The Stute The Student Newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology since 1904
are So we is a joke... Friday, September 21, 2007 Star Ledger provided on campus compliments of The Stute
Around Campus: Card swipe “growing pains” Aside from simply providing identification, a Stevens ID card offers a number of other services that students and faculty alike utilize every day. As with any technology though, problems sometimes happen. Early this month, there were two issues that affected the Stevens community: card readers responsible for granting access to certain dorm halls and buildings were not always functional, while Duck Bills were also unavailable at all off-campus merchants for a period of time.
...eh? Volume CV, Issue 5
www.TheStute.com
Stevens’s population expands
by PATRICK GLEESON
With this year’s new freshmen class, Stevens has continued its recent trend of actively increasing the size of the undergraduate student body. According to the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Daniel Gallagher, the increases are “part of a strategic plan” to
grow the university and that there are several reasons for this increase. One is that there has been a trend of greater numbers of college applicants that should last until approximately 2012. He continued to say that the university felt it had the capacity to expand and decided to take advantage of having more applicants. Furthermore,
Undergraduate Admissions has extended their outreach to out of state and there has been an increase in applicants to the computer science department. Dean Gallagher stated that admission standards have remained and will continue to remain approximately the same throughout this expansion. The total number of freshmen at-
tending Stevens this year is 572, and next year Undergraduate Admissions is aiming for between 575 and 580. The expansion has had a noticeable effect on the housing situation at Stevens. Trina Ballantyne, the Dean of Residence Life, said that while the increase of total students was a significant factor, more stu-
dents than expected requested on campus housing. She also stated that “plans are being developed” to expand housing for students in the future. The school has leased more apartments, although it is understood that this is only a temporary solution and more permanent solutions need to be and are being developed.
Full story on page 3
Democrat Healthcare Insanity With the 2008 primary campaigns in full swing, the Democrat presidential candidates have come out with a variety of plans to solve the healthcare crisis. The plans have their differences, but they all share the feature of expanding government control of healthcare. Of course, taxes will need to be raised to pay for it. Full op-ed on page 4
We are all to blame
There are many scandals that have rocked this country to its core, and unlike the previous decades, little has been done to make them further known to the constituency. Some would say that it is the merely the “liberal” or “conservative” media catering to the idle threats made by politicians and lobbyists, but I think it goes beyond that. It also has to do with apathy on the part of the public, and unfortunately, the lack of interest goes beyond being unpatriotic; rather, it allows for our republic to be corrupted by the many rather than the few. Full op-ed on page 4
Happy National Constitution Day The event that took place on Tuesday at 4 p.m. brought in a crowd large enough to fill most of Kidde 228. What was more impressive, however, was the amount of feedback that the audience delivered. Dean of Student Life, Kenneth Nilsen and Professor Jonathan Wharton may have been the two hosts of the discussion, but audience participation was undoubtedly the driving force behind this event. Full story on page 5
Around Athletics: Tennis goes to 9-0 Senior Dana Bacalla, junior Whitney Bender and freshman Allyson Kingman were all double-winners as the Stevens Institute of Technology women’s tennis team improved to 9-0 on the season with a 6-3 victory over Drew University on Wednesday in Hoboken, N.J. The Rangers are 0-1 Full story on page 8
Around the World: Iranian President speaks (AP) - Almost everyone agrees Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn’t belong at ground zero.
Full story on page 7
Pentagon releases censored tapes (AP) - For the first time since Gerald Ford was president, the loonie can buy as much as the greenback. The U.S. dollar’s recent decline against the Canadian dollar, the euro, and even the Indian rupee, means Americans will pay more for imports and trips to Paris, Rome, Bangalore and Toronto. It also may drive overseas demand for U.S. goods and help raise profits at U.S. multinational corporations. Full story on page 7
EXTRAS ON THE INSIDE
Fire alarm Fantasy league on page 5
Stevens Information Services
Dean McClellan, Dean McCusker, Provost Korfiatis, Dean Bruno, Dean Verma
Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management tory to facilitate the expansion vens community” as a whole
College of Arts and Letters by SHEERAZ HYDER
Under consideration for a year, Stevens Institute of Technology took strides to return to its founders original mission of “a liberal technical education” by forming the College of Arts and Letters over the summer. The College will strive to blend the novel ideas that a separate liberal arts school could bring to the Institute while also expanding the depth and breadth of a central tenet of the Institute since its founding according to James E. McClellan, Head of the Department of History and the founding Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. The liberal arts have been central to Stevens since its founding in 1870 but it was in 1902 under the Institute’s second President Alexander Crombie Humphreys that the Department of English Literature and Logic was formally established. In 1922 it was renamed to the Department of English and His-
into humanities. This is the first time though that Stevens has devoted a school to the liberal arts. McClellan described the College’s mission as a “sort of continuity and discontinuity” between the past and the present. On the one hand they are continuing their prior programs in the humanities but on the other, McClellan also hopes that with the renewed commitment that the administration is demonstrating will allow the College to expand under its own terms. That is part of the reason McClellan, who was appointed interim dean of the Arthur E. Imperatore, Sr. School of Sciences and Arts after former Dean Erich Kunhardt accepted the Provost position at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, accepted the permanent post. McClellan is optimistic about the future of the College though he advises that “without the full support of the Ste-
“the College will fail.” McClellan stressed that to be serious about any of our fields be they engineering or science or one of the liberal arts we have to put it in a global perspective. We can’t just study Western Literature or Western History and McClellan demonstrated his personal commitment by referencing his own textbook Science and Technology in World History used in HHS 130 - History of Science and Technology. The College also aims to align itself more directly with the scientific and technology endeavors of the Institute. McClellan hopes that through the use the liberal arts side of science such as philosophy or history, they can make better efforts to understand how history or philosophy changes over time. The College hopes to study liberal arts through science See McCLELLAN, page 6
School of Engineering and Sciences by DREW LEWIS
The recent merger of the science and engineering schools at Stevens has left in its wake a series of rumors and concerns that have reverberated through the minds of the faculty and staff of those departments affected. For example, a major concern was the possible consolidation of several of the departments within the school, tantamount with the quest for laboratory and classroom space. “Those concerns were shared by me,” remarked Dean Michael Bruno of the School of Engineering and Science,
and went on to say that the merger allows for the school to be “more agile” with the sharing of both laboratory space and valuable teaching. The recent merger gained momentum during the previous academic year and was met with great support from the faculty and administration. Of course there were concerns about department structure and other issues, but those concerns were shared by Dean Bruno and many of his contemporaries. The thought behind it was that given the current nature of the work that engineers are engaging in around the globe, there must be a collaborative spirit
full time faculty part time faculty undergraduate students graduate students freshman enrollment
104 80 1395 1671 360
behind both the world’s challenges and those at the collegiate level. “The challenge for us is to make it exciting and make it relevant,” remarked Bruno on how to make the experience reflect the problems that engineers are dealSee BRUNO, page 6
Dean McCusker of the Howe School of Technology Management was recently able to take the time to sit down with The Stute to explain the current state of his school. Describing the school as a “Stevens style business school” he went on to describe it as “focused on technology-based innovation and commercialization.” He expanded on it by explaining that all business schools teach technology management but here at Stevens it’s the main focus. In discussing the strategy to grow and expand the business school, Dean McCusker talked of a “good to great strategy.” Noting the high marks given to the school and the ability of the Howe School to be a leader in its niche field he noted the number of areas the school has been able to make strides in, from Professor Rohmeyer who
By the Numbers • • • • •
full time faculty part time faculty undergraduate students graduate students freshman enrollment
44 68 244 1386 70
recently acquired a grant from IBM to study enterprise computing to Professor Nickerson whose research is trying to help find ways to identify what people look like when they are trying to look inconspicuous but who in fact have hostile intent. Other areas of progress include the Entrepreneurship Forum hosted in May focusing on wireless upstarts that was described as well attended. When asked about incubator companies Dean McCusker explained how most schools have moved away from incubator See McCUSKER, page 6
School of Systems and Enterprises
By the Numbers • • • • •
by MICHAEL LUTKENHOUSE
by BRIANA GILMARTIN
The School of Systems and Enterprises explores “complex systems and complex enterpirses and the interplay between the two” according to Dean Dinesh Verma. The Stevens Systems and Enterprises program is the largest in the United States. The school builds a system of leadership with students going directly to work for government agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the National Security Agency. Job opportunities for systems engineers are opening up more and more with statis-
By the Numbers • • • • •
full time faculty part time faculty undergraduate students graduate students freshman enrollment
23 11 97 522 19
tics such as 30% of jobs in the defense agency being systems engineering jobs. Dean Verma’s goal over the next few years is for the school to have a national impact from a research point of view as well as to expand the school. “We want to double the See VERMA, page 6