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We write Stevens history VOLUME CXX No. 14
HOBOKEN, NJ | JANUARY 27, 2023
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 hosts IN-PERSON PANHELLENIC SORORITY RECRUITMENT RETURNS MLK Day of Service BY KATIE BLOOMER, OUTREACH CHAIR
PHOTO COURTESY OF THETA PHI ALPHA
BY BENJAMIN KNOBLOCH, NEWS EDITOR The member organizations of the Stevens Panhellenic Council (SPC), an association of Stevens sororities represented by the National Panhellenic Conference, conducted their recruitment processes this month over the course of several days, the first one to be fully in-person since 2020.
Ouckama appointed as new Associate Provost BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER
The recruitment process for each sorority took place from January 15 to 18. Each day was dedicated to an event that aimed to showcase to potential new members, or PNMs, the culture, mission, and activities of each of the five sororities belonging to the SPC. Since 1971, when women were first admitted to Stevens, the number of active sororities on campus has grown to seven, of which about 40% of female under-
BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER Bloomberg was founded in 1981 by many global leaders like Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, and has since been at the forefront of financial technology and economic influence on a global level. Every year, Bloomberg hosts the Global Trading Challenge, a competition that requires university teams to invest virtual money into Bloomberg’s Terminal system. At the end of the competition period, the team with the best-performing investments wins. Out of the 1000 teams competing, the team from Stevens accomplished the feat of placing 20th in North America and 50th worldwide. Stevens’ team for this year’s competition, selfdubbed “Slavic Inc.” to pay homage to the members’ ethnic identities, consisted
SEE PROVOST PAGE 2
SEE GLOBAL PAGE 2
NEWS (2-3)
SCIENCE (6)
FEATURE (4)
MAP (7)
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Room of the Howe Center and Sigma Delta Tau was in the Babbio Center. At the end of the day was the first round of selection, in which PNMs would gradually narrow their choices of sororities to join. On this first day, PNMs selected four sororities to rank as first choice and slotted one sorority as second choice. Day two was the Philanthropy phase. The day was
SEE SORORITY PAGE 3
Stevens team The inagural Stevens earns topwomen’s MakerSpace 50 finish in workshop Bloomberg’s academic projects. Located BY AVA WANG, in ABS Engineering Center, CONTRIBUTOR Global the space contains a hobby“70:30” has become a ist’s essentials and an enthuTrading quip that Stevens students’ siast’s gizmos galore. From ears are trained to inter- automated tool cabinets pret as the current male- to HoloLens headsets, the Challenge
The administrative system at Stevens consists of different departments and offices working together to run the university. One of these departments is the Office of the Provost. The current Provost is Dr. Jianmin Qu. Provost Qu is “responsible for all academic departments, schools, colleges, and research centers” and “ensures that Stevens maintains the culture and deploys the human and physical infrastructure necessary to achieve its academic mission,” according to the Stevens website. Part of Provost Qu’s staff is the role of Associate Provost. The Associate Provost aids Provost Qu and his office in the school’s academic, financial, and strategic operations. As announced by Provost Qu on January 18, the position of Associate Provost will be held by Stevens’ own Maria ‘Sin’ Ouckama starting on March 1. Ouckama will be taking
Welcome Back! Recap MLK Day of Service and Stevens’ first in-peron sorority recruitment since 2020.
graduates now belong. The first day saw the Round Robin phase of recruitment, where PNMs had the chance to meet and learn about the sororities in recruitment groups by traveling to stations prepared around campus. Each sorority hosted one location: Phi Sigma Sigma, Theta Phi Alpha, and Delta Phi Epsilon hosted their events in their respective houses, while Alpha Phi was stationed in the Bissinger
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to-female gender ratio of the undergraduate student body. The business and engineering scenes tend to be male-dominated, and Sandra Clavijo, Director of Undergraduate Studies, recently made strides to close the gap. Stevens launched its MakerSpace facility in Spring 2021 as a resource for students to explore personal interests and collaborate on
MakerSpace sandbox is only bounded by the ceiling of the user’s imagination. Since the space’s advent, membership has been dominated by male students and faculty. Taking note of this disparity, Clavijo reached out to the Director of the MakerCenter, Paul McClelland, who recruited a dedicated team of individuals to ful-
SEE MAKER PAGE 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENS.EDU
On January 17, the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Office of the President, Division of Student Affairs, and Development and Alumni Engagement Office partnered for the second annual MLK Day of Service. This day is a federal holiday labeled by Congress as a “day on, not a day off,” referring to the importance of using the free time towards taking positive action for those in the community and beyond. Stevens celebrated the day by inviting the student body, faculty, staff, and alumni for a complimentary breakfast with guest speaker Aisha Lawrey and student performances in the University Center Complex Tech Flex Auditorium. This was followed by an afternoon of various volunteering opportunities in Hoboken and Jersey City. Students then returned for an afternoon reception including the keynote speaker Tahesha Way as well as more performances. The first speaker, Aisha Lawrey, is a STEM advocate and Stevens alumna. She focuses on increasing the presence of women and minorities in engineering. Lawrey currently works for Amazon Web Services to show pathways to becoming professionals in the cloud workforce. She spoke about her
childhood, education, and career as a Black woman. These stories connected to her passion for inspiring others and leading change. The second speaker was Tahesha Way, New Jersey’s 34th Secretary of State. She oversees the State Division of Electronics which ensures elections are conducted properly and everyone has access to voting. She spoke about empowering voters in the same way that MLK fought for the voiceless to have a voice. A step performance was also completed by members of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-American men in 1906. Between the introduction and reception, Stevens offered participants the choice between ten service opportunities. On campus, volunteers could write letters for hospice patients through Grace Healthcare services or senior community residents through Love for our Elders. Materials were provided and students learned about each organization while writing the letters. Donation collection drives were held for Round 2 Resources which collects women’s clothes and kitchen supplies, Garden State CDC which needs liquid HE laundry detergent, bath towels, twin sheets, and twin blankets, and the Boys and Girls Club of Hud-
SEE MLK PAGE 2
Division of IT’s newly launched digital backpack to improve software resources at Stevens BY TANYA AVADIA, STAFF WRITER The Division of Information Technology at Stevens has recently launched a digital backpack to ease the technical needs of students returning back for the spring semester. The digital backpack contains information about all the tools students have at hand and all the resources Stevens provides to them during their time here. Access to the digital backpack is fairly simple as its page can be found on the Stevens website at https:// www.stevens.edu/tools/student-digital-backpack. The digital backpack can be very useful for students because it allows them to have access to a plethora of technologies that would aid their learning both on campus and more. To unpack, the digital backpack is divided into three categories: Getting Started, Learning & Collaboration, and Resources. The Getting Started section is to help new ducks transition digitally to Stevens. It includes directions on how to set up the myStevens portal
and the Stevens email. Additionally, it also highlights the Stevens Laptop Purchase Program which allows students to buy laptops and supporting accessories from Dell and Apple at a discounted price. The Learning & Collaboration section outlines some of the tools students will need in the classroom setting and how to use them. How to use Canvas, Zoom, and Microsoft 365 is all explained thoroughly. The Learning & Collaboration section also houses the Stevens software store from which students can download specific software as per their needs. The last section, Resources, provides extra guidance on other technical matters such as how to print on campus and information on how to install a free antivirus software or use LastPass password manager. The digital backpack is a great resource for all students as it makes accessing IT-related information so much easier; therefore, students are surely due to visit the digital backpack several times on their journey at Stevens.