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Happy Earth Day! please recycle this newspaper
We write Stevens history VOLUME CXX No. 23
HOBOKEN, NJ | APRIL 21, 2023
NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904
CAL to become HASS
Recent changes to library operations and amenities
BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, OPINION EDITOR
that the majority of them would not have the opportunity to select a room, and would be placed on a waiting list instead. Students at many other institutions in and around New York City wouldn’t encounter such an issue, as other private universities in the area at comparable overall cost, like NYU,
The College of Arts and Letters, abbreviated as CAL, is receiving a brand-new name as part of Stevens’s recent rebranding efforts. As detailed in an announcement from President Farvardin, the name CAL is representative of an older era. To better represent Stevens’ new initiative, Inspired by Humanity, Powered by Technology™, the College of Arts and Letters will be officially renamed on July 1, 2023, as the Stevens School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). When Stevens was founded in 1870, Martha Bayard Stevens deemed the arts and humanities equally as crucial as the mechanical engineering curriculum. Studying science and engineering right alongside literature, art, and music made for balanced and successful alumni, who in turn led Stevens to grow into the prestigious institution that it is today. The culmination of this legacy of the humanities here on Castle Point was in 2007 with the creation of the College of Arts and Letters. Although a small portion of the university at the
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BY EMMA SPOONAUER, STAFF WRITER Founded in May of 1969, Samuel C. Williams Library has been providing Stevens students with an environment that encourages learning for over half a century. The library supplies resources that promote information in a variety of subjects, while also aiding the Stevens community in developing their critical and creative thinking skills. In an interview with the director of Samuel C. Williams Library, Dr. Linda Beninghove, The Stute was provided with some insight into the newest updates regarding the library’s hours, as well as the installation of a new women’s restroom. As library director, Beninghove aims to make sure that students have ample access to information, research, and study spaces. Thus, whenever the library receives feedback that access to one or more of these aspects of the library
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OLOF PERSSON FOR THE STUTE
The battle for on-campus housing at Stevens Living-learning communities and upperclassman housing BENJAMIN ULLRICH, CONTRIBUTOR With the official opening of the University Center Complex (UCC) and residential towers in the Fall 2022 semester, Stevens made a statement about its future as an institution. Perhaps the biggest single change to the campus in its history, the towers especially were a crucial im-
provement to the student experience at Stevens. Prior to the 2022-2023 academic year, on-campus housing was limited to only firstyear students, with the vast majority of Stevens students given no choice but to search for housing off-campus. The UCC complex and towers signal a change in attitude towards student life at Stevens, giving upperclassmen not only the op-
portunity to live on campus, but also pushing the school closer to providing a more “traditional” four-year college experience. These developments are very popular among upperclassmen, as shown by the incredibly high demand for housing within the new towers. Upperclassmen scheduled to choose their rooms on the final day of room selection received an email stating
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENTS Scheduling 101: a guide Alaskan drilling project approved despite push for renewable energy BY KAYDEN CANNILLA, OUTREACH CHAIR Last month, the Biden administration released a decision on a major drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A), approving three of the five drill sites in the Willow Project. This comes as a disappointment to environmentalists and people expecting the president to follow through on his campaign promises, since “as a candidate, President Biden pledged to end new federal oil and gas leasing.” Most Alaskan lawmakers approve of the project, arguing that it will create local jobs, with support also coming from Alaskan labor unions and Indigenous groups. The administration touts the compromise as a win, as ConocoPhillips, the company in charge of the Willow Project, has a lease on the NPR-A that gives them “the right to develop, and strong legal standing to fight the government if it tries to block that work. If rejected, ConocoPhillips could have sued, potentially won NEWS (2-3)
The battle for on-campus housing at Stevens Ducks by Design creates living-learning communities, impactivng upperclassmen’s ability to secure housing. FEATURE (4-5)
Happy Earth Day! Learn about current sustainability initiatives and how you can start composting today.
billions of dollars at taxpayer expense, and still been able to develop the project anyway, legal experts have said.” The reduced approval also requires that ConocoPhillips “relinquish rights to approximately 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A” and proposed limits to future development of the area, seeking maximum protection for 15.8 million acres of the total 23 million. However, as these are just proposed rules, these protections could easily be overturned by future administrations. In February, Alaskan House Representatives and Senators showed unanimous support for the project, with Republican senator Lisa Murkowski commenting “This is the latest and most visible demonstration of Alaskans’ strong, united, bipartisan support for this important project, building on support from Alaska Natives, union laborers, and countless others.” The fossil fuel industry has rebounded from the pandemic, and its growth is
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Houseplants, nuclear power plants, and the 2025 Artemis Mission.
SCIENCE (7)
Read answers from the Stevens community to our weekly Roving Reporter, plus solve our weekly crossword puzzle and sudoku.
to course registration
US Environmental BY TASHA KHOSLA, corresponds with your maFEATURES EDITOR jor. The academic catalog Protection Agency to outlines how many credits In an email from the Of- you will take each term and which classes you are repropose new tailpipe limits fice of the Registrar, Stevens lists quired to take. If you have AP, BY ADVAIT DANTULURI, STAFF WRITER Earth Day is coming very soon on April 22. So how does the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) choose to celebrate it and give back to Mother Earth? According to Fisker, an American electric vehicle car maker based in Manhattan Beach, CA, the EPA is planning to propose new limits on tailpipe emissions, which would require up to 67% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be all electric vehicles by 2032, aiming to seriously reduce tailpipe emissions and adopt a cleaner, alternative electric vehicle option. (For context, New Jersey is planning on stopping all sales on gasoline cars by 2025 in order to better adapt to a cleaner and more sustainable future.) In addition, some of the proposed limits are projecting that electric vehicles, such as the all-electric Fisker Ocean, will account for 54-60% of all the new vehicles sold in the United States by the year of 2030,
and will also represent between 64-67% of all new vehicles by the year of 2032. To help with the goal, Fisker said in an interview that the annual goal of 2027 is to sell one million vehicles worldwide. An article by Reuters said that the proposal might result in 50% of all vehicles sold in the United States being completely electric or hybrid, which is in line with a goal outlined by President Joe Biden in 2021. Of course, automakers have raised concerns that the administration would require them to spend huge amounts of money to improve the efficiency of internal combustion vehicles that will be phased out in the next decade. The proposed limits by the EPA are considered the most aggressive climate regulation to date in the United States. It comes with unfortunate consequences for traditional automakers, who heavily rely on selling vehicles with internal combustion engines, as they might have to find a new way to adapt to the ever-changing
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has announced that for the first time, incoming freshman students will create their fall semester schedules. In the past, schedules were created by academic advisors and released to students over the summer at a set date and time. When creating your schedule, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. For instance, if you’re a commuter you would want to plan your schedule based on public transportation timings or traffic. You also want to account for how early or late you want to get up, when you want your classes to end, and when you want to eat breakfast or lunch. While class time offerings may not always align with what you want, creating your own schedule still gives you the opportunity to be in charge of your day and your time. So, here’s a guide on how to make sure your course registration experience goes smoothly. The very first thing you want to do is check out the academic catalog for your major by choosing the corresponding entry year of your education and then choose which school or department
IB, or transfer credit, be sure to check which courses those credits correspond with. You can skip those courses and instead take a course from the following semester early. If at any point you have questions about your schedule, contact your academic advisor, which can be found based on your school and major. Next, go to Workday from your myStevens portal, go to the Academics tab, click on “find course sections,” and from there select courses one by one to add to a saved schedule. You can create multiple saved schedules to view different options for scheduling. When choosing course sections, select a time that works for you based on the given offerings and be mindful of the capacity of the class. Some classes do have waitlists and others do not. If the course section you want only has a few seats left, it may be wise to choose a different section for the same course that has more seats available. One very important thing to keep in mind is that you do not want to have any holds or to-do actions on your Work-
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