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Volume CXVI
Issue 17
SGA creates new Audit Committee
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THE
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ICYMI, changes to priority scheduling were prompted by a Letter to the Editor submitted to The Stute.
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Majority of Freshmen waitlisted for Stevens Leased Housing
by JOSEPH DOLAN Staff Writer
The SGA formed an Audit Committee in order to audit RSOs that the Committee on Student Interests (CSI) believes to have committed a budgetary violation. The CSI will then inform the Audit Committee of its decision, and the committee will then begin to conduct an audit. The committee will examine the activity of the RSO, its future potential to remain an active organization, and whether or not it is following the rules set for it by the SGA. Once the auditing period is complete, the findings of the committee are passed on to the CSI and the Office of Student Life. The CSI then creates a punishment for RSOs found in violations of their duties. After this, the punishments are then presented to the SGA and voted on. The committee will consist of five SGA senators, including Committee Head Liam McMurty. According to McMurty, the committee was created in order to provide real guidelines for auditing RSOs. “The SGA always had the ability to audit clubs, but there was no definitive procedure in place to do so.” McMurty wanted to take the lead on the committee because he was interested in fillsee AUDIT · Page 2
Established 1904
by ANDREW KINNEY Layout Assistant
of Academic Affairs, explained that his letter was a “driving factor.” Although this change is an attempt to help students, it is also putting many at a disadvantage. Katherine Ryan, a freshman Pinnacle Scholar, says, “After freshman year, priority registration is more of a perk than a necessity. While I understand that it isn’t something I need, I am a little annoyed now
As of 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 27, there is no space left in Stevens Leased Housing (SLH). Wednesday was only the first of two selection days for “sophomore” students, meaning all students given a Thursday selection time were immediately added to the wait list. Additionally, all first-year SLH applicants were automatically added to the wait list. However, not all freshmen are considered “first-year” students. A student is considered a first year only if they do not meet the credit requirement to be considered a sophomore. As a result, this has caused some discrepancies. One first-year (by entry year) student was given a 10 a.m. Wednesday selection time, allowing them to receive an apartment before some sophomores. Another first-year student The Stute talked to was similarly given a sophomore selection time, though it was late enough that they still ended up on the wait list. The Stute spoke to one
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Located on the 12th floor of the Howe Center, the Provost Office made the change to remove priority registration from a large number of students. Photo by Mark Krupinski
New qualifications for undergraduate students receiving priority registration students will be losing priority registration starting this semester for Summer and Fall 2019: members of the SGA, members of the Honor Board, resident assistants (RAs), out-of-season athletes, and non-freshman Pinnacle Scholars. Freshman Pinnacle Scholars will continue to receive priority registration due to a mandatory seminar they must factor in to their schedules. Several other groups will also continue to be able to register for classes early, including
by NATALIE TODARO Staff Writer
The stress of registering for classes among Stevens students has largely been caused by the issue of priority registration. However, things are about to change. Anthony Barrese, Interim Vice Provost of Academics, has made the decision to cut priority registration from several groups of students. The following groups of
participants in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), select disabled students identified by the Director of the Office of Disability Services, and in-season athletes identified by the Athletic Director. The major reason for the change was due to Eric Londres’ Letter to the Editor, published in the November 9 issue of The Stute last semester. Londres explained how “out of control” priority registration is, and Alex Reina, the SGA Vice President
Student leaders hold LGBTQ+ summit with Student Affairs by ERIC S. LONDRES Staff Writer
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Sara Klein hosted a meeting of LGBTQ+ student leaders on Thursday, February 21. The meeting, formally titled “LGBTQ+ Initiatives Meeting,” was assembled by Klein to discuss various issues facing the LGBTQ+ community at Stevens and sponsor a greater spirit of collaboration between various groups represented by these leaders. The attendees at the meeting came from a wide variety of LGBTQ-related organizations. They included Isabelle Joyce, Julia Martin, Jonathan Pavlik, Matthew Doto, and Caitlin Mahoney of Torch Alliance; Nasir Montalvo, Amir Mustafa, and Adrian Castellanos of the Student Government Association (SGA) Diversity & Inclusion Committee; Chase Kahn and Tyler Wright of TRANSit; Eli Trakhtenberg, Peer Health Educator and co-founder of Sexual Wellness Education Advocacy and Training (SWEAT); Ang Contreras of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM); Dakota Van Deursen, former SGA Vice President of Student Interests; Veronika Paprocka, Graduate Coordinator for Diversity Initiatives; and Klein herself. Much attention was given during the meeting to the plethora of new and rising organizations related to the LGBTQ+ community on campus. oSTEM, a professional society dedicated to LGBTQ+ students, and SWEAT, a new organization dedicated to serving the needs of Stevens’ kink community, are continuing in the New Organization Process.
Also, TRANSit, a group dedicated to providing a safe space for Stevens’ transgender students, is seeking to enter the New Organization Process in the future. Trakhtenberg particularly spoke about SWEAT, stating her interest in re-starting the group’s momentum. “I know how it could look to say like ‘Hey, here is how you tie someone up!’ but there should be resources for students so they know how to do things safely.” A common topic of discussion was the general lack of resources for LGBTQ+ students at Stevens, and furthermore a lack of awareness of how to seek out resources from off-campus sources. Contreras said that they would like to see students more easily linked to external resources and support structures. They noted that many students do not have safe support networks of their own and should be able to find one at Stevens. Contreras mentioned that there are a lot of panels in the New York metropolitan area on subjects relevant to LGBTQ+ students, and being able to send information about such panels to students at Stevens would be a great help to the community. Klein raised the possibility of hiring a Federal Work Study employee in her office whose specific duty would be curating off-campus resources for LGBTQ+ Stevens students and delivering information about them to those students. Several students brought up issues regarding how they were treated when they went to CAPS, Stevens’ Counseling and Psychological Services office. Montalvo stated that when he went into CAPS one
day, he was handed a pamphlet without any specific information in it. Martin agreed with Montalvo, mentioning that a lot of the information on the pamphlet was also outof-date. The general consensus in the meeting was that CAPS should provide up-to-date information about counselors in the Hoboken area that are LGBT-specialized and specifically transgender-friendly. This information is not readily available to the public, said Klein. Coordination was a major focus of the meeting. The various organizations are spread across multiple subcommittees — for example, Torch is a part of the Special Interests subcommittee whereas oSTEM is part of the Professional Societies subcommittee and the Diversity & Inclusion committee is a part of the SGA, not a separate student organization. Montalvo mentioned that many of the Stevens cultural organizations enjoy a broad degree of close collaboration due to the structure of the Cultural Subcommittee and Ethnic Student Council, and that the LGBTQ+ organizations do not have this intrinsic collaborative body among them. Pavlik raised the idea of all the LGBTQ-interest organizations hosting a Stevens Pride Day celebration, as Torch has done in the past. Several people noted that Hoboken used to have an official Pride celebration but no longer does, and even when they did, it cost a significant amount of money to attend. A Stevens-oriented Pride celebration would, in Pavlik’s view, not only prosee LGBTQ · Page 2
Sheila Banks, the first African American female to graduate from Stevens graduating in 1978. Photo Courtesy of The Archives and Special Collections Department
Black History Month by MARYIA SPIRYDONAVA Editor-in-Chief
In 1924, Randolph Montrose Smith became the first African American student to graduate from Stevens Institute of Technology. Born in Barbados in 1901, Smith arrived in New York City when he was two years old, on the Cearense ship. The Stevens Library does not have a lot of records on Smith, but they were able to determine that while attending Stevens, Smith lived in upper Manhattan on West 140th Street. After graduating Stevens, Smith worked as a civil engineer for the Manhattan subway system. Smith has an undergraduate scholarship dedicated in his name, for which students can still apply. James Sylvester Braxton, a class of 1937 African American Stevens alum, has a impressive resume both
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from his time at Stevens and after. As an undergrad, he participated in a plethora of social and professional organizations, such as The Stute and the Stevens Dramatic Society. Braxton was elected to Tau Beta Pi fraternity and appeared on the Dean’s List. The 1936 edition of The Link described him as one of the most active members of his class. After graduating in 1937, Braxton worked as a chief engineer for a general contracting firm and as a Howard University instructor. In 1945, he attended Harvard University, and was awarded a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for graduate studies in regional planning. He graduated Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master of City Planning degree. Braxton used his Harvard education to pursue his lifelong passion: designing and manufacturing low-cost housing systems. He worked
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as a site planner of international housing projects for the New York firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and the International Basic Economy Housing Corporation. In 1950, he became Supervising Senior Planner for the Chicago Housing Authority. Braxton continued to grow in his career; in 1965, he became the Assistant Chief Engineer for the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago. In 1981, Braxton moved on to become the Vice President of Globetrotters Engineering Corporation. Later, as President of Braxton Inc., he was able to pursue his dream of manufacturing reduced cost housing systems. Braxton patented the Braxton Inc., a system of manufactured housing that can be assembled by unskilled labor with a minimum of training. Braxton returned to Stevens in 1987 to receive an see HISTORY · Page 3
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