The Signal: Spring '16 No. 11

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Vol. XLIV, No. 11

April 13, 2016

Serving The College of New Jersey community since 1885

College wants to go ‘All Night Longer’ Sigma Pi chooses to leave College

By Colleen Murphy Editor-in-Chief After undergoing two investigations by the College this school year, the Theta-Delta chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity chose to disassociate from the College in hopes “to achieve a higher level of accomplishment as an independent organization,” according to a press release that can be found on the fraternity’s Facebook page. In turn, the College revoked recognition of the fraternity from the school on Tuesday, March 29, according to College spokesperson Dave Muha.

“This decision was not arrived at lightly,” according to the Sigma Pi press release, which was published on Thursday, March 31. “In the past, the Theta-Delta chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity has had a good and mutually beneficial relationship with The College of New Jersey and its Office of Student Life. The chapter pursued and achieved its goals year after year with great success. However, recent events have made it clear that The College of New Jersey is intent on becoming destructive of those ends and therefore it is our right and duty to abolish this relationship.” see SIGMA PI page 3

Kimberly Ilkowski / Arts & Entertainment Editor

Derulo performs hit songs like ‘It Girl’ and ‘Watcha Say’ at CUB’s Spring Concert.

By Jessica Ganga Sports Editor

At the College Union Board’s Spring Concert on Tuesday, April 5, the last thing on anyone’s mind was going home. Multi-talented R&B singer Jason Derulo kept the College’s students’ feet moving and voices singing all night in

the Recreation Center. The concert, featuring Boston-based rapper Sammy Adams, was one that students will never forget.

Flooded with bright, white light, Derulo took to the stage to the sound of the screaming audience, who had their phones at the ready for the singer’s anticipated performance. Derulo started his set with his hit song

“Trumpets,” from his 2013 album “Talk Dirty.” The melodic beat had the crowd swaying and singing along.

Derulo performed a balanced mix of old and recent songs for the College and had students belting out lyrics to hits like his first single, “Whatcha Say,” which debuted at No. 1 in August 2009 on the Billboard Hot

100 chart off his self-titled album “Jason Derulo.” The single ladies in the crowd made sure their voices were heard as Derulo performed “Ridin’ Solo” off the same album.

A lucky girl had the chance to sit on stage and be serenaded by the debonair Derulo see CUB page 16

College counselor explains admissions process

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

The Office of Admissions reviews College applications from November to March.

By Tom Ballard Opinions Editor

There is one thing that every student at the College has in common. Regardless of their geographical background, economic status or academic record, they were all, through some process, accepted to be a student at the College.

Behind the brick walls and white colonial columns of Paul Loser Hall, the College’s Office of Admissions recently

INDEX:

Nation & World / Page 9

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worked to send out all general admissions letters to prospective students by its Friday, April 1, deadline.

The College’s nine admission counselors took on the task of reviewing the 11,818 applications the College received — a record number, according to Associate Director of Admissions Matt Middleton.

“We review applications by major, so every counselor gets assigned a variety of majors and we basically pull those applications once they’re ready to be reviewed, and

Editorial / Page 11

Opinions / Page 12

pretty much from November to March, all we do is read the applications at our desks,” Middleton said.

According to Middleton, each counselor has approximately 1,200 to 1,500 applications to review from November to March. Counselors overlook applications from the early decision period — a decision option that allows prospective students to apply and receive a decision earlier with the agreement that they would be binded to attend the College if accepted — and the general admission period.

Middleton said that after a counselor reviews an application, they make a preliminary decision for admission and defend their decision to Director of Admissions Grecia Montero, who has the final say on whether or not a student is admitted.

While reviewing the information, counselors take into account six main numeric and non-numeric factors, Middleton said. Those factors include the student’s transcript, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, leadership, community service and letters of recommendation. “(An applicant’s transcript) is always the most important factor… I know when I open an application, one of the first things that I do is look at their senior year course load to see how they challenged themselves or if they decided to take it easy their senior year,” Middleton said. “That leaves a big impression on me right off the bat.”

Middleton said that the Office of Admissions keeps track

Arts & Entertainment / Page 16

see COLLEGE page 4 Features / Page 21

Sports / Page 32

Student Band Night Alternative rock meets comedic hip-hop

Trans Awareness Week Tyler Ford gives lecture

Track Lions participate in TCNJ Invitational

See A&E page 16

See Features page 21

See Sports page 32

page 2 The Signal April 13, 2016

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 3

Sigma Pi / Chapter wants to continue its ‘great tradition’ continued from page 1 Those “recent events” stem from two investigations in which Sigma Pi was involved. The Signal first reported on the initial investigation on Nov. 3, 2015.

“On September 30, 2015, TCNJ placed the Theta Delta chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity on interim suspension. The action followed a series of incidents that took place on and off campus,” Muha said. “By terms of the interim suspension, Sigma Pi was prevented from hosting any activities, including social events, recruiting new members and holding chapter meetings.”

According to two representatives of the fraternity who requested to remain anonymous, this suspension was held until the investigation launched by the school surrounding an alleged sexual assault at an offcampus party was completed. According to the representatives, a female had accused a member of the fraternity of sexual assault.

Over time, more females came forward alleging that there was sexual harassment at the party, according to the representatives.

After months of investigation by the College’s Office of Student Conduct and Dispute Resolution Services, the allegations of sexual assault and harassment proved to be false, according to the representatives.

However, Sigma Pi was “found responsible for violations of College policy, the most serious of which concerned alcohol and other drug violations. This outcome, which was upheld on appeal, resulted in a suspension of the fraternity through May 20, 2016,” according to Muha.

This suspension of recognition meant that “all activities, student organizationaffiliated events and privileges of College and Student Government recognition (were) suspended,” according to the Fraternity & Sorority Life Privileges and Responsibilities packet. The packet outlines the privileges that Sigma Pi lost during this time, which includes the ability to host social events.

This suspension of recognition also required Sigma Pi to have a live-in monitor, provided by its international headquarters, at the fraternity’s off-campus house, according to the representatives. This, along with the loss of the right to hold social events, led Sigma Pi to appeal the sanctions, the two men said.

But while on suspension for those alcohol and/or drug-related violations, the College launched another investigation into Sigma Pi on the grounds of there being “possible violations of the terms of the interim suspension,” according to Muha.

Representatives of Sigma Pi said that this investigation was conducted because the school believed that Sigma Pi was acting

as a fraternity by recruiting new members when it should not have been. According to the representatives, Sigma Pi was not acting as a fraternity as was alleged. However, the investigation conducted by the College found that Sigma Pi failed “to comply with directives issued by the College,” Muha said, and this eventually led to the revocation of the fraternity’s recognition.

With each suspension the fraternity received came sanctions for the men to follow, Interim Executive Director of Sigma Pi’s international chapter Jason Walker said.

“The TCNJ administration declined to work in conjunction with the Sigma Pi executive office to address (the) violations (at-hand), and instead imposed sanctions which we felt were excessive and impossible to completely satisfy,” Walker said. “... As a result, after consulting with their alumni, our TCNJ chapter has voted to voluntarily forego recognition as a student organization by the college. The Sigma Pi executive office and international board of directors are working with the chapter to develop a viable and acceptable plan for Sigma Pi to continue at TCNJ without such recognition. At present, these students remain a chartered chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity, International.”

After Sigma Pi appealed the initial sanctions placed on them for violating rules related to alcohol, they were handed even stricter sanctions in terms of the years they would be placed on deferred suspension, the representatives said. According to the Fraternity & Sorority Life Privileges and Responsibilities packet, a deferred suspension “places the fraternity or sorority on notice that any further violation of College policy during the specified period of time will result in more serious sanctions including suspension or revocation of recognition.”

The representatives of Sigma Pi felt as though the additional sanctions placed on them for violating their suspension guidelines were too hard.

“Once again, we want to reiterate we wanted to work with the school and come to terms with these sanctions that were reasonable, because I think in our eyes, a lot of them, and I’ve talked to other people, were completely unreasonable. And instead of working with us (after being suspended for the findings of the first investigation), (the College) went and conducted another investigation by emailing people… saying, ‘Do you have an interest in Sig Pi?,’” the representatives said. “... And it was one thing after the other, and after the longest time, leaders in our organization, people from our headquarters at nationals, wanted to continue to be on this campus — and we showed the school that we wanted to do so — and

they wouldn’t meet us halfway or even take one step out to kind of reach out to us. And they left us with very little options.”

The representatives believe that the College placed the supposed unfair sanctions on Sigma Pi with the hopes of getting them off campus, somehow, someway. “(Go on the College’s page for Greek life) and it shows you that (getting in trouble for alcohol and membership-related incidents) is a very common thing, so why were we being discriminated against? Which makes me lead to believe that the school, from the start, had a vendetta of getting us off the campus.

Whether they saw us too much as a threat, I do think they were worried of us becoming too powerful or something like that,” one of the Sigma Pi representatives said.

According to Muha, though, the school is “confident” that “procedural standards were followed, including a fair and thorough investigation, ample opportunity for the fraternity to be heard in the process and sanctions commensurate with the violations.” Muha also pointed out that the fraternity chose to not participate in the hearing process for the second investigation.

On Saturday, April 9, in response to

“We feel like we have a lot to offer to every single student that comes to this campus.”

— Sigma Pi representatives Sigma Pi’s decision to go independent, the College’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life added a new section to its Website on unrecognized organizations. According to the site, as an unrecognized organization of the College, Sigma Pi will “no longer receive the advice, support or active oversight of the College.” The school might also refer to unrecognized organizations as “underground” organizations, the site said.

And even though the fraternity is no longer recognized by the school, students can still be punished for anything that might happen at a Sigma Pi event, and the College has strongly warned students to not involve themselves with Sigma Pi or any other unrecognized organization.

“Involvement with any unrecognized organization can pose a significant risk and students are strongly advised to avoid engagement with these groups,” the Office of

Fraternity and Sorority Life Website reads.

“Individuals who affiliate with unrecognized organizations may be susceptible to participation in activities that violate College policy and should understand that they will be held individually accountable for their actions.”

Representatives of Sigma Pi feel as though saying people shouldn’t hang out with certain groups is in violation of students’ freedom of assembly and only see this as further proof that the College treats the group unfairly. However, now the fraternity is looking forward to continuing its “great tradition,” independent from the College.

“We feel like we have a lot to offer to every single student that comes to this campus. If the administration disagrees, they can disagree, but we want to remind them that it is ultimately the student’s decision of who they want to associate with,” the Sigma Pi representatives said.

According to the fraternity’s representatives, Sigma Pi is aware of the rumors and stereotypes that circulate on social media and on campus — “... people are still making jokes about us… calling us rapist scumbags,” the representatives said — and the fraternity hopes that making the decision to derecognize themselves from the College will help in having the opportunity to quash those rumors.

“I really do want to remind people that rumors are only (rumors). You know, people that talk the most know the least, and I want to remind people that if you think something happened, come talk to someone in Sigma Pi. Get knowledgeable on the issue and know that those words that we’re being associated with in the fall semester were completely falsified. They were just strictly allegations that never came true,” one representative said. “And take a second to realize that you’re talking about individual men on campus, you’re talking about people that go to this school and are very similar to you.

And you’re using these accusations and spreading these rumors. It’s crazy to think that it’s not only students, but it’s professors that heard through the grapevine and starting class discussions.”

Students from the College can still choose to join Sigma Pi, but the organization’s philanthropic work done on campus (their philanthropy is suicide prevention and awareness) and participation in school-sanctioned social events, such as Homecoming, will no longer be allowed.

“I think that we recognize that students as individuals and as groups do a lot of great things,” Muha said. “This is not about anything beyond the circumstances that took place in September and then the follow-up from the group throughout the period of the interim suspension.”

High school seniors attend Accepted Students Day

David Colby / Photo Assistant

Potential students learn about the College’s clubs.

By Andrea Janiszewski Correspondent

The College’s campus was recently filled with prospective students looking to find out if the College is the right fit for them. Accepted Students Day, which took

place on Saturday, April 9, brought in admitted students and their families beginning at 9 a.m.

Upon arrival, guests walked into Loser Hall and were greeted by the College’s ambassadors. They then proceeded to registration and were able to take tours of the campus and attend interest sessions, despite the rain.

“The fact that I still loved TCNJ despite this crummy weather really says a lot about how amazing this campus is,” said already-committed student Julia Pontebbi from Staten Island, N.Y. “Accepted Students Day was so much fun.”

The cold weather on Saturday did not prevent prospective students from visiting, nor did it stop the campus community from showcasing what the College has to offer.

“To be honest, we were concerned that the poor weather conditions might discourage students and their families from coming to the campus,” Assistant Director of Admissions Kevin Fay said. “But the traffic entering campus Saturday morning seemed to indicate otherwise.”

According to Fay, the College expected approximately 1,800 students and their guests to attend Accepted Students Day, a “60 percent increase over last year’s

pre-registration total.”

Guests had the opportunity to attend various programs throughout the day, including information sessions on their major, Residential Education and Housing, financial assistance and the Center for Global Engagement.

In addition to attending programs throughout the day, guests had the option to dine in Eickhoff Hall and attend an activities fair in the Recreation Center, where they were able to explore the various clubs and organizations the College has to offer.

“I think the day (went) pretty well,” ambassador and senior special education and Spanish double major Lauren Lagriola said. “The weather could be a little bit better, but we’re all happy to be here and it looks like the accepted students are happy as well.”

For Pontebbi, Accepted Students Day gave her the ability to learn about what exactly the College has to offer.

“I liked that I was able to go into the lab and see what I would be exposed to in the upcoming year,” Pontebbi said. “I am less overwhelmed by the fear of going away (to college) now and actually can’t wait to be a part of this campus.”

page 4 The Signal April 13, 2016

College / Plans to accept more out-of-state students

Twitter.com

The incoming freshman class has competitive admissions applications. continued from page 1

of students that visit the College for tours, as well as students who meet with admissions counselors while they are out visiting local high schools, in order to see how interested an applicant is in attending the College.

“We take a lot of notes in our system on people we’ve had conversations with, either at their high schools or when they visit the campus, so a student that is trying to make that extra effort, especially since we don’t do interviews as part of the process, a student doing that can enhance their chances,” Middleton said. “If they advocate for themselves, we might end up advocating for them, too.”

With the amount of applications that are submitted to the College, Middleton said that it is hard to determine how long a counselor spends reviewing each application, but estimated that it’s usually no longer than a few minutes.

“There are some applications that are very easy — for both good and bad — and I’ll say those applications typically take about five minutes to go through,” Middleton said. “There are some applications that are really hard and those ones take long — how long — maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

It really depends a lot on how many recommendations they send in, if they send in any extra materials. Sometimes students send in reports that they have written or artwork that they’ve done or something else just to kind of highlight who they are.”

Applications that make the decision to accept or reject a student more challenging are those that typically consist of a strong transcript, but weak standardized test

scores or vice versa. Counselors often rely on seeking consultations with each other in order to make a decision for these kind of applications, according to Middleton.

“I really think that with admissions, what we try doing is try to find reasons to admit students,” Middleton said. “If we have a student that we really like because they have a great activity résumé, but maybe their grades aren’t as strong as some of the other applicants… It’s just sort of nice to bounce ideas off of one another just to get a sense of whether you’re in the right frame of mind when making a decision.

“That’s why I really like that we do the reporting at the end of the process because I know after two or three months of this, there might be a couple of students that I’m really unsure of and make a decision and I really rely on my director to check those and make sure that there’s good decisions made,” he said.

According to Middleton, the number of high school graduates on the East Coast is shrinking, and more colleges in the area are competing over a smaller pool of applications.

The College has also stepped up its focus on trying to attract out-of-state students. The Office of Admissions hired two regional liaisons to go to events and talk to high school students in New England and Long Island.

Middleton said that the College offers special scholarships only available to outof-state applicants and has invested into placing advertisements in out-of-state regions. According to Middleton, the out-ofstate student population currently hovers

somewhere around 7 percent, but the College plans on increasing it to 15 percent of the student body.

Middleton said that it is important for the Office of Admissions to reach out to nonNew Jersey students in order to increase the College’s national name recognition, something that he claims will be beneficial for New Jersey residents if they applied for employment outside of the state.

“For applicants now, it is better to be an out-of-state student than an in-state student right now,” Middleton said. “Does it significantly change the process? No. But if you’re on the bubble for admissions, I think that we are more likely to admit an out-of-state student right now because we are actively growing that population.”

According to Middleton, who has 15 years experience of working in the Office of Admissions, the way that the office is looking at applications is changing, as well.

“It’s really tricky when you know that you can only admit about 45 percent of the people to apply to the school.”

— Matt Middleton

Associate Director of Admission

“When I started my first year, the College got... about 6,000 applicants that year, and this year we got about 12,000… so there’s just a lot more to read,” Middleton said. “But I think the other big change is that the students who are applying here are just better — they’re stronger academically, they’re much more involved, so it’s really tricky when you know that you can only admit about 45 percent of the people to apply to the school.”

The College is focusing a bit less on standardized test scores, according to Middleton.

The College now has programs — such as

art, music and interactive multimedia — where submitting test scores is optional.

Middleton said that in the past five years, the College has turned to what is called an “enrollment management model” for admissions in which the College examines applications based on the major they plan on studying as a criterion in the admissions process.

“Before that five years, we pretty much took the strongest x number of applicants and didn’t care what it was that they wanted to study,” Middleton said.

As a result, certain majors became overwhelmed with students, while others were struggling to get any students, Middleton said.

The Office of Admissions now works closely with academic departments in order to see how many seats they would have open in order to ensure that the College admits enough students for each department, Middleton said.

If an applicant is not able to get into their first choice of major, but the Office of Admissions believes that they would be a strong fit for the College, counselors might try to give them the opportunity to enroll under a different major, Middleton said.

Middleton said that of the 11,818 applications received by the College, about 5,300 were accepted and they plan on welcoming a class of about 1,450 freshmen for the Fall 2016 semester.

According to The College Board, the College received 11,290 applications in 2015 and admitted 5,495 to the institution, with 1,453 students deciding to enroll. Of the 600 early decision applications submitted, 412 were accepted to the College. “(An increasing trend is how applications are) stronger academically, they’re much more involved,” Middleton said.

“It’s really tricky when you know that you can only admit about 45 percent of the people to apply to the school. There’s a lot of good candidates that don’t get admitted.”

As for the Class of 2020 in particular, Middleton said that the future freshman class at the College will bring about similar students as the current freshman class.

“It’s another really strong applicant pool. It’s similar to the one last year in terms of average SAT, class ranks, involvements — it’s all… really good students (that we are admitting),” Middleton said.

Lecturer stresses importance of career fulfillment

By Maxine Lopez Correspondent

Students and faculty laughed, listened to each other’s stories and spoke about the things they loved and hated under the guidance of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of The Total Solutions Group, Director of Collegiate Empowerment and alum Joe Urbanski (’03), who hosted a lecture on “Preventing a Miserable Career” in the Library Auditorium on Wednesday, April 6.

Urbanski promised a highenergy program that would “not be like a normal lecture.” He did not disappoint the crowd as he asked the audience to participate in small activities and conversations to share their own insights on what was necessary to avoid what he calls a “D life.”

In an attempt to demonstrate the severity of being in a miserable job, Urbanski offered the statistic that one-third of our lives is spent at work. Failing to pick the best career would thus be failing one-third of life, or getting a 67 percent on a

life test — a “D.” Urbanski spoke bluntly about the pits people fall into when doing a job that isn’t within the scope of their passion or abilities.

Junior accounting major Ed Guippone applied this advice to his own life.

“It actually forced me to think about (my future),” Guippone said.

“My passions are not only technical. My passions are also creative and what I got out of this was how I could apply creativity to my technical job. I’m feeling happy about being able to do that.”

Sophomore sociology major Olguine Paul appreciated Urbanski’s straightforward advice.

“He speaks the truth about what life is and what to expect,” Paul said.

Urbanski spent much of the presentation redefining GPA: Collegiate Empowerment’s acronym that stands for genius, passion and achievement. This is was what Urbanski called “the real GPA.” He defines genius as what one is better at than anyone else he or she knows. Passion is “the energy

to do your best,” while achievement is more than just success, it’s the act of trying and planning along the way.

A major theme of the lecture was the importance of getting out there and experiencing things.

“If you don’t know what you are passionate about, then you haven’t done it yet,” Urbanski said.

Whether it was a story, statistic, comparison or personal revelation, the audience followed along with enthusiasm. They jumped up to participate in some conversations and listened silently as he lectured, answering with an enthusiastic “Oh yeah” when Urbanski asked if they were still there.

In addition to rethinking the concept of “real GPA,” among the advice he offered students was to go to the Career Center, talk to the advisers, listen to what people say they are good at and focus on planning the next four years of college.

Guippone said that the strategy of creating four-year goals was his favorite advice of the lecture and he plans to do it in the future.

During the program, Urbanski

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

Urbanski explains the importance of loving your job. emphasized that work shouldn’t feel like work. He stressed that students should find a job that they are excited to go to every day, both “a privilege and an obligation.”

“It doesn’t feel like anything because it’s your thing. It doesn’t feel like effort,” Urbanski said.

After the lecture, Paul said she felt even more driven to pursue her career goals, which is to become an English as a Second Language teacher. Both Guippone and Paul expressed their desires to find reassurance and guidance for their career aspirations through the lecture.

Urbanski spoke about his experiences at the College being defined by his involvement in clubs, specifically with the Leadership Development Program. Urbanski said it was through this program that he was able to find what he was meant to do in life. He expressed a love for public speaking and helping others, which led him to the position he is in today.

“If college taught what it was supposed to teach, I wouldn’t be here,” Urbanski said. “But I’m not complaining because if they did, I wouldn’t have a job.”

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 5

Winners named at Mayo Business Plan Competition

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

Freschi and Combs win the top prize for their invention, Solar Divide.

By Megan Kelly Staff Writer Three groups of students at the College competed in the Mayo Business Plan Competition Finale on Wednesday, April 6, in the Library Auditorium at 7 p.m. The groups presented their ideas to a panel of judges that included notable alumni.

First place, along with $30,000, went to senior philosophy and physics double major Nic Freschi and senior physics major Cody Combs for their business idea called Solar Divide. The company specializes in retrofitting traditional photovoltaic solar energy panels with a transparent trough that would put wasted heat energy to good use.

Second place was awarded to Lions’ Laundry — a laundry pickup and delivery service geared toward students at the College that was created by junior economics major Andrew Goodman, junior finance major Peter Heltzel and junior finance major Greg Donohue. They were presented with $14,000.

Third place went to Elementary Robotics, which was composed of a team of freshmen. Business open options major Sarah Sleiman, electrical engineering major Skylar Maxwell, business open options major Megha Rathi and management major Dominic Edward Clark were awarded $6,000 for their idea for a non-profit organization that would allow elementary students to build robots to complete certain tasks and compete in a robotics competition.

The members of Elementary Robotics presented their idea to the judges first. They showed the importance of robotics by playing a short video featuring 10 significant robotic innovations in recent years and exemplified that robotics can be fun by inviting a judge to try her luck at using a robot to push as many ping pong balls across a wooden box as she could. Sleimen then explained the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors and inspiring younger children to pursue interests such as robotics.

“According to the U.S. Department of Labor, STEM jobs take up 5 percent of the work force,” Sleiman said. “However, these fields are projected to take up more than 50 percent of the U.S. economic expansion.”

The group went on to explain that interest in a STEM major is much higher when people are exposed to these topics at a young age.

“This is where Elementary Robotics comes in,” Sleiman said.

They then listed the benefits of Elementary Robotics and the positive effect the organization could have on many adolescents, as the competitions are extended to fourth- and fifth-grade students.

“This program will introduce elementary school students to basic computer programming and building while having fun,” Maxwell said. “Students also learn crucial life skills, such as cooperation, responsibility, communication and sportsmanship.”

The group outlined its market achievement plan and explained how the members

would expand the company. Of the 15 schools to which they spoke, 13 endorsed the idea. Jonathan Ponds, the superintendent of Moonachie school district, also supports the idea, according to the team.

“He’s very, very excited about Elementary Robotics,” Sleiman said. “And he wants to start Elementary Robotics in his school district in September.”

Elementary Robotics finished its presentation with a tour of its Website, projected finances and information packets for the judges.

Lions’ Laundry was up next. The group began by explaining to the judges how frustrating doing laundry at the College is, as students deal with broken appliances, stolen laundry and crowded laundry rooms. Members then elaborated on their business idea and described how Lions’ Laundry would work.

“The Lions’ Laundry solution is wash and fold operations,” Goodman said.

“What that entails — us going to the residence halls, picking students’ clothes up, washing, drying and folding them and returning then in just a couple days.”

“The amount that I’ve learned from doing this and the fact that we have funding... is just an amazing experience.”

—Nic Freschi

senior philosophy and physics double major

Lions’ Laundry would operate mainly out of Hamilton Washery in Hamilton, N.J., giving 75 percent of its business to that business’ owner, Stephanie Anderson.

The group chose Laundry Experience in Ewing, N.J., as its backup business with which to partner. Drop-off and pick-up services would be on Sundays and Wednesdays, with designated spots for each residence hall.

The group then showed a video of three Lions’ Laundry employees clad in khakis

and royal blue polos entering Hamilton Washery, picking up three bags of laundry, loading them into a car and driving away. These three employees then entered the Library Auditorium with their laundry bags, walking up on stage.

Solar Divide presented its business plan last, with both a traditional solar panel and a panel fitted with the transparent trough on display. The group played a video showing the problems with fossil fuels and explaining why new energy sources, such as nuclear, wind and solar, are becoming more popular.

The video explained the concept of the two main forms of collecting solar energy — using photovoltaic panels to collect sunlight or solar thermal technology to harness the sun’s heat — and how Solar Divide combines them both.

“We are the only company that separates the sun’s spectrum into various energy applications. Because of this, we are able to produce the most efficient solar panel possible,” Combs said.

The duo then took the audience through its financial plans and business model, comparing the efficiency of traditional solar farms to the potential efficiency of the retrofitted solar farms. They were able to get a commitment from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners and a loan of $55,000, among other forms of funding. They also showed photos of the experiments used to develop the panel and determine that their panel could produce just as much electricity as a panel without their system, and that they were able to produce heat up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Solar Divide has been a work in progress for almost two years, according to Freschi.

“The amount that I’ve learned from doing this and the fact that we have funding and that I can graduate and be like, ‘Mom, I’m going to be an entrepreneur and start my own company,’ is just an amazing experience,” Freschi said.

Although the other groups were worthy competitors, Solar Divide stood out from the rest, according to Dean of the School of Business William Keep.

“I think what separated Solar Divide… was the originality and the innovation they had behind the idea,” Keep said.

“They clearly have a passion. They communicated a very complex topic in a way that could be understood and they clearly have scale there.”

Latenight construction has Wolfe residents howling

By Roderick Macioch News Assistant Residents of Wolfe Hall have had their sleep and study times disrupted, starting Monday, April 4, from 4:30 p.m. to midnight due to a construction project taking place behind the building. Barring any unexpected problems, work is expected to be completed by Friday, April 15, according to the College’s spokesperson Dave Muha.

The project “is a stormwater remediation project,” Muha said via email. “In the past several years, during heavy downpours, the College has experienced damaging floods to the Rec Center, and Travers (and) Wolfe. Consequently, we are installing a larger capacity underground stormwater system that can take the volume of water that runs off from the upper reaches of campus.”

The project had been in planning stages for several months before the construction crew broke ground to gain access to the defective system. It has just recently begun to affect students, however, as the din of construction can regularly be heard as late as midnight.

“I assure you this construction would not be taking place if it were not of grave importance to the upkeep of the building,” Wolfe Hall’s Residence Director Marvin Carter said in an email to Wolfe residents on Tuesday,

April 5.

However, for Wolfe residents, many of whom have experienced a disruption in their sleep and study schedules because of the noise, the necessity of the project is little consolation at the moment.

The construction is disrupting their sleep, according to freshman biology major and Wolfe Hall resident Jeffrey Garcia-Sanchez.

“It is definitely affecting sleep,” he said. “It takes a bit longer for me to get to sleep, mostly because the construction is pretty much directly below me.”

Garcia-Sanchez mentioned that another frustrating aspect of the project has been the minimal communication to Wolfe residents about the progress of the project. “(Carter) sent an email to us saying it wouldn’t take more than a week,” Garcia-Sanchez said. “That’s about all the communication there was.”

This has left many students wondering why the work cannot be done during the day when it would be less of a distraction.

According to Muha, there is a simple explanation as to why construction must take place at night.

“Campus Construction changed the hours a week ago so as not to impact Sodexo operations. Sodexo needs to get their deliveries done in the morning” Muha said.

“Sodexo schedules all of its deliveries for the morning.

Deliveries go to (T-Dubs) at the ground level to allow

them to serve food the rest of the day. Because construction limits the ability of large delivery trucks to get to the loading area at (T-Dubs), the College adjusted the construction schedule. Starting at noon allows the delivery vehicles to come and go without interrupting construction or the deliveries. This saves time and money on both sides.”

While late-night construction is inconvenient for students, there really is no alternative, according to Muha.

In the same email from Carter, he went on to say that the construction would not affect the Internet or other building facilities. By all accounts, this promise has been kept.

Things should be getting back to normal soon because, according to Muha, “This should be the last week of construction.”

This is confirmed by the Division of Administration’s Campus Construction Website, which features a progress report of current construction projects.

“After investigation phase, many utilities were discovered in the way of the new piping. After months of redesign, the project is now back on track,” according to the site.

Starting Monday, April 11, the work is supposed to begin at noon each day and wrap up at 10 p.m. each night, according to Muha. For a few days more, students will have little choice but to contend with the inconvenience.

page 6 The Signal April 13, 2016

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April 13, 2016 The Signal page 7

Athletic Director Sharon Beverly steps down

By Pat McCarthy Correspondent After two years at the College, Sharon Beverly has stepped down as athletic director and vice president for Student Affairs. Beverly was the fourth athletic director at the College and the first female to hold the position.

She arrived on the campus after spending 10 years at Vassar College, where she held the same position, according to information provided by the College’s Athletic Department.

The campus community was notified that Beverly was stepping down from her position via an email sent out on Thursday, March 31, by Vice President for Student Affairs Amy Hecht. Hecht highlighted Beverly’s achievements and thanked her for all she has done for the College, while wishing her luck in the future on behalf of the campus community.

In the same email, Beverly expressed her gratitude for the College.

“After two memorable years in Athletics, I have been weighing some wonderful opportunities to teach, which I’ve wanted to do since completing my Ph.D. I

know to successfully make this transition will take a full-time effort on my part,” Beverly said. “As of March 31, 2016, I will no longer be overseeing the day-to-day in Athletics and thank Dr. Hecht and Dr. Gitenstein for the chance to be a part of the TCNJ Athletics program.”

Beverly’s decisions during her time at the College contributed to the success of the athletic teams, including the hiring of full-time strength and conditioning coach Addison Savela.

She also purchased Jon Gordon’s “The Energy Bus,” a novel focusing on an athlete’s ability to remain positive and focused at times of adversity, for all freshman athletes in Fall 2015. Beverly also brought in high profile speakers, such as former NCAA All-American, international-level distance runner and World Masters Champion John Underwood, to speak with all the athletes on the importance of recovery and nutrition in February 2016.

Hank Harvey, a junior computer science major and captain of the College’s football team, is grateful for Beverly’s impact on the College.

“Thank you, Dr. Beverly,” Harvey said. “The athletic program has significantly changed for the better in your

time here. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.”

The College saw success under Beverly, including multiple national championships at both the individual and team levels. Beverly’s first national championship came early in her tenure at the College, with a group of swimmers bringing a national championship to the College in March 2015. Beverly’s only team national title came in Fall 2014 when the field hockey team won the field hockey Division III National Championship.

Matt Facas, a senior health and exercise science major and member of the baseball team, said that Beverly pushed the athletes to reach their full potential.

“Since Dr. Beverly took over two years ago, there was definitely an increased emphasis and effort placed on improving our athletic ability, both as individuals and as a team, along with representing ourselves, our teams and TCNJ athletics in a positive manner, both on and off the field,” Facas said.

According to the email sent out by Hecht announcing Beverly’s resignation, she will take over as the interim director of athletics until the position is filled, since the College does not yet know when a replacement for Beverly will be found.

Weeklong Finals Fest fully funded by SFB

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

The board OKs Inter-Greek Council’s request for Airband funding.

By Roderick Macioch News Assistant

During its weekly meeting on Wednesday, April 6, the Student Finance Board (SFB) approved funding for numerous events, ensuring a busy campus calendar as the semester begins to draw to a close.

The first proposed event was Student United Way’s “Agents of Change: The Change Starts with You!” The event will feature an appearance by nationally-recognized author and leadership consultant Joshua Fredenburg.

According to the request form presented by Student United Way, the goal of the event is “to highlight the importance of service by the usage of effective leadership.” Specifically, Fredenburg will assist students “with their efforts (to) create and build leaders with (a) passionate, powerful and transformational leadership lecture that will empower, enlighten, and elevate students.”

When the time came to vote, the requested $4,020.81 was granted, with the stipulation that further negotiations are made with Fredenburg in an effort to lower his $4,000 appearance fee.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 27, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Library Auditorium.

Representatives of PRISM entered to propose their plan for its Queer Musician Showcase, featuring performances by local artists Danielle Grubb, Kid in the Attic and Roswell Debacle. As stated in PRISM’s proposal, the event “seeks to further a dialogue on the culture surrounding local queer communities by giving (three) nearby queer-centered bands a platform to present their work.” Thus, the event “simultaneously provides entertainment for the TCNJ student body, but perhaps more importantly it serves as an opportunity for empowerment for LGBTQ+ artists and fans,” according to the form.

The board unanimously voted to fully fund the event in the amount of $1,423, most of which covers the booking fees of the three acts.

The event will take place on Friday, April 29, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., in the Kendall Hall Black Box Theatre.

Student Government (SG) then proposed its Baseball Tailgate, cosponsored by the Office of Student Affairs. The event seeks to “build unity and school spirit through food, games (and) activities, and to encourage attendance of the baseball games happening that day,” according to the request form.

When the time came to vote, the requested $3,720.61 was granted, which will pay for food, a WTSR disc jockey (DJ) and other expenses.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 23, from noon to 2:30 p.m. in Lot 12.

SG then requested funding for Spring Finals Fest 2016. Finals Fest “is a traditional event that occurs every semester to help students de-stress during one of the most stressful weeks of the semester. Student Government has put a lot of thought and careful planning into the events involved in Finals Fest to ensure that students can benefit from the activities by relaxing and having some fun,” according to the request form.

The board voted to grant funding in the amount of $1,470.80 to pay for pizza, ice cream and smoothies, which will be featured in giveaways throughout the week.

The event will take place from Tuesday, May 10, to Friday, May 13. Activities will begin at 9 a.m. and carry on throughout each day in various locations around campus, mainly on the Green Hall Lawn.

SG also requested funding for TCNJ Cares Week’s Lions’ Walk for Hope that

takes place during the week. The week is designed “to raise awareness, break down stigmas, build support in regards to mental illness on campus and to send a message of hope to any and all students in need,” according to the request form.

The board voted to grant SG’s request in the amount of $1,704.27.

The event is scheduled to take place from Monday, May 2, to Thursday, May 5, with events held at various times throughout the week in various locations on campus.

Members of the Asian American Association (AAA) proposed funding for emcees — transition acts which will be featured segments of AAA’s Mystique of the East.

According to the request form, the event “is an annual show that features cultural performances with origins from various Asian countries, including China, India, the Philippines, Korea and Japan. The emcee part between each act brings all the acts together through a cohesive storyline.” The show itself was funded in a previous meeting, but emcees are an additional aspect of the show which had not been included in the original proposal.

Full funding for emcees in the amount of $223 was granted, which will cover expenses such as including knee and elbow pads and neon spray paint — these will be used during the emcee segments to connect the storylines of the different acts.

The event will take place on Saturday, April 23, in Kendall Hall. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the show will start at 8 p.m.

Inter-Greek Council requested funding for Airband, which will be co-sponsored by the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association and the Unified Greek Council. The event is designed to “display the creative talent of

the fraternity and sorority community in (the Council’s) closing event of Greek Week. Airband is an open event to which Greeks and non-Greeks alike are encouraged to attend and enjoy the entertainment provided by each team,” according to the request form.

The board voted to fully fund InterGreek Council’s request in the amount of $6,289.96 to cover the costs of expenses including security, sound, stage and lighting.

The event is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 29, in the South Gym in Packer Hall at 6 p.m.

The final order of business was the Association of Students for Africa (ASFA)’s proposal for its Akwaaba Celebration.

Funding for decorations and acrobats were tabled due to high prices in a previous meeting. Akwaaba, which translates to “welcome,” is still planned to include “a variety of African-inspired performances, food and music,” according to the request form.

Additionally, “this event will showcase to the (College) community that AFSA has arrived and is fully operating to bring a taste of the African culture to the campus, (and) will foster the appreciation for diversity on this campus,” according to the form.

The board decided that satisfactory cost-cutting had been achieved and voted to grant funding in the amount of $3,290.18, which will cover the costs of drinks, utensils, decorations and acrobats from Zuzu Acrobats Inc. The event will be held on Saturday, April 23, from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., in the Decker Social Space.

*Even though SFB agrees to finance certain events, there is no guarantee these events will take place. The approval only makes the funds available.

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

The board grants funding for ASFA’s Akwaaba Celebration.

page 8 The Signal April 13, 2016

Lions Den set to close, undergo renovations

Kim Iannarone / Photo Editor

SG discusses findings of the College’s liberal learning self-study.

By Alyssa Sanford Web Editor

Director of Dining Services Karen Roth, General Manager of Sodexo Patrice Mendes and Associate Provost for Liberal Learning and Curriculum Christopher “Kit” Murphy spoke before the Student Government (SG) general body on Wednesday, April 6, discussing upcoming changes to dining options in the Brower Student Center.

Roth and Mendes answered questions about the upcoming closure and renovations to the Lions Den that will start on Monday, April 18, and wrap up by the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester.

Some of the changes to the Lions Den will include a variety of grab-and-go options, as well as a grill station, a pasta and pizza station, a “noodle concept” that will feature Asian-style cuisine and a sushi station, Roth said.

“I want everyone to eat healthy,” Mendes said. “(Yet) we’re trying to be economical.”

The “servery,” or food stations, in the Lions Den will be greatly expanded during renovations. According to Mendes, the salad station “will be almost triple the size we have now” and other stations will be similarly expanded.

In addition, the cash registers just beyond the food stations will be relocated so there are registers on both ends of the food court and in the middle.

“You won’t feel like you’re in a corral,” Mendes said, referring to the somewhat claustrophobic nature of the registers’ proximity to the food stations that create long lines and crowding inside the servery area.

Furthermore, the Fresh Pride Cafe will be relocated to the second level of the Brower Student Center, Roth said.

After the presentation, Scientista Foundation at TCNJ appeared before the general body to gain formal SG recognition, which would allow the club to secure Student Finance Board (SFB) funding and give it the ability to reserve space for meetings.

Scientista Foundation at TCNJ, which

was approved by the Governmental Affairs (GA) committee on Sunday, March 20, has been in existence for several months, following an interest session and one meeting.

According to the GA briefing, the club seeks to “empower pre-professional women to pursue careers in the sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).”

According to President Casey Dowling, GA found that the Scientista Foundation at TCNJ does not conflict with any other science clubs on campus.

After a lengthy debate, which resulted in 21 votes to approve, 22 voters to disapprove and eight abstentions, Scientista Foundation at TCNJ was not formally approved by SG. However, since the club gained approval from GA, it can re-present to SG at its earliest convenience, Dowling said.

Executive Vice President Javier Nicasio spoke about TCNJ Student Organization Advancement Retreat (SOAR), scheduled for Wednesday, April 13, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., featuring the theme “Meaningful Cosponsorship.”

TCNJ SOAR is effectively taking the place of Passport to Programming.

“It’s something that we thought would be a better thing to have so that there could be more conversations across campus between student leaders,” Nicasio said.

Rather than discussions about issues pertaining to a particular school on campus, these conversations “might be about diversity or inclusiveness on campus,” Nicasio said.

Student organizations that cannot attend TCNJ SOAR in room 201 of Roscoe West Hall for an excused reason will attend a make-up meeting, but organizations that do not attend will be derecognized or placed

on probation, which includes the inability to book spaces or advertise, Nicasio said.

Finally, Murphy presented the findings of the College’s liberal learning selfstudy, which began in October 2015 and was completed after a year and half. He also presented the findings of an external review conducted by two “nationally recognized” experts in the field of higher education in early December 2015.

The recommendations fell into two categories. The first is major recommendations, which will yield “the most potential for improvements to liberal learning” and require governance to enact changes. The other is minor recommendations, which are administrative in nature, Murphy said.

Some of the major recommendations included the “integration between liberal learning, the majors and co-curriculars,” Murphy said.

He cited evidence that 47 percent of College students agree or strongly agree that liberal learning courses are “essential,” while nearly 88 percent of faculty and staff members feel this way. The disparity is alarming to Murphy, who said that employers are looking for well-rounded college graduates who know about the world outside of their major.

Additionally, 49 percent of College students see liberal learning requirements as an obstacle to completing major courses, Murphy said.

“Send us what you think students should be learning… Send input via SG representatives,” Murphy said. “If you think (liberal learning) was the stupidest thing, make sure your voice is heard.

We’re going to be moving ahead with this unless we get a lot of pushback.”

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The 2nd Annual Lavender GraduationCeremony at The College of New Jersey May 2nd in Education 212 at 5 PM

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For Students* to Register: https://goo.gl/2CtD5S For Faculty and Staff to Register: https://goo.gl/kTFq0B Please RSVP by April 22nd If you have any questions, please email lavgrad@tcnj.edu. *Students do not have to identify as LGBTQ to take part in this ceremony.

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 9

Nation & W rld

Brazilian president at risk of impeachment

By Rohan Ahluwalia Staff Writer

The fate of Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, is becoming bleaker as the days pass.

On Wednesday, April 6, special investigator Jovair Arantes pushed forward the notion that Rousseff, who has been the president since 2011, should be impeached after evidence emerged that she violated fiscal laws, BBC News reported.

In his nearly 130-page report, Arantes said, “there is serious evidence of illegal conduct of the president. This shows serious enough to authorize the installation of an impeachment process.”

Rousseff, who was appointed to a second term as Brazilian president in October 2014, is accused of exploiting and influencing budget accounts in order to increase spending during her campaign and shore up votes. Since allegations

were revealed, she has denied any wrongdoing and has called the impeachment effort a coup, according to BBC News.

“Impeachment without proof of a crime is what? It is a coup,” Rousseff said late last month, CNN reported.

Along with the accusation of manipulation of funds since the start of her second term, Rousseff’s presidency has been marred by many serious allegations, which have seen her approval ratings among the Brazilian population fall to just above 10 percent, according to CNN. In early 2015, protests broke out all around Brazil over Rousseff’s alleged involvement in the Petrobras scandal, which included corruption and bribes against the state oil company. The protesters called for Rousseff’s impeachment, since she was the chairwoman of Petrobras at the

time of the alleged corruption.

However, according to CNN, Rousseff denied her involvement in the scandal.

Rousseff was also questioned over her decision to appoint former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as her chief of staff.

The appointment of Lula, who was questioned by investigators a few days before the appointment in a corruption investigation, lead many to believe that Rousseff appointed Lula to shield him from prosecution, CNN reported.

Along with allegations of corruption and cronyism, Rousseff has also been battling the outbreak of the Zika virus and an unready Olympic Games, which, despite being scheduled for this August, still has facilities under construction.

Despite any evidence against her, Rousseff has struggled to maintain leadership and power

Many Brazilian citizens still support Rousseff. in Brazil. According to the Wall Street Journal, Brazil’s largest political party, the Brazil Democratic Movement Party, voted to split its association with the government last month.

The split from the Brazil Democratic Movement Party meant that Rousseff had to pander to smaller parties in order to gain support and vote against impeachment.

The 65-member congressional

AP Photo

committee is scheduled to decide on Monday, April 9, whether to continue the impeachment process. The Chamber of Deputies, also known as Brazil’s lower house, will then have a final vote around Tuesday, April 17. According to the Wall Street Journal, if two-thirds of the 513-member house votes in favor of impeachment, the proceedings will move forward with a trial in the Senate.

States to increase food stamp restrictions

By Catherine Herbert Staff Writer

Of the roughly 45 million people on food stamps in America, hundreds of thousands could be cut off as states begin to reintroduce time limits and work requirements that were previously deferred due to the nation’s high unemployment rates in recent years, according to the New York Times.

Those most affected are expected to be childless adults with lower incomes and the cuts could start as early as this month. The New York Times reported that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities predicted that anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million people will lose benefits seen from the food stamp program, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as it is now called.

In order for adults ages 18 to 49 with no dependents or disabilities to maintain their eligibility to SNAP, they must meet time sensitive requirements that haven’t been used since the 2009 recession. The

reinstated rule requires these particular people to get a job where they work at least 20 hours a week, within three months of enrolling in the food stamp program to continue to be a part of it. Otherwise, they will only be able to utilize the program for three months in any given three-year period. This mandate had been repealed as a response to the high unemployment rates seen in the years following the 2009 recession and has remained suspended until now, as the nation is seeing more jobs return, the Washington Post reported.

This mandate was reinstated in multiple states at the beginning of this year, with the three-month period for finding a job being disabled on Friday, April 1, according to the Washington Post.

Most states have not reintroduced the policy since the recession, with just 17 reinstating it in recent years, but as of this month, 22 more states, including New York, Florida and Maryland, are going to be seeing the repercussions of the mandate being reenacted. The Washington Post reported that even in states where unemployment rates still remain relatively high,

a few governors have welcomed the reinstatement of the mandate, citing it as a means to motivate those eligible for SNAP to join the workforce.

On Friday, April 10, it was reported by the Labor Department that the nation’s unemployment rate is at 5 percent, which is about half of what the rate was after the 2009 recession. Dorothy Rosenbaum, who works at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a food expert, said, “Although the overall jobless rate has been slowly falling, other labor market data indicate that many people who want to work still cannot find jobs. Cutting off food assistance does not enable them to find employment or secure more hours of work,” according to the New York Times.

Critics of the decision to reinstate this controversial mandate are wary of how this will play out. Kevin Concannon, the under secretary in charge of food assistance programs, said that it is not a good idea for states to reimpose this law where adults who are seeking jobs cannot find them due to economic conditions, according to the New York Times.

Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to a cease-fire

AP Photo

The cease-fire has not decreased tensions between the two countries.

By Zahra Memon Correspondent

On Sunday, April 3, Azerbaijan and Armenia, neighboring countries located in the South Asian subcontinent, agreed on a cease-fire after feuding for decades. In the four days prior to the cease-fire, fighting between the two escalated, CNN reported.

The Armenian separatists and Azeri defense

ministry publicized the cease-fire, calling an end to the war.

However, according to CNN, after the cease-fire, the Armenian News Agency reported that Azerbaijan continued to attack the Armenians. Martakert, a region in Nagorno-Karabakh, has been the reason for dispute and is currently occupied by Armenian forces, but claimed by Azerbaijan.

This dispute has been brutal for Christian

Armenians and the Muslim Azeris. Between Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, the Azeris lost 16 troop members within two days of the conflict, according to BBC. The Armenian-Azeri conflict has been the root cause of instability in Azerbaijan, which is a country known for its vast amount of oil and gas exportation. As a result of the this ongoing conflict, approximately 1 million people have been displaced and 30,000 have died in Azerbaijan, BBC reported.

Armenia lost 20 troops and were missing 26 other troops, MediaMax News reported, according to BBC. Armenia’s main allies have primarily been Russia, while Turkey has been actively supporting Azerbaijan in the war. However, Turkey and Russia have been in a recent stalemate due to the treacherous conflicts in Syria.

The war began more than two decades ago when Soviet republics were fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. BBC reported that these mountainous regions comprise 1,700 square miles of land and an adjacent territory in Azerbaijan.

In 1991, Azerbaijan gained independence from the Soviet Union after claiming

sovereignty in 1988, according to CNN. The mountainous regions of Azerbaijan have been controlled by the Armenians since the 1990s.

The land has been incessantly in a state of dispute because of the Armenian separatists.

A cease-fire took place in 1994, but recently was broken. According to CNN, both countries blame each other. Armenia maintains that Azerbaijan provoked the fighting, but Azerbaijan believes that Armenian troops were attacking their civilians first.

According to BBC, the United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have been deeply concerned about the situation in Azerbaijan and Armenia and have explicitly stated that the war should come to an end.

“We urge the sides to show restraint, avoid further escalation and strictly adhere to the cease-fire,” the U.S. State Department said.

“We reiterate that there is no military solution to the conflict,” CNN reported.

Additionally, the United Nations has clearly stated their support for the Azeris to keep their land while the Armenians should withdraw all their troops and weapons, according to BBC.

page 10 The Signal April 13, 2016 This is an advertisement

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 11

Editorial

Class registration is stressful for many students

What do Waka Flocka Flame and class registration have in common? They’re both things that students at the College spent too much time camping out for and were most likely disappointed by the outcome. To say that class registration at the College needs fixing is an understatement: it’s an abhorrent mess.

The selection time slots can be tricky for students to work with since many begin during or right before classes. As a result, many students at the College are hit with a bomb of anxiety before class or lose complete focus during their class to log into PAWS to select classes for next semester.

This doesn’t even stand up to the fact that, oftentimes, academic departments do not offer enough sections of a class or a type of class that is required for students who are majoring in those subjects to take and, as a result, students who are not fortunate even to snag a seat are forced to fill their schedule with other classes, causing them to go offcourse of their original plan.

Students often find themselves in a situation similar to that of the cornucopia scene in “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” — students are forced to battle each other in order to claim the last remaining seat in an important class.

The argument can be made that the current registration process just causes a temporary discomfort and that eventually things will work out for students to graduate. But freshmen should not be compelled to take advanced courses in their first year because their departments failed to provide enough foundation-level courses for them to take — especially when they advise their students to take those 100- and 200-level courses in the first place.

At the same time, upperclassmen should not have to wait until their final years to get into classes that teaches them the basic knowledge of a subject — basic knowledge that would have been helpful years ago.

Students should not have to worry about class registration to the extent that the College is forcing them. They are not paying close to $30,000 a year in order to live and take classes that have almost nothing to do with their intended majors.

College is meant to be a time for students to learn so that they can land a job after graduation. It is also a time for students, especially at a liberal arts institution like the College, to take courses in which they are interested that might not pertain to their major so that they can expand their knowledge. Instead, many students are handcuffed in the scheduling-purgatory of not being able to get into the right course for their major, or even a course that remotely catches their interest.

It is imperative for College administrators and academic departments to work together in order to ensure students are able to get into classes that will keep them on track to graduate on time. If academic departments have requirements for students to complete then they have the obligation to give students the opportunity to take those courses — including offering enough seats so that all students that are recommended to take them have the chance to. In the meantime, the current registration period discriminates against underclassmen who, with fewer units, may have their seat in a required class stolen by an upperclassman.

— Tom Ballard Opinions Editor

tcnj.edu

Many students must resort to taking classes they are not interested in since required classes fill up so quickly during the registration period.

Quotes of the Week tcnjsignal.net Email: signal@tcnj.edu Telephone: Production Room (609) 771-2424 Business Office (609) 771-2499 Ad Email: signalad@tcnj.edu

Editorial Staff Colleen Murphy Editor-in-Chief murphc16@tcnj.edu Sydney Shaw Managing Editor shaws4@tcnj.edu Ellie Schuckman Chelsea LoCascio News Editors schucke1@tcnj.edu locascc1@tcnj.edu Michael Battista Jessica Ganga Sports Editors battism3@tcnj.edu gangaj1@tcnj.edu Elise Schoening Features Editor schoene1@tcnj.edu Kimberly Ilkowski Arts & Entertainment Editor ilkowsk1@tcnj.edu Thomas Ballard Opinions Editor ballart1@tcnj.edu Kim Iannarone Photo Editor iannark1@tcnj.edu

Mailing Address: The Signal c/o Forcina Hall The College of New Jersey P.O. Box 7718 Ewing, NJ 08628-0718 Jennifer Goetz Nation & World Editor goetzj1@tcnj.edu Jackie Delaney Review Editor delanej2@tcnj.edu Sean Reis Production Manager reiss2@tcnj.edu Alyssa Sanford Web Editor sanfora1@tcnj.edu Andrew Street Connor Smith Social Media Editors streeta1@tcnj.edu smithc57@tcnj.edu

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“Whatever cards life dealt to me, I was going to make the best out of those cards... So, if I had to write songs to make my way in, that’s what I was going to do. Eventually, I got noticed and the rest was history.”

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“To bring the script to life, the actors needed to find the real person in these characters...

Everyone needed to believe that the characters they embodied were real, three-dimensional, living, breathing people — flawed, but with real feelings and doubts, but who always loved themselves for who they are.”

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Editorial Content Unsigned editorial opinions are those of the Editorial Board, which consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing, News, Features, Arts & Entertainment, Opinions, Photo, Sports, Review and Social Media editors and the Business and Production managers, unless otherwise noted.

Opinions expressed in signed editorials and letters to the editor are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Signal.

page 12 The Signal April 13, 2016

Opinions

Media Services muffles student success

tcnj.edu

Media Services fails to meet students’ needs.

By Tom Ballard Opinions Editor

As students at the College, we all have relatively busy lives. In addition to academics, most of us also choose to pile on extracurricular activities, social lives and even jobs to the list of things that we find ourselves responsible for handling. As a result, it’s sometimes hard to look forward and plan ahead in order to avoid the chaos of completing an assignment last-minute. For that reason, Media Services’s policy of only allowing movies to be rented out for three hours ignores the needs of students while robbing them of the opportunity to take advantage of what is meant to be a valuable resource.

Recently, one of my professors assigned my class to

watch a movie that was relevant to what we were learning.

He assured the class that Media Services in the College’s library had the video, so I had very little worry about being able to get my hands on a copy of the movie. About a week before we were expected to have the movie completed, I decided to go to Media Services in order to rent out the movie. As the student-worker took my student ID and checked out the movie, she informed me that the movie was due back in three hours.

But it was impossible for me to have the movie completed and returned within three hours. I had classes and other work that I had to do, and there was no way that I could sit down and focus solely on the film for my class in the petty three hours that I was alloted.

Prior to going to the library, I just expected that the rental time for movies would be longer. Although Media Services has it clearly written on its Website that the rental period for movies is three hours, my local library, which serves a community of about 60,000 people, has a rental period on movies for at least 48 hours. I just expected that the College would allow students at least a day in order to watch a movie, which is meant to be used for academic purposes, in order to take the time needed in order to completely digest the information.

Instead, I returned the movie right away and later found out that students who rent a movie within the last three hours that Media Services is opened are able to keep the movie overnight and return it first thing in the morning.

By the time 6 p.m. had arrived, I found myself sprinting to the library in order to make sure that I would be able to take out the movie that I needed for academic purposes

and was told that I would be able to keep it until 8:30 the next morning.

Although this 14-hour time period was greatly maximized from the original three hours, I found myself having to cram the over two-hour long movie in at 1 a.m. in a classroom in Forcina Hall.

Even though Media Services in the library affords students the ability to take out media to be used for academic purposes, the time that they allow for movies to be rented for is so minute that it seems to be a disservice for students who have more than watching a movie on their plate.

While I understand why Media Services has the three-hour policy that it does — so that most students who need to use the material can have access to it in a reasonable amount of time — it seems to make it difficult for students to be able to use that material effectively in the time that Media Services allows in the chaotic world of college.

It might be beneficial for Media Services, if possible, to create an online library of movies and media available to students and faculty at the College so that anyone who needs to access these kinds of material could simply sign in with their College username and password and be able to use them whenever it works best for them.

Ultimately, Media Services — and the library in general — exists in order to benefit members of the College’s community. Without giving students ample amount of time to use media for classes, Media Services continues to fail students at the College and forces them to abide by their schedule instead of working around ours.

Google has the ability to decide elections

By Gerard Freda In August 2015, notable social psychologist Robert Epstein published three studies highlighting the search engine manipulation effect (SEME) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The series of studies examined how search engines can manipulate voters. In one study, Epstein and his team showed participants’ biased search results.

They found that 99.5 percent of people were unaware that the search results that they were shown were altered. These results were based off of the 2014 election of the Lok Sabha, the lower-house of the Indian Parliament.

Based on these results, Epstein used the “vote manipulation power” (VMP), a measurement that reflects the extent to which alterations in search engine results influence voting behavior, to show how much search engines can manipulate voters. The results showed that the SEME could increase a person’s likelihood to vote for a candidate by 13 percent for people who are not familiar with the candidates. Even people who were familiar with the candidates showed a 10 percent VMP. The research also distinguished people labeled as “Internet-fluent,” people who are well-versed in how to use the Internet, and showed that 91.4 percent of this group displayed no awareness of search engine manipulation. The studies showed across the board that most people were unaware of the presence of biased search engine results.

These results only matter if you happen

to have a passing interest in democracy. The research on SEME concluded that, if spread out across a population, the SEME could shift undecided voters by 25 percent or more for or against a candidate. The study conservatively estimated that the SEME could account for a shift in 2 percent of the total popular vote for a given election.

According to the 2012 exit polls, roughly 10 percent of U.S. voters were undecided up until the final days of the election.

Does Google have the ability to implement the SEME? Globally, with over 5 billion searches a day and almost 2 trillion a year, according to statisticbrain.com, a statistic gathering website, Google is the world’s largest search engine, according to Net Marketshare, an Internet data collecting Website. With its Analytics, Maps, Adsense and YouTube, Google has the ability to provide the world with a treasure trove of data. In fact, in capitalistic fashion, its ability to serve the world was evident when the company surpassed Apple as the most valuable company in the world, according to a CNBC article from Tuesday, Feb. 2.

As a society, we are so dependent on Google that it has become second nature to our technologically-aided development of thought. Our dependence is not learned through human language, but from computer language.

If we know something, we don’t Google it. If we don’t know it, we Google it. It has become habitual. We all do little things without knowing all the time. Micro-actions

like this can be harmless, but when applied to a search engine and aggregated together, they form a social dependence and leave the door wide open to search engine manipulation. This combination has toxic potential, especially when Google has a covert political agenda.

During the 2012 election, search engine manipulation was used on a very basic level.

The Obama campaign used a tool called “Optimizer,” which matched targeted voters to data about what television programs those voters tended to watch. The Obama campaign could then buy advertising time during programs on smaller cable channels such as TV Land, whose advertising rates were cheaper according to a New York Times article from Nov. 12, 2012.

What is even odder is that one day after the biggest primary election-day of this year — Tuesday, March 1, also known as Super Tuesday — when 13 states voted in the Republican primary, Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt, a self-admitting politicallypartisan man, was hired by the Pentagon as the head of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board. This was done in common privatesector public-sector revolving door fashion according to a CNN Money article from Wednesday, March 2. Only this time, the politically-partisan chairman of the most powerful and wealthiest corporation in the world is on both sides of the door at the same time, armed with the empirically-proven ability to manipulate an election.

As musican Bob Dylan said, “the times they are a changin.” No democracy is ever a

perfect reflection of the people’s preferences, as Kenneth Arrow has proven with his Impossibility Theorem.

Democracy and elections are always going to be manipulated to fit the self interests of the times. Regardless of the extent of corporate influence, power, potential, freedom or whatever positive or negative word you may call it, for the first time in humanity, an entity, such as a political campaign, has the power through the SEME to directly affect the outcome of an election by “tailoring your search results to your needs.” As Epstein concluded, “unregulated election-related search rankings could pose a significant threat to the democratic system of government.”

For the first time in the electoral history of the United States, an entity, Google, has found the Golden Ticket to U.S. elections.

AP Photo

Schmidt crafts a political agenda.

Policies The Signal is published weekly during the academic year and is financed by the Student Activities Fee (SAF) and advertising revenue. Any student may submit articles to The Signal. Publication of submitted articles is at the discretion of the editors.

The letters section is an open forum for opinions. Submissions that announce events or advertise in any way will not be printed. All letters should be sent via e-mail to signal@tcnj.edu. Handwritten letters should be sent to The Signal, c/o The Brower Student Center, The College of New Jersey, PO Box 7718 Ewing, N.J. 08628 or placed in our mailbox in the Student Life Office.

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April 13, 2016 The Signal page 13

Students share opinions around campus Is Media Services’s policy OK? Does Google have political sway?

“You can look up any information if you do your research...

(Google) can definitely help (sway the results).”

“I think so... Most movies aren’t three hours, but (I can see how) that could be frustrating.”

Tom Ballard / Opinions Editor

Tom Ballard / Opinions Editor

Alex Maresco, senior English major.

Szymon Saniewski, junior civil engineering major.

“I feel that if you really need a movie, (the process) should be better... The fact that you can only take a movie out for three hours seems (to be) inconvenient.”

“(Google) definitely plays a significant role...

I don’t think that it’s going to be the primary (indicator) to decide the election.”

Tom Ballard / Opinions Editor

Brian McGowan, junior English and philosophy double major.

Tom Ballard / Opinions Editor

Anastasia Fafoutis, freshman economics major.

The Signal asks...

What do you think about the class registration process?

Alex: “I’ve never had a problem with it, but I know others have said it is stressful.”

Simon: “I thought it was a little dragged out... (As a transfer student,) I think the transfer kids were sort of thrown under the rug. I wasn’t able to pick my classes until like a week before they started, (but overall) I think (the College) does a good job.”

Brian: “I haven’t really heard any criticism about it, but I guess it’s good...

(Registration) seems like a lot of work.

It’s kind of confusing. There’s very specific courses I have to take at certain times... and sometimes, the courses fill up before I could take them.”

Anastasia: “I think it’s a pretty simple process. I (spend a lot of time) determining the classes that I want to take... It’s a lot of planning.”

Rob Birnbohm / Cartoonist

The class registration process at the College can be stressful for some students.

page 14 The Signal April 13, 2016

FALL 2016 REGISTRATION APPOINTMENT PERIOD Initial Registration Period for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Tuesday, April 5 Through Friday, April 15



Your enrollment appointment reflecting the first time you will be eligible to register for the Fall 2016 semester can be accessed via your PAWS account. To view your scheduled enrollment appointment, visit the Enrollment Appointment section in the PAWS Student Center. Once eligible, students remain eligible throughout the registration period. Undergraduate students who do not register by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 17, will be subject to a late registration fine. Graduate Students have until Friday, July 15: Late Registration Fine Undergraduate: $150 Graduate: $125



The Fall 2016 Schedule of Classes is available on PAWS and can be viewed by using the Search for Classes button. Both Winter 2017 and Summer 2016 registration are also open along with Fall 2016 registration. Check PAWS frequently for any updated winter/summer course offerings and consult with your advisor for appropriate course selections.



Visit the PAWS HELP website for complete information on how to log-in to PAWS, search for classes, browse the Course Catalog, view your Holds, add courses to your Shopping Cart, and register for classes: http://pawshelp.pages.tcnj.edu/



Use the Validate feature directly from your PAWS Shopping Cart to check for potential pre-requisite issues before registration! For more information on the Validate feature, visit: http://pawshelp.pages.tcnj.edu/files/2011/07/validate.pdf



Check PAWS early and frequently for Holds that will prevent you from registering. All Hold Flag information can be viewed under the Holds section in the PAWS Student Center.



Access your Academic Requirements Report on PAWS to view your degree requirements via the Advising Tools link.



Make an appointment to see your advisor to discuss your Academic Requirements Report. Your advisor’s name and email address can be located in your PAWS Student Center.



Double-check call numbers and course sections prior to your registration appointment for schedule changes and periodic updates.



Graduate Students: If you are a non-matriculant who is applying for Fall matriculation, you should not register during this timeframe. If accepted for matriculation, you will be invited to register during the Graduate Orientation summer orientation sessions.

THE OFFICE OF RECORDS AND REGISTRATION Green Hall 112, M-F 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 15

Fun Stuff

Signal Pets

Munchkin (Left) and Kovy (Right) — Sean Reis’s Cats

Bella — Colleen Murphy’s Dog

Phoenix (Left), Tommy (Middle), and Max (Right) — Jessica Ganga’s Cats and Dog Georgie — Jackie Delaney’s Rabbit

Charlie — Tom Ballard’s Dog

Ruby — Jennifer Goetz’s Dog

Mittens — Kim Iannarone’s Cat

Max — Michael Battista’s Dog

page 16 The Signal April 13, 2016

Arts & Entertainment

CUB / Derulo and Adams rock spring concert

Kimberly Ilkowski / Arts & Entertainment Editor

Left: Lively backup dancers accompany Derulo during his set. Right: Derulo wows the crowd with renditions of ‘Trumpets’ and ‘Talk Dirty.’ continued from page 1 as he sang the 2011 crowd-favorite “It Girl.”

“Is my ‘It Girl’ in New Jersey tonight?” Derulo asked before the song, as he was greeted with screams from females left and right.

Sadly, many hearts were crushed, as only one females got to stare into his sparkling eyes.

“Much more than a Grammy Award / That’s how much you mean to me / You could be my it girl,” Derulo sang to the lucky student.

Not only were Derulo’s vocals on display during songs like “It Girl” and “In My Head,” during which he showed off his undeniable range, but he also effortlessly glided and took control of the entire stage with his slick dance abilities. Alongside his “Derulo Dancers,” the suave singer kept everyone’s eyes on center stage as he executed his mesmerizing moves.

Derulo also treated the crowd to a performance of his brand new single, “If It Ain’t Love,” that he released earlier this month.

He performed the song for the first time on the iHeartRadio Music Awards stage in Inglewood, Calif., which he also hosted, just two days before his show at the College. The song was one that Derulo did not originally have on his setlist, so everyone in attendance got to share in the special moment of watching him perform the smooth new single.

Derulo’s fourth studio album “Everything Is 4” has seen success for the veteran performer. “Everything is 4,” which was released in June 2015, has had four singles make the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

For the new record, Derulo teamed up with Grammy Award-winning music producer Ian Kirkpatrick, who helped produce and write songs such as “Cheyenne” and “Want to Want Me.”

“He’s an amazing producer,” Derulo said of Kirkpatrick in an interview with The Signal. “I’m someone who is always searching for new talent. I’m constantly looking for people with a new sound that has something fresh and new that will stand out and he is no different. He had something that was special, so I wanted to work with him.”

Derulo capped off the night with the Michael Jackson-esque song “Want to Want Me,” which is the most recent hit single off his new album. The crowd, which was already pumped by Derulo’s non-stop performance, bursted with even more energy — everyone couldn’t help but sing along.

Before Derulo’s performance, Adams got the crowd’s energy right where it needed to be, springing himself into the audience at the beginning of his set.

Like Derulo, the lively rapper played a variety of his songs,

dipping into albums such as his 2010 EP, “Boston’s Boy.” Bathed in colored, flashing lights, Adams commanded the stage and got the crowd going with songs like “Fall Back” off his 2012 pre-album mixtape “OK COOL.” The song is representative of the diversity found in Adams’s music, which could be described as a mix between rap and electronic dance music.

“It’s electronic, but at the same time, it’s just a big mix of my favorite types of music,” Adams said in an interview with The Signal. “Sometimes I’ll throw in a weird country, classical rock hook on a hood-trap song. That’s fun to me.”

Adams made sure it wasn’t just him having the time of his life on stage, but that everyone at the concert was having a night to remember. The crowd sang along to well-known songs, such as “Driving Me Crazy,” “Comin’ Up” and “Only One.”

Adams continued his energetic set with new tracks off his recently released March 2016 album, “The Long Way.” “Overboard” had the crowd jumping up and down to its dance-floor beat. The song “Helluva” was the perfect mix of club-anthem weaved with Adams’s rap verses describing a wild night — a theme of most his songs.

The album marks Adams’s first time in his career releasing a full-length record — his last two albums, in 2010 and 2013, respectively, were shorter EPs. In an interview with The Signal, Adams said that the decision to release an LP in 2016 was one based on the fans and how long they’ve stuck by his side during his eight-year career.

“It’s probably the biggest example of music I’m really proud of,” Adams said. “In and out of major labels, in and out of see CUB page 17

Camaraderie and killer guitars at student band night

By Melissa Natividade Staff Writer

With an air of both nostalgia and camaraderie, familiar faces and performers came together to support their fellow musicians at CUB Alt’s student band night on Friday, April 8, in the Brower Student Center. General Collective, Save Face and Gang King each revved up the small crowd with their pulsating individual music styles.

The night opened with General Collection, a four-piece alternative progressive rock band that began with its single “Pictures of Progress” from its EP, “The Plan.” Wrapping up its festival-vibefilled set, junior marketing major and lead vocalist Nick Macioci announced the band’s upcoming appearance at the Local Legends Festival in Vernon, N.J., in June, as well as a new EP early in the fall.

“Nick’s band has gotten really good,” said Jake Rubin, a junior communication studies major and frontman of the band Good Luck Spaceman. “We used to play with them when the Rat was still around and they did an awesome job tonight, even with all the awkward lighting and,

Dana Gorab / Staff Photographer

Save Face plays an energetic show at its final student band night.

you know, just general awkwardness of the venue. The same goes for Save Face.

They started off as this regular punk band but since then, they’ve developed this awesome authentic sound that really works.”

After four years of performing at various venues at the College, Save Face, composed of all senior students, performed its

last student band night show. The band opened up its final set with its latest single, “Preoccupied,” a fan favorite that got most, if not all, of the crowd singing and foot-tapping along.

“In all honesty, I’m mostly here for Save Face,” senior electrical engineering major Eric Mauro said. “I’ve known them

for a while now, but their new stuff is just really great. I am glad I stayed for Gang King, though.”

The feeling was mutual as the crowd really took to the three-piece’s comedic hiphop, rumbling with random laugh spasms as each song seemed to become more and more awkward, yet impossibly entertaining. A highlight was when the spotlight homed in on Fat Matt, who opened Gang King’s set with the single “Hallidays.”

“Maybe more than performing, we were all looking forward to seeing Gang King,” senior computer science major and lead vocalist of Save Face Tyler Povanda said. “We’re good friends of theirs and have played with them before, so we really just wanted to hear what they’ve been up to recently.”

The trio wrapped up the evening in what can only be explained as a chance for audience members to throw some insults at them, though nobody had recovered from the laughs to even attempt to buy into the opportunity.

Students have another chance to enjoy a night of hilarity when CUB Alt brings comedian Beth Stelling to perform on Friday, April 15, in the Decker Social Space at 5 p.m.

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 17

‘Vanya and Sonia’ reveals hilarity and heart ACT presents the family-oriented dramedy

By Alyssa Apuzzio Staff Writer

The Don Evans Black Box Theater in Kendall Hall was bursting with laughter during four nights of the comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” which was performed by All College Theatre (ACT). The theater was filled with students of the College, faculty and members of the public.

Brought to life by a small cast consisting of only six actors, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” ran from Wednesday, April 6, to Saturday, April 9. The skilled theater group was excellent in creating the comical, dramatic and serious atmospheres that the script required.

The comedy play, written by renounded playwright Christopher Durang, focuses on the relationships of three middle-aged siblings, Vanya, Sonia and Masha. Vanya and Sonia live together in their childhood home and Masha is an actress who rarely visits her siblings. The play takes place during a visit from Masha and her boy toy, Spike, and shows the three siblings conversing about their lives and their emotions. And of course, as most siblings do, they argue with one another.

“To bring the script to life, the actors needed to find the real person in these characters,” show director and College alumnus Steve Gaissert (’85) said. “Everyone needed to believe that the characters they embodied were real, three-dimensional, living, breathing people — flawed, but

with real feelings and doubts, but who always loved themselves for who they are.”

ACT President and senior computer science and interactive multimedia double major Matthew Steurer, who played Vanya in the production, said the biggest challenge of the role was trying to embody the age of the character.

“I am clearly not 57 like Vanya, so trying to find specific things to try and make myself appear older was probably the biggest struggle during the entire process,” Steurer said.

For some actors, age wasn’t as difficult to portray as the character’s personalities were. Freshman communication studies major Sam Franz, who played Sonia, felt that the hardest part about Sonia is playing a character that is depressed for a significant amount of time.

Franz did have a scene that excites her and made her enjoy her role the most.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever smashed a cup on the ground, but it’s one of the most fun things to do and I get to do it twice a show. It’s so much fun,” Franz said.

Vanya, Sonia and Masha all have their own set of problems and they reveal them throughout the play. In one scene, Sonia and Masha are both crying very loudly and dramatically over their negative thoughts about their lives.

“I think people were most surprised by how convincing the actors playing the three siblings were in their depiction of characters who are more than twice their

Heiner Fallas / Photo Assistant

Steurer transforms his appearance for his portrayl of Vanya.

Friedman enjoys her final performance with ACT.

actual ages,” Gaissert said. “We worked very hard on this aspect from day one, and I am proud to declare that they met this goal even better than I expected.”

The setting of the play is in Bucks County, Pa., where Vanya and Sonia live. The set was the living room of Vanya and Sonia’s house, with a patterned couch, a coffee table and a bookshelf to add to the home atmosphere. There was also a staircase leading to an upstairs balcony that overlooked the living room. The set remained the same throughout the play, with only the minor changes of moving the coffee table or some of the chairs.

While six actors covered the stage, the production team consisted of 46 members.

“The amazing set was designed, built and dressed by countless people, including the actors themselves, and it, too, exceeded my expectations,” Gaissert said. “This is true, too, for the lighting and sound crew and designers. Everything they created seemed truly real.”

The entire cast and crew worked hard to put on the production. Freshman math major Rebecca Conn, who played the neighbor Nina, said that the cast initially rehearsed four days a week, which then became five days per week as the show date grew closer.

“This small cast has been amazing,” Conn said. “We have gotten so close during this process. It makes me so happy.”

Senior English major Rachel Friedman, who played Cassandra, was more than glad to be a part of the cast, as well. Cassandra is quirky and cleans Vanya and Sonia’s house once a week. Friedman saw the production

Heiner Fallas / Photo Assistant

when it was on Broadway a few years ago and remembers it fondly.

“This is my last production with ACT before graduation and I knew I wanted to be involved in some capacity, simply because I love the show so much,” Friedman said.

Gaissert expected the students would not be able to dedicate 60 hours for the play, with wavering expectations for the play’s outcome.

“I quickly learned, however, just how truly dedicated everyone involved in the production was,” Gaissert said. “Since not every actor attended every rehearsal, it varies, but I can happily state that it topped out at over 80 hours for some of them.”

The play originally premiered in 2012 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., and then made its Broadway debut in 2013, winning the Tony Award for best play and the Drama Desk Award for outstanding play the same year.

“I hope the audience takes away the importance of family. For this play especially, family is defined in so many different ways,” Friedman said. “That and the importance of staying positive and hopeful in the face of trials and difficult times with family.”

Gaissert is very satisfied and proud of how the play was produced and performed.

“The result for the entire production was that we were able to present a play with fully-believable characters, so that audiences did not have to willingly suspend their disbelief that a 20 year old was pretending to be a 57 year old, thus taking away from their overall experience with absorbing the meaning of the play,” Gaissert said.

CUB / Students ‘wiggle’ and ‘get ugly’ continued from page 16

indie deals, working with my favorite producers, I was able to finally cultivate what I wanted to be my LP, which is such a special feeling.”

“All Night Longer,” Adams’s notorious 2012 college party anthem, was the perfect end to the rapper’s performance. The crowd screamed the lyrics “I wanna go all night longer,” as Adams took videos and pictures of everyone going wild for his song.

Despite the high life and partying that most of Adams’s songs describe, the Cambridge, Mass.,born rapper began his career humbly, cutting tracks at home and in his Trinity College dorm room.

The song, “I Hate College (Remix), ”which he performed for the College, is a remix of rapper Asher

Roth’s song “I Love College” and was the first song Adams publically released on YouTube in 2009.

The song became an instant success and is what led Adams to create “Boston’s Boy.” Adams attributes his time growing up in Boston, Mass., for making him the rapper and person he is today, as he pulls inspiration from the New England city.

“The first album was very Massachusetts-, Boston-centered,” Adams said. “It was crazy because I was this Boston kid from a middleclass family who definitely didn’t think I would become this or anything close to playing the amount of shows that I do. It’s awesome.

It’s sort of a testament to the city for influencing me.”

Like Adams, Derulo also began his career small. The Miramer, Fla., native began his career

ghostwriting songs for artists like Danity Kane, Pitbull and Lil Wayne — an opportunity that he didn’t necessarily seek out, but something he didn’t let pass him.

“It kind of just fell into my lap,” Derulo said. “I always wanted to be the person delivering the message. I always wanted to be the front man. Life kind of takes you on twists and turns and I was going to make it by any means necessary.”

Derulo eventually went from being a behind-the-scenes writer to the triple-threat frontman he is known for being today. To date, Derulo has had 11 platinum singles and sold over 50 million records worldwide.

Even after so much success, Derulo still appreciates how he began his career.

“Whatever cards life dealt to

me, I was going to make the best out of those cards,” Derulo said.

“So, if I had to write songs to

make my way in, that’s what I was going to do. Eventually, I got noticed and the rest was history.”

Kimberly Ilkowski / Arts & Entertainment Editor

Derulo engages the audience with his stage presence.

page 18 The Signal April 13, 2016

‘Remembrance’ reminisces on the past

The novel follows the life of Suze Simon.

Twitter.com

By Kayla Whittle Staff Writer Have you ever reflected on a book series years after finishing it and wished for one more installment in order to update you on the characters lives’ since the end of the original series?

That’s exactly what Meg Cabot has done for old fans of her “Mediator” series, a set of six young adult novels released in the early 2000s. With a new spin-off series of adult books featuring the same characters but set years after the conclusion of the original books, these extra additions add more spice and intrigue as Cabot had more room to work with adult characters.

“Remembrance,” the first book in the series, is written so

that newcomers to the story can understand and grow to love Suze Simon just as wholeheartedly as old fans do. Suze is a mediator — she can see ghosts and her job is to help them move on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, sometimes this means kicking some ghost butt when someone doesn’t want to move on. Threats come from the living, too, especially when half of the ghosts Suze deals with have been murdered.

Cabot does a fantastic job of capturing the voice and spunk that make Suze such a fun character to read about. The original books were much shorter than these adult novels, just long enough for an engaging read to be finished in a few hours, but they were packed with so much action that readers couldn’t help clamoring for more.

While Cabot keeps the same tone and pace in “Remembrance,” the delivery somewhat fails. Instead of writing something new and exciting, it seems like most of the book is spent with Suze lamenting that she hasn’t yet married her boyfriend, rather than spending time solving mysteries and trying to hide the fact that she can see ghosts.

Still, Suze cracks enough jokes and carries the plot along well enough to keep things interesting. There are appearances from well-known characters from past books and it’s incredible to see how everyone’s lives have turned out in the gap between the young adult novels and “Remembrance.”

A villain who plagued the original books is back, possibly more terrible than ever before. Paul, another mediator, is the creepy “ex-boyfriend” (who was never quite Suze’s boyfriend). He’s incredibly rich and can buy his way out of anything — or so he seems to believe.

Overall, this paranormal romance is a throwback that old fans will love, but one that might fail to attract new followers. The nostalgia factor in the books is a powerful motivator for readers to purchase the new series. In the books to come, Cabot might add more to some of the overarching plots established in “Remembrance” and build up to something that makes this series more memorable. For now, “Remembrance” is available for old fans to reminisce and indulge in.

‘SVU’ prepares for season 17 wrap

Benson struggles to balance her work and love life.

By Danielle Silvia Staff Writer

The 17th season of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is currently underway and has seen many twists and turns throughout its episodes. As this season prepares to come to a close, so much can be taken away from this season and thought about in anticipation for the next one.

Many fans were shocked to learn that Nick Amaro, played by Danny Pino, would not return for this season. His role, however, was soon replaced by a young, in-training detective named Dominick Carisi, Jr. But as he always reminds people, you can “call (him) Sonny.” Carisi’s role as a fresh, inexperienced member of the Special Victims Unit (SVU) soon evolved into a much more active and rounded character. Carisi has led many of the investigations, even nabbing some of the perpetrators himself. In one episode, he spends two weeks undercover in a halfway house trying to figure out which resident was secretly a rapist. He had to defend himself multiple times, as many people thought he was a criminal, but he eventually ended up finding the culprit and saving many others from attacks. Carisi has thus become a full-fledged member of the SVU team through his development as a character

AP Photo

this season.

Meanwhile, Detective Amanda Rollins, played by Kelli Giddish, recently gave birth to a daughter, which creates many concerns for the audience. There was confusion as to whom the father of her child was, as many suspected it was former SVU member Amaro. It turns out, however, to be Lt. Declan Murphy, someone with whom Rollins previously had romantic relations, although he is stationed in an entirely different base. Many fans wonder if Carisi and Rollins could wind up together since the show brings them closer during her pregnancy, as Carisi supports

her. Only the rest of the season will reveal if they will end up together or if they will just stay friends.

In this season, head Detective Olivia Benson, commonly known as “Liv” to fans, has been promoted to lieutenant of the squad. Benson, portrayed by Mariska Hargitay, has been one of the most prominent figures in the series since season one and has experienced her fair share of drama, too. After finalizing the adoption of her son, she learns that the father is one of the team’s most sought-after rapists and that her baby’s biological mother is dead.

This plot element created a lot of anguish and confusion for Benson, especially since she was involved in the case and did not know that her son was related. Benson grows from this situation and many other ups and downs, like having to momentarily retire because Capt. Ed Tucker — her lover and a fellow member of the squad — was on the case with her. Luckily, this issue blows over after an episode, but whether she and Tucker are still involved is unknown.

This season has been a wild ride so far with a new, intriguing character, a pregnancy mystery and Benson’s conflicts of work and love. “Law & Order: SVU” will definitely continue to step up the excitement until the season finale, leaving many wondering what will happen next.

Fan favorite Amaro does not return to ‘Law & Order.’

AP Photo

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 19

This week, WTSR Assistant Music Director Nelson Kelly highlights some of the best new albums that the College’s own radio station, 91.3 FM WTSR, puts into its weekly rotation.

Band Name: Parquet Courts Album Name: Human Performance Hailing From: New York City, N.Y. Genre: Garage Stoner Punk Label: Rough Trade Parquet Courts’s follow-up to last year’s experimental noise orgy album, “Monastic Living,” is a much welcomed return to form for the band. While it may not deliver on the same level as their 2012 opus, “Light Up Gold,” this new album is a very solid collection of songs. Stoned and starving as ever, Parquet Courts deliver its witty social comments and anxieties through its trademark, stripped-down style, complemented by vocalist Andrew Savage’s angry yet monotone droning. Rife with the usual feedback-drenched solos over a tight, upbeat rhythm section, “Human Performance” is the perfect album for fans who were worried about the bands direction over the past year.

Though this album features tracks much longer than Parquet Courts standard one- to two-minute punk jams (“Dust” and the title track clock in at around four minutes each), shorter songs, like “Captive of the Sun” and “Outside,” are sure to please longtime fans and new listeners alike.

Must Hear: “Dust,” “Human Performance,” “Outside,” “Paraphrased,” “Steady On My Mind” and “Captive of the Sun”

Band Name: Tacocat Album Name: Lost Time Hailing From: Seattle, Wash.

Genre: Surfy Punk Label: Hardly Art The members of Tacocat describe themselves as feminists who like to have fun.

Between its sweet palindrome of a name and these poppin’ tunes, I feel that vibe from them. “Lost Time” finds the girls (and one boy) in Tacocat as fun and bubbly as ever, with song topics ranging from “The X-Files” to the Internet, with a few break-up songs thrown in for good measure. As for its sound, think All Dogs but less snowy and more surfy. A solid rhythm section keeps the beat under crashing guitars and Emily Nokes’s totally tubular vocals. This album is fun and carefree from front to back.

Must Hear: “Dana Katherine Scully,” “I Love Seattle,” “The Internet” and “Talk”

page 20 The Signal April 13, 2016

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 21

Features

Speaker highlights trans issues and identities

David Colby / Photo Assistant

Students listen as Ford speaks about their experience with gender.

By Melissa Reed Correspondent

Students sat eagerly waiting for transgender writer, speaker and media personality Tyler Ford to grace the Library Auditorium stage on Thursday, April 7. Ford’s visit to the College was part of PRISM’s annual Trans Awareness Week, which is designed to educate the College’s student body on trans identities and issues.

“We saw the opportunity to bring Tyler and jumped on it,” sophomore chemistry major and Education Advocacy Chair for PRISM Max Nazario said.

“Tyler is a major figure in today’s socialmedia-centered world and they’re working hard to further the conversation on gender to include talk of nonbinary and

gender-nonconforming identities. We saw bringing them to campus as a great way to bring that conversation to the student body at TCNJ.” Ford, who is best known for starring on “The Glee Project” and collaborating with Miley Cyrus on a clothing line, identifies as an agender person and prefers to be identified using the pronouns they, their and they’re, rather than be restricted by traditional gender pronouns.

“It has been incredibly important for me in contextualizing myself and my life,” Ford said. “As a kid, I knew that gender and my experience as gender was out of my grasp. I couldn’t define it. I couldn’t talk about it and no one else was talking about it.”

Ford identifies as a queer, non-binary,

trans and asexual person. As a child, they grew up questioning their identity and had a hard time trying to figure out who they were.

“I spent a lot of my childhood really, really confused,” Ford said. “No one was talking about gender, but everyone seemed to be able to get by and defined it for themselves.”

At the age of 12, Ford opened up to their mom about their sexual identity and their desire to wear girls’ clothes. Astonished by their mom’s approval, they began shopping at places like Abercrombie & Fitch and Sephora.

“I started making up my face and wearing really short miny skirts and hot pink bras,” Ford said. “I tried to make myself into something that I thought would make me feel like a women. If I can do X,Y and Z, which are characteristics of a women, then I would feel like a woman and be a woman.”

Although they experienced a transition throughout middle school that made them feel comfortable, they experienced an extreme amount of discomfort in high school. No longer able to identify with womanhood, Ford looked for other terms to identify with and questioned both their gender and sexuality.

“I decided that I had to live the questions in order to answer them,” Ford said.

“There was no other way to find answers.

This wasn’t one of the things I could Google because there were no results that came up when I searched for anything about this.”

It wasn’t until Ford came across the term agender on Tumblr that they decided that

this was the word they had been searching for. Since then, Ford has come to take pride in their identity as an agender, asexual and non-binary person. “(I’ve) been out as agender for two years now,” Ford said. “Being non-binary in this world is difficult. I’m always trying to find space for myself or make space for myself, and space that does not exist. I am constantly having to explain my rights to anything.”

The event opened the floor for a conversation on campus surrounding contemporary gender roles and issues. Ford encouraged audience members to leave the lecture with an open mind and to be respectful toward any and everyone in the LGBTQ+ community. “(It) takes a lot of unlearning,” Ford said. “The key is just to be really conscious of how you are referring to people and how you are perceiving people. For instance, I use gender neutral pronouns to refer to people because I would want someone to do the same for me.”

According to Nazario, Trans Awareness Week on the College’s campus is an important mechanism for informing students about the different identities within and outside of the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

“We are trying to build understanding and we are trying to make people aware that trans people do exist,” Nazario said.

“We are trying to get people to understand who trans people are, what they’re feelings really mean, what makes them trans as opposed to just putting this label on them that does not necessarily have a meaning for people and we’re trying to contextualize the word.”

Geocaching opportunities available on campus

By Colleen Murphy Editor-in-Chief

Picture yourself on a treasure hunt. OK, now imagine the “treasure” you’re looking for is not treasure at all, just a knick knack with a piece of paper inside of it to log the date and your name. Oh, and most of the time, you don’t keep what you find. You leave it there for the next person to discover. Sound fun? I promise, it is.

It really is.

Geocaching is the perfect activity for all the adventurous nerds out there (like me). Using a GPS, participants can navigate their way to the specific coordinates where someone has hidden a cache. A cache is a container with a piece of paper inside on which people can record their name and the date they found the cache. The containers come in all shapes and sizes. The first one I ever found was a simple, small metal capsule. The second one I found was an R2-D2 toy.

Geocaching has picked up in popularity since it was first created in 2000. To start your search for caches, you must register for free on the Website, geocaching.com.

When the site launched 16 years ago, there were 75 known caches in the world. Today, there are more than 1.4 million caches hidden

Kim Iannaraone / Photo Editor

One of the two active caches can be found near the gazebo at Lake Ceva. around the world, according to the geocaching Website, and two of those caches can be found right here on the College’s campus.

I first geocached in Ocean City, Md., this summer. I went along the boardwalk, looking behind dumpsters and in front of shops to find the hidden items. It was so much fun and I wondered if there would be any caches for me to find when I got back to school. When I logged onto my Geocache account to see if anybody had ever hidden a cache on campus, I was thrilled to see that in 2011, someone had placed three of them at the College (one has since been taken off the

site). So, the other day, my roommate and I embarked on a geocaching adventure to find what the person had hidden.

I first told the site my location.

It provided me a list of all the caches in the Ewing area. In fact, there are 22 caches less than two miles from campus. But because I was doing this on-foot and there was a thunderstorm coming, I decided to stick with the two on campus.

I plugged the coordinates of the first cache the site provided me into my phone and our hunt started.

Each cache geocaching.com suggests to you comes with a description of what the item looks

like and hints on how to find it.

Other participants leave comments on when they found the item and their experiences of the search. Some of those commenters also provide photos of either the cache itself or the surrounding area, and you can use those as help to find the cache. Because I looked at the pictures, the first one was pretty easy to find. Still, it was really exciting to discover this little, tubular novelty that someone has planted as his or her cache. I won’t say where it was, in case you want to go find it yourself, but it was tucked away in a cranny, so you’ll need good eyes to find it. (Note:

The site says this cache is “disabled,” but that’s just because the log sheet inside the cache is full — it’s still there to find.)

I wasn’t able to find the second one. My GPS led me to the white gazebo on Lake Ceva. The hints on the Website told me that the cache there is a trinket with a whale on it. My roommate and I looked all over, risking falling into the lake and getting stung by a bee to locate the cache. With the thunderstorm getting closer, we disappointingly had to give up on our search. But I plan to return to find it, so if any of you find it in the meantime, please give me some more hints.

Geocaching is certainly a lot of fun (just ask any of the 4 million people worldwide who do it), and we are lucky enough to have two on our campus for you to start off with. So get out there and join in the ranks of “Jeopardy” champion Ken Jennings, writer Perez Hilton and actors Hugh Jackman, Melissa Joan Hart, Ryan Phillippe and Ruby Rose — all of whom have declared their love for geocaching, according to the geocaching Website. Or, if you don’t want to look like a weirdo looking for something in random places, then hide some more for me so that I can take on that role for you.

page 22 The Signal April 13, 2016

: Sept. ‘05

Campus Style

Hospital patients escape

that is aesthetically pleasing, but that also makes me feel confident in my own skin. She would always encourage me to take fashion risks and think outside the box when it comes to mixing textures and colors.

JK: How do you stay up to date with the most recent styles?

SE: I love Nylon magazine because the people are always so edgy and wellstyled. I read it every month and flag any pages by which I’m inspired. I’m also obsessed with all things Free People. I follow their Instagram and look at their catalogue to keep up to date with how they style everything.

Elise Schoening / Features Editor

Students worry about breakouts from Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.

Every week, Features Editor Elise Schoening hits the archives and finds old Signals that relate to current College topics and top stories.

In 2005, a slew of incidents at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital left students from the College on edge, particularly those residing at an apartment complex next door to the hospital. Three patients escaped from the hospital in just three days, which was particularly worrisome since an earlier escapee ended up murdering his father while on the loose.

Two more patients at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, David Mullins and Sandra Pressley, escaped Sept. 14, and a third, Christopher Hammell escaped Sept.

16. Hammell was found and returned to custody Sept. 17, but Mullins and Pressley are still missing.

While the patients are not considered dangerous, the College has advised students to stay away from the patients if they see them, and to call Campus Police.

These escapes, in conjunction with the earlier escape of Michael Janicki, a schizophrenic 22-year-old who killed his father with a samurai sword, have made many students who live in the Country Club Apartments next door concerned about their safety.

“This fence is what separates us from mentally ill people,” Tom Sales, junior

political science major, said while pointing to the fence that is the only barrier between the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and the Country Club Apartments.

“It’s crazy that we’re living next to crazies,” Sales said.

Jennifer Soderstrom, junior elementary education and history major, said she sometimes can hear the voices of the hospital patients at night.

Lauren Baines, junior management major, said a Campus Police car occasionally sits in the lot a couple of hours at a time, but that there is no major police presence. The security booth that sits in the apartment’s driveway is always empty, she said.

Students have lost trust in local police because of the extensive period of time police took to find the body, which never left the hospital campus.

For Sales, another one of the more infuriating aspects is how the college has handled telling students about the escapes.

When Janicki escaped two weeks ago, a flier was handed out that stated the fact that an inmate had escaped, not that he was considered dangerous. It also lacked a description of what he looked like, or in what clothes he was last seen.

Celebritease

Although Kendall Jenner has been stirring up romance rumors in recent months, the model stepped out single and in-style at the MTV Movie Awards’s red carpet on Saturday, April 9. Jenner was seen sporting a corset-like halter dress and thigh-high lace heels that took a team to tie her in. Jenner’s besties, Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid, also appeared on the red carpet alone, but both looked sleek as they laughed with Jenner on their apparent girl’s night out.

By Jordan Koziol Columnist Name: Sandra Eisen Year: Junior Major: Psychology JK: Tell us about what you’re wearing right now.

SE: I’m wearing tweed flats from Lucky Brand, a cognac suede skirt from Macy’s and a beige blouse from Joie.

JK: Describe your style in three words.

SE: Classic, inspired and evolving.

JK: Who’s your fashion icon?

SE: My mom is definitely my fashion icon. Growing up, she consistently taught me the value of wearing clothing

JK: What kind of clothing items do you splurge on?

SE: I splurge way too often on booties and boots. I think they make any outfit look far more put together.

JK: What’s one trend that you will never understand?

SE: I will never understand heeled sneakers – they’re neither aesthetically pleasing nor functional. They’re practically useless.

JK: What are three things in your closet right now that you could never imagine getting rid of?

SE: I could never get rid of my black leather heeled booties, cat eye sunglasses and my gold evil eye necklace that I wear every day.

: Romance rumors rising

Jenner is believed to be dating Jordan Clarkson.

By Mackenzie Cutruzzula Columnist

Photo Courtesy of Jordan Koziol

Eisen prefers a classic fashion style that gives her confidence.

JK: What do you enjoy most about creating stylish ensembles?

SE: I love the fact that I’m able to express my personality and my emotions through my outfits. I have this textured black denim jacket that looks like leather, and whenever I wear it I feel edgy and like I can conquer anything. My clothing gives me confidence.

AP Photo

The award show was filmed on Saturday, but did not premiere for fans until Sunday, April 10. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took home the top prize for movie of the year and Daisy Ridley accepted the breakthrough performance award for her role in the film. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart hosted the award show and gave fans a sneak peak of their upcoming film, “Central Intelligence.”

While the aforementioned models looked dreamy on the red carpet, Hadid and Jenner lit up the Internet recently with their respective romances. On Tuesday, April 5, Vogue

magazine released photos from Hadid and boyfriend Zayn Malik’s glamorous photo shoot in Naples, Italy. The spread features the power couple doing yoga in bed and riding around on a moped — Hadid’s bangs somehow never looking out of place, despite the rest of her hair blowing in the wind. The couple has officially raised the bar for other fashionable and famous couples.

While Hadid and Malik published their love for the world to see, Jenner’s secrecy regarding her love life has attracted more eyes than ever. The model had been spotted on and off with Harry Styles since their New Year’s trip to St. Barts, and even her sister Khloe Kardashian confirmed that she considered them dating.

However, it was most recently confirmed by a source close to Jenner that she had been dating Los Angeles Lakers player Jordan Clarkson for months. Jenner had been spotted with Clarkson at The Nice Guy restaurant in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 30, but according to a fan photo on Twitter, Jenner was back hanging out with Styles on Friday, April 8. While

Jenner and Styles were only spotted casually shopping, the photos from St. Barts show a more romantic side to the two. Of course, they could just be good friends. After all, she is allowed to date whoever she chooses, whenever she chooses.

Following that same attitude, Jenner’s brother, Rob Kardashian, has announced the he and girlfriend Blac Chyna are engaged as of Monday, April 4. Stepping out with her best friend Amber Rose on Saturday, April 9, at The Pool After Dark in Atlantic City, N.J., Chyna took to the stage, where fans congratulated her on the engagement. Her

representative reported that Chyna is more than excited about the wedding and can’t wait to change her last name.

Tyga, Chyna’s former partner and father of her son, is currently dating Kylie Kardashian and had nothing but kind words for the couple. He noted that his only concern is for his son’s happiness and that as long as this is a happy environment for his son, he is totally supportive of the engagement. Kanye West has yet to go on a Twitter rant about the situation, so I’m taking that as a good sign for the future Mr. and Mrs. Kardashian.

Hadid and Malik do a joint photo shoot for Vogue.

AP Photo

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 23

From New Orleans to the Lions Den

Annual masquerade brings culture to campus

David Colby / Photo Assistant

Left: The Bon Temps Brass Band performs a live jazz set. Right: Traditional New Orleans food, including gator gumbo, is served for guests.

By Dorian Armstrong Correspondent

The College’s sixth-annual Mardi Gras Masquerade kicked off another night of fun, food and fabulous music on Wednesday, April 6. The event celebrated the culture of New Orleans and brought a touch of the Louisiana city to the College. Organized by the Alternative Break Club (ABC), with a little help from Beck’s Cajun Cafe and the Bon Temps Brass Band, the free event drew a large crowd of students, including both long-time ABC volunteers and first-time attendees, to the Lions Den. Senior art education major and ABC historian Amanda Intili made sure to note that the festivities were all for a good cause.

“We’re here to spread awareness

about Hurricane Katrina and how ABC is going down (to New Orleans) and helping to rebuild,” Intili said. “There’s still over 6,000 families trying to return to their homes. The main city’s up and running now, but a lot of the outskirts are still abandoned. Families want to come back, but can’t afford to do that, so we want to try rebuilding houses and lowering labor costs and doing what we can for them.”

As their name suggests, ABC goes to New Orleans three times each year — during the winter, spring and summer breaks — to restore the city damaged by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. In addition to their community service, the group is able to explore the vibrant city.

“The community of New Orleans is really positive and lively, and it’s really refreshing to see that,” Intili said.

The Mardi Gras Masquerade not only raised awareness for the club’s cause, but also showcased the New Orleans culture through live performances and authentic food.

The Bon Temp Brass Band brought seven members to the College to share the best of New Orleans. Aside from the viewing of an educational video and a short intermission for dinner, the band performed for two hours straight.

Soon after the show’s start, members of the College’s Swing Club showed off their dancing skills and offered an open invitation to all in the audience to join them on the dance floor — an invitation which proved irresistible to many students at the event.

ABC made sure to include a wide variety of zesty Cajun food at the event.

To honor the traditional flavors of New

Orleans, they served chicken and ham jambalaya, fried balls of macaroni and cheese and “gator gumbo” — a stew made from the meat of an alligator’s tail.

Beverages available included three flavors of daiquiri. A scrumptious dish of bread pudding in whiskey cream sauce was put out for dessert. The food and festivities at the Mardi Gras Masquerade proved to be a real hit among students.

Junior elementary education and art double major Erika Ungar attended the Mardi Gras celebration and spoke highly of the ABC program.

“I first heard about it freshman year, since one of my friends was in the club and had been to New Orleans,” Ungar said. “I’ve been on three trips of my own now and I’ve loved it. Hopefully, we can raise some money for this since there is still so much damage down there.”

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page 24 The Signal April 13, 2016 This is an advertisement

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 25

Sports Baseball

Lions rebound with four straight wins

Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

Gearhart helps keep runners from stealing bases.

By Jessica Ganga Sports Editor

Last week, the Lions showed what it means to get back up after being knocked down. The baseball team went from losing three in a row to winning four straight, improving its outstanding overall record to 18-4 on the season.

The College scored a whopping 14 runs against Immaculata University, who scored a respectable eight on Tuesday, April 5. The Lions shut out Stockton University Ospreys three days later on Friday, April 8,

7-0. On the road in Wayne, N..J., the Lions took home two wins against William Paterson University Pioneers on Sunday, April 10, 11-3 and 11-0, capping a successful week for the team.

Immaculata got on the board first in the first inning with a run, but the Lions answered back the best way they knew how — by scoring four solid runs in the first inning.

Sophomore infielder Zach Shindler got the scoring started with a triple to center field, allowing for senior catcher Garen Turner and senior outfielder Pat

Roberts to reach home. The Lions tacked on two more runs and the scoring did not stop.

The Lions would tally up nine more runs in the next couple innings, scoring four runs in the second inning and scoring a dominating five runs in the third inning. Roberts was the star of the second inning, blasting a grandslam home run.

In the bottom of the third, senior outfielder John Rizzi — who has been an offensive asset for the Lions this season — hit a hard double and eventually came around to home.

The Mighty Macs attempted to rally in the fourth and the eighth innings, scoring four runs and one run, respectively. But it wasn’t enough against the pouncing Lions, who made sure their opponents’ bats were silenced.

Sophomore pitcher Brandon Zachary had a strong showing against Stockton on Friday, going eight innings without letting an opponent cross home plate. Zachary impressively increased his record to 4-0 on the season with a 7-0 shutout against the Ospreys.

In typical Lions fashion, the team jumped out early in the game, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. Once again, it was the duo of Turner and Rizzi that helped the Lions rack

up runs early. In the first inning, Turner slapped a run-scoring single to right center, getting sophomore infielder Patrick Robinson and Rizzi to home plate.

During the bottom of the fourth inning, with sophomore outfielder Mike Follet and junior infielder Ben Varone already on base, Rizzi laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners to home.

On the defensive side, Zachary kept the Stockton offense at bay, only allowing runners to reach base in the first five innings, but the bats remained silent for the rest of the game. Zachary also had the defensive help of junior catcher CJ Gearhart, who was active behind the plate. Gearhart made numerous stops and threw out runners trying to advance throughout the game.

The Lions continued their winning streak and strong offensive/defensive play against William Paterson in a Sunday, April 10, doubleheader.

In the first game, senior pitcher Steven Volpe tossed seven impressive innings, only giving up three runs in two innings and improving his record to 4-0 on the season.

The veteran pitcher had plenty of support from the offense who had 14 hits, taking full advantage of errors made by the Pioneers.

Rizzi had a busy first inning.

The outfielder was hit by a pitch, stole second and advanced to third, taking advantage of an error made by the William Paterson catcher.

Anderson stepped up to the plate and grounded out to short, allowing Rizzi to advance to home and put the Lions on the board.

The Pioneers tied the game up in the next inning and attempted to come back in the seventh with two runs. The Lions were too strong, scoring three runs in the third, five runs in the sixth and two runs in the ninth inning to cap off the first game of the day.

Volpe ended the game with eight hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Senior pitcher Joe DiLorenzo took the mound in the eighth inning to finish the game, only throwing 18 pitches in the final two innings.

For the final game of the day, it was sophomore pitcher Joe Cirillo and senior pitcher Eric Teesdale combined forces to shutout William Paterson, 11-0.

Cirillo only allowed the four hits in seven innings with Teesdale pitching two scoreless innings to cap off the game.

The Lions are scheduled to play New Jersey Athletic Conference rivals Rowan University on Thursday, April 14, where they hope to improve their record.

Cheap Seats

Athletes’ ability to atone for past acts astonishing

By Jake Mulick Staff Writer

How good of an athlete does a person have to be so that the general public ignores just how terrible of a human being they are? In case nobody really notices, a fair amount of athletes have massively deplorable characteristics. From infidelity to drug abuse to a general disregard for the law, athletes all over the world have developed a cavalcade of negative qualities, but for whatever reason, the general public is able to selectively overlook certain athletes’ condemnable actions.

I suppose the archetype of a deplorable athlete would be Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant.

In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl in a hotel in Colorado. Bryant was charged with criminal and civil suits, which destroyed his public image at the time. While the criminal counts were dropped, Bryant did agree to an out-of-court settlement due to the civil case brought against him. Bryant also apologized for the incident, while claiming he didn’t realize the true nature of the sexual encounter between the two of them, according to MSNBC. Now here’s the thing I realized during Bryant’s farewell tour: Nobody cares about the case anymore. No headlines read, “Sexual assault offender and five-time NBA champion retires this season.” Regardless of the fact that this reads as a horrendous headline, it still illustrates my point that the public is able to forgive and forget the actions of well-known athletes. No major media outlet, in any way, made reference to the massive scandal Bryant was a part of during his seventh year in the NBA. The wikipedia.com article concerning the scandal is about equal in length to that of the article concerning the languages Bryant speaks. Why is that? Bryant’s accolades are almost too long to reference in one article alone. He is without a doubt a future hall of famer and one of the greatest guards to ever play basketball. But why does that make him exempt?

AP Photo

Kobe Bryant appears in a courtroom during his sexual assault trial on Oct. 9, 2003.

Former President Bill Clinton, for example, partook in a sexual encounter that garnered massive media attention, while also leading a country through a time of wonderful prosperity. While his accomplishments are, in a lot of ways, much more impressive than Bryant’s, his affair is brought up often, tainting his legacy as president. Bryant faces very little perceptual ramifications for his sexual misconduct and most people even go so far as forgetting that he was cheating on his wife while in the middle of it all.

I say this in light of the most recent scandal involving basketball player D’Angelo Russell. Russell recorded a private conversation between himself and Lakers’s teammate Nick Young.

During the conversation, Young discussed that he had

interest in other women. The problem? Young is engaged to be married to rapper Iggy Azalea. Russell came under massive fire for this video when it surfaced and, in turn, he became villainized by the entire sporting community for releasing it.

My only question is: What will he have to do for everybody to forget and forgive him for this? Win five titles? Score over 30,000 points? Win two Olympic gold medals? While these feats are not out of the realm for an up-and-coming talent such as Russell, they are incredibly unlikely. What he will have to do in order to restore his public image is unbeknownst to me, but perhaps his current teammate, Bryant, will be able to help him as a gift as he departs from his illustrious basketball career.

page 26 The Signal April 13, 2016

HERO Olympics

The

Prove yourself to be the ultimate up-stander, leader and designated driver while supporting the HERO Campaign

Save the Date:

May 4th, 2016

1- 4 pm at Green Lane Fields Think you have what it takes?

Register your team (at least 6 people) at imleagues.com/tcnj

Challenge yourself and others!

Team games: Volleyball Kickball Obstacle Races ...and more!

Individual games: Spikeball Ladder Golf Giant Connect Four Wiffle Ball Home Runs

...and more!

Food and Prizes Co-sponsored by ADEP, the Office of Recreation, RECreate Your Night, and the Collegiate Recovery Program Email any questions to intramur@tcnj.edu

http://herocampaign.org

adep.tcnj.edu

Miles beyond expectations and minutes from campus The Point is 50 brand new, fully furnished, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments minutes from campus. Exclusively rented to upper-classmen and graduate students, the Point makes getting off campus more sensible than ever.

With on-site property management, controlled access parking and brand new EVERYTHING, you’ll wish you’d gotten the Point sooner.

Call 609-301-4000 to see for yourself or visit OffCampusNJ.com 1537 Parkside Avenue at Spruce Street, Ewing Township

www.OffCampusNJ.com

4 6

LIONS

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 27

AROUND THE

DORM 5 3

Sean Reis “The Ref”

Tom Ballard

Opinions Editor

Chelsea LoCascio News Editor

Colleen Murphy Editor-in-Chief

In this week’s edition of Around the Dorm, the “Ref,” Sean Reis, asks our panel of experts three questions as they play for a championship spot in our Wednesday, May 4, issue: Which NHL team will win the Stanley Cup? Is Ian Poulter passed his prime after his poor Masters performance and what are your predictions for Summer Split in the “League of Legends” (“LoL”) season?

1. What NHL teams will come out of each conference and which team will win it all?

Tom: It’s that time of the year again. Flowers are blooming, the thought of summer is entering everybody’s minds and both Americans and Canadians alike are preparing for the NHL Playoffs. Unfortunately for our neighbors to the north, this year the playoffs this year will be composed of American teams, perhaps the way Donald Trump would like it. In the Eastern Conference, I think that the Washington Capitals are going to clinch the title, though the Florida Panthers could upset the favorite. For the Western Conference, I see the Dallas Stars soaring and the Los Angeles Kings marching not far behind. As for who will win the Stanley Cup, the Capitals’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, April 7, seemed like nothing but pure luck, as Sidney Crosby was able to squeak one in for a goal. Despite the loss, the Capitals seem to be unstoppable, having one of their best seasons in history. I don’t see anything stopping them from hoisting the Cup over their heads.

AP Photo

Chelsea: I believe the Capitals will come out of the Eastern Conference and the Stars out of the Western Conference. The downpour of goals the Stars made against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, April 7, made their opposition crumble. Even rookie forward Jason Dickinson scored a goal during his

NHL debut. Despite this, I don’t think they will win in the playoffs. The team to win it all will be the Capitals. They’re 55-17 and have 118 points overall in the season, which is far more impressive than the Stars’s 49-23 record and 107 points. With right wing Tom Wilson’s recent inpatient actions leading him

to commit a five-minute major and forward Evgeny Kuznetsov only scoring two goals in 20 games, I’m concerned Washington might fall apart. But for now, I have faith that the Capitals can win their first-ever Stanley Cup. Colleen: I’m tempted to say the Capitals will finally have their shot at the Cup because of their strong play thus far, but in the end, the Penguins will be the team from the east to make it out of the conference and onto the Cup. Their competition from the west will be the Stars, but the Penguins’s strong defense and equally as strong offense will prevent the Stars from earning the Cup. They’re secondbest in the league this season in puck possession (the Stars are fourth and they’re competition in the east, the Capitals, are 10th). Even with the loss of two key players — forward Evgeni Malkin and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury — the team has still been at the top of its game, making it to the playoffs for the 10th time in a row. They’ve shown that they’re a consistently powerful team and that will prove true again this year.

Tom gets 3 points because #Trump2016. Chelsea gets 3 points because the Capitals were the “right” answer and Colleen gets 1 point because Crosby is a little bitch.

AP Photo

2. Was Poulter too hard on himself after his Masters performance or, at 40 years old, has he past his prime?

Tom: Honestly, miniature golf was always hard for me — the windmill was never my friend — so it’s hard to criticize Poulter’s abilities to

play actual golf. If he continues to think he can play, then let him. At the same time, I think he needs to chill out and practice. Poulter seems to be developing a bit of a history of hitting the dreaded shank shot, as seen at this year’s Masters and last year’s Honda Classic. While this

would totally be a putter-downer for any golfer, the English 40 year old needs to stop being a dramatic crybaby on the course after he messes up and just practice. Without this, these hosel rockets — slang for shank shot — will inevitably lead to the explosion of Poulter’s career. But cheer up, Poulter — perhaps the windmill will be nicer to you.

Chelsea: With his plaid golfer’s pants, signature clenched teeth and his half-spiked, half side-swept hair, Poulter doesn’t look a day over 30 years old. This man has style, grace and a look only Guy Fieri could love. As of Friday, April 8, Poulter isn’t doing too shabby, as he’s been around or in the top 10 for most of the first two days of the Masters. He’s too hard on himself. After completely botching the 14th hole on April 8, he threw his club. It was actually quite graceful. I’m not sure how his plans to improve are going since he does not seem to be doing all that bad, except for the occasional blunder. We all have our off

moments — once you have the skill, the outcome of the shot depends mostly on your state of mind. Besides, this is an old man sport, so you’re reaching your prime, Poulter!

Colleen: Olympic swimmer Dara Torres was 40 when she won two silver medals at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. As she shows, hitting 40 doesn’t automatically mean that athletes lose their abilities. While athletes’ primes vary depending on the person, if Poulter truly believes that he has more in him than he has been showing lately, then who’s to say he’s past his prime? Heck, Bernhard Langer is 58 and currently sits in third in the Masters’s standings. He might not have had the best showing at the Masters, but that’s one of the toughest courses to play and rarely does anyone play as well as they would have hoped.

These challenging greens of Augusta, Ga., shouldn’t stand as the nail in the coffin for the fashionista, Poulter. He thinks he has more in him. Let’s believe in his abilities, too.

Chelsea gets 3 points because I aspire to have Poulter’s style. Colleen gets 2 points for good examples of “old” athletes and Tom gets 1 point because he never got a hole-in-one.

3. The North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) Spring Split will come to a close next weekend, but what are your predictions for the Summer Split?

Tom: It’s always hard to tell what the world of “LoL” will look like, but I think this Spring Split has definitely shown the world who the best-of-the-best are. Even though they are a brand new team, the five members of Immortals have shown that they have what it takes to dominate. When they went against Cloud9 earlier in the year, the newbies overthrew the two-time winning NA LCS champs. While this Spring Split has certainly shown that the Immortals have a few things to work on in order to live up to their name, they still had the biggest gold lead on average at 15 minutes through a game than any other team in NA LCS. I think they are going to go on and win the Summer Split and until then, all the other teams will just have to L2P, or learn to play.

Chelsea: Based off their regular spring season rank of 17-1, I think Immortals are going to decimate the competition, even into the Summer Split. A likely contender is Counter Logic Gaming, as they have the second best rank at

13-5. Regardless of their performances during the end of the Spring Split, these teams are the teams to beat. They have been consistent throughout the season and will definitely bring their game. Immortals have players like the aggressive and risky Jason “WildTurtle” Tran as well as Seung-hoon “Huni” Heo, who brought his prior team, Fnatic, into the halls of the immortals with an 18-0 score during the 2015 Summer Split. But, I mean, with team members like George “HotshotGG” Georgallidis and top champion Darshan Upadhyaya, how can Counter Logic Gaming lose, either?

My money’s on both teams going far.

Colleen: After a 17-1 showing in spring, Immortals will again be at the top come summer.

Immortals will continue to have tunnel vision throughout the competition, getting ahead, staying solid and never fleeing from their top spot. While their haters might feel like Immortals are better off dead, the top team is quite alive and will continue to get bread — thanks, G-Eazy for the inspiration. CEO Noah Whinston will be proud of the performances his players give and others can continue to look to the team for tips on how to improve their play.

Colleen gets 3 points because G-Eazy is amazing. Tom gets 2 points for an allusion to mythology and Chelsea gets 1 point because “HotshotGG” no longer plays for CLG.

Chelsea wins Around the Dorm 7-6-6.

AP Photo

page 28 The Signal April 13, 2016

The College of New Jersey Celebrates:

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April 13, 2016 The Signal page 29 Track and Field

Track / Lions find success in first home meet Men and women produce impressive results continued from page 32 with an early lead and finished in first with a time of 4:02.71.

On the distance side, sophomore Allison Fournier won the 1,500-meter race in 5:02.98, followed by senior Kayla Glynn with a time of 5:10.44.

The Lions also found success on the field. Senior Allison Ruszczyk threw a distance of 31.15 meters in the hammer throw to take second place and freshman Stephanie Wolfer secured second place with a seasonbest throw of 34.04 meters.

On the men’s side, the Lions swept the 3,000-meter event. Freshman Matt Saponara took first place in his debut performance on his home track, clocking in at 8:57.37.

“My teammates and I worked really well together,” Saponara said. “We ended up taking all the top spots, so that was really good for us. We all alternated taking the lead and picked it up at some points. It was definitely a better team performance than it was individual for any of us.”

Sophomore Dale Johnson followed in second with a personal best time of 9:00.47. Freshman Quinn Wasko and Brian Mitchell also made their college debut in the 3,000-meter event, finishing with times of 9:03.86 and 9:04.45, respectively.

Freshman Noah Osterhus took advantage of competing on his home track and posted a tremendous time of 48.84 in the 400-meter race. He placed second and demolished his previous time of 49.72.

Senior Laron Day secured a second-place victory in the 400-meter hurdles with a second-place finish of 55.06. Senior Mike Larkin followed in third with a time of 55.90.

The Lions also found success in the jumping events.

Junior Chris Guglielmo took second place in the pole vault with 4.35 meters and Larkin also impressed with a

Paciulli wants to continue to jump her way to outstanding distances. fourth-place high jump of 1.88 meters.

“I think the jumps crew is really coming along here,” jumping events coach Peter Cane said. “We’ve put a lot of time into certain aspects of the technique and now, as we’re moving into competitions and championship season right around the corner, we’re looking to really go full approaches and big jumps and everyone knows it’s about to click.”

Photo courtesy of Sports Information Desk

Day, Noah, Nathan Osterhus and freshman Kamal Williams took the track for the last race of the day to win the 4x400-meter relay with their best time of 3:19.1.

“This meet definitely boosted some morale — home meets always do that,” Paciulli said. “We had some pretty good performances in Virginia last week, so I think everyone was excited to come into the home meet and get some good performances on the track.”

Cheap Seats

US soccer looks forward to a promising future

AP Photo

Geoff Cameron celebrates scoring a goal in a recent game.

By Rohan Ahluwalia Staff Writer

The United States is known as a growing power in soccer.

The country established itself as a World Cup regular in every tournament and the MLS rises in quality and popularity every season. However, recently, for those following the sport in America, times are not well.

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team is struggling through the World Cup qualifiers. In only the first round, the team has drawn against Trinidad and Tobago before losing to Guatemala,

2-0. The team recently beat the Guatemalans, 4-0, at home, but the previous two results meant that any result that wasn’t a victory would have seen the U.S. in serious doubt of qualifying for a World Cup. At the same time, the United States Under-23 (U-23) men’s national soccer team failed to qualify for the Summer Olympics this summer in Rio, losing to Colombia in a qualifying playoff in a self-destructing nature last Tuesday, March 29.

This is the first time since the 1960s that the U.S. failed to send a soccer team to the Olympics in consecutive tournaments. Many

critics of U.S. Soccer have put the blame for the blunders of both the national team and the U-23s on U.S. Soccer’s technical director and Jurgen Klinsmann, the national team coach.

He is being held accountable for turning a team that used to be known for using its speed and grit to grind out wins into a team of players that can’t complete simple passes anymore.

The head coach, hired in 2011, along with his reported lofty salary and promise to fans that he would bring about a change in the style the national team plays, has not bought him any friends.

Is it right to blame Klinsmann or is the problem going on in American soccer deeper than him? Critics like to compare this U.S. team to the one that played in the World Cup in 2010 under head coach Bob Bradley. Bradley’s team was lead by a core group of experienced veterans in defense and goal while also containing players that were in their prime, who played well for their teams in Europe. The current team does not have players who are currently succeeding in Europe. In addition, the core teammates of the 2014 World Cup, which included goalkeeper Tim Howard and captain Clint Dempsey, have declined rapidly, with no one able to step up to replace them.

Critics have also lashed out at

Klinsmann over his comments in the past. He was interpreted as saying that players should opt to play in Europe, rather than in MLS, Klinsmann said in a team interview. However, is there anything wrong with that? In the past, the best American soccer players have been those who were playing with European sides.

The quality of the leagues in England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy are better than that of the United States, so having players from there is a benefit. Even now, the top players for the U.S., such as John Brooks, Fabian Johnson, Geoff Cameron, Bobby Wood and Aron Johansson, play in Europe, while two former top players for the team, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore, seem to have regressed since coming back to MLS. Klinsmann also commented in a post-training interview about the youth structure in the United States for developing players. MLS and U.S. Soccer has not developed a good prospective American player in a while. Currently, the best prospects for the country reside in European academies. The top prospect, Christian Pulisic, plays for Borussia Dortmund while other prospects, such as Emerson Hyndman, Ethan Horvath, Rubio Rubin, Desevio Payne and Gedion Zelalem, all reside abroad.

The only prospects developed

and discovered on American shores recently were Matt Miazga and DeAndre Yedlin, who played for the New York Red Bulls and Seattle Sounders, respectively.

Both players now reside abroad and there doesn’t look to be any player currently in the MLS who could follow in their footsteps.

On the bright side, the MLS is trying to make a change. The league recently added minorleague affiliated sides to create a bridge between professional and youth soccer. A couple years ago, the U.S. Soccer development season expanded to a 10month season, coach licensing courses were made stricter and more aligned with European standards and MLS added some roster rules to make the league more competitive.

Many of these new implementations were proposed by Klinsmann, the man who is currently being disparaged by the U.S. Soccer media. Presently, things with American soccer do not look good and it is under Klinsmann, but U.S. Soccer media and fans need to realize that this is all part of a process to modernize and revitalize the league.

The U.S. Soccer team still has a massive chance of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup and, if what Klinsmann proposed does come to fruition, not only would fans need to worry about the team qualifying, but also competing to win the whole tournament.

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page 30 The Signal April 13, 2016

April 13, 2016 The Signal page 31 Softball

Lions prevail under tight NJAC schedule

Photos courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

Left: Freshman outfielder Gabby Bennett scores six RBIs against the Gothic Knights. Right: Sophomore pitcher Sam Platt earns her 10th win this season.

By Miguel Gonzalez Sports Assistant

The Lions’s softball team won three of its four New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) games this past week. On Wednesday, April 6, the Lions endured a 12-2 loss against the Rowan University Profs before snatching a 7-5 victory in the second game of the day.

Later, on Sunday, April 10, the Lions swept the New Jersey City University Gothic Knights, 5-1 and 9-1, respectively.

For the week of Sunday, April 3, freshman outfielder Gaby Bennett was named the College’s student athlete of the week for her consistent hitting during the Lions’s victory against the Cabrini

College Cavaliers and the William Paterson University Pioneers.

“Bennett covers a lot of ground,” head coach Sally Miller said. “She’s a good ball player and a good example of a freshman transitioning from high school softball. She stepped it up ever since the Florida trip.”

On the road in Glassboro, N.J., the Lions were overwhelmed by the Profs’s constant hits in a 12-2 loss. In the subsequent match, the Lions sprang to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning when freshman infielder/outfielder Jess Santelli landed home on a single.

The Profs quickly responded with two runs when sophomore catcher Mia Baldassari scored from a single. In the top of the

second inning, senior infielder Steph Vuono extended the College’s lead to 5-2 when she blasted a solo home run. The Lions were able to hold their lead and secure the victory despite the Prof’s three run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“We struggled on the mound (in the first game). They were a good team. They could hit and pitch,” Miller said. “The team jumped out with the hits first in the second game and forced the Profs to make errors.”

On Sunday, the Lions jousted the Gothic Knights, 5-1 and 9-1.

Sophomore pitcher Sam Platt limited the Knights to four hits and one run towards her 10th victory of the season. Meanwhile, the Lions’s offense supported the victory with

eight hits and quick base running.

The Lions then proceeded to dismiss the Gothic Knights in a five-inning 9-1 rout. The Lions had a shaky start when Gothic Knight Freshman shortstop Hannah Gavin reached home plate on a wild pitch. After the mishap, the Lions never looked backed — senior pitcher Ashtin Helmer held the Knights to only two hits while the College’s offense pounded the Gothic Knight’s defense.

In regards to the nationwide appreciation of student-athletes during the NCAA Division III week from Monday, April 4, through Sunday, April 10, Miller emphasized the vital relationship between coaches and players.

“It’s hard for both coaches

Tennis

and players,” Miller said. “Every player has many academic responsibilities: internships, labs, exams.

Right now, it’s clutch time for every player. Most (of) the players were in the library on Saturday when the game got rained out. If you are not academically responsible, then you can’t be athletically responsible. I try to be as flexible as I can with them through individual practices. It’s not easy.”

The Lions stay on the road this week with a conference game against Rutgers University-Camden’s Scarlet Raptors on Tuesday, April 12. Later, on Saturday, April 16, the Lions travel to Newark, N.J., for a doubleheader against the Rutgers University-Newark Scarlet Raiders.

Lacrosse

Set / Men bounce back Lax / College looks ahead Women set for Nationals

Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

The women’s team diffuses the Ithaca College Bombers in a 9-0 shutout. continued from page 32

endured a tiebreaker in the second set. All eyes were on the rising star as he battled back for the eighth and final win of the match. “(Sanders) is still learning how to earn the point and pick his opportunities,” Dicheck said. “He did that especially toward the end.”

While the men’s team fought for an NCAA berth, the women’s team tested its skills on Saturday and Sunday against Salisbury and Ithaca, respectively.

Their road matchup on Saturday brought the Lions to Salisbury University. Junior Anna Prestera and freshman Alyssa Baldi continued to dominate their opponents with an 8-1 win. Seniors Emma Allen and Jasmine Muniz-Cadorette held on for an 8-5 win and the Lions ended doubles with a 2-1 lead.

The College traded wins on courts one through four, as they nurtured a 4-3 lead entering the finals two contests. Baldi quelled

any hopes for a Salisbury comeback, as she earned her second win of the day (6-1, 6-2).

Freshman Emily Szkudlarski earned the final win of the day, cementing a 6-3 win.

Sunday’s matchup with Ithaca pitted two conference champions against each other. The Lions, with Allen out due to injury, did not hold back against the Bombers, as they earned a painless 9-0 shutout.

“We were without our senior captain,” Dicheck said. “To have some of the kids step in and continue winning shows the depth of our roster.”

While the women’s team proved it’s worthy of a tournament seed, the men’s team must fight an uphill battle to qualify as an independent competitor. Regardless, the Lions are prepared rally until the final set.

“We’re going to keep fighting and doing our best,” Bokhari said. “Working hard on the court, fighting for every point and never letting up.”

continued from page 32

“I think that as a team, we kept our composure throughout the game considering the weather,” sophomore attacker Emily Kratz said. “We knew what we had to do today to get the win and we weren’t going to let any weather condition take that away from us.”

Junior attacker Mia Blackman opened the scoring with two goals, each off a feed from senior attacker Cortney Natalicchio.

Just two minutes later, Natalicchio made a third assist by feeding the ball to graduate student attacker Erin Waller, bringing the score to 3-0 just 10 minutes into the game.

The Red Hawks opened the second half with by scoring, but were answered by three more Lions goals.

Natalicchio got a fourth assist in the second half after giving the ball to Jaeger for the goal.

“Montclair is a very skilled team, so coming into the game, we knew we had to make everything we did count,” Jaeger said.

After Montclair’s three-goal run, only two goals separated them from the Lions. At just over two minutes, it nearly became a onegoal game, but freshman goaltender Miranda Chrone made a key save on the Red Hawks’s free-position shot, securing the win.

“Montclair came out today ready for a tough game and I think that every ground ball, draw control, transition and shot we needed to work hard for,” Kratz said.

Kratz made a tide-turning goal against Stevens last Tuesday, April 4. The Ducks scored first just over three minutes into the contest.

Blackman and Natalicchio answered with a goal apiece, but the Ducks scored shortly after, tying it up at two.

One minute later, Kratz scooped up a

ground ball and ran it to the net for a goal. Stevens would not score again in the entire game.

“I knew that I needed to take the best shot possible, so when I saw the space in the eight-meter, I capitalized on it,” Kratz said.

Sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison played a major role in keeping the Ducks off the ball by causing six turnovers, picking up six ground balls and scoring a goal of her own.

It took another four days before another team scored on the Lions — the Eastern University Eagles didn’t get a single shot in on Thursday, April 7.

The Lions had a strong start against Eastern with four goals in less than three minutes.

Waller made the fourth goal after a ground ball play from Morrison. The score was 10-0 by the end of the first period.

The strong start set up the Lions to dominate in a 15-0 blowout. Eight Lions contributed goals, including Jaeger and Kratz.

“I was happy to be able to contribute some points to a great team win,” Kratz said.

The Lions were able to control the game with strong connections in the midfield and the attack, allowing them to move the ball up the field quickly for a goal, according to Kratz.

Jaeger attributed the win to teamwork.

“We really worked together and were looking for each other instead of doing things by ourselves,” Jaeger said. “Both of my goals were scored of Erin Waller’s assists.”

After pushing all week, through three teams and unseasonable snow, Jaeger attributed the three wins to the hard work of her team.

“Whether it is every day at practice or in our games, the members of our team put forth every ounce of effort they have at that given moment towards our overall goals,” Jaeger said.

Signal

Sports

teams do well Lions brave weather for wins Track in TCNJ Invitational

By Nicole DeStefano Staff Writer

Before taking on the Montclair State University Red Hawks, the College’s women’s lacrosse team beat the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks, 9-2, Tuesday, April 5, and blew away the Eastern University Eagles, 15-0, on Thursday, April 7. The Lions had bird for supper three times last week.

Spring was nowhere to be found in

a three-point lead, but by the time the teams re-entered the stadium, Montclair was ready for a storm.

Temperatures dropped as the second half kicked off, bringing heavier snow.

With it, the Red Hawks brought a hailstorm, outshooting the Lions, 7-5.

Montclair clawed at the College’s lead with a three-goal rush, but it wasn’t enough.

The Lions held fast and won, 8-6. see LAX page 31

see TRACK page 29

Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

Lacrosse comes out strong and takes home three wins.

By George Tatoris Sports Assistant

For some of the Lions, it was their last opportunity to perform at the annual TCNJ Invitational Meet this past Sunday, April 10. For others, it was the first time they laced up their spikes to compete on the College’s track, a second home for the Lions. Both the men’s and women’s track teams took advantage of performing on their turf and put forth several top performances and personal bests.

“It was pretty exciting coming into the first home meet. It’s home — it’s our track,” senior Courtney Paciulli said.

Paciulli performed tremendously at her last TCNJ Invitational meet. She landed a first place victory in the triple jump with a distance of 11.07 and returned to the sand for a third-place finish in the long jump at 4.93 meters.

“I’ve been hurt pretty much since my junior year, so it was really just staying healthy through every jump,” Paciulli said. “Obviously, the goal was to move up in rankings in the (New Jersey Athletic Conference) and I did that. Distance wasn’t necessarily what I was thinking about.”

Sophomore Danielle Celestin sprinted to a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.84 and took fifth in the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 12.92.

In the 400-meter race, senior Joy Spriggs finished second with a quick time of 58.49. Senior Kristen Rudolph placed second in the 400-meter hurdles, clocking in at 1:04.58.

Spriggs and Rudolph returned for the 4x400meter relay alongside sophomore Emily Mead and Amanda Cucarese. The lady Lions led off

Montclair, N.J., on Saturday, April 9.

Sporadic bursts of rain and snow fell on the town from overhead, and beneath the gray sheet of cloud, the third-ranked Lions were playing the Red Hawks in their third match of the week.

“The weather was extremely odd, that was one of my first times playing lacrosse while it was snowing,” freshman midfielder Kathleen Jaeger said.

The Lions kept the Red Hawks at bay for the first half, ending the period with

Men rebound from fault, women sweep weekend

By Connor Smith Social Media Editor As the NCAA Division III Tournament — beginning on Friday, May 13 — looms in the distance, both the men’s and women’s tennis teams are trying to prove themselves at the national level.

Both teams were in action on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10. The men’s team (5-4) rebounded from an 8-1 loss to Skidmore College on Saturday with an 8-1 win of their own against Ithaca College on Sunday.

The women (11-5), having already clinched their conference’s NCAA Tournament seed, went 2-0 on the weekend with wins against Salisbury University and Ithaca College.

“We’ve played so many top nationally ranked teams,” head coach Scott Dicheck said. “We’re a tough team and our guys showed they can bounce back from a tough match.”

Lions’s Lineup April 13, 2016

I n s i d e

The men’s tennis team managed a lone singles win in their 8-1 loss against Skidmore College. Junior Jack August clawed his way back from a one set deficit to win his singles matchup in three sets (4-6, 7-5, 10-5).

The Lions had a shot to bounce back, though, as they hosted Ithaca College with clear skies and motivated minds.

“I felt like I needed to redeem myself,” freshman Omar Bokhari said. “I started up fired up and ready to go.”

Bokhari was one of many casualties in straight sets versus Skidmore.

With a lingering taste of defeat still fresh on their minds, all three doubles teams were prepared to go the distance.

August and junior Mike Stanley and improved their doubles record to 7-2, as they notched another win on court one (8-6). Senior Pierce Cooper and Mitchel Sanders continued to develop synergy on court

Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

Pierce Cooper earns wins in singles and doubles against Ithaca College.

two with an 8-4 win.

Freshmen Matt Puig and Tim Gavornik gave a glimpse into the College’s future, as they brought home an 8-4 win of their own, which capped off the Lions’s 3-0 sweep of the doubles competition.

In singles, the Lions needed only two wins out of six to clinch a victory. Instead, they earned five. Veterans and freshmen alike combined to hand the Ithaca Bombers a humbling 8-1 loss.

“I had some opportunities to go

up to the net today,” Bokhari said.

“I was able to execute some of those shots and pull myself through.”

Although both freshmen earned wins in straight sets, Sanders see SET page 31

46 53 Around the Dorm Page 27

Baseball Page 25

Cheap Seats Page 25

Softball Page 31