[The Stute] October 8, 2021 (Issue 6, CXIX)

wait this midterm isn’t online??

The Stute

The student newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of Attila the Duck. www.thestute.com Instagram @thestute facebook.com/stevensthestute

We write Stevens history

VOLUME CXIX No. 6

HOBOKEN, NJ | OCTOBER 8, 2021

NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904

Meet the student government

MAYOR committee heads BHALLA its usage by campus UP FOR

BY LEIGHA TIERNEY courage organizations, stating “UtiStaff Writer lizing DuckLink properly is RE-ELECTION

BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM

Editor Emeritus Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla is running for re-election, and possibly for the first time in the mile-square city’s history, the mayor will be running unopposed. The November 2 election includes elections for other local and state offices, including Governor, State Senate, State Assembly, Hoboken City Council, and Hoboken Board of Education.

According to local news site Patch.com, an uncontested mayoral election is unprecedented in Hoboken politics. In past elections, as many as six candidates ran for Hoboken Mayor.

“I’m glad to share the

SEE BHALLA PAGE 3 OLOF PERSSON FOR THE STUTE

The Student Government Association (SGA) of Stevens is a campus organization tasked with representing the undergraduate student body and promoting the rights and concerns of undergraduate students.

Within the SGA there are seven committees, each governed by a committee head.

After extensive membership and leadership changes during the pandemic, the committee heads spoke on what they’re hoping to accomplish while they serve in their positions.

The Committee on Student Interests is headed by committee chair Gabriella Poska, who is also the Vice President of Student Interests (VPSI) on the SGA Cabinet. According to Poska, the purpose of the committee is to bridge the gap between student organizations at Stevens and SGA officials, such as herself and the Vice President of Finance, Victoria Agaliotis. It is also typically run by the VPSI and the heads of 11 subcommittees. However, there are currently vacancies for the heads of the Special Interests, Electronics and Gaming, Professional, Religious, Club Sports, and Recreation subcommittees. Poska stated that one of her goals as the head of the Committee on Student Interests was to update DuckLink and en-

extremely important for organizations, probably more important than they realize. It is not only the place where students can learn about your organization, but it is also linked in the background to Corq, where all events are easily listed for all students to see, so it can help a great amount with involvement.” Poska is also taking the initiative to start hosting “mini-Flock Parties,” in which student organizations could be re-introduced to the student body in smaller events broken down by subcommittee governance.

The Campus Wellness Committee is chaired by Benjamin Singleton. The committee was recently formed by the merging of the former Campus Life Committee and Health and Wellness Committee. According to Singleton, the two committees often had “overlapping goals, which were improving the physical campus and improving the mental health of [students], which [...] are often not mutually exclusive.” Singleton became the chair after former chair Liana Meyer became President of the SGA and Singleton was subsequently nominated and elected by the Senate for the position. One of Singleton’s goals as the head of the

SEE SGA PAGE 2

JORDYN RAMELLI FOR THE STUTE

INITIATIVES ABANDONED Rename GFH efforts stop after administration response

BY JOANA FARDAD Webmaster

This past summer, students pushed again for the renaming of Gianforte Family Hall (GFH), an initiative that has been of student concern since the naming of the building was announced in 2017.

Initiatives this summer were spearheaded by the Diversity and Inclusion Committee (DNI) of the Student Government Association (SGA) which included signing a petition and a student organization pledge to boycott the building by abstaining from holding club meetings in GFH

Shaya Morgan begins as newly hired Student Life Coordinator

BY DIEM TRINH

Contributing Reporter

The third floor of the Howe Center will be undergoing a renovation from October 4 to December 23 of this year, the Stevens Division of Facilities and Campus Operations recently announced. The renovation will allow for the new permanent location of the Stevens Technical En-

richment Program (STEP).

According to an email announcement sent to all Stevens students, work will occur between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and occasionally outside those hours. Stevens has advised that the construction area will be inaccessible for the duration of the project and that construction will create “moderate noise disruptions.” The Operations Department said that it intends to minimize

the effect of these disruptions and that areas of the third floor not undergoing renovation will remain accessible.

STEP was created in 1968 by a group of Stevens undergraduates and faculty members to “expand access to engineering and science for minorities,” according to the Stevens webpage for the program. It currently aims to “help increase the

On September 13, Shaya Morgan joined the Stevens community as a new coordinator of the Office of Undergraduate Student Life. She was born and raised in Florida but has been active in New York for the past three years.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s degree in Higher Education Student Affairs from New York University. Her background is founded in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs/training in addition to leadership studies.

Because of her background, Morgan aims to create inclusive and equitable spaces for students.

With her new role at Stevens, Morgan hopes to support the students and allow students to express their authentic selves and become

SEE STEP PAGE 3

SEE SHAYA PAGE 4

NEWS (2)

NEWS (4)

OPINION (8-11)

Read more about the SGA Committee Heads

14 things to do next week on campus

NEWS (3)

FEATURES (5)

Read more about the upcoming Hoboken election, renovations to the STEP office, and the Men’s Tennis Team win

Hoboken Arts & Music Festival returns to Washington Street “Similar to previous years, the festival was from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m...”

The Stute Editorial Mind of a Freshman Senioritis Second-Year Freshman The Conversation Off The Press Passion for Fashion

CAROLINE MONTANA FOR THE STUTE

STEP office moving to permanent home on third floor Howe

BY BEN KNOBLOCH Contributing Reporter

PULSE (12)

Roving Reporter

rooms.

Leftover initiatives planned over the summer, which included organizing an alumni pledge to refrain from donating until the name is changed, outreach to the Hoboken city council, and writing a proposal to administration in September 2021, have been abandoned.

Julieann Murphy, Vice President of Operations of the SGA, explained that “Over the summer, Liana Meyer [SGA President], Vivian Touch [Chairperson of DNI], Nasir Montalvo ‘21 [founder of DNI] and I had conversations with several entities of Stevens faculty and administration [...]

as well as organizations outside of these conversations through a petition and boycott.” The petition aroused attention from students, resulting in 1,290 signatures while the building boycott resulted in 55 pledges from student organizations.

According to Connor Mills, the Sexuality Advocate of DNI, enthusiasm for the student organization pledge to boycott the building has diminished, as many clubs continue to use the building for meetings.

After The Stute published a response on June 22 from

SEE GFH PAGE 2

Stevens Men’s Tennis wins big at MAC Individual Tournament and TCNJ Invitational

BY CAROLINE MONTANA Head Photographer On September 18 and 19, the Stevens Men’s Tennis team competed in the MAC Individual Championship in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and claimed 10 of the 11 available titles. This remarkable outcome at the two-day tournament marked Stevens’ second time attending the event.

Since the 2019-2020 season, the team has managed to win 21 of the 22 men’s tennis individual titles. Maintaining this track record has the team off

to a fantastic start in their Fall 2021 season.

In Singles, the score consists of two sets. A third super tie-break is added if the result of the first two sets is (1-1).

In Doubles, the first team to eight games wins the match.

Competing in the Singles tournament, ranked from No. 1 to No. 6, were Vivek Harinarayan (6-3, 6-4), Matthew Luzzi (6-0, 6-1), Sebastian Wroe (6-2, 7-5), Andrew He (6-1, 6-2), Olof Persson (7-6 (7-1), 6-0), Eloi Pradier (3-6, 6-2, 8-10), and Brian Li (7-6 (10-8), 2-6, 10-6). In the

SEE TENNIS PAGE 3 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MENS TENNIS TEAM

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Friday, October 8

News Masthead Volume CXIX No. 6 Executive Board EDITOR-IN-CHIEF......................................................................NATALIE TODARO ‘22 BUSINESS MANAGER................................................................JORDYN RAMELLI ‘23 MANAGING EDITOR....................................................................SANJANA MADHU ‘23 LAYOUT EDITOR.................................................................................KEENAN YATES ‘24 OUTREACH CHAIR................................................................GIANNA CALLEGARI ‘24 DIGITAL MANAGER...........................................................................BEMIN SHAKER ‘23 SECRETARY.........................................................................ZANE THUMMBORST ‘23

GFH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 administration on if renaming the building was possible, Murphy admitted, “it became apparent that there is some sort of legal agreement that does not allow the building to be renamed [...] We are still unclear on why information about this legal agreement was not revealed to the students who inquired about it in April 2017, nor in August 2019, nor at the protest in December 2019.”

The information about a possible

Editorial Board NEWS EDITOR...........................................................................TREVOR DAMEIKA ‘23 SCIENCE EDITOR..................................................................RAYNA INDELICATO ‘23 OPINION EDITOR...................................................................ROSHNI REVANKAR ‘22 HEAD COPY EDITOR.............................................................GIANNA CALLEGARI ‘24

Operations Board HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER....................................................CAROLINE MONTANA ‘22 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER........................................................VANESSA HUERTA ‘23 WEBMASTER....................................................................................JOANA FARDAD ‘22

Staff & Contributors Arianna Gehan Ben Knobloch Caroline Montana Diem Trinh Emma Tong Estefania DeCaires Ethan Che Grace Miguel Jackson Hudgins Jessica Wu Joana Fardad Jo-Anne Rivera

Lauren Garrett Leigha Tierney Matthew Brantl Matthew Cunningham Melissa Kosar Olof Persson Peter White Pooja Rajadurai Rafael Lee Li Tasha Khosla Winston Lee

Contact Us GENRAL EMAIL.............................................................EBOARD@THESTUTE.COM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF..........................................................EDITOR@THESTUTE.COM ADVERTISING............................................................BUSINESS@THESTUTE.COM OFFICE................................................................STUDENT CENTER ROOM #302

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SGA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Campus-Wellness Committee is to increase transparency between the SGA and the student body by utilizing events such as Cookies with the Cabinet and initiatives such as working on an SGA newsletter coordinated with the Public Relations Committee. Singleton also stated that he would like to undertake initiatives to improve the physical campus, such as improving campus furniture, increasing the number of available bike racks, and utilizing screens in campus buildings to promote student events and organizations.

Notably, one of Singleton’s goals also includes collaborating with the Academic Affairs Committee to streamline the process to allow for Mental Health First Aid training programs to be taken for physical education credit at Stevens.

The Public Relations Committee of the SGA is led by Paulina Georgoutsos. According to Georgoutsos, the main focus of the Public Relations Committee is to promote SGA events and initiatives both on campus and on social media, primarily through the Instagram account @stevens_sga.

As stated by Georgoutsos, “as the prior chair wanted to step down I knew I wanted to take on a greater role in the SGA, so I felt this was my perfect chance.” Georgoutsos was nominated and elected as chair of the committee at the end of the Spring 2021 semester. Thus far in the semester, Georgoutsos has had the goal of increasing SGA visibility on campus and over social media. The Public Relations Committee was also in charge of promoting SGA Senate elections this Fall semester.

The Government and Community Relations Committee is headed by Kristopher Trautz. According to Trautz, the purpose of the committee is to represent the views of the undergraduate student body on the local, state, and federal levels. Trautz emphasized the role of representing the student body through advocacy, stating that “If there’s an important issue in the world around us that we feel Stevens should take a stance on, I feel that is an advocacy role for this committee as much as a local election would be.” Recent initiatives undertaken by the committee include the passage of proclamations for the establishment of a Civilian Complaint Board for the Hoboken Police Department and requesting student representation in the Campus Security Advisory Board for the Stevens Police Force. Trautz also stated that some of his goals as chair include increasing student voter turnout in local elections and increasing engagement with local schools in the Hoboken community.

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee is headed by Vivian Touch. The purpose of the committee is to pursue initiatives that promote advocacy and allyship based on identity, with a focus on underrepresented communities at Stevens. The committee is composed of an appointed board (A-Board) which includes positions known as Advocates for religion, gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, accessibility, and socioeconomic status. According to Touch, many of the committee’s recent initiatives have been held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of involvement on social media, Touch explained, “our social media campaigns are curated by our individual advocates to feature topics that are concentrated with-

legal agreement changes the story “significantly,” according to Murphy, and was the main reason initiatives have been abandoned. Mills explained, “because of the legal agreement all of DNIs efforts had to stop in their tracks, but regardless of the presence of our efforts it is striking that [...] there is no presence of queer solidarity coming from administration.” In addition, many students involved in summer initiatives such as Montalvo graduated in the Spring 2021 semester, leaving others to pick up where things left off.

Since it seems that Stevens re-

naming GFH is unlikely for the SGA, they are currently refocusing attention on ways to work on expanding DNI on campus. Mills has been working on getting multiple projects accomplished on campus, including increasing health services available to students, celebrating LGBTQIA+ History Month this October, starting a buddy system for any student to go to STI/STD testing centers, and a gender affirming clothing drive, among other things.

To learn more about SGA initiatives, email sga@stevens.edu or follow their Instagram @stevens_sga.

in their identities.” Recent social media campaigns by the committee included an International Women’s Day series, awareness campaigns about Ramadan, and a virtual celebration of Pride After Dark. This semester, the committee is focused on holding advocacy-related events while continuing their social media presence. Initiatives this semester will include movie showings on Palmer Lawn, a socioeconomic status campaign for first-generation college students, and continuing to solidify initiatives with health services and Greek Life. The committee is also currently recruiting for vacant positions for sexuality, accessibility, and religion Advocates.

The chair of the Academic Affairs Committee is Eden Luvishis, who was appointed by the previous Vice President of Operations and elected by the Senate. The Academic Affairs Committee is dedicated to representing the academic needs of the student community.

One recent accomplishment of the committee was securing pass/fail grading policies for students that were engaged in distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Luvishis, one major goal of the committee this semester is to better improve infrastructure for recording in-person

lectures. The committee is also collaborating with the Office of the Registrar to work on having final class schedules be published earlier, as well as pursuing interests expressed by the student body.

One issue includes working with administration to keep a portion of academic buildings open “as late as 2:00 or 3:00am.”

The Rules Committee,headed

by Anglina Rabbia,is tasked with ensuring all SGA documents are up to date as well as acting as a liaison between Senators and SGA legislation. The Rules Committee is also charged with reviewing new or changed Registered Student Organization (RSO) constitutions.

According to Rabbia, “Rules is a very behind-the-scenes committee, but I love helping SGA and the student body through this avenue.

I’d say I’m generally proud of every RSO constitution we’ve helped ratify, whether it was a new club or an existing club making a few changes or updates.” The primary goal of the committee this semester is to act as a resource for student organizations that may have questions about their governing documents or SGA legislation.

The committee would also like to increase transparency and awareness about the documents that govern the SGA. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COMMITTEE HEADS

Gabriella Poska

Kristopher Trautz

Committee on Student Interests Head

Government and Community Relations Committee Head

Benjamin Singleton

Vivian Touch

Campus Wellness Committee Head

Diversity and Inclusion Committee Head

Paulina Georgoutsos

Eden Luvishis

Public Relations Committee Head

Academic Affairs Committee Head

Angelina Rabbia Rules Committee Head

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Friday, October 8

News BHALLA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 news that I’m running for re-election as Hoboken Mayor,” Bhalla said, when he announced in June.

“Nearly four years ago, Hoboken residents gave me the privilege of a lifetime, electing me as Mayor of our great city. Since then we’ve come together, friends and neighbors moving our city forward in the midst of a global pandemic, creating durable quality of life improvements, while also keeping Hoboken on a sound long-term fiscal path.”

Past candidates opted not to run for this year’s election for a variety of reasons. Mike DeFusco, who lost the 2017 Mayoral election by 484 votes, decided not to run for the city’s highest office, he said in an August blog post, citing “toxic” Hoboken politics and saying that he wanted to prioritize his mental health.

The race for Hoboken City Council is one of the major races happening in the mile-square city. Three of the nine seats on the council are up for grabs, and these three seats are at-large positions, meaning they are chosen by the entire city’s registered voters. By contrast, the next election for the other six seats on the council is in 2023, and each seat is decided by the city’s six respective wards.

The city council race is vital for the mayor’s success during his term. To push through an agenda,

Bhalla needs a majority of the city council’s support to approve pricey agenda items. Some candidates are running on Mayor Bhalla’s slate and pledge to support the Mayor’s agenda, and others are looking to represent different interests.

The ten candidates for Hoboken City Council are (Candidate Name, Campaign Name) Councilmember Emily Jabbour, Ravi Bhalla for Mayor; Councilmember James Doyle, Ravi Bhalla for Mayor; Joe Quintero, Ravi Bhalla for Mayor; Cheryl Fallick, Independently Together; Sheila Brennan, Independently Together; Paul Presinzano, Independently Together; Manuel Rivera, Manny Rivera for Hoboken; Ian Rintel, TOO MANY POLITICIANS IN POLITICS; Patricia Waiters, Patricia Waiters for Real Constituent Services; and Cindy Wiegand, Your Friendly Neighborhood Councilwoman.

These elections determine sev-

eral vital roles in local and state governments. The Hoboken Mayor has the power to appoint government officials, approve new rules and regulations for city departments, nominate people for municipal boards and judicial positions, initiate contracts, veto laws, and create a yearly budget. The Hoboken City Council has the power to create laws, approve the mayor’s contracts, approve budgets, and approve mayoral appointments.

The 2021 election is on Tuesday, November 2, and the last day to register to vote to participate in the election is Tuesday, October 12. In order to be eligible to vote, a person must be an American Citizen, be 18 years old on or before Nov. 2, and be a resident of New Jersey. According to the New Jersey State Department, college students have “the option to register from [a] college address or [a] parent’s address” to meet the residency requirement.

TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF NJ.COM | BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF NBC

CAROLINE MONTANA FOR THE STUTE

STEP

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 pool of underrepresented minorities and low income students within the STEM fields.” STEP students participate in the Bridge Summer Program before their first year, which aims to introduce them to technical curricula and Stevens’s academic rigor, as well as allow them to adjust to college life and form relationships with staff and peers. Later, they can access resources like

TENNIS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Doubles tournament, ranked from No. 1 to No. 4 were Keegan Morris and Marc Feliu (8-4), Aashi Kulakarni and Olof Persson (8-1), Sebastian Wroe and Troy Zhang (8-2), and Mark Pabalan and Eloi Pradier (8-0). All of the Stevens players advanced to their semi-final rounds.

According to player and senior Brian Li, his favorite part about the MAC tournament was “the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the team. Since COVID, this was our second team trip and we have a lot of new first years on our team. The opportunity to bond as a team and come together and play as well as we did was an incredible experience.” He related the team’s success to the team leadership by both current seniors and Coach Steve Gachko.

Li stated that the team mentality “has always been about going out and playing disciplined

and focused regardless of who we are playing. We emphasized throughout the week that pressure is a privilege and as a team we love those high pressure points.”

On September 25 and 26, the team competed at the TCNJ Invitational in Ewing, New Jersey. Out of 24 matches against TCNJ, Vassar College, and NYU, the team won 16 matches. This feat highlighted the incredible skills of the players as both individuals and as doubles partners.

Competing in the Singles tournament on Day 1 were Keegan Morris (6-3, 6-2), Marc Feliu (0-6, 6-0, 10-8), Vivek Harinarayan (6-3, 6-1), Aashi Kulakarni (6-2, 7-5), Matt Luzzi (6-4, 6-4), Troy Zhang (64, 6-3), Andrew He (1-6, 6-4, 16-14), Eloi Pradier (8-4), and Mark Pabalan (2-6). In the Doubles tournament on the same day were Marc Feliu and Keegan Morris (7-8, 5-7), Aashi Kulakarni and Sebastian Wroe (86), Matt Luzzi and Troy Zhang (4-8), and Andrew He and Olof Persson (8-1).

On Day 2, the singles competition included Keegan Morris (3-0, retired), Marc Feliu (2-6, 6-4, 10-8), Vivek Harinarayan (3-6, 6-1, 7-10), Aashi Kulakarni (6-4, 6-4), Matt Luzzi (4-6, 3-6), Sebastian Wroe (6-3, 3-6, 1412), and Troy Zhang (2-6, 3-6).

In the Doubles tournament were Marc Feliu and Keegan Morris (8-5), Aashi Kulakarni and Sebastian Wroe (5-8), Matt Luzzi and Troy Zhang (3-8), and Andrew He and Olof Persson (8-6).

Freshman Sebastian Wroe was the final player to wrap up the Invitational on Saturday.

His winning match at the end of the second day brought home the winning streak for Stevens.

When asked about his achievement, he said, “Honestly, it was half relief that the match was over because my leg started cramping in the [super tiebreak] 8-9. But when I finally won that last point, I was so happy.”

Wroe’s accomplishment tied up the successful tournament weekends for the Stevens Men’s Tennis team.

peer tutoring, counseling and advising, and personal development opportunities.

The makeover will include the addition of new private office spaces, a reception area, a pantry, and a student workspace.

Stevens has cited the accommodation of university growth as the reason for the STEP Department’s move from its old location on the seventh floor of Howe to the new space. The third floor’s mechanical and electrical infrastructure will also be receiving improvements.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MENS TENNIS TEAM

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Friday, October 8

News 14 things to do next week at Stevens | October 10 – 16

SHAYA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 well-rounded individuals.

“Noting that the past year has posed many challenges and as we all collectively readjust to being back in person, I hope to advocate for students to ensure their experiences here at Stevens are encouraging and memorable,” she answered in an email interview with The Stute.

Additionally, Morgan said that she is enthusiastic about learning more about campus culture and the inner-workings of Stevens; “What excites me most about this is being a sponge to all things Stevens!”

Currently, she is enjoying her

BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM

Editor Emeritus

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAYA MORGAN

time at Stevens while getting to know her coworkers and the student body she will be working with. She said, “I’m excited to see how the year will go and all the amazing things we’ll accomplish to-

gether #GoDucks.”

Students can find the Office of Undergraduate Student Life at the Student Center. They can be contacted at (201) 216-8304, or by email at student_life@stevens.edu.

THE OFFICE OF STUDENT LIFE OVERSEES CAMPUS AND STUDENT WELLBEING | CAROLINE MONTANA FOR THE STUTE

Getting involved isn’t what you do; it’s who you are. Check out this list of events from October 10 to October 16 that you can register for today!

Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list. These events were compiled from DuckLink and do not include other events. To have an event included in this list or an upcoming list, reach out with information to eboard@thestute. com, or have the event host upload the event to DuckLink at least one week in advance. For the latest information about events, please contact event hosts directly.

Weekly Senate Meeting The Senate of the Student Government Association is hosting its weekly meeting on Monday, October 11, 2021, at 9:00 p.m. at Babbio Room 122. At the meeting, the Senate will approve budget requests and discuss campus issues. The weekly meeting is open to all students.

To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Queer Issues in STEM Workshop On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, Stevens is welcoming Dr. Matthew Voigt, an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University, to lead a workshop: “Queer Issues in Engineering and Science: A New Vision for STEM Curriculum, Climates, and Careers.” The workshop is at Babbio Center 122 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. This workshop will provide an open forum to highlight the ways in which attending to Queer issues can improve the climate and curriculum for students in undergraduate STEM programs. This event is co-hosted by Undergraduate Student Life, the Torch Alliance, oSTEM, Diversity Education, and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Senate of the Student Government Association. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Newman Night The Newman Catholic Association is hosting Newman Night on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, from 9:00 p.m to 10:30 p.m at Babbio 320. The event is a weekly discussion where attendees can share Catholic faith in a safe and welcoming environment. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Study Abroad Info Session The Office of Inter-

national Programs is hosting an information session on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Babbio Center 321. At the event, students will have the option to explore their study abroad and internship options.

To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Introduction to Technical Writing The Writing and Communications Center is hosting an online event ‘Introduction to Technical Writing’ on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering by clicking the Zoom link on the event’s DuckLink page. If you cannot make the scheduled time, you can still receive the video recording of the webinar by registering for the event.

SCC 201: Job Search The Career Center is hosting “SCC 201 — Job Search” on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Bissinger Room on the 4th floor of Howe.

This event is meant for any student interested in learning more about effective strategies on how to navigate the job search process. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Weekly Group Run The Stevens Running Club is hosting its weekly group run on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The group meets at Babbio Patio at 5:00 p.m. Runners of any experience are welcome.

Runners will break into groups, usually with one long distance run (4 miles) as well as several short distance groups (1-2 miles). To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Stevens Chess Club The Stevens Chess Club is hosting its weekly meeting on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Babbio Room 203. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Safe Zone Training Diversity Education is hosting an online-only Safe Zone Training on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. This event is to help students learn what it takes to be an ally in support of members of the LGBTQ+ community and the different resources available at Stevens and in the local community.

To register for the event, go to the event’s page on

DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

S’mores with Piskies Phi Sigma Kappa (Piskies) and Phi Sigma Sigma (Phi Sig) are co-hosting “Smores With Piskies” on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Piskies House (837 Hudson Street, Hoboken, New Jersey). To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Stevens Christian Fellowship GBM The Stevens Christian Fellowship is hosting its second general meeting on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m in the Babbio Center Room 122. The event is also available remotely over Zoom. Over the first few weeks of the semester, the Stevens Christian Fellowship is inviting local pastors to speak on a topic of their choice, providing a chance to learn more about the different churches in the Hoboken community. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering. To attend the event virtually, click the Zoom link on the event’s DuckLink page and type in scf2021 for the Personal Link Name.

Small Groups Bible Study On Thursday, October 14, 2021, from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., the Stevens Christian Fellowship Fellowship is hosting small groups Bible study in North Building 102. In small groups, the Fellowship will be taking a look at the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Jummah Prayer The Muslim Student Association is hosting Jummah prayer on Friday, October 1, 2021, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the commons of the Student Center. Masks are required during prayer. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

StevensTHON: For The Kidz Fridays StevensTHON is hosting “For The Kidz Fridays” on Friday, October 15, 2021, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Babbio Center West Patio. By attending, you can meet members of the StevensTHON Executive Team and learn about the yearlong fundraising efforts to help kids in need at Children’s Specialized Hospital. To register for the event, go to the event’s page on DuckLink, or you can also attend the event without registering.

Friday, October 8

Features HOBOKEN ARTS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL Annual tradition returns after two-year hiatus

BY SANJANA MADHU

Managing Editor On Sunday, October 3, 2021, Hoboken held its annual Arts and Music Festival. Similar to previous years, the festival was from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and was organized across Washington Street, spanning from 1st Street to 7th Street. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the Arts and Music Festival brought Hobokenites together to celebrate “talented musicians, artists, crafters, food vendors, [and] local businesses.”

The festival was structured with large areas for pedestrian traffic, as well as vendors along the sides of Washington Street, and performers playing at one of three stages. The Observer Highway Stage had performances from Milton, Tape Hiss, Freedy Johnston, and Karyn Kuhl Band. The 7th Street Stage featured performances from Manouche Bag, Tony Corrao, Swingadelic, and Orquesta La Experiencia. The Church Square Park highlighted

children’s performances, showing Little Rock n Rollers, Music with Corey, Erin Lee & the Up Past Bedtime Band, Music Together, Garden Street School of the Performing Arts, and School of Rock House Band. Additional family entertainment like rides, games, and crafts were organized in the Capital One Bank Parking Lot on 3rd Street.

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla issued a statement saying, “I am glad to support our local arts and business communities with the return of the Hoboken Fall Arts & Music Festival this October.” He continued with, “This fun, outdoor event is a staple in our community that will go a long way to help our artists and businesses continue to recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic.

I strongly encourage those who choose to attend to get vaccinated if they haven’t done so already or wear a face mask. Thank you to our sponsors for working with my Administration to once again make this festival possible.”

PHOTOS BY CAROLINE MONTANA AND ETHAN CHE FOR THE STUTE

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Friday, October 8

Science The science and practicality of cultured meat

BY JO-ANNE RIVERA Contributor

Having been two centennials since Frankenstein warned the world about utilizing science without regard for ethical and societal consequences, the idea of lab-grown meat has since been materialized by several start-up companies and private laboratories. We’ve come to an era where science that defies the laws of nature is now possible. Nonetheless, with the first cultured meat being produced in 2013, the science behind the production process is still relatively new. Thus, this cell-based meat is not without its flaws despite the benefits their proponents advertise. By using terms like clean, healthy, or slaughter-free meat, consumers are led to believe that they can consume this product without that subconscious guilt–– yet, that in itself is misleading.

The primary component of the production process is the usage of stem-cells from the respective animal. These stem cells are undifferentiated and have the capabilities to multiply and differentiate into other types of cells; in this case, into fat, or muscle

cells. Upon getting a biopsy of an animal, these cells are able to multiply by being fed the necessary nutrients. The nutrients given to these cell cultures often vary across producers, yet one nutrient-rich source remains controversial. Fetal bovine serum is a nutrient-rich liquid that has been one of the main go-tos for providing nourishment to these cell cultures. This serum is obtained from extracting the blood of cow fetuses, at the cost of slaughtering their mother. The usage of this serum is often rationalized by comparing the fewer cows required to produce the same amount of meat.

But fortunately, many companies have been pushing for more synthetic means of nourishment and some have already succeeded.

Above getting the necessary nourishment, these cell cultures must be worked on in order to produce the desired flavor and texture profile. However, the technology used to produce cell cultures is expensive alone, and the cost of further research and machinery to improve the eating experience gradually adds up. Ideally, one facility must be capable of producing about 10 kilotons of cultivated meat

LAB GROWN MEAT | PHOTO COURTESY OF LABIOTECH.EU

annually, hence hosting about 2.3 million liters of cell cultures, which calls for a lot of machinery. According to Food Navigator, if cultured meat companies aim to supply 10% of the worldwide meat market by 2030, 4,000 factories must be operating at full-capacity by this deadline. This endeavor could cost upwards of $1.8 trillion. In retrospect, the worldwide meat industry is currently valued at $867.3 billion, and rather than costing $22,000 for one kilogram of cultured meat at the production’s current state, it could cost $5.66 if this goal is met.

Surely, with the right in-

vestors as well as the potential government funding these meat companies are vying for, this goal may be attainable but only with a small margin for error, if any at all.

The one issue with these cell cultures is the lack of an immune system like genuine animals. A single bacteria or virus can compromise a cell culture since the growth rate of animal cells is significantly slower at 24 hours compared to 20 minutes for bacterial cells. Thus, in order to prevent contamination and the consequential waste of cultures, these facilities must meet pharmaceutical-grade standards.

That means a facility with a $40 million to $50 million Class 8 clean room that must replace the air inside at a rate of 10 to 25 times an hour, rather than two to four times for a typical building.

Bearing these costs in mind, it’s clear that the cultured meat industry remains as a topic of debate, with many considering it to be a gamble while others continue to be optimistic. Even so, these long-term and high-stakes investments could pave the way for a more environmentally-friendly meat industry––as ironic as it sounds. According to The Beet, the meat industry

has been responsible for 14.5% of manmade carbon emissions as well as contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. On the other hand, cultured meat causes up to 92% less global warming, uses up 95% less land and 78% less water. Furthermore, with the power to genetically manipulate these cell cultures, companies could modify the nutritional profile to make it significantly healthier than conventional meat.

Thus, as the cultured meat industry eventually scales and becomes more accessible to the general public, the environment will be protected.

The burden of information, a presentation from Caleb Scharf

BY ARIANNA GEHAN Contributing Reporter

On Wednesday September 29, the Center for Science Writing organized a presentation from astronomer and author Caleb Scharf. Scharf, the current director of the Columbia

Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, recently published his book The Ascent of Information: Books, Bits, Genes, Machines, and Life’s Unending Algorithm.

Data is an integral part of humanity, to the extent that it is stored in our genes. While it is easy to understand how this biological information gets

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERPLANETARYFEST.ORG

passed down through generations, there is so much information that exists outside the human body which must be managed. Over time, humans learned to pass down information. This was done through cave paintings, hieroglyphics, and alphabets. This data extends beyond literature; information is also externalized in

sheet music, quipus, and more recently, binary and coding.

All this data that is stored outside of human cells composes what Scharf calls the dataome. The dataome can be thought of as a living system that is within a symbiotic relationship with society.

It provides extraordinary advantages to humanity,

as it allows data from past generations to be passed down and improved upon.

There is far too much information within society for one person to hold, so the dataome helps prevent information from being lost due to limited memory and death. But all this information is burdensome.

Scharf uses the information produced by William Shakespeare as an example. His writing was prolific and is still relevant in society, even many years after his death. In his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, totaling 835,997 words. These plays have been reproduced into over 4 million books, and have also been transformed into movies, e-books, trinkets, and more. Creating these manifestations of the plays requires energy. It is estimated that to make one sheet of paper, it requires 5 grams of coal, which adds up quickly when you look at the quantity of Shakespeare’s plays. This means that there is a large environmental cost to storing Shakespeare’s work within the dataome.

And that is not even the extent to which energy is required. Physical labor goes into the production and distribution of hardcopies, and it even requires work to just pick up a book. Then, while reading the book, neural energy is used in understanding and processing the contents within. This also requires

energy, which further extends the burden of Shakespeare’s work within the dataome.

Shakespeare is just a small snippet of what humans are storing in the dataome. Humans generate over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and this pace is accelerating. To continue storing all this information and more, Scharf says we have two options: either drastically improve storage or create more energy to keep up with the storage.

There are serious environmental repercussions to increasing energy storage. Even if there was a shift towards cleaner energy, it would still be extremely difficult to generate the amount needed in the time required. There will be a need to remove the extraneous data from the dataome, and humans will have to seriously reevaluate how they store and utilize data.

Professor John Horgan, Director of the Center for Science writing, asked Scharf if we had anything to be optimistic about.

“Anything that helps us understand our nature has to be a positive.” Even though the dataome is far from perfect, it is still a necessary part of society that will need to evolve along with humanity.

To further explore humanity’s relationship with information, Scharf further explores these topics and more in his book.

INTERESTED IN SCIENCE JOURNALISM? Join our Science writing team!

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

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Friday, October 8

Science A new era in space travel

BY ESTEFANIA DE CAIRES Science Writer On September 18, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission arrived back on Earth after spending three days in space. This groundbreaking mission accomplished something that has never been done before: send civilians to space without a trained astronaut present.

Let’s go back to a few days prior when on September 15, the all-civilian crew comprised of medical officer Hayley Arceneaux (a St. Jude’s physician’s assistant), pilot Sian Proctor (a geoscientist), mission specialist Chris Sembroski (a data engineer), and financier/ mission commander Jared Isaacman (billionaire and founder of Shift4 Payments) got ready to board the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft. The goal of this mission was a little different than other space missions because instead of the purpose being scientific research, the goal of this mission was to raise $200 million towards childhood cancer research, specifically St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital.

This goal has a personal connection to one of the crew members, Hayley Arceneaux. When she was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma; she was treated and cured at St. Jude’s. Now, at the age of 29, she works at St. Jude’s with leukemia patients.

It should be noted that the crew did receive extensive training starting in March with centrifuge training, which exposed them to similar situations that would occur during launch, reentry, splashdown, and a potential abort scenario. In July, Isaacman

CREW FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: CHRIS SEMBROSKI, SIAN PROCTOR, JARED ISAACMAN, HAYLEY ARCENEAUX | PHOTO COURTESY OF INSPIRATION4 NEWS

and Proctor were placed in simulations in which they had to take control of the spacecraft during the flight and all of the crew underwent zero-G plane training to familiarize themselves with the feeling of weightlessness and its effects.

Finally, the team did the altitude chamber training as a precaution. Altitude chamber training is when the team is exposed to low oxygen and high CO2 environments as a way to show them how their bodies would react and what pro-

tocol they should follow.

Inspiration4 was a relatively short mission, the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft reached an altitude of 367 miles above Earth (higher than the International Space Station). From there it orbited Earth for about three days.

While they were in space, the crew conducted several medical experiments and collected samples and data that would help researchers better understand how microgravity affects the body. During an in-flight

broadcast, Arceneaux explained a little of what it is they were examining.

She talked about how “it’s been really interesting to see how fluid shifts with this microgravity environment” and how they’ve been “taking several swabs from different parts of the body to evaluate the microbiome and how it changes [with the three days in space].”

After three days in space, the Inspiration4 mission started its descent back to Earth. At about 7 p.m.

on September 18, the crew landed on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. They were given a medical exam by a physician, and then the crew got on a helicopter and returned to the mainland.

This marked the end of a historic spaceflight that has opened doors to the future of space travel.

The post-flight news conference echoed this sentiment with Jared Isaacman saying “That was a heck of a ride for us, and we’re just getting started” and

Todd Ericson, an Inspiration4 mission director, saying “Welcome to the second Space Age [...] This is opening up a whole new chapter in spaceflight.”

It seems that we indeed have entered a new era of space travel, with civilians now having the possibility of purchasing a ticket to space. However, the exclusivity of who can go and who can’t is bound to garner more attention and criticism as commercial space travel becomes more frequent.

Spotted lanternflies: the newest pest you should kill

BY JESSICA WU Contributor

If you’ve been anywhere in New Jersey at all for the past few weeks, you’ve likely had a difficult time ignoring these bright-red, spotted planthoppers. You may have even seen a fellow classmate stomping on one. But what are they? And why the sudden pesticidal urge from anyone within five feet of one?

Well, these insects are called spotted lanternflies, and simply put, they’re pests.

Spotted lanternflies (SLF for short) are native to China, where their population had been kept under control by natural predators. In 2006, the insects were introduced to South Korea, and in 2014, the first SLF was found in the U.S. in Berks County, PA munching on grapevines and hitchhiking across counties. Their population has only spiraled since then with a steady increase in counties that are deemed infected by SLF and made to “quarantine.” For businesses in such areas, this means observing regulations and obtaining permits to transport outdoor items in and out of counties.

In addition to flying and jumping around, both of which they do quite fre-

quently, spotted lanternflies are considered pests due to their impact on local flora.

During feeding, spotted lanternflies suck the sap of their hosts, weakening them by depriving them of nutrients.

They also leave behind a kind of sugary fluid as waste (called “honeydew”) that encourages the presence of a black sooty mold and prevents the plants from growing healthily. Although these bugs are not a danger to humans, the honeydew they leave behind can be disruptive as it can appear on cars, patios, and areas near trees that have been fed on.

Even worse, spotted lanternflies are not picky about food. In fact, they feed from over 70 different species of plants, which is why they’re deemed such a threat by state authorities. Some of their main targets are grapes, hops, and lumber. They pose a danger to those respective industries in New Jersey and the state’s overall $1.1 billion agricultural industry.

One spotted lanternfly might be bothersome, but the sheer number of SLF we’re seeing on campus alone, not to mention New Jersey as a whole, marks them as a menace. They have the potential to affect forests, our quality of life, and our own economy on a large scale.

So what can we do about these insect pests? A recent

nj.com article lists ways for citizens to get involved.

This includes regular reporting of SLF to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture through nj.gov, and checking your car for any SLF that might have gotten a ride across counties.

These insects have been able to spread quite fast through impressive hitchhiking skills: they can be transported with lumber, construction and yard materials, and even outdoor appliances like grills. Although Hudson County isn’t under quarantine yet, the presence of these insects on-campus shows that they’re more than capable of spreading to new places.

Spotted lanternflies are also currently in their adult stage of life, which means in October and November, they’ll begin laying eggs on trees and other flat surfaces to hatch next spring. These brownish masses can be easily scraped off and destroyed by crushing the eggs or spraying them with alcohol or hand sanitizer.

The easiest way to help is by joining in on the stomping. Spotted lanternflies don’t bite or attack people (though they might accidentally land on you), and the worst they can do is hop around. So next time you see one, stomp your feet in the name of New Jersey wildlife.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FANWOODNJ.ORG

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Friday, October 8

Opinion THE STUTE EDITORIAL

Can the news ever sleep?

Week 6 burnout. I feel it, you feel it, we all feel it. We’re nearing midterms but not quite there yet, work is starting to pile up, if you were ahead of the game a couple weeks ago you might be slipping now, etc, etc.

For me, I’m feeling all of this, plus a heavy feeling of inconsistency – I had a day last week where I couldn’t get to sleep until 4 a.m. only to wake up at 7, and then the next day I checked out at 9:30 p.m. for a solid 12 hours. My weeks feel super unbalanced too because my rest is being unevenly distributed: the first few days of each week are insanity and the following days are for recovering.

I feel lopsided, uneven, off center.

Ever since I was a part of The Stute, the mid-semester week off from publishing was always a debate. Should we take a week off?

Should we not? I still remember one semester that I was advocating for taking a week off, and the

Editor at the time voted against it, explaining that the news has to come out one way or another.

The amount of admiration I have for this person and that statement is very large, don’t get me wrong, but I remember a little voice in my head vowing that if I ever became Editor I would instate a mid-semester break. Because I was tired af.

There’s a famous saying that goes something like “the news never sleeps,” which can mean a lot of things. An obvious one is the relatively recent ability to access news almost immediately – if something happens, within 20 minutes (or even less) you’re almost guaranteed to be able to find something about it online. Journalists crank out articles within minutes of an event, because nowadays, speed may be more favorable than accuracy: being the first to break a story might be more important than having all

the facts or administering an indepth investigation.

Another meaning the phrase can be linked to is the idea that maybe news never sleeps because it simply can’t – traditional news journalism, specifically at a small community level, can feel like an obligation. For local newspapers operating in a single town or city, there may not be any other news organizations covering events.

This is somewhat true for The Stute; even though Stevens does publish university news articles on stevens.edu, The Stute reports on a lot more, and it’s also archived in the Library. Our catchphrase “we write Stevens history” is legitimate! Sometimes it can be an overwhelming fact to process, that we’re essentially the only ones documenting Stevens history, but it’s also really exciting. Designing the front page of print issues is probably my favorite thing to do at The Stute – often I look

back on Stute front page archives in awe of their resemblance to historical documents, even more in awe that issues I edit will be looked back on as historical documents as well.

So even though I love The Stute with all my heart, we are taking a break next week. Which may sound easy, but breaks in publishing are a little bit trickier than you may think – the following week you have to play a bit of catch-up on news, biweekly writer schedules can be tricky to navigate, and a pause in weekly production can slow down enthusiasm and motivation. But I think it’s worth it if it means we get to combat some of this week 6 burnout. We’re tired, and we don’t have a large enough staff where some people can take a week off while others take over (oh, what a dream!). So for next week, even though the news never sleeps, we’re going to sleep. Goodnight!

MIND OF A FRESHMAN

SENIORITIS

Lost on a subway

The ratio

BY LAUREN GARRETT ‘25 If there are only so many waking hours in a day, why not make the absolute most of every second?

Now, imagine you’re on a subway. You’ve missed your stop on the way back home from Central Park.

So now you’re riding the C train all the way to the end of the line. As you’re sitting there, you look at the few people around you. Sonder.

Did they grow up to be who they always wanted to be?

Did they find true love?

Have they found happiness?

Looking through the eyes of an idealist, the answer would be “of course.” However, through the eyes of a realist, you would see that the answer involves beautiful and tragic variety.

For instance, take the middle-aged woman with the laugh lines at the corners of her eyes. When she was our age, she fell deeply in love. Yet, like many re-

lationships, the time they spent together eventually came to a close. She often reflects on the experience, and wonders if she had fully expressed her feelings, if they might have worked it out. She sometimes daydreams on the “what ifs” and the things that will never be. But, she looks back on the experience fondly, as it taught her to be confident, and realize her own beauty. She learned the darkness and pain of loss don’t last forever. So when you are out of your darkness, go find them, and know you are never alone.

Take the young man sitting alone listening to music twirling a basketball in his hands. In his eyes he replays the moment he woke up, watching the sun as it rose, reflecting on the buildings of Manhattan, bathing the city in an orange glow.

His breath is taken away by the beauty of the dawn.

Time stands still as he takes life one minute at a time, not wasting a second looking back. He never wants to regret the words that he never got to say. Even as a teenager, he knows that he isn’t getting any younger and that the illusion of everlasting youth has captured his peers. They live in the present, with no clear vision

of their future. They never spend the nights alone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t lonely. Contrarily, he lives with no regrets, looking to the future, beginning with the end in mind: always vulnerable and honest.

In 10 years, don’t let yourself look back, afraid that it’s all just been wasted time, and remember to let yourself fall in love.

As you approach the final stop, you see a girl with dark hair and a black backpack standing up, holding into the metal railing. She’s deep in thought, listening to a playlist she made with songs she has attached to bittersweet memories, emotions impenitently playing across her face. Though she wonders if she will ever get what she is looking for, she knows that if she can’t have it now, she’ll wait. In her eyes is a fire, a burning determination to accomplish all that she dreams of, in no way afraid of the future.

As I watch her, I find myself looking into a mirror, viewing a fulfilled version of myself. All at once, the train stops, and I stand, taking one last look around at the people who had taught me so much without a single

Natalie Todaro ‘22

Editor-in-Chief

Continued on thestute.com

We are all too familiar with the Stevens ratio. Before visiting campus, you should at least get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into when you attend a tech school. According to the Stevens website, the Undergraduate female population is 29% with only a 1% increase for the Graduate female population for a whopping 30%. This is not a Stevens problem, but a societal one.

Women have been making gains in the STEM field over the past 50 years. In 1970, only 8% of women made up the STEM workforce, and in 2019, they made up 27%. While more women are getting college degrees in engineering and the sciences we are still behind our male counterparts. This number is misleading because it does not show the distribution of the different fields that consti-

tute STEM. While there has been a slow increase in females entering university for engineering, the main cause of the uptick in women in STEM is due to fields such as social sciences and biological science. In 2019, women made up approximately 60% of U.S. social scientists and about 4050% of life science workers.

Society is more inclusive than it used to be. There are STEM camps for girls, and some parents are encouraging their daughters to conduct science experiments in their backyard rather than just playing with their easy-bake oven.

However, the gender stereotype is very much alive for engineering, math, and computer science. In high school, girls are perceived as “nerdy” and “geeky” if they excel in calculus and AP Computer Science. Now you could say, “just brush it off”, “it’s not a big deal”, and in response, I would say yes, you’re right. It doesn’t matter what people say, follow your own path. But at the same time, the fact that there’s still a stigma plays a role in why there is a leaky pipeline.

You might be asking yourself, why is there such a large gender gap specifically with engineering?

Women are making gains in fields of medicine and biology—maybe even overrepresenting in that domain.But what is preventing women from getting an equal chance in engineering?

Girls don’t want to feel out of place. And let me tell you, it can be a rude awakening at Stevens. During my time here, I have had at most 10 girls in a class of 50 students. That is a 1:5 ratio of girls to guys. I personally don’t have a problem having a lot of male friends, but I have a problem when they have a superiority complex, especially when I am more knowledgeable on the topic at hand. Just because I am a woman does not mean I know any less than you, I may actually teach you a thing or two.

At Stevens, we are a minority, and guess what, we’re a minority in the workplace too. We shouldn’t have to prove ourselves to show that we deserve to be where we are, but that’s the way it is now.

I don’t have the answer to this problem and I’m not sure anyone does, but as future leaders in engineering, we can serve as role models for the girls of tomorrow and show that they can be engineers too.

there is so much to look forward to here with regard to the changing of the seasons and I am so excited to finally have the opportunity to experience both a real fall and a real winter, complete with actual cold temperatures and trademark cold weather drinks like apple cider and hot chocolate with whipped cream. Yum! It would not be entirely accurate to state that I have never experienced a real winter before, because I have seen snow and had the opportunity to sled and ski and camp in the winter. The difference is that I have never before had the chance to live in a place where it snows

in the wintertime, and I am almost too excited to witness the first snow here this winter season, even though I know it will only be beautiful for a short period of time before it gets all mushy and starts to half melt in the daytime.

Now I know that this is entirely much too early to be talking about snow when we have hardly had any 60 degree or colder weather even here in Hoboken, but you will have to forgive me for getting ahead of myself and sounding like a little kid about all this talk about seasons. I just can hardly believe that, long at last, it’s finally coming—the weather and

colors I saw in shows and movies but never really got to live in the midst of. In some ways I know it’s not always so dandy. I have heard people moan and groan about having to shovel the driveway in the dead of winter or complain about having cold feet or wet socks, all of which sound less than pleasant. And I know that this whole image I have in my head of winter being absolutely lovely will eventually be superimposed with the reality of the cold having a bite to it and the snow being not so fun to walk around in, especially since campus is very windy in certain areas. But regardless of

all that I still can’t help but get excited about living in a place with more than one season, and I also can’t help but look forward to the opportunity to participate in quintessential winter activities and send pictures of the scenery back home to family and to friends.

I have a sneaking suspicion that reality will hit me soon enough that the cold gets old and that it is much more pleasant to walk to campus and between classes in nice, fair weather and under sunny blue skies.

Right at this moment though I can’t help but look forward to my first fall and winter here in Hoboken.

BY GRACE MIGUEL ‘22

SECOND-YEAR FRESHMAN

Winter is coming!

BY KEENAN YATES ‘24 California will always have a place in my heart because I have lived there a majority of my life. I will be the first to admit, however, that the golden state lacks in one particular area: the dramatic changing of the seasons. It should come as no surprise that now, finally living in Hoboken for the first time, I am absolutely ecstatic to finally have

the chance to experience winter and all the fun experiences and activities that come along with it.

To be clear, it’s not like I even have a “real” winter coat by east coast standards in my closet or very practical snow or rain boots, so I’m not prepared in the slightest. Still, that is all besides the point. The point is there will be snow here! Rain! Spooky season! Trees with different colored leaves!

Trees with no leaves!

Ice skating! There are so many things to look forward to that I can hardly pay attention to my classes. Of course for legal reasons that is purely sarcasm but really,

9

Friday, October 8

Opinion THE CONVERSATION

NOT FINANCIAL TIMES (NFT)

‘Doing good’ matters more than ‘feeling good’ Berlin Referendum

BY ROSHNI REVANKAR ‘22 On September 24, Bloomberg reported that Independent Point Advisors (popularly referred to as ‘Saloman Sisters’) will be the first ever women/ minority owned investment firm in the industry.

Lazard, a well-known asset management company, has a minority stake in the up and coming firm and is partnering with them to offer mergers and acquisitions, and provide corporate governance guidance to the firm in the early days.

Anne Clarke Wolff, a veteran of Salomon Brothers, and someone who held a role in Bank of America as Chairman of Global Corporate and Investment Banking, will be bringing more than just her 30+ years of Wall Street experience. According to individuals familiar with Wolff’s plans, she believes ‘Salomon Sisters’ will give women the golden opportunity to continue managing their families, all the while giving them the much-needed boost to rise up the corporate ladder.

Many women enter the field of investment banking with the opportunity to thrive amongst male peers in one of the most rewarding, but aggressive, environments in finance.

According to a research

study by McKinsey, while women have made sustainable strides in making up more than 50% of the sector’s entry level workforce, only 20% or so in the past five years have climbed into the C-Suite level of the corporate ladder. Due to mid-career shifts in responsibilities across the sector, many women give up the opportunity to be in these boardrooms that are critical to enhancing diversity and inclusion that bolster financial performance of the firm.

Now, as a woman and a minority, Independent Point Advisors sounds like THE investment bank to work for, right? Forget these other bulge brackets and their six figure first year analyst salaries — someone who actually understands womanhood is leading the firm? Sign me up!

But how much diversity and inclusion can a firm like Lazard help bring to the governance of Independent Point Advisors?

And just how much should we rely on corporate governance as stakeholders, even though morally we think it’s the path to heaven?

In my investment classes here at Stevens, I have been challenged to really think about what I get out as a shareholder, even more as a stakeholder, by investing into companies that boast superior ESG goals. Is there a way that a firm can showcase on its financial statements how having low carbon emissions, or actively recruiting culturally diverse candidates, improved their profit margins year over

year?

The latter has been argued very well in my opinion by Autumn McDonald in Stanford Social Innovation Review, and bringing diversity of thought by actively hiring culturally diverse employees boosts productivity and enhances strategic decisions, which undoubtedly translates to improved profit margins.

Logically, investing in a high ESG stock, means low risk profiles, that translate to a low expected return, or the premiums for that stock are already priced in by Wall Street. But people that invest in stocks expect they bought the firm at a discount to future cash flows, and hence expect a higher return. When thinking about investing in a stock whose company is on the ESG bandwagon, the riskiness of a stock decreases, and hence you are expecting a lower return … that math doesn’t add up.

However, let’s take a step back on initiatives towards lowering carbon emissions. When thinking of implementing a 25% carbon tax in place of a 28% corporate tax hike, the incentives are greater for both fiscal tax revenues and expanding business cycles. However, the social costs are also in my opinion equally important to consider.

According to the Energy Information Administration, about 75% of New Jersey households rely on natural gas as their primary heating fuel, more than 13% use electric heat, and about 10% depend on petroleum products. These “dirty” energy sources to this day heat

our homes during frigid winters, and we feel their worth during days of below zero temperatures. Do manufacturers have the streamlined supply chains to get these renewable heat sources in the same supply to each and every New Jerseyan, as we have currently for natural gas?

Last semester, I had the opportunity to attend and report to The Stute on a fireside chat with guest speaker Steven Pinker.

One of the most interesting arguments made by Pinker was how we will need to first find a way to make clean energy cheaper than nonrenewables like coal and oil. We need to be mindful of how we look at the impact of a carbon tax on marginalized communities, which may be politically toxic. So at this point, looking at environmentally safe firms may not always lead to the most rewarding firms.

So what about firms that focus on social and governance policies?

Coming back to Independent Point Advisors, I admire the aggressive attitude Wolff has towards making boardrooms more inclusive to at least women in finance. I hope that ‘Salomon Sisters’ will become the much-needed change on Wall Street, and grow a strong community of empowered minorities in finance. However, it is important to not forget that inclusivity is not just vested in a company name — it is a dynamic culture that must significantly boost economic value added to the firm, showing that DNI actually does more good than merely feel good.

and so on. One of our journalists approached a man at the back of his CAL103 class and was then offered yet another NDA which he signed and so now we have no idea what he said to the mysterious man due to our strict policy of not violating NDAs. The second stage of the plan was the most exciting for us. President Farvardin aims to shut down all national news networks and replace them with the fine journalists at Off The Press to put out propaganda to drum up support for his new government. We could not be more honored to have overheard that we would play a critical role in overthrowing the United States government and since we didn’t sign an NDA for this one, we can tell you all about it. In the coming weeks you can expect to see many more stories detailing the conquests of President Farvardin, from his humble beginnings on a family farm, to inventing electricity, founding

Stevens, and creating the Pinnacle Scholars program which we will convince everyone is actually a very good thing.

With control of the news and information reaching the American public, Farvardin will, at an exclusive press conference with Off The Press, simply declare himself ruler of the country, and everyone will agree to it. Off The Press has already begun the process of reaching out to foreign powers and the United Nations to alert them of the coming changes. This article also serves as official notice to state governors, cabinet members, and other so-called important individuals that many of them will be replaced by adjunct professors of cabinetry and TAs in microwave usage classes.

Since you read this article, we now need you to sign an NDA so that no word of this upcoming coup gets into the wrong hands, please visit our office hours.

OFF THE PRESS

10 Year Plan

BY OFF CENTER —SATIRE— Stevens recently announced the members of the Steering Committee who will design the 20222032 strategic plan for the Innovation University. The process began months ago with the survey sent out to all members of the community looking for opinions on areas of improvement and new things to focus on. Not mentioned in the email that listed the members of the committee was the result of the first secret meeting that was already held. Luckily, Off The Press’s assistant typewriter technician Mark had to access a closet near the room where it was held and was able to eavesdrop on the entire meeting.

By 2032, Stevens aims to have taken over the United States government and be in the process of developing strong diplomatic relations with major international powers like China, Russia, and Tuvalu. In our boardroom, we spent sever-

al hours looking for Tuvalu on a map before concluding that the island nation in the Pacific supposedly at -8.5o latitude, 179.15o longitude might not exist at all, and is simply a ploy to get the .tv domain name for capitalistic reasons. After we came to this conclusion, a lawyer from Twitch knocked on our door and asked us to sign an NDA, but we would not be deterred by the powerful corporations on our quest for journalistic justice.

The plan to replace the current government has multiple stages. The first stage, which we are currently in, involves determining which faculty and students would be most suitable for each position in government. For this reason, mysterious people in suits will be in the back of every classroom for the rest of the semester, evaluating everyone in the room to see who would be the best senate parliamentarian, the best henchman, the best congressional staffer,

supports seizure of rental units

BY PETER WHITE‘23 AND JACKSON HUDGINS ‘23 Introduction On September 27, Berlin residents voted 56% in favor of the expropriation of over 200,000 rental units in the city. This non-binding referendum, meant simply to demonstrate the will of the people, comes just ahead of Germany’s general election and has implications for tenant-landlord relations around the world. In this week’s installment of The Conversation, we will explore the relevance of such a radical response to gentrification, as America continues to experience its own heightened drama around pandemic-related evictions.

In the following sections, controversy around these issues will be explored by Peter White, Campus Liberal, and Jackson Hudgins, Campus Conservative. First, Peter will share his opinion, followed by Jackson’s, and a final synthesis from the two sides.

Campus Liberal, Peter White In my view, this response to gentrification by the people of Berlin is an absolute victory for tenant rights, as well as for the concept of democracy. Activists have been demonstrating for well over a year now on this specific issue, as rent prices and real estate speculation continue to harm the 85% of Berlin’s renters. The referendum, which inspired this piece, called for the socialization of some assets of those landlords who own more than 3,000 units, and saw the support of over 25,000 residents at a demonstration last May. Of course, as mentioned in the introduction, this referendum has already passed, but it is important to understand just what those 56% of residents are in favor of. They have spoken, unequivocally, against an increasingly unfair cost of living, and, more specifically, those individuals who profit on that system.

Of course, there will be those who argue that such a policy would invade too closely on the concepts of the free market. How I see it, this is exactly the problem. Business and profit have no place infringing upon our basic human rights. The free market should not dictate who is able to have a roof above their head, or who has access to good food and drink. This potential policy is entangled in a debate of an unquestionably moral action (providing affordable housing), versus the ability of “super landlords” to continue to make an obscene amount of money. Further, if we can agree that politics is the manifestation of a nation’s moral code, the choice is incredibly obvious.

Those who will scream “Socialism!” may believe that it is not fair to take away income from people whose business has been legitimate, but I believe the example being set by Berliners shows that we ought to prioritize a community’s wellbeing over a few people’s profit. As students who are likely renting for our time here, it is important to see the success that tenants can have if they work together. It is important to remember that your human rights are more important than someone else’s bottom line.

Campus Conservative, Jackson Hudgins

While it may be true that this referendum is a big victory for tenant rights groups and others, the reality is that it only tells one side of the story, and ignores basic ideas about the economy. Ideas about the evil landlords and the evil rich people have unfairly tainted the conversation surrounding housing in urban areas; the truth is that this outcome was not destined to happen. Several policies and attitude changes over the years have produced the current urban housing crisis, and trying to fix the problem using the same solutions we have used for years will only make the problem worse rather than better. In particular, rent control and eviction regulations have distorted the price and demand of housing, and has incentivized expensive housing rather than affordable housing.

Rent control in particular has been a scourge on urban areas for years; forcing a price ceiling on certain housing types forces everybody in the property chain, from developers to subtenants, to lower the quality of their product or reduce supply in order to remain profitable. This has forced developers in particular to change the supply of housing, since affordable housing can only be made at a loss. Thus, luxury units have become the norm in growing cities like Austin, and have become a new development in formerly affordable areas in cities like New York.

By removing rent control as a rule, landlords can properly fund their investment and developers can produce affordable housing to solve several housing crises in the world.

While some may say that this shouldn’t be a question of profit, the reality is that private, profit-based housing has been the most successful at providing a quality product; public housing has overwhelmingly been a failure in major urban areas for years, and has cost the government billions of dollars and lowered quality of life. Large housing developments, such as Pruitt-Igoe, have shown that government institutions do not have the necessary incentives and efficiency to create both quality and affordable housing.

This has led to huge declines in quality of life around these developments, often leading to urban decay, economic stagnation, and rising crime. This is not the solution to housing we should seek.

Conclusion Though there has been less consensus on this subject than some of our previous pieces, there is no debate that there is a housing crisis. Berlin’s action demonstrates one path of action that will potentially unfold in the near future, just as America faces its own eviction crises in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As current students, we may be affected by tenants’ rights issues now, but there is also a high chance many of us will continue to be affected after school.

This is one of those issues that has an impact on everyone, even if you don’t claim to be politically active. The issues surrounding housing affect all of us and our communities.

Please let this small sample of views be your jumping-off point to finding a solution.

10

Friday, October 8

Arts & Culture PASSION FOR FASHION

An “ode” to french fashion

BY MELISSA KOSAR ‘22 After New York Fashion Week concludes, the buzz travels to Europe for Milan Fashion Week, and then Paris Fashion Week. The past week brands such as Balenciaga, Givenchy, Chanel, Miu Miu and Saint Laurent held their shows in the City of Love. As I analyze photos from these shows and pick apart the streetwear trends, I feel nostalgic of my time spent in France while studying abroad. While it is said there is no city in the world quite like Paris, it can also be said that there is no style as classic and timeless as the French.

French style is incredibly different from American style. The French pride themselves on their classy and chic wardrobes. While in France, it seemed that most every woman on the street had carelessly stepped into her outfit that morning

and yet somehow pulled off the simplest pieces in a perfectly luxe combination. I tried my hardest to fit in, to be stylish, to be chic, to appear French, but boy was it hard!

Americans have this tendency to keep reinventing. Each person wants to be different from the next; we want to stand out and look better today than we did yesterday. We want to be bold and loud; we want to experiment with our clothes. As an American, I find nothing wrong with this,; it is really just a part of our culture. The French are different though. It might just be that every chic French woman is a wardrobe minimalist.

Where we strive to be bold and different, the French strive to be timeless and sexy. And, they do just that.

With a focus on black and white, the French girls do not tend to stray too far from a basic neutral color palette. After all, if less is more, sticking to the basics is the best way to strategically utilize your closet contents. If I had to imagine what the inside of a closet looked like for any typical French fashionista here are a few pieces I would imagine I’d see. Firstly, a white and

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VOGUE

black plain t-shirt for their ease in function and versatility. At least one pair of light, medium or black wash jeans, for again their versatility, and because jeans might be the most practical piece of clothing anyone can own. I would be shocked not to see a blazer or two in most any color, but especially black

or tan. A simple pair of flats, or lowshort heels (or low short heeled boots), to take their simple outfits from casual to chic is sure to be there. Finally, I would expect to find a feminine dress as well, either plain or with a simple pattern, in easy colors.

Perhaps the French are more aware of their

spending habits and focused on the sustainability of clothing than some are in America. I certainly cannot imagine most chic French girls raving over a Shein haul (although I could be wrong).

Nonetheless, no matter where they source their clothes from, the French women know just how to

style their pieces to make for classic and timeless outfits. As Yves Saint Laurent, the renowned French man, said himself, “fashion fades, style is eternal.” There is no better way to understand the epitome of French style.

Here are some photos from Paris Fashion Week that prove my claim.

SPOILER ALERT

THE DOODLING DUCK

Why you should watch Amphibia and be hyped for season 3

The shapes in Squid Game

BY EMMA TONG ‘25 “Funny frog show” is what my good friend says about Amphibia. But it is so much more than that.

It is even more than the premise of the show itself which states, “Amphibia chronicles the comedic adventures of a 13-yearold, Anne Boonchuy who is magically transported to the world of Amphibia, a wild marshland full of talking frog-people.” Some other great aspects are its characters, community, and how the show evolves.

Amphibia centers around Anne, a human and her foster frog family (ah don’t you love the alleritations). There is Sprig, a 10-year-old frog who is Anne’s best friend, Polly, the youngest of the family and a tadpole, and Hop Pop, an older frog and the grandfather of the group.

These characters are what makes the show good.

This can be seen from their character designs, which clearly define and represent each character, to their dialogue and interactions. From Hop Pop arguing about the old days or Anne bringing a new twist onto things.

The art style and animation lend a hand in this by dramatizing their expressions which only adds to the comedic aspect of the show. The characters

also lend themselves to world-building since much of the first season also focuses on their small town or WartWood, in which we get to learn about the community and the other frogs that inhabit it. I feel this was a good use of the first season to define each of the characters and build up their and our own connection to these characters and each other.

Another facet of the show which I enjoy is the community, or the fan community. Amphibia is often stacked up to other shows from its parent company like The Owl House and Gravity Falls.

But versus those fandoms I much rather prefer the Amphibia community.

Yes, it is much smaller than the previously mentioned ones. That makes it feel more homely and relaxed. Much of the fandom is chock-full of jokes and memorable moments and references from the show.

The creators and many of the team are highly involved in the community on Twitter through fan art or strange events or posts about the show. Being in the community that is so relaxed and reflects the show itself as being a more fun chill show that you would come to watch for a good time. Even with the reputation of a “funny frog show,” Amphibia does know how to get serious.

The final merit of the show is its ability to change. Which can be seen in it being able to transition and handle more serious topics and situations compared to its previous more lighthearted themes.

At first this tone was seen as an extension of the

more plot driven parts, in which Anne meets some of her friends back home.

This leads into the second and third season where the show seems to be transitioning itself into a more plot driven show with lots of hidden lore and internal conflicts between Anne and her friends back home. I also feel this is where the show shines in its ability to transition and change its tone from fun to serious. It also lets the show have and tackle more serious conflicts which I am all for, with toxic friendships, complex relationships, and loss.

The change can also be seen in the production of the show, the first episode of the third season was made during the start of the pandemic which can be seen its off putting transition and the pandemic song. The crew of the show grew with the show itself, with a transition to more online talk and communication to using the past seasons to build on emotional impact.

Now Amphibia as an overall series is good. I wouldn’t call it perfect. It definitely has its flaws in some of its writing choices, like the show not telling portions of it, or the sometimes jaring feelings and plot points (with it balancing between standard plot where everything gets reverted at the new episode versus a plot focused one).

However, if you are up for a ride of good fun with a big emphasis on plot, in addition to an animation team that tries their best to keep improving the series and move forward, then this is the show for you.

BY POOJA RAJADURAI ‘23 Recently I started watching the Netflix original, Squid Game. Intrigued by the viral TikTok Dalgona Candy Challenge, my friends and I decided to watch the Netflix original which, in my humble opinion, lives up to the hype.

There are many things to enjoy about the show: the direction is extremely intentional, the characters retain an element of intrigue over the majority of the series, the music elevates every performance, and the incorporation of well-known South Korean children’s games gives the global Netflix audience an appreciation of a new culture. Another aspect that I enjoyed immensely was the symbolic design of the show. You might already be familiar with the symbol of Squid Game: a circle, triangle, and square laid out in said sequence. The shapes dually come from the designs drawn on the ground to play the game known as the squid game and abbreviate the show’s name in the Korean alphabet. However, it’s impossible to ignore what the shapes might mean in the context of semiotics.

Semiotics is the usage of signs to convey a certain meaning, emotion, or information. These signs can be anything, from a thumbs up to signify agreement to the color red to signify warnings. Generally, cre-

ators will employ signs with the intention of conveying a certain message through all sorts of media, be it through the lighting and visuals present in a concert, the font and layout present in the newspaper you currently hold, or through shapes and designs prevalent in a TV show. In Squid Games, simple geometric shapes fulfill the semiotic quota to bring an element of cohesion to the different elements of the game, and by extension, the show, effectively bridging the gap between the viewer’s perception and the fictional reality.

In 2018, researcher Silvia Klettner of Vienna University of Technology studied the perception of geometric shapes by both male and female undergraduate students at her college.

Students were asked to group an assortment of geometric shapes according to any sorting technique they pleased, verbally explain their grouping choices, and label the groups based on their chosen distinction.

The results showed that an overwhelming majority grouped the shapes by visual strategy (visual qualities of the shapes) while others grouped the shapes by either affective strategy (how boring, aggressive, showy, etc. the shapes looked) or associative strategy (what the shapes reminded them of in the real world). The results confirm that the deepest and most direct way people interpret geometric shapes and their meanings is mainly through what they can physically discern. The results also showed that most visual strategy groupings differentiated polygons and rounded shapes the most from star-like shapes, resulting in a hierarchical ordering. This means that the circle, triangle, and

square, though vastly different in appearance and philosophy, are normally considered to be related.

Knowing that the different shapes will have left an imprint in viewers’ minds due to people’s tendency to utilize visual strategy over other strategies in observation, whilst seeing the three shapes as mostly related allows me to further argue for the cohesion the shapes bring to the show. In the game red light green light, the rules state that while the individual faces away from the group, the group can move toward the individual, but any movement detected once the individual faces the group results in elimination. The lyrics uttered by the individual while facing away read “Red light, green light, one, two, three,” corresponding to the three shapes representing the games. In the game of marbles, the triangle and square might be the representation of odd and even numbers while the marbles represent the circles themselves. In the end, there are three finalists corresponding to the three shapes. In these ways (and I’m sure many more) the design of the symbols intentionally and unintentionally unifies the themes of the games, players, and TV show.

Semiotic theory employs symbols to foster communication and understanding between individuals. At the crux of Squid Game lies the lesson that human interaction and relationships will determine our abilities to survive or even thrive. The application of semiotic theory as a promoter of relationships through communication and understanding lends depth to an already complex serial that makes us rethink our morals and interest in material gain.

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Friday, October 8

Arts & Culture GIRL TALK

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Gender stereotypes: how does it affect career paths?

The book you read when you want a timeless and classic romance novel

BY JORDYN RAMELLI ‘23

Let me start by saying this: no one ever told me I couldn’t be anything I wanted to be. Whether becoming an engineer, firefighter, or pilot, I was always encouraged to reach for the stars.

My parents raised me to believe that I could achieve anything, and I wholeheartedly agree. I know that I can pursue any career path I want, hence why I am here at Stevens pursuing a future in Business and Technology.

But, there was still a part of me that had the automatic thought that I belonged in a career “for girls,” like nursing, teaching, or being a secretary. It makes me upset that sometimes I still revert back to this feeling and thought process without even noticing. I can’t help but wonder why this happens, and what I can do to stop it.

When I was in high school, we were shown a pretty popular YouTube vid-

eo titled “#RedrawTheBalance” — it truly opened my eyes to the issue of gender stereotypes within careers.

The video depicts the idea that at a young age, children believe that women and men are assigned to different occupations simply because of gender. In the video, children are asked to draw people doing different jobs. The jobs pictured are firefighters, surgeons, and fighter pilots. The children drew mostly men doing the jobs, with 61 pictures being male and only five being female.

After the children finished drawing, the teacher introduced them to a firefighter, a surgeon, and a fighter pilot, who were all women.

The video states that “gender stereotypes are defined between the ages of 5 and 7.”

I couldn’t help but ask myself, why does this happen? Why do children associate certain professions with different genders? Why are gender stereotypes so prevalent? Studies have found that the toys children play with can impact gender stereotypes. For example, boys generally gravitate towards cars, trucks, and blocks while girls go for dolls, stuffed animals, and beauty products. Stereotypes are implemented at an extremely young age.

Scientists believe that al-

though there may be biological differences between boys and girls, “gender differences and self-characterizations are to a large extent socially constructed.”

In relation to occupations, this difference can drastically be seen. According to Gouvernement du Québec’s study, Effects of Stereotypes on Personal Development, men make up “24.8% of the workforce in the natural and applied sciences and related professions, 6.3% of workers in transportation and equipment operation, and 2.1% of construction sector workers.” Children playing with certain toys most likely has an impact on what they want to be when they grow up.

Television and film also can have an impact on early exposure to gender stereotypes. Specifically, I found a case that discusses the relationship between television, math, and gender. The idea that boys are better at math has been pushed in different television series, which therefore affects how children view themselves and their abilities. A study conducted by university professionals in Germany asked children to watch a one minute clip from a German television series that shows two girls not doing well in math, so they copied homework

from a male classmate. To examine the effects of these stereotypes, there was a randomized study conducted where fifth graders watched this television program and responded. As explained in the case, “The results therefore suggest that television can activate and increase stereotypes about males’ advantage in math in children, which might ultimately lead to gender differences in mathematically-intensive STEM fields.”

While it’s not easy to change a social construct that has been embedded in my brain for as long as I could remember, I can certainly try to make a difference. As a woman emerging into a male-dominated career field, I can try to encourage girls to go after their dreams, whatever that may be. Whether it’s engineering, finance, nursing, or anything in between, their gender should not have nothing to do with their choice of occupation.

This also applies to boys as well—whatever profession they choose, there should be no gender bias. In the future, I hope to see an elimination of gender stereotypes and I’ll do my best to make a change. Like my parents taught me: anyone can be anything they set their mind to.

Sudoku

BY KEENAN YATES ‘24 “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” So starts one of Jane Austen’s most well known novels, Pride and Prejudice, which was first published in 1813 and since 1938 has a total of seventeen movie adaptations.

Having so many movie adaptations, it should come as no surprise that the inspiration for all of them is a great piece of literature.

What makes Pride and Prejudice such a fantastic read is that two centuries later the characters are still relatable, the jokes are still funny, and

the character development is still great! Pride and Prejudice is truly a timeless novel; within its pages you will find yourself transported back in time to early nineteenth century England where courting was still a thing and women’s rights were not. The iconic Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist, navigates English society and matchmaking season alongside her four sisters, all under the watch of their very lively mother, Mrs. Bennet.

At the same time the nearby wealthy bachelors Mr. Bingley and his friend Mr. Darcy are also on the search for the perfect partner and, well, you’ll just have to read the book to find out what happens next!

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12

Friday, October 8

Campus Pulse

Jhoans Rendon ’24 “Yeah I call home everyday.”

Winston Lee ‘25

“I was at home yesterday morning.”

Julieta Caroppo ‘25

“I’m a commuter so I see them everyday”

ROVING REPORTER “No.”

“Have you called home this week?”

“I asked my mom for help on an interview.”

Catherine Cheng ‘23

Jeremy Ferias ‘23

Sofia Katsikiotis ‘23

Ethan Li ‘24

“Yeah, actually I went home this weekend.”

“Uh... Sunday night?”

Aidan Ryan ‘24

“Kinda… I call my mom like every day.”

ACROSS

by Off Center

1 4 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 17 21 22 23 24

by Off Center

Riyadh Montevid Havana Skopje Lisbon Caracas Zagreb Dhaka Ulaanba Nairobi Singapor Minsk Bangkok Muscat Warsaw

DOWN 2 3 5 7 8 10 11 16 18 19 20

DOWN:

ACROSS: 1 Riyadh 4 Montevideo 6 Havana 7 Skopje 8 Lisbon 9 Caracas 12 Zagreb 13 Dhaka

14 Ulaanbaatar 15 Nairobi 17 Singapore 21 Minsk 22 Bangkok 23 Muscat 24 Warsaw

2 Ouagadougou 3 Ottawa 5 Tokyo 7 Wellington 8 Lima 10 Kuala Lumpur 11 Tripoli 16 Tallinn

18 Windhoek 19 Moscow 20 Reykjavik

LAST WEEK’S CROSSWORD ANSWERS: Across: 1 Technetium 4 Argon 6 Radon 7 Chlorine 9 Fluorine 10 Calcium 11 Beryllium 13 Bismuth 15 Hydrogen 16 Zinc Down: 1 Tantalum 2 Moscovium 3 Oganesson 5 Zirconium 8 Aluminum 12 Silver 14 Helium

Ouagado Ottawa Tokyo Wellingto Lima Kuala Lu Tripoli Tallinn Windhoe Moscow Reykjavi