The Stute is the banana peppers of the Stevens community.
Volume CXVI Issue 10
S
THE
TUTE
@TheStute
/StevensTheStute
WE WRITE STEVENS HISTORY
Friday, November 9, 2018
/TheStute
The Stute The official newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of the Stevens mascot, Atilla the Duck. The Stute Online Subscriptions You can get a PDF of The Stute sent to your email every Friday, free. Never miss a bit of news. Visit thestute.com/subscribe TheStute.com
Interview with Steve Forbes by JOANA FARDAD Staff Writer
Student Government Presidential candidates debate on Wednesday Night. | Photo by Sarah Bertussi for The Link
SGA Presidential candidates debate by JAKE MILLBURN Staff Writer
The SGA Presidential Debate occurred this past Wednesday, November 7. In the debate, the candidates for President and Vice President of Operations had the opportunity to answer some questions from the moderators, from a survey, and from the audience. This article aims to highlight some of the key differences between the tickets noted over the course of the debate, including primary goals and specific paths of development. The SGA President and VPO are perhaps two of the most influential offices a student can
hold here at Stevens. There is a recent tradition of transformative tickets in the office. Matt Hunt began the SGA’s transformation four years ago, followed by Thomas Daly, and continued to this day in the work of Lucas Gallo and Rami Kammourh. The bar for these new candidates to meet is high, that much is certainly clear. Opening Statements The first ticket is Jason Chlus for President and Ryan Tom for VPO. Their tagline is, “Creating better opportunities through accountability, efficiency, and communication within the administration, faculty, SGA, and student body.” Chlus emphasized in his opening statement the pressure
he and Tom intended to lay against the administration to improve the student experience rather than just focus on the school’s ranking. One initiative that they have is to push the administration to be more transparent with its finances. Another initiative was to remove curves from classes — professors use it so that their students can have good grades, yet they may learn nothing in the course. A third initiative is to reinstate the Wednesday academic break from 1 to 5 PM, as the Gianforte Academic Center will allow more simultaneous class sections. Their final specific initiative is to make the SGA the role model for efficiency and clarity for
MISSED THE DEBATE? WATCH IT ON SITTV’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
other clubs. The second ticket is Mark Krupinski for President and Alex Murtagh for VPO. The first issue they aim to tackle is that the SGA does not tackle the issues faced by the student body at large and instead focuses on those felt by student leaders, in their opinion. They have divided their campaign into three major pillars: Living, Learning, and Social. For Living, Krupinski claimed that one of the issues that could be addressed is living in Student Leased Housing. Partnering with a realtor for discounts on Hoboken apartments, along with expanding the residence options with other students, could rectify the prices paid by see DEBATE · Page 4
Steve Forbes is currently the Editor-in-Chief for the world renown publication, Forbes Magazine. Grandson of one of the original founder’s, B.C Forbes, Steve Forbes has always been interested in publishing and media. In grade school, you could find him doing occasional news sheets for classmates and even getting into some mischief with grading his own teachers. Because why not? They were grading him too. By the time Forbes attended Princeton University in 1970, he helped found his first magazine, Business Today, which is still operating today by undergraduates. With this in mind, Forbes was quick to provide his own two cents to the Stevens students about economics, especially before entering the workforce. “You succeed when you meet the needs and wants of other people [...] expect setbacks and failure,” Forbes said. “It is not the end of the world, pick yourself up and move forward. It happens to everybody.” Now, Forbes is the chair and Editor-in-Chief of an acclaimed publication. He views this opportunity as “a delight and a privilege in the sense that we have a purpose that I think is unique.” Forbes was quick to add, “Back in 1917, in the first issue, my Grandfather said that the purpose of business is to produce happiness, and not to pile up money.” To Forbes, Forbes Magazine is about creativity and innovation, which enables us, as a society, to move
Nasir Montalvo and DuJaun Kirk hosted a Diversity Town Hall to share ideas and experiences about how to make a more diverse and inclusive campus. At the town hall, Montalvo shared his past experiences that led to this initiative, potential solutions to create a more diverse and inclusive campus, and steps for moving forward. “I think at first, the motivation stemmed from the voting initiative that student affairs and diversity education were pushing,” said Montalvo on what motivated him to start the initiative. Montalvo felt that the voting posters were “tasteless” and “clearly [placed] a target on the black population of Stevens.” However, Montalvo is no longer focused solely on voting posters, but fighting for marginalized groups on campus. “I have been trying to pursue some activist things in BSU, such as cohosting with Amnesty for their Gun Rights event, but I wanted to do more. After sending out that email to all of 10th floor Howe basically, and having to meet with them, I figured I would just take the reins and host a town hall,” Montalvo said. At a meeting with Sara Klein, Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, Montalvo progressed in working to further pursue the initiative. The first solution discussed was expanding Safezone Training to “encompass people of color, women and gender non-conforming students, those with disabilities.” Moncampus news
talvo noted that an issue is that there is not a concentrated Safezone program that is required for faculty during training. Integrating this expanded Safezone training within leadership connect so the RSO e-board can spread information to their general body was discussed. The second solution was create a safe space on campus; the only space on campus is Lor-El. There is no space for any other marginalized groups. The third solution was creating a diversity coalition between students, faculty, and staff. Montalvo refused to call it a “committee” due to some negative connotations surrounding the word. The coalition would help connect students with faculty and bring up issues that marginalized groups on campus are facing. Faculty and staff who are minorities on campus sometimes do not have the chance to interact with each other often, and creating a coalition could solve this issue. Montalvo advised using proclamations to help the coalition reach their goals. By issuing a proclamation, the Student Government Association (SGA) could make a formal opinion and request for diversity and inclusion. Going forward, Montalvo hopes to formalize the diversity initiative by creating a “Diversity and Inclusion” ad-hoc committee within the Student Government Association (SGA). Montalvo noted that Lucas Gallo, President, and Rami Kammourh, Vice President, were pushing for
· page 2
Read about the Student Government Senators brought up for impeachment.
Crossword
· page 5
SGA Presidential Word Search
Who’s running for SGA President? Test your knowledge with this word search.
The Editor-In-Chief of Forbes Magazine will speak at Stevens on Nov. 12 ing the midterm elections that had just happened this week. “For the Republicans, it could have been worse,” he said. “I think the takeaway here is that the GOP [the Republican Party] must do more to appeal to people in the suburbs see FORBES · Page 2
by ERIC LONDRES Staff Writer
Photo by Cole Yarbrough
SDS performs Peter and the Starcatcher by CHARLES ZWICKER Staff Writer
Peter and the Starcatcher is being performed this weekend by the Stevens Dramatic Society (SDS) as their annual fall play. The show is adapted from a written novel, and it serves as a prequel to the story of Peter Pan. It tells the story of three orphans and how they come to find their way to Neverland, as well as their adventure on their way there. The show’s set doesn’t go through any major changes, such as large pieces being moved, but is instead more versatile, changing details in the set to convey the current
see DIVERSITY · Page3
SGA Senators Impeached
forward and progress. Not only is Forbes involved in the publication scene, but he has found himself involved in the political world as well. Forbes said, “I was always interested in policy and what makes the world tick.” However, he never saw himself entering elected politics until 1994 when he was the head of an organization that was emphasizing reforms and taxes. The organization was founded by Jack Kemp, who everyone had assumed was running for the presidency in 1996. It was shocking when Kemp revealed later on that he was not going to run, but “instead of complaining [Forbes] tried it” himself. Forbes also had the opportunity to work with President Ronald Reagan, who appointed him to the head of the Board of International Broadcasting. There they were able to broadcast to “areas of the old Soviet Union, areas behind the Iron Curtain.” Tying it to current events, Forbes found himself discuss-
SGA votes against dissolving RedShift
Students host Diversity Town Hall by MARK KRUPINSKI Business Manager
Established 1904
location. The show is full of many witty jokes and wellpaced action. There really was never a lull in the pace, a testament to the performers and director. The show features Cameron Clifford, Kyle Castillo, and Nicholas Re as Boy, Prentiss, and Ted, respectively, all in their first role with SDS. Other returning cast members include Clay Lundgren as Black Stache and Kiera Dillon as Molly. The cast is comprised of actors and actresses of varying theatrical experience, but all seemed to do a convincing job of portraying their respective characters. “It’s definitely a much harder show to costume that Spring
Show Times for Peter and the Starcatcher Friday Nov. 9 @ 9 PM and Saturday Nov. 10 @ 2 PM and 8 PM at Debaun Auditorium
opinion
Mind of a Freshman
· page 7
opinion
· page 8
opinion
Don’t give up your dreams
· page 7
opinion
· page 9
opinion
· page 7
opinion
· page 7
Scientific Curmudgeon
Awakening was,” said Abigail Hulse, referring to SDS’s musical last semester. “The biggest challenge was making the mermaid costumes and the mollusk costumes.” Their hard work paid off, as many of the costumes are very creative and whimsical, particularly the aforementioned mermaid costumes. The show is also full of creative lighting and sound effects, making the scenes more believable. Peter and the Starcatcher will be performed on Friday, November 9 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, November 10 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m in DeBaun Auditorium. Admission is free with a Stevens ID, and $7 for general admission.
Life is a Movie at ComplexCon Midterm Elections Senioritis
The Student Government Association (SGA) voted against a motion to dissolve RedShift on October 28th, after a lengthy and, at times, heated discussion. The motion to “revoke the Probationary RSO status of, to remove from the New Organization Process, and to dissolve RedShift,” as brought by junior senator Mark Krupinski, represented the culmination of a debate that had been ongoing in private chambers of the SGA for quite some time. RedShift is Stevens’s literary magazine. According to their constitution, their purpose is “to publish works submitted by the Stevens community and promote creativity at Stevens. RedShift shall serve as a medium for student expression.” Krupinski claimed that RedShift has not shown any evidence that they are working towards their stated goal of producing a magazine for the arts at Stevens. Their general body has consistently been small, with one general body meeting visited by The Stute consisting of only two members other than the executive board. RedShift has also had issues maintaining a consistent executive board, with most of their then-current executive board resigning earlier this semester. Nasir Montalvo, a current SGA senator and forsee REDSHIFT · Page 2
The Stute meets every Tuesday at 9 PM on the second floor of Jacobus Hall. Come join the team!
S
THE
TUTE We write Stevens history.
The student-run newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology since 1904
116 Volume th
Executive Board Editor-in-Chief Business Manager Managing Editor Outreach Chair Webmaster
Maryia Spirydonava Mark Krupinski Audrey D’Souza Alex Murtagh Matthew Cunningham
Editorial Board Copy Editor Head Photographer Systems Administrator Social Media Coordinator
Staff & Contributors
Andrew Kinney Akash Rana Aparajita Rana Charles Zwicker Cole Yarbrough Daniel Kang Eric Londres EJ Hannah Jason Buckman Jake Millburn
Angelina Zaccaria Cole Yarbrough Matthew Doto Elina Tuder
Joana Fardad Joseph Dolan John Horgan Jon Carlsson Leigha Tierney Mathew Green Natalie Todaro Olivia Scott Rachel Stern Susmitha Shailesh
Contact Us
News FORBES
Continued from front page
with their message.” However, Forbes mentioned that the Republican Party did mention that the economy is great, but they did not spell out what they wanted to do with taxes and made a “hash” of healthcare. “People thought they were going to be tossed on the street… but that’s not true,” Forbes reassured. Forbes was hoping for a better result but was not surprised that the GOP lost the House. As for the economic aspect of the United States, he said that it is currently doing great. “It is doing very well,” he elaborated, “the proof of it is, we have a situation today that would have seen utterly inconceivable four years ago. And that is labor shortages. More and more people are coming back into the labor force.” However, Forbes saw a big cloud on the horizon in our economy. That smog is trade, “getting into a trade war, especially with China,”
REDSHIFT Continued from front page
Office Phone Email Office Location General Body Meetings Advertising Inquiries Mailing Address
(201) 216-3404 eboard@thestute.com Jacobus Hall, 2nd Floor Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. business@thestute.com 1 Castle Point Terrace, The Stute, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Letter to the Editor Policies 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 the Edior-In-Chief). All leters must be emailed to eboard@thestute.com. The Stute reserves the right to not publish any letter submitted for publication. 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 printed in their original, unedited form. A disclaimer will accompany any letter that is published in The Stute stating this information.
Corrections & Clarifications
In Issue IX, in the article titled “Gone Wrong The Push for Diversity at Stevens”, unclear wording suggested that FAST took issue with a voting campaign along with BSU. This was not the case and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Please contact The Stute eboard regarding any corrections or clarifications.
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-inChief. Cited references of The Stute are permitted. Copyright © 2018 The Stute
mer Managing Editor of RedShift, spoke at length during the meeting and afterwards on the topic of RedShift’s status. Montalvo, who described himself as one of the people who brought RedShift back to campus in its current incarnation, stated that there was a great amount of disagreement within the executive board as to what direction the organization should move in. Montalvo and those who agreed with him felt that in order to drive submissions to the magazine, RedShift needed to gain a following and recognition on campus by hosting well-publicized events. He expressed frustration that the club had only hosted one event, especially considering that the event was well-received. According to Montalvo, “there is no passion from the e-board.” A final concern raised by Montalvo was that while RedShift had spoken about collaborating with other clubs to publish their works, other clubs “do that for themselves” and have no need to use an external organization such as RedShift for publication. Media Subcommittee Head Mathew Green and Vice President of Student Interests Dakota Van Deursen had met with Julian Hernandez, Editor-in-Chief of RedShift, prior to the senate meeting. Green stated that during their private meeting, they had asked Hernandez what the status of their publication was and that “it didn’t seem like they were moving towards publishing.” During the Senate meeting, Van Deursen stated that they offered RedShift assistance in managing their organization, but it was “cast aside.” The Stute reached out to several people involved with this story for comment. Mathew Green stated that “the organization needs to fulfill its purpose or change its purpose,” but also said that he is “happy that RedShift has the opportunity to strive to accomplish their purpose.” Van Deursen responded by writing that he believes “that RedShift has strayed some from their purpose, but not entirely. Of the three stated goals in Article
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 2
Forbes discussed, especially with our tariffs and our sales taxes. He said that this cloud will dissipate; moreover, that the disputes with China will be resolved in a few months. Hopefully, if a good agreement is achieved, Americans can see the market go up a few thousand points. According to Forbes, trade is currently one of the major threats in the American economy today but so is the federal reserve. He jokingly said, “[The Central Bank] feels like it can guide the economy the way you can drive a car.” Forbes mentioned the theory, the Phillips Curve. To him, the Federal Reserve believes that if more people get prosperous then they have to slow things down and create some unemployment. “The code word there is when they talk about the economy overheating. Like the economy is a motor, the economy is not a motor it is we the people. You take a job and your pay goes up, you feel like you’re doing better..I don’t think that you feel overheated,” Forbes asserted. So watch out for that
word “overheating.” Forbes closed the interview with some last words for our readers, “Read Forbes and Forbes.com,” he laughed, “And from the words of my grandfather, stick-to-itiveness, stick to something.” Forbes is scheduled to talk at Stevens Institute of Technology on November 12th. You can catch him discussing both principles and policies:
free markets, free enterprise, why it works, and the conditions where it works best. He also plans on relating that to issues of today, with the economy and future tax changes. Lastly, thank you to the Young Americas Foundation (YAF) for making this interview possible and for giving Stevens the opportunity to have Mr. Forbes present on Monday, November 12th.
II of their constitution, which outlines their purpose, I think that they have done an admirable job at one, despite much adversity, a shaky job at another, and perhaps lost track of the third: promoting creativity, serving as a medium for student expression, and publishing works, respectively” Van Deursen also recommended that RedShift “should work doubly hard to find and retain a good, dedicated general body base.” When asked what other new organizations can learn from what is happening to RedShift, Green responded that, “Organizations need to know that even though they receive a lot of autonomy, it is not hard to take a microscope to how they operate. Additionally, every organization should operate with its purpose and constitution in mind. They are governing documents for a reason. Furthermore, organizations are run by executive boards that need to work together for the betterment of the organization.” On this topic, Van Deursen, who mused that this was a “pretty odd case,” wrote that, “These problems all popped up at once -- as was mentioned in the Senate meeting, losing most of their EBoard likely did not help any of the pre-existing problems lying in wait. I encourage other organizations to learn from the passion and dedication that the current RedShift E-Board has for their organization. Over half of them came to the Senate meeting and fought valiantly to save their organization from dissolution. I commend them for their honesty, and hope that other organizations recognize the effort that they have put into keeping an arts publication afloat at a predominantly STEM school.” The Stute also reached out to former RedShift Managing Editor Nasir Montalvo. When asked about his experience serving on the RedShift executive board, he characterized it as “stressful.” Expanding, he said that “it was fun putting the club through the New Organization Process, but after that it just kind of turned into “What Now?“ And no one could give a clear answer. Everyone had ideas for what they wanted the club to do, and
more than half of the e-board did not agree with where the President was taking this club. After expressing this time and time again, I was shut down. I was not going to support a club that followed people around for interviews and tried to have “launch events’ when there was no one on campus to market this to. We needed real events that would gain traction for us. Again, I was shut down. I was frustrated, and so were the Treasurer and Archivist, so we all quit together.” Furthermore, he expressed doubt towards the new executive board, and stated that he did not believe that most of the senators who backed RedShift during the discussion were fully aware of the current status of RedShift’s operations. Montalvo believes that RedShift should have accepted the assistance of the Vice President of Student Interests. Finally, Montalvo said that “RedShift needs to come up with a clear, concise game plan for how they want to move forward. Last time I was in the club, no one knew what we wanted to do, not even the executive board. If they do that, I do believe they have hope. I do wish them the best.” Finally, The Stute reached out to the current RedShift executive board for comments. Their executive board currently consists of Editor-inChief Julian Hernandez, Managing Editor Sergio Scardigno, Treasurer Hailey Tanner, and Secretary Jasimine Hoagland (the two remaining positions, Publicist and Archivist, are currently vacant). The executive board responded with joint statements authored by all four individuals. When asked if they believed RedShfit was not fulfilling its purpose, the board noted “Yes. Over the past year, RedShift has run into periods of stagnation due to two key aspects of its nature. The first of these results from the intimate interaction between artist and publication. When an artist is deciding to submit their work to a publication, they not only have to feel confident enough in their art to submit it, but they also have to recognize and want to contribute to the platform their work will be displayed on. This leads to the
second of these aspects: RedShift depends on having a reliable brand name that people across campus know. After only a year and some change of existing on Stevens campus as a probationary RSO [sic], this task still proves to be difficult to accomplish. Additionally, much internal debate with the previous e-board was had over if RedShift should continue to operate as a publication, but rather as a club that exclusively held events. While the one event we held was successful, exclusively doing events like this was not our purpose.” When asked about their plans for the near future, the board said that they are planning on getting their website up as soon as possible, and will be restructuring their meetings and the methods used to involved general body members. Once the website is online, the board will work with general body members to assist publications being made public. When asked about the future, the board said that they are currently crafting a long-term plan with a more focused direction, and that they will be making that plan public once it is finished. RedShift is currently a Step 4 Probationary Registered Student Organization (RSO), which means that they have most of the rights and responsibilities of full-status clubs on campus but with certain limitations. One of these limitations is that the SGA can vote at any point to dissolve them (they cannot do this for full-status clubs). It is under this authority that Krupinski’s motion was raised. Ultimately, the senate voted against dissolving the organization. If RedShift wishes to move out of the new organization process and become a fullstatus organization, they will have to present to the senate, which would then vote on whether or not to approve them. The earliest that they could do this is February 4th, 2019. Until then, the senate could still vote at any time to dissolve them. Students interested in submitting content to RedShift can do so by emailing their works to redshiftcontent@ googlegroups.com.
Steve Forbes | Photo from Biography.com
News DIVERSITY Continued from front page
him to formalize the initiative as an ad-hoc committee, but he wanted to get input from other members involved before doing so. For the town hall, Montalvo was pleased with how the event turned out. “I feel that for an unofficial event where there was basically no obligation to go, it
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 3
was an amazing turnout. My main goal with hosting the townhall was to hear from others on campus and get people involved, and I think I did just that,” said Montalvo “I’m hoping that if things go well, this initiative can start building a bigger following of marginalized groups AND allies.” Montalvo hopes to host another town hall in the near future after his next meeting with Klein.
Five SGA Senators Impeached by SUSMITA SHAILESH Staff Writer
The Stevens Students Instagram page initially featured the story on the right but took it down after student feedback and then posted the picture above.
Looking at the Blue Wave-2018 Midterm Results by JOSEPH DOLAN Staff Writer
On November 6, 2018, the United States held its 2018 Midterm Elections. Hundreds of races were contested for federal, state, and local offices. In addition, thousands of ballot measures were also voted upon. For months going into the midterms, the Democrat Party had been expecting a “blue wave” that would wrest control of Congress from the Republican Party in a repudiation of President Donald Trump. Did the Democratic dream of a blue wave come true? Let’s break down the results of the midterm elections and see. On a federal level, the Democrats were looking to upset both the Republican controlled Senate and House of Representatives. Democrats needed two Senate seats to take back control of the Senate and twentyfour seats to take control of the House of Representatives.
At the time of the writing of this article, Democrats secured a majority of five by gaining twenty-nine seats in the House, and Republicans secure their control of the Senate by gaining four seats. At the time of this writing, the results of fifteen house races and three senate races were still too close to call. While the blue wave may seem underwhelming in Congress, on a state and local level, Democrats made substantial gains. Democrats gained in total three hundred and twentythree legislative seats across the country. Democrats gained governorships in Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, and Nevada. In two popularized elections, Democrat Jared Polis defeated Republican Walker Stapleton to become the first openly gay governor in United States history. In Wisconsin, Democrat Tony Evers defeated Republican demagogue and incumbent Scott Walker. The former 2016 Republican presidential primary candidate came
under fire for hard right positions, and his defeat was celebrated by many on the left. The Democrats gained six state “trifectas”, in which one party holds the governorship, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. Republicans lost four “trifectas”. Democrats also flipped six state legislatures to majority Democrat control. Republicans flipped one state legislature to majority Republican. Many races captivated the attention of the public. Up and coming Democratic superstar Beto O’Rourke failed to unseat Republican Ted Cruz for a Texan Senate seat. “Democratic Socialist” Alexandria OcasioCortez became famous overnight for dethroning Democrat incumbent Joe Crowley in the June New York House of Representatives Primary, but defeated Republican economics professor Anthony Pappas to become the youngest member of Congress in history. Medicare for All proponent Democrat
Andrew Gillum was defeated by Republican Ron DeSantis in the Florida gubernatorial race. Controversial Democrat Bob Menendez, fresh off of a corruption trial, defeated CEOturned Republican politician Bob Hugin for a Senate seat in The Stute’s home state of New Jersey. As of the time of writing, Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp are still duking it out over the governorship of Georgia, both of them a razor-thin margin away from victory, claiming that thousands of yet to be counted absentee ballots will propel them to victory. At the end of the day, one of the most important takeaways from the 2018 midterm elections is that state elections matter. While national elections may be the ones that consume the news cycle, people like your town mayor, your board of education, your state attorney general, your county executive, all have a direct influence on your life.
Resignations and sanctions from the White House by JOSEPH DOLAN Staff Writer
On November 7. 2018, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions submitted his letter of resignation to President Donald Trump. In his letter, Sessions said that he resigned from his position “at [Donald Trump’s] request.” Due to this, many have speculated that Sessions was forced out of his position by the President. In a tweet later that day, President Trump said “We thanks Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well!” Matthew J. Whitaker, the former Chief of Staff to Sessions, will be serving as Acting Attorney General until a permanent replacement can be found. On November 5, 2018, the
United States reinstated economic sanctions on Iran. In order to fully appreciate the context of this, we should rewind to 2015. In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Russia called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA). The deal involved Iran shutting down 75% of its nuclear centrifuges and reduce its uranium stockpile at 98%. Under the JCPOA, Iran would also have to immediately shut down its nuclear weapons program, hence its more colloquial name, the “Iran Nuclear Deal”. Each of Iran’s nuclear facilities would be liable to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Association(IAEA). In exchange, over $100bn frozen
Iranian assets would be set free, and all past economic sanctions imposed by the six nations involved in the deal was lifted. However, the nuclear deal did not go without criticism. Then just a candidate in the Republican presidential primary, Donald Trump railed against the nuclear deal, and made repealing it one of his campaign promises. Trump has called the deal “defective at its core”, “one-sided”, and “was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.” While Trump was the President-Elect, he was still promising to abolish the nuclear deal. Finally, on May 8, 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA. He announced that within 90 to 180 days, all lifted sanctions would
be snapped back onto Iran. Since May, the United States has been pressuring foreign countries not to buy oil from Iran, causing sales to tank by over one million barrels a day. On November 5, 2018, all United States oil sanctions were resumed. While some countries were granted special waivers to continue purchasing oil from Iran, the US expected most of its international allies to sever ties with the oil exporting nation. Iranian response has been expectedly defiant. Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Hossein Salami as saying “The enemy is trying to strike a blow against Iran through a soft war and an economic war but they will face a heavy defeat.”
Peter and the Starcatcher - Photos by Cole Yarbrough
Last week, the SGA Oversight Committee impeached senators Allen Best, Jon Darlak, Elena Malova, Jimmy Sweeney, and Eddy Valdez. The Oversight Committee, for years, hadn’t impeached any Senators. Before the impeachments of last week, the Oversight Committee, the group that is responsible for ensuring that senators adhere to their requirements, had been lenient when rules were broken, according to several members in the Oversight Committee. The Committee decided to take action against these five senators because it “felt that senators had continuously been falling behind on their email requirements and, regardless of the constant reminders, the issue wasn’t being fixed,” according to Ryan Tom, chair of the Oversight Committee. “The point of this wasn’t to severely punish anyone,” Tom added, “but rather hold senators to the standards that they had set for themselves.” The procedure for impeachments is detailed in the bill passed last semester called the Kind and Honorable Oversight Documents Act. According to this document, an impeachment occurs when a senator is found guilty of violating the governing documents of the SGA, including its Constitution or its bylaws. When it comes to their attention that a senator is not performing their required duties, a member of the Oversight Committee can move to impeach that individual at a meeting of the Committee. If a simple majority of Committee members vote in favor of the motion, the motion is adopted. The section of the bylaws breached by all five impeached senators required them to “send an email to their district within 72 hours when mandated by the Public and Communications Relations Committee members and chair.” At 1:23 p.m. on October 23rd, the chair of the Public Relations committee sent an email to all of the senators specifying the information they needed to convey to their districts. As per the bylaws, the senators must have sent those emails by 1:23 p.m. on October 26th. Listed below are the times that the impeached officials sent their emails, all after the deadline, according to Tom:
1)Eddy Valdez: October 28th at 10:45 p.m. 2)Allen Best: October 31st at 12:31 a.m. 3)Jon Darlak: October 28th at 11:58 p.m. 4)Elena Malova: October 31st at 8:45 p.m. 5)Jimmy Sweeney: October 30th at 11:22 a.m. The impeached senators were presented with an opportunity to appeal their impeachment at the SGA meeting on November 4th, 2018. An Impeachment trial includes a presentation of evidence against the accused Official, presentation of evidence in defense of the accused Official, discussion, and finally a vote on whether or not the Official is, in fact, guilty. If three-fourths of the Senate vote that the Official has violated the governing documents of the SGA, the Oversight Committee proceeds with their actions to instill punishments upon that Official. If the vote fails, the impeachment is overturned and no punishment is given. Darlak was the sole senator to appeal his impeachment. Darlak arrived at Sunday’s Senate meeting prepared with a Powerpoint presentation containing his evidence in defense of himself, which included several examples of emails he had sent to his district, to convey his excellence as a senator. He explained how he regularly sends emails every Sunday, which is more often than what is required of him, and that he did not send this required email because it landed between his weekly updates and because his district had already received all the information he was tasked with forwarding from the PR committee. With a vote of only two senators in favor of his impeachment and all others against, Darlak was absolved of his punishment. Though many senators attested to the strength of his character as a reason why he should not be impeached, “the trial wasn’t on his character (not at all!),” Mark Krupinski, a member of the oversight committee, said in an email, “but solely based on whether an email was sent on time. Based upon that cut and dry metric, I firmly hold that all five senators who were impeached by the oversight committee did not send out all of the information required by the PR committee in a timely manner,” and deserved to be impeached. All five senators who were impeached were reached out for comment but did not respond for The Stute.
Student Faculty Alliance hosts “Chattin’ and Cheesin’” by EJ HANNAH Staff Writer
This past Wednesday, the Student Faculty Alliance, which strives to unite students and faculty through their shared interest of increasing the value of Stevens’ education, hosted “Chattin’ and Cheesin’,” an event where students and faculty mingled in a casual environment with each other, with a lot of cheese. Twenty-five faculty members and roughly the same number of students turned out for the event. The faculty members spanned across a wide variety of departments, and they were all eager to learn more about their students. In fact, so many faculty members supported the
message behind the SFA that at times throughout the event, they outnumbered the students. The two groups bonded over everything from research, to culture, to building trees. The SFA has been on the rise this year. The sudden traction that SFA has gained is largely a result of Ben Reydel, the organization’s current president. He jump-started the alliance by hand delivering invites to professors he wanted to get to know better. Since then, the organization has only grown in magnitude as more and more professors and students begin to take interest. There are no signs of this growth slowing either. SFA has plans for numerous different events that will allow students and faculty to bond outside of the classroom environment.
Students mingling with faculty members. Photo by EJ Hannah
SGA Feature DEBATE
Continued from front page
students for SLH. The Learning pillar is their effort to focus on educational opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. Inside, one of their primary goals is to establish undergraduate TAs, who would have a more immediate recollection of pertinent knowledge. Outside, they aim to revitalize the link between faculty and students. Another of their issues is the expansion of the Co-op program to beyond just computer science and engineering majors The third ticket is Jon Darlak for President and Timothy Barrett for VPO. Their tagline is “Striving to Improve, Together.” One of their initiatives is to improve sustainability on campus; compost piles, clothing donations, and others. They were cut off in their opening statement. Questions from the Student Body What past experiences within the SGA or in other leadership positions prepare you to represent the interests of the student body as a whole within these positions? Darlak and Barrett was the first ticket to respond to this question. Darlak emphasized
his current collaborations and initiatives as chair of the Campus Life Committee as evidence of his ability to advance the institution. Barrett believed that, as VPO, the manner with which the office is carried out shapes his ability to represent the student body. He offered that he would have an objective stance toward dealing with issues. He enjoys receiving and giving constructive criticism for finding solutions. Krupinski and Murtagh’s primary leadership experience comes from being on the Eboard of The Stute. One of the things they emphasized was the ability to work with a wide array of people to incorporate all the affected parties’ opinions into a solution. Murtagh expounded on his founding of the Martial Arts club as an excellent source of contacts and experience with handling the new organization process and attracting interest in a new club. Chlus, as a sophomore, said that his initial trepidation as a freshman led to a distinct lack of leadership experience during his college years. However, he believes that his service on his high school’s SGA for four years gives him insight into being a leader and allows him to quickly and easily adapt to his new environment. Tom has a much larger well of experience
to draw from; he is an SGA veteran and is heavily involved in a variety of committees and other positions of responsibility outside of the Student Government. For the Vice President of Operations: What about the SGA’s internal structure are you looking to improve? Murtagh said that the SGA is highly inefficient in their proceedings. He knows Robert’s Rules very well due to prior experience with clubs, so tightening Robert’s Rules is one point of efficiency. Another point is to arrange committee meetings to produce more concise results and get things done in committee rather than tackle them as the whole Senate. Tom notes that in the most recent SGA meeting, one which Murtagh attended, the Senate utilized the impeachment process for the very first time. Elaborating on that specific procedure, he intends to revamp the guidelines so that it goes more smoothly. In addition, he would like to adjust the requirements for Senators so that they are more focused on their initiatives instead of being “email robots.” Finally, he would like the Senate meeting’s time to be focused on the Senate’s proceedings, and not have the cabinet’s reports take up most of the two hours. Barrett agrees with Tom,
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 4
but further qualifies that the cabinet’s reports are vital. He argues that the reports should be constrained on time, but otherwise that they are acceptable as they stand. Barrett likens the role of VPO to that of an IT department; “If you don’t hear a lot about it, it’s probably going pretty well.” However, he explains that even though things are going well, that does not mean they cannot be improved. One such point is in the bottleneck between clubs, cabinet members, and committees. Another term for this bottleneck is simply unresponsiveness from the clubs. What SGA initiatives do you think are worth carrying forward? Which should be let go? Darlak reiterates on his experience on the Campus Life committee and advocates for the maintenance of the sustainability initiatives. Barrett, for his part, would like to expand upon existing initatives to improve how mental health is handled at Stevens. He lists several issues that have been noted with the CAPS scheduling program. Krupinski claims that the senators, ultimately, should continue pursuing their initiatives because they are the ones who are most passionate. However, the ones that should be addressed are those that have
an immediate impact on campus. The immediate impacts mostly fall within their initial pillars. An issue that Murtagh points out is the placement of senators on committees for which they have no passion. He appears to believe that senators should assign themselves to committees, rather than that responsibility resting with the VPO. There was a brief dialogue between Krupinski and Darlak, after which the moderators asked the second question of Chlus and Tom. As such, their responses do not exactly contrast with the other tickets. Chlus believes that a handful of initiatives are minor relative to students’ concerns. Among those, making more residential living areas, putting in more rooms for activities, and creating more lobby areas for students to hang out. As the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Tom explains that some of the freshmen senator initiatives are ambitious, and quite possibly unfeasible. These should either be restrained or let go. The cycle apparently restarted with Chlus and Tom, focusing on this second question. Darlak’s initial response to this question was, “None,” but he altered this perspective upon further consideration. While the senators are influen-
tial enough to carry out their own initiatives, he points out that feasibility becomes an issue. Murtagh claims that the majority of the initiatives being pursued by the SGA are valid, but one initiative he points out is the effort to get an undergraduate student on the Board of Trustees. (This initiative is not currently being pursued by the SGA but was simply a matter of miscommunication between Murtagh and an individual he was interviewing for Stute.) Questions from the audience were largely on specific matters or were addressed briefly in other areas of the debate. All the candidates were wellversed in the issues they wanted to address and how to go about addressing them. They all seem to be capable people and no matter how this election goes, I believe that the student body will be led by an individual with passion, with dedication, and with intelligence. The Presidential candidates are charismatic, with an eye for the details and the wherewithal to handle issues precisely and efficiently. The VPO candidates are all taskmasters in their own way, capable of leading, directing, and organizing the Senate itself and shaping it into the best version it can possibly become.
SGA hosts “Speed Dating” by MARYIA SPIRYDONAVA Editor-In-Chief
In efforts to improve relations with students, the Public Relations Committee of the Student Government Association hosted the first ever SGA Speed Dating, on November 1 from 9 to 11 pm.
Promotional material, created by PR committee member Nasir Montalvo, consisted of Tinderthemed posters of different SGA officials. The event had a black and red color scheme, which was displayed with the red and black tablecloths, and red rose centerpieces. Candles, rose pet-
als, and champagne flutes were other decorations at the event. To add to the elegance of the event, upscale hors d’œuvres were served, including coconut shrimp, mini chicken cordon bleu bites, mozzarella carrozza, toasted Brie, almond, and raspberry pastry puffs, fresh moz-
zarella with tomatoes and balsamic glaze, assorted pastries, chocolate covered strawberries, and sparkling cider. This event provided a platform for Senators and Cabinet members to engage with their constituents. SGA members were able to discuss their initia-
tives and get feedback on these initiatives from the attendees. This platform also allowed for students to discuss grievances with their fellow students, allowing the SGA to be able to gauge what improvements the student body find important. PR Chair Elina Tuder be-
lieved the event to be a success, with some students coming up to her and expressing their enjoyment, “and wondered if I planned to host it again in the future, which I hope I do!” 134 people checked in to the event over its duration, leaving no food behind.
VOTE FOR YOUR SGA PRESIDENT AND VPO
Photos from Charles Zwicker and Carolyn Wang for The Link
Photos by Olivia Scott
STEVENS.EDU/VOTE
SGA Candidates Tickets for 2019 SGA President and Vice President respond to questions from The Stute Just in line with the U.S. Election season comes Stevens Institute of Technology’s Student Government Association’s Presidential Election. The following three sets of candidates are officially on the ticket: Jason Chlus and Ryan Tom, Jonathan Darlak and Timothy Barrett, and Mark Krupinski and Alexander Murtagh.
President: Jon Darlak Mechanical Engineering, 3/4
President: Mark Krupinski Computational Science, 3/4
Vice President: Tim Barrett Computer Science, 3/4
Vice President: Alex Murtagh Civil Engineering, 3/4
Why should you be the next SGA President and Vice-President of Operations? I [Jon Darlak] have the hunger to fight for what the students want and what is best for us as a whole. I have previous leadership experience in chairing the Campus Life Committee this semester and the Municipal Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee, just to name two. I have great relations with faculty and staff here at Stevens from being a Pre College RA twice, an Orientation Leader and a Peer Leader. I like to think that I am a familiar face on campus and enjoy catching up with people whenever I can even if it’s only for a few minutes on our way to class. Understanding one of my main responsibilities being external relations, I would continue to be that friendly face on campus that people can associate with the SGA and feel comfortable approaching about any concerns with their college experience. I [Tim Barrett] believe that the most important aspect of a well-run organization is high morale and positive interaction within a group in order to get things done and done well. I pride myself on being open to constructive criticism and always try to invoke friendly competition between teammates, whether it be a sport, game, or in this case, a team of senators. As a senator, I’ve served on the Budget Committee and the Campus Life Committee each for one year. In both, I’ve felt comfortable speaking up and playing devil’s advocate, but most importantly letting others know that my ideas are always open to be challenged. What do you hope to accomplish in your first month? As President of the SGA, I [Jon Darlak] plan to have expanded my administrative network multiple times over by this point. A big part of this position is knowing who to have a meeting with when pursuing an initiative or dealing with a problem that needs fixing. I’d like to have established a manageable weekly routine of deliverables and expectations of faculty, administration, and the SGA Cabinet. I am exercising this now as the Chair of the Campus Life Committee by utilizing the tool of delegation and trusting my committee members to do their jobs. I’d also like to see the Cabinet multiply their network too because I am really only as successful as the sum of our parts. Being in that organized state, I can concentrate on the tasks I’m responsible for and be a more effective leader. Tangible improvements from a presidency really do depend on the senate as a whole. I [Tim Barrett] see friends, family, and myself affected by the troubles of depression, anxiety, and other social pressures. I plan to sit in on the upcoming Wellness Task Force meetings in order to learn about new ways to address mental health issues head-on. Also, I will be reaching out to administration to expand upon the CAPS program and, for example, develop supplemental student support, such as a better class scheduling system to reduce stress during the semester. What do you believe the Stevens community lacks and how would you work to fix that? I [Jon Darlak] feel that we display this mentality that we have to “put up” with something that we don’t like about Stevens. I see a lack of disagreement with action. With regards to what we can change, we should all feel comfortable reaching out to our senators and respectfully demanding that something be done if such a reason is so just. Or better yet, have students come into a senate meeting themselves and address the Student Government as a whole. To fix this issue, I’d love to host a motivational speaker to campus once a year, maybe once a semester. Not the same person every year giving the same life lesson. But I’d bring in people that would get the message across that you and only you are truly responsible for what happens in your life, especially your time here at Stevens. Mental health is a large issue for colleges across the country, and Stevens is not excluded. I [Tim Barrett] see friends, family, and myself affected by the troubles of depression, anxiety, and other social pressures. I plan to sit in on the upcoming Wellness Task Force meetings in order to learn about new ways to address mental health issues head-on. Also, I will be reaching out to administration to expand upon the CAPS program and, for example, develop supplemental student support, such as a better class scheduling system to reduce stress during the semester.
Why should you be the next SGA President and Vice-President of Operations? Both of us bring an outside perspective to the Student Government. Combined, we have the lowest amount of time as officials of the SGA. Instead, we’ve remained knowledgeable from the outside and have dedicated time to establishing connections via the various organizations we are involved in on campus including The Stute and Greek Life. By not serving in the SGA, we have remained in touch with the needs of the average student – not only the needs of super involved students which tend to be overrepresented within the Student Government. We want to focus on the needs of everyday students; things that affect almost every Stevens student on a day-to-day basis. This falls under three pillars: living, learning, and social. Living: we want to make it less expensive for students to live in Hoboken. We plan to accomplish this by working with realtors and creating a network of students renting their own apartments. Learning: we want to make it easier to learn and succeed at Stevens. We want to expand the co-op program to all majors and increase its value, add undergraduate TAs to freshman and sophomore courses, and revitalize the connection between students and faculty. Social: we want to make it easier to get involved on campus, whether you’re a 5th year looking to stay involved on campus, or someone who’s looking to get involved on campus for the first time. What do you hope to accomplish in your first month? Within the first month, we hope to lay the groundwork for one of our largest, and most important goals: creating less expensive and superior housing options for students in Hoboken. Stevens students struggle with the cost of living in Hoboken and the surrounding areas and we want to create a partnership with realtors and foster connections between students who choose not to spend a large amount of money by renting in Stevens Leased Housing. We also plan to fix two “restrictions” regarding students who can participate in RSO events immediately upon taking office so it may be in effect for this upcoming May. We will allow students in the co-op program to choose which week they are eligible for senior week activities – their 4th or 5th year – so they have the opportunity of enjoying senior-specific activities with their friends. We will allow undergraduate students planning to pursue a Master’s degree at Stevens to be eligible for all SAF-funded events (i.e. Entertainment Committee, RSO Events) if they choose to pay the student activity fee. This will increase their sense of community on campus and allow individuals to stay involved for a 5th year. We also wish to make progress on all of our academic initiatives including undergraduate TAs, the co-op program, and student-faculty connections. While not directly accomplishable by ourselves, we wish to work closely with the Speaker and Parliamentarian to ensure Robert’s Rules are being followed to ensure speedy and productive meetings for everyone. What do you believe the Stevens community lacks and how would you work to fix that? The main thing we feel the Stevens community, which we will define as the undergraduate student body – the base the Student Government represents, lacks are enough resources for the average student to succeed at Stevens. We want to make it easier for students interact with administration, pursue their life goals and interests, and frankly, get stuff done. Our aforementioned initiatives will help everyone get more out of their Stevens experience, whether it’s providing them with more opportunities with the co-op program or making it easier to get involved on campus in a club. However, we also feel that it is difficult for students to interact with administration; specifically when dealing with billing and academic advisement. We want billing and financial aid policy to be easily accessible – including the amount of classes you are allowed to take before being billed as a graduate student, as well as implementing training for academic advisors to ensure that you can succeed academically and get help with your future career aspirations.
President: Jason Chlus Software Engineering, 2/4 Vice President: Ryan Tom Quantitative Finance , 3/4 Why should you be the next SGA President and Vice-President of Operations? Our experiences and connections have provided us with a very comprehensive list of ideas, from which we have developed a thorough strategy. Not only do we have many lofty goals, but we feel that they all have the possibility to be accomplished and we have created a list of specific areas which will ensure we meet our goals. Overall, we believe that we have the most concrete and complete plan to accomplish our objectives, as well as the flexibility to take on any other projects that will arise. This will allow us to fully meet the needs of the student body. What do you hope to accomplish in your first month? Our first component will be to pick up any initiatives of the previous cabinet where they left off, in order to see them through. This is something that is often forgotten and overlooked by new cabinets. As a part of our broader goals, we plan to create solid lines of communication with the administration and faculty, that will establish an early sense of trust and a valued opinion for our term. This will allow us to begin to involve the student body more in the core decision making processes that affect the future of Stevens. Additionally, we plan to rework aspects of the SGA that will not only allow senators to focus more on initiatives that will enhance the Stevens experience, but increase productivity while fostering positivity and excitement within the SGA. What do you believe the Stevens community lacks and how would you work to fix that? We do not believe our current system of festival planniIn one word: Pride. A majority students aren’t happy with their education; the specific complaints vary from student to student, but the theme is the same. We want to work with the administration and faculty and be brutally honest in a way that stir up concern and force change. Two examples include a push for reinstatement of academic break from 1-5pm on Wednesdays and more administration support for rallying together around athletics. However, at the end of the day any organization is still run by people, and we need to hold those people accountable for improving Stevens. This will instill confidence in the student body that even if there are issues, the people with the power to fix them will put forward the effort to do so.
Campus Pulse
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 6
Roving Reporter Who’s the best rapper in the game?
“Cardi B. That girl is fierce.”
“Kendrick Lamar”
Christopher Tan
Pearl Foster
“Denzel Curry by far because he’s lyrical and hype.”
“Tyler the Creator because he has a good stage presence.” Corinne Wisniewski
“Gambino because he’s well-rounded.”
“I’m a fan of Kendrick because he keeps it real.”
Will Esca
Sabiha Rahman
Matt Kirby
Word Search
Find the eight six nominees for the Student Government Association President and Vice-President of Operations!
Opinion
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 7
The Stute Editorial
Remember your dreams The other day someone asked me, “What’s your dream?” It sounded like an easy question but I was dumbfounded, “I don’t have 0ne,” I laughed to distract myself from the feeling of panic that was rising. It wasn’t until my other friend said, “Come on, yes you do. If you could do anything but this?” Then it finally hit me, “Oh, I would be a writer.” Which was immediately followed by questions about why I don’t do that. “Because I grew up! And I don’t have any talent or anything worth saying,” I joked trying to move the subject away from myself. Yes, when I was younger I had always dreamed of being a writer. Then, I really did grow up and realized that
a writing career is not only hard but basically impossible to succeed in. So I ended up studying civil engineering, dreaming about working on green cities, like what is currently being implemented in China, and other green projects that would make the world a better place. Working on projects that would introduce natural ecosystems to busy urban environments have always been my idea of a perfect job. Yet, the problem is that I haven’t thought about my dreams in a long time. I have become so focused on the daily struggles that I have forgotten about the what brought me here. Being in college, you become so worried about passing this class and finding
an internship/co-op and doing things for this club and that club...the list just never ends. It becomes really easy to lose perspective of why you started this in the first place. The simple question of, “What’s your dream?” made me think, “Am I working towards my dream?” Am I taking the classes I should be to work on the kinds of projects I want to be? I decided to focus on water resources, will this concentration allow me to work on sustainability projects? I may be freaking out (just a little bit) about major life decisions, but I see this as a good thing. This allows me to refocus. I have been so busy with the little goals that I have been ignoring my original dreams.
Senioritis
In defense of doing things alone
by NAMANKITA RANA Senior Engineering Management Major
This time last Friday, I went into New York City alone, as I’ve done dozens of times these past four years. Not for any real purpose, just a whim. For me, it’s a borderline therapeutic exercise -- I love being alone with my thoughts in the bustle of the city. I love experiencing all NYC has to offer while passing through, as a stranger of sorts. I absolutely adore the feeling of being swept up in of others’ lives in some quiet, fleeting way. Going into NYC alone is hardly a strange thing, but the truth is, I love doing stuff by myself. Seeing movies. Exploring the city. Going to restaurants, coffee shops, whatever. Given the choice, I’d probably prefer to do things alone than with a group. I’m an introvert by nature, so that doesn’t strike me as odd, but it certainly does to a lot of other people. Friends and family alike have expressed
how strange it is that I go off on my own all the time. Hell, I’ve got a close friend of several years who flat-out refuses to go anywhere alone. She’s always got to have a person hanging out with her, or those plans are as good as cancelled. That always made me a little sad, but I understood why she felt that way. We live in a society that stigmatizes being by yourself, even though that’s the most normal thing in the world. To people who ask me why I’m doing something alone, I have to ask back: why aren’t you? What are you scared of? And I get it: people like to do things with other people. Some things are better done together than separately. But mostly, I think, there’s a fear of being judged for being alone. Because being alone must mean you’re lonely. But I’d argue that being alone and being lonely are certainly not one and the same. Doing things on your own forces you to spend time with the one person who probably doesn’t get a whole lot of attention -- yourself. When you do things alone, you are forced to learn to like yourself a little. Or at very least, begin to figure out why you don’t. There’s also something liberating about being in control of things. When you do things alone, the only one who gets to define your experience is YOU.
Where do you wanna go? Wherever you want. What do you wanna eat? Whatever you feel like. Why are you even doing this? Who gives a damn? You get to evade social niceties and make the rules, to be as spontaneous as you’d like. That’s a luxury that isn’t always extended in other professional or social circles, yet people shirk the opportunity to take advantage of it when it’s offered. You also don’t have to worry, constantly, about somebody else’s experience or approval. All that matters is if you’re having a good time. Period. Also -- life is too short to be attached at the hip with someone at all times. Your free time is a finite, precious resource. Everytime you cancel plans because you didn’t want to do it alone, you risk passing up the chance to do it later, alone or not. And what’s the fun in that? So the next time a friend cancels joint plans, I say -take it upon yourself to do it anyways. Go try that cute brunch spot. Visit the bookstore. See the damn movie by yourself. You may think you need someone to support you, someone to catch you if you fall, but the truth is, you’ll never know the thrill of experiencing something that’s uniquely, unapologetically yours until you try flying solo.
Photo courtesy of www.eco-business.com Have you been doing the same? I’m not saying that I have made a five year plan to achieve my dreams. But, I do think that it is important that we honor our dreams and don’t forget them. Dreams are what make us into the people
we are and we shouldn’t forget to them. Maybe we won’t achieve them in the near future, if at all, but it’s important that we at least strive towards them. This way we can only get better in whatever we are doing.
Maryia Spirydonava Editor-in-Chief
Scientific Curmudgeon
Noam Chomsky calls Republican global-warming deniers “Criminally Insane”
by JOHN HORGAN CAL Professor
I don’t really have heroes, but if I did, Noam Chomsky would be at the top of my list. In the 1960s his ideas about the genetic roots of language triggered a revolution in our understanding of the mind. Since then he has also been a ferocious political critic, denouncing abuses of power wherever he sees them. He recently answered a few of my emailed questions. Why did you recently call the Republican Party “the most dangerous organization in world history”? Take its leader, who recently applied to the government of Ireland for a permit to build a huge wall to protect his golf course, appealing to the threat of global warming, while at the same time he withdrew from in-
ternational efforts to address the grim threat and is using every means at his disposal to accelerate it. Or take his colleagues, the participants in the 2016 Republican primaries. Without exception, they either denied that what is happening is happening – though any ignorance is self-induced – or said maybe it is but we shouldn’t do anything about it. The moral depths were reached by the respected “adult in the room,” Ohio governor John Kasich, who agreed that it is happening but added that “we are going to burn [coal] in Ohio and we are not going to apologize for it.” Or take a recent publication of Trump’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a detailed study recommending an end to regulations on emissions. It presented a rational argument: extrapolating current trends, by the end of the century we’ll be over the cliff and automotive emissions don’t contribute very much to the catastrophe – the assumption being that everyone is as criminally insane as we are and won’t try to avoid the crisis. In brief, let’s rob while the planet burns, putting poor Nero in the shadows. This surely qualifies as a contender for the most evil document in history. There have been many mon-
sters in the past, but it would be hard to find one who was dedicated to undermining the prospects for organized human society, not in the distant future -- in order to put a few more dollars in overstuffed pockets. And it doesn’t end there. The same can be said about the major banks that are increasing investments in fossil fuels, knowing very well what they are doing. Or, for that matter, the regular articles in the major media and business press reporting US success in rapidly increasing oil and gas production, with commentary on energy independence, sometimes local environmental effects, but regularly without a phrase on the impact on global warming – a truly existential threat. Same in the election campaign. Not a word about the issue that is merely the most crucial one in human history. Hardly a day passes without new information about the severity of the threat. As I’m writing, a new study appeared in Nature showing that retention of heat in the oceans has been greatly underestimated, meaning that the total carbon budget is much less than had been assumed in the recent, and sufficiently ominous, IPCC report.
Continued on thestute.com
Mind of a Freshman
Dealing with my emotions as a highly sensitive person
by NATALIE TODARO Freshman Music & Technology Major
I consider myself a highly sensitive person (HSP). My senses and my emotions are constantly heightened, and I take in a lot more than the average person. It can be really difficult to deal with my emotions on a daily basis because I experience them at such a
strong level; I can get really “tired” really quickly in that my senses “burn out.” The feeling of being worn out after a long day for the average person can happen to me in just a few hours, and sensory overload is a constant obstacle. The quickest remedy to help my senses become leveled again is to sit alone in quiet for some time, and even though I do make time for myself, this isn’t always an option if I have class or somewhere I need to be. So when I can’t give myself time to be alone in quiet, my brain has to find something to do to deal with my heightened senses and emotions. Its coping mechanism of choice: dissociation. Under the umbrella of dissociation is derealisation and depersonalisation. Derealisation is when you perceive your
environment to be unreal, and depersonalisation is when you perceive yourself to be unreal. I experience derealisation. About 50% of the time, I am living my life feeling as if I am dreaming; it’s the best way I can describe what it feels like. I perceive my surroundings to be something other than what is presently there. It started about five months ago when I graduated from high school - I began experiencing anxiety and nervousness about starting college. As a HSP I felt this anxiety at a much higher level, and my brain didn’t know how to handle the intensity. So instead of feeling, my brain “shut off,” and started to dissociate. It wasn’t all just numbness, and I wasn’t completely checked out of reality. Some days were worse than others;
some days I felt the dreamlike environment much more intensely than other days. But overall I felt like I was dreaming. Like what I was seeing was a painting or a photograph, an imaginative illusion. Since then I’ve started to feel better because I’m not experiencing the same anxiety that I was over the summer. However, I am still learning to live with being hypersensitive and learning how to handle the emotions that I feel. If I dont then my brain will dissociate. In order to deal with my everyday emotions in a way that is beneficial to me, I’ve been practicing some strategies. One is telling myself that whatever emotion I’m feeling is OK. I need to accept it for what it is, and I must understand that the emotion is only temporary. In addition to this
I try to meditate as often as I can, especially before I go to sleep. I believe there is a difference between getting sleep and getting valuable rest. As a HSP it’s incredibly important for me to get sleep that is of service to me, and meditating before bed ensures that. Meditating also helps me to stay in the present; thinking about the future and about the huge to-do list in my planner more often than I need to doesn’t help me, and it certainly doesn’t help my sleep. I’ve also learned that my emotions aren’t the only things that cause my brain to dissociate. My hearing and my sight are incredibly sensitive; loud sounds or bright, fluorescent lights can trigger the dreamlike environment that I perceive. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the ambience of a noisy cafe, but the tiniest
bit too noisy makes me want to scream. I’ve learned that cool, white light isn’t my favorite, so the night shift and dark appearance Mac options help me when I’m spending time on my laptop, which is, let’s be honest, a lot. If you experience dissociation you know that it’s really hard to describe it to people that don’t, so I hope I’ve done a sufficient job in explaining this. It’s also much more common than a lot of people think, so if you do experience it, know that you aren’t alone. I think we can all benefit from understanding that our emotions are OK to feel. Understanding how your mind deals with emotions is especially important during school, and even if you think you handle them fine, I think it can only help you to practice bettering your mental health.
Opinion Continued
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 8
Passion for Fashion
Life is a Movie at ComplexCon 2018
by DANIEL KANG Sophomore Biomedical Engineering Major
ComplexCon returned this year November 3-4 in Long Beach, California for the third time around bringing entertainment, art, entrepreneurship, culture, social action, music, food, sports, retail, streetwear together. ComplexCon was probably the event of the year as the gathering of some of the greatest creative minds in the world. Four walls for two days to get excited about modern youth culture. Over 50,000 people came to see all that ComplexCon had to offer. On the music front, the hip-hop artists Future, Rae Sremmurd, Vince Staples, Action Bronson, Nav, Lil Baby, T-Pain, Tinashe, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Flipp Dinero held it down on both Saturday and Sunday. For the ComplexCon, Issa Rae, Jemele Hill, Virgil Abloh, Ronnie Fieg, Jaden Smith, Lena Waithe, Don C., Tommy Hilfiger, Victor Cruz, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Joe La Puma, DJ Clark Kent, Sean Evans, Jerry Lorenzo, Shiggy, Teyana Taylor, YBN Nahmir, Lewis
Hamilton, and more, delved into their passions. Of course, without the limited sneaker drops, ComplexCon would not be as big as it is today. Although people who were not in LA missed out, it’s even more reason to buy a plane ticket and fly out to California for the oncea-year event. Sneakers-wise the most hyped releases were the Air Force 1 Low Retro Cocoa Snake (a retro version of the ones from 2001) , Adidas NMD Hu Pharrell N.E.R.D. Blue (released with a hoodie and tee exclusively through Frenzy app reservation at ComplexCon), Pusha T x Adidas EQT Cushion 2 (limited to 40 pairs and only available through raffle on ComplexCon app), Diamonds Supply Co. x Nike SB Dunk Low “Canary” (only 250 pairs available and the release was canceled and moved online due to massive crowding), Union Vans Era and Union Vans Slip-On (after Union’s Jordan 1 Retro High Gold Top 3 release last year, this is a more low key release instead of the newest Union Jordan 1’s), and the Fear of God Essentials x Converse (released at the PacSun booth), Pleasures x adidas Samba, Champion and Timberland Boots. Among the most hyped clothing releases were OVO x Takashi Murakami (hoodies, tees, varsity jacket, posters), BBC (Star Trak merch and BE@RBRICK), AAPE, Guess Jeans x Places and Faces (3M details on clothing). Adidas had its own booth where you had to download the ComplexCon app and scan a virtual cube
ComplexCon 2018 Entrance, Photo from wwd.com hanging from the ceiling during a certain drop time. The Dragonball Z collection and the Pharrell NMD were available for purchase. Different locations were released for users to go and scan the cubes to win these shoes. Atmos also teased a new Air Max2 Light, tentatively scheduled for next year’s Air Max Day, March 26. The Zen booth was my favorite at ComplexCon. Zen partnered with Complex release a miniseries called Sole Origins about four cities (NYC, LA, Paris, Tokyo) and the sneakers they inspired last month. At Com-
plexCon, Zen was featured as a one-stop shop for sneaker grails, giving away the shoes featured in the series (for free! The only caveat was that you had to wear the shoes out of the booth) including the Jordan 3 Atmos, Jordan 1 Retro Legends of Summer Black, UNDFTD Jordan 4, Nike Air Mag Back To The Future (2011), adidas Yeezy Boost 350 Turtledove, Shoe Surgeon customized Off-White Jordan 1, Nike SB Dunk Low Tokyo, Air Max 1/97 Sean Wotherspoon, adidas NMD Hu Pharrell Friends and Family Shock Pink, Air Force 1 High VLONE, and much
more. Zen was not just about the sneaker culture, it told a deeper story of how the culture formed and where we are today as a result. In the food section, affectionally called First We Feast Lagoon, there was Hot Ones (the hot take on YouTube interviewing celebrities), and more. Sneakersnstuff (also known as SNS) was announced as a retail partner of ComplexCon. As a Swedish sneaker boutique, it was odd that it was only collaborating with Lil’ Sweet Chick (NYC fried chicken restaurant) but it later turned out that there was much
more to the eye than expected. One of the main items on the menu was the “heat sauce” and when you asked for it, they gave you a link to register for the event and then sent emails at random times unlocking access to special releases. Among the notable releases were the Air Max 1 Atmos, Off-White Jordan 1 “White”, Off-White Jordan “University Blue”, Off-White Converse Chuck Taylor, Travis Scott Jordan 4, Jordan 1 Retro High Nigel Sylvester, Jordan 4
Continued on thestute.com
Letter to the Editor
Priority scheduling is out of control by ERIC LONDRES
Signing up for classes has always been a source of anxiety for Stevens undergrads, especially Freshman and Sophomores. However, this year the scheduling situation has reached new heights of absurdity. The number of undergraduate students at Stevens who have priority scheduling is simply far too high to remain within reason, and the scheduling system itself is designed in such a way that only magnifies the anxiety caused. As a sophomore, I am scheduling classes on Friday morning, along with most freshman. For the first time my Stevens career, I am wholly unsure if I will be able to take all of my required courses next semester. By Thursday afternoon, every physical education section other than military/ ROTC sections and sports/ club sports were full. This is before any sophomore or freshman is able to register unless they have priority scheduling. Stevens undergrads are usually required to take four semesters of physical education, and seniors are strongly advised against taking them -- I no longer have the chance to abide by this advice, as I was not offered the opportunity to take a PE class in my fourth semester. Another major point of concern for me right now is my humanities requirement. As a Computer Science major, I would normally be required to take eight humanities
courses, which reasonably works out to one per semester (including CAL-103 and CAL-105, which are required for all undergraduates at Stevens). As of Thursday afternoon, there was not a single humanities class that counts for my requirement with any open seats that doesn’t conflict with a core CS course that I must take next semester. I’m lucky enough to have taken AP Literature & Composition in high school, which allows me to skip one semester of humanities. I was originally planning on applying this credit during the final semester of my senior year, but now I am forced to use it in my fourth semester because I am unable to schedule for any humanities courses. If I did not have the AP credit that I have (which I know many if not most students do not have), I would be completely out of luck, likely having to take multiple humanities courses in one semester later on - I don’t know if this even would be feasible for me, considering credit overages per semester incur large charges that I would not be able to afford. When I was a freshman, I had planned on taking a Music & Technology minor because music was something I was passionate about. At the time, it seemed that my AP credit made it just feasible for me to do so without credit overages or summer courses, neither of which I could seriously consider. I no longer consider this a possibility. If everything goes well and
no additional sections I currently plan to enter fill up (and I am not at all confident that this will occur), I will be at a maximum of 16 credits. Several courses I need to take next semester have only a single section, such as CH 115, or only a single section that doesn’t conflict with other courses that themselves only have a single section, such as MA 222 and CS 392. As such, if any one of those three sections fill up before I am allowed to enter them on Friday morning, I will need to be signed into them. There is no guarantee that I will be allowed to do that, as oftentimes it’s simply not possible for sections to exceed capacity by too much. I vividly remember the first week of my first CS course, CS 115, in which there were several students sitting on the floor during each lecture because the class had been booked beyond NB 105’s capacity. The real-life problems that I am facing (inability to sign up for required humanities and physical education courses; precarious prerequisite chains that could unravel with any course; greatly reduced ability to pursue a minor; general anxiety and skepticism about my future here) derive from two major reasons which I ascribe to policy decisions by Stevens. First, there are too many students with priority scheduling. Currently, priority scheduling (which allows students to register for classes before anyone else) is granted to SGA senators, resident
assistants, athletes (including those currently trying out), Pinnacle scholars, Clarke scholars, anyone on co-op, and members of the Honor Board. Some of these groups have clear needs to schedule their classes before the general student body and should maintain their priority scheduling classes. Athletes who have practices during the week, for example. However, priority scheduling must be limited to specific, bounded groups of students that actually need to register for classes before others due to obligational constraints in their availability during the week. For example, resident assistants must attend mandatory all-staff meetings during the week, so they need to ensure that they are not forced to take classes during those times. However, athletes that are currently trying out and may not actually commit to joining their teams should not get priority scheduling before it is certain that they will actually have those obligations. I personally know at least two people who have told me that they are “trying out” until scheduling and then will be dropping out, specifically so they can register before their peers. Also, Pinnacle scholars are not required to take their designated sections. There was a discussion recently in the Pinnacle official Slack workspace as to whether or not it was preferable to enter the S (scholar) section of PEP 112 or not. Members of the Pinnacle program should not be given priority schedul-
ing if they are not obligated to take specific sections of courses. SGA senators should not be given priority scheduling if they are not obligated to attend meetings or events during the week. Members of the Honor Board should not be given priority scheduling if they are not obligated to attend hearings or other such meetings during class hours. I should not have to pray Friday morning that my internet connection is faster than my peers so that I may graduate on time. The secondary reason is more diluted. There are more students on campus now than ever before, but theoretically this shouldn’t have affected my scheduling much because classes are generally separated by class year. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with many classes. The Clarke scholar program is new this year, and there are more SGA senators than ever before, which means there has been a large increase in the number of students with priority scheduling. Beginning this semester, academic breaks were severely reduced to only 3-5pm on Wednesdays. This means that even if organizations such as Residential Education wanted to ensure member availability by scheduling during academic break, they no longer can be confident that their members will actually be available because of increased competition for the reduced time. Honor Board hearings have to occur during these brief times, which almost certainly
will have time conflicts with other prior obligations (this has occurred to me personally with regards to an Honor Board case I was supposed to be a witness in). If academic breaks were restored to their former duration, organizations would have much more leeway to schedule required events during times when students will actually be available, rather than requiring their members be allowed to pick all of their classes prior to anyone else. In conclusion, Stevens has constructed a system of first-class and second-class citizens. The first-class prioritized students enjoy broad discretion in how they manage their time and their lives on campus, while the second-class ordinary students are left picking through the scraps left by those prioritized, praying that they can piece together a schedule that at least lets them graduate on time without incurring additional charges. Unless Stevens begins to take measures to address this issue as soon as they can, us secondclass students will graduate resenting the institution that told us we were not as important as our peers. I call upon Stevens administrators to restore academic breaks to their previous duration, ensure that those who truly need to register early due to enforced obligations can do so, and, beyond that, end the disparity that is threatening the experience of those like me and the legacy of Stevens as it exists in our minds.
Opinion Continued Campus Liberal
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 9
Campus Conservative
Midterms: A stream of consciousness
What does this election mean?
instead of regressive. There are still massive changes that need to be made to the system as a whole, but at least we might stop moving back in time. The Senate is another story. At the time of writing, 51 seats will belong to Republicans, 44 to Democrats, and 2 to others (Bernie Sanders and Angus King). This poses a problem for me, as someone who has real issues with practically every hire the Trump administration makes. The Senate gets to confirm nominees. Taking the house is great, and while they have a lot of checks on the executive branch, it’s reactive. Issuing indictments, holding hearings, and impeachment are all reactive, not proactive. The Senate could stop this insanity before it gets in the door, but instead, we end up with a woman who never spent a day of her life in public school (nor have her children) running public education. We end up getting 2 positions filled on the supreme court with dangerous nominees. This is, to say the least, not ideal. I genuinely, at this point in my life, do not understand how anyone can vote for any Republican incumbent for federal office and still claim to have a functioning moral compass. Every one of them makes decisions that harm the public welfare, whether
election, so 35 seats does not give them overwhelming control of Congress, but it does mean that they will easily get to decide who the next speaker of the house is. On the other side of Congress in the Senate, I think Republicans will have at least a 53 seat majority in the Senate, possibly 54 depending on how Arizona turns out. Also for reference, in President Obama’s first midterm election the Democrats lost 63 house seats and six Senate seats. In the past unpopular presidents usually, lose about 37 house seats and a number of Senate seats. Popular presidents usually lose about 30 house seats and relatively few Senate seats. So what does all of this mean going forward? Trump and the Republicans will continue to appoint conservative judges and new cabinet members, but with significantly less opposition. The Senate will no longer have those extremely tight votes that require the Vice President to cast the deciding vote. In the house, Democrats will take control of every single committee. This means everything from the judiciary committee to the foreign affair committee. Democrats have already announced their intentions to investigate the Trump administration like there is no tomorrow. In my opinion, I don’t think they will find anything earth-shattering. If there was anything, Robert Muller will bring it out in the long overdue Russia investigation. At this point, I think Demo-
by MATTHEW DOTO Junior Computer Science Major
I’m going to try to do something a bit less structured this week. No outline, no plan, no goal, just my thoughts on the page. As I’m just starting, I don’t know if it will turn out well or not -- We’ll just have to find out together. I do want to preface this by saying that I’m writing it on Wednesday night, so at time of writing there are still 18 congressional seats in the air, but majorities have been decided for both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. Overall, I’d say I’m placated but far from happy. The house is back in the hands of Democrats. I’ve talked in the past about how Democrats are often just as corrupt as Republicans. The thing is, Democrats at least pretend to be on the correct side of social issues. Voting on party lines in the house will at least lean progressive
by their own morals or by their lack of backbone to stand against party leadership. The Republican platform today, in 2018, contains the sentence, “Every child deserves a married mom and dad.” Something so plainly homophobic cannot be allowed to stand in any modern party, let alone one in control of more than 50% of the federal government. The platform is littered with small “facts” like that, claiming science “plainly” shows things that have never been remotely proven. I’ve said it to many of my friends, but I would like to mention it here: Voting for Donald Trump in the last election was nearly morally reprehensible. There was the possibility of hiding behind lack of knowledge of how he’d do, or that Hillary Clinton would’ve somehow been worse. There can be no question now, with the fascist moves the Republicans and Donald Trump have been making of late: Voting for Donald Trump in two years is morally indefensible. Hell, Republicans have just learned that they can make overt moves towards a fascist state and retain the support of the American public. They are going to become energized. They cannot be allowed to destroy the freedom and democracy that so many have worked so hard to create in this country.
by ALEX MURTAGH Junior Civil Engineering Major
As I’m sure you’re well aware, this past Tuesday was the 2018 midterm elections. Just one year ago, the political pundits were saying we would see a massive blue wave. That this election would be a major referendum on President Trump and the Republican Congress. But as time went on this proved to be less and less true. In the end, although not all of the results are in, it is clear that the Republicans will not only retain control of the Senate, but actually increase their control there, and that Democrats will take the house by a fair margin. As of right now, Democrats have managed to pick up 30 house seats, but there are still some that are too close to call. Realistically, they will probably pick up another five seats. Now I know what you’re probably thinking “that’s a lot of seats for Democrats to gain!” and that’s half true. Democrats were in the minority prior to the
crats are looking for fools gold with all of these investigations. They expect Trump to have all of these horrific skeletons in his closet that will for sure bring him down this time. But the way I see it, even if they do find something, the only thing I see possibly ending his presidency is proof that he committed an outrageous felony. We all basically know all of the bad things Trump has done at this point. For crying out loud, proof that he paid to sleep with a porn star wasn’t enough to stop him. You can’t fling more dirt at one of the most morally corrupt people who basically admits to a lot of what he’s done. At the same time, Democrats will have to decide who they want as the next speaker. They can either reselect Nancy Pelosi, an idea already endorsed by Trump, or they can go with a new fresh face. Scores of Democrats have already made their opposition to her as speaker known, so there is a good chance she won’t get it. But if she does, Republicans will have a field day. For crying out loud she made yet another gaffe in her victory speech this past week. Republicans couldn’t have asked for a better time to lose the house to Democrats. Either they will make a big show out of nothing and get nothing done, or they will have to work with the President in order to retain the house. Either way, Republicans will have a great set up for the 2020 election cycle.
Sports
Friday, November 9, 2018 • Page 10
Women’s Basketball Opens 2018-19 Season at Western Connecticut
ON DECK IN SPORTS
Friday WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
@ Western Connecticut State 6p.m. Danbury, CT
n
Saturday WRESTLING SSI - The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s basketball team travels to Western Connecticut State University tonight for a 6 P.M. tip-off to
open the 2018-19 season. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since November 2005, where the Ducks topped the Colonials 67-56 in Hoboken. Stevens finished the 201718 campaign with an overall record of 15-13, winning their fourth Empire 8 Conference
championship over St. John Fisher, before falling to the University of Rochester in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks will play
their first four games on the road for the second season in a row before welcoming Fairleigh Dickinson UniversityFlorham Campus to Canavan Arena. FDU-Florham is led by first year head coach Melissa Brooks, who was an assistant coach for the Ducks from 2013-2016.
The Ducks will play in the Morgan Stanley Tip-Off Tournament hosted by DeSales University Nov. 17-18. Four of five non-conference games will be played in Hoboken to close out the first semester, before opening Empire 8 play against Elmira at Canavan Arena in 2019. The Ducks will be led by fifth-year center Anna Toke, who averaged 14.4 points and 9.8 rebounds over nine games last year before suffering a season-ending injury. In 2016-17,
the Lincoln Park, New Jersey native started in all but one game and nearly averaged a double-double on the year with 9.1 points and 8.8 rebounds. Stevens also sees the return of E8 Rookie of the Year Christina Li. The sophomore guard set a program record in her rookie season with seven three-pointers against Alfred on Feb. 9. Li also led the team with 35 threes for the season. Sophomores Maddi Hahn and Sam Winter return to the
Stevens Sports Information
lineup for the Ducks. Hahn finished the 2017-18 season with the second-most points on the team (228), while Winter finished fourth with 197.
The team welcomes nine newcomers for head coach Megan Haughey’s seventh season at the helm of the program. After tonight’s matchup against Western Connecticut, the Ducks travel to Washington, D.C. to play the Catholic University of America.
Heave-Ho, Four in a Row! Women’s Soccer blanks Utica to win E8
@ Ned McGinley Invitational 9 a.m. Wilkes-Barre, PA
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY VS NCAA Atlantic Regional TBD Logan Township, Nj
MEN’S SOCCER
VS Gordon College 1 p.m. Medford, Mass
WOMEN’S SOCCER
VS Suny Geneseo 1:30 p.m. Williamstown, Mass
WOMEN’S SWIMMING
@ The College of New Jersey 2 p.m.
Stevens Sports Information
SSI – The Stevens Institute of Technology women’s soccer team won its fourth straight Empire 8 Conference Championship Saturday with a 3-0 victory over Utica College at the DeBaun Athletic Complex. Freshman Ally Wanzor broke through in the 25th minute to provide Stevens with all the offense it would ultimately need. The Jackson, New Jersey native uncorked a a rocket of a shot from well outside the 18yard box that sailed well over the outstretched arms of Utica goalkeeper Allison Wagner’s and tucked in neatly under-
neath the crossbar. Senior Misha Brewster and junior Julia Panko also found the back of the net for Stevens, who won its 13th straight match to improve to 15-2. For her efforts, Panko was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. The Ducks are closing in on the program record for consecutive victories (14) set in 2005. Wagner made eight saves for Utica, who fell to 10-7-3. The Pioneers dropped two of their last three to close out the season. Freshman Izzy DiDario and sophomore Erika McCar-
thy totaled three saves in the combined clean sheet; the 10th for the Ducks this season. Stevens became the first team in conference history to capture four straight women’s soccer championships. The Ducks moved to 10-4-4 all-time in the E8 tournament and won their sixth Empire 8 crown. Stevens totaled 24 shots with 11 registering on net. Despite outshooting the Pioneers, it was Utica that recorded the first shot of the match. Wanzor led all players with six shots. Stevens earned four corners,
while not allowing one to Utica. It was the third time this season that an opponent failed to earn a corner. Tonight’s victory was the 300th in program history. Stevens’ defensive corps held Utica to seven shots over its two meetings. The Ducks again held the conference’s leading scorer, Mikayla Blumenstock to a single shot. Over the last three matches, the pairing of Stevens’ offensive pressure and tight back line has allowed just 10 opposing shots. “Big-time performance to-
Duck Country Scoreboard
night from a tremendous group of student-athletes tough playing an opponent for the second consecutive week, but we were able to establish the ton, move the ball effectively and finish a few chances.” “Real pleasure watching this team grow and evolve this season and will be making every effort to helping it continue. Humbled by their trust and belief in our coaching staff and we want to return it to them tenfold.” Stevens awaits its NCAA Tournament placement.
Date
Stevens
Opponent/Event
Score
Result
11/3 11/3 11/3 11/3 11/3 11/3 11/4 11/4 11/4 11/4
Men's Swimming Women's Swimming Women's Soccer Men's Soccer Women's Volleyball Wrestling Equestrian Men's Soccer Women's Volleyball Wrestling
@ NYU Fall Invitational @ NYU Fall Invitational VS #2 Utica College VS #4 St. John Fisher College VS Alfred University @ Ned Mcginley Invitational VS Vassar College Show VS Nazareth College VS Nazareth College @ Princeton Open
344-352 331-542 3-0 5-0 3-0 14.5 10
L L W W W 15th 8th W
2-0 2-3 N/A
L Complete
Stevens Sports Information
MEN’S SWIMMING
@The College of New Jersey 2 p.m. Ewing, NJ
FOR MORE INFORMATION, HEAD TO: STEVENSDUCKS.COM STEVENSREC.COM