Little Red Riding Hood was threatening to hurt poeple with her pocket knife by the end....
We write Stevens history HOBOKEN, NJ | APRIL 11, 2025
VOLUME CXXII No. 22
The student newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of Attila the Duck. www.thestute.com TikTok @thestute Instagram @thestute facebook.com/stevensthestute NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904
Stevens Women’s Gala celebrates women’s leadership
Dr. Lindsey Cormack honored by NY State Legislative Women’s Caucus
BY TIANNA SPITZ, MANAGING EDITOR On Friday, March 28, 2025, Stevens hosted the first annual Women’s Gala in the UCC TechFlex to close off Women’s History Month. The event was co-organized by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Stevens Women in Business (SWIB), and Stevens Women in Computer Science (SWiCS), as doors were open for club members and event guests from 6 to 10 p.m.. Romantic candles and purple accent lighting softened the TechFlex’s stark atmosphere as guests were dressed in formal “Black Tie” and seated for a white tablecloth experience. To begin the night, guests heard a live Q&A with Hoveida Farvardin, the First Lady of Stevens, a former executive at the World Bank, followed by alumni keynote speakers from each student organization. Tanishk Kapoor, President of SWIB and ¾ Finance major, and the First Lady
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BY JOSEPHINE CHOONG, SECRETARY
grossed in their characters’ story and their longing for a child. They are confronted by the evil witch, played by Sofia Lopez—though her true identity isn’t revealed until the end. She does an excellent job keeping the mystery alive and building suspense leading up to the reveal. There were a handful of double acts from Matthew Dean, Kalman Zold, Rose Friedman, and Kai Goz, all of whom demonstrated
On March 19, Dr. Lindsey Cormack was honored by the NY State Legislative Women’s Caucus in conjunction with Women’s History Month. She has been a member of the Stevens community for 10 years, and has authored several books discussing American politics and veterans. Currently, she is an associate professor of Political Science and the Director of the Diplomacy Lab. Dr. Cormack grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas for her undergraduate degree, later attending New York University to receive her graduate and doctorate degrees. Before coming to Stevens, she worked for a chemical trade association in Washington D.C. Cormack was nominated by assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright, and Governor
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID BIDWELL
Stevens Dramatic Society’s Into the Woods BY CAMRYN WINANT, SPORTS EDITOR Stevens students packed DeBaun Auditorium to see Stevens Dramatic Society’s (SDS) rendition of Into the Woods. The musical was directed by Mia Preziosi, who was able to bring the show to life for three spectacular performances from April 3 to 5. Into the Woods is a 1987 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, which was later adapted into a
Walt Disney film in 2014 starring the likes of Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp. The musical tells a beautiful story, tying together a handful of the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales to create a complex web of wishes, quests, and consequences. DeBaun created a perfect atmosphere for the show: Colored lights changed throughout the performance to set the mood, and the music sounded loudly through the whole building. The
theater provided an intimate space in which the audience felt like they were a part of the musical, especially when the actors entered the aisles in key scenes. The cast executed their roles perfectly, fully embodying their characters and telling a story worth listening to. The musical was led by Christian Fodor and Carly Teitelbaum, who portrayed the baker and his wife, respectively. The chemistry between the two leads had audiences en-
City Council moves APIDA month celebration kicks off forward with housing with keynote addressing intergenerational trauma project despite dergraduate Student Life, the role of empathy in the was caught. BY JEREMIAH and support came from healing process. Now as a coach, she sees CHINWENDU, many Asian-led student Before becoming a life the same pattern in clients community concerns STAFF WRITER organizations and frater- coach, Yip began her ca- from immigrant families, BY JEREMIAH CHINWENDU, STAFF WRITER On March 19, the Hoboken City Council voted 5-3 in favor of developing a 25-story housing unit at the site of Garage B on Hudson Street. The development is said to have affordable and workforce housing units, and those who support it say it will address Hoboken’s cost-ofliving concerns. However, some residents spoke very strongly against the project during the public hearings, as many worry that the development will worsen the problem it was meant to solve. Dini Ajmani, former deputy assistant to the U.S. Treasury and Hoboken mayoral candidate, wrote a letter to the council addressing the concerns of the development and how it is a misguided attempt to solve a problem that has a much easier solution. In her letter, Ajmani stated that the council “demonstrated little understanding of the cost of the project, and the tax implications for our residents,” during
NEWS (2-4)
Stevens’s Dramatic Society’s Into The Woods The Stevens Dramatic Society recreated the musical, Into the Woods, originally directed by Mia Preziosi. FEATURE (5-6)
Admitted Students Missed Admited Students Weekend? Learn more about the weekend’s events and speeches.
their hearing and lectured them needlessly instead of listening to their concerns. “Building affordable housing is not the same as keeping housing affordable [...] this misguided decision will ultimately make housing less affordable in a time where families are still feeling the pinch of inflation.” Tax breaks for housing developments often take the form of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements, where developers make negotiated payments to the City instead of paying traditional property taxes. While PILOT agreements incentivise affordable housing development—like the West Side Redevelopment Project—they come at a cost. These tax subsidies drain public resources: Hoboken’s schools lose roughly $25 million annually in potential revenue, forcing higher taxes on residents to compensate. Ajmani wrote, “A tax break for one is a tax increase for everyone else. The Garage B plan will unquestionably drive
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Avoidable deaths? AI decoding proteins? Hoboken Northern Lights? Read about what’s going on in the world of science. PULSE (10)
Read answers from the Stevens community to our weekly Roving Reporter, plus solve our weekly puzzle and sudoku.
Stevens’s Asian student associations kicked off Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month last week with a celebration hosted in Bissinger. With food catered by local Asian restaurants and music from APIDA artists, the event was a unique chance for students to connect with and share their heritage while fostering a strong community. This event was organized by the Office of Un-
nities, as well as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (DEIBA) Committee of the SGA. The celebration featured a keynote from Amy Yip, life coach and author of Unfinished Business: Breaking Down the Great Wall Between Adult Child and Immigrant Parents. Her speech explored the roots of generational trauma and how it shapes both personal and professional growth, emphasizing
reer the way many immigrant parents hope their children start their careers: climbing the corporate ladder at a major firm. She worked several jobs before becoming a developer at Google where she later rose to a position of management. In her speech, Yip told the story of how she left her job and moved to Ghana with her husband to do volunteer work, hiding these actions from her parents until she
as many of them either rebel against their parents to pursue their dreams or stifle them until their parents are no longer in their lives to object. The lack of honest dialogue between immigrant parents and their children, Yip argues, is what keeps so many trapped in lives of quiet compromise, broadening the divide between generations and perpetuating
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NATIONAL NEWS Tufts PhD student detained by federal agents amid visa controversy BY GAVIN RUBY, STAFF WRITER Her name is Rumeysa Ozturk, a student from Turkey with a valid F-1 visa allowing her and other international students to pursue academic studies in the United States. On March 28, while waiting to meet her friends to break her fast for Ramadan, many watched as the PhD
student at Tufts screamed in terror as she was arrested by federal agents. Some ask how this could have happened. Surely, as a student in the U.S., she wouldn’t be able to study here without a visa. She could have walked among any of us, but her case is peculiar compared to many other foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities that
have been arrested. Immigrants across the country are increasingly being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies, raising fear not just among immigrant communities but also among those around them. In addition, people like Ozturk and Columbia’s Mahmoud Khalil were under particular scrutiny and
subsequently arrested for their support of Palestine and the protests, amplifying public concern and accusations of politically motivated targeting. In Ozturk’s case she wrote an op-ed to Tufts’ newspaper in which she criticized the school’s response to divestment from companies with ties to Is-
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