March 8, 2015
Dear Students:
First things first: check your clocks. We “sprang forward” last night at 2 am, so don’t forget to change your clocks and watches.
In many countries around the world, today is celebrated as International Women’s Day. It’s a day to honor and respect all the girls and women in your life. This day should inspire us to stand with girls and women in solidarity all year long, in recognition of the facts that they are often treated as second-class citizens around the globe, are often paid less for the same work men do, and are often the victims of gender-based violence.
Today is also a day to remember an anniversary: Yesterday, Saturday March 7, is 50 years to the day of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, a day recently memorialized in Ava DuVernay’s award-winning film. As we think about the violence committed against individuals engaged in civil disobedience, protesting for the most fundamental right in our democracy, I ask us to consider what it means to be brave. Those folks who tried to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge (named for a Confederate General who later became a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan) fifty years ago knew that they were likely going to face great violence and possibly death. Their bravery stands to this day as an inspiring example, as you can read in an article published in yesterday’s NY Times.
Most of us don’t face circumstances in which bravery demands of us such enormous risk and sacrifice, but it is useful for us to consider in what ways we can be brave in our day-to-day lives. When we hear or see individuals acting with a lack of compassion or respect for others, making a remark that is degrading to women, members of the LGBTQ* community, people of color, or adherents of a particular religion, or anyone else we can speak up. Every human being has dignity and deserves both our respect and our compassion so we must speak up. It takes bravery to speak up: it is easy, but cowardly, to let such remarks go unchallenged in order to blend into the background or maintain cordial relations within a larger social context.
When we hear an unkind remark in the student center, dining hall, or residence hall, we are not facing Billy clubs, tear gas, or whips. We can and must be brave.
There are some events this week that will help each of us learn how to be brave: Meghan Tomasek is speaking on Tuesday evening about the bravery we need to overcome an eating disorder. Christine Bader is speaking on Wednesday at 3:30 about being brave in a corporate context. Jackson Katz is speaking on Thursday at 12:30 pm about our culture of violence and how each of us can play a role in disrupting that culture and stopping the violence.
I wish everyone a rejuvenating spring break. I will send you my next weekly message on Sunday, March 22 as we reconvene after the break.
Sincerely,
BR
Congratulations
Congratulations to senior Rebecca Flores, whose research will be highlighted in the annual “Research on the Hill” (where “the Hill” = Capitol Hill) in April when the Council on Undergraduate Research brings the best and brightest undergraduate research projects and their investigators to meet members of Congress.
Congratulations to Regina McKennon, Class of 2007, and Brandon Pugh, Class of 2015, for being recognized in Southern New Jersey Business People’s “40 under 40” list for 2015. You can read their profiles here on pages 36 and 38, respectively: http://www.evergreeneditions.com/publication/?i=248653.
Congratulations to Eric Tannenbaum and Jackson Ganem for outstanding performances in last week’s debate at American University.
Congratulations to our WILL students who participated in an outstanding outreach program at Scotch Plains – Fanwood High School and made a difference in the lives of students there.
Congratulations to four JPW students who have been selected to attend a Bio-Tech seminar in Arizona – with full fellowships to do so. There were only four fellowships for students in STEM or journalism from New Jersey and all four of them went to JPW students at TCNJ. You’ll hear more about these four students after they return from Arizona.
Congratulations to the many HSS students who participated in TCNJ Career Center’s first ever career networking trip to Washington, DC. We got up early to make a 5:30 am departure from campus and enjoyed interesting presentations and conversations on K Street and on Capitol Hill, with a lunch and an evening reception with alumni before departing for our return to campus.
Opportunities
Environment New Jersey and the Fund will be on campus this week hiring for summer jobs working on environmental and public health campaigns. Apply online at www.SummerJobsThatMatter.org
The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is seeking an interns to become the recipients of the Chamber’s ongoing “Payne Scholar” initiative, named in honor of Bill Payne, a long-time chamber executive who devoted his life to the interaction of business and government. Payne Scholars conduct research, analyze policy, prepare background briefings, attend legislative hearings and other meetings, and more. Interns must have strong interest in public policy and economics. Those interested should reach out to Mehak Aswani at mehak_aswani@njchamber.com with resume, cover letter, and writing sample. The start date is to be determined.
Events
Mon., March 9 International Film Festival screening of Paradise Now, in Arabic with English subtitles, with commentary by Prof. Nelly Taha, at 7:30 in Library Auditorium
Tues., March 10 Overcoming an Eating Disorder, Presentation by Meghan Tomasek, at 7 pm in Cromwell Lounge
Wed., March 11 Study Abroad 101 for those planning on study abroad, at 2:30 in 13 Social Science
Wed., March 11 Lecture by Christine Bader sponsored by Center for Innovation and Ethics of the School of Business and the Alan Dawley Center for Social Justice at 3:30 to 5:30 pm in the School of Business Lounge (Business Basement). Bader is the author of The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil.
Wed., March 11 Lecture by Dr. Anita Allyn on opening of new exhibit: “An Unfixed Image: The Photographic Across Media,” in AIMM Room 125 at 4 pm
Wed., March 11 HSS Networking Evening in Roscoe West 202 from 5 to 7 pm for HSS majors seeking employment or graduate study in your field: this is an opportunity to discuss work or study after college with faculty, alumni, and employers.
Thurs., March 12 Liberty in North Korea will be screening a film about the North Korean People at noon in Education 115
Thurs., March 12 Jackson Katz, an internationally acclaimed speaker, filmmaker and social theorist, will give a lecture entitled “Be a Leader in Creating a Less Violent Future” at 12:30 to 2 pm in Kendall Hall. Katz inspires us to confront the persistent problem of a culture of violence.
Thurs., March 12 From 7 to 9 pm come to Kendall Hall to hear Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More.
Thurs., March 12 The Visiting Writer Series presents poet, activist, playwright and essayist Rachel McKibbins, author of Pink Elephant, and considered one of the most dynamic speakers in the country, a legend in the poetry slam community. Come hear her from 8:30 to 10 pm in the Library Auditorium.
Fri., March 13 Exploring Justice Series: The Information in Prices or How Market Prices Communicate Information / How Interference with the Market Undermines Our Ability to Make Good Decisions, a lecture by Kurt Rotthoff of Seton Hall University from 4 to 5:30 pm in Chemistry 121.