[The Stute] September 29, 2023 (Issue 4, Volume CXXI)

Now’s the time!

Get your flu shot and COVID booster Happy birthday Isy and Kayden!

We write Stevens history

VOLUME CXXI No. 4

HOBOKEN, NJ | SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The student newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of Attila the Duck. www.thestute.com TikTok @thestute Instagram @thestute facebook.com/stevensthestute NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904

Fall Fling still on despite Fall Fest cancellation

The current lack of transparency regarding the Pinnacle Scholars Program TANYA AVADIA, BUSINESS MANAGER The Pinnacle Scholars Program in which selected students have access to a variety of opportunities is, for reasons unknown, highly rooted in secrecy.

For a while many members of the Stevens student body, part of Pinnacle and not, have wondered what determines whether a student gets selected to this program. Some believe that the students get selected on a random basis rather than through a set criteria or process. Both the lack of information stated on the Pinnacle Scholars page online and the declination to provide clarification by the administration only contributes to this belief. However, changes are currently being made as applicants to Stevens will now have to apply to be considered for the Pinnacle Scholars program.

According to the Stevens website, the Lawrence E. Babbio ‘66 Pinnacle Scholars Program is an “exclusive, invitation-only program” in which selected students are informed of their selection through their Stevens acceptance.

Admission to the program is based on strong academic performance and the potential impact the student would have at Stevens. Par-

ticipants of the program gain many benefits such as a $5,000 stipend for either performing summer research with a Stevens faculty member or embarking on an international experience such as studying abroad, interning abroad, performing research aboard, or doing service work. Additionally, all Pinnacle Scholars have a cultural passport which allows them to attend special events such as plays, musicals, art exhibitions, and more. The responsibility that comes with being a part of this program is that you must maintain a GPA of 3.2 or higher and enroll in several special honors and research seminars.

While the scope of this program sounds promising, many students can attest that the program benefits largely outweigh the requirements especially when the selection criteria is so vague to begin with. Firstly, granting every Pinnacle student a $5,000 stipend for up to three summers certainly does allow them to embark on experiences and opportunities that would be beneficial to their professional ambitions and growth overall as a person. This, however, does come at a very large cost: other high-achieving students not part of Pinna-

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EMMA SPOONAUER, STAFF WRITER

Specialist with Stevens Dining, about how this whole process actually works. At Stevens Dining, all members of the management team undergo yearly certification in food safety practices. All Stevens dining locations are Servsafe certified.

The process is standardized and unsurprising: first, a dirty dish is received from the conveyor belt. Next, the dish is rinsed before it is loaded into the dishwasher.

The dishwasher is a Hobart dishwasher, which is com-

In light of The Division of Student Affairs’ discontinuation of Fall Fest, many believed that Stevens’ usual autumn celebrations would be missing from campus this year. However, thanks to the Entertainment Committee (EC), a Masquerade Mask Decorating event and the second annual Fall Fling are still set to take place this October. The Stute got a chance to speak with Sara Wolf, the EC Director of Festivities, to learn more about the inspiration to continue hosting the Fall Fling and what we can expect from both this event and the Masquerade Mask Decorating event.

Wolf describes her position as being very dynamic and collaborative throughout the academic year.

During the fall semester, she plans all of our campus traditions, including Flock Party, Fall Fling, and Winter Wonderland with assistance from Chris Alessandri, the EC Special Event Coordinator. For the spring semester, Wolf serves as the student liaison for Student Life’s Founder’s Day Ball and helps plan Techfest with its director, Mollie Good.

When asked if her or oth-

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RAFAEL LEE LI FOR THE STUTE

How does Pierce wash its dishes?

BY DANIEL HOGAN, CONTRIBUTOR Have you ever wondered how Pierce dining hall washes its dishes and utensils? As the only dining hall on campus, many students rely on Pierce as a source for their meals.

Maintaining high levels of cleanliness in the dining hall improves the collective well-being of everyone on campus. It’s not uncommon for students to receive dirty dishes every now and then. Sometimes dishes will have residue left over from their previous use, or may-

be you pick up a dish and you wonder why it is wet.

So the question remains: how does this process work and are the dishes really clean?

As the school year goes on it is essential to maintain good levels of sanitation.

The world has globally seen a spike in new COVID-19 cases due to a new variant. Preventing the spread of germs in the dining hall will help reduce the risk of catching illnesses and will help prevent illnesses from spreading on campus.

I spoke with Madison Goslin, Senior Marketing

The process of joining New revolutionary online school announced: a sorority or fraternity The College of Online and Professional Education

BY EMILY PRASAD, CONTRIBUTOR Widely referred to as “Greek life,” fraternities and sororities are values-based groups that foster academic achievement and aid in developing students’ interpersonal and leadership abilities. Luke Mizus, a year 5/5 Engineering Management major, states, “I enjoyed the process of joining Beta Theta Pi. When I first joined, I felt like I could be myself more.”

If you feel like exploring what the Stevens Greek community has to offer for yourself as an individual, there is a process you must follow to ensure you receive that desirable bid.

To be eligible to join a so-

cial fraternity or sorority at Stevens, students must have completed at least 12 credits at Stevens Institute of Technology, have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.7 (this minimum value can depend on the organization), and have neither been on academic or judicial probation nor have received a loss of eligibility following a housing sanction.

Transfer student eligibility is assessed depending on their situation. Before the start of their second semester at Stevens, first-year students are not permitted to join a fraternity or sorority. Firstyear students are advised to attend events like Meet the Greeks or chapter-specific

SEE GREEK PAGE 2

BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, OPINION EDITOR As part of the ever-growing academic diversity of the schools here at Stevens, it was recently announced that Stevens will be introducing a new virtual graduate school: The College of Online and Professional Education.

This new school will help Stevens remain an innovative option for STEM degrees and certificates.

The Stevens Institute of Technology College of

Online and Professional Education came to be after consultation with deans, faculty, professionals, and others in the Stevens community. The new school is part of Stevens’ Strategic Plan Goal 2, which plans to grow the school’s online program offerings and opportunities for professionals and upskill the technology-focused labor force.

With the changes from the COVID-19 pandemic, Stevens now has the infrastructure and materials to host an online school.

Using the tools used to

NEWS (2-4)

SCIENCE (8)

FEATURE (5-6)

PULSE (12)

The Pinnacle Scholars Program, how Pierce washes its dishes, and EC’s Fall Fling.

Fall festivities!

The fall flavors in Hoboken as well as some fall fashion inspiration. See how CSA’s Mid-Autumn Festival went too.

Memory loss? Medical diagnosis algorithms?

Climate Week NYC? Learn more about what’s going on in the world of science.

Read answers from the Stevens community to our weekly Roving Reporter, plus solve our weekly puzzle and sudoku.

ogy College of Online and Professional Education is a significant step towards expanding the school’s online program offerings.

With the help of digital platforms and the expertise of professionals, Stevens is working towards creating a seamless and efficient learning experience for students pursuing STEM degrees and certificates. The search for the perfect dean to lead the new school is underway, and we expect to see exciting developments from this initiative soon.

Recordings for missed classes will no longer be available though sick, a way to still

BY TANYA AVADIA, follow their course schedBUSINESS MANAGER ule and learn the new ma-

WILL HILL FOR THE STUTE

host online classes and the StevensOnline schools, Stevens is partnering with other digital platforms to help make the learning experience through this new program as seamless and efficient as possible.

Stevens is exploring options for who will be dean as part of this new school.

They are partnering with the company WittKieffer Executive Search to narrow down the field of potential deans to find the perfect fit for the new school.

Introducing the Stevens Institute of Technol-

In a university-wide email sent on September 12, 2023 by the Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Faculty Affairs David Zheng, Stevens informed both students and faculty alike that recordings for students who missed classes will no longer be provided. Previously, if students were unable to attend their classes due to short-term illnesses such as the flu or COVID-19, they received recordings of their classes.

This provided students, al-

terial taught during class.

Now, the university has announced that it will be halting this practice.

In addition to the announcement above, Stevens has also clarified that students are not required to present any sort of documentation to prove an illness and that faculty are not permitted to request it either. However, if students have a circumstance in which they need to miss class, it is the responsibility of the student to bring

it up to their instructor. It is then up to the instructor to determine if the student who missed class is allowed to make up any missed assignments. Zheng also explained in the email that absences do not relieve students from the responsibility of completing any requirements for the courses they are enrolled in including assignments, exams or projects.

While recordings aren’t released to students with short-term illnesses, students with short-term or long-term disability, including chronic illness,

must provide documentation to the Office of Disability Services in order to receive appropriate accommodations. The director of the Office of Disability Services will then communicate directly with members of the faculty about the accommodations needed.

Both students and faculty are encouraged to reference the Office of Undergraduate Academics Policies and Procedures page should they have any questions or concerns or are in need of more information.

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Friday, September 29

News Masthead Volume CXXI No. 4 Executive Board EDITOR-IN-CHIEF......................................ISABELLA ZIV ‘25 BUSINESS MANAGER............................TANYA AVADIA ‘26 MANAGING EDITOR.......................................AVA WANG ‘25 LAYOUT EDITOR................................NICOLE GIARDINO ‘25 OUTREACH CHAIR..........................KAYDEN CANNILLA ‘24 DIGITAL MANAGER................................RAFAEL LEE LI ‘24 SECRETARY.............................................CLAIRE HANNAN ‘24 HEAD COPY EDITOR..............................KEENAN YATES ‘24

Editorial Board

NEWS EDITOR.........................................BEN KNOBLOCH ‘25 SCIENCE EDITOR.........................................ERIN MCGEE ‘25 OPINION EDITOR............................EVAN PAPAGEORGE ‘26 SPORTS EDITOR........................................CHRISTA RUIZ ‘25 FEATURES EDITOR................................TASHA KHOSLA ‘25 PULSE EDITOR........................................MIA PETROLINO ‘25

Operations Board HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER......................OLOF PERSSON ‘25 ARCHIVES LIAISON.......................KEVIN CASTNER JR. ‘24

Staff & Contributors Stephen Pachucki Isabella Hamm Emma Spoonaeur Emily Prasad Daniel Hogan Umang Chulani Arthur Serra Shane Mitchell Sean Anderson Tianna Spitz Liz Sepulveda Shane Mitchell

Raynelis Villa Meghana Mamadapur Riyana Phadke Ruthie Mullisky Abby Jacobs Nick Smith Nicole Cheung Ethan Kleschinksy Hima Thummala Rachel Abraham Advait Dantuluri

Contact Us

GENERAL.........................................EBOARD@THESTUTE.COM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.........................EDITOR@THESTUTE.COM ADVERTISING.............................BUSINESS@THESTUTE.COM OFFICE.................................UNIVERSITY CENTER ROOM 216B

Corrections NOTICE A MISTAKE? Email us at eboard@thestute.com.

Disclaimer

All opinions and editorials reflect the views of their respective author(s). No Part of The Stute may be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Cited references of The Stute are permitted.

Policy on Letters to the Editor

All members of the Stevens community are able to submit a Letter to the Editor to be published in The Stute. Letters must refer either to a piece published in The Stute or to The Stute in general and must be between 400 – 800 words in length. Submit letters to editor@thestute.com with your name and title (when applicable) or using our Google form. For writers who wish to write a Letter to the Editor anonymously, please see our policy on anonymity.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to choose whether or not to publish a submitted Letter to the Editor based on a majority rule vote, and additionally reserves the right to edit letters for clarity or request authors to revise. Provided that the author approves the final version, The Stute reserves the right to edit letters according to our copy editing procedures, defined in our policies.

Policy on Op-Eds

All members of the Stevens community are able to submit a standalone opinion piece (otherwise known as an Op-Ed) to be published in The Stute. Op-Eds must be between 400 – 800 words, but longer submissions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. To submit an OpEd please email eboard@thestute.com with your name and title (when applicable) or using our Google form (tinyurl.com/submit-t0-stute). For writers who wish to write an Op-Ed anonymously, please see our policy on anonymity.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to choose whether or not to publish a submitted Op-Ed based on a majority rule vote, and additionally reserves the right to edit Op-Eds for clarity or request authors to revise.

Provided that the author approves the final version, The Stute reserves the right to edit Op-Eds according to our copy editing procedures, defined in our policies.

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tinyurl.com/stutesubmit

PINN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 cle miss out on the same benefits.

Pinnacle students are prioritized when it comes to research opportunities and non-Pinnacle students have to find opportunities on their own. Secondly, Pinnacle Scholars are guaranteed their stipend while other students participating in research may have to take on unpaid roles. This policy gives Pinnacles an unfair advantage, especially when there might be other students who can very much benefit from the stipend and the professional opportunities in regard to a need-based way.

Another point with which the insufficiency of how the Pinnacle Scholars Program chooses students is that the two disclosed factors include academic performance and potential student impact. Pinnacles are selected as part of their application to Stevens so it makes sense to evaluate each prospective student’s academic standing but assuming the impact a student will have on the Stevens community based on their high

DISH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 monly used in the food industry.

Then, the dishes are left out to air dry. This process is done for any plate, bowl, cup, glass, and utensils.

For pots and pans, this process is a little different. These items are too big to fit into the dishwasher and are washed in the sink. Pierce uses a three-sink method to clean these items. The pots and pans are placed in the first sink which is filled with water and detergent

FLING

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 er EC members have any insight into the reason why Fall Fest was discontinued by Student Affairs, Wolf declined to comment. However, she did go into detail as to why the EC moved ahead with planning the Fall Fling in spite of this cancellation. Wolf admits, “Before last year’s inaugural Fall Fling, we hosted our own version of Fall Fest on some of the campus lawns, though it was more of a pumpkin patch and less of a ‘homecoming’ event.” She then recounts how before Fall Fest was called off, Student Affairs asked the EC to come up with a new event for students to support a “new version” of Fall Fest that would take place the following academic year. This is when the EC decided on a dance that would become the Fall Fling. Despite Fall Fest’s eventual cancellation, the EC decided to continue planning the Fall Fling because it was “very well received.” Wolf adds, “On a personal note, fall is my favorite time of

GREEK

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 activities so they can start considering joining a chapter.

If the requirements above are met, the second part of the process should be considered: the fall 2023 recruitment period. Fraternity and sorority chapters host various events at the start of the semester to inform prospective members about their missions and values. These occasions include bracelet making with Theta Pi, Mac’ n Phis with Alpha Phi, and an ice cream social with Chi Psi. These occasions allow students to interact with current members and discover how their ideals align with the chapter’s. Returning students have the chance to

school performance is difficult to judge. Potential selectees of the program may end up not being thoroughly involved in the school, yet there is no revaluation method with which non-Pinnacle impactful students get a chance to join the program. Furthermore, given all of the surpluses of the Pinnacle Scholars Program, it elevates its students to make a lasting impression on the Steven community which regular students do not have access to. This, again, would be fine if the methodology of the selection process for such a prestigious program was communicated and a set commonality between all Scholars was identifiable.

Finally, one of the more fun and exciting aspects of being a Pinnacle Scholar is the cultural passport. This allows Scholars to plan for and attend leisure activities. Even though this is a great way to destress and take advantage of the city, Pinnacle Program members have a much larger budget and ability to participate compared to their counterparts.

For example, Stevens students are able to attend events planned out by the Entertainment Committee (EC). However, competition

across the entirety of the student body for the tickets is fierce. On average, the EC buys about 1530 tickets depending on the type of event and tickets are sold out within 20-40 seconds with sometimes over 200 signups for a single event. Through the Pinnacle Scholars Program, students can plan events as they want and cater towards their own needs. The lack of disclosure about the event planning process and the budget within Pinnacle also makes it inequitable to other students.

There has been speculation that Stevens will now require future applicants to Stevens to apply to the Pinnacle Scholars Program rather than just be considered based off of their application to Stevens. The specifics of this are still unknown but Vice President for Enrollment Management, Cindy Chin, explained how she will be meeting with the Student Government Association (SGA) regarding this matter. Hopefully, this meeting will shed some light on the issue and more information relating to the Pinnacle Scholars Program will be readily made available.

at a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Then the items are placed in sink two to be rinsed.

Finally, the items are placed into sink three which is also filled with water and sanitizer, and then left out to air dry. It is important to note that these items are air dried and not dried by hand.

This means that the items are never wiped dry. The reason behind this is that it helps maintain sanitation as a dirty towel could contaminate a clean pot or pan.

The sinks are checked every hour to maintain sanitation.

Stevens dining employees also log records of cleaning making

sure that standards are followed each time. Machine chemical levels and temperatures are checked hourly to make sure that they are kept at optimal levels.

In conclusion, Stevens Dining remains committed to making sure that its operation meets the highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene. These procedures are in place to ensure that Stevens Dining maintains cleanliness over long periods of time. If you have any questions or remaining concerns regarding sanitary practices at Pierce Dining Hall or any of the dining establishments on campus, contact dining@stevens.edu.

year, so any opportunity I can get to dress up and celebrate the season I will take!” Even though Wolf wanted to mirror the success of last year’s Fall Fling, she still wanted to add a fun twist to this year’s theme.

She explains, “Since we are moving the event to later in the fall, I wanted to make it a little spookier and add a masquerade twist to the regular event.”

As for what goes into planning the Fall Fling, Wolf explains that her and other EC members use a methodical approach. While she and Alessandri are in direct contact with many of the vendors that provide the basic setup for the event, they also “divide the rest of the EC members into five different subcommittees: Logistics, Activities/Food/Giveaways (AFG), Marketing, Decor, and Music. Each of these subcommittees has a leader that reports to Wolf and Alessandri.

Since the Fall Fling now has a masquerade theme incorporated into the event, the EC put together a separate Masquerade Mask Decorating Event in partnership with the Art Installations Club. It will

take place Thursday, October 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the UCC Gallery.

The Fall Fling itself will be on Wednesday, October 25 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., split between Walker Gym (for dancing) and Schaefer Lawn (for activities and food). Wolf remarks, “It’s the perfect chance to destress and have a fun night with friends right after midterms!”

She explains that the main attraction of the Fall Fling will be music. “We will have a live band playing from 7-8:30, with a student DJ taking over for the remainder of the event.” Wolf details how for now they know there will also be giveaways, raffle baskets, and fall treats. Things that are still in the works include more activities and “A Taste of Hoboken,” free samples from local Hoboken coffee shops.

When dealing with Stevens’ rigorous curriculum, the EC hopes this event will give students an opportunity to decompress. Wolf emphasized that the main goal of the Fall Fling is to “bring the student body together for a night of nothing but fun!”

join these chapters during informal recruitment in the fall; however, not all chapters can partake.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) and the Stevens Panhellenic Council (SPC) have their own recruitment procedures. Each of the Cultural Greek Council’s (CGC) organizations has its own distinct processes. Students interested in joining a CGC chapter are urged to go to council functions and contact the chapters to learn about their recruitment procedures.

During the spring semester, some chapters utilize a three-day recruitment process. These days include round-robin day, philanthropy day, and preference day.

On round-robin day, prospective members visit many houses owned by the fraternities or sororities and talk with members. The purpose of

philanthropy day is for these students to further understand the chapters’ values and ensure their beliefs are aligned. Finally, preference day is when students declare their top choices. Later, students find out if they received a bid. A bid is a formal invitation to join a sorority or fraternity.

When asked to provide advice to students interested in Greek Life, Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Kevin Grunder stated, “I encourage students to reflect on what they are hoping to gain out of a fraternity or sorority experience and stay true to yourself within your pursuits of membership.” It is essential to keep an open mind throughout the recruitment process, research the chapters Stevens has to offer, and ask as many questions as you can.

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Friday, September 29

News STAYING HEALTHY Learn more about the Student Health Center

BY SHANE MITCHELL, CONTRIBUTOR

The Student Health Center Covid reporting: what to do now is one of the many Stevens-pro-

BY SEAN ANDERSON, CONTRIBUTOR It has been nearly four years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and during that time, much has been learned about the prevention and mitigation of the spread of the infectious disease. As the Stevens community moves into the 2023-2024 academic sessions, it is important to note the updates that have occurred regarding reporting cases of COVID-19.

If you or a fellow student have tested positive for the disease, it must be reported to Student Health Services by emailing them at studenthealthservices@ stevens.edu. If you live on campus, it should be reported to your RA as well. Following this step, you will be instructed to isolate yourself if you are experiencing symptoms. Additionally, instructions will be sent regarding contact tracing, requesting lecture recordings, and dining information for food delivery to help with situating into temporary isolation. If you live with a roommate

on campus, you will be allowed to move into “emergency rooms” located in Castle Point Hall. The CDC reports that “being around people who are symptomatic increases the risk of transmission,” so following all of these precautionary steps can help to prevent further spread. If you do not have symptoms, you are not required to quarantine as long as you remain symptom-free for 10 days after last exposure. Wear a mask during this period to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

If you do not have a COVID-19 test kit, do not worry. Test kits can be picked up at the Health Service from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays while the university is open (students only).

Stevens “strongly recommends students and employees stay up-to-date with COVID-19 boosters,” and documentation for boosters can be submitted through the Healthy Stevens Portal. If you have any questions regarding the Stevens’ COVID-19 vaccination guidelines, contact student affairs at studentaffairs@stevens.edu.

vided services that aims to make life on campus simpler and more convenient. It can be difficult to keep track of what each service has to offer, but a knowledge of these services can save students time, money, and a trip into Hoboken. To learn more about what the Student Health Center can do for students, The Stute spoke to Dr. Kyle Weisholtz, Director of Student Health Services.

The services provided by the Student Health Center include testing, immunizations, physical goods, and more. Weisholtz shared that the center offers rapid pregnancy testing, as well as testing for Covid, Flu, Strep, Mono, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia,

and HIV. As for immunizations, the center provides the Flu vaccine and Covid booster shots in limited quantities, with plans to offer MMR, Hepatitis B, and Meningitis vaccines in the future.

Students can also pick up emergency contraception and condoms without an appointment.

To make use of any of the other services outlined above, students are strongly encouraged to make an appointment prior to visiting the Health Center.

For those looking to visit the Health Center, the Healthy Stevens Portal is the preferred way to schedule an appointment.

Students who come looking for a walk-in appointment are unlikely to be seen quickly, as those with appointments are given priority, and time slots fill up quickly. Additionally, it’s possible to schedule an appointment by calling the Student Health Center directly

during business hours. While appointments are not anonymous, privacy is maintained between the student and the Student Health Center care provider via a password-protected portal.

While not every service provided by the Student Health Center is free, many are offered at a much lower cost than outside care providers. For example, the morning-after pill only costs students $12 per dose, and rapid Covid tests are free. If students do not have Aetna Student Health insurance, some minor costs may apply, and these costs can be found on the Student Health Center website. The Student Health Center is expected to expand in the near future, with Weisholtz sharing that the center is actively looking for an additional registered nurse practitioner to be hired by the end of October.

COVID-19 test kits available at Student Health Services weekdays 9 am-4pm students only

STAYING SAFE Annual Fire Report summary

BY ARTHUR SERRA, CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Universities are required on an annual basis to undergo a fire safety inspection and publish the results. The recently published 2022 report, documented annual fire statistics from 2019 through 2021, with a notable decline in fires. In 2019, there were five fires reported in Stevens housing. However, in 2020 and 2021, there were none.

The annual report goes through the various procedures that Stevens has instituted to maximize fire safety. These include evacuation procedures, inspections, fire safety education and training, collaboration with the Hoboken Fire Department, and setting limits on what can be brought into dorm rooms.

Students looking to learn more are invited to review the publishing.

It was likely a combination of these safety procedures that led to a decrease in dormitory fire incidents. However, there are some questions and concerns that remain among freshmen in response

to the report. The report states that Stevens residential advisors (RAs) will provide fire safety training to residents under their supervision.

However, after speaking to some residents of Palmer, Castle Point, Jonas, Davis, many do not recall any intensive training. It remains early in the Fall 2023 semester, but fire safety is of utmost importance.

It is unclear in the report whether or not this requirement is solely enforced in the dormitories with in-unit kitchens such as the UCC towers residences, or if RAs will be conducting this training later on in the semester. Additional questions arise as to if this duty should fall on the RAs. In the past, the Stevens Fire Safety Coordinator has given a class-wide fire safety training for the incoming class. The date for this year has yet to be announced.

Stevens fire safety has evidently improved since 2019, but it remains important to stay diligent. It is important to keep this momentum going, and The Stute will continue to monitor campus observation of fire safety. Here’s to another safe year!

KAYDEN CANNILLA FOR THE STUTE

Campus fire safety reminders: what to do and how to stay safe

BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, OPINION EDITOR Once again, a new wave of first-year and transfer students has arrived on campus. Additionally, it has been some time since the rest of the student population has lived on Castle Point. Because of this, Daniel Cunning of the Department of Environmental Health and Safety would like to go through some fire and safety strategies to ensure all students have a safe year here at Stevens.

Cunning, who has worked at Stevens for the past year, told the Stute that he works tirelessly to keep campus, students, faculty, and staff safe from harm due to fire, smoke, heat, chemicals, or any other danger. In his tenure, he has successfully brought the average number of alarms per year from over 200 hundred to less than 100 for the past three years. Most importantly, Cunning emphasized, the number of student-caused alarms has significantly decreased. However,

he reiterated that it is still vital to remember safe practices and strategies to prevent and react to dangerous situations. Cunning says that most of the time, when an alarm is triggered due to student activity, it is a result of accidental and understandable safety violations. Because of this, Cunning has helped The Stute compile a list of things to know to stay safe.

The first thing to remember is how fast fire can spread. In today’s world, most materials are synthetic and burn extremely fast, so a candle can set an entire room on fire in only 90 seconds.

Because of this, it is crucial to know how to get out of a room, the escape routes out of a building, the proper ways to check a door, where to go, and what paths to take. All of this information, Cunning explained, can be found across campus.

Another aspect of fire safety here on campus is preventing fires. Fire prevention is increasingly important with the South

and Harries Towers. Hot plates in all units, microwaves, and conventional ovens allow a fire to break out quickly. It is vital to not tamper with fire alarms and to evacuate if an alarm goes off. Another aspect of preventing fires is ensuring that no dangerous materials or devices are in dorms or classrooms. For example, e-bikes or e-scooters are not allowed.

They can catch fire very quickly. In New York City, there have been over 200 fires in the past year due to e-bikes and scooters, with dozens of fatalities.

The best way to prevent fires is education. Learning how to prevent and escape fires is vital in increasing survivability and decreasing the number of fire alarms on campus. Whether from knowing what devices are not allowed in dorms, what not to put in microwaves, how to evacuate buildings, and when it is safe to return. All information on fire safety is available on the Stevens Fire Safety website.

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Friday, September 29

National News Unveiling the mosaic: India accused of Canadian-Sikh murder tion of India and the three state an Prime Minister Justin Trudeau President Biden’s meeting

BY ARTHUR SERRA, solution, Sikhs were left out of any told lawmakers on Monday, SepCONTRIBUTOR form of power. tember 18 that Canadian authorwith Israel’s Prime Here in the Western world, It was during this time that the ities are investigating “credible when we think of a regional con- “Khalistan movement” was born. allegations” that the Indian govMinister Netanyahu flict between ethnic and politi- This movement proposes a new ernment was involved in the killBY UMANG CHULANI, CONTRIBUTOR Since its declaration of independence in 1948, Israel and the United States have cultivated a strong and enduring alliance, spanning over 75 years. This partnership has been grounded in shared values of democracy, a commitment to global economic stability, and America’s unwavering dedication to ensuring Israel’s security. On September 20, President Joe Biden convened with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York to engage in extensive discussions concerning a broad array of geopolitical matters, encompassing both regional and bilateral concerns.

The bedrock of the alliance between the United States and Israel predominantly revolves around America’s steadfast pledge to safeguarding Israel’s security, a commitment expressed through avenues such as military financing agreements (MOU) and missile defense funding. Notably, the choice of venue for this meeting, held in person on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York rather than the traditional setting of the White House in Washington, underscores the complex and at times uneasy nature of the relationship between the United States and Israel.

President Biden initiated the meeting by extending New Year wishes to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli people, particularly in light of Yom Kippur observed on August 25th. He underscored the enduring connection between the two nations, built upon shared values. President Biden emphasized that the commitment to upholding these values and prioritizing Israeli security remains “iron-clad.”

Minister Netanyahu echoed the importance of preserving the foundational values of both nations’ democracies in his remarks. Subsequently, the discussion delved into the critical role of military and missile support from the United States, with a shared commitment to preventing Palestine and Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Additionally, the leaders addressed the ongo-

ing violence in the West Bank, a landlocked Palestinian territory, and explored strategies for diffusing tension in the region, including the possibility of an alliance between Israel and Palestine. The United States and Israel have a history of engaging in various defense exchanges encompassing weapons development, external research, and military enhancements. These collaborations often involve entities like the Counterterrorism Group (CTG) and other strategic groups, facilitating discussions aimed at mitigating potential regional threats.

President Biden concluded the meeting by extending an invitation to Minister Netanyahu to visit the White House in Washington, D.C., before the year’s end. This invitation is intended to facilitate further discussions on these issues within a more private setting.

The relationship between the United States and Israel is a multifaceted and intricate phenomenon, carrying significant implications and consequences for both nations and the broader Middle East region. It is a subject heavily entwined with domestic U.S. politics, representing an enduring bipartisan concern that garners support from various officials and interest groups within the political spectrum, each advocating for distinct policies and guidelines in the context of this alliance. Moreover, regional dynamics play a pivotal role, particularly in terms of fostering mistrust among other Middle Eastern countries, especially those with a history of strained relations with the United States, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. This, in turn, contributes to the complex geopolitical landscape of the region.

Additionally, the U.S.’s alignment with Israel is perceived as a source of bias by Palestinians and their allies, further fueling tensions within the region. In essence, while the partnership between these two nations has consistently championed innovation and prioritized regional security, the inherent implications associated with it give rise to significant concerns.

cal groups that has lasted since World War II, we tend to think of the Israel-Palestine conflict or the Korean North-South division.

However, an equally violent and longstanding issue has been the separation of the British Raj into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

When European colonizers came to India it was a series of disparate states, loosely organized on a continental level. Britain combined the Indian subcontinent into one political state, however, this didn’t solve the various religious, ethnic, and cultural conflicts within the country.

One group that didn’t get their own state, and still want one, are the Sikhs. Sikh independence movements have largely been squashed and covered up by the Indian government. However, the subject recently became an international issue when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that there are strong connections between the Indian government and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar—a Canadian Sikh independence leader—on Canadian soil.

Sikhism is a religion that originated during the 15th century in the Punjab region of India. Over the centuries, “Sikhs” began to refer to both the religious group and an ethnic group that followed the religion. Starting in the 1700s until the British colonization of India, Sikhs ruled over the Punjab region. Following the decoloniza-

ethno-religious state known as Khalistan that would include part of or the entire Punjab region — Sikhs make up 58% of the Punjab region. This movement has consistently been swept under the rug by the Indian government.

It wasn’t until the 2022 election that there was any Sikh independence representation in the Indian parliament, and that is a singular Member of Parliament (MP) in a 543-seat house where every other party is opposed to the movement.

The largest Sikh population outside of India exists in Canada — making up 2.1% of the total population. Mr. Nijjar moved to Canada from India as a young man and quickly became a community leader both as a Sikh and as a Khalistanist organizer. Mr. Nijjar was accused by the Indian government of “operationalizing, networking, training, and financing” members of the Khalistanist movement. He was also accused of being responsible for various terrorist acts such as a bombing, and a political assassination.

However, Nijjar has vowed that he has “never believed in, supported or been involved in any violent activity.”

Since 2016, the Canadian police have said they are aware of India’s accusations but have never charged Mr. Nijjar with any crime.

On June 18th, 2023, two masked gunmen shot and killed Mr. Nijjar at night in a parking lot. Canadi-

ing and discussed the subject with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has lashed out at Canada in response. This response has involved expelling senior Canadian diplomats, no longer creating new visas to allow Canadians to visit India, and the Indian foreign ministry released a statement, saying, “Such unsubstantiated allegations seem to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

This situation comes at a sensitive time in the international world. The United States has refocused its attention from the Middle East to Asia, especially China.

In a repeat of the Cold War strategy of containment, the United States is allying itself with states surrounding China to contain Chinese influence, regardless of how unsavory these states may be. One such state is India whose allyship could be a huge boon to American foreign policy, regardless of how much India’s dedication to democracy is questionable. Having Canada be at odds with a state that we’re courting is no way to move forward with this strategy.

This is why many analysts believe that Trudeau will be forced to let this particular issue go, setting a dangerous precedent of what we are willing to accept in the race for allies in this Chinese Cold War.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PBS NEWS

SAVE GBM 3

LIVING SUSTAINABLY IN COLLEGE Oct 3rd 9:15 -10:00 GS 216

Come learn Some Tips and Tricks

5

Friday, September 29

Feature Fall has officially begun — let’s talk fashion

BY SHANE MITCHELL, CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN STICKING WITH TRENDS OR EXPERT ADVICE IS THAT YOU FEEL HAPPY WITH WHO YOU ARE AND HOW YOU LOOK

Fashion, much like art, is highly subjective. Fall fashion specifically is especially unique in that it has developed a certain “universal aesthetic” — warm colors, muted tones, and cozy clothing items are all annual staples of any autumnal wardrobe.

While some fashion choices seem to be intuitive, others are much more complex, and experimentation is key in finding the right “fall fits.” If you’re looking for some advice on how to look your best this pumpkin spice season, then look no further — you’ve come to the right place.

First, be bold! Fashion experts agree that red is this year’s signature color. Don’t be afraid to try on a brighter shade than your typical “Sangria red” — a pop of color will make you stand out against a dull background of barren trees and uninspired outfits. If red isn’t the color for you, don’t fret! Opting for a unique color, like a cool tone, can help you differentiate yourself from the crowd. Many outfitters (both boutique and corporate) offer purple, blue, or green flannels to help you spice up your style every once in a while. That being said, it can be fun to stick to the classics at times too! If you’ve created a collection of looks that suit you every fall, there’s no shame in sticking to your signature style.

Second, get out of those sweats! Sweatpants are comfortable, but if fashion is an art form then sweats are no masterpiece.

Hoodies are marginally more stylish than sweatpants, but sweaters are a better alternative that provide more versatility and

fit with the fall theme. If you’re looking for a break from flannels, Glamour Magazine suggests going for a free-flowing, business-casual look. A button-down shirt or cardigan can be just as comfortable as other clothing items while still acting as a fashionable part of your outfit.

Additionally, accessorize and style! Messenger bags can be a wonderful, universally gender-neutral compliment to your outfit, and their added storage space can make them just as functional as they are fashionable. Layering clothing items can also add dimension to your look, as it allows you to mix and match colors and textures. If you’re trying hard not to break the bank, consider going to a local thrift store and hunting for some new additions to your wardrobe. Fall lends itself to vintage clothes and accessories thanks to its relatively consistent aesthetic, and thrifted items are often just as fashionable and durable as retail items at a fraction of the price.

Finally, find what works for you! Everyone has a unique sense of style, and what’s more important than sticking with trends or expert advice is that you feel happy with who you are and how you look. Confidence comes from within, and it’s up to you to decide what makes you most confident. You might stick with sweatpants and hoodies every day, and while that undoubtedly makes me a little sad, (you don’t trust my fashion advice?) that’s valid nonetheless! No matter who you are or what you wear, I’m sure you’ll look wonderful this fall.

FALLING FOR FALL

Fall flavors of Hoboken

BY LIZ SEPULVEDA, CONTRIBUTOR It’s officially fall, meaning it’s time to fall in love with the autumn flavors of Hoboken. New to Hoboken or just not sure what to try this season? We’ve got you covered with a list of some local sites and bites that are sure to become the apple of your eye.

First up, pumpkin spice lattes — which there’s no shortage of in Hoboken. For a classic pumpkin spice latte, check out Bean Vault on Newark Street, which boasts plenty of classic roasts as well as a pumpkin spice latte just for the season. For another fan-favorite, stop by Washington Street’s bwè kafe and order the Fall Spice Latte (they’ve also got apple pie cold brew for any coffee fans not already rattled by the dropping temperatures). Don’t wait too long, though — bwè kafe is still serving its signature summer soft serve ice cream through September, and until the end of the month, you can get it with apple syrup for a taste of the best of both seasons (after all, the waffle cone was invented in Hoboken).

For a bit more variety, The Hive on Park Avenue has you covered with five fall-flavored drinks in addition to its weekend-only cinnamon buns, available through the fall season.

If you’re new to Hoboken, you may still be asking yourself where to find the best bagel. For followers of Hoboken’s bagel rivalry, O’ Bagel may have just climbed the ranks with their selection of fall-flavored bagels. Those with a sweet tooth will enjoy their seasonal apple cinnamon cream cheese, while those looking for something a little more savory should be sure to check out the Hayride, a pumpkin spice french toast bagel featuring the usual sausage, egg, and cheese, but with homemade apple butter and caramelized onions for an autumn twist.

Craving another type of sweet treat this fall? No need to stray too far from Washington Street — Old German Bakery is a fan-favorite for desserts like German apple pies and cherry crumb pies. And since you’re in Hoboken, drop

by Carlo’s Bakery, which is ready with its seasonal dessert selection of classic fall pies, fall-themed cakes, and autumnal cookies.

Hoboken has more to offer

PHOTO COURTESY OF CNN.COM

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED WITH A LIST OF SOME LOCAL SITES AND BITES THAT ARE SURE TO BECOME THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE than just food for the fall — for a show with your meal, check out the annual Hoboken Fall Arts and Music Festival which will be taking place on Sunday, October 1, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. In addition to musical performances by local bands and arts and crafts sales by local artists, the festival will feature food from various Hoboken favorites such as Anthony David’s, Choc-O-Pain French Bakery, JP’s Bagel Express, and Losurdo’s Italian Deli and Bakery, just to name a few. To get in on the action, stop by Washington Street between Observer Highway and 7th Street.

Of course, I can’t name every seasonal treat in Hoboken. There are plenty more great fall flavors hidden around the city that aren’t on this list. It’s up to you to go explore for your favorites. And when you do, don’t gatekeep — even the reporter needs recommendations sometimes.

6

Friday, September 29

Feature CSA welcomes students and brings the Mid-Autumn Festival to campus

BY TIANNA SPITZ, OPINION COLUMNIST On Tuesday, September 19, the Stevens Chinese Student Association (CSA) hosted the club’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF) in the UCC’s Techflex. Doors opened at 9:15 p.m., but more than 220 students filled the floor an hour earlier in anticipation of the night’s food and activities. CSA kicked off the first event of the semester by celebrating the Chinese holiday of the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, earlier than the official date which falls on September 29 this year.

Students enjoyed a buffet line of Chinese food and drinks followed by crafting activities based on traditional Chinese customs.

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebration holds more than 2,000 years of history as traditional Chinese agriculture originating in the Zhou Dynasty relied on the lunar phases to guide farming schedules.

The celebration of the autumn full moon surrounds worshiping the moon for “harvest-giving light” to usher in a bountiful harvest for the coming year, in which mooncakes were sacrificed as an offering and then eaten in celebration. The values and purpose of the MAF are compared to the U.S. Thanksgiving, as the Chinese holiday represents a time for family reunion and community gathering. Every year, Chinese communities come together surrounding a table of traditional dishes followed by the

lighting of paper lanterns into the night.

CSA’s Mid-Autumn Festival was a celebration of Chinese-American identity and captured the community sentiment for any students interested in exploring Chinese culture. At the doors, volunteers stood behind makeshift food stalls as an endless line of students snaked up the UCC staircase. Conversations from students in line could be heard commenting on recognizing their favorite Asian tea brand, only found at Asian markets north of Hoboken or across the Hudson, being served at the beverage table.

This year’s MAF continued an established CSA tradition, but President of CSA, Winnie Yu, a 3/4 Computer Science major, had her own interpretation to leave a welcoming impression. “The purpose of today’s event is introducing people to Chinese culture — letting them try some of the Chinese food, especially mooncake, and to bring a little bit of the holiday onto campus,” Yu explained.

The warmth of a family style dinner brought students together over fried dumplings and Calpico where they could unwind and socialize over a traditional meal that may even remind students of a taste of home. Sitting at a table surrounded by new faces, students bonded over shared household dishes, realizing that they hadn’t had Chinese food since moving in — “it’s been so long.” At the end of the buffet line, CSA provided ta-

bles for keychain making with clay mooncake molds and lantern decorating that fueled a competitive buzz to win tickets towards the night’s raffle prizes.

Plates were served and students stayed late into the night, but the e-board’s preparation for this relatively smaller CSA event began before the semester. MAF festivities had a price tag as Sabrina Vuong, 4/4 Quantitative Finance major and Co-Performance Chair on the e-board, stated that the Student Government Association (SGA) budget set aside for this event totaled to $2,000 in which $500 would not cover the cost of food alone. Vuong expressed the hectic but exciting urgency to buy supplies and complete tasks as the event date approached.

At the end of the night, students left with plates of leftovers and extra mooncake tins, Yu finished the last clean up tasks and took a step back to assess. As president, Yu’s preparation for MAF began over the summer in which she delegated tasks to the other e-board members. After the planning and responsibilities, Yu says, “I was really happy how it turned out because it’s the first event of the semester and it’s a lot of pressure to live up to the previous events. We had more people than last year so I was really excited to see that.” After MAF’s success, Yu and the E-Board set into preparation for Little China Town in mid October, CSA’s most anticipated event of the year.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALYSON ZHANG

Op-Ed: Is it lonely at the top?

BY NICK SMITH You may be familiar with the phrase, “it’s lonely at the top.”

This common phrase has roots back to the 15th century; “Uneasy lies the head of the crown” was scripted in Henry IV, Part 2, William Shakespeare’s play about the prominent English King. The concept of loneliness at the top is timeless and appears to be felt by leaders everywhere. From The President of the United States to the President of Harvard University, or to the CEO of Apple, many prominent leaders have expressed feelings of loneliness in their elevated positions of influence.

There’s no doubt that anecdotally, being in a leadership position can be isolating. Former US President Barack Obama explained that quickly, in his role as President, he felt a “crushing sense of personal responsibility.” Between finding trustworthy and loyal allies and feeling the blunt criticism of decisions you make, leadership can be a contributor to feeling alone.

Most recently, I heard the loneliness paradigm in a student leadership context and it begged the exploration of the question: is it really, lonely at the top?

MIT Sloan Management Review illustrated a beautiful narrative of the different social spaces life revolves around: personal private space, public space, and workspace. Personal space is for

friends and unconditional relationships. In contrast, public space is for those conditional relationships where value is exchanged for the relationship to stay afloat; we can call these relationships allies. Allies are colleagues, work partners, a boss, or a classmate.

The last type of relationship is the connection between friend and colleague. The Review referred to this relationship as “business relationships with people you enjoy being with.” These individuals are also referred to as “chums.”

While the term “chum” is by no means glamorous, chums live in the precarious space between the people we enjoy most and the people we must spend time with.

The intersection of the two breeds a vital combination for any leader’s success.

This past summer I had the privilege of being the Peer Leader Coordinator. It was a sizable leadership position which oversaw the Peer Leader team from a student’s eye. I had the pleasures and sorrows of being in a role of influence over other students and like any role you will make unpopular decisions that will upset parts of your group. I will say firsthand that it can be isolating to lead other students. But it doesn’t have to be.

The Kellogg School of Management researched and found the opposite; people placed in positions of power feel less lonely and more connected. What I found

even more interesting, however, was the fact that you do not even need to be in a position of power, you just need to perceive that you feel powerful: In a study done on 148 undergraduates, students were randomly assigned to a high-power, low-power, and control status group. Then, high-power students were asked to reflect in writing on a time they had power over others, and low-power students to reflect on a time they felt powerless. After their reflection, students were asked to rate interest in a campus service activity that would facilitate student friendships. Students influenced to feel temporarily powerless felt more of a need for social connection than those feeling powerful. I found this study particularly interesting because it demonstrates that students feeling powerful felt more connection and less of a need for social integration.

Leaders have unique access to more connections and feel a greater sense of belongingness if they leverage their opportunities.

We, as leaders, have the unique opportunity to turn our allies into chums. As the MIT Review said the art of the chum is “inviting business allies into your courtyard while keeping them out of your kitchen.” I’m not telling you to be friends with everyone but, we can make our work partners, fellow student leaders, and involved students our chums. On a college

campus we are so lucky to have a community to tap into and a place to make it all happen. Furthermore, with leaders having larger networks there are only more people to connect and chum with.

We student leaders all have the same goal; every student leader in some way believes they can make the experience better for other students that come after them.

Time and time again we prove the power of student leadership.

I wrote this article with a call for change: I strive for unity amongst both students and faculty — chums and allies alike. It’s time to end student-on-student conflict, and even worse, staff conflict that trickles down to the students. While my experiences with such conflicts are not firsthand, I have seen my peers and friends fall victim to this. This conflict speaks volume to the challenges some student leaders can face in their roles.

Earlier this year, I decided to run for President of the SGA with hopes of unifying our student body and campus leaders to foster an inclusive environment to inspire and establish the most engaged undergraduate body Stevens has ever seen. After seeing the highly motivated first-year class during orientation, now more than ever, we have an obligation to pave a path for emerging leaders and unify existing ones to empower inclusive contributions to our campus.

Over the past year I’ve heard of many student organizations having their fair share of conflict. This conflict bleeds into a polarized environment empowering some and kicking down others. It’s lonely at the top when we choose to ostracize and isolate members of our community for attempting the same goal, we all have: make a difference.

I recently read, “These are college students, and so many of them really haven’t experienced big opportunities to have power over others, but they’ve had plenty of opportunities to feel powerless.” Circling back to the study mentioned earlier, you just must feel empowered to reap the benefits of feeling connected in leadership.

These four years might be the first opportunity for students to embrace their first role of influence; the first opportunity to engage in something you find interesting; and the choice to defend a cause you stand for. At a University like Stevens, we are in such a position of power to have access to so many unique ways to become involved. We are not powerless; we can express our influence in ways that ripple out into our community in ways that have never been felt before. Every one of us is here to take part in something more lasting and significant than ourselves. Find your chums and change our community for the better.

7

Friday, September 29

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENSDUCKS.COM (SHOT BY MIKE MCLAUGHLIN)

Sports

Fall tennis season begins to wrap up

BY ABBY JACOBS, SPORTS WRITER Last weekend, Men’s Tennis attended the Haverford/Swarthmore Invitational. The first day, Saturday, September 23, saw three singles wins against NYU. Junior Sebastian Wroe secured a 6-0, 6-4 victory, which was Stevens’ first of the day. This was followed by winning performances from sophomore Max William-Kanz and junior Matt Luzzi, finishing 7-5, 6-2, and 6-4, 3-6 (11-9) respectively.

The next day, Sunday, September 24, two doubles teams, comprised of junior Aashi Kulakarni and junior Olof Persson, as well as junior Vivek Harinarayan and Wroe, won the Ducks two out of three of their matches against Franklin & Marshall College (F&M). The same day, singles saw further success against F&M with Harinarayan winning 7-5, 6-1, and first-year Samvid Andhare going 6-0, 6-2. Both Wroe and Kanz saw their second singles victories of the weekend with respective scores of 6-4, 6-2, and

6-0, 6-0.

The same weekend, first-year Alix Dry and sophomore Stephanie Untermeyer competed at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA’s) DIII Women’s Southeast Regional Championships for the Women’s Tennis team. On Saturday, Dry and Untermeyer picked up a win in doubles against Washington and Lee University of 8-5. This win was the first the program has earned at this championship draw for the region. In their singles matches, Dry beat a member of Swarthmore Col-

lege’s team 6-4, although later withdrew following her defeat by Johns Hopkins 1-6, 6-3. Untermeyer also played Washington and Lee where she faced a loss of 0-6, 3-6.

From Friday, September 29, to Sunday, October 1, Men’s Tennis will be participating in the ITA Atlantic South Region Championship in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which will close out their fall season. Women’s Tennis will end on Saturday, September 30, where they will face Stockton University on home courts.

Women’s soccer picks up their first win of season with a shutout

BY RUTHIE MULLISKY, SPORTS WRITER The Stevens women’s soccer team has had a slow start to the season, with the two most recent games being hard-fought losses against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and Montclair State University. This past Tuesday, the team won their first game after shutting out Farmingdale State in a non-conference match-up.

On September 20, the Ducks traveled to No. 20 ranked TCNJ to compete in a non-conference match, where they ultimately lost the match with a score of 0-4. This match brought the team’s record to 0-4-2. This game was decided by TCNJ’s strong offensive plays. They started off strong and added their first shot, one that hit the post, only 37 seconds into the game. They pushed this momentum throughout the game, and scored their first goal in the 14th minute of the game.

They continued this drive throughout the first half and scored two more goals to have a 3-0 lead going into the second

half. In the second half, Stevens made some noise against TCNJ when senior Claire Ganley took a shot which unfortunately hit the crossbar. Shortly after this, TCNJ would answer this with a fourth and final goal against the Ducks. On the defensive end, sophomore goalkeeper Kenny Donley made two saves and senior goalkeeper Dana Perry made one save.

After this loss, the Ducks traveled to No. 11 ranked Montclair State University on Sunday where they ultimately lost the non-conference game 0-2.

This is the second straight game where the Ducks have not found the back of the net.

This loss also ended the women’s soccer program’s three game winning streak against Montclair State University. In the first half, graduate student Rachel Rouse, senior Elsa Bley, and junior Abby Harris each took the opportunity to try a shot on goal, but none of them landed inside. At halftime, the score remained at 0-0. However, only minutes into the second half, Montclair was able to score two goals in three

minutes. To answer, Harris attempted another shot on goal, which was blocked by Montclair’s goalkeeper. Montclair kept their offensive momentum going and held the match at 2-0 for the remainder of the game. However, the Duck’s defense was worth noting, with Donley making seven saves as goalkeeper.

The team played Farmingdale State College on Tuesday, September 26. Against Farmingdale State, Stevens has won ten games and two of the most recent matches between them. The team was able to

add to the total of games won against Farmingdale, and shut out the team at a margin of 3-0.

Senior Amelia Rehrig scored two of the goals while senior Nina Burden added the third, which was more goals than the team had scored all season prior to this game.

Women’s Soccer’s next game will be an away game against FDU-Florham on Saturday, September 30. The team won their last game against FDU-Florham (4-1) on October 4, 2022.

ON DECK IN SPORTS FRI, SEPT 29 MEN’S TENNIS ITA Atlantic South Region Championship–Day 1 Fredericksburg, VA 8 a.m.

SAT, SEPT 30 FIELD HOCKEY Albright College Reading, PA 12 p.m.

MEN’S SOCCER FDU–Florham Madison, NJ 12 p.m.

MEN’S TENNIS ITA Atlantic South Region Championship–Day 2 Fredericksburg, VA 8 a.m.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL University of Mary Washington Salisbury, MD 1 p.m.

Salisbury University Salisbury, MD 3 p.m.

WOMEN’S SOCCER FDU–Florham Madison, NJ 3 p.m.

WOMEN’S TENNIS Stockton University Hoboken, NJ 11 a.m.

SUN, OCT 1 MEN’S TENNIS ITA Atlantic South Region Championship–Day 3 Fredericksburg, VA 8 a.m.

MON, OCT 2 MEN’S GOLF Royal Lakes Fall Invitational–Day 1 Flowery Branch, GA Time TBA

TUES, OCT 3

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENSDUCKS.COM (SHOT BY MIKE MCLAUGHLIN)

MEN’S GOLF Royal Lakes Fall Invitational–Day 1 Flowery Branch, GA Time TBA

STEVENS SCOREBOARD DATE

TEAM

WED, SEP 20 FIELD HOCKEY WOMEN'S SOCCER WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL FRI, SEP 22 WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL SAT, SEP 23 MEN'S TENNIS WOMEN'S TENNIS

SUN, SEP 24

TUE, SEP 26

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL FIELD HOCKEY WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEN'S SOCCER MEN'S TENNIS WOMEN'S TENNIS WOMEN'S SOCCER WOMEN'S SOCCER MEN'S SOCCER WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

OPPONENT

DREW UNIVERSITY THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY DELAWARE VALLEY UNIVERSITY ST. JOHN FISHER UNIVERSITY HAVERFORD INVITATIONAL–DAY 1 ITA ATLANTIC SOUTH REGION CHAMPIONSHIP–DAY 1 SUNY CORTLAND EASTERN UNIVERSITY WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER HAVERFORD INVITATIONAL–DAY 2 ITA ATLANTIC SOUTH REGION CHAMPIONSHIP–DAY 2 MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY FARMINGDALE STATE COLLEGE WIDENER UNIVERSITY FDU–FLORHAM

LOCATION

SCORE

AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY

W (4-0) L (0-4) W (3-0) L (1-3) COMPLETED COMPLETED

AWAY HOME AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY

L (1-3) W (8-0) W (3-0) T (0-0) COMPLETED COMPLETED

AWAY HOME AWAY HOME

L (0-2) W (3-0) L (2-3) W (3-0)

8

Friday, September 29

Science How ‘everyday forgetting’ helps researchers understand memory loss

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PICOWER INSTITUTE AT MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

BY RIYANA PHADKE, STAFF WRITER It is not uncommon for people to forget the name of the person they just met or what they had for lunch.

Forgetting information is a constant in life — it can be helpful for people who are coping with grief or need to let go of unapplicable knowledge.

Now, scientists are beginning to examine the idea that lapses in memory are not bad at all, but rather could be a key part of how the brain supports learning. Tomás Ryan of Trinity College Dublin and his colleagues, recently began examining the fundamental biology behind “everyday forgetting” and how it plays an active role in the brain’s ability to obtain and retain information.

It is important to understand that there is a distinction between “everyday forgetting” and other forms of forgetting. Amnesia is a type of forgetting that many people would agree is not beneficial to human function. “Everyday forgetting” can be defined as when someone does not have at hand the desired memories for the situation.

In their study, Ryan tested “everyday forgetting” in rodents. He trained them to associate an object (like a tube) with the room that they were in. Then, over the course of a few days or weeks, the mice were reevaluated. The mice were placed in front of two objects; one that they had been trained to associate with the environment, and one that they had not. While one would expect that the mice would only explore the object they had never seen before, this was not the case. The mice had forgotten the association and begun to explore both objects the same.

In another study, Ryan and his colleagues studied fear conditioning, where the rodents received a mild shock for a few seconds. No harm came to the animals when the shock was delivered. They found later during the reevaluation that the mice displayed a “freezing” behavior when

placed in the same environment, when they remembered the shock experience.

In an interview with Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas, Ryan was asked how these studies explained memory formation in the brain. He explained, “The brain is different before and after learning information.

That difference is accounted for by physical or chemical changes in the brain’s structure. We call a brain change that occurs during learning and that is required for memory an engram”.

An engram, or a memory trace, has transformed the memory and forgetting fields over the last decade due to the ability to label and manipulate engrams in rodent brains.

Engrams helped Ryan and his colleagues narrow down their research– they were able to look through billions of neurons and synapses in order to tag cells that were active while the rodent’s brains were forming memories during experiments.

Through the use of engram tags, the team was able to deduce that forgetting may be caused by competition between different memories. Therefore, forgetting is a form of learning and decision making because it forces the brain to decide with an engram to express in a given environment.

Tomás Ryan further explained that the memory loss, engram labeling, and learning can all be linked to trauma and dementia. When looking at amnesia and early Alzheimer’s in mice, the scientists found that they could stimulate the engrams of forgotten memories–causing the rodents to remember them.

This concept redefines dementia from a disease that causes memory loss to degraded engrams that trigger the natural process of forgetting too early in life. This could mean that memory loss could be reversible given the engrams are intact.

Ryan and his team continue to work with rodents to better determine how engrams can become the key to problems regarding memory loss and thinking in general.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF BRAINPOST.COM

Stevens professor develops algorithms to improve medical diagnosis

BY RAYNELIS VILLA, CONTRIBUTING REPORTER With the use of artificial intelligence tools rising, more people have become interested in using them to better our daily lives. However, the use of these tools could become even more significant than we expect. Stevens Professor Yu Gan is looking forward to developing algorithms that can help doctors accurately detect diseases and find patterns in medical data. As a result, there’s a positive outlook in using artificial intelligence to bring technological breakthroughs.

Gan’s journey began when he realized that people “could use algorithms to enhance images, unveil clinical info and improve people’s health and their quality of life.” He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Columbia University, and joined the University of Alabama as a faculty member before joining Stevens in the fall of 2022. Although his work has recently focused on the internal imaging of the heart’s arteries, Gan has been working with other professionals and his students to create deep learning algorithms that can each analyze specific medical images and assist in treating patients.

At Stevens’ McClean Hall, two imaging systems—a low-quality system, and a high-quality system—are being used along with a Lambda

GPU workstation to find detection patterns for healthy and unhealthy arteries. Stevens graduate students also help improve the algorithm that is analyzing the images to become more precise. The main focus of the software is for it to highlight artery clogging patterns that physicians would not usually pick up on. With these efforts, doctors would be able to back up their patients’ diagnoses and prevent any errors.

Additionally, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) has been receiving support from Gan’s lab to uncover the dynamics of cancer cells. This is done through the student team’s artificial intelligence software, which is able to analyze a collection of tumor cells. In fact, the lab’s Matlab program was used in the research center’s facilities for studying cell response in cancer cells. The program uses individual color channels to plot the intensity of images for processing. Favorably, such algorithms are accessible to the public and can help with other projects, while being privately funded and looking for more support.

Outside of the specialized medical fields, Gan hopes to bring an application that can be used regularly by smartphone users. The idea is to have an app that can evaluate food through a millimeter-wage image of it, while using the frequency of a 5G smartphone. Additionally, the project has received fund-

ing from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to proceed with it. This task would be inexpensive while bringing about new safety precautions when buying foods.

Currently, Gan and his team use microwave images of foods, but with more development, the Stevens researchers could possibly create a system that can help diagnose skin cancer.

Artificial intelligence tools have given researchers and students new opportunities to create technology that can change the way that people will see what is in front of them. The outlook of these tools is to give people new ways of examining things and tackle challenges while gaining new information. As expectations are for programs to be able to handle even larger quantities of data, present and previous knowledge can create more accurate standards of analysis.

Professor Yu Gan’s studies have demonstrated the unique implementation of machine learning, bringing about a research area that has not had much development. As a result, the Machine Learning in Biomedical Engineering graduate-level class was created at Stevens so more students can explore. As projects become more specialized, interconnectedness can be found between fields and broaden the possibilities of new ideas. As a result, there is great potential for more to be uncovered through new investigative methods.

Climate week NYC: How is the UN working to end the use of fossil fuels?

BY MEGHANA MAMADAPUR, STAFF WRITER Climate Week NYC is an annual climate event that took place from September 17-24, bringing together business leaders, civil society representatives, and policy change makers from around the world to drive climate action. This event is hosted by Climate Group, who aims to have a world of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and partners with the United Nations General Assembly.

Climate Week started with tens of thousands of protesters, calling for U.S. President Joe Biden to stop approving new oil and gas projects. Many protesters felt frustrated with Biden’s increased drilling for oil and fossil fuels overseas. New York’s 14th district Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, joined the protest to oppose the use of fossil fuels. Ocasio-Cortez rallied, “We have to send a message that some of us are going to be living on, on this planet 30, 40, 50 years from now. And we will not take no for an answer.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres assembled a new Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, September 20. He announced that only leaders from nations that have new and

meaningful action will be allowed to speak at the summit.

Some nations that were not given time on the podium include the U.S., China, India, and the UK. According to Guterres, the world is on the way to warming 2.8 degrees Celsius, or 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Guterres continued to call for faster cuts in heat-trapping emissions and helping poorer countries shift to renewable energy, as well as an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

The U.S. pledged $100 billion to helping poor countries deal with climate change, but has not done so.

During Climate Week NYC, many executive series were held including decarbonization, accelerating sustainability throughout the economy, and building trust with AI for an equitable future. Many new opportunities were discussed, including rearranging restrictive regulations and market barriers to allow corporations to invest in renewable energy. With increased investments, countries will be able to capitalize on solar energy and contribute to a greener environment.

Furthermore, the transportation necessary to move chemicals, concrete, steel, aluminum, copper, and glass contributes 30% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Climate Week

NYC featured a series on how to tackle the companies, regulators, supplies, and producers needed to ease a transition into open-source roadmaps and frameworks. This series proved that political and economic roadblocks make it difficult to implement clean energy initiatives. Many private companies are attempting to decarbonize in the next several years, but rising interest rates and supply chain issues make these actions difficult.

Many individuals have questioned the validity of this summit as a whole as key leaders were not present, including British prime minister Rishi Sunak. NYC Climate Week is also criticized for being a mixture of meetings as opposed to an actual conference. However, many leaders were able to discuss the latest developments and develop projections for the future.

The number of carbon dioxide emissions the world must reduce within the next seven years to reach the climate-fighting goal is 22 billion metric tons.

This is estimated to cost the world $4 trillion to $5 trillion each year. While the expense and efforts appear overwhelming, fighting climate change requires one step at a time to push global action.

INTERESTED IN SCIENCE JOURNALISM?Join our Science writing team!

Reach out to Erin McGee, Science Editor (emcgee@stevens.edu) for more information – No experience necessary to write • thestute.com/category/science –

9

Friday, September 29

Opinion THE STUTE EDITORIAL

Dear FutureMe, This weekend marks the infamous “birthday weekend,” a time when many of my friends and I celebrate another year around the sun. It seems like a strange coincidence that so many of us were conceived nine months ago around the holiday season — maybe a testament to the magic in the air during that time. However, beyond the festivities, turning 21 this Sunday holds special significance, and it’s a milestone that has me ref lecting on my journey through life thus far.

Over the years, I’ve grown to appreciate the importance of self-ref lection and self-improvement. Birthdays serve as natural checkpoints for this introspection, and they often spark a desire to set new goals and aspirations for the future — almost like a New Year’s resolution. I’ve found that taking the time to step back and acknowledge the current state of my identity helps me identify my strengths and weaknesses

and set realistic goals for the upcoming year.

In the past, I’ve written letters to my future self using futureme.org as a way to ref lect and document my experiences.

It started with writing letters every Thanksgiving and expanded to any time I felt like having an intimate conversation with my future self and telling them about my aspirations and the challenges I’ve faced. One year, I wrote about my hopes of getting into a competitive high school, and the next year, I was reading it as a student at that very school, facing an entirely different set of experiences. On another occasion, after an unfortunate online AP Chemistry exam in 2020, I wrote 2000+ words about my general experience and frustrations as a senior in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. I sent this letter to my future June 1, 2025 self, and I can’t wait to read this piece of my personal history.

This ritual of self-ref lection is

something I’ve noticed tends to intensify around these milestone moments like my birthdays, and I believe it’s a shared experience among many.

As I approach my 21st birthday, I’ve found parallels between these letters to my future self and the lessons I’ve learned during my college journey. Much like the letters, college has been a dynamic ride filled with unexpected twists and turns. It’s a time when personal growth is inevitable, and each year brings new challenges, goals, and perspectives.

Just as my younger self couldn’t have predicted the person I’ve become today, I’ve learned that uncertainty is a part of life, and it’s okay not to have all the answers right now. But it’s not just about facing challenges; it’s also about celebrating the moments of triumph, both big and small. Our birthdays, especially milestones like turning 21, are perfect opportunities for such celebrations. These moments

MIND OF A FRESHMAN

remind us of how far we’ve come and how much we’ve achieved.

I’m using this birthday weekend as an excuse to ref lect on a practice that has helped me stay grounded and maintain a forward sense of direction. I encourage anyone reading this to take the time to get to know themselves better. Embrace self-ref lection as a powerful tool for personal growth and consider documenting it in a letter to your future self. In a few years, you’ll be able to look back at the rawest version of yourself during this time and see how far you’ve come. Preserve this snapshot of your thoughts, dreams, and goals in a time capsule of your essence at this very moment. You’ll be amazed at how those words will resonate with you down the road, and who knows, they might just inspire your future adventures!

Isabella Ziv ‘25

Editor-in-Chief

SENIORITIS

Imposter syndrome

Finally 21: time to show get here. Stevens is no doubt “Is this cringy? What are peo- my ID without shame a challenging school, and we ple gonna think about this? Is

BY NICOLE CHEUNG ‘27 So there I was, sitting in MIS 110: Creative Problem Solving in Computing, learning my first coding language, when I had a sudden realization: “Why am I here?”

My whole life I’ve been at least decent at my academics, and I couldn’t help but feel so grossly unqualified to be here.

Yeah, I got into Stevens, but maybe it’s just because they needed more women, more business students, or more minorities?

For my entire senior year of high school, I wanted to continue my college education by pursuing a degree in graphic design. I wanted to follow my passions for once in my life. Yet here I am as a business major, confused and trying to learn Python.

In high school, we all strive to get into the best college possible and further our careers, but no one talks about what happens when you actually

are all held to a high standard.

It’s so jarring when suddenly, everyone seems better than you, smarter than you, and more involved than you. As overachievers, I feel that many of us can understand that the fear of not doing something “the best” will hold us back from doing anything at all.

The idea of, “If I’m not going to be an active member, go to all the meetings for this club, then eventually get an e-board position, why would I even join the club in the first place?” We all know the feeling of joining any and every academic club in high school and fiending for coveted board positions so we can brag about it to colleges. This is a whole other ball game.

We, fresh out of high school, must remember that we deserve to have fun, to be happy, and to enjoy our time here, not because it’s going to end in a six-figure job offering, but just because. It would be a really sad existence if the entirety of our youth was spent climbing to the top of the corporate ladder.

Every time I write an article for the Stute, I can’t believe that my words are getting published and that maybe a couple of people are reading about my struggles. I always have multiple friends read my work while constantly asking,

this even relatable?” The first time I saw my name and picture printed out, as lame as it sounds, I was so incredibly happy and couldn’t help but tell people about it.

I personally felt like I’ve gotten “carried” through multiple assignments and am constantly in awe of how everyone around me knows so much.

But when my brain tells me that I’m not good enough to be here, I remind myself that we are all here to learn and grow.

It’s a school! If everyone knew everything, why would they be here?

Everyone here will inevitably feel like they’re the only ones who don’t understand what their professor is saying, cry at their desk over homework, or call their parents asking if it’s the right idea to switch majors. I write to tell you this: you are not alone in these feelings. Celebrate seemingly small successes like writing your first code or finally going to the writing center for help. These will eventually snowball into bigger wins and then you’re on your way!

Although it may seem cliche, I live by these words: If you’re the smartest in the room, you’re not in the right room. Stevens is a decently sized room, but remember that you belong here, and you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.

BY ETHAN KLESCHINSKY ‘24 Part of being a senior in college is that your 21st birthday is likely about to happen or has already passed. For me, I turned 21 in August, so I came back to Hoboken with a fresh new ID, ready to take the world by storm. Back on campus, ready to hang out with all of my friends who have been waiting months for me to be able to have a drink with them, I was excited. So I walked into a liquor store, put my pack of bud lights on the counter, and checked out.

The only issue was they never asked for my ID. I strolled out of the store slightly disappointed, but sure it was just a fluke, a one-time mishap, so I moved on ready to be ID’d the next time with my head held high. Then a week later, as a newly-of-age college student would, I headed back to the liquor store with the de-

COMIC CORNER

BY LIZ SEPULVEDA

termination to show off my ID. I went to a store that was known for asking for ID and was confident. The people in front of me were asked for their IDs and left with their heads hung low, so I stepped up to the counter once again with a look of determination, checked out, and left the store without being asked any questions other than “how are you?” I was defeated! The nail in the coffin for me was when I left a liquor store and the people that got turned away from buying, likely first-year Stevens students (oh boy) asked me if I could buy them alcohol. That was crazy, and I had to think to myself, where did the time go?

I feel old (I probably need a beer), and I think that will likely be a running theme of my column during my tenure writing senioritis for The Stute. But I cannot get over it! I remember my first year at Stevens, everyone was locked away in their room over fear of COVID. I felt like I wasted my first year, always sitting around doing nothing, or wasting my time with people that did not feel like my crowd. Granted, I had the excuse that I was not allowed outside, but it still felt miserable. So I remember making the goal of going out and do-

ing things once I was allowed to, which happened to be my sophomore year of school.

This technically felt like my first “real” year of college, I was able to go out, and everything felt better. I guess the goal of senioritis is for me to give out advice to those younger than me who may be in need of it. So, I guess for this week, my advice is to be spontaneous, go out, and enjoy yourself when you can because eventually you will feel sluggish and tired and likely not want to go out. Make the most of it while it counts!

Being 21 is weird, I feel like I have all the options in the world of what to do, especially given the location of Stevens. Yet, I prefer to stay local, and just hang out with my close friends. The burden of options can be overwhelming, so I recommend taking a leap of faith and trying new things when you can. Even in my old, decrepit state, I think I need to be more willing to do that sometimes. Make your first couple of weeks of the semester count, whether it is your first or sixth year, it is never too late to start anew. I am going to spend these next few weeks trying to get outside of my comfort zone because I guess we can all learn things from my vast wisdom.

10

Friday, September 29

Opinion BOOK OF THE WEEK

Station Eleven confronts the edge of humanity

BY TIANNA SPITZ ‘27 “Survival is insufficient.”

Station Eleven, Emily St. Mandel’s 2014 dystopian novel, followed by the HBO series released in 2021, is a case study on how people change, perpetuate, and internalize the art they love. Based in a post-apocalyptic world after the “Georgian Flu” pandemic, a fictitious strain of the swine flu that wiped out 99% of the population, survivors form sparse and distrusting societies across the Great Lakes region of North America, formerly the US. Mandel’s novel follows an eerily familiar timeline orbiting life pre and post-pandemic, in which “Year 0” marks ground zero of the outbreak and observing twenty years after. Society undergoes a “new normal” as Mandel’s end-time novel fills your head with ‘what ifs’ violently adjacent to our COVID-19 reality to underscore what is integral to carrying on from the perspective of the ones left behind.

Mandel’s style reads like a cautionary tale as her omniscient narration dutifully witnesses the initial panic to contain the flu to a dwindled society after the flu ravishes and the dust begins to settle.

Pre-pandemic, the protagonist, eight-year-old Kirsten Raymonde, is acting in her first production of King Lear.

Post-pandemic, we find her again as she continues to put on Shakespearean plays as a rugged actor belonging to the Traveling Symphony, a performing troupe that travels between towns. In a postworld, pandemic survivors

crave art in all forms, even internalizing the message, the escapism of a narrative, as salvation. Traveling Symphony bears the Star Trek slogan “Survival is insufficient,” in which Mandel equates the arts with the air we live and breathe, even more as a vehicle of cultural immortality.

A society stripped of systems of modern life holds reverence for Beethoven, scavenging for weapons alongside materials to repair classical string instruments, as a member of the Symphony believes that “People want what was best about the world.” Kirsten’s childhood is shaped by the Symphony’s influence until she becomes a Shakespearean actor who relies on knife tattoos on her forearm to remember each of her kills. The art that saved Kirsten from the chaos of the outbreak jeopardizes the nomadic troupe as the novel’s name is called back to a prophetic comic called “Station Eleven,” which ignites an occult following. The Prophet, the antagonist Tyler Leander,

challenges Kirsten’s lifeline in The Symphony as he leads a child army to hunt down The Symphony and all remnants of the past under the guise of the outbreak’s divine revelation. Art intertwines protagonist to antagonist as Kirsten preserves the expression of grief for a lost world through the relics of a pre-pandemic comic and theater. For Kirsten, the comic’s lines echo throughout the plot; “I remember damage,” “I don’t want to live the wrong life and then die,” as she holds art as a talisman to find a new future.

In a social landscape flattened by the chaos of the flu, Mandel asks us what prevails and what is truly necessary for people to live and not just survive. The focus surrounding the arts is the heartbeat of the novel and offers a philosophical statement on the immortality of art. Mandel commits a post-apocalyptic death of an author as a means to bind communication and expression of the arts directly to human intimacy in a society searching for obsolescence.

BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE ‘26 As we head through this journey together to unmask the mysteries of autism, we are learning the way of life for some people. However, we have yet to explore the simple day-to-day life of an individual with autism.

Although we discussed autistic masking, that is a tiny part of living with autism. Today, we explore the basics of what it is like to have autism.

Before we start, living with autism is a very individualistic topic. People with autism experience their symptoms and live their lives as they do. The following are my experiences (sometimes slightly simplified for writing sake).

The simplest way to describe living with autism would be to describe it as an exchange: I gained some things but lost others. As discussed in earlier editions of this column, one trait of autism is a decrease in social skills.

Regarding this exchange, I remember anecdotal de-

tails about people — like specific interactions with them or personal information. However, I am generally pretty awful at remembering basic details like names. What this looks like I might know someone and specifically that the first time I met them, they were wearing a white shirt with green pants, but introduced me to someone new and asked me for their name five minutes later — I’d be completely helpless.

Another example from the social realm is social cues. Social cues are the unspoken hints, signals, and communication that help others. Sometimes, individuals with autism can misunderstand, misuse, or completely miss the use of social cues. For me, this could be not understanding what people mean in their conversations with me, not empathizing with their emotions, or even having no clue what they are saying.

What this could look like in day-to-day life, at least for me, typically includes not understanding a specific sarcastic phrase or having trouble telling if an individual is sad, mad, happy, tired, or mixed emotions.

However, while there are challenges to having autism, there are also many benefits — fitting into that exchange of skills mentioned above.

Although I may not un-

derstand a social conversation, I have a knack for understanding history; it simply plays in my head like a movie. The same is true for reading, where I can speed read because my brain plays merely the book as a movie with the words being captions.

Interestingly, and unsurprisingly, there is a realm of autistic traits that are neither good nor bad, and sometimes both.

One that stands out in my mind is routines, sleep, and workload. I can take on a near-infinite amount of tasks and never miss a beat. I don’t need sleep as long as my jobs keep me busy. On the contrary, if I lack activities, I can quickly spiral into a slump. It then becomes challenging to start a task at all, never mind the large amount of responsibilities I love to take on.

This is a small glimpse into my life with autism, but of course, this is not true for everyone with autism. Some people could share similarities, while others can be completely different; that is important to remember, especially as there are many stereotypes of what autism is, which will be the topic of the next edition of this column as we continue to unmask the mysterious autism.

Booby traps set in Stevens to ward off potential dangers

BY OFF CENTER

GIRL(ISH) TALK

My journey from an all-girls school to an all-boys school

In high school, I attended an all-girl’s school. I decided to go there because standardized education wasn’t working out for me at all, and I needed a change. Although I went to the school for mainly academic reasons, the social setting ended up impacting me much more than the classes ever did.

Going in, people would say things like “I bet there’s gonna be a lot of drama” or how all the girls would probably be boy crazy. Despite their warnings, I found that all girls’ education was nearly the opposite of everyone’s expectations.

The girls (at least in my grade) were pretty drama adverse.

There was some drama be-

The exchange: everyday life with autism

OFF THE PRESS

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM

BY CLAIRE HANNAN ‘24

UNMASKING: AN AUTISM STORY

cause we were teenagers, but as a whole, I found that my classmates and I were more interested in getting through the day than making each other miserable. We were definitely having an easier time than my friends at co-ed schools. Overall, high school was quite a positive experience, and I think a lot of that had to do with the all-girls aspect. Studies have shown that all girls’ education leads girls to develop higher education goals and greater academic confidence. I definitely started off lacking confidence, especially in academics. Over my four years in high school, I saw a huge change in myself, and it wasn’t a coincidence. In co-ed environments, teachers are biased to give boys more attention, both positive and negative, and to call on boys more frequently, challenging them to learn more. This bias only increases in math and science classes where male students are expected to thrive.

At my high school, girls were the only ones around. If we didn’t talk, it was silent. If we didn’t do something, it didn’t get done. We were forced to be more than just note takers for the first time.

I didn’t really understand how much my high school education impacted me until I got to college. I knew I wanted to be an engineer, and Stevens was the best school on my list for my goals, but I also knew that the switch from all girls to 70% male would be jarring.

It’s hard to explain what being the only girl in an academic setting feels like, and it’s even harder to prepare yourself for.

I know that I definitely lost a lot of the confidence that I had found just a few years ago.

Especially at first, I found it impossible to get a word in during class discussions, and I always had this looming feeling something was definitely different. I’m not a psychologist, though, I’m just a girl, so I’m not here to tell you exactly what it is that I struggle with in male-dominated spaces.

All I know is that I’m adapting, and I’m going to have to keep adapting for my whole engineering career. I have to remind myself to be more than just a notetaker and organizer in group projects, and I know that I should try to take classes with female professors because it always motivates me to do better. Maybe someday, that feeling will go away.

Recently, there has been an increase in worsening test scores all throughout Stevens.

The average GPA of all students is plummeting faster than a dime off the Empire State Building.

As a result, more people have been going away from Stevens to other colleges. What is causing this? Though it is rumored to be caused by the general laziness and lack of accountability of the students, this rumor is false because it has been scientifically proven by renowned human biologist and behavior analyst Dr. Thomas Albert Edistein that any student that studies at Stevens is immune to any sense of laziness or bad behavior.

So, what is really making all the test scores drop in Stevens?

Recent observations on hi-tech security cameras reveal the answer.

There have been various spies sneaking over to the various water fountains to add a substance called Kayko, which is designed to reduce the intelligence of students who are trying to study diligently. Every single water fountain on the campus, from Castle Point to Gateway North and Gateway South, is routinely tampered with

by Kayko in order for students to succumb to such a lack of intelligence.

Thankfully, the water

always reverts back to normal after a while, so the water fountains aren’t completely infected.

However, the spies keep coming back again and again to try to routinely add Kayko to the water fountains. Who are these spies, and why are they adding Kayko?

Luckily, further investigation from following the spies leads to discovering that they originate from other colleges in New Jersey, such as Princeton, Rutgers, NJIT, Montclair, TCNJ, and many others.

Secret recordings of the conversations of the spies reveal that the motivation behind these infestations is to prevent Stevens students from performing better than these other colleges. Most of these colleges are envious that Stevens students are performing well and causing them to get ranked high in New Jersey colleges, and even Princeton is afraid that Stevens might replace it as an Ivy League college. So, the other New Jersey colleges ended up working together to concoct a special kind of serum to lower the intelligence of successful students and trying to distribute it all throughout Stevens to put their plan into effect.

To counter this, Stevens has been creating several booby traps to prevent all kinds of spies from entering on campus. Whenever a non-Stevens person enters a building, an alarm

is sounded before a trapdoor is revealed, causing the person to fall before the person gets hit with pies, sprayed with seltzer water, and then shot out of a non-fatal cannon back to the Hoboken train station. To differentiate between someone from Stevens and someone not from Stevens, sensors try to detect the smell of the sweat of the person as Dr. Edistein states that the sweat of a person from Stevens is biologically different from that of someone not from Stevens. In addition, several robotic lantern f lies will f ly around Stevens to detect any potential spies.

If a spy is spotted, then the robotic lantern f ly is going to excrete some oil, causing the spy to slide all the way over to the Hoboken train station. In addition, f loor tiles are built to blow spies high into the air away from Stevens when they are stepped on. To prevent any fatal accidents, there is a designated soft landing spot the spies fall on near the Hoboken train station that also accounts for changes in the wind.

Though the inclusion of spies may sound scary, Stevens has created foolproof plans to prevent the spies from carrying out their wicked plans.

Through careful planning, we can proudly maintain our academic integrity at Stevens.

11

Friday, September 29

Opinion ADVICE FOR BROKE COLLEGE STUDENTS

The ups and downs of getting a job

BY HIMA THUMMALA ‘23 The constant (but relatable) cycle of wanting to buy the next best thing is a tricky one to break. Now, it doesn’t always have to be broken because if you want something, can afford it, and think it’s a worthwhile investment, you should go for it! But… that is not the

case for everyone. It usually ends up going more like wanting something, checking your bank account, and then not buying it, or buying it then ending up regretting it after checking your finances. Now, this predicament could be ideally tackled one of two ways. Number one, find a way to not spend money on what you cannot afford and don’t feel bad if you don’t buy what you want or, number two, get a job.

The dreaded words, “Get. A. Job.” can be very unmotivating since it can seem like a lot of work. But it doesn’t have to be. Well, it will be work, but it doesn’t need to be “dreadful” and “unmotivating,” but rather a really fun time where you can

meet new people and/or be doing something you enjoy.

It doesn’t need to be complicated, just something that gives a state of being where you enjoy what you do. You may see people around you working at internships in the field of their major or working campus jobs to help out Stevens. These are both very useful jobs, but they don’t have to be this complex. Sometimes, you can just scoop ice cream at a local ice cream shop, be the person who hands out fragrance samples at a perfume store, or be a cashier at a store on Washington Street — there are so many options to choose from.

The main issue that arises from people wanting to

get a job is the stress that comes with time. Especially being a college student, classes are a constant responsibility while also trying to maintain a good standing in extracurricular activities. So adding a whole job on top of that is definitely not the most ideal thing. But it is not impossible. Many people are juggling their academics with their part-time jobs, and the key is managing their time.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to pull out your planner and create color-coded time sections of when and what you are going to be doing every second (even though it could be VERY helpful in a situation like this), it does mean that it would be good

to make sure that you are blocking off time for certain tasks. This will ensure that you will not overlap your timings and overwork yourself(since it is important to schedule in time to relax as well). If you don’t plan time to relax, which could be watching a movie, hanging out with friends/family, or even just taking a nap, it is going to make your academic-working scheduling a whole lot more stressful than it has to be.

It is also crucial to not take a job if you do not think you can do it. If it is just too much to add to your plate, leaving you no spare time to do what you enjoy, it is not worth it. Trying to be able to buy the latest product

could be a good reward, but if it costs you your peace, it will be counterproductive and result in more stress and less relaxation. A job is something that should add to you as an individual as a career can help you grow, and not just financially. One could become better with people skills after having to work in customer service or become more organized after learning how to properly stock shelves, and know how to be more productive after getting to know the people at their work and seeing how they maintain a healthy balance in their life when it comes to their career schedule.

STEVENS’ CHEFS RECIPE CARDS

Slow-cook bolognese, a test of patience

BY KAYDEN CANNILLA ‘24 Three years ago, I cut almost all dairy out of my diet, greatly disappointing my Italian family. With some minor tweaks to my father’s recipe, bolognese was spared from the culling. Bolognese is a classic Italian dish with only a few absolutely necessary components, the most important being time. This dish is perfect for a lazy Sunday; take the offhands time to relax or set yourself up for a busy week, knowing you’ve got several meals in the works in the background.

Cooking all in one pot and letting the tomatoes stew for 90+ minutes is crucial to getting good flavor. A thickwalled, stainless steel pot will

hold heat better than aluminum, which may give better results for a long stewing dish like this. Once again, don’t be too concerned about measurements: focus on smell, texture, and your ingredient availability and preferences. I start with one onion and then try to add approximately equal parts of vegetables and meat. Cutting the vegetables small is also useful; the carrots will soften but not change size significantly and despite the high water content of celery, the fibers keep their size as well. Smaller vegetables allow for a very cohesive sauce; use a coarse chop on a food processor if it is available to you.

KAYDEN CANNILLA FOR THE STUTE

FROM SOUQS TO SCHOOLS

A taste of home

BY RACHEL ABRAHAM ‘26 I’m a first-generation Arab student. Given that many of us are here, I was excited to head to Stevens during my freshman year.

Had a hard time meeting them, though (they’re all studying practical subjects: finance, engineering, and computer science.

I study philosophy, so obviously, we did NOT cross paths). I met a few along the way, though, and it certainly helped Stevens feel more at home.

Intrigued by the famed “Halal Stall,” a beacon of hope promising falafel, shawarma, and hummus, I was ready for a taste of home that wouldn’t involve driving to Paterson.

To clear up any freshman confusion, the Halal Stall was supposedly a culinary oasis catering to our

f lavor needs (or at least I made it out to be that way, which is entirely my fault).

It sucked. You could call it a hate crime (I am being dramatic). This discovery was almost as alarming as my encounter with chocolate hummus.

Nonetheless, I just had to let them know when a survey came out about Stevens dining. And I did.

Here’s some of the essay I wrote: “...I am not sure why these absurd concoctions are being portrayed as healthy alternatives (because they are simply not). Also, why are we using Greek bread when we are serving shawarma and falafel? We’re also serving zucchini noodles with these protein options? If you want a healthier alternative base, just use bulgur. There is not a single Middle Eastern restaurant that would put feta cheese, red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and diced jalapenos in these dishes…. If the chicken was properly seasoned there would be no need for all these extra toppings, or for the meals to be drenched in

sauce. I’m not sure who is in charge of the restaurant, but PLEASE get an Arab in there. I promise it would be a hit if it was done properly.”

Now it’s gone. And I’m the reason why. I’m kidding, but thankfully, no freshman will ever have to settle on zucchini noodles with shawarma for their late-night munchies.

Luckily for me, I found (another) beacon of hope.

If you’re ever walking down Washington, try out Ali Baba. A bit of mint chai and hummus always hits the spot. Or Mamoun’s Falafel; they always play George Wassouf in there, which sets the vibe.

While the quest for a safe haven might be excruciatingly long, I found that individual encounters were far more impactful. Ethnic and religious differences aside for a moment, there’s something magical about bonding with people who share the same struggle.

The truth is, speaking my mother tongue with a stranger was more therapeutic than a yummy shawarma will ever be (unless it’s from Beirut).

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Friday, September 29

Campus Pulse

Jocelyn Mo ‘27 “I’m an umbrella person. Coats are too bulky.”

Luca Scala ‘26

“Walking up the hill with an umbrella here is dangerous so I stick to a coat.”

Jake Porco ‘25 “Coat, I am too lazy to carry an umbrella.”

ROVING REPORTER

By Rafael Lee Li and Mia Petrolino

“Umbrella because Mary Poppins Stevens version.”

“Are you a coat or umbrella person?”

Maya Patel ‘27

Bryan Onody ‘24

Justin Chen ‘26

“Coat person. Umbrellas are useless on this campus and I’ve had bad luck with umbrellas.”

“Coat. Umbrellas are mad extra.”

LAST WEEK’S CROSSWORD ANSWERS:

Matthew Hartzler ‘25 “Umbrella so I don’t get my good coats wet.”

Samantha York ‘27

“Depends on the day. I’m usually too lazy to take my umbrella out of my bag.”

Sudoku Very Hard Puzzle: 0.87 difficulty