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Volume CXIII • Issue 22
Friday, April 1, 2016
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Former NSA Director Michael Hayden gives lecture on modern security threats
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Important budgeting announcement from the SGA by CHANA MEYSTLEMAN Staff Writer
Students all around Stevens dedicate their time to the different clubs and organizations all around campus. Recently, the recognized student organizations held their annual executive board elections. Positions were announced, nominations were made, all that was left to do was hold the actual elections. Nominations were announced before spring break; however, elections were only held in the following weeks. This week marked the first week of the newly student-run e-boards. These new e-boards have control of the budgets allocated to each Jeffrey Vock
by JAMES MURPHY Staff Writer
Michael Hayden, former Director of the NSA and CIA and US Air Force four-star general, gave a talk as part of the President’s Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 16. In a lecture titled “Danger, Complexity, and Immediacy: Today’s Security Challenges,” General Hayden spoke on some of the major issues affecting domestic security at the moment, dividing them into five “tectonics,” or macro movements. Hayden covered a lot of ground over the course of the hourlong lecture, touching on subjects ranging from technological advancements in terrorist groups, to the changing geopolitical boundaries of nation-states over time, to Russian and Iranian nuclear operations, to our tenuous relationship with China. He began the talk by reassuring the audience, “As ugly as the world is today, I have seen
it more dangerous,” though he quickly followed up with, “But never more complicated.” The first tectonic that Hayden covered was the rapidly changing nature of how power is defined on a geopolitical scale. He first cited an article written by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, who said that the only “pieces on the board” that mattered during his tenure (the Ford and first Bush administrations) were nation-states and “hardpower,” or “masses of men and metal.” Power during Scowcroft’s active years was recognized as industrial actors that “strengthened the [central government].” The biggest threat in that era was a malevolent government. Today, we see that dynamic shifting. While the industrial era was defined by power accumulating to the center, in the post-industrial era (now) we see power being pushed out to the fringes. “Things for which we used to rely on an empowered central govern-
ment are now within the reach of sub-governmental groups, gangs, and individuals,” said Hayden. He pointed out that while this has been a good thing for many areas of society, it has also allowed greater sophistication in the attacks of malevolent actors. Terrorism, transnational crime, and cyber attacks no longer require state-sponsored actors. “I never used to lose sleep over religious fanatics living in the Hindu Kush. But we now do,” Hayden said. Hayden expanded on this technological advancement angle with a brief mention of domestic surveillance. Due to the increasing ability to use technology instead of humans to fight our enemies, “we are having discussions and arguments about [how this technology is applied]. [Americans] have not decided how we want to deal with these threats.” Unfortunately, for what was arguably the most controversial
see HAYDEN • Page 6
Honor Board hosts history exhibit in library seen from Weehawken, and the Stevens’ prayer book. There were also several pieces from Martha Stevens, who played an influential role in establishing Stevens Institute. Many DaVinci artifacts can be found in John Lieb’s room. Lieb, a Stevens alumnus and former professor, went to Italy to work with an Italian engineer on a dam. While he was in Italy, he became fascinated with DaVinci. Lieb began collecting DaVinci artifacts and brought them to Hoboken when he returned to the U.S. Included in the collection are models of DaVinci’s machine gun and self-propelled ship, the title page of the Divina Proportione, and a small library. Frederick Winslow Taylor was a distinguished alumnus
of Stevens. His room contains a few of his patents, including a metal cutting tool, tennis racket, and a unique golf club. The Frederick Winslow Taylor and John Lieb rooms are both located on the second floor of the library. Artifacts from the University can be found in Sam’s Room, located behind the circulation desk. Stevens banners from the 1940s were on display next to freshman handbooks from 1925 and 1947. Old lab equipment including a marine boiler and voltmeter can be found on the shelves. One table contained Coke bottle prototypes, Stevens’ first yearbook, and ∫(events)dt, an old university publication with cartoons and information on various activities happening on campus.
Roving Reporter What are you going to do on April Fool’s Day?
Front page articles continued
Review: Bagel Showdown
Polling Pierce What do you think of Stevens’ new website?
OPINION 2-3
PULSE 4
by DAVID ROGERS Staff Writer
The Honor Board hosted “Behind the Books,” on Wednesday evening in the S.C. Williams Library. The library’s four exhibit rooms, the Mary Stuart Stevens Room, the Lieb/ DaVinci exhibit, the Frederick Winslow Taylor exhibit, and Sam’s Place, were open to all students between 8 PM and 10 PM. The Mary Stuart Stevens Room is full of Stevens family relics and portraits. Notable items include a model of the America, the ship sailed by Rob Stevens and America’s Cup namesake, paintings of the Stevens family, an 1835 picture of New York and Castle Point as
Established 1904
student-run organization. Each e-board will be responsible for submitting an organization budget request through DuckSync by 11:59 p.m. on April 4th 2016 in order for their budgets to be taken into consideration. The due date for submitting these forms was specifically chosen to be after e-board elections as to give the new e-board a say in deciding the budget. Once the budgets are submitted, Student Government Association Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt and the SGA chairman committee of student interests (CCSI) Thomas Daly will spend the next three days reviewing the proposed budgets, as well
see BUDGET • Page 6
Comedian Maysoon Zayid talks disability, prejudice, and determination
Olivia Screiber
by OLIVIA SCHREIBER Staff Writer
“My name is Maysoon Zayid, and I am not drunk, but the doctor who delivered me was.” That is how PalestinianAmerican comedian Maysoon Zayid began her presentation to a roomful of men and women this past Wednesday in honor of Women’s History Month. Zayid is many things: a comedian, an actress, an activist, and a Cliffside Park, New Jersey native. She is also someone who lives with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects movement and posture due to damage of the developing brain during or shortly after birth. Zayid entertained and educated as she sat on a tall, black stool in the front of Babbio 122. She explained that her father lived according to the mantra, “You can do it! Yes you can, can!” Her family’s persistence and her determination paid off, as she is able to walk, a feat that is often very difficult for those living with cerebral palsy. Unlike today, Zayid grew up during a time before the word “Muslim” was not tainted, before the American Disabilities Act was codified, and before the Internet and social media platforms became “the place
where you can say the things you would never say.” She attended Arizona State University when affirmative action policies were implemented in university admission offices across the nation. “My application was basically Willy Wonka’s golden ticket,” she said, referencing her inclusion in multiple minority groups. She was an avid student, excelling in her theater classes. “I got all A’s, and I got all A’s in [my classmates’] classes.” Despite her success, she was not casted, even for a main role that portrayed a girl living with cerebral palsy. “I was told, ‘You can’t do the stunts.’ I said, ‘If can’t do the stunts, neither can the character!’” Both her disability and her ethnicity proved to be extremely limiting in her acting career, which is when she turned to comedy. She started doing comedy when she was 21. “It was the perfect place for me. It was a place filled with people who didn’t make it in acting.” She was thrilled when, after 10 years of traveling as a comedian, she was invited to become a full-time contributor on “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann. She admits that her early comedic work was “super vile,” and she didn’t find her voice
see ZAYID • Page 6
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Growing The Stute The Mockingbird’s call Beginner tips for coding Safety of drone strikes
Women in Tech Spotlight: Padmasree Warrior
Baseball sweeps doubleheader versus Utica
Hayden main talking points
A decade of horse armor
No. 16 men’s lacrosse gets past Montclair
SGA open office hours
Men in skirts
More sports news and scores
NEWS 6
OPINION CONT’D 7
SPORTS 8