Breaking news, blogs, and more at TCNJSignal.net. Vol. XXXX, No. 6
February 26, 2014
Serving The College of New Jersey community since 1885
Cornel West: directions for activism Gen Y and the infinite sadness
Tom Kozlowski News Editor
On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was a watershed piece of legislation, ending de jure segregation and discriminatory policies from the workplace to the voting booth. It also began to mend America’s social inequality that had persisted — and in many ways continues to do so — for so long. On this year, marking the bill’s 50th anniversary, the struggle against that inequality has not been diminished. But it’s no longer solely defined by images of the Black Freedom Movement marching on Birmingham and Washington. To Cornel West, professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton University, the movement is universal. “The black freedom movement has never been a movement solely about black people,” West said. “It’s about
By Anegla De Santis Correspondent
live in underdeveloped villages turn their crafts into desperately needed income. Poland’s fabric, Krakow, represents Polish Gift of Life, which is an organization that raises funds to help support children with heart defects. “I’ve personally bought multiple fabric from Soles 4 Souls,” mass communications and public relations major Ashley Reed said. “This is a company that provides shoes to people in need.”
Work. Very few things leave individuals with a sense of purpose and dignity. In the midst of a recession, many are not facing the ideal of self-fulfillment. Michelle McClintock, a 29-year-old college graduate, is stuck. As she sits in her small, shared apartment, she heads off to another day of underemployment, like so many years before. Three jobs, student debt and a dusty degree leave her unsatisfied and unable to maintain even a small version of the American dream. In the current age of opportunity, many people sympathize with McClintock. Despite efforts, optimism is scarce and depression in young adults is on the rise. What was successful for past generations is just a fantasy for Generation Y. “No matter my qualifications or the amount of work I took at my jobs, I’ve stayed at a consistent level of employment that has yet to financially take care of me,” McClintock said. Generation Y, the group born between 1977 to 1994, is the most depressed of all previous generations on record, according to an “All Psychology Careers” study based on the economy and modern technology. In an age of economic turnover and slow recovery, Generation Y has an overall state of mental instability and wonders if they can fill the gap that was lost. “It seems like they are in financial melancholy,” said Alice Donahue, a psychology health worker in Piscataway, N.J. “They look at the house their parents live in and say, ‘I could work for 100 years and never afford this.’”
see SERENGETEE page 12
see DEPRESSION page 5
Courtney Wirths / Photo Editor
Combining spoken-word and scholarship, West leaves an audience rapt in his words. raising these questions about what it means to be human — questions of truth and questions of love, knowing, of course, that justice is what love looks like in public.” West knows this best. As one of the premier public intellectuals of this era, his work
has closely dissected race relations in American democracy as they’ve evolved over the course of half a century. Through lenses of race, gender, culture and what he defines as the politics of “nonMarxist socialism,” West is a breathing textbook, all at once espousing economic theories
and allusions to the Wu-Tang Clan. Speaking to the College on Thursday, Feb. 20, he discussed the lessons of civil rights activism with much of the same panache, equal parts preacher and profound cultural scholar. see WEST page 2
Students stitch ties with Serengetee By Mylin Battips Nation & World Editor When it comes to raising money for all kinds of charities, you can count on students at the College to get on board. Seven students were recently chosen to be campus representatives for Serengetee, a clothing company founded in 2012 that donates proceeds to 32 nonprofit organizations from all over the world. The representatives promote the company by sharing posts and pictures of garments from
Serengetee’s social media pages, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Local artisans from all over the world donate their fabrics to Serengetee. Fashion designers from the company create pocket T-shirts, incorporating the fabrics into the shirts. Each shirt with the specific fabric represents a charitable cause. For example, a local artisan from Indonesia donated the Gili fabric. Proceeds that are made from selling T-shirts that incorporate the Gili fabric are sent to the Bebali foundation, which helps weavers who
Miss America 2008 fights a battle with thin By Julie Kayzerman News Editor
Courtney Wirths / Photo Editor
Fighting taboos, Haglund discusses eating disorders. INDEX: Nation & World / Page 7 The Signal @TCNJsignal
Editorial / Page 9
It’s a conversation rarely had, as its struggles are often revealed only by a mirror’s reflection or a toilet seat containing the remnants of one’s shame. It’s talked about only in hushed tones or in an internal battle within one’s mind, yet typically over 90 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys on college campuses suffer from eating disorders in one way or another. But on Tuesday, Feb. 18, it was discussed by students alongside Opinions / Page 11
Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008, in an intimate setting in the Cromwell Lounge, in an effort to bring the issue out in the open in honor of Eating Disorder Awareness Month at the College, sponsored by CAPS. It’s often inferred that people fighting eating disorders acquired them from being in environments of high stress and participating in body image competitions such as pageants and modeling. Haglund actually used these opportunities to aid her in recovering from anorexia nervosa.
Features / Page 12
Haglund didn’t grow up dreaming to be a pageant queen and she wasn’t raised in a setting like the children in “Toddlers and Tiaras.” She grew up wanting nothing more than to be a ballerina. “I was the good kid,” Haglund said. “I fell in love with ballet. This was my entire life, this was my identity.” But as she begun to stake her life on being a ballet dancer, Haglund realized she might not be good enough or even thin enough see DISORDER page 2
Arts & Entertainment / Page 14
Sports / Page 28
Williams’s milestone Reaching 200 career wins over 15 years.
Olympic endings Though Sochi draws to a close, plenty more awaits.
An Evening of Shorts Students write and direct their one-act plays.
See Sports page 28
See Features page 12
See A&E page 14