the signal: spring '13, no. 13

By Natalie KoubaNews Editor

Just nine years ago, the world was intro-

duced to the social networking site Facebook after it blew up from a Harvard dorm room. FedEx was first introduced in a term paper by a student at Yale University, and the idea for Microsoft was the brainchild of a college student as well.

All these early starts have had their fair share of struggles with their entrepreneurial pursuits, but some of the most successful

businesses started out on college campuses, not much different from our own.

Here at the College, there are several young entrepreneurs giving it the old college try at their own business ideas.

Each year, the Mayo Business Competi-tion awards young entrepreneurs at the Col-lege portions of a $20,000 pot to help them get their business plans up and running. Last year, three freshmen took first place for their online customized magazine idea, “Mashup.”

see BUSINESS page 7

Serving The College of New Jersey community since 1885Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 13 April 24, 2013

RatfestLocal bands perform in

first Ratfest

See A&E page 21

Ally WeekWeek of events for allies

of LGBT

See Features page 17

INDEX: Nation & World / Page 9 Editorial / 1 Opinions / Page 13 Features / Page 17 Arts & Entertainment / Page 21 Sports / Page 32

The Signal

@TCNJsignal

Students Take Back the

Night

see News page 3

Alumnus achievementsPolitical activism applied

to business success

See News page 2

Paige Aiello remains missing

Freshman Steven Volpe — most

valuable pitcher

See Sports page 30

By Jamie PrimeauFormer EIC

It has now been two weeks since Paige Aiello was reported missing. The College senior has not been seen since Tuesday, April 9.

Her father was the last one to see her in person at their Hillsborough home at 1 p.m. that day. Security footage places her at the 7th Avenue exit of New York Penn Station at 4 p.m., according to reports. Her belongings were found on the walkway of the George Washing-ton Bridge later that evening.

There have been no new updates from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office regarding this missing person

investigation as of Monday, April 22.Although there is no new public in-

formation, support continues to grow and remain strong on campus and online.

Last Tuesday, marking one week since Aiello’s disappearance, a prayer service called Prayer for Paige was held on the tennis courts. Athletes In-terVarsity, a prayer group for members of the College’s athletic community, orchestrated the event. Athletes Inter-Varisty is part of the New Jersey Chris-tian Fellowship.

The 30-minute event began with a prayer read aloud, and then the group was broken up into four corners of the court. It was in this space that attend-ees were encouraged to write down

any thoughts, feelings or prayers us-ing markers provided. These pieces of paper were then placed in a cardboard box to symbolize sending the prayers to God.

According to Katelyn Ary, who serves as a captain for Athletes Inter-Varsity, there were approximately 300 people in attendance, including admin-istrators, coaches, student athletes, ath-letic department members, classmates and friends of Aiello.

“It was a blessing to see the support of the athletic communities as entire teams showed up to the event together,” said Ary, sophomore nursing major.

see AIELLO page 5

Flow & Co. and the ‘Mashup’ group discuss their website ideas for college students.Photos courtesy of Patrick Chirchirillo and Davis Craig

Students open for business

Members of the College community gather on the tennis courts to support and pray for Paige Aiello.Photo courtesy of Katelyn Ary

Support on campus and onlineGreek Week

By Julie KayzermanNews Assistant

Throughout the week on campus, large groups of students could be seen competing in field events among several other activities. This, of course, was in celebration of the sixth annual “Greek Week” here at the College, in which members of fraternities and sororities pair up to take part in the events to promote community building within Greek life.

“It’s an opportunity for members to get together with each other as a community,” said Dave Conner, head of fraternity and sorority life. “It allows them to come together to socialize and get to know each other and at the same time to grow as a community.”

The week consisted of several field games like dodge ball and volleyball, as well as Greek inspired trivia games that resulted in the crowning of Phi Alpha Delta fraternity as the winners of Greek Week.

The week was finalized with its biggest event, Airband, in which each organization put on a dance and lip sync performance for the College.

see GREEK page 5

Campus MovieFestBy Christopher RightmireNews Editor

College campuses are a breeding ground for new and revolutionary ideas. However, students are often short-handed on the money and pro-fessional connections needed to pres-ent their ideas to the right people. This can cause a lot of ideas to never escape the dorm room, especially with a hard-to-break-into industry like film.

Fortunately for students at the College, Dan Costa, a co-founder of Campus MovieFest, had an idea in college to provide students at his school, Emory University, with the resources necessary to create a five- minute short movie in one week. After 12 years of working on Cam-pus MovieFest, the program has now spread to 50 schools, including the College.

“We wondered what would happen if we provided the tools and training for our fellow stu-dents to make short movies in a week. We gathered up laptops and cameras, didn’t sleep for a year, and fortunately had a few admin-istrators who trusted us,” Costa said. “We were blown away when 1,500 students walked down the red carpet to see their short stories on the big screen.”

To help facilitate students’ film opportunities, CMF provided the College’s students with a laptop loaded with moviemaking software including Adobe Creative Suite 6, a Panasonic HD video camera, train-ing and support, according to J.R. Hardman, the CMF campus rep for the College.

see FILM page 2

Films on the big screen

Phi Alpha Delta ‘avenges’ Airband. Photo courtesy of Chris Grimes

Student team prepares their film for the College’s CMF competition. continued from page 1

“The tech support was very helpful, and all of the workers seemed like they were right out of college and were very cool,” said Jaqueline Ilkowitz, sophomore com-munication studies major and member of Talking Piñata Productions, a student team in the College’s CMF competition.

With the necessary tools to create a movie at hand, students are able to test and develop both their filmmaking and managerial skills.

“Participants are taught real-life skills about planning, producing, directing, acting and more. It’s a great opportunity to under-stand what happens in bigger productions,” Costa said.

The one week deadline allowed every stu-dent to gain exposure in the different roles. “We did all of the filming in one day, and ev-eryone had to do a little bit of everything,” Ilkowitz said.

Dedication to providing supplies and support to help students gain valuable experience has allowed CMF to not only grow, but to also help inspire and find po-tential talent for the film industry. “We’ve got some amazing past participants that are doing incredible things in the industry,” Costa said. “We’ve had participants win

Student Academy Awards and MTV Music Video Awards, attend the top film schools, see their commercials air during the Super Bowl, produce their first feature films and much more.

One of CMF’s initiatives that helps par-ticipants achieve success are the opportu-nities presented for participants to speak with industry professionals.

“Participants get face-to-face interac-tions with industry leaders who give advice on getting started in the industry. TCNJ participants are invited out to Hollywood for workshops, networking and awards,” Costa said.

The CMF experience is not unique to the College, but they make efforts to reach schools both small and large.

“We work hard to ensure a diverse group of schools get to participate each year in CMF, both in terms of geography and school size. We love seeing student bodies at schools of all sizes get excited about showcasing their students’ creativity on the big screen, and we’re thrilled to be at TCNJ this year,” Costa said.

“This was definitely an awesome ex-perience, it’s not very often you get huge companies to come to small schools,” Ilkowitz said.

page 2 The Signal April 24, 2013

Film / CMF opens doors

Photo courtesy of Jaqueline Ilkowitz

By Courtney WirthsNews Assistant

• While most of Boston was in lock-down, Dunkin’ Donuts was permitted to stay open so the company could voluntarily provide free coffee, food and other supplies to first responders working to hunt down the men re-sponsible for the Marathon Bombing, according to CNBC.

• Fully autonomous, or self-driving cars, are expected to be driving the streets in relatively large num-bers by 2025. The mo-tivation for the switch is simply that humans are not safe drivers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Nearly 51 percent of the area of the United States is still experienc-ing a long and unforgiving drought. Low rainfall predictions for this year mean a continued period of dry fields for farmers and rising food prices for consumers, according to CNBC.

• SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., famous for their water parks and Shamu the whale, rose 24 percent before the close of the Stock Ex-change after an extremely success-ful initial public offering. The com-pany is looking to increase profits

through expanding the SeaWorld name through brand extensions for television and consumer products li-censing, according to Bloomberg.

• Twitter launched their new music dis-covery app, Twitter Music, last week. The app, available in the Apple App Store, allows users to follow what mu-sic their friends, as well as artists, are listening to. The users can then listen to the songs on Spotify, iTunes and Rdio,

according to CNBC.

• Apple Inc.’s stock price fell to its lowest level in over a year last week, falling al-most $24 in one day. The sudden tumble is

being attributed to poor results from the iPad mini as well as continued loss of market share for the company that once dominated the smart phone market, ac-cording to CNBC.

• Best selling authors, Dan Brown (famous for “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons”) and Khaled Hosseini (famous for “The Kite Run-ner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns”) will be releasing their new books within a week of each other this coming May. The two releases, being called a “Literary Showdown,” will spell good news for bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apple stock falls $24 in one daySelf-driving cars on horizon

By Emma ColtonWeb Editor

The year was 1969 and on

Trenton State’s campus, Stuart Goldstein was walking around in jeans and a T-shirt, sipping on a cup of his energy and life-blood, coffee. As if an inverted Cinderella, the clock struck noon and Goldstein slipped into a suit and became a man lobbying for young people’s rights.

During his college days, Goldstein was a mover and shaker — a guy with Jersey atti-tude and confidence to match. It was his collegiate time of grass-roots organizing that prepared him for corporate strategy at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, a group of several companies that match up trade data from the world’s market places and settle the money of the various financial institu-tions. Now retired, Goldstein shares his experiences as a spir-ited collegiate activist and even-tual corporate communicator.

“I had two strains that were a part of me,” Goldstein said. “One was a political doer, I wanted to change the world. The other was the writer, the observer ... I was very active politically on cam-pus, that was a period of great political activity.”

His success, though, didn’t hap-pen overnight. His achievements took years to accumulate, but the political and government related endeavors he tackled during his time at the College prepared him to

be the success story he is today.Students currently on campus

at the College continue a legacy of being politically active young adults. Whether they are mem-bers of the College Democrats or College Republicans, or if they are politically knowledgeable and bravely voice their opinions to get others around them involved, some students at the College are prepar-ing themselves for success in adult-hood through political engagement.

Junior political science and in-ternational studies double major Ur-vashi Banerjea serves as the College Democrats’ secretary and has been seriously engaged in the world of politics since the 2008 election.

“As a student, you just have so much to gain being politically ac-tive,” Banerjea said.

Last year she was the youngest female delegate at the Democratic National Convention, she has in-terned at the New Jersey State Committee, and this past semester she interned in Congress for Rep. Bill Pascrell (D- N.J.) in D.C.

Though Banerjea herself is politically engaged, she sees room for improvement among students at the College.

“TCNJ isn’t apathetic to-ward politics, but there definitely could be a higher level of political knowledge, whether Democrats or Republicans,” Banerjea said. “I think people take for granted that Trenton is literally right there and so much happens in Trenton.”

During the early ’70s when Goldstein was still a student, political activity most certainly

hung heavy in the Trenton air. During his sophomore year, there were only six state colleges in New Jersey and Rutgers Uni-versity received more state aid than the other schools combined. Goldstein took a trip to the capital to try to get money for the Col-lege and keep the tuition hikes in line. His tenacity led him to bring the first group of students, three of whom were from the College, to appear before the Appropria-tions Committee. Goldstein and the students’ perseverance won $175,000 from the Committee.

Then he and a couple other male students from surrounding schools began the Voting Age Coalition. The voting age in New Jersey was about to be lowered from 21 to 18. Goldstein’s goal was to see to it that it would be lowered.

“We would lobby all afternoon, grabbing guys in the hall,” Gold-stein said. “We would literally have to grab them by their clothes.”

Goldstein’s first attempts at lowering the voting age failed, falling two votes short in the Re-publican caucus. So, he decided to revamp the cause, looking to new students for assistance.

“We needed help, so I asked two sororities on campus to come to the legislature to help us,” Goldstein said. “And, believe it or not, it was more sexist then than it is today. Having 25 young women running around the state assembly grabbing people got a lot of attention.”

The strategy not only got a lot of attention; it got the needed votes.

Today, new methods of com-

munication have opened doors for political knowledge.

“I think television ads and social media are the best means to educate individuals about political issues,” said sophomore political science major Zach Myshkoff.

Myshkoff, a member of the College Republicans, explained that many current college students don’t spend time studying politics, thus their lack of knowledge needs to be remedied by using already popular entertainment outlets as ways to educate the masses.

Laura Vasile, a junior political science major, explained that TV can be politically informative, but some go-to shows college students watch for information fail to give appropriate political insight.

“I love Stephen Colbert, but I don’t think he should be a news source,” Vasile said. “I think you should know what he’s ac-tually talking about, then you can go watch him and under-stand the humor.”

Vasile, self-proclaimed lib-ertarian after reading Ayn Rand’s

classic novel “Atlas Shrugged,” is not a member of a political club on campus; however, she spends time educating herself on issues important governmental issues. Vasile cited the wars the United States is involved in, as an issue that is close to her.

“I don’t like people on an in-dividual level telling each other what to do. So that is compared to America telling other countries what to do,” Vasile said, explaining her position against U.S. involve-ment in war.

Goldstein explained that po-litical involvement at the College during the late ’60s and early ’70s prepared him for a successful pro-fessional life. Being engaged with issues beyond the collegiate bubble and having the temerity to make a change and voice opinions gave him a leg-up once he graduated.

“I think your career success has three components,” Goldstein said. “One third is talent … Second is luck, serendipity, being in the right place at the right time. And the third part is perseverance.”

Hard work pays off for College alumnus

Stuart Goldstein wants to share his successful experiences with the College’s students.

Photo courtesy of TCNJ Magazine


Student Government updated the general body on the Brower Student Center renovations, which will be tak-ing place during the upcoming weeks.

This construction project will be phased, and is expected to be com-pleted in 2016, said Christina Kopka, SG executive president. Renovations will start on dining, such as the Fair Grounds cafe, the Rathskeller and Lion’s Den. Renovations will then be made in the remaining spaces used for student organizations and the remainder of the student center.

“This is a student center renovation, but when we say renovation, it’s not just we are going to put new paint on the walls and furniture upstairs,” Kopka said. “They are looking at the actual structure of the building and seeing what we can do with what we have in place, both inside and outside, to make it essentially a new building.”

SG met with the consultants from SASAKI Architects to discuss how the campus currently uses the student center and what improvements should be made.

Next week, the consultants come back to present the ideas they came up with based on the feedback they received.

“They will be doing the best with the money that we have to make it as new as possible,” Kopka said.

The pool for the vice presidents of Student Affairs has been narrowed down to three candidates. All of the candidates

are on the same playing field as far as excellence, Kopka said. The search committee is now meeting with the candidates to convince them to come to the College.

The American Institute of Graphic Arts club presented to SG

for recognition at the meeting. The committee for Governmental Affairs saw no weaknesses with the club. There were some concerns that the club might

overlap the purpose of the Art Students Association; however, it was made clear that AIGA is specifically for stu-dents interested in graphic arts, whereas ASA’s interest lies in fine arts. AIGA was passed.

Daniela Verdugo, sophomore Senator of nursing, was awarded Senator of the Month by the committee for community relations.

“Daniela was a huge, huge help with Relay (for Life) and especially on the committee,” said Tyler Liberty, vice president for Community Relations. The Program of the Month was awarded to the class council for TCNJ’s Got Talent.

The committee for equity and diversity initiated the Writings on the Wall project last week.

April 24, 2013 The Signal page 3

Plateau in state funding causes tuition hikesBy Annabel LauStaff Writer

The Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, April 16 for its annual tuition hearing.

Board of Trustees Chair Christopher Gibson began the meeting with a moment of silence for missing College student Paige Aiello and the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy.

“It must be just absolutely devastating for her family,” Gibson said. “We want all to know the board sympathizes, the board is concerned, the board is following this as closely as it can, and the board is keeping Paige and her family in our prayers.”

The status of the College’s alumni in the race were also addressed.

“We know for a fact that two students were running and about 12 of our alums were running (in the marathon),” said R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of the College. “They are all well. They are all safe.”

In the tuition hearing, Gitenstein introduced Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal regarding state educational support. Christie proposed operating support to be

held flat for all public universities, with a 1.6 percent increase in fringe benefits. He also proposed an increase in the Tuition Aid Grant program, while the Educational Opportunity Fund will remain flat at $38.822 million. The New Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Reward program will decrease by 23 percent, and the urban scholarship program proposed by Christie last year will remain flat at $1 million.

Treasurer Lloyd Ricketts introduced a new concept that the College will implement in which surplus revenue from other fund groups, such as auxiliary enterprises and summer programs, will go back into the main reserve, balancing the operating budget. The College is also generating revenue through the winter term and programs such as blended-learning courses and the freshman provisional cohort.

The plateau in state appropriations accounts for an increase in tuition for students. State support per full-time student has dropped from $8,792 in 2009 to $8,396 this year.

Although tuition is increasing every year, the annual rate at which it is increasing is decreasing. From 2010 to 2011, there was a four percent increase in tuition;

this year, it was just 3.3 percent. For every one percent increase in in-state student charges, $147 is added to the college-operating budget.

The price of student health insurance is also expected to increase in the next year. Although the College is working to moderate these costs, costs may rise up to $1,000 from the $324 it was this year. Revenue from health insurance goes directly to the insurance company, according to Ricketts.

Despite a rise in tuition costs, Ricketts ensures that the money is going to good use. Operating budget key performance indicators state that at least two-thirds of tuition revenues must go toward direct student support. In addition, at least 10 percent of tuition revenue must go toward scholarships and tuition waivers. Ricketts stated that this year, about three-quarters of the budget will go to direct student support, and the College is giving out more in scholarships than state and federal contributions combined.

“We’ll keep talking on campus as to how best to come up with a strategically balanced budget and moderate whatever tuition and fee increase will be recommended,” Ricketts said.

BSC renovations addressed

Students rally to raise sexual assault awareness

Missing student and Boston tragedy recognized

Wall of slurs will be symbolically torn down. Lianna Lazur / Photo Editor

The 17th annual Take Back the Night rally allows participants to hear from speaker River Houston and share their own stories.

By Jack MeyersNation & World Editor

On Monday, April 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., TCNJ Dining Services staff set up a table in front of the dish receptacle in the Eickhoff Atrium where they took wasted food from students’ plates and measured the amount in pounds collected after the lunch hour. Amount to be released today (Tuesday).

Marketing Coordinator for TCNJ Dining Services, Caitlin Moskwa, explained that the staff holds this event on Earth Day every year to “make students aware of the food that is wasted everyday in Eickhoff.”

Weighing wasteEarth Day project

Jack Meyers / Nation & World EditorScraps of food left over from student meals are weighed as part of Earth Day.

Brian Kempf / Features Assistant

The Signal April 24, 2013

continued from page 1

“It has nothing to do with an airband,” joked Conner, who brought the tradition with him from the University of Dela-ware. “It takes lip sync and dance and combines it into one.”

Airband took place last Fri-day, April 14 in the Brower Stu-dent Center, it offered all stu-dents at the College a chance to watch Greek organizations put on their own performances.

“It’s an opportunity for groups to really be creative,” Conner said. “It’s one event that I’ve been really fond of because you can really see all different members of an organization shine and come together as a chapter to put on a performance.”

Conner, who works along-side the Inter-Greek Council, came to the College in 2007 when the tradition of “Greek Week” first really kicked off.

“When I first came to the College, it was designed to be like homecoming of the spring,” Conner said. “It con-sisted of contests that paired coed teams against each oth-er, but it created this very hy-per competitive atmosphere.”

In an effort to make the week less competitive and more about community build-ing, Conner has intentionally provided very few rules for the activities, allowing the mem-bers to use their heads and have a good time.

“We made it more of a com-munity building piece,” Conner said. “Over the past few years, we intentionally wanted to make sure that we have the ser-vice and education component in the program, that’s the com-monality, they’re all built on advancing education opportu-nities and promoting service.”

However, despite all efforts to reduce the competitive nature

of the week, some participants still felt it.

“Everyone wants to win Greek Week,” said sophomore international business major and brother of Phi Alpha Delta, Jon Martinez. “Some people take it too seriously. They want to win more than they want to have fun, even though it’s just about hav-ing fun.”

The week also includes programs such as a “Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS)” certification, where more than 10 percent of Greek life was able to get certified on how to provide an effective intervention to students who have had too much alcohol to drink, according to Conner.

“Greek Week is a way of bonding between fraternities and sororities,” Pat Dyer, eco-nomics of environmental qual-ity major and brother of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity said. “It’s a week of inter-Greek lovin’.”


“As an athletic community, we believe it is so important to sup-port each other. As athletes who are unified by the colors that we wear and who we represent, it’s our responsibility to rally around each other when one of us is hurting.” Explaining the intentions of the highly emotional, yet hope-filled evening, Ary said, “The way we see it, Paige is an athlete just like the rest of us, on a TCNJ team like any of ours. Our hope for Prayer for Paige was to bring hope to the athletic community. We prayed that night, and con-tinue to pray that people receive hope and peace through this troubling situation.” Not only have students gath-ered on campus to show support. Social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have be-come major sources for spread-ing hope and information. The “Find Paige Aiello”

Facebook page has nearly 7,000 likes. Groups have planned searches in New York City through this page. Last Saturday, volunteers handed out flyers in and around Penn Station. A similar search is planned for Tuesday, April 23. The Aiello family is now of-fering a reward for any infor-mation regarding their daugh-ter’s whereabouts. According to flyers, no information is too small and anyone who may know something about Paige Aiello’s disappearance is en-couraged to call an anonymous tip line at 908-447-5135.


Greek / Organizations perform and compete

Aiello / RewardSupport and search

Week offers opportunity for Inter-Greek lovin’

By Mike NunesStaff Writer

It was a rainy Florida evening when George Zimmerman, a vol-unteer at the neighborhood watch, noticed Trayvon Martin walking to the house of his father’s fiancé. Mar-tin was unarmed, but Zimmerman phoned police anyway.

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something,” he said. What happened next would go on to make national news headlines.

After a reported confrontation with Martin, Zimmerman fatally shot the 17-year-old high school student in the chest. Zimmerman would say later

that he didn’t suspect Martin to be that young, but rather the same age as him.

To Zimmerman, Martin was not a boy, but an adult, an adult who was not given the same benefit of doubt given to other children.

Cassandra Jackson, English pro-fessor at the College, spoke to stu-dents at the fourth annual Gloria Harper Dickinson Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, April 17. Jackson’s presentation centered on the lack of racial divide that society ascribed to white and black youths.

After the Martin shooting, Jackson wrote an essay for the Huffington Post which discussed the double standard that exists in society.

In New York City, police officers are able to search anyone they deem as looking suspicious under the Stop-and-Frisk policy.

Tyquan Brenon, a high school student from New York City, was searched 60 times before his 18th birthday. The vast majority of people who are pulled over by police are of African American or Hispanic origin. Eighty-eight percent of stop-and-frisk victims are not arrested or ticketed.

“Tyquan was not Tyquan, but

rather a powerful idea. A phantom. A phantom criminal that could appear anywhere at any time,” Jackson said.

Such is the case with the Central Park Five, a group of four black teens and one Hispanic teen, who were ac-cused of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park on April 19, 1989. The police had forced a confession out of the boys and they were later convicted.

In 2002, the case was overturned when Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. Officers later identified his DNA as being at the scene of the crime.

“These boys were left to navigate the same waters that had been so treacherous for black men without the benefit of time, experience or wis-dom,” Jackson said about black boys who so often get lumped in the same group as black men.

“There’s innocence,” said Steve Demorcy, senior math and secondary education double major, about grow-ing up in Haiti. “You have an area where you’re allowed to be innocent. You’re allowed to make mistakes and not be looked upon as if you’re a black male and it’s expected of you. It’s like you’re a male and it’s expected of you.

Double standards in crime

Warren Fields / Staff Photographer

Sorority sisters bust moves for the Airband competition.

Jackson discusses inequalities.Courtney Wirths / News Assistant

By Julie KayzermanStaff Writer

The Art Students Association was funded by the Student Finance Board for $407.08 on Wednesday, April 17, to hold their “Before I Die” event during Finals Fest.

This event will consist of a large mural on the lawn in front of the Brower Student Center that will rep-resent a collaborative campus bucket list in which students will write what they want to do before they die.

“People get really down in the dumps and stressed

during finals,” said Sophie Kay, presenting for ASA. “This is about just reminding them that there are hopeful things for their future.”

The event was passed by a unanimous vote during SFB discussion.

“It’s great idea,” assistant Student Government representative Tom Verga said. “It’ll make you think of something else other than math or finance.”

The event will take place from May 2-9 as a part of Finals Fest.

*Even though SFB agrees to finance certain events, there is no guarantee that these events will take place. The approval only makes the funds available.

Campus-wide bucket list project fundedArt Students Association hopes mural will lift morale

Lianna Lazur / Photo Editor

SFB allots funds to the Art Students Association.

Paige Aiello.tcnj.edu



Originally, sophomores Frankie Nwafili, biol-ogy major, Ryan Dolan, finance major, and Davis Craig, economics major, started with the Forever Dope brand website. The website was an online college lifestyle blog with a clothing line. The students took out a $4,000 loan to start the web-site up, and although it had over 5,000 likes on Facebook, the team struggled to stay together. “Mashup,” was the next step after Forever Dope, but their idea never became a reality.

“We all had varying views on where we wanted to go after the business plan competition,” Craig said. “One of the things about entrepreneurship is you have to know when to step away, and it can be really hard to step away.” Forever Dope will not continue in the future, but Craig is already thinking about his next business project.

Senior finance major, Patrick Chirchirillo, has been working on a larger-scale project, somewhat similar to that of Forever Dope.

Flow & Co., a college night life company that sells corduroy snapback hats and sunglasses, has been running for just under a year, but has already gained worldwide recognition, having shipped to 15 countries. Chirchirillo and his friends came up with the name Flow & Co. sitting in Eickhoff. At the time, Chirchirillo had longer hair, which was the Flow, and his friends, the Co.

The company has over 1,000 sales and has been profitable so far.

There are a couple other on-campus business-es that started up within the past few months, and are already gaining success.

Caitlin Stack, a junior statistics major, joined the Theta Phi Alpha sorority and no-ticed how expensive Greek apparel was from most companies.

“I got a little last semester, and it was so ex-pensive buying shirts and everything, like crafts,” Stack said. “When I got all my shirts in the mail, I realized, I could definitely just do this myself.”

Having worked at Jo Ann Fabrics for four years, Stack decided to start her own business and begin supplying the College Greek com-munity with cheaper apparel at the same quality they would receive from any other supplier.

Starting out, she admitted her shirts were look-ing a little rough and struggled with some fabrics that melted under an iron, but since Sewing by

Stack began the week before spring break, she has already received about 25 orders and made over $500 in profits. Each shirt costs the custom-er about $14 to $15, since they have to provide Stack with the materials. Although the supplies may cost less, she includes an extra charge for her time. Stack makes all merchandise on the sewing machine she has in her dorm, dedicating about 3 hours a day to her business.

“My room is like a little sewing disaster right now,” Stack said.

While Stack’s business has proven to be suc-cessful, with future plans of expanding to other schools, some students found running a business is more difficult than they anticipated.

Polished Designs, an on-campus manicur-ing service, started in January, but already has plans of shutting down. Two friends, who re-quested to remain anonymous, decided to turn their extensive nail polish collection into a con-venient service.

Each manicure costs $5 and there is an ad-ditional cost for nail art.

After only a few months in business, howev-er, they discovered that the demand for manicur-ists on campus is not really there.

“We haven’t broke even … the demand just isn’t there,” the Polished Designs business owner said. “Most girls just kinda paint nails on their own. They don’t really see the need to pay some-one else to do it.”

Polished Designs does not plan to continue next semester.

Papia Furkan, junior finance major, started an online shopping website, Papia’s Online Bou-tique, because of her own love for online shop-ping. Her aunt, who owns a small boutique in Bangladesh, ships her various products, such as jewelry, organizing materials and other accesso-ries for Furkan to sell on her website.

Having products shipped from Bangladesh, Furkan explained, is more cost efficient than purchasing them here. A pair of earrings, for ex-ample, costs her $3, but she can sell them for $7, keeping the price low but also turning a profit for herself.

So far, Furkan’s only problems have been with technical issues from the website with shipping, but she has had more than 35 customers since she opened shop in January. Eventually, she hopes to expand her business and open a physical store.

Business / Learning experiences

Student businesses offer online boutiques and sewing and manicuring services. Photos courtesy of Papia Furkan, Caitlin Stack and Polished Designs

By Regina YorkgitisStaff Writer

Islamophobia, the irrational

fear of Muslim people, is present in American society. According to a 2010 survey, 43 percent of Americans admitted that they are prejudiced against Muslims.

“Where racism is no longer tolerated in the U.S., anti-Muslim attitudes are acceptable and, in fact, are seen as measures of U.S. patriotism,” Princeton University professor of politics Amaney Ja-mal said.

Jamal presented “Muslims in America: Identity, Integration, or Exile,” on Thursday, April 18, in the packed Library Auditorium. It was the final lecture in the “Social Justice and the Politics of Dissent in the Muslim World Lecture Se-ries,” organized for the College this year.

Junior biology major, Ryan Moazamian, said he was in-trigued to hear about “the struc-tural forces that played a role in creating Islamophobia.”

The United States is no utopia. Yet some of our civil rights poli-cies and social justice practices have improved since the founding fathers signed their John Hancock.

“In the last several decades we’ve developed social desirabil-ity,” Jamal said. “It turns out there is no social desirability when it comes to Muslims.”

After the tragic events of 9/11, Jamal said that 80 percent of Mus-lim Americans were monitored by the FBI.

“The assumption was that ter-rorists were hiding out in the Mus-lim community,” she said. Jamal

explained that the truth is that most terrorist activity is abroad.

“There are not the links to the domestic Muslim (American) com-munity and terrorists abroad,” Ja-mal said. But many Americans be-lieve that this connection is present.

Because of this ignorance, Mus-lim American people have a nega-tive stigma associated with them. They are viewed as foreigners and threats to the safety of United States. This attitude has resulted in discrimination, racial profiling and unjust United States government supported monitoring of the Mus-lim-American population.

Muslim-American activists have endorsed several campaigns to at-tempt to eliminate the stereotype.

“They’re just not winning the public relations war in the U.S.,” Jamal said.

They are not going to succeed on their own. For discrimination against Muslim Americans to de-crease, the treatment of Muslim Americans must be seen as an American issue, not just a Muslim problem, according to Jamal.

“It was eye-opening,” said Sara Cook, junior political sci-ence major. She learned that “all Americans are responsible for ending Islamophobia.”

The lecture was sponsored by the Culture and Intellectual Com-munity Program Council, the JP Goelet Foundation, the Humani-ties and Social Sciences Dean’s Office, the Freshman Seminar Program, the Departments of History and Political Science, the International Studies Program, Eurasia/Middle East Society and the Alan Dawley Center for So-cial Justice.

Muslim Americans

Princeton professor discusses post-9/11 perception of Muslims. Janika Berridge / Photo Assistant

College entrepreneur success


A student reported his backpack missing from Lot 5. The student told Campus Police he placed his backpack, which contained his Dell laptop, either on the ground next to his car, or in his car. He left it there overnight on Tuesday, April 17 and returned to his car the next morning to drive home, according to reports. He did not notice the backpack was gone until he arrived home.

The front window of his car is inoperable, the student said, and was in the lowered position, allowing anyone to gain access to the inside of his car. The laptop and

backpack were valued at $440. There is no further infor-mation in this case.

…

An intoxicated female student was found vomiting into a toilet in the men’s restroom on the second floor of Travers Hall on Thurs-day, April 18 at 2:10 a.m. When Campus Po-lice arrived, the student was conscious and

said she consumed about five or six cups of jungle juice and a shot of apple pie vodka, ac-

cording to reports. Lions EMS arrived and evaluated the student. Pen-

nington Road EMS later arrived and she was transport-ed to Capital Health Center at Hopewell. She was issued a summons for underage drinking.

Campus Police were called to the third floor of Wolfe Hall on Sunday, April 21 at 1:25 a.m. on a report of two in-toxicated students. Both students had difficulty walking, ac-cording to reports. One student said he had two or three cups of beer. He was evaluated and transported to Capital Health Center at Fuld. The other student said he consumed one and a half cups of beer. Both students were issued summons.

…

A professor called Campus Police to report a discharged fire extinguisher in the Biology Building on Sunday, April 21 at 6:10 p.m. The professor did not see the crime take place, nor could he describe a suspect, according to reports. A search for the discharged extinguisher was conducted, but the search yielded negative results. The discharge was found near room 112. There is nothing further to report.

Student leaves laptop and bag overnight in Lot 5Girl vomits in men’s room after apple pie à la vodka

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — The parents of Ta-merlan Tsarnaev insisted Sunday that he came to Dag-estan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile

part of Russia, with his father saying he slept a lot of the time. But the Boston bombing suspect couldn’t have been immune to the attacks that savaged the region dur-ing his six-month stay.

Investigators are now focusing on the trip that Tsar-naev made to Russia in January 2012 that has raised many questions. His father said his son stayed with him in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where the fam-ily lived briefly before moving to the U.S. a decade ago. The father had only recently returned.

“He was here, with me in Makhachkala,” Anzor Tsar-naev told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “He slept until 3 p.m., and you know, I would ask him: `Have you come here to sleep?’ He used to go visiting, here and there. He would go to eat somewhere. Then he would come back and go to bed.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — both ethnic Chechens — are ac-cused of setting off the two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people

and wounded more than 180 others. Three days later, Ta-merlan died in a shootout with police, while his brother was later captured alive but wounded.

No evidence has emerged since to link Tamerlan Tsar-naev to militant groups in Russia’s Caucasus. On Sunday, the Caucasus Emirate, which Russia and the U.S. con-sider a terrorist organization, denied involvement in the Boston attack.

A woman who works in a small shop opposite Tsar-naev’s apartment building said she only saw his son dur-ing the course of one month last summer. She described him as a dandy.

“He dressed in a very refined way,” Madina Abdul-laeva said. “His boots were the same color as his clothes. They were summer boots, light, with little holes punched in the leather.”

Anzor Tsarnaev said they also traveled to neighbor-ing Chechnya.

“He went with me twice, to see my uncles and aunts. I have lots of them,” the father said.

Main suspect, Tamerlan, is of Chechen descent, but was raised in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Nation & W rld April 24, 2013 The Signal page 9

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian opposi-tion called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country, as activ-ists said regime troops supported by gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels Sunday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

Outside the capital, Damascus, ac-tivists said they had documented the names of 80 people killed in a gov-ernment assault on the area over the past five days.

The Syrian National Coalition — the main Western-backed opposition group — warned that Hezbollah in-volvement in Syria’s civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to “adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah” and to control the border to “protect civilians in the area.”

The statement, posted on the Co-alition’s Facebook page, coincided with a surge in fighting around the contested town of Qusair in Syria’s Homs province near the frontier with Lebanon.

Over the past two weeks, the Syr-ian military, supported by a Hezbol-lah-backed militia, has pushed to re-gain control of the border area. The region is strategic because it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The fighting also points to the

sectarian nature of the Syrian con-flict, which pits a government dom-inated by the president’s Alawite minority against a primarily Sunni Muslim rebellion, and underscores widely held fears that the civil war could drag in neighboring states.

The pro-regime gunmen are mem-bers of the Popular Committees, which were set up last year in Syria with Hezbollah’s backing to protect Syrian villages inhabited by Leba-nese Shiites, although rebels accuse the fighters of attacking opposi-tion villages in the area and fighting alongside government forces.

While Hezbollah confirms back-ing the Popular Committees, it denies taking part in Syria’s civil war.

The fighting along the border

region has flared in recent weeks, and on Saturday government forces captured the villages of Radwani-yeh and Tel al-Nabi Mando.

On Sunday, regime forces shelled the villages of Abu Houri, Saqarigh, Nahriyeh and Ein al-Tanour in the Qusair region, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group. It said at least four rebels were killed in the fighting.

Syrian state television said the army was trying to “uproot all the terrorists from the area.”

The government, which denies it is facing a popular uprising, de-scribes the revolt as a foreign-backed plot and calls those trying to topple it “terrorists.”

Suspects in Boston Marathon bombings are investigated

New Jersey Report

State police most diverse ever:Attorney General Jeff Chiesa says the new state police training class is the most ra-

cially diverse the agency has ever recruited.

Chiesa told a Senate budget panel on Mon-day that the class of 132 would-be troopers

is 17 percent black, 26 percent Hispanic and six percent Asian.

Plenty to do before University merger:New Jersey’s governor and Rutgers Univer-sity’s president believe a higher education merger can be completed on time, though

nearly 2,000 items are still on the to-do list as the July 1 deadline approaches.

The deal breaks up the University of Medi-cine and Dentistry of New Jersey and gives

most of it, including a coveted medical school to Rutgers.

All information from AP

AP Photo

AP Photo

Around the World: Syria

War ensues, Hezbollah asked to leave

Where immigration is debated, terrorism should not be

Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, takes seat at Arab Summit in March, symbolizing new power.


The debate over the current state of immigration law in America has plagued legislators and activists for many years. The Immigration and Nationality Act was implemented in 1952 to be a one-stop compre-hensive body of laws related to movement across U.S. borders. However, even years later, states have proposed new laws further restricting entry in America.

The question becomes, then, how can fair and effective immi-gration law be created?

The Boston Marathon massa-cre last week and the press rip-ple surrounding it have pointed to how the media and politicians often use terrorist events to jus-tify increasing security at U.S. borders. While both suspects immigrated to America legally, politicians and some media have jumped to the conclusion that the Boston bombings could have been prevented with more immi-gration restrictions.

This use of terrorist attacks to justify new limitations is ap-parent in recent debates. The U.S. Senate’s current bipartisan

grapple with immigration law has troubled House Republicans Louie Gohmert (Texas) and Steve King (Iowa), who argue that the bombings are cause for more restriction. Other legisla-tors involved in the immigra-tion law have instead asserted that it is risky to link terrorism to immigration.

However, it is not the first time this has been debated. In 2010, Arizona was successful in push-ing forth its notorious SB 1070. The bill controversially allowed police officers to check the im-migration status of prisoners,

which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. This and other cases rose primarily out of a fear for national security post-9/11 and it appears that current Sena-tors may be viewing their reform bill similarly.

The issue here is that legisla-tion has been, and continues to be, based on security breaches virtually unrelated to immigra-tion. As the Senate’s reform bill moves forward, both ends of the political spectrum will need to discuss what is necessary to provide stable border control as well as fairness to foreigners.

Boston bombings stir up current Senate debates on immigration reform.

AP Photo

Editorial

Editorial Content Unsigned editorial opinions are those of the Editorial Board, which consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing, News, Fea-tures, Arts & Entertainment, Opinions, Photo and Sports editors and the Business Manager, unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed in signed editorials and letters to the editor are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Signal.

Put down your cell phone for a moment and take the time to appreciate the conversations and events that are happening around you.

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Quotes ofthe Week

“We’re all taught prejudice. We just can’t skip that step

of unpacking the prejudices inside us.”

— Sam Killermann, comedian and ally

“I thought that my dream of football

was going to be my road, but it wasn’t. I’m here to inspire

people out there in the world, and help

them get through their situations.

Everyone has struggles, everyone faces adversity, and that’s what I’m here

to show you—no matter what the

situation is, you can handle it.”

— Eric LeGrand

“We are still in control of our own

destiny, which is the best thing.”

— senior second baseman Scott Kelly,

baseball


AP Photo

Editorial Staff

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Colleen Murphy Production ManagerEmma Colton Web Editor

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Business Staff

Dan Lisi Business/Ad ManagerEmmett SlobodzianMatt Napoli Business Assistants

Stepping away from your cell phone

Please, put your cell phone down.There are too many conversations to be had, too many beauti-

ful seasonal changes to appreciate that you will not be able to see if your face is buried in your phone.

According to a Gallup poll held last year, 78 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 own a smartphone, and 48 percent of those smartphone users admit that they spend too much time on their phone.

This heavy use of cell phones is seen clearly on the Col-lege’s campus.

If there is a person walking in front of me who seems to be walking a bit too slowly, I can guess that the he or she is texting. We are fortunate enough to have a picturesque campus surround-ing us. Why not put the phone down for the short walk and enjoy the beauty of spring? An added benefit of putting your phone in your pocket? You can also put some pep in your step and avoid annoying the people behind you.

Every week my friends and I have breakfast together before class. I could not wait to share some funny stories with them. But I couldn’t. Each of them had her phone out on the table. One had headphones in, one was checking email and the other was doing God only knows what. I couldn’t believe it! What was the point of sitting with each other if no one was going to have a face-to-face conversation? There is a time and place for using your cell phone, and at a table is not one of them.

Technology came too fast. There are no standardized rules of what is and what is not appropriate. While some people might think that playing Candy Crash while surrounded by friends is “social,” others might think that it is rude.

I think that texting while in the presence of others is not nice. Is the person on the other side of that phone more impor-tant than the people in your presence or whatever is going on in front of you?

Maybe if there was a conversation of cell phone etiquette, we would know when to properly use our phones.

I was at a ceremony the other day where I saw a father talking on his phone throughout the whole meal. What could be more important than the ceremony he was at right then and there? Maybe he was making the business deal of his life? If so, he should have stepped out of the room.

Cell phones are ubiquitous. They are overpowering. By be-ing too involved with their cell phones, students at the Col-lege are not aware enough of their surroundings. You are only here for a short time, so enjoy it while it lasts. Put the phone down and take in the scenery of the campus. Have lunch with a friend from your freshman year floor — with your phone tucked away. Far, far away.

If you happen to look up from your cell phone while walking around campus, you’ll see that many of us resemble zombies — head down and walking slowly. Don’t be anti-social. Don’t miss out on anything that might be around you. Appreciate your surroundings and time here while you can, and putting the cell phone down (if even for two minutes), can help you do so. Trust me, you can survive without it. At least for a short time.

— Colleen Murphy, Production Manager


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I want to thank Sarah Lewis for re-sponding to my editorial and bringing up some interesting points. After all, the hope for publishing a newspaper is that the ideas we express stir up debate — and I am thrilled that someone has re-sponded to my ideas.

I realized once reading my editorial over again that I might have generalized a bit. The approach I was taking was alarmingly “majority, wealthy, advan-taged” versus “minority, marginalized, disadvantaged.” The reason I think it came across this way is quite clearly ad-dressed by Ms. Lewis: it is because, as a white upper middle class man, I have certain social advantages, ones that be-cause of my favorable status I am usu-ally unaware of (see Peggy McIntosh in “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invis-ible Knapsack”). McIntosh, a research and cultural explorer, puts her realiza-tion of her own privileges into perspec-tive: “There was one main piece of cul-tural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf.”

In other words, those with privilege have the power to influence the system of identity.

Moreover, from a brief look at colo-nialism and the way that people of darker races were treated, it is obvious that treat-ment of the “others” has leaked into mod-ern discriminations and prejudices (see Tzvetan Todorov). Though not everyone with privilege abuses it, there still exists

a significant majority that does not realize how they are advantaged on a daily basis. The most attainable remedy to structural racism, therefore, as Lewis suggests, is changing the way that “we,” or those with the ability to change, view others.

If those who need help are not seen as opposites to ourselves, but as peers, we will certainly feel a greater liability for their suffering: the “we” could easily be in the “others’” place. Unfortunately, the way that society has constructed racial identity is so that some groups are given the shorter stick, so to speak: worse hous-ing, less access to jobs training and skill attainment, and of course, lower income

jobs, for example.Yet, it does not need to be this way. As Lewis points out, on the whole,

our society puts people into categories that highlight the ways in which we are different, instead of focusing on what we all have in common.

But we also have to be practical about this. It cannot be a bottom-up ap-proach, as our society inherently favors the dominant races, sexualities, classes and genders. We have to change the way that those at the top see others because, for the most part, they are the ones with the power to make a positive difference.

Yes, an initiative can come from the

bottom, but unless those with the most capacity for change understand their own privileges and how discrimination affects them too, the bottom will remain at the bottom of our so-called societal hierarchy. As Amaney Jamal of Princ-eton University said at a recent talk on Muslims in America, “it is impossible for the minority to turn the tide alone.”

With that said, I would like to reit-erate what I aimed to communicate in my editorial: communication is key, but without a level head and informed decision-making, nothing will ever get done. For example, you can’t simply say ‘poverty is bad, let’s fix it’ and expect positive results. You must know why poverty exists in a given area: why is the population unemployed or underem-ployed? What industries are failing and could policies to help diversify towards new ones increase employment? Could increased state funding to schools help the situation? Is it an issue of access to education or is it possibly a structural issue of race or ethnicity? Without prac-tical answers to these questions, the gap between “us” and “them” will remain as it stands.

In order to provide the disadvantaged with a better life, we as a society must figure out who exactly needs an extra boost to succeed and what has led to their unfavorable conditions (i.e. his-tory, economic demands, access to em-ployment, etc.). That said, education on privilege is essential, but so is aware-ness about the way that people live and thrive — or do not.

By Matthew Hernberg

I am writing this opinion piece to set the record straight on what I wrote about on the “Young America’s Foundation New Guard Blog.” First, those who want to misidentify, igno-rantly or willingly, what I said in order to fit their narrative is up to them. We have a more press-ing issue at hand on this campus — our First Amendment right.

The knee-jerk reaction of my blog post that led to the internet witch hunt brought with it not only hateful comments from in-ternet trolls, but also provided an opportunity for significant threats to be made. Specifically, personal information about my family members was posted.

In addition, the opinion piece written by Opinions Editor Tom Kozlowski, which was nothing

more than a half page personal attack, really makes you won-der if those who say they are for equality and tolerance really mean it. Can you really speak your mind without those close to you being threatened? Isn’t this America — our America, our state, our campus?

I would like to point out that the beauty of the First Amend-ment is that it allows us the free-dom to agree or disagree with each other. However, this does not make it appropriate for a person’s well-being to be threat-ened at the same time.

Sure, what I wrote on the blog is debatable, as are a lot of things in politics, but the posting of personal information about loved ones is really crossing the line. Of course I was expecting disagreement, that’s the purpose of opining: to excite what many

would agree to be an apathetic campus. Nevertheless, I was not expecting a vicious Internet witch hunt.

How can we truly have thoughtful discourse if we are too busy worrying about being threatened? It is sad that we are at a point in our culture that I have to defend my First Amend-ment right of free speech against a particular group and individu-als that espouse to be cultiva-tors of open-mindedness. If they don’t represent what they say they do, then what do they really represent?

Those who saw the vicious-ness and vulgarity of the indi-viduals and their various club members were just as shocked as I was in their extent of at-tacking me for merely express-ing an opinion.

For anyone who is a young

conservative like myself, not a Republican, they know that conservatism is about conserv-ing our liberty, conserving the laws set forth in our Constitu-tion and conserving our found-ing principles.

My blog post was a criti-cism of the philosophy behind a particular equality move-ment, which I view as based on égalité, which is not a founding principle of our country.

I attempted to convey the bigger picture that in an effort to have equality of results, in turn, limits the equality of op-portunity for others.

Nevertheless, I am secure enough in my political philoso-phy to know that what I wrote was not hateful nor was its pur-pose to harm anyone. I am also secure enough in my beliefs to know that the status label that’s

given to us conservatives is fas-cist, and both historically igno-rant and false.

Lastly, this is about our First Amendment right to freely ex-press ourselves. I wish Tom, who I sit behind in my Compar-ative Politics class, had turned around and took the time to ask me a few questions. I mean, I took the time to do my home-work before I wrote my blog post, and you would figure he should have to do the same, es-pecially, if he’s going to dedi-cate a half-page spread of slan-der with my name written all over it.

As a student body, we need to ask ourselves: are we paying for ourselves to be monolithic thinkers or are we investing in ourselves to be independent leaders in learning who are not afraid to question?

OpinionsApril 24, 2013 The Signal page 13

Our First Amendment right placed second

Policies The Signal is published weekly during the academic year and is financed by the Student Activities Fee (SAF) and advertising revenue. Any student may submit articles to The Signal. Publication of submitted articles is at the discretion of the editors. The letters section is an open forum for opinions. Submissions that announce events or advertise in any way will not be printed. All letters should be sent via e-mail to [email protected]. Handwritten letters should be sent to The Signal, c/o The Brower Student Center, The College of New Jersey, PO Box 7718 Ewing, N.J. 08628 or placed in our mailbox in the Student Life Office. Letters must be received by the Friday before publication and should not exceed 300 words. The Signal reserves the right to edit letters for space and clarity. All letters must be signed, with a phone number and address of the author. Requests to withhold the author’s name will be honored only if there is a legitimate reason. All materials submitted become the sole property of The Signal. The editors reserve the right to edit or withhold all articles, letters & photographs. The Signal willingly corrects factual mistakes. If you think we have made an error, please contact The Signal at (609) 771-2424, write to the address listed above or e-mail us at [email protected].

This article was written in response to Opinions Editor Tom Kozlowski’s opinion piece “Unisex bathrooms are unifying, not wrong,” published on April 10.

‘Us vs. them:’ still an undiminished rivalryThis article was written in response to Sarah Lewis’s opinion piece “Rights not just white,” published on April 17.

Those who have the power to change should aid the socially disadvantaged.Tom Kozlowski / Opinions Editor


By Greg BurrPresident of TCNJ Student Liberty Front

I’d like to thank Mr. Aldazzabal for re-sponding to my piece, but he fails to ad-dress my position. Aldazzabal claims that I asked “where is the convincing evidence of harm from markets?” But, I never asked that question. I cherish this type of dialogue, but if we wish for this discussion to be valuable, it is vital that we engage each other’s actual claims and not make up questions.

Aldazzabal has confused market pro-cesses and political processes and in turn wrongfully blames markets for political decisions. Instead, American foreign and domestic policy is the result of a political process, the antithesis of the market process.

Aldazzabal says: “While Mr. Burr makes a most subjective argument that free markets are the best we have to offer, it operates under the false pretense that they are innately superior — a static rep-resentation — and never succumbing to the negative influences of “Big Brother,” socialism and communism.”

This sentence is gibberish. It seems that Aldazzabal is claiming that the problem is not a minimal state and markets, but that somehow markets lead to “Big Brother” (a large state) and socialism or communism (non-market economies). If the negative influences come from “Big Brother,” so-cialism and communism, then I invite Al-dazzabal to join me in opposing socialism and communism and advocating a minimal state and free markets.

Indeed, the empirical record is clear: free markets have been far and away the best method of allocating resources, except in a relatively narrow set of cases in which voluntary transactions between two par-ties affect a third party. When possible, it is usually more efficient to internalize the

externality through private means rather than through government action. In some cases, it may be necessary for government to safeguard the interests of third parties by instituting a regulatory mechanism that internalizes the externality. In those in-stances, it is important that the market im-perfection be compared with government imperfection to avoid greater harm through government action.

The crash in 2008 was not “spurred on by deliberate misinformation distributed by those in power” but by an asset bubble in housing and a banking system that made risky investments because of government guarantees. Asset bubbles are psycho-logical phenomenon in which actors have continual self-reinforcing expectations of higher prices. Experimental economists like Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith have created bubbles in a lab setting, and they have shown that bubbles develop be-cause of imperfect information not some conspiracy of misinformation by the mys-terious “those in power.”

Bailing out rich AIG executives was not a market act but an act of government. If we truly had a “free market,” AIG execu-tives in 2008 would have been in the un-employment line instead of flying around in private planes paid for with taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, AIG would have gone through a controlled bankruptcy. It is utter-ly absurd to claim government bailing out AIG is somehow a market process. It was political action of the worst possible kind.

Mr. Aldazzabal again mistakes govern-ment and market processes in his analysis of the U.S. military, the CIA and Black-water. The U.S. military is an arm of the state, not markets. The actions of the military are not directed by market price signals determined by supply and demand but by politicians. Likewise, Blackwater is

under the employment of the U.S. govern-ment and is not acting in a market process. Market signals would have been far supe-rior at protecting priceless artifacts than politicians. Actors in markets respond to price signals, and it is harder to think of a stronger signal than an item being valued so highly it is deemed “priceless.”

Throughout history, culture and art have consistently thrived in precisely those places where commerce has thrived. This is true of the Italian city states dur-ing the Renaissance, in the Netherlands during the 17th century and in London and New York City today. The decision to place a higher value on oil than on pre-cious artifacts was a political decision, not a market decision, and these sorts of political decisions are the norm in both countries with market economies and those with non-market economies.

The crimes of governments, whether those with private economies like in the West or state communist economies such as the former Soviet Union, cannot be at-tributed to the market process. The prob-lem is not that markets are tainting democ-racy, but that political power is in and of itself the problem.

Those countries that rid themselves of markets were not left with unspoiled poli-tics, but on the contrary they were often left with far worse political systems than their counterparts with market economies. This was due to the increased state power that comes as a result of state economic control. The historical record is clear: the market economies of the world have brought their citizens to the most prosper-ous position in human history while the non-market economies have often left their subjects in squalor.

‘It’s the economy, stupid,’ so leave politics out

By Colleen MurphyProduction Manager

“Just kill him. Get the needed answers and euthanize him. An eye for an eye. Right?”

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother Tamerlan, 26, killed three people and injured more than 170 others. The two turned an em-powering, celebratory day into one of terror. According to the White House, Dzhokar will be tried in civilian court, and many news sources predict that prose-cutors will seek the death penalty. But should capital punishment even be an option in the United States anymore?

Killing a criminal seems like an easy solution, but it is not the right one. I am going to prove this in

three different ways: on a religious level, from a moral standpoint, and if you are still not convinced, I will argue why keeping the criminal alive is better than killing him.

The argument from a reli-gious standpoint: no one but God should decide when someone should die. Yes, Tsarnaev decided on April 15 that innocent people would die, but he will have to pay the ultimate price for this decision when God decides it is time for him to die. The U.S. government should not be the one to decide when a person dies — that deci-sion is up to God and God alone. In the meantime, Tsarnaev should be given the maximum penalty the U.S. Courts can give that does not include capital punishment.

The argument based on morals:

if Al-Qaeda believes in an eye for an eye, why should the American government?

I do not get what justice kill-ing a person gives. Will it bring closure to the family members of the persons who were murdered? Their loved one is not coming back regardless of whether or not the criminal is sentenced to death. Will it deter others from commit-ting crimes? I do not think that people who are willing to commit such heinous crimes will deliber-ate whether or not to go through with it just because they have the possibility of being caught and put to death. The death penalty has not stopped murderers from murder-ing or terrorists from terrorizing. Killing a human being under the death penalty seems inhumane when compared to the rest of America’s beliefs.

Also, there are about five cases a year where a person mur-dered by capital punishment was later found innocent. In 1982, Lionel Herrera was arrested for the killing of a Texas Depart-ment of Public Safety Officer. After several trials, Herrera was found guilty and put to death by lethal injection. In his final state-ment, he said, “I am innocent, innocent, innocent ... I am an in-nocent man, and something very wrong is taking place tonight.” He was later found innocent.

With capital punishment in place, many lives have been ruined

for no reason. If there had been no death penalty, these people would have been found innocent and re-leased from jail. Their lives could have continued and their families and friends would still have their loved ones with them. And for those who just want that person dead: don’t you want the person to suffer as much as possible? How is killing the criminal better than letting them sit isolated in prison?

Lethal injection is the most often used way of killing some-body under capital punishment. That is quick. Sitting in a small prison cell by oneself for a life-time in harsh conditions sounds worse to me.

And, contrary to popular be-lief, capital punishment does not save taxpayers money. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, holding a case where death penalty is being sought costs $1.9 million to $3 million more than a non-death penalty case. In fact, the death penalty in New Jersey has cost taxpayers an estimated $253 million since 1983.

Between 1977 and 2012, there were 1,411 executions un-der the death penalty. There have already been eight executions this year alone.

Those are 1,419 human beings who should be sitting in a prison rather than dead.

This article was written in response to Vincent Aldazzabal’s opinion piece “Capitalism 2013: Dow and Dirty,” published on April 3.

For terror suspect, death penalty is wrong

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hospitalized before civillian trials were able to begin.

AP Photo

AP Photo

The attack, conducted with a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ occurred on Monday, April 15 and killed three people.

AP Photo

AIG suffered unprecedented fiscal losses in 2008 but was bailed out in return.

By Samantha SorinColumnist

As a yoga teacher myself, I of course want to be a cheerleader for yoga and tell everyone to do it. But many people approach yoga as a cure-all — something that can help with back pain, can provide flexibility, etc. — so they are shocked when they actually get hurt do-ing yoga. In fact, there have been many me-dia outlets spewing the idea that maybe yoga isn’t safe or good for you at all. I say, of course

yoga isn’t safe or good for you — if it is done incorrectly. It is a physical activity, there are going to be some risks. The same way you can walk down the street and roll your ankle. Here are some ways to protect yourself from injury:

1. Make sure you warm up. Though many people still think that yoga is just om-ing in a room masked by lavender incense, there is a physical aspect to yoga, especially in the United States. In many classes, people have to towel off before being blinded by their own

sweat. There are some challenging poses! You want to do poses that prepare you for these intense shapes. For example, if you are work-ing on a split, make sure that you are warming up your hamstrings, hip flexors and psoas before just jump-ing into it. 2. The same way that you don’t want to miss the beginning of a class, you don’t want to miss the end, either. Try not to slink out of class when it starts to slow down. Just like many types of exercise, yoga elevates the heartrate and en-ergizes the body. After an intense sweatfest, your body needs to cool down and return to homeostasis. 3. Do not be afraid to use props. Remind your-self that it is not a crutch. If a teacher tells you to bring your hand to the floor and you can’t reach it, perhaps put a block underneath your hand to bring the floor closer to you. If you

are at home and don’t have a yoga block or have no idea what a yoga block is, improvise. Grab a textbook to rest your hand on. If you

are reaching for your toes in a for-ward bend, wrap a strap around your feet and hold on to that. A belt, towel or long sock works well, too. 4. Finally, listen to your body. There is a difference between challenging yourself and caus-ing physical pain. Learn to deci-pher the two. Do not push your-self because you see the teacher doing it or you want to impress

the stranger next to you in hot pink yoga pants. If you get into a pose and you are feeling like your quad is going to snap or you’re wonder-ing if you are having a heart attack because your left arm just went numb, you’d probably want to ask your teacher if you are doing the pose correctly or if there are any modifications for the pose. Be kind to your body!


FeaturesAlly Week: True colors shine through

Learn how to protect yourself from yoga injuries

By Brian KempfFeatures Assistant

This past week was Ally Week at the College, hosted by PRISM to raise awareness and empower allies of the LGBTQ community. It kicked off with a panel on Monday night emceed by Andrew Edelblum, PRISM’s outreach coordinator. Edelbum discussed the week’s theme of externalization: recognizing those “who inter-nally support the LGBTQ community, but don’t speak out for fear of being judged.” The panel consisted of three students: Raya Evans, a freshman journalism ma-jor, Ryan Quindlen, a freshman interdisciplinary busi-ness major and Morgan Friend, a senior music major. Marcia O’Connell, a biology professor at the College also joined the discussion.

One of the questions asked was what inspired the pan-el members to become allies. O’Connell remarked that “everyone has a story,” though there’s not enough people around to listen. When asked “Why are you an ally?” Raya Evans said — to cheers from the audience — “I have common sense!” When the question involves basic human rights and dignity, it’s pretty black and white.

Thursday night’s event was the comedy show, “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual,” presented by comedian and

ally Sam Killermann. He started his performance on an odd note, saying, “So, I’m not gay.” He went on to ex-plain, “I thought when people called me gay in high school, it was because I thought they actually hated me, not because I liked dudes.” When trying to examine why he was being assumed to be gay, his answers fell along the lines of, “Because you looked clean ... because you talked good.” Though humorous, Killermann went on to explain that positive stereotypes can be just as damaging as nega-tive ones, because they set unrealistic expectations.

“We’re all taught prejudice,” he said. “We just can’t skip that step of unpacking the prejudices inside us.” Snap judgements are biological, stemming from prehis-toric times when decisions regarding danger needed to be made on the fly. But it needn’t be this way; Killer-mann introduced his own version of the Golden Rule, the Platnium Rule: treat others as they would want to be treated. He ended with his own version of Mackl-emore’s “Same Love,” with those attending encouraged by the self-reinforcing cycle of individual bias being brought into society.

Ally Awareness Week coincided with the day of silence, which lasted until the “Breaking the Silence” party was held at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 19. PRISM celebrated with a coffeehouse, with attendees sharing

poetry or performing music. Megan Osika, PRISM’s executive vice president shared her poems “Fucking Lesbian” and “Role of a Woman.” Sierra Holland, a freshman elementary education major, sung “Kiss with a Fist” by Florence + The Machine. “La Vie Bohéme” from “Rent” was the crowning jewel of the night, a cel-ebration of what’s different in all of us.

Sam Killermann describes his travails as a me-trosexual male in a bigoted world.


Samantha Sorin / ColumnistYoga is good for the body, but don’t go too far! Just like any other activity, warm ups and practicing safety are required.

By Johnanthony AlaimoColumnist

There are a number of things I enjoy. I love a good pecan, I cannot get enough of Julia Child, and I am in love with downward spirals, namely, Justin Bieber’s. Recently, the twit decided to immerse him-self in some history. Instead of turning on the History Channel to watch a special on Ancient Aliens like he should have done, he visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. As per experience, guests can write in a book about their experience visiting the somber memorial. Justin, being the gracious angel that he is, wrote the following: “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.” Yes, Justin. If Anne Frank had sur-vived the Nazi genocide, she would have DEDICATED EVERY WAKING MOMENT TO JUSTIN FANDOM and not advocating for peace and equality. No. It would have been all about Justin Bieber pillowcases, scratch and sniff Justin Bieber stickers and, of course, Justin Bieber beach towels. Your monkey you left in Germany is glad he was confiscated so he can get away from your offen-sive presence. But don’t worry, I’m sure everyone in his-tory would have been a Belieber. If President Lincoln had

survived John Wilkes Booth’s bullet to his head, he would have been a Belieber. He would have clothed himself in immense Bieber memorabilia. If Princess Diane hadn’t died in that French tunnel, she would have been a Belieber.

And let’s not get started on John Lennon. In death, all we can hope for is that we go to Heaven where we are surrounded by our Lord and Canadian, Justin Bieber.

I belieb.And just when you thought the Twitter war

between One Direction and The Wanted was bad, wait until you hear about this. Ciara (most

famous for her single, “One, Two Step,” and be-ing employee of the month at Ruby Tuesday), is tak-ing digs at Rihanna online. The singer tweeted, “I think she’s nuts right now…” referring to Rihanna. Excuse

me, who is letting you tweet on the dining room floor? Run those chicken tenders to table nine instead of throwing shade to Rihanna. Yeah, Rihanna may not seem like the most men-tally stable person around. But when RiRi tweets things like, “FUCK U SATAN!!! FUCK RIGHT OFF!!!!!” I think she’s just trying to look out for us. And honestly, I’d rather see a Lucifer v. Rihanna feud on Twitter anyway.

While we’re on the topic of Twitter, I’d like to direct you all to the queen of it, Cher. Now this may be very late news for some of you. But for those who are not aware, Cher rules Twitter with an iron fist. And probably uses said

iron fist to tweet because a lot does not make sense. Let me give you some winning excerpts: “Oh!! I’m so tempted to Riff on this Cher’s Dead thing,Cause it makes me Howl! Bye! Going 2 pick out Blk.Leather motorcycle Shroud.” Cher does not like it when her death is falsely reported, especially when it interferes in her motorcycle shrouding. Or, how about this jem? “I think you’re like flowers,snowflakes & clouds ! All different !” Of course, that tweet refers to “Cher’s Kindergarten Encourage-ments,” which she’s releasing in color book format this sum-mer. Don’t you see yet? Cher is all you ever need. And to end this column in the perfect way, let me quote that fierce bitch one more time: “BYE !!!”

Jessica Simpson Baby Watch!!!: Jessica Simpson’s baby is a Belieber.

Bieber quite Frank about his narcissism

If a tree falls in a forest, and no one’s around to hear it, is it a Belieber?

AP Photo


A look at WaterWatchBy Sara StammerColumnist

In 2009 almost 30 million tons of plastic were created in the United Sates, but only two million tons were recovered, according to KeepAmericaBeautiful.org. With such alarming statistics, it is comforting to know a group of students on this campus are do-ing the best they can to get others involved to “go green.” Earth Week is scheduled for April 22-26 this year and is being headed by TCNJ’s Water Watch.

This year, Water Watch is hosting the third annual Earth Week, in which they will have daily activities to inform the campus community about the various ways students impact the world around them. Water Watch will be selling flowers that they have planted in biodegradable pots starting Monday, April 22 in the Brower Student Center. Later in the week, they will be planting flowers around campus in the hope that students will buy a flower and join in planting. Some of the other events include a water taste test, which will promote the use of tap or filtered water over bottled beverages, an organic chocolate covered strawberry give-away, which will pro-mote organic as well as local produce, a reusable bag giveaway and a campus-wide cleanup. Water Watch will be co-sponsoring with The Bonner Environmental Team, Phi Kappa Psi, Beta Beta Beta, Alpha Kappa Delta, Sigma Kappa, Sigma Sigma Sigma and the College Democrats.

Jessica Serpico hopes to use Earth Week “to raise awareness about environmental issues and educate the campus on every-thing we, as college students, can do to help alleviate both TCNJ’s and the great-er Trenton area’s environmental issues.” Serpico hopes to instill the Water Watch “coined term ‘green consciousness’ within the entire student body.”

Since Earth Week 2011, Water Watch has planted flower seeds in hand-folded cubes made from old Signal newspapers, because they are “biodegradable, therefore, once the

flower (and flower owner) is ready to plant the flower, the entire unit, newspaper, soil and plant, can go directly into the ground,” Ser-pico said. Water Watch plants these flowers in mid-March, allowing time for the seeds to grow into the flowers they use during Earth Week. All of these plants are maintained in the Biology Department’s greenhouse. These flowers will be sold in the student center be-tween 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday of Earth Week.

On Friday, April 26 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. there is going to be a campus-wide cleanup. As an organization, Water Watch dedicates a few hours every other Sunday to cleaning up areas around the campus. To be able to better measure the progress that the organization is making with the cleanups, they weigh the trash they collect. Up to this point in the semes-ter, Water Watch has collected 64.7 pounds of trash and 24.7 pounds of recycling.

Kristen Batko, treasurer of Water Watch, declares stream walking as her favorite ac-

tivity the organization offers. Stream walking allows

members of Water Watch to travel to local streams, col-lect aquatic macro-

invertebrates, and identify what family

the organisms belong to. It is after they collect these samples

that they are able to determine the quality of the local stream they just explored, “a non-invasive way to (determine) organic pollution levels of a stream,” Batko added. Through biological and visual assessments, the club is able to gauge the health of the water and then passes the information they collect on to the Department of Environ-mental Protection.

When Serpico joined as a freshman, Wa-ter Watch was very small and consisted of a four-person E-Board and three additional active members. Today, Water Watch has approximately 20 active members. Water Watch meets every Monday night in SSB 225 at 9 p.m. For more information on Water Watch and Earth Week, find them on Face-book at: facebook.com/TCNJWaterWatch.

Aquatic conservation isn’t just water under the bridgeBy Sorraya Brashear-EvansColumnist

We’ve all been shown the repercus-sions our wasteful behaviors have on the environment through shocking statistics and devastating imagery. Deforestation, global warming, clean energy and pol-lution concerns have found a permanent spot in our society. Despite the ongoing effort to bring awareness to our environ-mental impact, many still cannot grasp just how much damage we’ve done to this planet.

When considering a greener planet, water is of-ten ignored. Most of this water resides in the arctic glaciers and snowfields, and with the growing population, the demand for fresh wa-ter is skyrocketing. Water is considered to be a renew-able resource, but like everything in this world, it has limi-tations. Caution must be taken to ensure the availability of fresh water and it must be consumed wisely.

Most of the water finds itself quenching crop fields and is heavily used for agricultural purpose. The second greatest purpose of water is for industrial purposes. Third is domestic consumption. So how does one observe the relationship between water impact and consumption? The water footprint was invented. Similar to the more popu-larly known carbon footprint, a water footprint indicates both direct and indirect water usage.

According to an article published on the Water Foot-print Network, “Water scarcity affects over 2.7 billion people for at least one month each year, the water footprint of U.S. citizens is 2840 cubic meters per year per capita.” The United States has the second largest water footprint

behind only China, but with only a fourth of the popula-tion China possesses.

Water is an essential component of all life; the scarcity of this vital resource has had det-

rimental effects on populations worldwide. Various countries around the world lack the benefit of a clean water source.

So how can you reduce your water con-sumption? It’s as easy as taking shorter show-

ers, using tap water instead of bottled, and not letting the faucet run while brushing your teeth.

The average American household wastes roughly 159 gallons per day, while in many foreign coun-

tries, households make do with 25 gallons per day or less.

Here are some easy ways to reduce your wa-ter footprint:

1. Install low-pressure showerheads: According to BioFriendly.com, “The standard shower head flows at roughly 4.5 gallons/min., compared to the low-flow op-tion of 2.5 gallons/min. Changing your showerheads is fairly inexpensive ($5-$20) and can save up to 3,000 gal-lons per year.” Saving water also saves a lot of money on water bills, something worth thinking about, especially in this economy.

2. Fix leaky faucets: No one likes hearing that annoying dripping of a leaky faucet. Sink faucet leaks are actually more harmful than you think. A faucet that is left to leak one drip every second wastes about 3,000 gallons of water every year. If you have a leak in your house, don’t ignore it!

3. Eat less meat: What? You mean eating meat has a

direct impact on my water footprint? Yes. In fact, the meat industry is on the forefront of having the highest water footprint of all. So swap out that hamburger for a salad or a soy burger!

4. Recycle: Virtually everything takes water to produce. Ninety percent of a water bottle’s cost accounts for the production of the bottle itself. In 2007, The New York Times reported that the average American would annualy spend almost $1,400 on bottled water per year alone. Recycling water bottles helps to ease the environmental stress placed on the environment.

5. Use less hot water: With summer just around the cor-ner, there is almost no need for hot water anyway! Hot water is both more expensive and requires a large amount of water to execute. Opt to take a cold shower and wash clothes in cold water to save money and reduce environ-mental impact.

Is this an example of a depleted aquatic eco-system, or just deserts?

By Carly KoziolColumnist

Charles Lousington Freeman, senior English major

How would you describe your style?An evolution; I’ve gone from an every-day college kid wearing gym pants and athletic tees to dapper, grown man attire.

Where do you shop?I’m not a big shopper but I’ve recently been stalking out Goodwill and thrift stores for quality things since I’m on the college budget.

Who is your fashion icon?I can’t pick one person who fits my eclec-tic, wacky personality … so you could say I am my own fashion icon.

How do you feel about man bags?They can work, depending on the outfit of choice. I don a man bag every now and then depending on my mood, such as Zach Galifinakis’s satchel in “The Hangover.”

What would you never wear?Skinny jeans are my “no no.” They look good on others, but I’m a big boy and if I bend down everyone would know what the dark side of the moon looks like.

What’s your gym swag?It went from white tank tops and gym pants to a big T-shirt and gym pants so that when I get the pump I fill the shirt out quite nicely.

Can you offer a piece of style advice for the College’s female community?Watch carefully for overused outfits ev-eryone wears around campus. The boots I love and the denim … fabulous! But try and dress outside of the box. Incor-porate a sense of different cultures. For

example, I love wearing my handmade African bracelets, Haitian necklaces, Greek wrist wear and Colombian attire. (I was going to comment on leggings/UGGs, but that is such a dominating and controversial force these days for collegiate women.)

Why do you incorporate culture into your style?I feed off diversity and other cultures due to my strong ties with family and friends that I’ve made here … even though it’s not that diverse within the student popu-lation. I like Greek, Nigerian, Haitian, Latin, Asian, Middle Eastern … basi-cally everything under the sun because all their styles call out to me.

Campus Style

Drawing on a variety of cul-tures could be conducive to personal style.

Carly Koziol / Columnist

AP Photo


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Arts & EntertainmentApril 24, 2013 The Signal page 21

By Megan WhalenStaff Writer

As the author of literary staples like “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and “Boy Meets Boy,” David Levithan has become a well-known name in the universe of Young Adult fiction.

However, with “The Lover’s Dictionary,” Levithan makes his first foray out of the high school novel and into adult fiction, and he does so with complete success.

In “The Lover’s Dictionary,” Levithan maintains the theme of love and relationships present in many of his young adult novels, but this time, his focus is on that of adults and the beautiful, confusing world of dating in modern society.

This aptly named book showcases Levithan’s creativ-ity and innovation within the novel form. The plot out-lines a modern-day love story about two people living in New York City, which in and of itself is perhaps not a new concept.

However, in lieu of the typical chapters one might find in a novel, Levithan tells the story of his lovers through dictionary entries.

From A to Z, the book uses snapshot scenes of the

fictional relationship to define words associated with love and relationships.

The novel stays true to the dictionary form, paying more attention to alphabetizing the words being defined than to creating a linear story.

Although, in theory, this may result in a confusing mishmash of scenes, Levithan’s expertise at storytelling shines extremely brightly, and the plot and timeline of the romance are never hard to understand.

In fact, the non-linear form makes the mundane, ev-eryday experiences of being in a relationship—whether cuddling on a snowy day or getting annoyed when your significant other leaves the toothpaste open—the most important and defining moments of the novel.

This gives a completely realistic quality to a story whose innovative form makes reading a new, exciting experience.

Just as he does in his many young adult novels, David Leviathan creates a beautiful, truthful portrait of what relationships are really like in “The Lover’s Dictionary.”

Although the book offers definitions of everything from “breathtaking” to “tactiturn,” the core of the sto-ry ultimately hinges on the question, “How is love de-fined?” And, in the end, David Levithan leaves it up to us to decide.

‘Lover’s Dictionary’ defines lovers’ experiences

David Levithan creatively and realistically tells love stories in dictionary form.

AP Photo

Ratfest takes punk rock fans by stormBy Brian KempfFeatures Assistant

The night was growing colder and the crowds antsy as Ratfest inched closer to starting. Non-students attending the concert began to trickle in from the parking lot while the stage was being readied, and police officers kept a watchful eye on the crowd about to indulge in pop-punk anarchy. Allison Weiss, Man Overboard and Saves the Day were to perform at the College Union Board’s show on Saturday, April 20.

Allison Weiss was the first to perform, fresh from completing her just-released album “Say What You Mean.”

Her vocals are sweet without being indulgent, with a piercing and honest quality contrasted against her punk-influenced music. She played “Wait For Me” from her latest album on solo

electric guitar in an honest lament, “I’m missing out on all the places I could go / the people I could know, the nights so not alone.” She described “Hole in Your Heart” as an “extremely mean song,” but Weiss felt a keen rapport with her audience, describing herself as being “romantic toward everyone here.”

Man Overboard took to the stage next. Their raucous “Rare” was one of the songs beginning the set, with angst bleeding through their lyrics, “You’re so worth all of this torture.”

Their sound was direct, intense, with the two lead singers providing a rocking multi-layered sound with near-overpowering guitars, and chaotic, yet rhythmic drumming. “Love Your Friends, Die Laughing” invoked Modest Mouse, but the lyrics are uniquely their own, “We made love tonight as the result of a fight / When you put your arms

around me, the whole world’s alright.” Saves the Day plowed through their first

three songs, opening with “Firefly” as shrill guitars pierced the cold night air. Within the first few minutes, a mosh pit had formed in the center of the audience and reappeared in several forms throughout the rest of the set. “1984” served a dystopian sound, “The TV screens, the magazines depress disease deny your dreams / Dislocate drain to drifting losing control.”

Saves the Day ended the set with the perennial favorite “At Your Funeral,” with the audience belting “This song will become the anthem of your underground / You’re two floors down getting high in the back room.”

Plugging their new album to be released in early July, Saves the Day finished out the concert, leaving those who had just enjoyed several hours of gritty sound gasping for more.


Tri-state area bands take the stage at CUB’s Ratfest.

ACT troupe captures art and science

By Mike HeroldStaff Writer

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a mathematics ge-nius, an artistic visionary, an aspir-ing inventor and an old man who constantly had to pee met in a bar one night?

No, that isn’t the start of a joke. It was the question that All Col-lege Theatre answered this past week in their five performances of Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

The play focuses on an imagined meeting between Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso (along with sev-eral other, less famous characters) at a bar near the dawn of the 20th century, before the two had become as internationally known as they would someday be.

“I was concerned when I first got the role because I thought it would be really difficult, and it wasn’t easy, but I was happy with what I was able to do with it,” said sophomore psychology major Garrett Verdone, who portrayed Einstein.

Much of the action in the play was based around the seemingly crazed theoretical thinking of Einstein and the womanizing antics of freshman political science major Sam Wax-embaum’s Picasso — which led, of course, to some on-stage interaction between the performers.

“When you’re in theater ... Even-tually in your theater career, you’re going to have to do an on-stage kiss or something,” said freshman his-tory and secondary education dou-ble major Rachel Friedman, who portrayed Suzanne, The Countess and a female admirer (three sepa-rate roles). “It’s just part of the job, you don’t even question it. It’s just something we do.”

The play’s story also included input from freshman international business major Adam New’s old-man Gaston and a few appearances by junior computer science major Graham Mazie’s Schmendiman, an aspiring and wacky inventor whose only lasting contribution (based on the play) was the use of the word

“Cheese” when taking pictures. Of course, the play’s storyline wasn’t the most important part to the people acting it out.

“I think if there’s one thing we all feel, it’s that theater is some-thing that’s really integral in all of our lives,” Waxembaum said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, there’s al-ways something here that you can find a passion for.”

The show’s seniors agreed, de-spite their trepidations at leaving the College behind.

“I couldn’t ask to be in a bet-ter show for my final performance here,” said senior history and sec-ondary education double major Casie Fitzgerald, who portrayed Pi-casso’s art dealer Sagot. “I think it was an awesome culmination of my years at TCNJ. I’m excited to gradu-ate, but it’s hard leaving behind something that’s been a part of my life for so long.”

“We do this more than our school-work,” said senior communication

studies major Brad Heisler, who ap-peared as a mysterious visitor from the future with a country boy accent, slick hair and hip movements which could make anyone swoon. “I’m glad this is my last show, but at the same time I don’t want to leave.”

Love of their fellow theater members was clear when talking to the performers for any amount of time, as they were quick to mention how impossible the show would have been without everyone work-ing behind the scenes.

“The theatre organizations here are incredible,” Waxenbaum said. “You are just surrounded by a group of talented people who are entirely dedicated to their craft, and treat you like you’re their own flesh and blood. It’s like finding your own adopted family on campus.”

Rounding out the family mem-bers onstage were sophomore music and education double ma-jor Shannon McGovern as Ger-maine and alum Sam Paternostro as Freddy.

Photo courtesy of Claire Symansky

The All College Theatre troupe led an impressive performance, playing the roles of Einstein and Picasso.

Novel offers historically political twistsApril 24, 2013 The Signal page 23

By Brian KempfFeatures Assistant

The year is 1953: the United States, hot off of its victory in World War II, is now entrenched in a war on the Korean Peninsula, and in the midst of a colder con-frontation with the USSR.

Meanwhile, the Red Scare grips the country. Communism — anything resembling it or anyone supporting it—is snuffed out and chastised. Indeed, a Jewish couple convicted of selling nuclear se-crets to the Communists are about to be executed. This is the land-scape that Robert Coover paints in his novel “The Public Burning.”

Sensationalist, speculative, obscene, gripping, dense and telling are the words that can best describe this book, which is a fictional portrayal of the days preceding the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The chapters alternate between

a stream of conscious narration by Vice President Richard Nix-on and a camera’s eye view of the events swirling around him. In terms of structure, it parallels “The Grapes of Wrath.” But the storytelling in this novel is more revealing and journalistic.

The American culture of the 1950s, with all of its frenzy and cultural heat-death, is laid bare for all to see.

The author has an uncanny ability to truly take the tempera-ture of the times, when Christi-anity and Capitalism were one and the same. Communism—the unseen enemy—is characterized as The Phantom, wreaking havoc across the world and threatening American interests.

The Public Burning is entirely its own animal. Coover’s com-mand of American diction rivals that of Mark Twain. Uncle Sam is manifest as an apparition guiding the public and politicians, and his

words are strung together speech-es by the likes of William Lloyd Garrison. The result is a verbal goldmine bleeding patriotism and Manifest Destiny.

When Vice President Nixon takes a personal interest in the Rosenberg case, it is obvious that the case is a hyper-politicized trial, and the government’s legal case in dubious. But instead of trying to determine whether or not the Rosenbergs are guilty, Coover takes another stand en-tirely: the reader is up to decide for his or her self. Presenting the fictional events “as is,” a story is crafted and weaved in which it is difficult to tell when fact stops and fictions begins.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is its portray-al of Richard Nixon. Published in the years following the Wa-tergate Scandal, the novel seems to paint an almost sympathetic, human picture of the disgraced

president-to-be. Half of the story is told through

his point of view: he’s a man wracked by marital problems, po-litical aspirations and suppressed sexuality. At one point—during a sexual fantasy about Ethel Rosen-berg—he is interrupted by Uncle Sam, who rebukes him: “You can’t Tippecanoe and till her, too!”

The novel effectively human-izes the Cold War struggle with Communism. Innate human na-ture is juxtaposed against govern-ment: society’s controlling force.

Reading this novel 60 years af-ter it takes place and 40 years after it was published affords a rare lens through which to view the United States in 2013.

Times are certainly different: the Communist Phantom has been replaced by a vague specter of terrorism. But is our culture still blind to its own circumstances and ignorance? Do we succumb to primal instincts in times of unseen

danger, or attempt to transcend them with peace and equity?

While being one of the most intricate and eloquent novels I’ve read in my lifetime, The Pub-lic Burning raises questions that many are loathe to answer.

Coover’s political novel stands the test of time.

AP Photo

Up and coming band plays intimate set

By Alexis GanzCorrespondent

On Friday, April 19, New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert performed with his side

project, What’s Eating Gilbert, at the College Union Board’s show in the Rathskeller.

What’s Eating Gilbert, who have been named one of Alternative Press Magazine’s “100 Bands You Need to Know for 2013,” was opened for by With The Punches, a band from New York that has recently broken into the pop punk scene. Before he began, the lead singer, Jesse Vadala, encouraged fans to fill in the seating area in front of the stage, stating a desire for a “close knit atmosphere.”

Before his set Vadala also referenced the trying events, specifically the bombings at the Boston Marathon, which have gripped the nation of late.

“It’s difficult to talk, it’s difficult to sing when events like the last few days hap-pened,” he said. “All I can say is that we’re here trying to do what we normally do.”

Singing with only the accompaniment

of an acoustic guitar, the vibe was different than the band’s usual set — slower, more melodic. Still, the crowd clapped and sang enthusiastically along, especially to the more popular fan favorites like “Slizzard Cross-ing Over” and “Burned at Both Ends.”

“I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos of their acoustic sets and to actually see them perform live was even better than I expected. I hope they can come back to the College for another set, maybe with the entire band,” said Dean DelVecchio, a sophomore finance major and self-pro-claimed pop punk enthusiast.

What’s Eating Gilbert followed the open-ing performance with an upbeat set, a stark contrast from the previous performance. The fast-paced indie pop set was accentuated by a four-piece band. Though the sound was distinct, there were strains of lead singer

Chad Gilbert’s time in New Found Glory. With the band only breaking for seconds between most of the songs, the show pro-ceeded at an exhilaratingly fast pace.

Though many of the songs were new to the crowd, they nodded their heads ap-preciatively, growing in size and volume as the set progressed. Still, not all of the band’s songs were unknown to the audience. Many in the crowd were die-hard fans, of either the band or Gilbert in particular, thrilled that such a popular name had come to perform at the College.

“It is really awesome that TCNJ can bring Chad Gilbert, part of the famous band New Found Glory, to such an inti-mate setting. I’ve been listening to these guys all my life,” said Jordan Martinez, senior biology major.

This is What’s Eating Gilbert’s first tour.

New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert performs with his new band at the Rat.

Janika Berridge / Photo Assistant

By Karl DelossantosCorrespondent

Unless you live under a rock with no Wi-Fi, chances are good that you’ve heard that the alternative rock band Fall Out Boy is back to recording music after going on an indefinite hiatus in 2009.

The news of their return rocked the web ear-lier this year, when they announced their fifth studio album, “Save Rock and Roll.”

Fall Out Boy has never been afraid to ex-periment with various genres, and this album is no exception. While Pete Wentz’s lyrics remain largely narrative, their sound has more of a pop quality than any of their previous albums.

The album’s lead single, “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em’ Up),” and opening track, “The Phoenix,” are prob-ably the closest to rock you will get. However, both tracks show a blurred line between pop and rock, a trend that continues throughout the album.

“Alone Together” is cast from the quintessen-tial pop song mold. The song features a catchy chorus and smooth vocals from Stump, while “Miss Missing You” features the same pop sound with a bubbly quality added to the song.

The track “Just One Yesterday” features the British singer Foxes, who is one of several guest performers on the album, in a mix of har-monies that is just transcendent.

However, she may be the only guest star who adds to her track. Big Sean, who is featured on

the song “The Mighty Fall,” has to compete with the song’s mighty guitar riffs, while Courtney Love is drowned out by the punk anthem of “Rat A Tat.”

The title track to the album is a power pop rock anthem featuring Elton John that I believe sums up the sound of the album. It has catchy beats and melodies that high-light Stump’s talent as a vocalist, but there is a noticeable change in energy.

“Save Rock and Roll” is going to disa-point a lot of faithful fans who prefer the pure punk rock sound that launched the band, but it is great to see a band brave enough to ignore genre lines.

Fall Out Boy’s rocky return

After a four year hiatus, Fall Out Boy attempts to break punk rock barriers.

AP Photo

By Chris MinitelliStaff Writer

Time travel is usually a pretty popular topic for movies. Oftentimes, these types of movies deal with the consequences of this power and its effects. This is what the film “Safety Not Guaranteed” tries to address.

This independent movie follows a group of magazine writers who decide to write a story about a man seeking a partner to travel back in time with him. Ultimately, one of the interns is able to go undercover and becomes involved with the aspiring time traveler.

While the plotline of “Safety Not Guaranteed” may have at first seemed pretty unoriginal, this film was able to add additional elements in order to stand out.

Despite the fact that it obviously dealt with the idea of time traveling, “Safety Not Guaranteed” focused on its funda-mental characters and their reasons for wanting to time travel. Keeping with the central theme of wanting to go back in time, “Safety Not Guaranteed” addressed how people often want to turn back time by acting young and outrageous, revisit-ing high school girlfriends and running away from adulthood.

Although this film’s storyline and

themes definitely stood out, its cast did even more. The cast of “Safety Not Guar-anteed” included Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Karan Soni. Each of these actors, especially Duplass and Plaza, were able to give their charac-ters subtle and extremely important quali-ties that undoubtedly set them apart from other characters.

Finally, “Safety Not Guaranteed” is without a doubt a film that did not gain as much attention and popularity as it de-serves. Although the idea of time travel-ing has obviously been done quite a bit in other movies, this film is able to set itself apart from the rest. It not only focuses on actual time traveling, but deals with more realistic issues that everyone getting older goes through and can relate to. Ultimate-ly, I would definitely recommend check-ing “Safety Not Guaranteed” out.

Film ‘guarantees’ time travel trip

Film’s exploration of time trav-el proves to be underrated.

AP Photo

Distinguished indie flick


Fun Stuff

By Andrew GrossmanStaff Writer

Despite beginning the week sluggishly with three losses, the College’s baseball team was able recover after an important 7-4 victory against Montclair State University. This win helped them regain focus as they carried that momentum into a doubleheader sweep over Rutgers University-Camden.

This comeback was much needed with the playoffs looming. The Lions are cur-rently ranked fifth in the NJAC, which is critical because only the top six teams can qualify for the postseason.

“We are just going to need to play our baseball,” senior second baseman Scott Kelly said. “We will need to execute and do our thing (for nine innings) and if we do that then we should be coming out with a victory every time.”

In their first game on Monday against William Paterson University, ranked No. 3 in the NJAC, the Lions struggled on offense, connecting only once. The lone hit came from junior left fielder Joe Dispoto in the eighth inning. That

hit, however, came too late to gain any momentum as the Lions fell 4-2.

The following day against Penn State Abington, the batting problems continued as they lost 2-1.

“We just didn’t show up that day and didn’t get hits when we needed to,” Kelly said. “When we did get on base, we just left them (there).”

In Thursday’s game against Montclair, the Lions once again struggled to make contact with the ball, losing at home 13-2. Despite the large margin, Kelly was still impressed by the pitching staff.

“(They) did a great job and kept us in the game, but we didn’t field for them,” he said. “We made some errors and once again didn’t get timely hitting.”

Sophomore shortstop Anthony Cocuzza and senior designated hitter Rob Vafiadou led the team with two hits each.

Like all great teams, however, they perform best when facing adversity. In their second game against Montclair, the Lions made the necessary adjustments on the offensive side, recording 14 hits. Leading the pack with three hits and a run was Dispoto. Kelly was also impressive as he crossed home plate twice.

“(Winning that game) was huge for us and definitely a momentum builder be-cause we lost the three games earlier in the week, but we rallied and fought back hard,” Kelly said. “We said that we needed to turn things around and we did, so I think that that win is going to carry us to (the game

against Rutgers-Camden).”Kelly’s hunch was right as the col-

lege swept the doubleheader this past Sunday against the Raptors. The first game was forced to extra innings, with the Lions winning 4-3 off of a walk-off single by Kelly. In their final game, the College won more convincingly by the final score of 10-3. Kelly once again had a stellar performance, as he fin-ished with four hits, two runs and three RBI. Sophomore first baseman Josh Li-mon also had a big day, going three for four behind the plate.

The Lions season will come down to next week with three of their final four games being in conference. If the men are able to build off of the momen-tum from this week, then they could see themselves with a playoff berth.

“We are still in control of our own des-tiny, which is the best thing,” Kelly said. “We still have the opportunities to win the ball games that we need to and to get into the conference tournament, but we can’t look ahead at those games because we have to focus one game at a time.”


Johnson gone in less than 60 secondsTrack & Field

By Julie KayzermanNews Assistant

Four minutes, 47 seconds and 39 hun-dredths of a second. Some people have a quick chat in that amount of time, apply their makeup, or even spend it walking from the Towers to Bliss Hall.

But for sophomore Liz Johnson, 4:47.39 was all she needed to complete 3.75 laps on the track, placing fourth in the 1,500-meter race among 56 competitors.

This time is not only her personal best, but it is also a time that will send her to ECACs during championship sea-son, as Johnson has continuously proven herself as a significant contributor to the women’s track and field team.

“It felt really great,” Johnson said. “It was exciting to run faster than I ever have before. Even though there were a lot of competitors, I did not let that psych me out and just used the other athletes to keep me on pace for the time I wanted. It was a really good race.”

Other ECAC qualifying times were run at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian College this past weekend for the women in the 5,000-meter run, where junior Me-gan Flynn finished the race in sixth place at 18:26.38 for a season-best time.

Also competing in 5,000-meter race at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton University this past weekend were senior Cathy Goncalves, junior Anginelle Ala-banza and sophomore Tara Nealon. All three athletes crossed the finish line with an ECAC qualifying time, representing the Lions with pride.

Goncalves’s time of 17:34.64 gave her 36th place out of 81 competitors and the third-fastest Division III time of the runners.

On the men’s side, the sole ECAC qual-ifier of the day was junior Scott Lisa in the long jump, with a distance of 6.77 meters, taking third out of 26 competitors.

“It feels really awesome, especially for long jump,” Lisa said. “I really can’t take any of the credit and it all has to go to God and my jumps coach who has been

really patient with me. I’m just hoping I can continue to be consistent in long jump and I’m really hoping to hit seven meters before the end of this year.”

On the sprinting team, junior Katie Knight won a pass to ECAC with her sixth place race in the 100-meter hurdles at a time of 15.91.

The 400-meter hurdles showcased freshman Laron Day, who ran a sixth place effort and the second-fastest time amongst the Division III runners with 56.45.

Day then went on to run a 51.51 open 400-meter race, finishing two places be-hind 11th place sophomore T.J. Kelly, who crossed the finish line at an impres-sive 51.02.

“I have been training all year between the three seasons, so I have built up a solid base to get me into good shape,” Johnson said. “I know that I have put in the work and am capable of doing it if I just allow my body to do it.”

Look out for Johnson and more ECAC qualifiers for the Lions’ next weekend at

home on the College’s track for the Li-ons’ Invitational on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27.

The women pace each other in the 5,000-meter race.

Tennis teams just miss perfect weekendTennis

Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

Baseball shows their short term memoryBaseball

By Chris MolickiSports Editor

The College’s tennis teams were nearly perfect this weekend. The men blew out SUNY Oneonta and Muhlenberg College, both by the

score of 9-0, and the women had the same result against Muhlenberg, but lost to the University of Mary Washington, 3-6.

The men (14-0) have continued their roll and secured the most wins in a season for head coach Scott Di-check and the most the College has had since the 1993-94 season.

Against SUNY Oneonta, aside from a tight second set for senior Marc Nichols, the Lions were dom-inant. Senior T.J. Riley, sophomore Jack August, junior Howard Telson and freshmen Billy Buchbinder and Pierce Cooper all won easily.

The doubles teams of Nich-ols/Telson and Riley/August both notched 8-2 victories, while senior Jordan Cruz and Buchbinder took down the opposition, 8-1.

It was a carbon copy the follow-ing day, as the Mules were grounded 9-0. Cooper was the most impres-sive, shutting out his opponent.

In addition, Nichols, Telson, Bu-chbinder, August and Riley were all on the winning side of matches.

Following suit of the day before, the same exact doubles teams won. Nichols/Telson and Riley/August nabbed 8-3 wins, while Cruz and Buchbinder were untouchable en route to an 8-0 victory.

“It felt great,” Nichols said of the wins. “After having an extended break from matches, everyone was eager to get on the court again. With everything that has happened, we have a lot to play for and we proved that with the wins this weekend.”

Suffering a tough loss to the

University of Mary Washington, the women (13-2) struggled, something uncharacteristic of them. Senior Ka-risse Bendijo and freshman Jasmine Muniz-Cadorette both won in three sets, but they were the only singles victors on the Lions.

In doubles, the team of junior Tara Criscuolo and sophomore Alex Bologno won impressively, 8-1.

A team’s ability to bounce back is crucial, and that’s exactly what the Lions did against Muhlenberg the next day, winning 9-0. Bendijo and Muniz-Cadorette spearheaded the victory, winning their matches 6-4, 6-0 and 6-3, 6-2, respectively.

In addition, freshman Emma Allen, sophomores Alex Bologno and Sarah Lippincott, and junior Tara Criscuolo all had winning

ways. The College completed the sweep in doubles, as the combina-tions of Bendijo/Bologno, Allen/Muniz-Cadorette and Lippincott/Criscuolo were all successful.

The men are in action for their final match at Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday, April 24, while the women are home to SUNY New Paltz. With it being the last week of the regular season, the team is ready for the postseason.

“Nationals is going to be very tough,” Nichols said. “I know we will make our run and you never know what can happen, but there are some great teams out there. We’re ranked No. 30 in the nation and we aren’t satisfied. We know we can go higher and we will see how high that is come May.”

Lions start the week slow, but bounce back quickly

Telson’s face is filled with determination.


Dispoto is applauded after crossing the plate.


1. The NBA playoffs are just getting under way. Give me your upset special for the first round, and tell me why you think they can pull off the surprise.AG: The No. 5 seed Chicago Bulls will defeat the No. 4 seed Brooklyn Nets. Throughout the season, the Bulls have played well despite hav-ing former NBA MVP point guard Derek Rose sidelined with a torn ACL. There is no doubt they are a different team in his absence, but they have figured out their winning formula by having the third best defense in terms of points allowed. With one of the best frontcourts fea-turing Deng, Boozer and Noah, the Bulls will be tough to contain. During the season, the Nets averaged only 88.8 possessions per game, which was 28th in the NBA. This will add pressure for Brooklyn to capitalize when they get the ball. One other problem for the Nets is their record against teams over .500. This sea-son they went 14-26, a far cry from a team who holds the No. 4 seed. Chicago also holds the advantage in the head-to-head record against the Nets, so expect that trend to continue with the Bulls winning in six.PF: I see a few lower seeds winning in the first round, including Memphis and Chicago, but the only genuine upset I think will happen is Golden State beating the snakebit Nuggets. If nothing else, it will be a series to watch for en-tertainment value: both teams live and die on fast-paced transition basketball and are both a top-six NBA team in possessions per game. And while Denver is 40-10 in its last 50, the injury situation heavily favors Golden State — Ty Lawson and Danilo Gallinari are out while Andrew Bogut is in — which will help paper over the cracks of the Warriors’ roster. The se-ries will be decided primarily through (who else?) Stephen Curry, and the Warriors’ jump shot. Given how poor Denver can be at de-fending mid-range jumpers and the perimeter, it feels like this is the perfect time for Curry to have a memorable series and establish himself in the postseason, which could happen against any team — but especially Denver. If the War-riors hit their shots in transition (they will) and David Lee can mitigate Denver’s size advan-tage in the paint (he might), Golden State will take this series in six or seven games.JC: Watch out for the Celtics. Of all the teams seeded No. 6 or lower, the Celtics have the best matchup advantage by far, and it comes at the power forward position. Assuming Kevin Garnett is healthy, the Knicks have absolutely no reliable answer for him. Will that single matchup advantage result in a Celtics series win? It could. Garnett only played in two of the Celtics’ four games against the Knicks this year, and the Celtics split those two matchups (Amar’e Stoudemire played in both). In the Celtics’ win, Garnett went for a double-double, while in their loss he was nearly a nonfactor.

On the other end of the ball, the combination of Pierce, Bass and Garnett has posed some problems for Carmelo Anthony throughout the year. In his four games vs. Boston, Anthony has shot a very poor 35 percent from the field. If Boston can continue their stingy defensive play and get a monster series out of Garnett, they have the ability to pull the first round No. 7 over No. 2 upset.Andrew gets 3 points for mentioning the Nets’ poor record against good teams. Pe-ter gets 2 points for discussing how the ex-citing Warriors-Nuggets series could turn on injuries. Joe gets 1 point because KG’s advantage is limited somewhat by Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin.

2. The opening weeks of the MLB season have not been kind to many star pitchers, including Roy Halladay, Zack Greinke and last year’s Cy Young winners R.A. Dickey and David Price. Which, if any, of these pitchers will turn things around and remain near the top of the pitching profession?AG: Tampa Bay’s David Price might have started the season off slowly, but thanks to his young age, he has the most potential to turn things around. Price has not lost any speed in his pitching, but has been leaving the ball up in the zone, and that has cost him many home runs. His WHIP is still at a respectable 1.57, so expect him to get the ball down in the zone more as he moves on into the season. On the other hand, both Halladay and Dickey are over 35 and struggling mightily. Halladay has not yet figured out how to compensate for his loss of velocity. Dickey has moved to a tougher di-vision in the AL East and is coming off a ca-reer year that would be nearly impossible for a knuckleballer to repeat. As for Greinke, his status will be unknown as a broken collarbone could take months to heal.

PF: I can’t say anything about Greinke, who has a few extra question marks since he cur-rently doesn’t have a functioning collarbone, but Roy Halladay is definitely not at the top of the pyramid anymore. Halladay’s velocity has dropped from the mid-90’s in his heyday to about 90 or 91 now, and he no longer pos-sesses the ability to hit the strike zone with any consistency, partially due to injuries and age. His curveball and splitter, arguably two of his greatest assets in years past, are hitting the strike zone just 32.4 percent and 40.7 percent of the time, respectively, and, as a result, batters are more content to wait him out and take a free base — which is why he’s walked double his career average of hitters this year. R.A. Dickey is also allergic to hitting the strike zone this year and is battling injuries, so I doubt he will be able to make a full recovery, either. The only one of these four who will have an elite ERA and record by the end of the season is David

Price, who has already rebounded a bit, has the benefit of relative youth and has been able to stay healthy consistently (33 starts per year since 2010), which is the greatest obstacle fac-ing many of these otherwise talented pitchers.JC: I have absolutely no concerns about David Price. His first four starts have been a complete fluke. While his K/9 and walk/9 ra-tios have stayed consistent with his numbers the last three years (two of which he posted a sub-3.00 ERA), his opponents’ batting av-erage on balls in play have been abnormally high. In Price’s career, opposing hitters have hit only .278 on balls put in play, but this year opponents are hitting a whopping .353, while they are only hitting two percent more line drives than usual. Historically, without fail, numbers like this will always regress, which is why I have no concerns with Price. On the other hand, the career numbers of R.A. Dickey suggest that last year was actually the fluke, and his starts this year more so reflect his historical numbers. While he strikes out an average of only 6.31 batters per nine in his career, he posted an 8.86 K/9 last season.Joe gets 3 points for talking about how the numbers say that Price is more unlucky. Peter gets 2 points for pointing out Price’s ability to stay healthy. Andrew gets 1 point for saying that Dickey’s move to a tougher division will hurt him.

3. The NFL draft is very close. Pick one bust that will go too high and one potential stud getting picked much later than he should.AG: Whether or not Manti Te’o was involved in the girlfriend hoax, there is one thing every-one knows: he is a proven leader and smart player on the football field. This member of the Fighting Irish was the anchor of the nation’s top defense and nearly led Notre Dame to their first national title since 1988. Despite all of this success, draft experts predict Te’o to go late in the first round, even though he was almost a guaranteed top-10 draft pick prior to the hoax. At the end of the day, it is about the perfor-mance on the field, and judging from last sea-son, Te’o will get picked much later than what he deserves. On the flip side, the experts who predict Geno Smith to be a top-10 draft pick are giving the Mountaineer too much credit. Sure, his statistics at West Virginia are impressive, but with the NFL being a quarterback-driven league, teams are asking him for too much. He may be the best quarterback available, but this year’s draft class is not as impressive as recent seasons with Newton, Luck and RG3. Smith may end up being a starting quarterback, but taking him in the top-10 is too high of a risk.PF: It’s an obvious choice because of his posi-tion, but Geno Smith is going to be the high-est-picked bust in this year’s NFL draft. One team is going to look at his ability to run the ball, get desperate and make him a top-10 pick

— whether it’s the Bills, Eagles, Cardinals or someone else — even though his final season at West Virginia, which ended on a 2-6 slide, leaves a lot to be desired for a probable first-rounder. Smith has the potential to be a pass-able quarterback in the NFL, but because there are so many teams in need of an on-field gen-eral, he’ll get scooped up early and expecta-tions will crash down around him. On the other side of the coin, junior college player Courtney Gardner might be overlooked a little because he has never played for a Division I program, but that’s only because of his grades — LSU wanted him last year, among other schools. As an athlete he looks phenomenally gifted, and depending on how well his football brain adjusts to the NFL, Gardner could be a solid receiver or special teams player who drops into the later rounds.

JC: I think Geno Smith is one of the biggest hit-or-miss players in this draft. As we’ve seen from past experience, this applies to many quarterbacks in the NFL Draft, and we’ve seen a lot of them get “over-drafted.” This year, it’s almost a guarantee that Smith is going to be overdrafted, and has a huge po-tential to be a bust. What’s helping Smith is that he is being rumored to be on the Eagles’ wish list, which would mean he does not have to come in and start right away. However, if a team picking lower than No. 4 decides they want to make a move and trade up to make Smith their franchise quarterback, that could put him in an extremely unfavorable posi-tion. My biggest sleeper is tight end Michael Williams from Alabama. Could he have Rob Gronkowski potential? Well, he has Rob Gronkowski size. He’s 6’6” and 270 pounds, and although he did not put up big numbers at Alabama, he has a huge potential to be a big-time red zone target in the NFL.Andrew gets 3 points for saying the obvious, that Te’o’s off-field mishaps shouldn’t hurt his on-field performance too much. Peter gets 2 points for explaining that Gardner’s athletic talent will outshine his choice in school. Joe gets 1 point for talking about the size of Michael Williams.

DORMAROUND THELIONS

3

4 6

5In the Around the Dorm playoffs, the “Ref,” Mike Herold, challenges staff writer Andrew Grossman, Sports Assistant Peter Fiorilla and cor-respondent Joe Caputo to answer questions about upsets in the NBA playoffs, which MLB aces will bounce back from rough starts, and who will be the biggest steal and bust in the NFL draft.

Mike Herold“The Ref”

Peter FiorillaSports Assistant

Joe Caputo Correspondent


Andrew GrossmanStaff Writer

AP Photo

AP Photo

AP Photo

Andrew wins Around the Dorm, 7-6-5

Lions Fantasy WorldApril 24, 2013 The Signal page 29

By Mike HeroldFantasy Guy

Nothin’ But Net Well, it’s official, the basketball fantasy season has come to a close. Which means I finally have to write about what I’ve been avoiding in this column so far: The League. So without further ado, congratulations to Gabe Allen, the first ever winner of the Lions Fantasy World! Team Allen won this thing handily through a combination of smart picks (Jrue Holiday in particular) and by making twelve more moves than anyone else. Allen also did a nice job of stashing away important but injured players on his bench — the additions of Kevin Love for a brief time and Ricky Rubio down the stretch helped keep his team on top even after losing Rajon Rondo to injury. In the victory, Gabe’s team paced the league in rebounds, assists, steals, double doubles and triple doubles, very important categories in any fantasy basketball league. A blueprint has been established for winning fantasy basketball leagues: Make moves often, make sure you play as many games as possible, pay attention to injuries and ensure that your team is well balanced. Winning teams don’t always have the best players in fantasy (LeBron’s team finished sixth and Durant’s eighth, despite their individual fantasy dominance), but they do have the most good players, as Team Allen had in this case. A hearty congrats also goes out to our runner-ups Remy Fried-man and Rob Matos, who kept the race for first interesting and man-aged to beat the sports editor in the final standings. I would also like to thank all of our participants in this league, even the ones who fell out of the running early on. And so the first season of The Signal’s fantasy league ends. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a blast ignoring what was going on and talking about things vaguely related to fantasy sports. If you’d like to take part in our league next season (we’re start-ing with fantasy football in the fall), feel free to contact us at signal.edu and let us know. We’d be happy to have you!

Fantasy Award Winners

Fantasy MVPLeBron James

Most Improved Fantasy PlayerJames Harden

Biggest Fantasy SurprisesGreivis VazquezStephen Curry

Biggest Fantasy DudsAndrew Bynum

Amar’e Stoudemire

Fantasy Rookie of the YearDamian Lillard

I May Be Wrong, But...Here are my predictions for the opening round of the NBA playoffs:

Miami Heat vs. Milwaukee BucksEasily the most lopsided series,the Bucks have no answer to the

Heat’s Big ThreeHeat in Four.

New York Knicks vs. Boston CelticsThis would be a great series if

Rajon Rondo wasn’t injured. Withouthim, the Celtics can’t match the

firepower of New York.Knicks in Five.

Indiana Pacers vs. Atlanta HawksThe Pacers now are the Hawks afew seasons ago: No one thinksthey’ll win the title, but no onereally wants to play them either.

Pacers in Four.

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston RocketsThe James Harden trade will haunt the

Thunder later in the playoffs, but not yet.Durant and Westbrook trump Harden here.

Thunder in Five.

AP Photo

Final League StandingsPlace Team Name Team Owner Points Top Performer (Season)

1 Team Allen Gabe Allen 34487 Jrue Holiday (3988)2 Team Friedman Remy Friedman 32578 David Lee (4563)3 Team Matos Rob Matos 32060 Russell Westbrook (4923)4 Signal Squad Chris Molicki 30857 LaMarcus Aldridge (4003)5 Team Molloy Kyle Molloy 29652 James Harden (4655)6 Team Vazquez Victor Vazquez 28397 LeBron James (5742)7 Team Nichols Marc Nichols 28166 Kobe Bryant (4786)8 Team Gannon Andrew Gannon 27436 Kevin Durant (5603)9 Team Caputo Joe Caputo 25161 Al Jefferson (3844)10 Team McG Brendan McGrath 24928 Greg Monroe (4094)11 Team Myshkoff Zach Myshkoff 23015 Chris Paul (4315)12 Team Jha Ashray Jha 16711 Dwyane Wade (3637)

Brooklyn Nets vs. Chicago BullsWhen two fairly evenly matched

teams like this face off, italways comes down to coaching

and defense. Edge: Chicago.Bulls in Seven.

San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles LakersIf Kobe Bryant hadn’t gone down, this

would be a classic, and the Lakers mighthave a shot. Without him, the old Spurs are

moving on again.Spurs in Five.

Los Angeles Clippers vs. Memphis GrizzliesThe two dark horse teams to win it all

face off in the first round, just like they didlast season. If that series was any indication,

prepare for a wild ride.Clippers in Seven.

Denver Nuggets vs. Golden State WarriorsHands down the most exciting series

to watch in the first round. Expect plenty ofhighlights, lots of high-speed plays and

a ton of points all around.Nuggets in Six.

Eastern Conference Western Conference

By Andrew GrossmanStaff Writer

Adjusting to college life is no easy task. Once school is in session, the students are on their own to find a balance between their academic and social lives. For a some students, an additional challenge is added when athletic rigors become part of their everyday routine. With the compounding of these responsibili-ties, it is no surprise that many varsity athletes initially struggle and typically need time to adjust.

Fortunately for the Lions, this was not the case for freshman pitcher Steve Volpe, as he fell right into the starting lineup. For many athletes, this is an im-pressive accomplishment on its own, but for Volpe, he knew he could do one better as he had perhaps the best start for a freshman in program history.

In the first 23 innings pitched of his collegiate career, Volpe held his oppo-nents scoreless.

“I don’t like to look at the numbers too much because it is more important for the team to just win some games, but after the third shutout I had I thought I

was doing pretty well and that maybe I was on to something,” Volpe said.

In fact, this freshman surpassed all expectations as his scoreless streak matched All-American Dave Dudeck for most shutout innings in the Col-lege’s history.

“It is really special and a nice accom-plishment,” Volpe said. “(Dudeck’s) name is on the wall of our home field so to be in the same sentence with some-one of his talent is pretty special and really means a lot to me.”

Heading into his freshman year, Volpe knew that the best way to train for the upcoming season was by practicing with a more experienced group of players.

“I always tried to play older kids, which has helped me out on the college level,” Volpe said. “(This made me) pretty comfortable coming in and help-ing out the team.”

After falling in love with pitching at age 10, Volpe describes himself more as a contact pitcher rather than one that is known for striking out the batters. With his style, the freshman credits his team-mates for much of his recent success.

“I trust the fielders to make the

plays, so without the defense behind me, I really wouldn’t have done as well as I did,” Volpe said. “They are the ones who made all the plays behind me, which really helps me out.”

Despite pitching extremely well and racking up a .60 ERA in his first 30 in-nings, Volpe humbly admits that there is always room for improvement.

“I just need to continue to keep throw-ing strikes and work on my defense like I have been,” Volpe said. “(Once I do that), I need to trust my teammates to get the job done and really get a total team effort to have success and win games.”

Since putting on his blue and white uniform for the first time, Volpe says he and the other freshmen have fit right in with the other players.

“Our team is like a family,” Volpe said. “The upperclassmen really took the other guys under their wing and made them feel comfortable.”

With the team currently in the mix for playoff contention, expect the Lions to take full advantage of Volpe’s strong arm. Despite his impressive streak, team wins are the most important thing for this freshman pitcher.

By Mike HeroldStaff Writer

What does it take to be a hero? Some might say that it is the words and deeds that inspire the masses. Oth-ers claim a hero is one who never gives up, no matter the odds.

Whatever the definition of a hero, Eric LeGrand, former Rutgers football player, is certain to meet it. Ever since LeGrand fractured two vertebrae in his neck during a game in 2010, he’s been two things: a quadriplegic defying doctors’ expectations and an inspiration to anyone who hears his story.

Added to that ever-growing list are the students of Fisher Middle School in Ewing, and several students of the College who, as a result of their student teach-ing at Fisher, were lucky enough to be in the audience as LeGrand spoke there this past Friday.

“I’m here to show people that miracles do happen,” LeGrand said.

LeGrand’s motto in life is “Believe,” which also serves as his primary message to those who hear him speak. He taught students the value of self-belief and belief that there is a plan in life for everyone.

“I always wanted to be in the NFL, ever since I was five years old. And then all of a sudden I’m lying there on the ground paralyzed,” LeGrand said. “I thought that my dream of football was going to be my road, but it wasn’t. I’m here to inspire people out there in the world, and help them get through their situations. Everyone has struggles, everyone faces adversity, and that’s what I’m here to show you — no matter what the situation is, you can handle it.”

LeGrand has been living by his words, travelling the country to give inspirational talks like the one he gave at Fisher Middle School.

“I’ve been all over talking to people, but being able to be here, right in Jersey, it’s been great,” LeGrand said.

Speaking at a relatively small middle school in Ewing is a change from LeGrand’s typical venue. Since his in-jury, LeGrand has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the focus of an Outside the Lines documentary (well worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch), and was pre-sented with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPYs. LeGrand is proud of his ESPY.

“I keep my ESPY right under my TV stand,” he said. “We’re moving into our new house soon, and I’m going to make a man cave, but I’m gonna keep it in my room. That’s my ESPY, it doesn’t get any better than that!”

However, the decision to speak at the school was one that came easily to LeGrand.

“Children are our future,” LeGrand said. “If I can inspire them with the few words I can say, hopefully that will go a long way. I hope that the kids bring home that they can truly do anything that they set their minds to, no matter what the situation.”

The students seemed touched by LeGrand’s mes-sage and his presence, which was kept secret from the student body up until the moment he actually ap-peared onstage.

“When he came out, I thought I was gonna cry,” said eighth grader Caroline Unger. “We saw the video, (a showing of LeGrand’s OTL piece), and we thought that was all we were gonna do.”

“He taught us to keep pushing on even when it seems like everything can’t get better,” eighth grader Vincent Hall said.

The students agreed that this was easily the best assembly they’d ever been to. And they weren’t the only ones.

“The students showed it all,” said Eric Thomas, the event’s organizer. “They were crying, and not from sadness, but from inspiration and hope.”

The inspiration and hope goes both ways.

“It’s all you guys that inspire me,” LeGrand said. “I look on my Facebook and my Twitter and see other people saying that I’m inspiring them to do this or do that, and that keeps me going, it makes me feel like I have a purpose in this world, how can I let them down (by giving up)?”

LeGrand certainly has no plans to give up. He’s decided to do something much different — believe in himself, defy the odds, and walk again.

That’s when he’ll really start his work.“When I do walk again,” LeGrand said, “I plan on go-

ing all around the world, sharing (to everyone) my story and my miracle.”

page 30 The Signal April 24, 2013

Cheap Seats

Freshman Volpe is brilliant for baseball

Eric LeGrand inspires Fisher School

LeGrand’s experiences lead him on a new journey.

AP Photo

Baseball

Photo coutresy of the Sports Information Desk

Volpe pitches with confidence.

Former Rutgers player teaches kids to believe

LeGrand greatly cherishes his well-deserved ESPY award.

AP Photo

Lauren PigottLacrosse

Put up variety of numbers in pair of victories

The Horizon For

Sports

LacrosseApril 25

vs. Cabrini College, 7 p.m.

Track & FieldApril 26 & 27

Lions’ Invitational

BaseballApril 25

@ Rowan University, 3:30 p.m.April 26

@ Rowan University, 3:30 p.m.April 27

@ Richard Stockton College, 11:30 a.m. (DH)

SoftballApril 27

@ William Paterson University, 1 p.m. (DH)

Men’s TennisApril 24

vs. Stevens Institute of Technology, 3 p.m.

Women’s TennisApril 24

vs. SUNY New Paltz, 3 p.m.April 27

vs. SUNY Geneseo, 12 p.m.

Last week’s Signal Trivia Answer:Kobe Bryant is 617 points behind Michael Jordan in career points scored. The 35-year-old Bryant tore his

achilles near the end of the regular season after largely leading L.A. back into the playoffs, and has to decide whether he will retire or continue playing next year.


THE WEEKSTUDENT ATHLETE OF

Signal TriviaA $1,000,000 bet on the Heat

defeating the Bucks would yield about this much money.

??

MLBYankees vs. Rays series

PeterFiorillaAmy

Reynolds

ChrisMolicki

Mike “H”Herold

This week’s picks from the staff

BrendanMcGrath

NBA PlayoffsBulls vs. Nets game three

NFL DraftManti Te’o’s

draft spot

NHLKings vs.Sharks

JamiePrimeau

Andrew Grossman

Point leaders

5

5

3

3

2

1

0

Week-InReview

Junior midfielder Lauren Pigott had a pair of solid all-around games in lacrosse’s victories over Rutgers-Camden and Neu-mann University last week, helping the Lions close out the NJAC season undefeated and put in a good showing at home. Pigott scored seven goals on 10 shots, had a pair of ground balls and earned nine draw controls to help the Lions outdraw their opponents for the first time in two weeks.

AP Photo

Consolation Prize: History... and other Division III stories

Alex Spark

Jillian NealonJen Garavente

Lauren PigottErin Waller

Kendal Borup

Lauren Karpovich

Nobody is perfect, unless you count men’s tennis

53

3534

232011

9

ports Week In Review

DWesley College tied an NCAA record and made D-III history by making seven double plays in a 6-5 loss to the University of

Lacrosse turnovers, game by game

AP Photo

Goals allowed vs. saves made

*

Follow us on Twitter at @TCNJSignal for all of our latest in sports, news and much more!

Mary Washington last week. D-I teams had made seven double plays in a game four times before, but the previous D-III record was six.DThree members of the Tufts University women’s lacrosse team were injured in the Boston bombings, which also re-scheduled D-III volleyball NCAAchampionship events held in Massachussetts.

24

25

Local TennisReynolds vs. McGrath

1619

19

19

Season average: 9.2

Record with fewer than 10 turnovers: 8-0Record with fewer turnovers than opponent: 11-1

Season-low number of turnovers: 2 (Tuesday in 15-1 win against Rutgers-Camden)

Season-high number of opponent’s turnovers: 21 (Thursday in 17-3 win against Neumann University)

Total turnovers: 138Total opponents’ turnovers: 211

Food for thought: turnover stats

The Lions won their 13th and 14th consecutive games last week to improve to 14-0. Here are a few

stats to highlight how improved this season is:The Lions’ win percentage from 2006-12

was 70.2 percent, as they compiled a 52-22 record

In that time, the Lions’ longest win streakwas six games, in 2006-07 and in 2011-12

The Lions had 3.4 shutouts per season from 2006-12, compared to six already this year

This year the Lions have outscored opponents107-18, while playing only two close games

Wesley’s mascot, a bison.

20

Lions

Opponents

Team points scored, game by game

Individual leaders, dual meet winsPierce Cooper

T.J. RileyJack August

Howard TelsonMarch Nichols

Jordan Cruz

By Peter FiorillaSports Assistant

Hoarding possession and taking care of the ball, the lacrosse team closed out NJAC play with a 15-1 victory over Rutgers Uni-versity-Camden last Tuesday, April 16 be-fore handily defeating Neumann University on Thursday, April 18, by a score of 17-3.

The latter result gave the Lions (11-4) a win in their first ever meeting with the CSAC-leading Knights (12-4), who coincidentally also faced Rutgers-Camden this season, in a 20-1 win.

The late-week clash in Pennsylvania was decided early through relentless pos-session for the road side, as the College took the first nine consecutive draw con-trols — winning the battle 15-7 overall in over 60 minutes — and exploiting it for a 9-0 first half lead, which would become 16-1 by the waning minutes.

It was a contrast to games the week before, when the College was outdrawn against No. 2 Salisbury University and held to a stalemate in draw controls with Montclair State University.

“I think the main difference was that we were able to do a good job of con-trolling the direction of the draw,” senior attacker Jillian Nelaon said. “My goal is to get the ball to (junior midfielder) Lau-ren Pigott’s direction and I was able to do that pretty well and Lauren and the rest of the team did a great job of making sure they got possession.”

Nealon and Pigott combined for 10 of the Lions’ 15 draw controls, and the team managed to take good care of the ball when they won it. The Lions turned the

ball over 10 times compared to 21 Knights turnovers, 10 of which were unforced.

Nealon paced the Lions on the score-board with seven points, while junior Jen Garavente scored a game-high four goals to lift her career total past the cen-tennial mark to 103, of which 44 were scored this year.

“Jen is a very good player,” Nealon said. “She has extremely quick feet, which allows her to beat defenders but she also has great timing and cuts and knows how to get herself open.”

Last week’s other win came against the struggling Scarlet Knights (6-7), who are winless in conference play this season and continued to follow that script in Lions Stadium.

In similar fashion to the win over Neumann, the Lions again outdrew, out-possessed and outplayed their op-ponent for a big lead, this time rolling up a 12-0 advantage by halftime.

The Lions won 12 of 17 draw controls, but took even better care of the ball, turn-ing it over just twice in over 60 minutes to win the turnover battle, 8-2.

“I think we just played smart and under control,” Nealon said. “We have really been focusing on limiting our turnovers by making better decisions,

particularly on attack.”Nealon again led all players with

seven points, while Pigott scored four goals on six shots, sophomore attacker Kendal Borup added three scores, and sophomore Erin Waller rounded out the week with another three points and three draw controls.

The Lions next take on Stevens In-stitute of Technology on Tuesday, April 23 and Cabrini College this Thursday, April 25 before wrapping up the regular season the following week.

SignalLions are on a roll late in the season

Around the Dormpage 27

Lions’Lineup

I 4653

Eric LeGrand storypage 30

Double trouble is a killer for the College

Lacrosse ends NJAC schedule on a winning note

Sports

nside

April 24, 2013

By Chrissy OnoratoStaff Writer

As the season is winding down, the Lions’ softball team has been facing tougher and tougher competition, this week being one of the hardest for the committed team. Coming off of their first loss in a few weeks, the team was ready to begin win-ning again, but so were the other teams they faced.

This week, the Lions first took on Rowan University in NJAC play in what would end up being two losses for the Li-ons’ record. In the first game, freshman pitcher Ashtin Hel-mer took the mound and gave up only two earned runs, bring-ing her season record to a still impressive 13-2.

Rowan pitcher, LeAnne Mill-er, deftly silenced the Lions’ offense, allowing only senior second baseman Ashley Soglu-izzo’s single in the second in-ning and two walks throughout

the entire game. It was rare to see the Lions’ offense in such a position, and they would fall victim to the same fate in the second game. They lost the first game 4-0.

In the second game, junior pitcher Alex Carisone was on the mound for the Lions. Rowan im-mediately put a run on the board in the first inning and added an-other four in the fifth inning.

The Lions were not com-pletely silenced. In the bottom of the sixth, junior shortstop Kristen Lake and freshman outfielder Kristen Fitzsimmons both scored from an error in the outfield.

Lake led the team in their offense this game, going 3-for-3, while senior outfielder Liz Huttner had a pair of hits as well. The College had a to-tal of nine hits, but fell short to Rowan in a 5-2 loss. These losses bumped the College to third place in the NJAC.

On Saturday, April 20, the

Lions took on New Jersey City University in what would turn out to be a better outcome than earlier in the week. In the first game, Helmer took the mound again and allowed only two un-earned runs, as in the previous game. She also struck out six but could not hold them off in a 4-3 loss.

The Lions had scored in the fourth inning when fresh-man pinch runner Jackie Oram scored from an error by the op-ponents. In the final inning, the

College was down 3-1 when Sogluizzo scored on a single from Huttner. Senior third base-man Kelly Hommen then sent home Fitzsimmons to tie the score at 3-3.

However, the Gothic Knights took the lead back on a sacrifice fly to win the game.

The next game against the Gothic Knights proved to be more in the Lions’ favor. Af-ter the opponents scored in the first inning, the Lions put runs on the board when freshman

shortstop Steph Vuono and freshman left fielder Christine Desiderio both singled.

The runs then kept coming. Freshman catcher Jamie Purcell hit her first collegiate home run for a two-run shot to boost the Lions’ score even more. Cari-sone was on the mound again for the Lions and had an out-standing outing. She allowed only that first run in the first inning and struck out six as the Lions dominated the Gothic Knights 11-1.

“This is huge, especially with our freshmen, who are a huge part of our success,” Oram said when asked about confidence build-up from game to game. “We are hav-ing fun during the games and re-ally have become a family. That is probably the biggest part of our success thus far.”

This coming week, the Li-ons take on Rutgers-Newark on Tuesday, April 23 and William Paterson University on Satur-day, April 27.

Tennis dominatespage 25

Stephen Volpe Featurepage 30

Softball struggles in a pair of doubleheaders

Lake prepares to field against Rowan.Photo courtesy of the Sports Information Desk

The lacrosse team dominates both opponents this week.


The lacrosse team is well on their way to the postseason.


the signal: spring '13, no. 13

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