science Foundation Grant

New Jersey Meadowlands Commission

Health Resources Services Administration

National Institutes of Health Grant

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

The grant will support efforts to create veteransspecific orientation programs, expand on-cam-

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Class notes

New Orleans area, Shapiro reviews music for “WHERE Y’AT” magazine and www.NewOrleans.com.

Marriages and Unions Anita Toscani ’98 to Charles Good Tamara Holland ’98 to Scott Winsmann Kristine Marie Patrick ’01 to Timothy Nicholas Tubito Michelle Masi ’02 to Adam Lerner ’04 Gina Holter ‘02 to Jason Guadagnino Obie Hill ’06 to Siquina Anthony ’09 Amanda Marie Flood ’07 to Stephen Baronian, Jr.

Robert Pertain ’77 has been promoted to first vice president and marketing director of Provident Bank in New Jersey. He is responsible for the bank’s marketing department, including establishing marketing strategies, creating advertising programs and conducting customer research. He has been in the banking industry for 31 years. Adele Hirschmann ’79 performed in a production of “Fiddler on the Roof ” at Temple Emeth, Teaneck.

Julie Shaw ’79 received an International Certification of Addictions Counseling from the International Reciprocity Certification Board.

Dean M. Shapiro ’74 became a grandfather with the birth of Sophie Ann Shapiro in Mobile, Alabama on December 23, 2008. She weighed 8 lb., 6 oz. and measured 21 inches. He is a ghostwriter for health and fitness guru Mackie Shilstone “Mackie Shilstone’s Body Plan for Kids” released by Basic Media Publications in May 2009. Shapiro also was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. The LMHOF honors the musicians, singers and music producers from Louisiana who were prominent in rock and roll, jazz, blues, gospel, Cajun/Zydeco and country and western. A resident of the

Ramapo magazine

Ravenell Williams IV ’80 assumed the role of president and CEO of the Plainfield area YMCA. He has worked at Y’s in Manhattan, Tarrytown, NY and Newark.

JoAnn Frijia Mitchell ’86 received her Master of Business Administration from Felician College in May 2009 and was inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, an international honor society for business students. Her MBA capstone paper was discussed on several Web sites including “The Engineer Online UK.”

www.ramapo.edu

Robert Dente ’92, Paul Leonard ’01, Ronny Jackson ’01 and Keith Kelleher ’07 recently met with incoming Ramapo College Educational Opportunity Fund students at UPS’s Information Services Mahwah facility in an open forum to discuss the right path to become successful in academic and professional careers.

Dominic D’Ambrosio ’93 has been appointed vice president and associate administrator of Schervier Nursing Care Center. D’Ambrosio has a master’s degree in Gerontology from Hofstra University in Long Island, NY. He is a licensed nursing home administrator, certified aging services professional and an Eden Alternative Associate.

Frederick McGarril ’00 retired from the Bergenfield Police Department in June after serving almost 26 years, the last two as chief of police. He was named borough administrator for Bergenfield upon retiring.

Marcella Runell-Hall ’97, associate director in The Center for Multicultural Education and Programs in the New York University Student Affairs Division, was awarded the Mid-Level Professional Award at the 2009 Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Region II Conference.

Rich Price ’97, and wife Jen, announced the birth of their first child, Zachary Richard Price, on July 1.

Michael Phelan ’98 and Laura C. Gonzalez were married in August 2009. Phelan is manager of Workforce Development at the Metropolitan Transit Authority and an independent training consultant. Following a honeymoon in Mexico, the couple reside in Leonia with pets Mr. Mo and Little One. Anita Toscani ’98 married Charles Good in 2001. They live in Hewitt, NJ where Anita is a stay-at-home mom to Ryan, 8, Jennifer, 2 and Christopher, 9 months.

Alan Heyman ’95 and wife Kim, had a baby boy, Matthew Adam Heyman on January 15, 2009.

James Jencarelli ’95 was named the Morris Hills Regional School District superintendent. Jencarelli previously served as principal and chief administrator of Henry P. Becton Regional High School in East Rutherford.

Eric Melniczek ’97 was named the director of Career Services at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. He previously served as the regional recruiting manager at S.R. Clarke in Blacksburg, Virginia. Melniczek holds a Master of Arts in Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a focus on higher education and student affairs administration from Virginia Tech.

Christopher Hawken ’00 was sworn in as a police officer at the July 14 meeting of the Montvale Mayor and Council. He attended the Bergen County Police Academy in August and will assume active duty as a probationary officer late winter.

Tamara Holland ’98 and Scott Winsmann were married October 3, 2008 in Spring Lake, NJ.

Steven Engravalle ’00 was invited as a dignitary by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). The ESGR is a Department of Defense organization that seeks to promote a culture in which all American Employers support and value the military service of their employees. He flew in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with Major General Glenn K. Reith and Senator Steven Oroho to the Army base at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA., for a tour of the facility. He also had the opportunity to fly with Governor Jon Corzine to Fort Sill, OK., on a KC-135 refueling plane to visit the 1-150 Assault Helicopter Battalion during their pre-theatre immersion training. Engravalle is superintendent of the Hamburg public schools. View the video clip for more information: http:// www.hamburgschool.com/bosses _fly_with_national_guard_t.htm

Kristine Marie Patrick ’01 was married to Timothy Nicholas Tubito on July 6, 2008 at Our Lady of Consolations R.C. Church in Wayne. She teaches second grade in Wayne.

Eric Fernandes ’01 graduated with a Master of Science in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is currently employed as a software engineer with Siemens.

Alan Finkelstein ’01, and his wife Yafit, welcomed Mia Abigail Finkelstein into the world on January 2.

In Memoriam Joseph Aloysius Ulrich ’75 Vincent J. Finn ’00

Michelle Masi ’02 and Adam Lerner ’04 were married on August 2, 2008. The couple honeymooned in Punta Cana. She is employed by the Plainfield Board of Education as a sixth grade special education teacher and he is a captain in the United States Air Force.

The son of Elaine M. Santiago ’01, 3 ½-year-old Cristian, had lots of fun playing at a local park on July 4. Gina Holter ’02 and Jason Guadagnino were married in July. She works as a social worker for the State of New Jersey. The couple reside in Montvale. www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Class notes

New Orleans area, Shapiro reviews music for “WHERE Y’AT” magazine and www.NewOrleans.com.

Julie Shaw ’79 received an International Certification of Addictions Counseling from the International Reciprocity Certification Board.

Ramapo magazine

Ravenell Williams IV ’80 assumed the role of president and CEO of the Plainfield area YMCA. He has worked at Y’s in Manhattan, Tarrytown, NY and Newark.

www.ramapo.edu

Rich Price ’97, and wife Jen, announced the birth of their first child, Zachary Richard Price, on July 1.

Alan Heyman ’95 and wife Kim, had a baby boy, Matthew Adam Heyman on January 15, 2009.

Tamara Holland ’98 and Scott Winsmann were married October 3, 2008 in Spring Lake, NJ.

Kristine Marie Patrick ’01 was married to Timothy Nicholas Tubito on July 6, 2008 at Our Lady of Consolations R.C. Church in Wayne. She teaches second grade in Wayne.

Eric Fernandes ’01 graduated with a Master of Science in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is currently employed as a software engineer with Siemens.

Alan Finkelstein ’01, and his wife Yafit, welcomed Mia Abigail Finkelstein into the world on January 2.

In Memoriam Joseph Aloysius Ulrich ’75 Vincent J. Finn ’00

Ramapo magazine

Class notes

Megan Callahan ’03 directed “Far Away” by Caryl Churchill as part of Buffalo’s 2009 Infringement Festival: Art Under the Radar and "Deathtrap" at Lost Nation Theater in Vermont. She is choreographing Mark Twain’s “A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage: A Musical Melodrama,” which is an American comedia de’ll arte piece. http://www.lostnationtheater.org.

Cheryl Botsolas ’04 and Christopher Botsolas announced the birth of their daughter Laurence “Laurie” Jane Botsolas. Born on May 18 at 3:53 p.m., she weighed 7 lbs and measured 20 inches. She was named after her grandfather, who passed away unexpectedly six weeks before her birth.

Kevin Sebastian Pertusiello ’04 completed the world premiere run of “SICK,” a play by playwright-to-watch Zayd Dohrn at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre in Long Branch. “SICK” is an offbeat comedy about one family’s attempts to keep out the sickness of the world by isolating themselves in a house where all the windows are covered with plastic, air-purifiers hum constantly and visitors are unwelcome. Pertusiello’s performance as Davey was praised by both the New York Times and the Star-Ledger.

Christine Pelka ’05 announced her engagement to Jason Rivera. She is working on her master’s degree in social work at Rutgers University and is a social worker employed by the State of New Jersey. An October 2010 wedding is planned. Alison Miller ’05 became engaged to Mark Sutak of Denville, NJ on November 26, 2008 in St.

Ramapo magazine

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Amanda Marie Flood ’07 and Stephen Baronian, Jr. were married on June 6. She is a pediatric nurse at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan.

John. She is in her third year of law school at Seton Hall University School of Law. Sutak is an IT technician with Real Time Consultants in Mahwah. An October 2010 wedding is planned.

Jill Freudenfels ’06 and Michael Stanley were engaged on May 28, 2009. A Fall 2010 wedding is planned.

Brian Kravette ’06 and Brielle Barr ’07 became engaged on April 17 and plan to marry on September 5, 2010. Barr is a financial reporting analyst for Tyco International and Kravette is self-employed as a life coach.

Lenny Zema ’06 and Rosie Altilio ’07 became engaged on May 16, 2009. An October 2010 wedding is planned. Diane Sroka ’06 and Vincent Michael Cooper ’06 became engaged. A July 2010 wedding is planned. Sroka is a graphic designer with Skyline New Jersey while Cooper is a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch.

Kelly A. Lloyd ’06 graduated Salutatorian with Summa Cum Laude honors from Seton Hall University School of Law. She accepted a position as a litigation associate at Lowenstein Sandler PC in Roseland.

Obie Hill ’06 and Siquina Anthony ’09 were married on June 6 at Cornerstone Christian Church in Wyckoff. The ceremony was performed by Tim VanDuyne ’89.

Julie Ann Kulinski ’07 completed her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Amy Vander Fliet ’08 and Brian Delpriora became engaged. A June 2010 wedding is planned in Long Beach Island. She is a chemistry teacher at Mahwah High School.

Denise Guzman ’07 and Lis Jimenez were married August 23. She is employed by Marriott International at the NY Marriott Marquis.

Leigh Darden ’07, and husband David Concepcion, welcomed their second child, Jacinda Leigh Concepcion, into the world on April 2, 2007. She joined her older brother, 4-year-old Jayson David Concepcion. They reside in Perth Amboy.

Megan (Charney) Cormier ’07 and Keith Cormier are proud parents of Connor Marc Cormier born on his due date, June 24. He weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz and measured 21 inches. Elizabeth Bartel ’07 is taking part in a new artist-in-residency program for downtown Davenport, Iowa. Her artwork is on display in a studio on the first floor of the Parker Building at the corner of Second and Brady streets. The program attracts top-tier art students from throughout the nation to live in the downtown area and publicly display their works.

Crystel Maldonado ’09 was accepted into the Higher Education Administration Graduate program and an assistantship in Greek affairs at University of Connecticut. In addition, she is on the planning committee for the 2010 Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education National Conference.

Be A Part of the Celebration!

Katelyn Mulligan ’07 graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in August with a Master of Science in Regulatory Affairs for Drugs, Biologics and Medical Devices. She is employed at Bristol -Myers Squibb in Lawrenceville.

Plans are underway for an Alumni Reunion BBQ in spring 2010 to celebrate Ramapo College’s 40th Anniversary. Special reunion celebrations also will be planned for Greeks, Residence Life and the Student Government Association. If you were a member of one of these organizations and would like to serve on your group’s event planning committee, please contact Purvi Parekh at 201.684.7115 or Purvi@ramapo.edu.

Laura Szalaj ’07 is this year’s recipient of the Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey’s School of Communication Information and Library Studies Award in recognition of student achievement. She is currently a student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at Rutgers University.

EMS alumni gather to celebrate their 10th anniversary at a celebration this fall.

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Ramapo magazine

Class notes

Ramapo magazine

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Amanda Marie Flood ’07 and Stephen Baronian, Jr. were married on June 6. She is a pediatric nurse at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan.

John. She is in her third year of law school at Seton Hall University School of Law. Sutak is an IT technician with Real Time Consultants in Mahwah. An October 2010 wedding is planned.

Jill Freudenfels ’06 and Michael Stanley were engaged on May 28, 2009. A Fall 2010 wedding is planned.

Obie Hill ’06 and Siquina Anthony ’09 were married on June 6 at Cornerstone Christian Church in Wyckoff. The ceremony was performed by Tim VanDuyne ’89.

Julie Ann Kulinski ’07 completed her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Amy Vander Fliet ’08 and Brian Delpriora became engaged. A June 2010 wedding is planned in Long Beach Island. She is a chemistry teacher at Mahwah High School.

Denise Guzman ’07 and Lis Jimenez were married August 23. She is employed by Marriott International at the NY Marriott Marquis.

Be A Part of the Celebration!

EMS alumni gather to celebrate their 10th anniversary at a celebration this fall.

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Ramapo magazine

Alumni in the spotlight

Datebook

February 5

January 20

Jazz at the Berrie Center presents Frank Vignola’s Hot Club Celebrating 100 Years of Django Reinhardt and Gypsy Jazz!

The BicycleThief

1948 – Directed by Vittorio De Sica 6:30 p.m., (H129)

The Bicycle Thief tells the deceptively simple story of an unemployed man finding work to paste up signs, work requiring a bicycle, which is then stolen. A landmark of Italian cinema, with English subtitles. Discussion follows the screening. Admission is free and open to the general public. For directions to the campus go to www.ramapo.edu/maps or contact 201.684.7408 for additional information.

January 30

8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

Guitar virtuoso Frank Vignola, a leading proponent of Reinhard’s Gypsy jazz style of playing, has assembled a topnotch quintet for a searing tribute. Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

February 6

Jazz at the Berrie Center presents: Tenor Boss Man! The Houston Person Quartet 8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

Members of the School of Contemporary Arts Alumni Advisory Board held their first meeting in September. Members discussed their goals and named Kim Albano ’82 as chair. Seated (L-R) are Joe Tropia '05, Terra Vandergaw, associate professor of Theater, Dean Steven Perry, Kim Albano '82 and standing (L-R) Rob Taylor '96, Roger Gray '76, Shelley Gray '77, Julie Merrill '03, Louise Tuchman '86, Dorothy Szefc '85 and Kathleen Austin, director of Constituent Relations. Members not pictured are Sarah Brelvi '83, Suzanne Flaton-Origenes '83 and Walter Santner '75.

Alumni of Ramapo College are motivated and successful Ramapo College alumni are sharing their professional perspectives as members of their School’s advisory board. Alumni Advisory Boards have been established for the Anisfield School of Business (ASB), the School of American and International Studies (AIS), the School of Contemporary Arts (CA) and the School of Theoretical and Applied Science (TAS). The School of Social Science and Human Services will form a board this year. The boards promote the mission, goals and academic programs of their Schools and the College. They engage with students and faculty, and also create networking opportunities between alumni and administrators.

In recognition of the global impact of scientific research and discovery, TAS’s board promotes the school locally, nationally and globally at the annual TAS Research Symposium.

ASB launched its Alumni Advisory Board in 2006. Francis Hackett ‘80, vice president of Administration and the Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance at Prudential, says one of the board’s most popular events is the annual

Alumni Networking Roundtable at which ASB undergrads learn about various industries and gain valuable networking experience.

Alumni are invited to become involved with their school’s board. Merkel ‘78 notes that there are many outreach opportunities and says, “Think back to how you felt as a student. That was what helped me to re-engage with Ramapo,” Merkel said.

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

Noon-3 p.m. Alumni Lounges

8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

Yoga Workshop: Posture, Breath, Philosophy

Open to the public: $45 Ramapo Alumni, Employees: $40 Register/Info: www.ramapo.edu/cipl/yoga Betsy Ceva presents philosophy and yoga postures designed for all levels, breathing techniques and guided meditation.

La Strada

1954 – Directed by Federico Fellini 6:30 p.m., (H129)

One of Fellini’s most poetic and powerful films. Extraordinary performances by Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn. A naïve waif is sold to a traveling show strong man. Discussion follows the screening.

Thomas Hewitt '75, chair of AIS Alumni Advisory Board

Celebrate 10 years of arts education, programming and development at the Berrie Center, with an entire day of free performances, workshops, arts demonstrations and even a dance! Call the box office for the complete schedule of events. Free admission.

February 13

February 3

Carolyn Merkel ’78 chairs the Alumni Advisory Board of the School of Theoretical and Applied Science.

3:00-11:00 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

January 30

New! Yoga Certificate Programs Center for Innovative and Professional Learning A-233 Ramapo College of New Jersey 201.684.7370, cipl@ramapo.edu

The CA Advisory Board held its first meeting in September and named Kim Albano ‘82, vice president of customer operations for ESPN, as chair. “We can bridge the gap between what students learn and how to secure meaningful work,” Albano said.

Serving as role models, enhancing the financial resources of AIS and participating in campus fora and symposia are the objectives of the AIS Alumni Advisory Board chaired by Thomas Hewitt ‘75, assistant vice president / field marketing manager for TD Bank.

Houston Person has been one of the leading sax players since the 1960’s, best known for his long association with the great singer Etta Jones. He has recorded more than 75 albums under his own name and is currently riding a new wave of popularity as a new generation of jazz fans discovers this soulful performer.

Berrie Center First Decade Anniversary Celebration!

Admission is free and open to the general public. For directions to the campus go to www.ramapo.edu/maps or contact 201.684.7408 for additional information.

Valentine’s Day Celebration: “If you ever leave me, I’m going with you” Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated husband and wife team Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna star in this hysterically funny comedy which celebrates their acting/writing partnership and three-decade love affair. Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

SAVE-THE-DATE

February 17

Bread and Chocolate 1974 – Franco Brusati 6:30 p.m., (H129)

Nino Manfredi stars as an Italian immigrant struggling to make a life in the difficult Teutonic world of Switzerland.This comic “Everyman” finds himself forced into ever more degrading situations, but he never gives up. With Anna Karina. Italian with English subtitles. Discussion follows the screening.

Admission is free and open to the general public. For directions to the campus go to ww.ramapo.edu/maps or contact 201.684.7408 for additional information.

February 27

Gospel Alive! A Gospel Homecoming

Mack Brandon, Director 8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

It's time to get up and clap your hands! The choir is back with their particular brand of energetic gospel music, under the direction of Mack Brandon. If you like gospel, you'll love the Conference Choir! Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

February 27

Yoga Workshop: Rock the Chakra-Energy in Motion & Mind Noon-3 p.m. Alumni Lounges

Open to the public: $45 Ramapo Alumni, Employees: $40 Register/Info: www.ramapo.edu/cipl/yoga Liz Schulman introduces the role of chakra energy centers in the body. Postures for all levels demonstrate a connection between theory and practice. Center for Innovative and Professional Learning A-233 Ramapo College of New Jersey 201.684.7370, cipl@ramapo.edu

February 28

The Hawthorne Symphony

John Minkoff, Conductor 3 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

They come from the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and many notable Metro-Area musical institutions, and they make up the Hawthorne Symphony. Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

Athletic Hall of Fame Committee Announces Class of 2010 Saturday, April 24

The Ramapo College Athletic Hall of Fame Committee is set to honor six individuals at an induction ceremony held at the Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center. Inductees include 1991 graduate Dave Albano, for football, Jim Barrow, a former faculty member, for ice hockey, Katina Johnson, who graduated in 1995, for basketball, 1984 graduate James Nardello, for ice hockey, 1980 graduate Bob Pawlik, for football and basketball, and 2005 graduate Tennyson Whitted, for basketball.

The Ramapo College Athletic Hall of Fame recognizes and honors those who have made significant contributions to the history of intercollegiate athletic competition at the College. The athletes who are members are selected as the best of all that have participated in varsity athletics at the College. Congratulations to the class of 2010. For ticket information please visit us online at www.ramapoathletics.com.

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Alumni in the spotlight

Datebook

February 5

January 20

Jazz at the Berrie Center presents Frank Vignola’s Hot Club Celebrating 100 Years of Django Reinhardt and Gypsy Jazz!

The BicycleThief

1948 – Directed by Vittorio De Sica 6:30 p.m., (H129)

January 30

8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

February 6

Jazz at the Berrie Center presents: Tenor Boss Man! The Houston Person Quartet 8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

In recognition of the global impact of scientific research and discovery, TAS’s board promotes the school locally, nationally and globally at the annual TAS Research Symposium.

Alumni Networking Roundtable at which ASB undergrads learn about various industries and gain valuable networking experience.

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

Full schedule of Berrie events may be found at www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/

Noon-3 p.m. Alumni Lounges

8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

Yoga Workshop: Posture, Breath, Philosophy

La Strada

1954 – Directed by Federico Fellini 6:30 p.m., (H129)

Thomas Hewitt '75, chair of AIS Alumni Advisory Board

February 13

February 3

Carolyn Merkel ’78 chairs the Alumni Advisory Board of the School of Theoretical and Applied Science.

3:00-11:00 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

January 30

New! Yoga Certificate Programs Center for Innovative and Professional Learning A-233 Ramapo College of New Jersey 201.684.7370, cipl@ramapo.edu

Berrie Center First Decade Anniversary Celebration!

Admission is free and open to the general public. For directions to the campus go to www.ramapo.edu/maps or contact 201.684.7408 for additional information.

SAVE-THE-DATE

February 17

Bread and Chocolate 1974 – Franco Brusati 6:30 p.m., (H129)

Admission is free and open to the general public. For directions to the campus go to ww.ramapo.edu/maps or contact 201.684.7408 for additional information.

February 27

Gospel Alive! A Gospel Homecoming

Mack Brandon, Director 8 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

February 27

Yoga Workshop: Rock the Chakra-Energy in Motion & Mind Noon-3 p.m. Alumni Lounges

February 28

The Hawthorne Symphony

John Minkoff, Conductor 3 p.m., Sharp Theater, Info. 201.684.7844

Athletic Hall of Fame Committee Announces Class of 2010 Saturday, April 24

www.ramapo.edu

Ramapo magazine

Courts and fields Student-athletes earn NJAC all-academic honors

The New Jersey Athletic Conference announced the 2008-2009 NJAC All-Academic Teams, which include 41 Ramapo College student-athletes. To be eligible for the conference’s all-academic teams, a student-athlete must be a sophomore, junior or a senior who has competed in a conference-sponsored sport. They must possess a minimum grade point average of 3.20. Sophomore Sarah Hildebrand (Wantage, NJ), a member of the women's soccer team, and junior Mihail Velikov (Varna, Bulgaria), a member of the men's soccer team, were named to the NJAC All-Academic First Team for their efforts in the class room, both earned a 4.0 grade point average, while Samantha Morris, women's soccer, and Kenneth Walsh, cross country/track and field, were both named to the All-Academic Second Team. Honorable Mention recipients included: Kelly Alpertstein, field hockey, Jamie Anderson, women's soccer, Kristine Austria, women's tennis, Andrew Capizzi, cross country/track and field, James Clementi, men's soccer, Jessica DaRold, women's soccer, Michael Desimone, track and field, Shane Donohue, track and field, Jennifer Finaldi, women's tennis, Brittania Frazier, cross country/track and field, Erin Gerhard, women's tennis, Brittney Harraka, women's soccer, Caitlin Hess, women's soccer, Michael Kennedy, cross country/track and field, Christine Lafferty, field hockey, Arielle Leva, women's soccer, Jonathan Lindenauer, cross country/track and field, Steven Logan, cross country/track and field, Camille Mammolite, women's basketball, Jacqueline McDonough, women's soccer, Michele McKenna, women's volleyball, Brittney McKeon, softball, Katelyn Miller, women's soccer, Robert Nosari, baseball, Michael O'Hara, track and field, Jenna Pfarr, women's lacrosse, Linda Puntasecca, cross country/track and field, Margaret Sciarretta, women's soccer, Brittany Stedtler, cross country/track and field, Janel Stedtler, cross country/track and field, Zachary Theinert, men's soccer, Megan Tierney, field hockey/lacrosse, Annalise Tracey, cross country/track and field, Gabrielle Tracey, cross country/track and field, Alison Tukel, women's tennis, Saranne Weimer, field hockey, Beth Weinmann, women's basketball, and Chelsea Wolf, cross country/track and field. 40

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Former outfielder Mike Manges to play professionally in Italy In June former Roadrunner outfielder Mike Manges (Glen Rock, NJ) signed a contract to play the upcoming season with the Rajo Rho Baseball Club in Rho, Italy.

Rajo Rho is a member of the Federation of Italian Baseball and Softball, Series B, the equivalent of Triple A in the United States affiliated system. Rho has been placed in Series A in the recent past, and Manges hopes to make an immediate impact to help lead Rho back to that status.

“I am really excited and thankful for this opportunity.” Manges said. “The opportunity to be able to continue playing baseball professionally and to be able to do it while learning a different culture firsthand is truly awesome.” Manges enjoyed his best season for the Roadrunners in 2008, when he hit .344. He led the team with 52 hits, 11 doubles, and 35 RBI, while belting a pair of homeruns.

Tribute to a Founder

RAMAPO COLLEGE SALUTES

FOUNDING PRESIDENT GEORGE T. POTTER 2

With this signing, Manges becomes the eighth Roadrunner to sign a professional baseball contract during Coach Rich Martin’s tenure at Ramapo.

Former soccer player volunteers with Street Soccer 3

Street Soccer USA Team

Will Mazzuto, a 2007 graduate of Ramapo College, and three-year member of the men’s soccer team, spent this past summer with Street Soccer USA. Mazzuto packed his bags at the end of May and moved to Washington D.C., to hold the title of The Street Soccer USA (SSUSA) Director of Volunteers, working as a volunteer himself. Mazzuto took on the responsibility of managing and coordinating sponsorships, cheering section recruitment, transportation, housing, and logistics for this year’s Street Soccer USA Cup. This premier national event featured 16 teams of homeless soccer players from around the United States. SSUSA (www.streetsoccerusa.org), is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of sports to offer education, jobs and new opportunities for youth and homeless adults in 16 cities nationally, and reaches 1,000 teens, and homeless adults annually.

By Christopher Hann Mazzuto recruited and organized more than 100 volunteers to deliver services for the threeday tournament that was held in late July. He also recruited and organized more than 1,000 members of conferences, sports team, faith groups, and businesses to attend The Cup and to cheer on the athletes in this life-changing effort. Mazzuto also volunteered his services to run training sessions for the D.C. squad, offering support and assistance to the athletes in setting three-, six-, and 12-month personal goals. With the Roadrunners Mazzuto helped lead the Ramapo team to a 36-17-5 overall record, while going 11-11-4 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. They made three post-season appearances including a trip to the NJAC semi-finals in October of 2005.

As Ramapo’s inaugural president, George Potter played the role of academic visionary, hiring scores of founding faculty, building a campus from scratch, and instilling academic values that have defined the school for 40 years.

Potter’s death from cancer on October 31, at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif., inspired a flood of tributes for the man who holds a singular place in Ramapo history. A special tribute to Potter was held during the annual Founders’ Day ceremony on November 18, which would have been Potter’s 82nd birthday. A child of the working class who was educated at Oxford, Potter straddled traditional lines of class and race and gender. He championed programs that increased access to Ramapo for women, veterans, minorities, and the learning disabled. He believed passionately in the teacher-student connection and the value of a liberal arts education.

“People had the impression, being British, that he would be standoffish,” says Pat Kozakiewicz, a secretary in Potter’s office in 1973 and today the executive assistant to Ramapo President Peter P. Mercer. “But he wasn’t. He was a very human person.”

It was Potter’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning – in which students explore ideas through a variety of academic fields – that cemented his legacy at Ramapo. “Interdisciplinarity has triumphed as a way of thought,” says Ed Cody, a retired professor and administrator who spent 33 years on campus. “What should we do with health care? With troops in Afghanistan? You apply the perspectives of a variety of disciplines. George’s academic triumph was to bring that concept to America and to have it succeed.”

1. George T. Potter was hired in 1969, two years before the college held its first class, and remained president until 1984. After retiring as president, he taught in the school of administration and business. 2. Robert Scott, Ramapo’s second president, Peter P. Mercer, Ramapo’s fourth president and George T. Potter, Ramapo’s first president at Peter P. Mercer’s 2006 Inauguration Ceremony 3. George Potter (third from left) at the ground breaking for Ramapo College circa 1970’s 4. Laurie and George Potter at Peter P. Mercer’s Inauguration Dinner at the Havemeyer House 5. George Potter next to an ice sculpture of the Havemeyer Arch at the 2005 Founders' Day celebration at Ramapo 6. George T. Potter and Judith Peck, professor of art education in the School of Contemporary Arts with her metal sculpture, One Man in Memory of Six Million

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Ramapo magazine

Courts and fields Student-athletes earn NJAC all-academic honors

Ramapo magazine

www.ramapo.edu

Tribute to a Founder

RAMAPO COLLEGE SALUTES

FOUNDING PRESIDENT GEORGE T. POTTER 2

With this signing, Manges becomes the eighth Roadrunner to sign a professional baseball contract during Coach Rich Martin’s tenure at Ramapo.

Former soccer player volunteers with Street Soccer 3

Street Soccer USA Team

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CONVOCATION

Students, faculty and staff poured into the Bill Bradley Arena to attend Ramapo College’s Opening Convocation on September 16. Many in attendance were Ramapo’s newest additions, the class of 2013.

After a welcome from President Peter P. Mercer and a moving National Anthem performed by senior Adam Poluszny, Provost Beth Barnett introduced Convocation speaker Jeffrey Zazlow. Zazlow who delivered a speech discussing the lessons from the book he co-authored, “The Last Lecture,” inspired by the life of Randy

Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who lost his battle with cancer at 38. The presentation included inspirational video clips of Pausch encouraging others to live life to the fullest. “Learn how to take criticism, understand it and be better next time,” Zazlow told the audience. A question and answer session followed the speech. Matthew D. Letinski, Student Trustee, presented the convocation gift, and sophomore Ashley Albrecht performed the Alma Mater. President Mercer closed the ceremony, which was followed by a book signing with Zazlow.

Jeffrey Zaslow signing copies of “The Last Lecture” for students after the Opening Convocation program

President Peter P. Mercer with Jeffrey Zaslow

(L-R): David Schlussel, trustee, Dorothy Echols-Tobe, chief planning officer, Jeffrey Zazlow, Peter P. Mercer, president, Beth Barnett, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Sharon McGahee, trustee, Cathy Davey, vice president of institutional advancement and executive director of the Ramapo Foundation, Matt Letinkski, student trustee and Eddie Saiff, professor of biology and faculty assembly president.

Jeffrey Zaslow presenting his work on “The Last Lecture” at Ramapo’s Opening Convocation Jeffrey Zaslow with first-year students at Ramapo