A Conversation with Barbara Walters

iPhone/Instinct Review pg. 5
Burn After Reading pg. 8
Winner of the General
Excellence Award for the
New Jersey Press Foundation’s
2007-2008 Better College
Newspaper Contest
September/October 2008
Meet the Super
Happy Improv
Troupe: Pg. 11
Vol. XIII
Online at: www.bergen.edu/thetorch
Issue 1
A Conversation with Barbara Walters
BY ERVISA BILALAJ
On June 11th, Project Literacy (a
non-profit organization dedicated
to promoting education and literacy among adults) presented “A
Conversation
with
Barbara
Waters” hosted by Bergen
Community College. President
Ryan conducted a public interview
with Ms. Walters inside BCC’s
Gymnasium with an audience
numbering close to about 800.
Many consider Ms. Walters to be a
pioneer for being the first female
to co-anchor a news program for
both NBC’s The Today Show in
1974 and ABC’s ABC Evening
News in 1976, but she is also well
known for her appearances as an
anchor for 20/20, and as co-executive producer/host of The View.
She has recently published her
second book, an autobiography
titled Audition, which she
describes as “an extremely personal story”. At one point, the book
was going to be titled Sister, which
would have been dedicated to her
younger sister, Jackie, who suffers
from autism. Throughout her
career, Barbara Walters has interviewed a rich and diverse cast of
political and celebrity figures,
ranging from Monica Lewinsky to
Miley Cyrus. When asked about
PHOTO COURTESY / LOUIS CAMPOS
some of her fondest interview sessions, she chose Fidel Castro, saying “He is a dictator, but at the
same time a fascinating man”, but
in terms of contemporary figures,
she chose the Dalai Lama.
However, it was at Bergen
Community College that she had
the opportunity to switch roles
with President Ryan and answer a
few questions. He asked about her
experiences moving from place to
place while living with her parents,
her previous marriages, her adopted daughter, her career, and of
course, her newest book.
Ms. Walters spoke about the
challenges of balancing her career
and her personal life without the
aid of the internet at her disposal.
She also explained the challenge of
reaching success at a time where
she was not allowed to ask hard
questions during interviews for the
mere fact that she was a woman. “I
had to work…No [going] back to
mommy, no [going] back home”
she explained. Naturally, being the
first of her kind, she did not have
the luxury of having a female news
anchor to mentor her, but she was
able to fulfill the role for newcomer Oprah Winfrey.
Ms. Walters shared stories and
secrets from her personal and professional experiences, but she also
took the time to give advice for
aspiring journalists in the audience. “Get your foot in the door,
get there, work hard, and don’t
whine”, she said. After the interview was over, she answered questions from the audience and distributed autographs as well. In a
separate interview with the Torch,
she stated that she had no further
plans for television programs in
the future.
Barbara Walters Debutes her new book tittled Audition
President Ryan: A Retrospective
BY BRIAN PARK
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ever since President Gordon
Jeremiah Ryan first stepped into
office in June of 2007, he has
implemented a significant amount
of changes to the face of Bergen
Community College as well as its
internal policies, but his plans for
the future are far from finished.
Among his accomplishments
during his tenure at BCC, Ryan
counts the opening of the
Meadowlands
campus
in
Lyndhurst on June 17th, which
currently houses over 500 students. In his administration's
Capital Master Plan, which deals
with changes made to the structures on campus, he mentioned
that construction for the Science
Building was under way, along
with a plan to add 4000 square feet
to the Student Center, saying that
"It would be a wide open space for
students to congregate…It would
be a very attractive steel/glass
[structure], much like the West
Hall, so it would be a nice looking
building."
See President Ryan...pg. 5
Rock the Vote Visits Bergen
BY CATHERINE CARUSO
Veronica Portillo and Rachel
Robinson of MTV’s Road Rules visited Bergen Community College
on the 15th to represent Rock the
Vote, an organization designed to
encourage America’s youth to vote
by means of enlisting pop culture
entertainment figures. Rock the
Vote began in 1992 with PSA’s airing on MTV, VH-1, BET and Fox
featuring artists such as R.E.M.
and Queen Latifah.
That year, Rock the Vote and
their partners registered 350,000
young people and helped lead over
two million new young voters to
the polls. This helped reverse a 20year cycle of declining participation with a 20% increase in youth
turnout compared to the previous
Presidential election.
With each year, Rock the Vote is
exceedingly engaged in promoting
political issues affecting the youth
of America, as well as making
changes that affect us all. An example being in 1996, with the help of
MCI, they created the first online
voter registration named NetVote
‘96.
In today’s presentation, Robinson
and Portillo focused on the
Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential
election. While maintaining bi-
PHOTO COURTESY / VOTESMART.COM
partisanship, they shared how they
felt on certain issues. Being a lesbian herself, Rachel offered her
opinion on current same-sex marriage policies, stating that rights
given to heterosexual couples
should also be awarded to same-sex
couples. She spoke with passion
and honesty about her own life
experiences.
Moving onto the issue of healthcare, Veronica spoke of her own
struggles, stating that she paid over
$300.00 a month for health care
due to her employer’s lack of
health benefits. Veronica and
Rachel spoke of Barack Obama’s
plans for the war in Iraq.
BarackObama.com says immediately upon taking office, Obama
will give his Secretary of Defense
and military commanders a new
mission in Iraq: ending the war. The
ladies also covered John McCain’s
views on the second amendment,
the right to bear arms.
JohnMcCain.com states, “Law
abiding citizens should not be asked
to give up their rights because of
criminals-criminals who ignore gun
control laws anyway.”
The 200 plus students were
encouraged to share their feelings
on important issues and how they
are affected by them. Veronica
asked us, “What is most important
to you?” She explained how no
candidate can match all of your
wants, needs and expectations. We
need to focus on the issues that are
most significant in our lives.
During the brief question and
answer period that followed, there
were questions about gun control,
health care and of course, what it
was like to be on road rules.
For more information, go to
RockTheVote.com, which also
offers an online registration form.
PAGE 2
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
BCC NEWS
Whitman continues to fight to clean
up New Jersey
BY ELISA CERVONE
MANAGING EDITOR
On June 4th, , Christie Todd
Whitman, the 50th Governor of
New Jersey, made an appearance at
the Ciccone Theatre to conduct an
interview with Alfred Doblin from
the Bergen Record. Whitman, was
made famous for being New Jersey's
first and only female Governor.
From 2001 to 2003, Whitman also
served as the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency
for President George W. Bush.
She currently has an energy lobbying group called the Whitman
Strategy Group, a governmental
relations consulting firm that specializes in environmental and energy issues. Whitman is also a director of Texas Instruments and
United Technologies.
During her interview, Whitman
mentioned that her daughter, Kate,
ran second in the Congressional
district. Whitman took great pride
helping her daughter campaign,
going door to door telling residents
to vote for her.
One issue that appalled the audience was this year's voting numbers
for the Presidential Primaries,
which Whitman found more than
disappointing. “The only way you
can change things is to vote”, said
Whitman.
“We have to remind people that
we elect people on how they represent us, not their party.”, she stated.
“Parties try to put themselves into
certain categories and stick to them,
and they just shouldn't..Parties
focus on highly emotional issues
such as gay marriage, which is minuet to other issues more vital such
as our climate change.”
Deeper into the night, Whitman
informed the audience of our
struggling economy. According to
the EPA, New Jersey currently uses
50 percent of nuclear power, while
the rest of the nation uses only 20
percent. Nuclear power is the only
base power that doesn't emit gases.
“We, as residents, can't wait to
have brown outs [which refers to a
drop in voltage, as opposed to a
complete loss of voltage, also
known as a blackout] and then
think of an alternative. These are
the primary issues that our candidates need to address as this is our
future,” said Whitman
Whitman had formed the EPA
(environmental protection agency)
which had taken many actions
towards cleaning up the environment, such as taking the lead content out of gasoline. One of the
issues that this committee is working on is the air quality in lower
Manhattan. Ever since 9/11, the
air quality has taken a turn for the
worse. Residents in Manhattan had
asbestos in their apartments, forcing them to evacuate or find other
homes. “We are not as bad as
Beijing, but it is worse then what
we are accustomed to,” stated
Whitman
The EPA can't administer indoor
air quality, but recently, did a study
on getting rid of fiber materials
PHOTO COURTESY / BEACONCONFERENCE.ORG
Dr. Kaufman and Jack Hildebrand (BCC), winner of the
Outstanding Presenter Award in American literature.
Bergen Hosts Beacon ‘08
PHOTO COURTESY / ASPENINSTITUTE.ORG
that are still in tenant's homes containing asbestos and any other airborn toxins.
Even though Whitman has
passed the torch to other governors, she is still very active within
the Tri-State area, and is finding
solutions to help clean up our climate. The EPA and Whitman had
undertaken efforts by cleaning up
the Hudson River, protecting children from environmental health
hazards, such as asthma and sun
exposure, and requiring cleaner
burning diesel engines and lower
amounts of sulfur in diesel fuel in
order to reduce emissions from
America's mobile sources. To this
day, Whitman continues to carry
on the cause of a Greener future.
Active Minds Promote Mental Health
BY RACHEL KAMINER
College can be a very stressful
time. Many students are juggling
work, school, and relationships, all
of which can contribute to stress
and an unhealthy state of mind.
Bergen Community College recently hosted The Mental Health seminar, which took place on September
17th in the Maria Ciccone Theater
and was sponsored by Active
Minds, a student-run organization
dedicated to promoting awareness
for the disorders that may result
from poor mental health. Allison K.
Malmon, one of the speakers at the
seminar, founded the organization
as a junior at the University of
Pennsylvania. She has received
numerous awards, one of them
being the “Tipper Gore Remember
the Children Award” from Mental
Health Magazine. She has also been
featured on CNN and many other
publications and talk shows.
Malmon started Active Minds
after the sad suicide of her older
brother, Brian. She found out that
the average mental health of students was very poor in general.
“What I found out when I
researched was that what my brother went through was not uniquethat 75 percent of people with
PHOTO COURTESY/BERGEN.EDU
Allison K. Malmon, founder of
Active Minds.
schizophrenia become ill between
the ages of 15 and 25, the college
age,” Alison says. This may mean
that college students are developing
mental disorders, like schizophrenia, because students are not reaching out and talking to others.
Active Minds is the only national
organization that focuses on peerto-peer interaction. They publicize
student speakers at conferences
who promote Mental Health. The
organization is student-run and
encourages student support groups
on campus. Five year ago, there
was only one student chapter. This
transformed to over 150 chapters
in North American and Canadian
colleges and universities. Active
BY NICOLE JANUARIE
Christine Todd Whitman, former
Governor of New Jersey.
Minds is expected to grow to 300
chapters by 2010. The colleges in
the area that already have their
own chapters are: Montclair State
University, Ramapo College and
The College of New Jersey.
The seminar focused on mental
disorders that may result from having poor mental health. Some of
these problems that can occur are:
anxiety disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse.
All of these disorders are treatable,
but there is a reduced risk of developing them by maintaining a
healthy mental composition.
One resource for raising mental
health is the Wellness Center at
Bergen Community College,
which organizes programs such as
this seminar. It also provides counsel for staff, faculty and students.
The Wellness Center operates on a
holistic approach, and is located in
rooms L-122A and L-121B.
Malmon strives to promote Active
Minds as a way for people to
expand their comfort zones so they
can feel free to seek help and says
“Ideally, not only will Active
Minds become the voice of young
adults but it will be the driving
force behind breaking down stigma and raising awareness”.
On
June
6th,
Bergen
Community College proudly
hosted this year’s Beacon
Conference in the West Hall and
the Anna Maria Ciccone Theater.
The Beacon Conference was
founded in 1993, and is held
annually at different community
colleges. The event provides an
opportunity for 2-year college students to compete in the areas of
academic research and writing,
and offers up to 18 topics to
choose from. Both the outstanding
presenter and the presenter’s mentor are recognized at the closing
session of the conference and both
are rewarded with a prize of $100.
After submission, 3 students
from 3 different community colleges rank the top 4 papers for
presentation, which are judged
in categories such as psychology,
originality, research, writing, and
oral presentation on a scale of 110, 1 being the best. After the
scores are averaged, the 4 authors
are invited to participate, the top
3 for a panel discussion, and the
4th for a poster session. If a panelist cannot present, the poster
panelist replaces them. The
judges were faculty members of
4-year colleges and moderated by
BCC’s faculty and staff. This
year, Dr. Dorothy Altman, Dr.
Alan Kaufman, and Dr.
Makowiecka were the chosen
Directors of the event, which was
sponsored and supported by
publishers such as Bedford/St.
Martins, Pearson, and a coalition
of colleges and universities.
Many BCC students participated in the Beacon Conference.
One of them, Sheila Denise
Kennedy, presented her paper, A
River Depth of Two Phantoms –
A Response to Huckleberry Finn,
in which she expresses her views
on racial issues, slurs (such as the
N word), and the satirical spin on
social commentary made by
Mark Twain and various other
authors during the Suppression
Period. She mentioned how difficult it was for her to sit in class
and hear racial slurs being used.
Even though she was fully aware
that the intentions were innocent
and to promote a class discussion,
she states, “It still made me feel
uneasy”. She decided to use the
negative emotions to fuel her in
and toward educating not only
herself, but fellow classmates and
whoever was willing to listen. She
said that “Although my paper was
not picked to be one of the panels, maybe it was too much of an
opinion and not more research;
nevertheless, my goal was to
bring my words to life, to be witnessed by my peers.”
More papers by BCC’s own
included a presentation by
Anthony Pone and Humberto
Martinez, promoting the convenience and affordability of ebooks by conducting a two-part
survey on campus. Their first
survey, which encompassed
about 100 students, gauged their
current demand, along with the
pros and cons of the format
against
traditional
texts.
Through this survey, they made
note of the lack of marketing and
advertisement of e-books to the
student body. After the preliminary survey, Martinez and Pone
conducted a survey in a larger
scale, surveying up to 300 students at BCC and neighboring
universities around New Jersey.
Pone says that “It was an honor
to be presenting Bergen
Community College at the
Beacon 2008 Conference. The
response from professors and fellow students was very enlightening, and their questions and
comments were gracious and
advantageous. We have not completed the project, as stated in
our report; there are more questions we will be asking of students and interviews to be conducted with professors and college administrators.”
The Fiend in Frankenstein,
written by John Hendricks who
was mentored by Dr. Altman,
asserts a theory that runs contrary to common analysis of the
story’s themes and the motivations for its characters. Dr.
Altman explains that "John had a
very interesting theory about the
novel Frankenstein--most readers
think of Dr. Frankenstein as the
well meaning creator of a monster who goes out of control and
commits murder--specifically
murdering those close to
Frankenstein. However, the
See Beacon ‘08. . . pg. 5
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 3
THE TORCH
BCC NEWS
Life After 9/11
BY CARINA TESONE
On the seventh anniversary of 9/11,
I interviewed Mass Media
Communications Professor Paul
Shenkler, a survivor of the attacks on
the World Trade Center. Exactly seven
years ago, he was working in the
South Tower as the Vice President of
Communications for a major consulting firm. Briefly, Shenkler
describes what happened the moment
the North Tower was hit:
"I was up at my office, talking to
my secretary, when I heard an
explosion. When the North Tower
got hit, I saw it after the flames
started coming out of the windows,
because I was on the 101st floor."
When asked about how security
was handling questions about the
unfolding events, he replied, "They
did not say anything. All we heard
was an announcement that our
building [the South Tower] was
secure, go back to your desks."
It was at this point that Shenkler's
fight-or-flight instinct kicked in,
and he recounts the narrow escape
out of the South Tower:
"I grabbed my secretary, said to
her, 'We're getting out of here.' She
didn't want to go, because they
made the announcement that the
building was safe. So she said, 'Why
do we have to leave?' And I said to
her, 'Let's just go down, I'll take you
out for coffee and cake.' That was
my excuse to get her to leave. And
then we went into the hi-speed elevators. We had to change [elevators]
a couple times.
"When we were in the second elevator, [at 9:02 AM] that's when the
other plane hit the South Tower
[between the 78th and 84th floors].
When we got out of the elevator, on
the 44th floor, the building was
shaking, smoke was coming
through the halls and staircases, and
people were screaming. Pictures
were falling off the walls and stuff
like that. And my secretary, Mary,
was screaming, too."
Shenkler and Mary had fifty-seven
minutes left to hasten down the last
44 flights before the South Tower
collapsed. By the time they got to
the lobby, they were told to evacuate the building. They both got out
of the building safely, without any
injuries or health problems thereafter. At 9:59 AM, he saw the South
Tower collapsed from just a few
blocks away.
After clearing the scene, Shenkler
realized that he was stranded in
New York after discovering that
most forms of public transportation
were unavailable.
"I was walking around the streets
of New York before I could get a
train to go home, because everything was closed," he said. "The
bridges were closed. The tunnels
were closed, so I wandered the
streets of NYC. Where else was I
going to go?
"Cell-phones did not work—useless—so nobody knew where I was. I
was walking aimlessly through different streets. Every time a plane flew
overhead, people were ducking—I
was with a lot of other people walking around, 'cause you didn't know
what was happening. I met strangers
walking, everybody was just walking.
You couldn't get a bus. You couldn't
get a train. It was just people walking
the streets. Some walked to the
bridge to go to Brooklyn. Some went
to the Bronx. But if you lived in New
Jersey, you couldn't get out. I did
that for eight hours."
Eventually, he found out that the
Path Train was running to
Hoboken, and recounts the long
and exhausting journey that he
underwent just to get back home:
"I walked from the World Trade
Center to 88th and Park Avenue,
which was pretty far away [about 6
miles]. Then I walked to West 34th
street [another 3.5 miles] to catch a
Path Train. This was much later; it
was about nine o'clock at night."
He finally came home to his worried wife around 10:30 PM, shaken
PHOTO COURTESY / AVENUEVINE.COM
The lights erected in memoriam of 9/11 were visible from several
miles away.
by the traumatizing events, but
grateful to be alive. Reflective of this
tragic incident, the survivor
declared, "I now believe that our
society has been changed forever,
that we shouldn't be so care-free
about our security, and that we
should be more alert."
The catastrophic event took a toll
on Shenkler's perspective, as he
described in a disheartened tone,
"For the following three months I
was going to nothing but funerals,
because I lost 170 coworkers. So, I
guess that changes your life, puts it
in perspective. That you never
know when you get up that day
what's going to happen…"
Shenkler said that he did not keep in
touch with Mary, whom he rescued,
since the incident brings back too
many awful memories. He does not
participate in any annual 9/11 anniversary events, and he said that he has not
visited Ground Zero ever since.
Shenkler periodically visits families who have lost loved ones who
were also his coworkers, and as a
professor in BCC and William
Paterson University, he sometimes
discusses the incident with his students. However, he mentions that
"The only time that the subject [of
9/11] ever comes up is today."
Dr. Peter Dlugos Promoted
BY JONA ISUFI
Headline: Dr. Peter Dlugos is
promoted to Vice President of
Research, Planning, Assessment
and Quality.
Need byline
Bergen Community College has
recently promoted many new officials, who were voted on and
approved by the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Peter Dlugos, after serving as a
philosophy professor at BCC for
12 years, has been promoted to the
post of Vice President of Research,
Planning, Assessment and Quality.
Dlugos holds a B.A. in philosophy
from Rutgers University, an M.A.
in philosophy from the University
of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of
Virginia.
He will direct the College’s
Center
for
Institutional
Effectiveness and Research, which
supports college-wide decisionmaking and planning initiatives by
collecting, analyzing and reporting
information about the College.
The new position deals with qual-
ity initiatives and strategic planning on a college-wide level.
According to Dlugos, Bergen
Community College has already
put into operation roughly onethird of its strategic plans, and he
plans to implement changes
directed at improving the overall
quality of the courses at BCC
along with making general
improvements in order to help students succeed in their academic
endeavors.
Dlugos said he first took an
interest in philosophy when he
was five years old. He often found
himself entertained by philosophical issues and drawn into the more
abstract ones. During graduate
school, he was published in areas
of the history of philosophy and
philosophy of the mind. Some of
his later publications include
Scholarship of Teaching and
Critical Thinking. Dlugos has won
many awards, including the
Garden State Distinguished
Scholar award presented by
Rutgers University.
Dlugos began his career at BCC
PHOTO COURTESY / BERGEN.EDU
Peter Dlugos was recently promoted to the post of Vice President
of Research, Planning, Assessment and Quality.
as a philosophy professor in 1996.
He said that philosophy proved to
be an amazing source of training
by teaching him how to deal with
the practical application of ideas,
improve his communication skills,
and most importantly, how to be
persuasive.
“Philosophy is a great training
for life. It helps you to learn how
to deal with ideas and values...I’ve
begun to think more about values
and different concepts as well,” he
said.
Dlugos said his experience as
member of the BCC faculty and
previous leadership positions have
prepared him for his new vicepresidential position, and that he
expects to grow personally and
professionally from his promotion.
Among the important issues that
arose over the years were the findings of the 2005-2006 Middle
States Report. The Middle States
Commission on Higher Education
is an organization that promotes
educational excellence in community colleges and universities by
evaluating the administrative and
educational aspects of a school.
When a school passes the evaluation process, it gains accreditation
status, in which it is added to a list
of schools that have been evaluated
and found to be up to par in all
standards. Dlugos chaired the
Middle States 2005-06 Self Study
Steering Committee at Bergen
Community College, which was
responsible for the College’s reaccreditation process.
One of the things Dlugos said he
is aiming for is to redesign the student advisement process, a
response to research reflecting students’ general dissatisfaction with
the general advisement process.
The College’s Center for institutional Effectiveness and Research
See Dlugos...pg. 5
PHOTO COURTESY/ANETA SUTERSKA
From left to right: Aneta Suterska, Michelle Ackermann and Jenny
Lynn Serrano
Creating Solutions for
Global Problems
BY ANETA SUTERSKA
On the 23rd-25th of April,
Bergen Community College's
national honor society Phi Theta
Kappa (PTK) and the Office of
Student Life sent 3 students to
ATHGO's (Alliance Toward
Harnessing Global Opportunities)
Fourth Annual Global Forum,
sponsored and hosted by the
United Nations in their New York
Headquarters. Among the students
selected were Michelle Ackermann,
Jenny Lynn Serrano, and me. The
conference's theme was titled,
"Who Leads: Technology or a
Distinct Mindset?" The purpose of
the conference was to come up
with an innovative business and
policy proposal that would help to
reach
the
Millennium
Development Goals of the United
Nations. The main priorities of
these goals entailed solving prob-
lems that contributed both to
poverty on a large scale and to environmental issues, such as global
warming and the energy crisis. The
two hundred attendees were divided into twelve groups, each given a
mission memorandum to develop
by Friday, the 25th. The main business ideas were mostly directed
towards energy and environmental
issues, while the policy memorandums where directed towards
developing international education
opportunities. Group number 1,
consisting of sixteen people, divided itself into two sections. I had the
pleasure of participating in developing the business strategy for finding more efficient means of dealing
with waste management. The
group was represented by a
Romanian lawyer, Selena Androne,
along with a ballet dancer, Lucy
Eleanor Washburne, and Way
See ATHGO ...pg. 5
Submit to
The Labyrinth
The Labyrinth, BCC’s student literary magazine, is seeking poetry,
short fiction, and creative essays for its Spring 2009 issue. In addition
to publication, accepted works will be automatically considered for the
Second Annual Creative Writing Contest, sponsored by The Labyrinth
in association with the BCC English Department.
$100 Best Fiction
$100 Best Poetry
$100 Best Creative Essay
plus Honorable Mentions
Deadline: February 15th, 2009
Submit work electronically to
jzorn@bergen.edu with the subject
line “Labyrinth Submission” or on
disc to Room A-333, English
Department Office, attn: Professor
James Zorn. See below for
submission guidelines.
Guidelines: • Contest and publication in The Labyrinth limited to full- or part-time students of BCC enrolled
in Summer 2008, Fall 2008, or Spring 2009. • All work submitted must be original and previously unpublished. • Only electronic submissions (email or disc) will be accepted. Please format documents to be readable by Microsoft Word. • Word length: fiction and essay, 5000 words maximum; poetry, 25 lines
maximum. • Contest prizes will be awarded in the form of gift certificates to BCC Bookstore or bookstore
of prizewinner’s choice. • Dual submissions in fiction, poetry, and essay permitted. Maximum number of submissions per individual: 3 in each prose category, 5 poems. Novel excerpts, short plays, and artwork may
be submitted for publication in The Labyrinth, but will not be entered in contest. • All work must be typed,
double-spaced, and include on the first page the contributor’s name, full address, telephone number, and
email if available. Contributors are advised to thoroughly edit and proofread work before submission. • Submissions that do not follow these guidelines may be discarded.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
Ryan
Statement on Civility
. . . c o n t i n u e d f ro m p a g e 1
In regards to the internal engine
of BCC, Ryan mentioned the
addition of 19 new faculty members for the fall semester. He also
mentioned increasing tuition revenues up to 5% in spite of an 8%
reduction in state aid, the revision
of the Code of Student Conduct
and the introduction of the smoking ban.
Of the many physical and internal changes made in the past year,
many students are still unaware or
not up to date when it comes to
the certain policies such as the
civility code and the smoking ban.
In a recent interview with the
Torch, Ryan addressed both of the
policy changes.
The first draft of the civility code
garnered a significant amount of
attention from sources both in and
outside of Bergen Community
College. On January 11th, 2008,
The Bergen Record ran a frontpage story titled "BCC Faculty
Pledges to Fight Code of
Conduct" which featured quotes
from various members of BCC's
faculty expressing their disapproval, along with quotes from
Ryan.
"The reaction in the beginning
[was] from a few very vocal people,
[and] they confused the civility
D lugos
issue with freedom of speech and
they spoke out accordingly," he
stated in the interview, "It was
never a free speech issue…you can
have free speech and express your
opinions in a civil manner." On
January 31st, Ryan submitted an
article to the Record's Op/Ed section titled "No room for incivility
on campus".
The code was quickly altered so
that signatures were no longer
mandatory, and Ryan also enlisted
Seton Hall Law School Professor
Paula Franzese to coordinate a
civility conference in the spring
and to revise its wording. On
March 11th, 2008, Vice President
Raymond Smith presented the
Senate with a Statement on
Civility, which was a revised version of the first draft. Although the
Senate denied the need for a separate civility code along with the
Code of Student Conduct and
largely voted against the revision,
Ryan was still inclined to disagree.
"The senate actually thought
there was no civility problem,"
Ryan said, "I disagreed with them,
I think there was a civility issue."
In regards to the ramifications for
violating the code, Ryan said that
the punishments ranged anywhere
from no punishment to expulsion,
Civility is a vital component of an inviting and effective learning
environment. It is fitting, given the enormous diversity of the
members of the College community, that we strive to establish
agreement on what constitutes civil behavior in our community.
To support the College’s efforts in this regard, and to create an
environment of learning for all, students are expected to strive for
the following:
•To allow others the opportunity to express their points of view
and to seek to understand their experiences which may have contributed to the formation of these views.
•To reflect on our own life experiences which contribute to our
current views and how these experiences and views may differ
from those of others.
•To seek out opportunities and experiences that will lead to
greater understanding of the ways in which the diverse members
of our community are at once the same and different.
The revised civility code
a scenario that Ryan says "would
have to get very serious to get that
to happen."
Many smokers in the spring
semester were unsure of the punishments for violating the ban,
especially after observing some students receiving tickets while others
got off with a verbal warning. As it
stands, public safety and county
police officers are authorized to
issue tickets whenever a student is
caught smoking, but some still
response to research reflecting students’ general dissatisfaction with
the general advisement process.
The College’s Center for institutional Effectiveness and Research
is looking at the way the advisement process is run and how it
can be improved.
One option would be to offer
advisement online. “Most programs on campus are based on self
evaluation. Assessment is the only
not accidental way to improve,”
he said.
In a message to BCC students, he
said “College should be a time
when you aren’t thinking about
how you can meet your financial
goals, because you’ve only one life.
It is more important how you
want to spend your life. Pursue
what you are passionate about,
and then figure out a way how to
make a living out of that. These,
in fact are the happiest people.”
. . . c o n t i n u e d f ro m p a g e 3
Way Chung from the City
University of New York. The diversity of our group helped the three of
us interact easily with the others in
the group. Although we only had
two days to conceive a fully-developed business proposal, this only
provided us with more energy to
work after hours in the cafeteria
inside Grand Central station until
late at night. Throughout
Wednesday and Thursday, we had a
chance to interview many prominent figures, such as Sir Nikhil
Seth, the director of the United
Nations Office for Economic and
Social Council Support and
Coordination. Of the many pieces
of advice he provided, the most
important was "The rule of 3 P's people, planet, as well as profits".
Based on Seth's advice, we developed a business proposal that
catered to the 3 P's; raising employment rates in India and China (people), reducing the amount of produced waste (planet), and finally,
considering those who would invest
in the proposal (profits). Our company's name was R.E.G. Inc.,
which stands up for Recycle for
Earth, for Good. We came up with
a recycling machine called the DSR
(Dip, Scan, Recycle) Machine.
These machines would be installed
in colleges and universities of states
where the Bottle Bill is implemented, which pays 5-10 cents for each
recycled bottled. The student's college ID would double as a debit
card. Since students usually purchase bottled drinks from campus
vending machines, we also produce
a lot of garbage. The student can
insert their ID cards into the
machine, scan the bottle or can, and
deposit the bottle into the recycling
machine. In turn, the money would
be transferred to the students'
account, which can be used to purchase books or other campus goods.
BCC's Michelle Ackermann developed the idea of online books used
to support education in the poorer
regions of Africa. Jenny Lynn
Serrano's group proposed the use of
solar panels on government buildings, which would set an example
and save money for the long run.
Each group came up with very
interesting ideas, and if they prove
to be practical, ATHGO may
wonder what the fourth and further offenses may lead to. Ryan
stated that although there is no
concrete policy dealing with fourth
and further offenses, much like the
civility policy, the penalties may
range anywhere between a
verbal/written warning to a permanent dismissal.
"I would not be in favor of a dismissal," he said, "but I think something more than a fine would have
to be implemented if they went
through the fine system." If students were inclined to contest the
charges, they would have to appeal
their case in front of a committee.
Many students who do not wish
to make the trek across the highway often end up on the golf courses behind the East/West Halls and
the Cafeteria. However, it is interesting to note that in spite of the
increasing number of smokers that
migrate onto the golf course, Ryan
has yet to receive any complaints
from the owners, saying that "The
owner of the golf course is the
County Governor, which would be
the County Executive [Dennis
McNerney], and he hasn't said a
thing to me about it yet."
According to Ryan, the number of
tickets that were issued in the
spring semester ranged in the hundreds, and it is his aim to reduce
those numbers by increasing the
advertisement of the fines for the
first three offenses.
In just one year, Ryan has managed to create significant changes
on BCC's campus, but he's far
from finished. He said in his interview that there were still many
issues to deal with down the road,
including the academic reorganization, the changes made to the
developmental math program and
the strategic plan (the distribution
of the budget). The Torch will be
following up on these issues in our
future editions.
Beacon Conference
. . . c o n t i n u e d f ro m p a g e 3
tion process, it gains accreditation
status, in which it is added to a
list of schools that have been evaluated and found to be up to par
in all standards. Dlugos chaired
the Middle States 2005-06 Self
Study Steering Committee at
Bergen Community College,
which was responsible for the
College’s re-accreditation process.
One of the things Dlugos said he
is aiming for is to redesign the
student advisement process, a
ATH GO
PAGE 5
THE TORCH
implement these ideas into real life.
Prof. Win Win Kyi, who acted as a
guest judge at the conference,
described the the event as "A window to harnessing global opportunities for young professionals into
the possibilities and potential of the
21st century and beyond".
monster is also a sympathetic
creature who has feelings and helps
others. John's explanation is that
Dr. Frankenstein himself was the
murderer, directing his loyal creation to kill those that he, himself,
wanted to destroy." She also
explained how she gave Hendricks
advice and directed him to find
more textual evidence of his theory, saying that "Sometimes when I
read a student paper for the first
time, I am struck by the originality
of the idea and the potential it has,
but I see that it needs work to
become
a
Beacon
paper.
Additional research and clarification of ideas through revision produce a Beacon paper."
Students made numerous revisions to their papers before they
were ready to debut at the Beacon
Conference. After going through
the editing and re-editing process,
they went on to meet with other
BCC students in the presence of
Professors Makowiecka and Altman
to critique, judge, and clarify each
other’s papers. Professor
Altman had this to say about the
...continued from page 2
conference; “Hosting Beacon 2008
was a tremendous amount of work,
but the support of President Ryan
and the entire BCC Community
helped make the conference a great
success. Everyone who attended was
impressed by the quality of scholarship and exhilarated by the
exchange of ideas. I once heard a
longtime Steering Committee
member describe what happens at
the conference as ‘the magic of
Beacon’; we are proud to have
achieved this magic on June 6th at
BCC.”
The Awards Session was held in
the Ciccone Theater, where
President Ryan welcomed all students to the premises. Prizes were
then awarded to the Outstanding
Presenters and their mentors. If you
missed the Beacon Conference this
year, the Beacon Conference 2009
will take place in Takoma Park,
Maryland on the first Friday of
June. Public transportation to
Washington D.C. will be made
available, and for those low on cash,
financial support will be provided.
PAGE 6
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
OPINIONS & EDITORIAL
Why the Bipartisan Political System Hurts American Politics
BY MICHELLE IDLER
As the highly anticipated
November elections draw near, the
one word thrown around more
than any other is "change". The
candidates have been promising
real change in Washington, but will
they be prepared to deliver after
they step into office? With a female
vice-presidential candidate and an
African-American presidential candidate, we are guaranteed to see a
first in political history. But while
the glass ceiling appears to be lifted,
there still exists another major
bridge to cross.
American politics are thought of
in blues and reds - Democrats and
Republicans. Election tickets are
considered in terms of the
Democratic and Republican candidates, politicians try to appeal to
Democratic and Republican voters, and the politics and ideologies
of those who don't pander to
either of the extremes are lost along
the way. Candidates adhere to the
Democratic/Republican platforms
and ideals, resulting in a rapidly
stagnating election process.
The American people are tired of
ILLUSTRATION COURTESY EDITORIAL CARTOONIST DENISE REYES
the bipartisan formula, and in
response to the demands of the
general public, every candidate
markets themselves as being different from your typical candidate.
However, the only differences
we've seen have been the obvious
physical ones. Yes, Barrack Obama
is the first African-American presidential candidate, and yes, Sarah
Palin is a woman. But that's not
enough! Beyond their physical
appearances which somehow make
them "revolutionary", we are still
faced with the same tickets we've
voted for in past elections.
Does it really have to be that
way? As expected, along with the
election comes much speculation
regarding every major decision
made along the way. With regard
to the vice-presidential nominees,
perhaps the most interesting and
wide-spread speculation was the
possibility of Connecticut senator
and 2000 election vice-president
nominee to Al Gore, Joseph
Lieberman, taking the Republican
vice president nomination.
Whether you agree with his views
or not, Lieberman does dare to be
different. In 2006, Lieberman
resigned as a member of the
Democratic Party and signed on as
an Independent. After endorsing
Sen. John McCain this January
after just one primary win, speculators began to toss his name around
as a possible vice-presidential candidate to McCain. But when
McCain announced his VP selection this fall, he picked Sarah Palin.
It wouldn't be the first time that
speculation of a mixed-party ticket
existed, nor would it be the first
time that a stronger politician and a
more strategic choice of nominees
was passed up to stay within party
lines. When John Kerry won the
Democratic nomination to the
2004 elections, political analysts
suggested the strong possibility that
he could choose Republican senator
John McCain as his running mate,
but as expected, he opted against
making what would have been the
more politically advantageous move
to choose John Edwards.
Our present political system has
some advantages - candidates can
build up support networks and
Dissolve the Issues, We
Need Solutions!
BY NICOLE JANUARIE
This years’ presidential election
will be a historic moment for
America. Our next President will
have to take on the responsibility
of. Current statistics state that the
Bush Administration has increased
the unemployment rate from 4.1%
in 2000 to 6.1% in 2008. Gas
prices have also increased from
$1.54 per gallon in 2000 to a staggering average of $4 in 2008. Our
economy has digressed from a surplus of $5.4 trillion to a projected
deficit of over $8 trillion and about
135,700 lives lost in Iraq to date.
Oil prices on a rise are affecting
living standards throughout the
nation.
McCain
adamantly
believes that offshore drilling will
solve our oil problems, but one
should consider the fact that we
would have to wait at least a
decade for oil companies to obtain
permits, equipment, and finish the
process of getting the oil out of the
ground. At that point, the amount
of new oil produced would probably be too small to significantly
affect world oil prices, much less
our own. Oil companies would
never sell oil to US consumers for
a penny less than what other countries would pay. On top of that, the
location of where oil is harvested
does not affect its price! Obama,
on the other hand, believes in a
cap-and-trade system, in which all
permits that allow a company to
drill for oil are auctioned off and
are then tradable to other companies, so instead of giving these
companies free passes, he would
charge them and generate a revenue which would then go toward
creating “green jobs” and investing
in the reproduction of fuel efficient
vehicles and alternative energy
sources governing us toward the
mark of oil independence.
Other issues to consider are the
continued woes of the middle
class. Those in the upper class regularly benifit from tax breaks while
unreasonable tax rates leave the rest
to eat cake. Between John McCain
and Barack Obama, one must ask
themselves which of the two are
more in tune with the efforts of
those who are struggling to pay
their bills, send their kids to college, or buy/keep their homes.
McCain recently delivered a
speech in Jacksonville, Florida,
stating that even though Wall
Street is going through a very difficult time, he believes that “the fundamentals of our economy are still
very strong.”, to which Obama
replied, “Senator McCain, what
economy are you talking about?”
It’s clear that Senator McCain has
grown accustomed to seeing every-
PHOTO COURTESY/MODELING-BLOG.MODELING.NET
The Slim Standard
BY ROLLIENE MALLARI
COPY EDITOR
Walking around the BCC hallway, I passed a girl standing about
5 foot 9 in an all-red outfit: red
short-sleeved shirt, red shorts, and
red sandals. What was most striking was not the redness of her outfit but the fact that I could see the
floor through her legs. Just that,
her legs had little to no body fat, so
they never touched, thereby forming a gaping window in between.
Not fully certain that I believed
my eyes, I stopped short as she
kept walking. I turned back
around and eyed her closer. Sure
enough, there it was: long, pencilthin legs moving lankily down the
hall. Her entire frame looked just
as thin and frail, and I’m sure that
if someone had bumped shoulders
with her, she would have easily
dropped to the floor.
This had me dazed, as I continued on my way. Of course I knew
about eating disorders, unhealthy
habits, and that general knowledge, but still. Speaking as an
active member of the estrogendriven bipartite of the XX-XY
equation, why do we do it and who
were we doing this for? For whom
were we striving to do go to such
extremes in order to fit into an
unreachable perception of perfection? At what point can we draw
the line at “too far”?
Eating disorders abound. More
often than not, everyone knows at
financial backings through their
parties, our election tickets are generally comprised of the two "key"
candidates (one Democrat and one
Republican) and the odd thirdparty candidate which helps prevent a repeat of the 2003 election
for California governor in which
162 candidates ran for the position.
Still, the advantages can't make up
for the detriment that the bipartisan system imposes.
Our political system suppresses the
one thing that every candidate
claims to support - progress. Policies
and programs that are introduced
with a Democrat in office are often
reversed when Republicans take
power in Congress and in presidency, and vice versa.
If we were to consider aborting
our present political structure, our
politics might actually move forward. Unlike other countries where
more than just two key positions
are available on any major issue, we
remain at a standstill. It's time that
we started to consider a real change
in Washington.
least one person who is going
through or has gone through some
form of eating disorder. Yes, it’s a
horrible thought, but considering
the statistic that there are approximately 8 million Americans who
have an eating disorder, it’s not too
unusual.
Then there are the outer radicals.
The ones who go above and
beyond average, realistic means for
the sake of perfectionism. Enter
the plastic extremists. They comprise of the inflators, reducers, and
replacers, to name a few. These are
the types who are often rare to find
on our side of the coast, but are
instantly recognizable upon sight.
According to the American
Society for Aesthetic Plastic
Surgery, in the year of 2007 alone,
there were nearly 11.7 million cosmetic procedures operated, an 8%
increase in surgical procedures performed since January 2003. The
top cosmetic surgical procedures
performed were breast augmentations, liposuction, and abdominoplasty (a.k.a. getting your stomach
stapled). So the formula usually
consists of making that bigger, suction that off, and tuck that in.
It sounds ridiculously reaching.
Truly painful for a cause so fleeting, with significant risks should
the surgery go wrong. Which turns
back the question, who are we
doing this for?
The easy answer is the testosterone-fueled other half of the
equation. Fit the unnatural, predisposed archetype splayed on
posters, magazines, and billboards
See Dissolve...pg. 15
See Slim Standard...pg. 15
Keep Bergen Informed! Join The Torch!
O
6 CTOBER 2005
We need writers, reporters, photographers and students with interest in graphic arts.
For more information, come to a Torch meeting,
held every first and third Tuesday of the month at 12:30
Room C-319, orTE-mail
BrianDPark@gmail.com
HE T
ORCH
The
Torch
6
OCTOBER 2005
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 7
THE TORCH
OPINIONS & EDITORIAL
Reality Shows Need a Reality Check!
BY ELISA CERVONE
MANAGING EDITOR
Editor-In-Chief
Copy Editor
Managing Editor
Layout Editors
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Brian Park
Rolliene Mallari
Elisa Cervone
Daniel Diaz
Sergio Lopez
Paul Ibañez
Staff Writers
Ervisa Bilalaj
Catherine Caruso
Amanda Ferrante
Michelle Idler
Jona Isufi
Nicole Januarie
Rachel Kaminer
Ryan Kelly
Huma Munir
Aneta Suterska
Carina Tesone
Advisor
Lew Wheaton
Mailing Address:
400 Paramus Road
Paramus, NJ 07652-1595
Room L-115
Phone: 201-493-5006 / 5007
BrianDPark@gmail.com
The Torch, a member of the Associated College Press and the College
Media Association, is the official student newspaper of Bergen
Community College. The purpose of the The Torch is to report on
the events at BCC and the local community, and to offer the BCC
community a forum for expression. The opinions expressed in The
Torch are not necessarily those of The Torch. All the materials submitted to The Torch become property of The Torch.
During the past two years,
Americans both young and old
come and gather around the television to watch the so called “Reality
TV”. We have become so
engrossed by these shows that
some of us find that we schedule
our daily routine around the time
of their airing.
We sit for up to an hour at a
time, hypnotized by the likes of
Tila Tequila (the bi-sexual looking
for love for the second time), New
York (a single girl who was second
runner up twice on a fellow reality
show, only to be blessed with her
own version) and Flavor Flav (a
toothless, worn out rap singer
looking for love for the third
time), just to mention a few.
We dedicate every Tuesday or
Wednesday weekly to these shows,
rooting for our favorite contestant
to move on to the finale, making
bets with our friends to see who
will be the last man or woman
standing. We wait to get our next
fix, to see who will win the heart
of the most confused, troubled,
pathetic wannabe Stars.
I really feel that the contestants
that make the cut to appear on
these shows are not in fact looking
for love. They are looking for
their 15 minutes and/or days of
fame. The reason why Americans
are so fascinated by these shows?
PHOTO COURTESY / NEWSOBSERVER.COM
Well, maybe it’s because we are
bored with our own lives, and look
for comedy relief by watching people make fools of themselves as
they let down their guard and fight
for the one they "think" they love!
Many contestants give up their
own lives, jobs and move away
from their families to achieve this
form of stardom/love. Pathetic,
yes. What kind of message are
they sending out to the youth of
America?
Everyone knows that this kind of
show is far from reality. You could
never find real love in such a short
period of time by living with
strangers
and
performing
grotesque acts like drinking blended hotdogs, relish and buns, competing in biathlons, and eating raw
animal parts (usually consisting of
the genitals). It’s rather vile if you
really think about it.
In reality we all go through trials
and tribulations when in a relationship, but not doing nonsense
actions like some of these people
partake on these shows. It really
makes you think what some peo-
PHOTO COURTESY / D-FIEND.COM
ple will do for “love” or in some
instances, fame.
It is really a shame that we as
Americans have stooped this low.
We cant help but watch on as our
underdogs of the week put themselves out there on these primetime shows and make a complete
mockery of themselves, showing
the public and our families our
true colors.
Whatever happened to the old
fashion way of simply meeting a
person? Most Americans meet
their significant others through a
friend, in a local bar, or at times on
the internet. In these cases, we put
ourselves out there without any
hidden agenda and basically you
either, “hate me or love me”. We
are not fighting with other people
or doing any type of relay races to
show people who we are as a person or how much we are willing to
do for love.
If we as society believe what these
individuals are doing to find their
so-called love is acceptable, or that
this is our last resort to find our
“mr. /mrs right”, count me out!
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Innovation, Meet Competition
BY DANIEL DIAZ
LAYOUT EDITOR
When Apple released the hotly
anticipated iPhone about a year ago,
they knew they were stepping into a
new business field which is very
demanding. There are several other
PDAs as well as Smart-Phones that
could have made the iPhone seem
lacking in comparison. However, the
iPhone’s sleek design along with its
many features and applications have
made it a complete sensation.
Now, after a year of technological
advances and a surge of other iPhonewannabes, Apple released its second
generation of the iPhone, dubbed the
iPhone 3G, on the 11th of July. The
next generation of iPhones have
improved in many aspects, and the
price drop has significantly increased
its appeal.
The 8GB version of the iPhone
costs $199, and the 16GB version
$299. Although the price drops may
be leave many who purchased their
iPhones shortly beforehand disappointed, it is simply the double-edged
sword of purchasing gadgetry in a
market that renders old models obsolete in relatively shorter periods.
The iPhone’s second generation
inherits the three basic functionalities
its predecessor had; telephone, music,
and internet access all in one handy
device. Most of the improvements
made towards the next generation
iPhones have been geared towards its
internet access capabilities.
The 3G stands for 3rd Generation,
referring to its broadband internet
access, or internet over the air, but
AT&T’s High-Speed network is really called HSDPA (High-Speed
Downlink Packet Access). Although
COURTESY/CRUNCH GEAR.COM
The Apple iPhone & The Samsung Instinct
Apple continutes to promote their
increased bandwidth speed, this isn’t
exactly fast. Sprint and Verizon’s networks use EVDO (Evolution-Data
Optimized).
Both networks, 3G and EVDO,
offer internet access over the air, but
the gap between these two services is
that AT&T’s network hasn’t been well
deployed nationwide, and EVDO is a
much more developed system. 3G has
been left for the use of older cell
phones, while EVDO is what many
modern devices use nowadays.
However, Apple is promoting this
because it is faster than the iPhone
EDGE (the original iPhone over a
slower network).
It has to be brought into consideration that the iPhone 3G supports WiFi access which can reach higher
bandwidth speeds, but it still doesn’t
provide the anytime/anywhere internet access we crave.
Its design has also undergone some
aesthetic improvements. The iPhone
weighs in at 4.7 ounces, is 2.4 inches
wide by 4.5 inches tall, and has a 0.48
inch depth. The screen uses MultiTouch technology, allowing the use of
more than one finger to control the
device. The display screen is 3.5 inches, with 480-by-320-pixel resolution
at 163 pixels per inch which is just
wonderful when used in landscape or
portrait orientation mode.
It comes with the options of a black
or white back cover, which takes away
the reflective surface on the back, but
Apple still maintained the sensibilities
with design that they have always
been famous for. A 2.0 Megapixel
camera accompanies the Apple logo
on the back. It supports Bluetooth
technology and even includes an
Assisted Global Positioning System
(GPS).
Although Apple puts its respectable
name on the field Samsung’s Instinct
was designed to become the iPhones
most direct competition. Sprint promotes the Instinct at $129.99, and
provides very similar features as the
iPhone.
The Instinct weighs 4.4 ounces, is
2.17 inches wide by 4.57 inches tall,
and has a 0.49 inch depth, which,
compared to the iPhone, runs nearly
identical specs. On the other finger,
the Instinct has 3.1 inch diagonal display screen with 240-by-432 pixel resolution and uses Touch Flow
Technology, which like the iPhone
allows you swipe your finger on the
screen, although only one finger at a
time may be used.
On the good side, the screen is a
Haptic Touch Screen meaning that
when the finger meets the screen a
visual response will let you confirm
that a button, option, or field on the
screen was pressed. Bluetooth, GPS
location, and a 2.0 Megapixel camera
that support video and camera functions are built-in with the phone.
One important feature the Instinct
lacks compared to the iPhone is the
Wi-Fi access. However, Sprint offers
the EVDO network, which as previously mentioned, works at faster
bandwidth speeds than AT&T’s 3G
network.
Of course, how can the Instinct be
called an “iPhone-Killer” if it doesn’t
support music file formats? Well,
Samsung developers though about
this and included a MicroSD card
reader with the phone. Many phones
currently support SD cards, MiniSD
cards, and MicroSD cards readers and
have built-in music playing software.
The SD card readers have been a supported feature by many phones over
the years, and even though it is not as
convenient as having built-in storage
capacity for media files, it does provide portability, as these SD cards can
be plugged in the computer to transfer, play, and manipulate media without the need of syncing cables or
other syncing software installation.
The Instinct comes with a 2GB
MicroSD card, but also supports 8GB
MicroSD cards.
These two phones can hardly be
called phones as technology continues
to evolve. The iPhone is widely recognizable, while other phones exist solely to be compared to the iPhone, but
they usually fall under the category of
Smart-Devices or Smart-Phones.
Prices are dropping, and the capabilities the phones support make them
more appealing every day. Standalone
PDAs have become obsolete as we
now see that having an agenda with
scheduling and memos capabilities
are simply one of many features of
most Smart-Phones. Apple has taken
giant steps by entering the mobile
phone market, but it took baby steps
when upgrading the next generation
of the iPhone. Other popular and
advanced mobile phone companies,
such as Samsung or HTC, didn’t have
to struggle much to provide phones
similar to the iPhone. With all this
competition occurring during the
first half of the year, we should be
expecting more from Apple and from
companies that have been marked as
competition.
PAGE 8
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Assault on Technology
Has Stem Cell Research Dropped its
Baggage Once and for all?
BY CARINA TESONE
PHOTO COURTESY / MONTHLYMISSION.ORG
Solar flares threaten common creature comforts such as the internet, GPS systems, and weather forecasts.
BY HUMA MUNIR
The Solar Max, expected to happen between the years of 2011 and
2012, has astronauts and scientists
on high alert. The Solar Max is a
cycle of intense solar activity that the
sun goes through every 11 years.
"Astronomers have predicted, that
this particular solar maximum is
going to be stronger than the one in
1958, when nearly 200 sun spots
covered the surface of the sun". said
Professor Zawonski, an adjunct professor of astronomy at BCC and a
former aerospace engineer who
worked with NASA. The 1958 solar
max was so intense that it knocked
out Quebec's entire power grid,
leaving up to six million people
without power for up to 9 hours.
Scientists know that a solar max is
going to occur when sun spots begin
to appear on the surface of the sun.
These dark spots, also referred to as
umbra, are slightly cooler than the
areas around them, called penumbras. The magnetic field of the sun is
responsible for this unique phenomenon. "Every eleven years, the sun's
magnetic field flips and in the
process of flipping over, the magnetic field will pass from the north pole
around to the south pole across the
sun while penetrating the solar surface". As this phenomenon takes
place, the darker spots on the surface
start to appear. This flipping of the
sun's magnetic field can take up to
two years to move across from north
to south pole. Energy is then
released all directions, which may
result in northern and southern
lights being visible from vantage
points that are closer to the equator,
such as New York City.
"Earth intercepts some of these
particles, which overwhelms our
magnetic field on Earth and it cascades down on the Earth's surface at
the polar regions." said Professor
Zawonski.
The sun spots, therefore, indicate
an intense activity underway heading right for the Earth and the other
objects in the solar system . The
solar max will result in the release of
charged particles caused by the ejection of coronal mass and solar flares.
This energy is sometimes so intense,
that it can disrupt the space weather
dramatically above Earth's surface.
For the first time in humans history,
the upcoming solar max will occur
in the era of space dependent technology. "We have made huge leaps
in technology such as computers,
cellular phones, global positioning
technology and weather tracking",
says Professor Zawonski. "If this is
disrupted, it can cause devastation to
the world's economy".
NASA published an article, "Solar
Storm Warning", stating that the
1958 solar maximum was detected
through the aurora borealis, otherwise known as northern lights,
which were sighted as far south as
Mexico. Northern Lights were the
only way people knew that a solar
activity was taking place. However,
the article warns that the upcoming
solar maximum will be detected by
the effect it has on the modern technology such as, GPS, weather satellites, cellular phones and etc.
The truth is, we have become
heavily dependent on space based
technology. So much so, that if we
loose the satellites, we will also lose
our way to fast track a catastrophic
storm, or the means to interact globally for communication and commerce purposes. Only some satellites
can be repaired in space or replaced.
However, the process takes time and
is very costly. The solar max also has
the ability to permanently disable a
satellite which makes it harder to
move it out of the Earth's orbit to
make room for replacement satellites. "[If ] We can't move them, then
we are stuck as to what we can do"
says Professor Zawonski . "They are
dead up there".
At this moment, we have a solar
and heliocentric observatory satellite
on a mission to study the interior of
the sun and the solar activity. The
solar heliocentric observatory also
known as SOHO can prove useful
for future space missions by warning
the astronauts ahead of time for an
intense solar activity. Also space
engineers can then shut down the
components of a satellite by putting
it in a safe mode. This might save
the satellite from serious damage as
oppose to destroying it completely
and making it harder to reboot the
system. Other than the SOHO mission, space engineers have the
option to use technology that can
protect itself against the solar radiation. For now, we can only hope that
the sun "behaves itself".
To many of us, it seems like a
friend rather than an enemy that has
the power to completely incapacitate
a majority of the world. For all of
the great leaps forward in innovation
and technology, man still does not
have the means to withstand all the
dangers that mother nature presents.
A middle ground is necessary to preserve the intelligence we need to
function properly in an advanced
society. Space is simply not as friendly as we once imagined it to be.
Stem cells have been the center of
many a heated debate since James
Thomson (director of regenerative
biology at the Morgridge Institute
for Research and professor at the
University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health successfully isolated and cultivated the
first embryonic stem cell lines in
1998. At the time, research opportunities were severely limited by
President George Bush in 2004
because embryonic stem cell
research required aborted fetuses,
which were the major source of
embryonic stem cells. However,
scientists have been finding new
ways to genetically manipulate
stem cells into different cell types
so that they would no longer need
to exclusively depend on fetuses.
Christopher Thomas Scott
(Director of Stanford University's
Program on Stem Cells in Society)
and
John
Smalley
(biotechnology/embryology professor at Bergen Community
College) both commented on the
basics of stem cells and how
research is finally starting to skirt
the ethical and moral issues of
abortion.
Scott, who teaches courses based
on the biology, policy, and ethics
surrounding stem cell research at
Stanford University defined a stem
cell as "a special cell that can duplicate itself and differentiate into different kinds of cells." He said that
embryonic stem cells (ESC's) were
essentially the same as other stem
cells, with the exception that ESC's
"are pluri-potent and, in theory,
can proliferate into any cell in the
body."
Smalley explained how stem cells
were related to the issue of abortion: "Embryonic stem cells have a
lot of developmental potential...if
we could get some of these ESC's,
then we could give them the right
signals--if we knew them--and get
them to become what we want
them to. Then, have the ESC's
regenerate into a part of a heart, a
part of a spinal cord, or part of a
pancreas--that's kind of the
idea...The source for these ESC's is
embryonic or fetal tissue, because
you can get lots of stem cells. But
of course, there is this huge issue of
abortion which is a big ethical and
moral debate for a lot of people."
President George Bush has
objected to the immoral aspects of
embryonic stem cell research due
to its affiliation with abortion in
2006 by saying "Congress has also
passed a second bill that attempts
to overturn the balanced policy I
set. This bill would support the
taking of innocent human life in
the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral
boundary that our decent society
needs to respect, so I vetoed it."
Scientists have already made
progress with stem cells and regular
cells that do not come from aborted fetuses. Smalley spoke about a
recent experiment on rodents diagnosed with type one diabetes
where scientists used adult cells-not stem cells--and just three transcription factors (which reprogram
the cell) to make insulin-producing cells. The experiment was a
successful biomedical breakthrough.
Smalley also had some concerns
about stem cell research, and
added "I think you got to be a little cautious, though, too. If you're
not careful, things could go
wrong." Scott, who studies stem
cell research policies, also spoke of
the associated risks, stating that 1)
ESC's live as long as that person
does, so if you put it into people, it
may have adverse effects, 2) Stem
cells have to be free of viruses and
contaminants, and 3) They can
cause cancer if they proliferate too
much.
However, Scott still looks to the
See Stem Cells...pg. 15
The Out of Homeostasis Club
Learning, Earning, Returning
Bergen Community College
Community Service
Awareness of Health
Representing B.C.C.
Earning Service Learning Credit, Civic Engagement
Certificate/Transcript Record, Possible Internships and
$$$Educational Funding$$$, Experience
Scientific Presentations on
Health Conditions
Academic Achievement
Recruiting New Students
Exceeding Expectations
ASK
ABOUT
BCC
LIFE
TEAM!
Tuesday meetings @ 12:30 p.m., room TBA
October 14, 21, 28, November 11, 18, and December 2, & 9
Contact: kbranch72@people.com, Keisha Branch, President
Advisors: Dr. J. Fitzpatrick, Dr. R. Kanterman, & Prof. F.J. Benedict
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 9
THE TORCH
WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR?
CAST YOUR VOTE NOV. 4th!
Bergen Community College
Speaker Series Distinguished Speaker Event
2008
Dr. Cornel West
th
Wednesday, October 29
1:40 PM - Ciccone Theatre
One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Cornel West has been a champion for
racial justice since childhood. His writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the traditions
of the black Baptist Church, progressive politics, and jazz. The New York Times has praised his
"ferocious moral vision."
Currently the Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University, West burst onto the national scene
in 1993 with his bestselling book, Race Matters, a searing analysis of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, selling more than a half a million copies
to date. In addition, West has published 16 other books and has edited 13 texts.
West earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard in three years, magna cum laude. Martin
Kilson, one of his professors there, describes West as "the most intellectually aggressive and
highly cerebral student I have taught." After earning his Ph.D. at Princeton, he became a professor of religion and director of the Afro-American Studies program there. West has also taught
at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris.
Sir Salman Rushdie
Friday November 7th
11:00 AM
Gymnasium
"One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.
" Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the most celebrated and controversial authors of our time -- of any time.
A brilliant provocateur, he's penned a handful of classics (Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses),
overcome a fatwa, received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth for "services to literature," and
become both a genuine pop icon and one of the most prominent, witty and thought-provoking speakers
working today.
In his spellbinding lectures, Rushdie braids together the worlds of literature, politics and philosophy -- a
show of intellectual pyrotechnics and deadpan humor that conveys fully the texture of modern life. He
speaks about the major themes coursing through his writing, his life and our world: freedom of expression, religion, pop culture, Muslim culture, current events at home and abroad, East-West relations, and
the role of the artist to shape our understanding of the world. For those more interested in his writing,
he touches on storytelling, the magical realism he made famous, and the unique sensibility of his
"globe-swallowing, capricious books." Few authors are as enrapturing in person as Rushdie is, or as
fully embracing of their well-earned place in the spotlight.
In his last book Democracy Matters, West analyzes the arrested development of democracy both
in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. He argues that if America is to become a better
steward of democratization around the world, it must first recognize its own long history of
Sir Salman Rushdie's novels include The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet and 2008's The
imperialist corruption. His latest CD, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations is a collection of
Enchantress of Florence; his essay books include Step Across this Line. He is the winner of many awards,
socially conscious music featuring collaborations with Prince, Outkast, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli.
including the Best of the Booker Prize, for Midnight's Children, given to the best novel to ever win the
West also offers commentary weekly on The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI.
West was an influential force in developing the storyline for the popular Matrix movie trilogy
and has served as its official spokesperson, as well as playing a recurring role in the final two
films.
Booker, one of the world's most prestigious literary prizes. For two years, Rushdie was also president
of The PEN American Center, the world's oldest human rights organization.
Sponsored by the Office of Student Life
PAGE 10
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Burn After R eading o r How I Learned to S top Worrying a nd Love the C oens
BY RYAN KELLY
The Coen brothers' new film,
which is marketed as a goofy comedy, reveals more depth and
warmth than the advertising campaign would have had you believe,
which is a testament to the Coens'
growing maturity as film makers.
Don't listen to the brainless critics
who say things like "the transition
from Oscar-winning masterpiece
to this mess is especially depressing"; such criticisms reflect an
attempt to pigeon-hole directors
whose most defining characteristic
is their versatility. It would have
been easy for them to make another quiet, inward, reflective film
noir that would have appeased critics and awards circles, but the
Coens have never been about the
easy fix; they have built their reputation on catering to those in the
audience that want (and deserve)
to be challenged. Indeed, their
career has been about something
deeper than taking their ruminations on genre, and genre versatility, at face value. In spite of what
certain critics may think, this film
is completely consistent with the
maturity and mastery of last year's
stellar No Country for Old Men.
The whirlwind plot is set into
motion by a former CIA agent's
memoirs that come into the pos-
session of two gym employees,
who assume they are "secret files",
and proceed to use them in an
attempt to blackmail him. Linda
Litzky (Frances McDormand ) is
convinced she needs plastic surgery
to be attractive, and she thinks the
former CIA insider will pay big
bucks for the return of his files.
With the help of dim-witted but
lovable Chad (Brad Pitt), she
manipulates the situation to the
best of her ability by attempting to
sell the information to the
Russians, a hilarious twist on Cold
War espionage films. Much like
the protagonist from No Country
for Old Men, Linda Litzky capitalizes on the opportunity to escape
know, when it makes sense" at
the height of the film's insanity.
This refers not only to the
eclecticism of this film's plot,
but of the brothers' entire oeuvre, which often feature characters who sometimes don't figure
out what's going on until the
very end (if then). In a brilliant
move, they also jab at the critics
of No Country for Old Men's
alleged 'non-ending', tying
everything up in a nice little
package but still defying genre
expectations; but they're not
simply being coy or clever. Such
a tactic would be transparent
and cheap, the so-called 'antiPHOTO COURTESY / ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM
climactic' nature is ingrained into
the current confines of her life and the type of story they're telling.
move onto something bigger and
It is the story of— as Osbourne
presumably more rewarding, in Cox (John Malkovich) called it—
spite of the fact that her kind but a 'league of morons'. All the charrepressed boss is crazy about her acters in this are clueless to the othjust the way she is.
ers' actions, which is where the
Though the plot has large twists film's comedic element originates.
and turns, there is an aura sur- Alfred Hitchcock said that susrounding this film that brings to pense was created by giving the
mind Kubrick's masterpiece, Dr. audience more information than
Strangelove. Like Kubrick, the the characters on screen have, and
Coens film governmental higher- the Coens apply this principle to
ups at low angles, treating them their comedy. These are some of
almost as demagogues, but also the most unglamorous performlike Kubrick's film they permeate ances by stars that you're ever likeincompetence. J.K. Simmon's ly to see, and that is because of the
character (credited as 'CIA Coens' ability to bring together all
Superior') tells one of his under- the cinematic elements in as seamlings "Report back to me....I don't less a way as possible. And yet, the
characters are never condescended
to, in spite of their shortcomings.
They're treated with dignity, even
when the film segues into the
absurd.
The film feels like Looney Tunes
bound by the rules of our own universe, functioning within the confines of our modern day society.
There are, undoubtedly, farcical
elements; but it also doesn't fit
expressly into the definition of
farce set forth by Chuck Jones
(Director of Looney Tunes), who
once stated that "Comedy is
unusual people in real situations;
farce is real people in unusual situations.". Take an instance in the
film when Brad Pitt gets punched
in the face; it works as comedy, but
it also has real world repercussions:
he is holding his nostrils shut and
tilting his head back in the next
scene, and we see that he got blood
on his nice, clean suit. The violence in the film has a genuine
emotional and psychological resonance, and that's because of the
film's rich characterizations.
Though the film's comedic strokes
feel similar to that of a cartoon, the
heart of the film indicates a rich
poignancy: a sad, desperate longing on the part of the characters to
be a part of something greater than
their modest existence.
Tropic Thunder
BY BRIAN PARK
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Out of all the trailers that I’ve seen
this year, few have managed to conjur
up the same level of raw anticipation
for a summer blockbuster comedy
than the Redband trailer for Tropic
Thunder. It was by pure chance that
I stumbled onto this trailer a few
months ago, and in spite of being sick
to death of conventional summer
blockbuster comedies, the cast (along
with the rumored cameo appearances) made the movie seem interesting enough to at least warrant a
download. Within two minutes, I
was hooked. The premise seemed
simple enough, but it was the
inspired casting that made me realize
that Tropic Thunder had the potential to strike comedic paydirt.
Given the fact that most of Ben
Stiller’s comedies were never my cup
of tea, I was surprised by how excited
I was getting for Tropic Thunder,
which featured him in the lead role.
It’s not that I think the man lacks talent or comedic presence; on the contrary, on the (very) rare occasion that
Stiller pairs up with a competent
director that knows how to balance
him out, Stiller shines. However, I’m
convinced that Stiller has the rare
ability to do a better job at directing
himself than anyone else can. The
evidence for this is his film
Zoolander, which he not only wrote,
but also directed, produced, and
starred in, and which also happens to
be one of the best performances by
Stiller (and generally one of the best-
PHOTO COURTESY / IWATCHSTUFF.COM
Left to right: Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey
Jr.), and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller).
comedies) I had ever seen. Simply
put, when Ben Stiller is put in charge
of his own material, he raises his
game to a new level.
The opening sequence to Tropic
Thunder does a great job of establishing the tone of the film and the grand
scale of its set pieces, proving that
Stiller is more than capable at directing an action sequence. However,
after the (amazing) faux-trailers and
initial action sequence, it does not
take long for the film to start losing its
momentum after all the pyrotechnics
are over. Even when it managed to
keep up with a steady stream of great
dialogue and funny situations, the initial hard-and-fast pace is almost
regrettable in conjuction with the rest,
but I must stress that this only goes to
show just how amazing the first ten
minutes are.
At this point, Tropic Thunder
switched gears to start introducing its
characters and their relationships.
With A-list talent like Robert
Downey Jr., Jack Black, and Ben
Stiller, one would figure that the
group’s dynamic would be the heart
of Tropic Thunder, and sticking these
three actors together in the same
frame would supply moments that
would become the stuff of legend.
Unfortunately, all of the previously
hard-earned potential went largely
untapped. The dialogue was peppered with one-liners that struggled to
tentpole the rest of the sagging conventions. It’s hard to say if there was
truly any character development,
because the majority of the film’s dialogue only served to showcase each
character’s individual quirk, which
would be more tolerable had theyworked on more than a one-jokewonder formula. This especially
applies to Robert Downey Jr. and Jack
Black, in both of whom I saw
glimpses of possible brilliance, but
these glints of light were quickly laid
to rest as their characters made the
same tired punchline. Robert
Downey Jr. parroted so many tired
zingers that he may as well have had
his own laugh track complete with a
rimshot. It was truly painful to watch
such talented actors go to waste as
they attempted to deliver the same
jokes with a slightly varied candy
coating.
There seemed to be an interesting
rivalry developing between action star
Tugg Speedman and australian actor
Kirk Lazarus as it started to dawn on
them that they may not be filming a
movie after all, but that managed to
die before it even got off the ground.
Tropic Thunder attempts to remedy
this by replacing character driven
humor with situation-based humor,
but the feeble attempt at gaining back
its audience was barely there.
In fact, one of the few occasions
where they display any sensibility in
gleaning the proper comedic mileage
out of their actors before going into
the red is how they deal with the
Director (Steve Coogan) and
Fourleaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), who’s
sub-plot arc turns aimless and eventually runs off the map into the stratosphere. Tom Cruise’s presence alone
may draw laughs, his performance,
like a majority of the actors in this
film, degraded into schtick. It’s not
that Cruise is bad in the role, it’s simply more of the same.
The trailers made the film seem like
it was going to be a sharp, mile-aminute comedy that would be saturated in legendary performances.
Instead, Tropic Thunder felt more
like a frankensteined script that had
the occasional homerun lines but
mainly tried to get by on its own
charm. The film’s biggest problem is
it defies expectations of being
expressly character-driven, and while
it may have flown in other films,
Tropic Thunder failed to deliver on
what made the trailers seem so
appealing in the first place. However,
in spite of its flaws, Tropic Thunder
still remains to be one of the most
enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had
going to the movies, and is easily one
of the best comedies of 2008.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 11
THE TORCH
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Dark Knight
BY RYAN KELLY
"Welcome to a World Without
Rules" the larger than life posters
for The Dark Knight assured me. If
only the film made good on its
promise. One of the most disappointing aspects of Nolan's pseudo-epic is that it makes far too
many attempts to ground itself in
the 'real' world, falling victim to
the fallacy that realism is interesting
by necessity. In all of its attempts to
both mythologize and demythologize the Batman franchise, the film
falls short in both departments.
The Dark Knight sets out to pay
homage to the Batman franchise's
graphic novel counterpart while
simultaneously attempting to break
away from it in order to become its
own entity. It lacked the grand scale
and spectacle of graphic novels
while simultaneously contriving an
energetic pace of dramatic panelto-panel style storytelling. This
back-and-forth display of priorities
between graphic novel and film
creates an unsteady inertia that feels
less like watching a movie, and
more like watching an identity crisis unfold onscreen.
However, that is far from the
only mistake Christopher Nolan
makes in his aesthetic choices and
narrative construction. He also
assumes that a somber tone suggests maturity, that nihilism suggests enlightenment, and that the
trite morality play of District
Attorney Harvey Dent's rise and
fall is Shakespearean. Indeed, the
film's finest moments occur when
it makes good on its moniker and
embraces the chaos of the situations Nolan depicts, and throws
the rules it painstakingly sets for
itself out the window. The best
example of this is an exhilarating
truck chase, undoubtedly the
film's action centerpiece (and far
more exciting than the absurd and
transparent climax featuring two
groups of ferry passengers).
Unfortunately, between these few
moments of visceral energy are
scenes of phony-baloney grandstanding, ham-fisted exposition,
and half-assed existentialism that
redefines the heights big screen
inanity is capable of achieving. The
movie simply can't bring itself to
have a sense of wonder about anything; it's too "cool" to be fun.
And due to the fact that the film is
forced by its nature to pander to
teens (it would not have made
nearly as much money had it been
rated R), it is unable to follow
through with its philosophical
convictions. It's nihilism packaged
as a happy meal.
The Dark Knight paints its world
and its characters in shades of gray
in order to avoid having to paint
anyone as expressly black or white.
This is typified by the Harvey
Dent/Two Face story line, which
takes up an overbearing portion of
the film's running time. It tries to
personify the struggle between The
Joker and Batman in the form of
the fall of Harvey Dent. "You
either die a hero or live long
enough to see yourself become the
villain," he randomly exclaims at
dinner party with total strangers
(the film uses anything it can as a
jumping off point into amoral
pseudo-philosophy) , ramming the
self fulfilling prophecy (as if it wasn't obvious enough) down the
audience's collective throat.
It is dialogue like the 'hero' line
that typifies exactly where it is The
Dark Knight goes wrong. It refuses
to affirm humanity or human
decency (a perfect example being
the ferry scene) and pulls back the
reigns with its nihilistic convictions in order to still be accessible
and easy to swallow summer fare.
Worst of all, it is so pretentious
that it shortchanges the summer
blockbuster spectacle in favor of a
loathsome morality play and sanctimonious pseudo babble.
The late Heath Ledger's performance has been the subject of much
scrutiny in the months since his
untimely passing back in January,
and rightfully so – the moments he
is on screen are when the film
achieves its grandest heights. I am
remiss to call it an Oscar-worthy performance, but I don’t deny that the
performance is quite incredible; his
presence becomes a force of nature, a
hurricane blowing through Gotham
City. It is astounding how Ledger
completely loses himself in the role.
His passing is a huge loss for cinema,
and his performance here stands as a
testament to the intense, uniquely
charismatic actor that he was.
The most fascinating thing the
movie has going for it is its use of
special IMAX cameras: when the
COURTESY/MOVIESONLINE.CA
Batman interrogates the Joker on the whereabouts of Harvey Dent
and Rachel Dawes
film suddenly engulfs the entire
IMAX screen it completely takes
over your senses. The sequences shot
in IMAX include gorgeous shots of
Chicago and Hong Kong, as well as
the film's finest set pieces (the bank
robbery opening and the aforementioned truck chase, for example).
One can only wonder what the
results would have looked like if
Nolan shot the entire movie this way,
since during these key moments it
works on a pure sensory basis.
In spite of my misgivings, The
Dark Knight is without a doubt
one of a handful of must see summer films and a fine Hollywood
production. When it is finally given
room to breathe, as in such images
of Heath Ledger’s head hanging out
of a police car window, it visually
achieves the mood of chaos that its
horribly contrived dialogue tries to
convey. It is during these purely
sensory moments that the film
truly shines, and because of these
brief glimmers of light it does
remain a worthy addition to the
Batman film canon. It just strikes
me as a wasted opportunity.
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in ONE YEAR at Saint Peter’s Englewood Cliffs campus
As a transfer student from Bergen Community College
with an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice, you have
the opportunity to earn your Bachelor’s Degree
at Saint Peter’s College in less than one year.
Achieve your educational and professional goals
on a timeline that works for you!
Four specialization options:
Corrections, Police Administration, Investigative Sciences
and Criminal Research & Intelligence Analysis
20% tuition discount for Express Track students
For more information, call/email:
201. 761. 7480 or eccadmissions@spc.edu
“Jesuit institutions are uniquely qualified to provide a Criminal Justice
education, because of our commitment to explore issues of justice and social
equality.” – Dr. Hank Brightman, Information Warfare Officer, US Navy
and former Criminal Justice department chairperson, Saint Peter’s College
CTOBER 2005
Owww.spc.edu/ECC
11
TThe
HE T
ORCH
Torch
11
OCTOBER 2005
PAGE 12
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
Leadership Series
Leadership Workshop #2
“Leadership: A Woman’s Perspective”
Presented by
Vice-President Sue Johnson
& Dr. Maria Makowiecka
Monday, October 27
9:30 AM
Room A-113
th
For the first time this semester, we are offering a series of leadership-themed workshops
presented by prominent BCC faculty members and administrators.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 13
THE TORCH
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Duffy Does the China Club
BY AMANDA FERRANTE
Cute face? Check. Soulful vocals?
Check. Blonde hair and red lips?
Check. Charisma and humor?
Check. Duffy's got us begging for
"Mercy", the hit single that broke
her onto the scene in February
2008 and went straight to number
one on download sales. The 24year-old is the first Welsh female to
achieve a number one pop single in
the past 25 years, and the only
female from the Llyn Peninsula (of
northwest Wales) to ever top the
UK music singles charts.
The blonde bombshell brought
her rhythm and soul to an intimate
only-way-in-is-to-win performance
at New York City's legendary
China Club. Radio station WPLJ
gave a few lucky fans the chance to
see Duffy up close and personal,
and even ask her some questions.
The songstress, born Aimee Anne
Duffy, has been compared to Amy
Winehouse, but the similarities
just didn't come to life during her
performance. She stands on her
own two feet and doesn't make
you want to give her a sandwich.
She does, however, have a very
heavy English-sounding accent
and a face like a porcelain doll,
which does wonders for her bravado— very mousy and sweet, but
not to be mistaken for naiveté.
As she graced the stage, she belted out "Syrup and Honey," a
slinky ballad reminiscent of an oldschool R&B tune sung by the likes
of Etta James or Roberta Flack. She
steers the song with ease as her
only accompaniment is a jazzy riff.
She put any doubts of her range to
rest within the first few words, and
dragged out the rest effortlessly.
She went on with the title track
to her smash album Rockferry, and
continued with "Hanging On Too
Long" (the best song on her
album) which proves she doesn't
rely on studio magic to make her
album shine, but rather her softyet-raw vocals that fans of "Mercy"
have yet to see.
There are many things that contribute to the unique charm of
Rockferry. For instance, one would
be hard-pressed to make an easy
comparison to titles like "Mercy",
which is certainly an accomplishment in itself for a hit single.
Although some may be looking for
another dance jam, Rockferry transcends expectations by offering a
bevy of instant classics, many of
which acted as outlets for Duffy's
relationship frustrations. "I used to
feel very vulnerable in the begin-
ning when I wrote my
songs," she told AOL in an
interview. "Now that I go
public about my issues, I
don't mind so much."
Duffy went through
"Warwick
Avenue",
"Delayed Devotion", and
"Stepping Stone", the
fourth single released on
Rockferry that seemed to
conjure up old thoughts as
she gently wiped a tear
toward the end. "That song
always gets me choked up,"
she bashfully admitted to
the flashes of her fans' cameras.
Mid-show she answered a
few questions from PLJ DJ
Race Taylor, who asked
about her anticipated
October opening for
Coldplay, and whether or
not she has been asked to
baby sit lead singer Chris
Martin's
children. Duffy’s
"Maybe I could pick up
some pocket money," she joked.
Duffy's wit and charisma help seal
the lid on the Why-We-Love-Duffy
Jar. When she recognized a fan
upfront, she made sure to acknowledge and thank her for coming out.
After performing "Serious", which
was the initial choice for a fourth
PHOTO COURTESY / WORDPRESS.COM
debut album Rockferry.
single, she closed the show with,
you guessed it, "Mercy", and her
music video seemed to come to life
as the China Club was very reminiscent of the scene. She nailed every
note, and her band members Sgt.
Meadows, Ben E., Greeno, Mr. T,
Ayo, and Karlos served as not only
a great backup band, but offered
backup vocals as well.
Fans can catch Duffy at Webster
Hall on October 22nd, and opening up for Coldplay at the Izod
Center October 26th and 27th.
Visit iamduffy.com for the sweet
scoop.
Tempus: Bergen County's Hidden Treasure
BY AMANDA FERRANTE
You've heard the expression "hidden treasure" refer to beautiful
pearls and jewels in a golden box,
locked tight and hiding from the
rest of the world. Old Tappan has
its own hidden treasure—it's
locked in the basement of a cozy
rural home containing knick
knacks, cardboard boxes, and four
goofballs on instruments doing
exactly what they love.
Tempus has been working with
its current lineup for just over two
years, and they seem to have found
the right dynamic. With a combined 48 years of instrumental
experience, they sound like anything but a garage band, producing
beautiful melodies and sweet summertime beats likely to lift you off
the ground and take you back to
the moment where your life was
full of good feelings.
For just a few hours on a sticky
summer Saturday, I had access to
that locked box and got a good
feeling myself. It is truly a shame
that such talent resides in a basement, but these guys played a few
songs for me and filled me in on
the evolution of Tempus—and
what lies ahead.
The band's current lineup (Chris
Harvey, Jose Rosario, Robert Paul
and Greg Colacino) has been
together for over two years, and
they say they've found the right
dynamic. Drummer Jose and guitarist/vocalist Chris have known
each other since sixth grade, and
Chris met keyboardist Rob after
high school through another
friend. The band previously had
no keyboardist, so they gave Rob a
shot and ended up acquired a new
musical element, which only
added to their presence.
As to how the band got its name,
PHOTO COURTESY / TEMPUSBAND.COM
Jose and Chris were pitching
names through instant messenger
and the only thing they could
agree on was the font they were
using—Tempus Sans ITC. "As a
joke we decided on it and then we
found out it was Latin for time,"
says Chris.
The band met bassist Greg, the
youngest of the bunch, at 23 (all
other band members are 25), two
years ago. He messaged them
through the almighty MySpace
and coordinated an audition.
"We were like, 'who the hell is
this guy' and saw his MySpace pictures and they were the goofiest
pictures ever," laughs Chris.
"We're like, 'we can work with
this." The new lineup released Got
a Good Feeling in August 2007, an
album full of hopeful and upbeat
songs that made the summer's end
just a little sweeter.
"We wrote those songs and
thought that we needed to make
them better for our live show," says
Jose. "So we played a lot of shows
and worked on each song and tried
to add things to it to make it dif-
ferent and fun, and more appealing. You want to see a band jam
out and do cool things."
It's clear that, although they're
four grown men with jobs and
commitments outside their band,
they all look forward to their
Saturday rehearsals to cut loose
and play together. They all have
day jobs and two of the four go to
school, but they say they'd be touring and playing nonstop in a perfect world. "It would be nice to be
successful and famous," says Greg,
"but the main goal is to pay the
bills with music," he says, with a
sincere smile.
But they're very aware of the
treacherous path to fame, especially in today's musical market madness.
"A lot of people think a major
label means success and rock star
status," says Chris. "We don't
believe that. We think even if we
did sign with a major label, it
would be the beginning of a long,
arduous road."
They're willing to take that long
road, though, and in stride. "You
have to make that choice," says
Chris. "Do you want to go out
there full force, drop everything,
leave everyone you know and live
in a van down by the river? But
we're having a good time and
always keeping our eyes open for
an opportunity."
The band has a plethora of influences, and they all shine through
when Tempus comes together.
"Ben Folds in my hero," Rob says,
"There's so much you can do with
keyboards. Anything you listen to,
there's something you can draw
from." Among the easy beats and
up tempo thrash is Rob's keyboards. From the opening track "If
I Could" to the beautiful ballad
"Here in My Head," Rob offers the
little something extra that other
bands are without.
In "Got a Good Feeling," the
title track off the band's 2007
album, Chris brings his personal
experiences into the spotlight,
singing about the all too familiar
place we've all found ourselves in
at one point or another. And I
can't see/ I think I'm going down/
can you show me which way's up/
cause I can't see which way you're
going/ now can you save me? You
feel your life is over/ it's really just
beginning/ it feels you're work is
done/ you couldn't be more
wrong. The life I've wanted is not
mine/ I feel this all the time/ Will
I ever come to find the meaning of
my life/ Well I've got a good feeling. It's like Dave Matthews and
Counting Crows put in a blender
for a shit smoothie.
Though Harvey's lyrics sway
back and forth from bitter to
sweet, it's all accompanied by flowery tones and stays true to the lives
of the starving artist; confused,
happy and hopeful. He says he
thinks long and hard about the
writing process. "I tend to look at
the creation of the song, the structure, production, how the tempo is
decided."
The band made some new equipment acquisitions and say their
new album in the works will reflect
the changes. "I try to make every
song different so that it's not the
same formula, the same sound, the
same subject that I'm writing
about," says Chris. "That's probably what we'll do this time
around—different vibes, different
moods."
Tempus is playing Carlstadt's
Cornerstone Inn on October 17th.
Visit myspace.com/tempus or tempusband.com for the latest.
PAGE 14
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Super Happy Improv Troupe: Pardon the Acronym
BY AMANDA FERRANTE
It's a warm September afternoon,
and six friends get together to talk
about what they love most;
improvisational acting. David Lee,
Elmer Santos, April Macchio,
Sergio Pagan, Brian Arya and
Jackie Ely make up the Super
Happy Improv Troupe, an ensemble of actors who met at Bergen
Community College and wanted
to branch off from the College
improv circuit to shake S.H.I.T up
elsewhere.
The multi-cultural group consists
of three Asians, a Spaniard, and
two Caucasians, with none possessing the ability to sit still, staying true to the comedic group's
repertoire. Throughout the interview, they drew on Styrofoam
plates and giggled like little children in church. It's clear that
they're a tight-knit group of
friends with plenty of laughs and
inside jokes to share. Elmer constantly interrupts the group in
order to correct their grammar,
which only makes everyone laugh
harder.
David, a 27-year-old Liberal Arts
major and "ringleader" of the
group, has been acting since 2001.
He served as a host to Bergen's
11th improv show when he met
22-year-old Jackie, a Psychology
major, whom he gave an audition
and, ultimately, a spot in the
group.
"You know how the Backstreet
Boys came out and then NSYNC
came out and became bigger?"
Jackie asks me. "We're like the
NSYNC of improv."
"I'm thinking of a better analogy." David interrupts.
The other members (all Theatre
majors with the exception of
David) knew each other through
theater club and other extracurricular activities. If you're wondering
where the group's name came
from, it's not just a clever
acronym, according to 22-year-old
Elmer. "I just thought we were an
improv troupe that was happy-but we were more than happy; we
were super happy," he exclaims.
"Then we took a vote and [Super
Happy Improv Troupe] got the
majority."
"We were thinking of the curse
words," says 20-year-old Brian,
who recently wrapped up filming
Opposite Day starring Pauly
Shore.
The group spilled the beans and
went on about their influences,
including the late and great George
Carlin, whom they all seem to pay
homage to. David says he's a huge
PHOTO COURTESY / SUPERHAPPYIMPROV.COM
fan of Johnny Carson, David
Letterman and Opie & Anthony.
He even draws comical inspiration
from The Simpsons, America's
favorite cartoon family. David,
who is a part of a production company, recently worked on an independent film he wrote, which
April starred in.
"I'm pretty eclectic when it
comes to movies," says Elmer. "But
when it comes to comedy, my
major influences were Jim Carey in
the 90s, slapstick-almost-cartoon
humor...I'm pretty out there with
my humor."
While Elmer's "out there," April
finds a chuckle in a comedic genius
who never even said a word. "My
main comic influence is Charlie
Chaplin," she says. "I just love the
way he can make things funny
without saying any words—and I
love Stephen Lynch."
Sergio, who was an extra in 50
Cent's upcoming Before I Self
Destruct, says he loved Eddie
Murphy, but "when he was good. I
used to stay up until 2-3 in the
morning and watch George
Carlin- he was amazing." He says
fellow improvisers like Ryan Stiles
have really paved the way for
comedians.
"I really liked improv for a long
time," says Brian. "I knew from the
start, because I loved SNL, that a
lot of those guys started off in
improv. I used to do my research
when I was young. Bill Murray and
Mike Myers, Jim Belushi, they're
all parts of old improv groups-they're who I look up to."
From left to right: David Lee, April Macchio, Brian Arya, Sergio Pagan, Jackie Ely and Elmer Santos
Jackie found herself relating to up the show with a standup act.
some of the most renowned female David followed with a rehearsed
comics on television. "I always monologue. David gives the gang
really liked Lucille Ball," she says games to act out, which they are
with a smile. "I thought she was unaware of until show time. "I let
just amazing. Everything she did is them fly by the seat of their pants
awesome. When I was younger I and keep that fresh," says David.
really liked Roseanne Barr and how "It's stuff that you would see on
sarcastic she was. That really had a Who's Line is it Anyway....funny
quirks," Sergio adds.
big impact on me."
The group enjoyed a slew of
The witty ones put together an
off Broadway show in July. David smiles and bundles of belly laughs,
produced the show financially and but Jackie admits, "There was alcotechnically at
Hell's Kitchen's
nonprofit
COTSAKOS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AT
Medicine Show
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
Theatre. "We
did our thing...
exactly what we
set to do, and it
turned
out
great," David
says of the virtually sold out
show. "We really got the word
out and people
came to support
us," Brian says.
The group posted tons of flyers
in the Village,
Bryant Park,
Central Park
and in the hallways of Bergen
Community
College.
Sergio opened
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Wednesday, November 5; 9-4 p.m.
for Fall ’09 :
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Wednesday, January 7; 6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 18; 6 p.m.
Wednesday, May 20; 6 p.m.
For more information and to schedule an
appointment, go to www.montclair.edu/
admissions/decisiondays
See Super Happy...pg. 15
Tony Lopez
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hol there so that helped!" The
show was a success for the group—
and it proved worthwhile financially, too.
"A lot of new shows that come
out in NY, it's a very rare thing for
them to actually make money,"
says Sergio. "They're very lucky to
break even. We actually made a lot
of profit on our show."
David says they did "better than
we were supposed to do."
"We'd have our own theatre with
wpunj.edu/next
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
PAGE 15
THE TORCH
Album Anecdotes
BY PAUL IBANEZ
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
debuted at the #1 spot on
Billboard's Top 200, but other
than "Trading Places" and "Best
Thing" (featuring Jay-Z), the
album loses depth. Usher could
have put out a complete album
rather than a single driven one,
and with the four year gap between
the Beat Build" and "Dr. Carter".
Jay-Z made a guest appearance on
"Mr. Carter" and "Lollipop" was
the best sellout single in history.
Wayne's imagination and unpredictability are heard through his
freestyle lyrics and his unique voice
that brings his music to a new
level. There is no doubt that Lil'
Wayne is trying to leave a legacy
like the greats before him. The
album cover is reminiscent of the
way. For example, a person who is
synesthetic may perceive colors when
they hear sounds, or they may create
mental images of abstract concepts,
such as time, or days of the month.
The Neptunes decided to create an
album that created the closest thing
to a synesthetic experience for the listener. Their first two singles, "Spaz"
and "Everybody Nose" have different
grooves and speedy jazz sounds, both
of which are complementary to the
album's 60's soul feel. Pharrell's
falsetto voice sometimes makes it
hard to understand his lyrics, but that
Usher Here I Stand
PHOTO COURTESY / CHILDANDFUTURE.COM
After going diamond with his
previous album Confessions, being
on Broadway, and getting married,
it may seem that Usher wouldn't
have enough steam left to create an
album that lives up to the hype,
and unfortunately, it shows on
Here I Stand. During the BET
awards, with the likes of Chris
Brown, Omarion, and Ne-Yo
claiming the title of King of R&B,
Usher shot himself in the foot after
he was caught lip-syncing during
the performance. However, his
first single, "Love in This Club
Part" put him back on top of the
charts, and with the amount of
radio exposure the remix, "Love in
This Club Part II" (featuring
Beyonce and Lil' Wayne) received,
there was no question that the
album was going to be a success. It
Dissolve
Lil Wayne Tha Carter III
PHOTO COURTESY / YORAPPER.COM
Confessions and Here I Stand, you
will think so too.
What can there be said about Lil'
Wayne now? After the hotly anticipated Tha Carter III, Wayne sold
1 million albums, or as he would
say, "A Milli" (referring to a song
off the album). After releasing
more than 100 songs on mixtapes
and being featured on albums
everywhere, Wayne became an
industry favorite. In spite of
doubts surrounding the album,
Wayne surpassed them with the
beats and rhythms of Kanye West
and Swizz Beats, which Wayne easily turned into the most creative
tracks on the album such as "Let
...continued from page 4
thing through rose-colored lenses. Regardless of what McCain
may claim, recession and inflation
are clear signs of a flawed economic policy.
Health care is yet another eyesore
on the list of issues. Obama plans
to make health insurance a
requirement for each and every
American, and he plans to fund
this by rolling back Bush's tax cuts
for households earning over
$250,000, which will be used in
funding universal coverage. On the
other hand, McCain claims that he
supports free-market, consumerbased systems, and he has pledged
affordable health care for every
American without an official mandate and concludes that universal
health care is possible without a tax
increase. Why not invest more
money dedicated to preventing
sickness and disease in the first
place?
What do we need to do in order
to bring us back to the founding
principles of America? The above
discussed objectives should be
enough to propel you to vote!
Who knows what the state of this
country will be if it continues its
downward spiral for the next
decade?
Stem Cells
...continued from page 8
benefits of stem cell research and
its future. "Stem cell research, if it
succeeds, will revolutionize the
way we think about human disease, biology and our obligations
to others. Stem cells are a lesson
about how we--as caring people-should focus on the sick and suffering among us, rather than listening to what politicians, philosophers, or religious conservatives
have to say."
Smalley, who supports the further research of stem cells, believes
that such politicians and other
people should inform themselves
more about the subject before
jumping to conclusions. He states
that "In general, I think that elected officials and political leadership
should probably make every effort
they can to be as well informed
about this stuff, so that they can
make better policy decisions. And
I'm sure they try to do that, but
people just can't say that they're
against stem cell research if they
really don't know everything about
it, because they might be reacting
to something that they learned and
they're thinking, 'They [scientists]
are going to have to destroy babies
to do this. Whereas if you don't
really have to do that anymore,
because the technology is advanced
and it's safer, then maybe people
wouldn't be against stem cell
research. I think that'll help everybody a lot more if the elected officials are much more well
informed...and I think that people
in general should get informed, as
much as possible.
research. I think that'll help
everybody a lot more if the elected
officials are much more well
informed...and I think that people
in general should get informed, as
much as possible. So that the avergage everyday person can make
better decisions about things, and
that's just going to make everything a lot better. That's what I
think."
N.E.R.D. Seeing Sounds
PHOTO COURTESY / SOULBOUNCE.COM
Biggie Smalls' Ready to Die and
Nas' Illmatic, and he doesn't shy
away from placing himself among
hip-hop's greatest MCs.
The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams
and Chad Hugo) and their rapping
buddy Shay Haley are trying something new on their third studio
album. After being inspired by a
Discovery Channel show about
synesthesia, a neurological disorder in
which the stimulation of a sensory
pathway leads to an involuntary
response in a secondary sensory path-
Coldplay Viva La Vida or Death
and All His Friends
PHOTO COURTESY / HIPERSONICA.COM
is no excuse for not loving this album,
especially in an age where a majority
of sounds come from a computer
program. Seeing Sounds remains to
be one of 2008's most interesting
hip-hop albums.
Viva La Vida or Death and All
His Friends is Coldplay’s fourth
studio album and their most creative and diverse album to date.
This is an album that all band
Slim Standard
alike. If you looked like that, it
meant you were attractive, and
therefore socially accepted. Never
mind the fact that your hip bones
jutted out through your pants
waistband. The bonier and more
emaciated-looking, the better.
"No, that's just disgusting!" a
recent survey taken by the Local
Association of My Curiosity took
of a handful of male interviewees.
"Yeah, we don't understand why
you girls do that, or even think
that we like that! With no body fat,
you look just like any other tall,
lanky guy we know, but with nice
hair and fruity smell. Why would
we find that attractive?"
So let's broaden the spectrum and
look at more numbers. Men's magazine FHM took an online poll of
60,000 men to figure out what body
size they preferred on a woman.
a show every night and that
would be our gig," says Brian. "We
will have expanded to improv
classes so we can teach other losers
to do the same thing!"
"We'd be living in our own house
and we'd have a reality show," says
Jackie.
"The great thing is that we do
mesh with each other really well,"
says Brian. "We like improv-- we
like doing it, and we like each
other...we're all friends outside the
improv group."
"I don't know about Elmer,"
Dave interjects, and the others
laugh in agreement.
...continued from page 4
Most votes went to the size 12
woman, with 41 percent of respondents saying she had the body shape
of their "ideal girlfriend". The size
14 body was preferred by 39 percent, while the size eight came at
third with a mere 20 percent. So
that takes out that factor.
This leaves us with the remaining
XX variable. Do we really boil ourselves down to social acceptance by
fitting in size 0 jeans? And another
thing, size 0? Zero as in the
absence of value, inoperative, nonexistent, nothing?
But I digress.
Considering that remaining variable, we're really striving for that
idea of perfection based on fellow
females' perception of attractiveness. Only to other females is that
rail-thin look something to go
after. Yes, the media has some sig-
Super Happy
members Jonny (guitar), Guy
(bass), Will (drums), and Chris
(vocals) hit with new sounds and
ideas. The album opens with a
Middle Eastern accent, setting a
sitar melody to a contemporary
beat. Viva La Vida’s lead single,
“Violet Hill”, marks the relation
between war and religion with
lyrics such as “Priests clutched
onto Bibles/Hollowed out to fit
their rifles”. In fact, a good portion
of the album draws the same kind
of comparisons. It may seem a little strange, but as music has
changed over the years, this album
is a way to raise the creative bar.
Coldplay still doesn’t shy away
from their stadium status melodies
and sing-along choruses, which
only serve to muddle the pseudopolitical messages even further.
The world-music sound that is created by producer Brian Eno (who
also collaborated with other wellknown artists such as U2 and The
Talking Heads) definitely contributed to the album and helped
the band expand its horizons. The
album’s second single “Viva La
Vida” topped the number one spot
on the Billboard’s Hot 100 list, and
the album itself debuted at the
number one spot for four consecutive weeks in the UK. Viva La Vida
or Death and All His Friends has a
much more diverse sound than
X&Y and A Rush of Blood to the
Head thanks to both the cohesiveness of the album and
Coldplay/Eno’s work ethic.
nificant weight on what we perceive is socially acceptable, but that
influence only goes in advertising
what they think we're going to buy
into. And you would imagine by
now that we've stopped buying
into those cheap shots.
The truly farcical component of
this is that, they don't even care.
They are too busy worrying about
their appearance and how they
look to really turn around and
wonder about yours. And when
they do criticize, most often than
not, it's to hide their own considerations for imperfection. The Ifeel-better-about-myself-when-Imake-someone-feel-worse-aboutthemselves kind of mentality.
But I'm done ranting for some
time. And I'm hungry. So, Wendy's
anyone?
...continued from page 14
"We have a formulaic system in
terms of how we bring out the best
of our game," says Dave. The
group is always challenging themselves to stay on top of their game,
creating parody songs and dabbling in standup comedy.
One of the boys
The girls say they've always had
problems making friends with
other girls, so they enjoy the predominantly male dynamic in the
group. "I like working with all
guys," says April. "I'm not a typical
girl like, 'oh my god, my nail
broke."
"I always like hanging out with
guys more. I get mistaken for a lesbian a lot," Jackie says. "Even lesbians think I'm a lesbian. I wear
flannel and corduroy a lot so
maybe that's why."
The gang even performed a game
of "Thing" for me, in which Teddy
Ruxpin and friends came to life in
a phone sex line operating out of
my bedroom. If you want to see
the S.H.I.T hit the fan, check the
troupe out at the Crane Theatre on
November 12.
David says the next show will be
"like nothing you've ever seen on
TV."
PAGE 16
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008
THE TORCH
R
E
C
SOC
Mens
Sign up for intramurals in G-201
(2nd floor above gym)
4-Man Soccer, 3-Man Basketball,
Volleyball, Ping-Pong, Chess,
Flag Football, Tennis, 50-Mile Bike,
25-Mile Swim, 50-Mile Triathlon
Intramurals take place every
Tues. & Thurs. 12:30 to 1:25pm
in the Gymnasium
Proper Attire
Required
ALL
B
T
E
BASK
s
men
Wed.
Sat.
Oct. 22
Oct. 25
Wed.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Sun.
Wed.
Sat.
Tues.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
Sat.
Thurs.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Oct. 29
Nov. 1
Nov. 11
Nov. 13
Nov. 15
Nov. 16
Nov. 19
Nov. 22
Nov. 25
Dec. 2
Dec. 4
Dec. 6
Dec. 9
Dec. 11
Dec. 13
Dec. 16
Dec. 20
Jan. 3
Jan. 8
Jan. 15
Jan. 17
Jan. 20
Jan. 22
Jan. 24
Jan. 27
Jan. 29
Jan. 31
Feb. 3
Feb. 7
Feb. 10
Feb. 12
Feb. 14
Feb. 21
Feb. 24
Feb. 26
Sat.
Feb. 28
Thurs.
Fri.
Sat.
Mar. 12
Mar. 13
Mar. 14
Sept. 11
Sept. 13
Sept. 16
Sept. 18
Sept. 20
Sept. 23
Sept. 25
Sept. 27
Sept. 30
Oct. 4
Oct. 7
Oct. 9
Oct. 11
Oct. 13
Oct. 15
Oct. 18
Oct. 21
Oct. 25
Wed.
Oct. 29
Sat.
Sun.
Nov. 8
Nov. 9
Head Coach: Sal Guillen
Asst. Coach: German Palomino
*Passaic Co. CC
*Ocean CC
*Middlesex CC
Manor JC
*CC of Morris
*Sussex Co. CC
Bronx CC
Del. Tech. Stanton
*Raritan Valley CC
USMAPS
*Union CC
Rockland CC
*Camden CC
*Brookdale CC
*Gloucester CC
Reg. XIX-DIII (1st round)
Reg. XIX-DIII (2nd round)
Reg. XIX-DIII Finals
(at Mercer Co. CC)
District Playoff (must qualify)
(at Region XIX site)
NJCAA DIII Nationals
NJCAA DIII Nationals
(at Richland Coll.,
TX-must qualify)
ns
Wome
*GSAC Div. III Opponent
Head Coach: Sean Kelly
Asst. Coach: Matt Odalen
Globe Inst. of Tech. (scrimmage)
JUCO Tourn. (scrimmage)
(at St. Peter’s College)
Orange Co. CC (scrimmage)
Borough of Manhattan CC (scrimmage)
Queensborough CC
Bronx CC
Ulster Co. CC (BMCC Tourn.)
Kingsborough CC (BMCC Tourn.)
Burlington CC
*Brookdale CC
*Middlesex CC
*Passaic Co. CC
Rockland CC
*Atlantic Cape CC
*Raritan Valley CC
*Sussex Co. CC
*Ocean CC
*Union CC
*Gloucester CC
*Cumberland CC
Rockland CC
Berkeley College
*Camden CC
*Middlesex CC
*Passaic Co. CC
*Brookdale CC
*Raritan Valley CC
*Sussex Co. CC
*Atlantic Cape CC
*Union CC
*Ocean CC
*Cumberland CC
*Camden CC
*Gloucester CC
Reg. XIX-Div. III (1st round)
Reg. XIX-Div. III (2nd round)
Reg. XIX-Div. III Semi-finals
(at CC of Morris)
Reg. XIX-Div. III Finals
(at CC of Morris)
NJCAA Div. III Nationals
NJCAA Div. III Nationals
NJCAA Div. III Nationals
(@SUNY-Delhi-must qualify)
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Mon.
Wed.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
*GSAC DIII Opponent
R
E
C
SOC
H
H
A
H
H
A
A
A
H
H
H
A
H
A
A
3:30
12:00
3:30
3:30
12:00
3:30
3:30
1:00
3:30
12:00
3:30
3:30
12:00
3:30
3:30
A
12:00
Mon.
Wed.
Sat.
Mon.
Wed.
Sat.
Mon.
Wed.
Mon.
Wed.
Tues.
Thurs.
Sat.
Sat.
A
A
Sat.
Sun.
*GSAC DIII Opponent
7:00
10:00
A
A
H
A
A
A
A
A
H
H
A
H
A
H
A
A
H
A
H
H
H
A
A
H
H
A
A
H
H
H
A
A
7:00
1:00
7:30
7:30
12:30
12:30
7:00
3:00
7:00
7:00
7:00
1:00
7:00
7:00
2:00
5:30
3:00
3:00
7:00
7:00
3:00
7:00
7:30
3:00
7:00
7:00
3:00
7:00
3:00
7:00
7:00
3:00
A
Thurs. Aug. 28
Tues.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
Thurs.
Sat.
Tues.
Sat.
Thurs.
Mon.
Wed.
Sat.
Sun.
Tues.
Sept. 16
Sept. 20
Sept. 23
Sept. 27
Oct. 2
Oct. 4
Oct. 7
Oct. 11
Oct. 9
Oct. 13
Oct. 15
Oct. 18
Oct. 19
Oct. 21
Sat.
Oct. 25
Sun.
Oct. 26
Sat.
Sun.
Nov. 8
Nov. 9
A
A
A
A
Berkeley College
(scrimmage)
*Middlesex CC
CC of Morris
*Ocean CC
Manor College
Sussex Co. CC
Del. Tech. Terry
Essex CC
*Camden CC
*Gloucester CC
*Brookdale CC
Mercer Co. CC
Reg. XIX-DIII (1st round)
Reg. XIX-DIII (2nd round)
Reg. XIX-DIII Finals
(@ Mercer Co. CC)
District Playoff
(must qualify)
District Playoff
(at Region XX site)
(must qualify)
NJCAA DIII Nationals
NJCAA DIII Nationals
(at Richland Coll., TX
must qualify)
H
4:00
H
A
A
H
H
A
A
A
H
H
H
3:30
12:00
3:30
12:00
3:30
12:00
3:30
12:00
3:30
3:30
3:30
A
3:00
A
A
A
A
1. National Junior College Athletics Association
2. Region XIX New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania
3. Garden State Athletic Conference
Dr. G. Jeremiah Ryan – College President
Mr. Raymond Smith – Vice President of Student Services
Dr. Ralph Choonoo – Asst. Dean of Student Services & Judicial Affairs
Prof. Bernard Fuersich – Athletic Director
*GSAC DIII Opponent
Head Coach: Lissette Lombana
Asst. Coach: Ashley Medina
Asst. Coach: Cris Salazar
Thurs.
Sat.
Mon.
Wed.
Sat.
Head Coach: Ralf Embro
Asst. Coach: Leon St. Charles Grant
H
A
L
L
A
B
EY
L
L
O
V
ns
Wome
Sept. 11 Rockland CC
H
Sept. 13 Lehigh Carbon CC
H
Sept. 15 Orange Co. CC
H
Sept. 17 *Union CC
A
Sept. 20 at Bucks Co. CC
A
w/Del. Tech. & CC- Stanton
Sept. 22 Ulster Co. CC
H
Sept. 24 *Passaic Co. CC
H
Sept. 27 Lackawanna College
H
Sept. 29 Bronx CC
H
Oct. 1
*Union CC
H
Oct. 4
Lackawanna College
A
Oct. 6
*Passaic Co. CC
A
Oct. 8
Westchester CC
H
Oct. 13 *Union CC
A
Oct. 15 *Passaic Co. CC
H
Oct. 21
Monroe College
H
Oct. 23
Nassau CC
A
Oct. 25
Reg. XIX-DIII Tournament
A
(at Union CC)
Nov. 1
District Playoff (must qualify) A
(at Region 10)
Nov. 15
NJCAA DIII Nationals
A
Nov. 16
NJCAA DIII Nationals
A
(at Rochester CC,
MN-must qualify)
Y
R
T
COUN
S
CROS
7:00
12:00
6:00
7:00
12:00
6:00
7:00
12:00
7:00
7:00
12:00
7:00
6:00
7:00
7:00
7:00
7:00
Coach: Randy Brazil
Sun. Sept. 14 Hunter College Invitational
(at Van Cortlandt Park
Bronx, NY)
Sun. Sept. 21 Queensborough CC Invitational
(at Van Cortlandt Park
Bronx, NY)
Fri. Sept. 26 Stevens Inst. of Tech. Invitational
(at Liberty State Pk.
Jersey City, NJ)
Sun. Oct. 5
Lehman Coll. Annual
Lightning Invit.
(at Van Cortlandt Park
Bronx, NY)
Sun. Oct. 12 NJIT Annual Highlander Invitat.
(at Bound Brook Park
Newark, NJ)
Sat. Oct. 25 Region XIX Championships
(at Gloucester CC)
Sun. Oct. 26 NJIT Halloween Invitational
(at Van Cortlandt Park
Bronx, NY)
Sat. Nov. 1 Northeast District
Championships
(at Holyoke CC, MA)
Sat. Nov. 8 NJCAA Div. III
Nat’l Championships
(at CC of Rhode Island)
COACHES & STAFF:
CROSS COUNTRY
MEN’S SOCCER
WOMEN’S SOCCER
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
ASST. TO ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
FIRST AID RESPONDER
EQUIPMENT MANAGER
EVE./SAT. EQUIPMENT MGR.
SECRETARY
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
10:00
A
Mr. Randy Brazil
Mr. Sal Guillen
Mr. Ralf Embro
Ms. Lissette Lombana
Ms. Elaine Korinko
Ms. Megan Smith
Mr. Chris Cioppa
Ms. Martha Pressley
Mrs. Betty Highkal