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THE TOWER
NOV. 7, 2013
14|03 WWW.KUTOWER.COM
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF KEAN UNIVERSITY
HOMECOMING PG. 5
Course registration still an issue at Kean By Christine Moukazis
ON CAMPUS
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Kean University’s administration is continuing to mark classes as pending, making certain courses not visible for registration on KeanWise. As previously reported in the September issue of The Tower, pending designations were partly to blame for the bevy of course cancellations that occurred at the start of the fall semester. This could potentially lead to more class cancellations, with the university’s current scheduling problems spilling into the following semester. Last spring, the administration started labeling some classes for the fall semester as pending, for both full-time faculty and adjunct instructors. According to the Kean Federation of Teachers, which represents full-time faculty and professional staff, the idea behind a pending designation is that a course section that has been created and assigned to an instructor is removed from KeanWise, ultimately hiding its existence from students. Apparently, once all other sections of that course are filled, the administration then posts the section to KeanWise for student enrollment. The problem was that most pending courses were not listed in the system until mid-summer. Thus, the classes never came close to filling and were then cancelled right before the start of the fall term. Students were left scrambling to fill their diminished schedules and some faculty continued on page 3
Campus lockdown alarms Kean community By Marisa Gallagher
A brief lockdown ordered last month after a report that a man near Kean University was carrying a shotgun—which turned out to be a false alarm—led to fear, confusion and lots of discussion about campus safety in this era of gun violence. The partial lockdown occurred on Oct. 10 with this Campus Alert message: “Shortly before 11 a.m. Campus Police received a report of a black male, approximately 5’6” to 5’8”, wearing a white Lakers jersey walking north on Green Lane toward Morris Avenue carrying what appeared to be a shotgun. Campus Police immediately locked down campus buildings in the vicinity.” The Harwood Arena, Administration Building and Child Care Center all were placed on lockdown, while all other buildings remained open. No one was allowed to enter or exit those specific buildings during the lockdown. Within the hour, it was over. At 11:42 a.m., students and faculty received another Campus Alert email from Kean University police. “The individual described was located by Union Police off campus and was NOT carrying a firearm,” the alert stated. “All campus lockdowns are LIFTED as of 11:40 a.m.” The alert was widely reported on the web and by broadcast media as it was happening. One media outlet reported the alleged shotgun was actually an umbrella, but that was not confirmed. Questions to Kean Police
were referred to Kean’s University Relations. “The person was NOT reported to be on Kean campus at any time,” wrote Emily Renkert of University Relations in an email about the lockdown and security at Kean. “As
“I felt like I was in danger.” a precaution, Campus Police placed buildings located in the closest vicinity to Green Lane on temporarily lock down.” Students and faculty reacted to the campus alert in different ways. Some students were in classes and did not even know about it. Some students aid they were scared, while others were not alarmed by the emails they received from Kean police. Faculty had different reactions. Some were calm and collected,
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while others were confused about what to do. One student in the CAS building said a class was let out because of the alert. Another said the professor turned off the lights and had the class move away from the doors.
One issue was door locks. The campus manual about emergencies states: “During a lockdown, all classrooms, office doors, etc. are to remain locked, if possible, until the ‘all clear’ is announced. Listen carefully for announcements made by law enforcement.” However, in CAS, for instance, there was confusion about how to lock the classroom doors. The doors lock from the exterior with a key, which most professors do not have. continued on page 2
Remembering superstorm Sandy after one year
A&E
Arts & Entertainment
Photo: Marisa Gallagher
A section of Kean University’s main campus.
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Running from my last class and across the street to Liberty Hall Campus, I made it to the Superstorm Sandy commemoration on Tuesday, Oct. 29, out of breath with my camera ready and paper to write my notes. I sat down in a chair near the front and watched as many other students filed into the room. Food and refreshments were offered to the students and professors who came to listen to the speeches. The projector was set up in the middle of the room, with the words, “Superstorm Sandy One Year Later,” typed simply on a PowerPoint presentation. I looked at the three girls eager to present sitting at the table in the front of the room with the PowerPoint next to them. Christopher Bellitto, chair of the history department at Kean University, was the first to speak. He talked about the project and the students who participated in it, and welcomed those who had come. Abigail Perkiss, a history professor at Kean, told the audience about the oral history project that her students worked on for the past 10 months. Perkiss had an idea in her mind of a new class that would be available for students during the spring 2014 semester. Although many students had already registered for their spring semesters, Perkiss had six students who were interested in her class, Public History: Advanced Oral History Methods. She presented the three students, Trudi Lawrence, Brittany LeStrange and Mary Piasecki, who continued their studies over the summer. Each student had a speech they would be presenting to the audience on their journey
Dr. Perkiss with three of her students.
Photo: Kean XChange
“On TV, it’s one thing, but really being there is another. What if that was me?” through the class and the experiences they gained from it. The students were able to speak at the Oral History of the MidAtlantic Region conference, as well as at the Oral History Association meeting, a fall conference in Oklahoma City. For their internships, the students interviewed those affected by Hurricane Sandy for their exhibit. Piasecki was the first to speak, about the program created for the Sandy relief effort. The project was called “Staring Out to Sea: The Story of Superstorm Sandy in Three Bayshore Communities.” The communities were Keansburg, Union Beach and Fort Monmouth. Lawrence was the next student to speak about her interviews in depth. Lawrence told stories she heard about families trapped in their houses, including a woman stuck in her attic only big enough to lay down in, and couples who
thought they would die from the storm and its damage. “On TV, it’s one thing, but really being there is another, “ Lawrence said. “What if that was me?” Perkiss then introduced a poem to be spoken by Linda Gonzalez, a woman affected by Superstorm Sandy, about her experiences as it happened and after. Around the room everyone had their heads down, sitting in silence, somber about the shakiness in her voice as she explained what happened. Chills arose on my skin as Gonzalez finished her poem with, “But we all pull together, because we are New Jersey Strong.” LeStrange, the last student speaker, talked about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s role in the effort to help those affected by Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey communities. Having been affected by Sandy, LeStrange was one of many volunteers who
helped clean up her own house, her neighbors’ houses and communities around her. Not only did people’s homes get completely destroyed, they had to deal with looters stealing from their homes, hoping to find valuables left behind or under wreckage from the storm. Many families had to resort to loans or diving into savings accounts, just to be able to fix and refurbish their house. LeStrange believes FEMA did not give nearly enough money to help those who needed it. “Not one story is the same, but what comes down to it, is the devastation of the storm,” LeStrange said. LeStrange has her own firsthand account of what happened to her house during the storm, of grabbing boxes, or anything they could carry or save, as the water rushed into her house. She described her experiences in a calm voice, and told her story of how she was just able to get back into her house a few months ago. The six students who participated in the project all felt that their experience was one that was life changing. They felt as though this was their contribution to the Sandy relief effort. “We have accomplished a great deal in a short span of time, and we look forward to our future,” Piasecki said. “We still have a great deal of work ahead of us, but we are excited and optimistic about the future of our project. With Dr. Perkiss as our advisor, she began our project on the right foot. Combined with a positive attitude and hard working classmates, I know that we will continue to succeed creating history.”