Breaking news, blogs, and more at TCNJSignal.net. Vol. XXXX, No. 9
March 26, 2014
Serving The College of New Jersey community since 1885
Long-awaited improvements to PEC arriving
Despite rumors, growth in Greeks
By Peter Fiorilla Sports Editor
Long derided by students as a soft spot on an otherwise rock-solid campus experience, the Physical Enhancement Center is finally being supplied with much-needed funding this semester to combat the problems that have kept students away over the years. “I’ve met a lot of students who are paying to go off campus to gyms, and I don’t think we need to be sending students off campus when we should be able to help you have that kind of stress relief (and) take care of yourself,” said Amy Hecht, the College’s new VP of Student Affairs, in an interview in January. “I think we need to do some work (on the PEC) — a lot of work.” Despite getting a $200,000 renovation in 2011, the PEC suffers from perpetually brokendown machines, a lack of available free weights and overcrowding, which forces students to either avoid exercise or seek it elsewhere. Some problems, such as the lack of space and the length at which machines stay broken, cannot be fixed: Enlarging the PEC is not an option, and when machines break down, the warranties on them force the College to wait for a third-party company for repairs. Other issues, such as how the two squat racks face each other and cannot safely hold weights, can be fixed but haven’t been. “Honestly, the TCNJ gym is a complete embarrassment,” said sophmore accounting major Michael D’Agostino, who uses the gym frequently to work out. “We shouldn’t have to spend more time waiting for equipment to use than actually working out at the gym.” The school is pumping money into the PEC to get results, though, and it’s already paying see PEC page 3
Courtney Wirths / Photo Editor
About 1,400 students on campus are involved in Greek life, a huge increase from 2007’s number of 476. By Colleen Murphy Features Editor One, two, three, four, Greek. This is what assistant director for fraternity & sorority life Dave Conner sometimes thinks to himself when walking around campus. One out of every five students at the College is a member of one of the 29 fraternities and sororities. “Last spring, we broke 1,200 students, so roughly 20 percent of the undergraduate population,” Conner said. “This year, I expect that
numbers will be dramatically higher. I expect once I have all the finalized numbers, we might actually be closer to 1,400 this semester. Long story short, we’ve had a trend of growth. When I got here in 2007, we had 476 fraternity and sorority life people.” So why the growth? We hear the news stories of hazing from around the country. In fact, at least 59 students have died in incidents involving fraternities since 2005, according to Bloomberg News, with six others getting paralyzed. The
stereotypes of the “frat bro” and the “sorority girl” are well known to several students. But still, people are joining in record numbers. Why do students at the College join Greek life? “A lot of perception and a lot of rumor is essentially just perpetuated year after year,” Conner said. “Organizations, like people, change over time. Certainly, I don’t think we would have this many people joining and committing so much of their time and energy if it were a bad experience, or if people
were buying friends, or were all very shallow or whatever else. There has to be some deeper root piece to this.” According to Conner, being involved with Greek life provides students the opportunity to develop their whole self by engaging in out-of-theclassroom experiences. “I think when it’s done right, fraternity and sorority life is probably the most impactful experience a student can have in college,” Conner said. see GREEK page 11
Creating a history to identify Lauren Cronk Correspondent
Gay marriage is no recent phenomenon, according to Lillian Faderman. As a Women’s History Month guest speaker and a scholar of lesbian history and literature, Faderman spoke on Wednesday, March 19, on the significance of lesbian marriages that existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries — before the legalization of gay marriage as society understands it today. An internationally-known scholar, Faderman is the author of eight books, two of which, “Surpassing
the Love of Men” and “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers,” have been considered “Notable Books of the Year” by the New York Times. As women came out to the public as lesbians in what she described as a “dangerous time,” Faderman argued that “the only way for (gays and lesbians) to survive was to hide.” Faderman described four sources of this fear before the onset of gay civil rights: ideas imposed on homosexuals as criminals by the police force, as psychologically ill by psychologists, as sinners by the church and as unlawful by the government.
INDEX: Nation & World / Page 5 The Signal @TCNJsignal
Editorial / Page 7
Without any written record, Faderman explained, homosexuals had no history to identify themselves with. “One way to oppress people is to deny their history,” said Ann Marie Nicolosi, chair of women’s and gender studies at the College. In order to give lesbians a history to tie themselves to, Faderman began researching lesbian marriages of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Faderman began her research as a college professor in 1967, an era considered to be “still dangerous.” see IDENTITY page 3
Opinions / Page 9
Monica Murphy / Staff photographer
The Mixed Signals cause the audience to laugh until they cry at the annual ROCK. See more on page 15.
Features / Page 11
Arts & Entertainment / Page 15
Sports / Page 32
Swimming Team wins Nationals in two events
Fast food Making the healthy choice on-the-go
Paradise Fears Alternative pop group connects with audience
See Sports page 32
See Features page 11
See A&E page 19