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Interim Bernstein namedCOMMUNITYN TCNJ’s 17th president BY LIZ CIOCHER
Michael Bernstein, a veteran of five higher-education institutions, has been named as The College of New Jersey’s 17th president. TCNJ, based in Ewing Township, was in search of a new president since last June, when preceding President Kathryn Foster resigned. At that time, Bernstein was brought on for a two-year interim term, and over the past year was able to make a case for himself and his initiatives to TCNJ’s Board of Trustees. The result was his permanent appointment to the president’s job by the Board in June. “I’m very grateful to the Board for their vote of confidence, which also comes with a set of expectations, which I am eager to embrace and will strive to fulfill,” Bernstein said. “Dr. Bernstein is an extremely accomplished educator and a transformational leader,” said Rebecca Ostrov, chair of the TCNJ Board of Trustees. “Over the past year, he has mobilized our community to think cre-
atively about how we innovate and extend an unparalleled TCNJ education to new audiences.” An east-coast native, Bernstein was born in New York and spent most of his grade school education in Long Island. He finished high school in Connecticut. For the last several years, he has lived in California, but has now come full circle with his new TCNJ position. The students of TCNJ are familiar with Bernstein and his initiatives—during his time as interim, he has been communicated his plans through a number of monthly e-mails. He has also talked to many of the students directly and has been a frequent interviewee by the college’s student-run newspaper, The Signal. In an interview with the Observer, Bernstein said that now the position is permanent, the initiatives that he pursued as interim are continuing to thrive and expand. The biggest of these—the LIONS Plan—is set to balance a sustainable budget and strategize for the continued evolution See TCNJ, Page 4
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Blue Devils softball players Ameerah Brown-McMullen (left) and Valeria Velez.
EHS softball notches its best record in five years BY JUSTIN FEIL
Ameerah Brown-McMullen and Valeria Velez were part of the Ewing High School softball team’s steady improvement over their four years. The senior starters graduated and will continue playing in college after helping the Blue Devils go 14-10 this spring, their best
record since 2019. Ewing won 11 games last year, 10 games in 2022 and six games in 2021 as freshmen. Their season didn’t end until a Central Jersey, Group 3 quarterfinal loss to Middletown North on May 28. “The year went well,” said Brown-McMullen. “I feel like we’ve definitely grown as a team since we all played together last
year. This year we just developed and we all learned how to play together better. And I’ve grown stronger and I know my team has grown stronger and we made progress. It didn’t end how we wanted it to, but we definitely made progress.” Ewing graduates only the two along with Courtney WenSee SOFTBALL, Page 10
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