[The Stute] April 15, 2016 (Issue 24, Volume CXIII)

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STUTE THE

The Stute The official campus newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology since 1904, and creator of the Stevens mascot, Atilla the Duck.

We write Stevens history.

Volume CXIII • Issue 24

Friday, April 15, 2016

TheStute.com

SGA budget oversight leads to cuts for senate committees

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The Maintainers: A Conference features over 40 national scholars

by CHRISTIAN CHIU Business Manager

Lisa Mengotto Pictured left to right: SGA President Matt Hunt and SGA Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt

by PHIL FISHBEIN Staff Writer

Line items worth $50,000 were left out of the Fall 2016 semester’s running total during the SGA’s budget meeting on Sunday. The excel sheet being

used was reformatted, which caused a cell to be de-linked.

The line items not accounted for included the SGA Publicity Committee, money for individual classes, the presidential discretionary fund, and the capital improvement fund.

Objective cuts were made

before the meeting according to the SGA’s recently revised budgeting guidelines, and more cuts had to be made so that the semester total would not be in the red. The Budget Committee reviewed by subcommittees in

see BUDGET • Page 6

New CAL Dean Kelland Thomas explains the importance of the interdisciplinary

Established 1904

Advancement of society is based on technological improvements and innovation, but what about those who have to maintain those systems for future generations? Our complex systems require myriad forms of labor and expertise to sustain. If all human effort is spent on incrementally improving existing infrastructure, where does longevity fit into things?

At “The Maintainers: A Conference,” panels of historians, social scientists, artists, activists, researchers, and engineers attempting to provide good answers to those questions. CAL Professors Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell coordinated the

three-day event, and it was the first of its kind at Stevens. The common theme that bound them together was a shared interest in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure and repair. Presentations covered a wide variety of topics from the perils of deferred maintenance to the concept of maintenance in democracies.

The topic presented in the Opening Plenary was “What is Maintenance & Why Does it Matter?” The opening panel featured four “maintainers” from across the country. Scott Knowles, a professor at Drexel, argued that construction is a “sacred rite in American life” because it demonstrates vision. Knowles said that the west has built itself into harm’s way due to our propen-

see MAINTAIN • Page 6

StevensTHON dances for kids, raises over $20,000

by ANDREW WALDRON Staff Writer

After a yearlong selection process following the leave of Lisa Dolling, the College of Arts and Letters officially named Dr. Kelland Thomas as its new dean in March. Currently associate director of the University of Arizona’s School of Information and director of the school’s Creative Computing Lab, Thomas is in the midst of “a big transition” for him and his family, moving cross-country to our community.

In a call from Tuscon, Arizona he discussed the initiatives at his present workplace, his newfound relationship with Stevens, and his thoughts on the vitality of creative thinking.

While his background is primarily in the performing arts, with a Doctorate in Saxophone Performance and a Master’s degree in Music Theory from the University of Michigan, Thomas had a persistent interest in computing from his formative years during the first wave of personal

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Stevens Institute of Technology

computing. Throughout his time at Arizona, he took computer science courses, gaining a bachelor’s degree in the process, which “rekindled [his] passion to find ways to combine [his] musical interest and performing career with technology... interactive electronics, and computational power behind it.”

This became a common motif in his career path; joining the university’s School of Information: Science, Technology, and the

Arts, the school gives students “a background in... computational thinking and doing but with applications across disciplines.” Additionally, he’s currently directing the aforementioned Creative Computing Lab, a hub for interns, students, and postdoctoral research “doing various projects related to how we can use computing power and programming to develop creative applications,

see CAL • Page 6

by DAVID OVSIEW Membership Chair

This past Friday and Saturday, StevensTHON held a massive dance marathon in Walker Gym. The dance was the first held by StevensTHON and was a major success, making what Associate Director of Student Life Thea Zunick calls, “a pride point for our institution and a future tradition for our campus.”

StevensTHON is an on-cam-

pus organization that works with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a non-profit group dedicated to providing support to hospitals for children with special diseases and injuries. Specifically, StevensTHON seeks to raise money through dance marathons, long dances where outside donors offer money for each hour each person dances. The organization was formed only this past year and

see THON • Page 7

Castle Point Anime Convention Preview: What to expect April 23 and 24

by MARYIA SPIRYDONAVA Staff Writer

It is unlikely that there are many people at Stevens who do not know what CPAC is. For those that are unfamiliar with the Castle Point Anime Convention, campus is overtaken for a day by anime fanatics cosplaying, or everyday garb, as a part of a fun experience

for local anime fans. CPAC is organized and operated by the Stevens Anime Club, which consists of Stevens students.

It is a fun event for everyone participating, as well as a beneficial experience to staff in event management.

CPAC is a weekend filled with a variety of programming including panels, industry guests, cosplay competitions, and even musical performanc-

es. For those participants who are interested in cosplay, there is the generic cosplay contest. Yet, there are also numerous other exciting activities like Cosplay Speed Dating, which is when cosplayers are matched with dozens of other participants to go on mini “dates.” The cosplayers answer the MC’s questions incharacter to woo their pairing.

At the end, there is an awards

ceremony, at which the most popular ships at CPAC are revealed. Other competitions include Cosplay Chess, Cosplay Pro Wrestling, and Cosplay ScavengerHunt.

Stevens’ students and anime fans, but also from industry experts. This year’s guests are Lauren Landa, Josh Grelle, and Bryce Papenbrook. Landa is known for numerous voices in the anime world like

the ninja beauty, Kasumi in Dead or Alive 5 and the kind hearted Leia in Tales of Xillia. Grelle has been voicing characters for over 10 years in shows like Wedding Peach and Steam Detectives, and has lent his voice to a number of video games, including Sima Shi in Dynasty Warriors 7.

Papenbrook has performed in

Roving Reporter How do you feel about coming?

Front page articles continued

New York finaly matters this election season

Men’s Tennis topples NYU

Career Center seeks student feedback

Letter to the Editor Legalizing decryption

Unity Carnival

Spotlight: Katie van Orden

Men’s Lacrosse beats Hartwick College

NEWS 6-7

OPINION CONT’D 8-9

SPORTS 10

see CPAC16 • Page 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: It’s okay to not be perfect Will the Registrar let Joe graduate?

Food review: Turning Point

Polling Pierce Did you go to your accepted student’s day?

OPINION 2-3

PULSE 4

Hacks of 2010

Men’s Fencing places in NCAA Regionals

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113th Volume Executive Board Editor-in-Chief Business Manager Membership Chair Systems Administrator

Lisa Mengotto Christian Chiu David Ovsiew Tarik Kdiry

Staff & Contributors Andy Waldron Chana Meystleman Christopher Wacyra David Rogers Dennis Stewart Evan Bedser Gabrielle McCormack Houston Migdon Ian Porada James Murphy Phil Fishbein

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Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 2

Opinion The Stute Editorial

Why admitting you’re wrong makes you right Originally, I was going to talk about why being detailed-orientated is never overrated. Actually paying attention to what you’re doing and rechecking information is something that we all should do. If you have taken on the responsibility of completing a task for a group project or a larger organization, you better make time to do your job correctly. Just don’t do things wrong. However, I think that all of this pressure to not mess up is a really bad thing. Being wrong and making mistakes is normal, and it’s admitting to an error and trying to fix it that’s important.

It doesn’t matter if you’re bad at your job as long as you’re open about it and trying to improve.

This came up because of recent financial miscalculations, such as SGA’s budget excel sheet mishap and Student Life not charging the accounts listed on the pcard recon form. It’s really easy to feel frustrated about these two situations, and it’s even easier to feel compelled to point fingers. Sure, I could just blame SGA Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt and Student Life Financial Co-

Letters to the Editor Policies The opinions in letters sent to The Stute with the request to be published are the sole opinions of their author(s) and do not reflect the views and opinions of any member or person involved in the making of The Stute. These opinions are not endorsed by The Stute and the content of all letters are left in their original, unedited form.

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Letters may not exceed 500 words in length and must be fully attributed with name and title (non-attributed letters will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the author’s identity must be made known to a member of the Executive Board). They must be emailed to eboard@thestute.com. The Stute reserves the right to not publish any letter submitted for publication.

Copyright © 2016 The Stute

Corrections & Clarifications To report errors, please contact us at eboard@thestute.com • The article about Duckhacks stated that the Society of Professional Engineers helped to host the event but it was cohosted by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Stevens Women in Computer Science. Also, first place went two students, Sandra Herrara and Diana Galarza.

and for my students to leave the class having a more in-depth understanding than I had after taking the course. However, there was no training for the job, and no resources, and I wasn’t given any direction. It makes me feel like I suck and that I’m doing a disservice to these students.

The way I handle this is by asking Mik (head TA) or whoever else is around any questions that come up. Now, it’s really challenging when my questions are usually answered with sarcasm and a sense of degradation, but I think it’s good that I am being a proactive TA. I just really hope that my students see that they’re asking good questions and that I’m not afraid to tell them I don’t have all of the answers.

Lisa Mengotto Editor-in-Chief

Mind of a Freshman

The getaway (sort of)

Disclaimer All opinions, stories and editorials reflect the views of their respective author(s). The Stute reserves the right to edit all letters and articles submitted for publication for clarity and factual accuracy, or not publish them.

No part of The Stute may be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Cited references of The Stute are permitted.

ordinator Brielle Melillo, since these were their responsibilities.

I could criticize them, tell them to do their jobs better, and make them feel bad for their oversights. But I’d rather appreciate them for doing something right – which is not being afraid to admit that they were doing something wrong. In Jacob’s case, the budgeting committee made internal SGA cuts instead of going back through to cut funds from RSOs. With Brielle, she fixed the amounts charged to each account. It’s great that when these issues were noticed, they were talked about.

I think being wrong is so stigmatized that admitting to messing up becomes hard, and admitting you don’t know something is even harder. It doesn’t make a person stupid or lazy, but it makes a person a person. I struggle with this a lot every Wednesday when I TA Design II. Students ask questions that I don’t know the answers to. It’s not a great feeling. I originally wanted the job because my TA didn’t help us and that sucked. So I was really excited to be a great TA

by GABRIELLE McCORMACK Freshman Software Engineering Major

A weekend getaway, in my opinion, is definitely food for the soul. After a long week of midterms and the stresses of nearing the end of the semester, I felt a weekend to myself was in order. Whether it be a day at the beach,

a peaceful hike, or a road trip out of state, anything is better than nothing when it comes to allowing yourself to relax. Some choose to go on vacations and fill their days with sightseeing and other activities, while others choose to lounge around without care and responsibility.

Personally, I chose to go out of state for a change and to both lounge and sight-see during my weekend getaway. This combination is the best of all, because it allows you to both unwind from a stressful week, and make the most of the area in which you

are vacationing in. Although it was nice to spend a few days to myself, I had to fit in at least one event that would aid me in my future endeavors.

While there, I had arranged to go to the University of Maryland for a Cybersecurity conference geared toward the usage of the “black box,” infotainment, and telecommunications in vehicles today. It was a topic that had piqued my interest from the moment I heard about the conference, and it was certainly a great opportunity for me considering that I’m going into software engineer-

ing. Another great aspect of this conference specifically was that it was only open to women. Being a woman in a male-dominated field is certainly difficult at times, and when you see other women interested in the same topics you are, it is definitely comforting.

Overall, being able to both be productive and lazy on vacation is the best of both worlds.

I am happy that I had both the opportunity to further myself academically, and wind down from a hectic semester by taking a road trip out of state to do something that I love.

Senioritis

Where is the respect?

by JOSEPH BROSNAN

5/5 Civil Engineering Major

I have complained about the Stevens Registrar many times in the past, but this week they really, really let me down.

I am a graduating senior.

This means that I have to formalize my study plan into a presentable “Application for Candidacy.”

In it, I have to keep track of every class I took, when I took them, what grades I got, and how they are classified to meet my requirements.

Luckily, your unofficial transcript has a lot of this information already displayed for you, and if you’ve been meeting regularly with your academic advisors (which you should all be doing), you should have them correctly placed every semester.

Now, that said, I got an email last semester before midterms from the Stevens Registrar stating that I needed to submit my Application for Candidacy. This was a bit silly - the Application for Candidacy is intended to be a final draft, and because I still had one unscheduled semester, this didn’t make much sense to me.

Needless to say, I submitted it with the help of my academic advisor, and life went on.

Until of course I got an email from the Registrar

stating that my Application for Candidacy was not accepted because I had not yet completed the Fall or Spring semesters. Ok, fine. Sure, after I finished the semester last December, I resubmitted it with the grades, and everything was good.

And then I got an email stating that I am clear for graduation - except that I wasn’t because the Application for Candidacy that they approved they had told me just the week before was invalid because I withdrew from a class (one of my additional classes).

So, as per the Registrar’s orders, I began to update my Application for Candidacy only to realize that the new Application for Candidacy form, which apparently is the result of the new website (it was not very clear) calls out

for more classes than I took.

And so, the nightmarish cycle of incompetency continues.

I discovered on Tuesday that many of my fellow Civil Engineers are in the same boat. I haven’t heard of one Graduate Application for Candidacy (for Civil Engineering) going through, though to be fair I only asked one class worth of students, and a good number of my friends are experiencing the same “extra class” issue on the Undergraduate Application for Candidacy.

I know the workers there are stressed out and dislike their current setup, but c’mon. There has got to be a better way to organize yourselves, and the people above them should actively be listening to make this experi-

ence a better one for both parties. I don’t know how it works in other schools, but my experiences with the Registrar have pretty much been the absolute worst out of any organization on campus, and gosh I’ve had some bad experiences.

To be entirely fair, this issue won’t exist in the same capacity in the future - I have knowledge that the Registrar is migrating all of their data

(and have been for a good number of months) to a new online system that will be formally rolled out in 2017. However, until then, we have to deal with a handful of people who all use post-it notes and white boards to keep tabs on each issue they need to take care of.

Man, this is my tuition at work... I can’t wait to get out of here - so long as the Stevens Registrar says I can in fact graduate!!

COUNTDOWN TO FREEDOM

40 Days until Commencement

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 3

Technically Speaking

The 2010s: a hackful decade

by TARIK KDIRY

Freshman Software Engineering Major

Whether it be Anonymous, including those who claim to be Anonymous, or LizardSquad, it is hard to deny that this decade has, so far, has been jam-packed with interesting cyber attacks and cyber wars. It really begs the question of who is who, and what is what, in the cyber world. Who is on whose side? If there is a side, where is it? It’s a confusing

and, quite frankly, scary topic to discuss.

The most famous large scale cyber attacks that have happened this decade so far seems to have targets internationally and focus on defense and entertainment. For example, there hasn’t been a year this decade where groups as notorious as LizardSquad haven’t attacked gaming companies such as Microsoft and their Xbox Live service, as well as Playstation and their networks.

These attacks not only tamper with online performance of their products, but also, expose the personal information of countless users.

These bits of information include birthdays and credit card information that can be quite profitable to criminals.

Other than entertainment hacks, my personal favorite

type of attacks to read about are revolutionary attacks such as Anonymous’s war on large figures such as notorious terror group ISIS, the Westboro Baptist Church, and Donald Drumpf. These types of attacks intrigue me the most because they weren’t carried out to gain anything materially, such as money or fame, but rather, to fight back against evil. Well, most of the time that is. Occasionally, terror groups like ISIS find themselves skilled hackers and counter-hackers with plans that have proven to be quite dangerous.

One case that I find most intriguing is the attack on CIA Director John Brennan carried out by a teen that claimed to be affiliated with a small (3 person maximum) hacker group named

“Crackas With Attitude.”

Despite the hilarious name, they were successful in hacking into Brennan’s AOL account by means of social engineering. Posing as Verizon employees, CWA was able to access Brennan’s personal information such as his social security number, security clearances, emails etc. After obtaining the information, CWA would occasionally taunt Brennan by calling him and sending him messages. Not only do I find their hacking methods utterly astounding, I also admire their intents on doing so. After hacking Brennan, CWA made constant comments on current political conflicts such as the recent leaking of the CIA’s torture methods and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Hacktivists, as people similar to CWA are often re-

ferred to, revolutionize the word “revolution” as Henry Ford revolutionized transportation.

Though there are the dreaded physical wars that are constantly being fought today, we must not forget the equally as terrifying cy-

ber wars that are occurring more and more each day as more and more people worldwide are learning how to hack. This is one unfortunate side-effect of free knowledge and information that is easier than ever to come by these days.

thecomputerfixer.com

Scientific Curmudgeon

What’s so great about Innovation?

by JOHN HORGAN

Director, Center for Science Writings

Last week, a few dozen scholars assembled at Stevens for “The Maintainers, ”a threeday conference on our modern obsession with innovation. Here is a description: “Many groups and individuals today celebrate ‘innovation.’ The notion is influential not only in engineering and business, but also in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. For

example, ‘innovation’ has become a staple of analysis in popular histories–such as Walter Isaacson’s recent book, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution.

This conference takes a different approach, one whose conceptual starting point was a playful proposal for a countervolume to Isaacson’s that could be titled The Maintainers: How a Group of Bureaucrats, Standards Engineers, and Introverts Made Technologies That Kind of Work Most of the Time.”

The organizers of the conference were Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell, professors of science and technology studies here at Stevens.

They spelled out their

views on innovation at greater length in an edgy manifesto, “Hail the Maintainers.” The sub-title notes: “Capitalism excels at innovation but is failing at maintenance, and for most lives it is maintenance that matters more.”

Innovation has been linked to inequality and other ills, Vinsel and Russell point out. They cite the finding of historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan (who spoke at the conference) that washing machines and vacuum cleaners, “which promised to save labor, literally created more work for mother as cleanliness standards rose, leaving women perpetually unable to keep up.”

They continue: “Focusing on infrastructure or on old, existing

Turning Point

by KATRINA GUIDO

Sophomore Physics Major

If you’re tired of Stacks for your weekend morning breakfast and don’t feel like walking all the way to Malibu for the diner experience, then Turning Point located on the water at 14th on Sinatra Dr. may just offer an alternative.

I know, I know, with 11 locations including Hoboken, Turning Point is technically a chain, but for those of us who didn’t grow up in Jersey, we aren’t privy to the experience. Their claim to fame is their focus on breakfast, brunch, lunch, and nothing else, as they close at 3

about two kinds of innovation that arguably do more harm than good.

The first involves medical technologies such as magnetic-resonance imaging and mammograms, which have boosted the costs but not the quality of health care in the U.S. Then there is innovation in weapons, such as armed drones and “targeting killing” technologies. As Yale bioethicist Wendell Wallach (a recent speaker at Stevens) warns in his book A Dangerous Master: How to Keep Technology from Slipping Beyond Our Control, the U.S. is “the world’s leading driver of an accelerating and ever-escalating arms race.”

I applaud Vinsel and Russell for drawing attention to a topic with

HOURS of OPERATION Sun. – Thurs. 8 a.m.–3 p.m.

Fri. – Sat. 8 a.m.–3 p.m.

Cuisine Corner

p.m.

Walking in Turning Point’s décor is very light and homey, which, when filled with families on a Saturday morning, is enough to bring on a tinge of nostalgia for the good old days of breakfast with the family. At 9 a.m. the place was already packed, but a table for two was available, so we were seated right away.

Taking stock of the fairly extensive menu including smoothies, a large selection of hot beverages, waffles, French toast, sandwiches, salads and more, I ended up choosing lemon blueberry pancakes, substituting their power grain pancakes for the regular, and my partner chose one of the seasonal specials – a Sriracha BBQ breakfast bowl. We added on an order of diced fruit and cinnamon sugar pitas because why not? I was excited, everything sounded so delicious.

Our food came fairly

things rather than novel ones reminds us of the absolute centrality of the work that goes into keeping the entire world going. Despite recurring fantasies about the end of work or the automation of everything, the central fact of our industrial civilization is labor, and most of this work falls far outside the realm of innovation.”

Vinsel and Russell conclude: “Entire societies have come to talk about innovation as if it were an inherently desirable value, like love, fraternity, courage, beauty, dignity, or responsibility. Innovationspeak worships at the altar of change, but it rarely asks who benefits, to what end?”

Excellent questions.

I’m especially concerned

quickly for how busy the restaurant was, and a few bites in, my partner and I both looked at each other thinking the same thing: Why are we here? Yes, the eggs were fresh and were actual real eggs, the potatoes were crispy, the pancakes were fluffy despite their multigrain batter with griddled crispy edges and a decent amount of blueberries, but the food was no different than Stacks.

Prices and the number of options are nearly one to one, and Stacks accepts DuckBills and is closer.

The only real difference in the menu was that Turning Point isn’t pretending to be something they’re not by offering barbecue.

Aside from the menu, Turning Point does offer the out of the way experience. Located right on the Hudson, very few seats come with a bad view. When the weather is warm, outside seating grants calmer and more scenic views than Wash-

ington St. on a weekend morning - unless of course you enjoy the parade of young families mingled with slightly tipsy boozy brunch-goers and those still afflicted with their hangover from the night before.

Neither my partner nor I could imagine coming back. It’s not that Turning Point is bad, not at all – the food was respectable, the service was decent, and the atmosphere was cozy – but with all of the ben-

profound political, economic, moral and philosophical implications. In addition to organizing the meeting, they gave great talks, as did several other Stevens folks: nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein (who also designed the meeting’s poster and t-shirts); art and technology professor Nicholas O’Brien; and Hugh Lester, a fellow of the Center for Complex Systems and Enterprises.

May these and other scholars keep challenging our veneration of innovation.

John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings, which is part of the College of Arts & Letters.

This column is adapted from one published on his ScientificAmerican.com blog, “Cross-check.”

CONTACT (201) 222-3797 1420 Sinatra Dr.

efits that Stacks offers students, the market is tough for breakfast food. Besides, since Turning Point closes so early in the day, they

completely disregard the possibility of breakfast for dinner, and I really happen to enjoy a fluffy short stack around 9 at night.

Photos courtesy of Katrina Guido

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 4

Campus Pulse

Roving Reporter Why did you choose Stevens?

“I felt like I fit well with the people and I liked the location.”

“I was recruited for swimming.”

“The Scholars program was quite attractive.”

Thomas Braun

Maria McClure

Gabriel Goldberg

“Mostly for the location, and I knew the engineering degree would be valuable.”

“It was close to home.”

“My neighbor went to Stevens.”

Mitchell Dull

Paul Potenza

Thomas O’Neill

Polling Pierce

Did you attend your Accepted Students Day? Based on 100 responses

52

Yes

48

Where the Duck?

Know where this is?

Check out next week’s issue for the answer!

No

Answer from April 8 Issue: Elevator of Altorfer Building

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Strips

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 5

News Budget

Continued from front page

a random order, rather than previous years’ order which had started with ESC and Professional Societies. RSO representatives filtered in and out of BC 122, and were able to follow the progression of the meeting by a timesheet that was emailed to organization leaders a week prior.

Starting at 1 p.m., the Budget Committee was able to quickly breeze through most of the submitted budgets and by approximately 9 p.m., they had already advanced an hour ahead of schedule.

However, soon after the Budget Committee passed non-RSO budgets, Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt noticed that the formula used in the excel sheet was omitting a very large cost, namely the semesterly line items. Rather than being $13,000 over budget, the SGA was $63,000 over budget.

Hunt stated that even if the expenditure for line items was included in the initial calculation, the senate still would have had a large challenge of cutting $63,000 worth of RSO-requested items.

As the Committee began to realize the gravity of the situation, possible

CAL

Continued from front page

whether it’s visual arts, virtual reality, [or] music and sound.”

Thomas is also a coinvestigator in research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The project’s intent is to “explore how computers and humans can collaborate and communicate,” with his work focusing on “developing an artificially intelligent, autonomous system that will communicate with the human musician.” “MUSical Improvising Collaborating Agent (MUSICA),” in collaboration with individuals from University of Illinois and Oberlin College, received a $2.3 million research grant and aims to “pass a musical Turing test, where a musician would recognize what the computer is doing. In response, that behavior should be [contextually] related to what the human is doing [like] how two musicians have a ‘conversation’ whilst playing.”

This kind of cross-disciplinary interplay is what Thomas notes as “akin to what [he has] seen at CAL” and likely had a large role in the department’s choice for their new dean. The College of Arts and Letters had contacted him about applying for the position, and, while it wasn’t on Thomas’s “radar,” upon further research he found CAL to be “an exciting take on the liberal arts” and the prospect of “directing a unit and helping further [the school’s] vision”

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 6

solutions were discussed around the room. Some suggested cutting some or all of The Link’s budget, as the yearbook deposit money is not technically due until the spring semester of next academic year. However, a representative of The Link informed them that the money should to be split between the fall and spring semesters so as to not take up such a significant amount of the Student Activity Fee total.

Shannon Pierce, senator and SGA Media Board subcommittee head, was against revisiting RSO budgets to make cuts. She pointed out that these organizations spent hours defending their budgets and it would be unfair to make them come back because of the SGA’s mistake. The committee members agreed and began to consider internal solutions.

The budget committee agreed to cut 100% of Campus Life Committee’s budget. The Presidential Discretionary Fund was also removed, as per SGA President Matt Hunt’s suggestion. The Entertainment Committee, which was originally allocated to received 16% as per SGA bylaws, was cut to 12% of the SAF fund. The Budget Committees agreed that students would not be as

affected by the $22,000 cut to EC, although this will mean less tickets for the committee’s offcampus events. Finally, the SGA retreat budget was reduced. In the end, the Budget Committee cut down approximately $44,000.

The final budget was $21,000 in the red, which is normal. A rollover of at least $20,000 is expected to be restored by rollback funds, or unspent money allocated to RSOs the previous semester. Hunt explained that the deficit is a result of a continuing trend of student organizations poor budgeting practices, including overbudgeting for items they don’t need expecting that the committee will cut their budget down. The SGA is considering policy changes to encourage RSOs to adopt conservative budgeting practices in effort to prevent this from reoccurring.

For more questions regarding budgeting, please contact SGA Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt.

equally as exciting. Regarding his plans for when he gets to Stevens, Thomas remarked that he will be “the new guy,” planning to “listen to all of what the faculty... administrators and students say and find out what the strengths are [of the department,] find out what can be improved and taken to the next level.” He intends to “work with those vested people” to “collaboratively develop an exciting vision for CAL’s future.”

When asked if the academia has a role in fostering an arts culture on campus, Thomas made a point to say that he “would want to be the kind of administrator who helps create a more prosperous culture of the arts and humanities, critical thinking, and global perspectives across [Stevens],” believing that “CAL would be a force for that kind of intellectual and cultural moment on campus,” and expressed wanting to “develop those kind of initiatives that will help CAL increasingly be a presence.”

Those initiatives, promoting an arts-centric mindset to a majorly STEM (educational ideals based on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) environment like Stevens, and the relationship between the two became points of considerable deliberation talking to Thomas; when asked about ways STEM and the liberal arts could meaningfully interact, he made a point to say there seems to be a “false dichotomy” between the two, noting “the most serious and successful artists [he knows] are just as rigorous in their inquiry as

scientists” — the difference being, “the artists... [are] not necessarily proving or disproving hypotheses but they’re investigating a space... with the same kind of rigor [and] the same intellectual probing” that scientists engage in.

He reiterated how “we’re already living in a work landscape where critical thinking and creative problem solving are... necessary to strive and thrive in being successful in almost any field,” with efforts like STEAM— STEM programs integrating the arts like the upcoming pre-college summer programs to be offered on campus— acting as pointers to this shift.

“Interdisciplinary may seem like a buzzword, but when you get deeply into several disciplines,” citing his work with computer science and music, Thomas believes “that’s when you get to see how powerful it can be to have different people working together... to solve problems that haven’t been thought of yet... and do the kind of work that advance our understanding of technology interacting with ourselves and nature.”

Dr. Kelland Thomas will start as the new dean for the College of Arts and Letters on June 1st of this year. He “[looks] forward to finding ways to serve our culture” as well as “being a Duck and contributing to the wider community.” Those looking to participate more in the College of Arts and Letters can attend their next hosted lecture, “Personal Identity and Narrativity” with speaker Jakub Čapek in Babbio 320 at 4 p.m. on April 21.

Maintain

Continued from front page

sity to build large coastal cities and densely populate the surrounding areas.

This causes natural disasters to cost much more both in property damage and in human lives. Nine out of the ten costliest storms the U.S. has ever faced occurred during the time span between 1900 and 2012. Knowles posited that this is due to more and more people moving to the east coast.

Knowles explained that “slow disasters” are the result of deferred maintenance. He stated that “event-time” disasters are the only disasters that get showcased on the news due to their immediateness and grandeur. Knowles warned of the trend of American schools moving away from maintenance engineering towards innovation engineering. This, he said makes students desire to start new projects instead of maintain old ones. Knowles concluded by saying the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a report card score of D+ for the quality of its infrastructure.

Zachary Pirtle, a NASA employee, offered some insight into what maintainer knowledge can be classified as: retained critical skills and hardware necessary to replicate the original innovation. He talked a bit about his time working at NASA and connected fundamental design concepts to engineering knowledge. For example,

Stevens Institute of Technology

the space launch system is a descendant from the original space shuttle.

The other two panelists were Lara Houston, a postdoc at Cornell, and Daniel Kreiss, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Houston talked about software and computer operating systems, while Kreiss focused his talk on institutional politics and the technology-intensive campaigning done by modern politicians. He also noted how in recent times, infrastructure maintenance has become a big topic of discussion during presidential campaigns, using Republican candidate Donald Trump as an example.

After all four panelists gave their talks, there was a brief question and answer session. The conference spanned three days from Thursday until Saturday. Later Friday sessions were “Legacies of the Nineteenth Century” with speakers Ann Greene, Deepak Malghan, John Busch, and Stevens’ own Nicholas O’Brien and then “Theory, Method, Practice” with Ellen Foster, Juris Milestone, Padraig Murphy, Matt Thomas. A later session included Philip Scranton, Stevens’ Lee Vinsel, and Misha Rabi-

novich and Caitlin Foley in “Clones, Communists, Culture.” Closing that day was “People and Networks” Roger Turner, Heidi Voskuhl, Andrew Meade McGee, Stevens’ Andrew Russell, and Nicholas Barron.

Saturday’s session covered “Maintenance in Motion”, “Maintaining the Digital”, “Maintenance in Democracies”, “Humanity and Bureaucracy”, and “The Enduring Industrial Age.” The weekend featured speakers from MIT, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and other well-known colleges and universities. Stevens’ own Professor Alex Wellerstein on maintaining nuclear weapons and a Stevens graduate student Hugh Lester also presented that day.

In the closing remarks

by Vinsel encouraged his colleagues to keep creating these spaces for interdisciplinary discussion and analysis of innovation. Russell appreciated the quality, spirit, and tone that was maintained throughout the conversations which helped form a sense of community.

For more information about the conference, contact Professor Lee Vinsel at lee.vinsel@gmail.com

Career Center begins series of co-op focus group discussions

by RAMI KAMMOURH Staff Writer

The Stevens Career Center hosted a Focus Group discussion for co-op students to discuss changes and possible improvements to the Co-operative Education program this past Wednesday. The two-hour discussion was the first of a series of semesterly discussions to be held by the Career Center in order to hear student’s opinions on co-op.

In light of recent changes to the co-op program, specifically the switch from paper-based interview sign-ups to a new electronic system, Career Center Executive Director Lynn Insley and Senior Assistant Director Sabrina Sanichar wanted to organize a formal discussion for students to provide feedback. “What we’re trying to do with the focus group is interact with students after they’ve seen these changes,” says Insley. “We also want to solicit students’ ideas for program improvement”.

Among the topics discussed during this first Focus Group discussion were refining the interview sign-up process, creating a forum for students to post reviews of their previous

Tarik Kdiry

co-op positions, and putting forth more expectations of employers in order to assure a more efficient selection process for students. Insley and Sanichar discussed the feasibility of these ideas and several others proposed by students during the discussion. The Career Center hopes to receive feedback from students regarding not only the current state of the co-op program and its recent changes, but also any changes that will come to the program in coming semesters. In order to do so, the Career Center will hold one or more Focus Group discussions during each of the three co-op term semesters, Fall, Spring, and Summer. “What we want is moving input as to how change is affecting the coop students,” said Insley.

The significance of this series of Focus Group discussions is that it is the first formal means of providing student input regarding the co-op program to the administration since the Co-op Student Council disbanded in 2013, which served to

advocate for the rights of co-op students and organize events for co-op students living on-campus. When asked if this Focus Group would evolve into a similar student organization, Insley said “We’re at the point where we’re just gathering information and assessing what students have to say. This group of students seems more interested in supporting the program.”

In order to receive more input, the Career Center hopes to have more students attend the next Focus Group discussion. Insley stresses the fact that the coop program exists in order to supplement students’ education and prepare them for their careers. “I think all of us who work in the co-op program genuinely care about our students’ experience, and we want to make the co-op experience the best we possibly can for our students,” says Insley.

Anyone interested in participating the next discussion is encouraged to email Lynn Insley at lynn.insley@ stevens.edu.

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 7

THON

Continued from front page

faced a daunting challenge in making their first dance marathon a success: how to attract sponsors and raise as much money as possible at a school that has never held a dance marathon of any kind.

However, StevensTHON took the challenge in stride, doing everything they could to attract attention. They went to Washington Street and recruited many vendors interested in making a difference, including Giovanni’s, Boardwalk, and Panera. They then turned their attention to Stevens students, setting up events where students could sign up for organ donation or the bone marrow registry and learn about StevensTHON in the process. There were also “percentage days,” where students could eat out on Washington Street and have a percentage of their bill go towards Children’s

Miracle Network. They also had a table during the Club Fair in September, an info session in October, and maintained a social media presence the entire time to keep people updated.

All the hard work finally paid off on Friday. The dance ran from 9 PM on Friday to 8 AM on Saturday, ending an hour earlier than the original plan of 9 AM due to an unanticipated volleyball game. Even with the reduced time slot, the dance was attended by hundreds of students, with over 200 dancing during the peak of the event and nearly 35 “hanging” in there until 8 AM. The dance marathon featured food and other items donated from 19 local businesses, including several Washington Street restaurants such as Giovanni’s, Benny Tudino’s, and 16 Handles. Musical entertainment was provided in the form of six DJs who performed over the course of the night. In addition, five children from local Children’s Miracle Net-

work hospitals came to talk to the dancers and remind them what they were dancing for over the course of the night.

By the end of the night, the Stevens community had proved its dedication to both charity and dancing. Those who coordinated StevensTHON went into the night with the goal of raising $10,000, or maybe as much as $16,000 if they were lucky. By the end of the night, they had raised a grand total of $20,812.01.

This is the most ever raised by a first-year dance marathon in New Jersey. Indeed, most schools don’t even raise that much by their second year.

“They exceeded all expectations any of the staff had,” said Zunick, who served as a StevensTHON mentor this year. StevensTHON will have little time to celebrate their success.

With this dance marathon complete, they must now begin planning for next year’s marathon and how they will break yet another record.

CPAC16

Continued from front page

numerous video games, cartoons, and television shows and has been a professional voiceover artists since the age of eight.

Anime fans will appreciate the music talent featured at CPAC this year, featuring: Immobius, DJ Sanchez, and AKIRA. AKIRA will have her own solo concert at CPAC. Her solo debut was in 2014 as a Sony major artist, her song was featured as the ending theme song in Black Butler: Book of Circus. DJ Sanchez has performed all around the world, yet he is no stranger to anime fans since this will be his second time performing at CPAC. Immobius has participated in CPAC for over four years, this will be his third time as a DJ. He specializes in “nerdy” electronic mu-

sic; his music combines elements of music from genres like video games and modern dance music to remix songs like Undertale and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Of course, how could CPAC be an anime convention without some anime panels? There will be a number of featured panels, one group panel will feature Crusher-P, Creep-P, Misha, and MystSaphyr.

All four of them had made their name in the anime world in their own way. Crusher P makes product demos for Yamaha, Creep-P is a VOCALOID producer, known for his eerie, yet upbeat experimentalstyled music. Some of his popular songs include Creative, LOVE, and SHARDS. Both Misha and MystSaphyr are “UTAU” and VOCALOID users. All of these musically talented people should make for an interesting panel.

CPAC weekend will

be filled with lots of excitement and events, with someone for everyone to do and if you’re one to not like big crowds, well you might want to hide for this specific weekend. There will be sure something to see and most people will probably leave the weekend with lots of stories to tell. For those who are not frightened by this prospect, can find more information on the Castle Point Anime Convention website, www.cpac.moe.

For those students interested in volunteering at CPAC 2016, on 23rd and 24th April, contact Tyler Romeo or look for volunteer posters for more information.

If you liked Unity Carnival, check out Unity Showcase Fri 7 p.m. in Canavan

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Opinion

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 8

Women in the Tech Spotlight

Gwynne Shotwell

by NAMANKITA RANA

Freshman Engineering Management Major

Gwynne Shotwell does for a living what most of us dreamed of doing as children: as the president and COO of SpaceX, she’s helping shape the future of mankind’s exploration of the universe. Yes, her boss Elon Musk might get more press coverage, but Shotwell is easily the company’s biggest hidden gem. The work she is doing is nothing less than astounding -- as president, she oversees $5 billion in contracts, manages over 3,400 employees, and has helped lift more than fif-

ty space missions off the ground. As of 2014, she is listed as the 90th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Her road to SpaceX is a long but fascinating one. From an early age, she had an interest in machines. In the third grade, she remembers being in the car with her mother and wondering how the engine worked.

“So my mom bought me a book on engines,” Shotwell said. “I read it and became really interested in car engines, and gears and differentials.”

In high school, Shotwell was a straight-A student who played varsity basketball and was on the cheerleading team when her mother told her she should be an engineer.

“I was like, ‘What does an engineer do? Drive trains?’” she recalled, laughing. Shotwell and her mom attended a Society of Women Engineers

panel at the Illinois Institute of Technology -- and from there, she found out exactly what she wanted for a career.

She graduated a few years later from Northwestern University with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in applied mathematics. Although she was initially interested in the automotive industry, a friend connected her to the Aerospace Corporation, the federally funded research center in El Segundo that oversees the technical side of military space contracts. He invited her to look into an open position at Aerospace. She went on to spend over ten years at Aerospace Corporation, where she held positions in Space Systems Engineering & Technology as well as Project Management. She was promoted to Chief Engineer of an MLV-class sat-

ellite program, managed a landmark study for the Federal Aviation Administration on commercial space transportation, and completed an extensive analysis of space policy for NASA’s future investment in space transportation. Ms. Shotwell was subsequently recruited to be the Director of Microcosm’s Space Systems Division. By 2002 , however, she left Microcosm to join Space X. As she said in an interview with the LA Times, “I left… because I wanted to go build, and put spacecraft together.”

She was the seventh employee hired on to SpaceX in its founding year of 2002. She joined the then-struggling startup as the chief of sales, and she recalls that her job was simply to keep the company funded. She did that task extraordinarily well, and by 2008, it was clear that she was “the obvious choice” for company pres-

ident. Thanks in no small part to her efforts, SpaceX had grown from a start-up with half a dozen employees to a major government contractor with nearly $5 billion in contracts and more than 3,000 people on its payroll. The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., had also successfully carried out two cargo resupply missions to astronauts aboard the space station for NASA, and remains the only commercial company to ever do so.

And yet, despite all of her accomplishments, Shotwell maintains a reputation of being very easy to talk to , whether it’s with her executive team or her welders. Although aerospace engineers are notoriously known for being introverted, Shotwell calls herself a “people engineer,” meaning she likes working with colleagues and customers.

Even outside of work, her passion for STEM and encouraging more women into the field remains, both of which she sees as crucial for the nation’s future. Under her leadership, the Frank J. Redd student competition, which involves small satellite concepts, has raised more than $350,000 in scholarships in six years.

So, what advice would Shotwell give young women starting out in the industry today? In her interview with Satellite Today, she said simply: “You have no control over whether you are going to be the smartest person at your company or even the smartest person in the room at any particular time… particularly at a company like SpaceX; there are a lot of smart people here. But, you do have control on how prepared you are, how hard you work and what kind of results you get.”

Across the Hudson

NY votes finally matter

by DAVID ROGERS Freshman Mechanical Engineering Major

Despite New York State being the fourth-most populous state, and thirdmost populous for the previous few elections, presidential candidates rarely pay attention to the state since it’s been a Democratic stronghold since Reagan’s last election. Combine that with the fact that the primaries are so late that it seems that the nominees are already all but decided, and it often seems, to a New Yorker, that

their vote doesn’t matter because the Democratic nominee, who is already apparent by late April, will win regardless. I suspect many New Jersians at Stevens feel the same way since NJ has gone blue since 1992 and has a primary even later than New York.

However, this year, the primaries are far from over. The current runner-ups in each party have been catching up to the frontrunners, and now the candidates have to pay attention to New York because of its population and delegate count. It’s been amusing watching all of the candidates, especially the ones with ties to New York, running around the city. Here’s a brief summary of what’s happened so far: Bernie Sanders has been playing up his Brooklyn roots, holding rallies around the bor-

ough last Friday. Hillary Clinton knows the frustrating words “Please swipe again at this turnstile.” Both Democrats held rallies in the South Bronx, which is only 6% Republican.

Naturally when Ted Cruz tried doing the same, he got 12 people to come, including 2 protesters. Kasich seems to be enjoying the food around the city, which beats trying to get our votes considering that he needs 128% of remaining delegates.

The original Ben & Jerrys gave out free “Bernie’s Yearning” ice cream in Union and Washington Squares a couple weeks ago, and Sanders is having a rally in Washington Square this week. I can never write about Drumpf and stay serious, so I’m not going to try.

I’m really cherishing the campaigning, even though it is obvious that

the candidates are just doing it for votes. I decided a couple weeks ago who I would vote for on my absentee ballot, but it’s nice to see that my vote matters for once. The campaigning is proof that it matters. I’m sure that students who come here from Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or any other swing state are sick of seeing campaign ads year after year, but for me it’s a sign that my vote will matter in a national election for once.

Most of the states I’ll likely live in are either ‘solid red’ or ‘solid blue’ in November, so this is probably a pretty rare experience for me.

Of course, this whole time, New Yorkers who live anywhere upstate besides Buffalo or Rochester have felt drowned out and ignored in politics, just like any other year.

Photos courtesy of The NY Daily News

Letter to the Editor

The Registrar is Incompetent I have complained about the Stevens Registrar many times in the past, but this week they really, really let me down.

I am a graduating senior. This means that I have to formalize my study plan into a presentable “Application for Candidacy”. In it, I have to keep track of every class I took, when I took them, what grades I got, and how they are classified to meet my requirements.

Luckily, your unofficial transcript has a lot of this information already displayed for you, and if you’ve been meeting regularly with your aca-

demic advisors (which you should all be doing) you should have them correctly placed every semester.

Now, that said. I got an email last semester before midterms from the Stevens Registrar stating that I needed to submit my Application for Candidacy. This was a bit silly – the Application for Candidacy is intended to be a final draft, and because I still had one unscheduled semester, this didn’t make much sense to me. Needless to say, I submitted it with the help of my academic advisor, and life went on.

Until of course I got an email from the Registrar

stating that my Application for Candidacy was not accepted because I had not yet completed the Fall or Spring semesters. Ok, fine. Sure, after I finished the semester last December, I resubmitted it with the grades, and everything was good.

And then I got an email stating that I am clear for graduation – except that I wasn’t because the Application for Candidacy that they approved they had told me just the week before was invalid because I withdrew from a class (one of my additional classes).

So, as per the Registrar’s orders, I began to

update my Application for Candidacy only to realize that the new Application for Candidacy form, which apparently is the result of the new website (it was not very clear) calls out for more classes than I took.

And so, the nightmarish cycle of incompetency continues.

I discovered on Tuesday that many of my fellow Civil Engineers are in the same boat. I haven’t heard of one Graduate Application for Candidacy (for Civil Engineering) going through, though to be fair I only asked one class worth of students, and a good number of my friends are experi-

encing the same “extra class” issue on the Undergraduate Application for Candidacy.

I know the workers there are stressed out and dislike their current setup, but c’mon. There has got to be a better way to organize yourselves, and the people above them should actively be listening to make this experience a better one for both parties. I don’t know how it works in other schools, but my experiences with the Registrar have pretty much been the absolute worst out of any organization on campus, and gosh I’ve had some bad experiences.

To be entirely fair, this issue won’t exist in the same capacity in the future – I have knowledge that the Registrar is migrating all of their data (and have been for a good number of months) to a new online system that will be formally rolled out in 2017. However, until then, we have to deal with a handful of people who all use postit notes and white boards to keep tabs on each issue they need to take care of.

Man, this is my tuition at work… I can’t wait to get out of here – so long as the Stevens Registrar says I can in fact graduate!!

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 9

Always Right

Burr-Feinstein

by DENNIS STEWART Senior Cybersecurity Major

In my last column I said I’d talk more about passwords, but unfortunately I have to postpone that discussion in the interest of covering current events.

On April 7, Senate Intelligence Committee

Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) published a draft bill, the Compliance with Court Orders Act (CCOA). Opening with “no person or entity is above the law,” the act proceeds to define a law that would essentially make encryption illegal in the United States.

There’s a lot to criticize, but I’ll reprint the most relevant section: “A covered entity that receives a court order from a government for information or data shall— (A) provide such information or data to such government in an intelligible format; or (B) provide such technical assistance as is

necessary to obtain such information or data in an intelligible format or to achieve the purpose of the court order.”

In plain terms: Companies are required to decrypt data upon receiving a court order. This is counter to the purpose of encryption, which is to ensure that only intended recipients can decipher a message.

The only way for a company to be able to comply with 100% of requests is to purposely introduce flaws in the encryption they use, whether it’s for credit card transactions, securing messages, or protecting against theft. We do not expect safe manu-

facturers to keep copies of all keys and combinations.

If holes in encryption are produced for law enforcement, they can also be exploited by criminals or other governments.

The bill also has numerous jurisdiction issues.

The matters addressed by the bill should fall under either the Judiciary or Commerce committee, rather than Intelligence.

The CCOA would also give every court jurisdiction over companies elsewhere in the US. Service providers, based anywhere in the US would be forced to comply with orders from any court regarding the encrypted communications of any-

one, anywhere. A Texas state court could order a California-based company to decrypt a conversation between a person in New York City and another in Atlanta.

The tech sector’s response has been overwhelmingly negative.

The Open Technology Institute’s director, Kevin Bankston, describes the bill as “easily the most ludicrous, dangerous, technically illiterate proposal I’ve ever seen [in my nearly 20 years of work in tech policy].”

Fortunately, politicians are balking as well.

The White House has declined to support the bill.

Meanwhile, it is being de-

nounced by congressmen on both sides of the isle.

Darrell Issa (R-CA) calls the bill “about as flawed and technically-naive as a piece of legislation can get.” House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff (D-CA) simply declared “The CCOA is DOA.” When legislation goes against the overwhelming consensus of experts in academia and the private sector, it should be an indication that something is wrong. While CCOA is unlikely to pass, it serves as a reminder that many of America’s leaders know nothing about the technology that they seek to regulate.

Through Adversity, The Stars

Starring…Katie van Orden

by MIA HILDEBRANDT Freshman Mechanical Engineering Major

Music is like doing homework. You can do both activities alone or with others. Although you may feel more comfortable playing your instrument in a practice room or sitting alone in your dorm room in order to power through WebAssign homework, remember that there is a lot to be gained from working with others. According to Katie van Orden, a freshman Mechanical Engineering major, one of the most important things she has gotten out of her 11 years of being a musician is that music “is a lot about friendship and comradery.” She explains, “you can play your instrument [by yourself] but when you get together in a group, you have to learn to work with each other, you have to learn how everybody else sounds, [and] you have to figure it all out together.” Col-

laboration both in music and in academia are important not only in puzzling through difficult musical passages and challenging design projects, but also in finding out how you fit into the mix and learning from others helps you become something you would have never thought achievable.

Katie is a trumpet player in the band, orchestra, and brass ensemble on campus. In addition to being passionate about music, Katie is also involved in the Society of Women Engineers, the Theta Phi Alpha sorority, and the Pinnacle Scholars program. In her free time, Katie enjoys watching Netflix, reading, drawing (sometimes), and going to the gym (sometimes).

Katie first started off playing piano. Her mom was a professional opera singer, and she wanted both her daughters to get into music and dance, “but that didn’t work out,” Katie says laughing, referring to the latter. Then, going into fourth grade, Katie chose to play the trumpet. Like most things, whether that is playing a sport or playing music, it requires practice.

Along with the dedication and persistence needed to improve as a

musician, Katie admits that even though she dislikes playing a piece for many weeks, she likes seeing her own progress, as well as others noticing it too. Through this, one you can accomplish things you didn’t think possible.

In retrospect, you may realize that getting to the “good stuff” requires going through the notso-easy aspects of something, whether that is a piece of music or a class.

Katie says quite simply, “You do have to go through crap to get to something good in the end.” In addition, she adds, “Persistence is key.

You can’t just give up in the beginning. You just have to power through it and keep going.” Sound familiar, Stevens students?

Struggles are unavoidable when you are going after what you want, whether that is applying for internships or going out for an audition.

Sometimes you prevail and other times you may fall short. Although you may think that you are really good at something, oftentimes there are going to be people better than you. The key thing to remember is that “if you want to be as good as them, and if you want to be respected by everyone the way that certain

people respect you, you really do have to work for it and make sure that you are the best that you can be at [whatever you are doing] and represent yourself the best that you can,” Katie emphasizes. This message applies, whether it is college admission or co-op interviews. You must put in your best effort in whatever you do.

Balancing everything is difficult, but the key to getting to everything on your to-do list is to plan out your time. For Katie, music is something that is a priority. She practices despite her busy schedule and has learned time management, especially with late-night rehearsals, so she tries to get most of her homework done before then.

She adds, “It’s all about Google Calendar for me!”

Despite the nervousness before performing, Katie admits that after the performance is over, “I [feel] better in general.” Katie adds, “It’s also a cool rush when you know what you are doing and are confident. It’s also a cool rush when you don’t know what you are doing and are [nevertheless] semiconfident.” Drawing a parallel to schoolwork, Katie adds, “It’s like going into a diffeq test confident and you know

Katie van Orden

what you are doing and getting through it and being like, ‘yes, I did well!’,” Katie says, “and there’s also the going into a diffeq test when you kind of know what you are doing and [you] still get through it and are like, ‘I think I did well.’” This is analogous to what it is like to per-

form. Confidence is key, whether that is taking a test, playing in a soccer game, or playing a solo in front of a packed stadium.

Come check out the orchestra concert this Saturday, April 16 at 8 p.m.

And come to the concert band concert on Saturday, April 23 at 8 p.m.

Have a lead on a potential story that you’re dying to have The Stute investigate?

Send it to us anonymously. thestute.com/tip

Varsity Sports

Friday, April 15, 2016 • Page 10

No. 23 men’s tennis beats out New York University

SSI – The No. 23 Stevens Institute of Technology men’s tennis team overcame a doubles deficit Wednesday in a 5-4 win over local rival New York University in Hoboken.

The win moved Stevens to 10-7, while NYU fell to 3-7.

Seniors Matthew Heinrich and Ben Foran delivered the Ducks the early lead with an 8-2 win at first doubles, but NYU responded with 8-3 and 8-6 wins at third and second respectively.

The win was the 10th of the season for the Stevens doubles aces, and the team-leading 12th individually for Foran.

Heinrich knotted the match at two with a 6-3, 6-3 win at first singles, but NYU responded with the 6-4, 6-2 win at sixth

Stevens Sports Information

to re-take the lead. Junior Michael Feldman delivered the answer for the Ducks with a 6-1, 6-2 win at fifth, however the Violets once again countered with a win at second.

Foran bounced-back from a second-set loss in a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory

at fourth though, before sophomore Danny Polk delivered the matchclincher with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win at third.

The win was the fourth straight for Polk, and the second in as many matches where the Virginia native battled through three

sets.

The Ducks will continue their homestand Saturday when they host No. 20 Christopher Newport University at noon in Hoboken.

1. Matthew Heinrich/ Ben Foran (STEVENS) def. Sammy Aronson/

Sidd Thangirala (NYUM) 8-2 2. Umberto Setter/Shrikar Kundur (NYUM) def.

Danny Polk/Kyle Cenderelli (STEVENS) 8-6 3. Benedict Teoh/Matt DeMichiel (NYUM) def.

Kyle Henry/Michael Feldman (STEVENS) 8-3 1. Matthew Heinrich (STEVENS) def. Sidd Thangirala (NYUM) 6-3, 6-3 2.

Umberto Setter (NYUM) def.

Charles Drake (STEVENS) 6-3, 7-6 3. Danny Polk (STEVENS) def. Benedict Teoh (NYUM) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 4. Ben Foran (STEVENS) def. Matt DeMichiel (NYUM) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 5. Michael Feldman (STEVENS) def. Sammy Aronson (NYUM) 6-1, 6-2 6. Yanik Parsch (NYUM) def. William Persson (STEVENS) 6-4, 6-2

Women’s 4X800 relay team places first and qualifies for ECAC Championships SSI – The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s outdoor track and field team took home first place in the 4X800 meter relay at the Osprey Open Friday.

The team of Kasey

Suszko, Samantha Rokicsak, Mary Visca and Jackie Endres set a school-record with a time of 9:37.60 and qualified for the ECAC Championships. In the javelin, sophomore Ash-

Men’s fencing has three Top-25 finishes at NCAA Regionals

ON DECK IN SPORTS

Friday WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD AT SILFREN INVITATIONAL 1 p.m.

New London, CT

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD AT SILFREN INVITATIONAL 4 p.m.

New London, CT

Saturday MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

na Manhas and freshman Janet Vill finished in the top-10, with Manhas throwing 28.38m.

The Ducks took part in only the Friday night portion of the event, collecting 11 team points.

AT SILFREN INVITATIONAL 10 a.m.

New London, CT

Stevens Sports Information

Ferentini powers No. 20 men’s lacrosse past Hartwick

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD AT SILFREN INVITATIONAL 10 a.m.

New London, CT

MEN’S GOLF VS ROUND THREE 11 a.m.

Hershey, PA

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Stevens Sports Information

Stevens Sports Information

SSI – The Stevens Institute of Technology men’s fencing team concluded its 2015-16 season Saturday at the NCAA Regional Championship.

The one-day championship took place on the campus of Moravian College.

George Allen led the Ducks with five wins at foil, while senior Daniel Tracey won twice. Freshman Brenna Casey and junior Stephen Rienzi each won one at epee, while

freshman Leonard Behrens won twice.

Sophomore Ian Fan and freshman Timothy Steinberg led the Ducks with four wins each at sabre, in addition to three wins from freshman Wesley McDowell, and two from sophomore Jeffrey Paine and freshman Brennan Wu. The loss ends a 20-win campaign for the Ducks that included 10 wins against Division I competition.

SSI – Senior Matt Ferentini of the No. 20 Stevens Institute of Technology men’s lacrosse team tallied five goals en route to an 19-8 victory over Hartwick College Wednesday.

Hartwick dropped to 3-7, 1-3 in the Empire 8 Conference, while the Ducks improved to 10-3, 3-1 in the E8.

The hosts tallied the first goal 3:58 in, as Jake Sachse took a feed from Sam Ferguson to open the scoring. The Ducks would tally the next two 53 seconds apart, as freshman Dean Peluso and Ferentini netted markers. The Hawks countered with two of their own, pulling ahead 3-2 midway

through the first period.

The Ducks then hopped into the drivers seat, scoring seven straight times between the first and third quarters. Ferentini completed his hat trick, while sophomore John Boutureira added three of his own between Ferentini markers. Junior Tim Leahey capped off the run with a tally 38 seconds into the third stanza.

Sachse scored his second of the contest to trim the gap to within five at 9-4, and the two sides would trade the next four goals to head into the fourth quarter. The Ducks outscored the Hawks 8-2 in the final 15 minutes, getting tallies from seven different play-

ers. Peluso would add his second, and freshman Max Bailey netted two during the fourth frame spurt to seal the game.

Peluso added three assists to go along with his two goals, while junior Jan Schoonen was a force on the defensive end, causing three turnovers. Senior Brett Incollingo and freshman Nicholas Carnovale combined to win 16-of26 faceoffs and picked up a total of 13 ground balls between the two of them.

Freshman Carson White made seven saves in just over 53 minutes of work.

The Ducks will continue the road trip with a 3 p.m. faceoff against St. John Fisher College Saturday.

Men’s golf shoots 319 in second round of NYU Invitational SSI – The Stevens Institute of Technology men’s golf team shot a 319 Sunday in the second round of the NYU Invitational, which combined with the 316 from Saturday placed the Ducks in seventh with a 635.

The annual two-round tournament took place at the par-71, 6,547 yard Forest Hill Field Club in

Bloomfield.

Junior Frank Szucs mirrored his Saturday round with a 77 Sunday to give him a 154 for the weekend, good for a tie for 12th place.

Senior Justin Niemeier shot a 79 to secure a tie for 21st, while freshman Tyler Balkema placed in a tie for 28th after a 79 and 81.

Freshman Jack Doherty rounded-out the Stevens

scoring with a pair of 82’s.

Skidmore captured the team title with a 603, while Williams College and Rensselaer Polytechnic took second and third respectively with scores of 618 and 622.

Individually, Skidmore’s Tim Manwaring captured the wire-to-wire championship after a 74 Sunday gave him a two-round total of 143.

AT NAZARETH COLLEGE 12 p.m.

Rochester, NY

MEN’S TENNIS VS NO. 20 CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY 12 p.m.

Hoboken, NJ

BASEBALL AT VASSAR COLLEGE 1 p.m.

Poughkeepsie, NY

MEN’S LACROSSE AT ST. JOHN FISHER COLLEGE 3 p.m.

Rochester, NY

SOFTBALL VS NAZARETH COLLEGE (DH) 1 p.m.

Weehawken, NJ

FOR MORE INFORMATION, HEAD TO: STEVENSDUCKS.COM Stevens Sports Information

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