View’S “Best 386 Colleges” 14 16 18 Mark Gola Roster, in Money Magazine’S “Best a MUSICAL HOW MONMOUTH CAMPUS Justin M
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE MAGAZINE OF MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY » FALL 2020 INSIDE | The Struggle for Black equality (p. 26), The Dark Side of WeChat (p. 32), and more. “No one Contents succeeds Features | Fall 2020 alone.” —Mehdi Husaini ’20, current medical student and future physician The Class of 2020 experienced a year no one could have predicted. The COVID-19 crisis affected the traditions Monmouth alumni remember and cherish. Through it all, our class felt the support of dedicated faculty, staff, alumni, and donors. Our community makes Monmouth special. We cannot predict what challenges Monmouth’s current students may face, but what we do know is that no one succeeds alone. Monmouth students need our help. Please make a gift to the Monmouth Fund, and do your BACKSTORY » Artist Dung Hoang’s illustrations part to help shape tomorrow’s convey how China’s central government monitors leaders. and censors all digital content as a means of imposing its authoritarian rule. Story, page 32. Monmouth Strong. monmouth.edu/give 26 32 THE LONG STRUGGLE THE DARK SIDE OF WECHAT A Q&A on the civil rights movement, How the chat app turned “mega-platform” Black Lives Matter, and the ongoing fight has become China’s ultimate tool for for Black equality. authoritarianism and censorship. For more ways to show your support and make an impact, visit fly.monmouth.edu. [email protected] | 866.4MU.1933 ALUMNI illustration DUNG HOANG Fall 2020 MONMOUTH 01 Contents President’s Note “ late August. It was a Commence- Departments | Fall 2020 ment Week that none of us will I often soon forget. tell my Despite the challenges of the colleagues pandemic, Monmouth continues to be a university on the move. MONMOUTH » VOL. 40. NO. 1 that, in the Our incoming first-year class is 14 22 38 Monmouth magazine is published thrice absence of the most diverse and most aca- annually by the Monmouth University demically prepared cohort in our Division of Enrollment Management. a playbook on navigat- history. This fall we obtained ap- Vice President for proval to launch our third doctor- Enrollment Management ing a global al program, in occupational ther- Robert D. McCaig, Ed.D. pandemic, apy, and look forward to enrolling we have no our first class this coming sum- Associate Vice President, mer. And, we have also recent- The Front Marketing & Communications choice but ly completed construction of a Tara Peters ’94, ’99M currents » RESEARCH & REFLECTION to fall back new nursing simulation lab at our Editor on our in- graduate center in partnership Tony Marchetti with Monmouth Medical Cen- 06 09 10 stitutional ter, a project aimed at serving our NEED TO KNOW EXPLAIN THIS CONCEPTS Assistant Editor values as growing number of undergrad- Polling Institute Director How to have a civil debate Most voters are worried Breanne McCarthy we chart uate and graduate nursing and Patrick Murray on the 2020 about politics. about meddling in this health studies students. Design & Layout our path election. year’s election. Dog Ear Consultants I am proud that these efforts forward. continue to be recognized by TIDES » CULTURE & COMMUNITY Contributing Writers third parties. We are pleased to Pete Croatto ” be included once again in Prince- Kelley Freund ton Review’s “Best 386 Colleges” 14 16 18 Mark Gola roster, in Money magazine’s “Best A MUSICAL HOW MONMOUTH CAMPUS Justin M. Liu On ResilienCE Value Colleges,” and in Wash- JOURNEY WAS MADE BRIEFS Peter W. Liu, Ph.D. ington Monthly’s annual college Steve Neumann THRIVING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. guide and rankings, a newer pub- How Bruce Springsteen led The many monikers of The scene at West Molly Petrilla Connor Rupp to Monmouth. Monmouth’s marquee building. Long Branch. y the time this issue of Monmouth magazine finds lication that ranks colleges and Photographers its way into your hands, we will be eight months universities on what they do for Anthony DePrimo our country. And, finally, Mon- PLAY » SPORTS & FITNESS John Emerson Binto the COVID-19 pandemic on our campus. mouth has also reached our high- Matt Furman est ranking ever in the annual Nick Grant Even in this relatively short mental question in mind: What U.S. News & World Report college 22 24 25 Tom Lozinski period, we have changed our be- is in the best interest of our stu- rankings—No. 23 among Region- haviors, modified our expecta- dents? This driving question has al Universities North. Even more WORDS AND DEEDS PLAYING THROUGH GOOD SPORT Illustrators A’Liah Moore is fighting Golfer Jimmy Criscione talks Hawks photographer Karlee Aldo Crusher tions, and started to envision guided us well throughout the gratifying to me is that only a few for racial equity. canceled seasons, writing a Sell shares her secrets. Josue Evilla the permanent changes that will past year and has been at the cen- institutions in our category inte- book, and more. Dung Hoang emerge from the crisis. While ter of our evolving response to grate excellence and access like Simone Martin-Newberry some things have looked and the COVID-19 crisis. One such we do, as measured by our strong felt markedly different on our example of this commitment was rankings coupled with our com- campus this fall, our commit- Commencement. When the pan- mitment to first-generation stu- The Back The Rest On the cover ment to providing our students demic forced a move to remote dents and Pell Grant recipients. An illustrative look at the civil with an outstanding and highly teaching and learning last spring, This is a challenging time for rights movement and Black Lives Class notes » ALUMNI LIFE President’s Note, 03. personalized academic experi- we had little choice but to post- American higher education, and Matter by Chicago-based illustrator Letters, 04. The Market- Simone Martin-Newberry. ence has remained steadfast. pone graduation, but we pledged Monmouth University is not im- ing of Social Justice, 12. I often tell my colleagues that, to do our very best to serve our mune to these challenges. But, if 38 51 The Electoral College, 13. in the absence of a playbook on graduating students with a mean- we continue to focus on what is in THE CHANGEMAKER IN THE PITS Embracing Anti-Racism, navigating a global pandemic, we ingful commencement experi- the best interests of our students, Jeana Piscatelli is the first A NASCAR jack man 17. A Day at the Beach, have no choice but to fall back ence. I am proud to share, thanks we will emerge stronger and bet- female chair of Monmouth’s details his life in the 20. Alumni Roundup, 40. on our institutional values as we to the collective efforts of my ded- ter positioned than ever before. I Board of Trustees. fast lane. “Never Waste a Day,” 42. chart our path forward. Since ar- icated colleagues, that we were hope I can count on you for your Monmouth Hangouts, 52. 400 Cedar Ave. riving at Monmouth, I have asked able to host a series of nine mod- continuing support. In Memoriam, 55. West Long Branch, NJ 07764 our senior administrative team to ified in-person commencement Patrick F. Leahy, Ed.D. Remembrance, 56. 732-571-3489 • monmouth.edu make decisions with one funda- exercises for our Class of 2020 in President 02 MONMOUTH Fall 2020 photo ANTHONY DEPRIMO Fall 2020 MONMOUTH 03 letters sary deaths. Through his Justice Department, Wilson was also responsible for arresting tens of TELL thousands of citizens, including a EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES five-time presidential candidate, US who were lawfully protesting and resisting that unwarranted WHAT military disaster. In 1918, the H1N1 flu became a worldwide pandemic. It should be YOU called the “American Flu” because it was likely to have originated THINK in American training bases and TOP FIVE was then exported to Europe on Email us at IN THE NATION FOR crowded troop ships. Wilson never magazine@ spoke about it publicly, nor did ACCESS & Peace Corps volunteer Erin Schreiber ’18 captured monmouth.edu, this photo while working as a community health anything to stop it, because he and EXCELLENCE advisor in a rural village outside Axum, Ethiopia. his advisors wanted our troops in or write us at battle, whatever the cost, and he Monmouth didn’t want to lower the morale of magazine, the troops and the people back RE: SUMMER 2020 Woodrow Wilson home. So 45,000 troops, at least Monmouth flunks out of 600,000 American civilians, and University, Home too Soon 50 million people worldwide died Monmouth Alumni House, Great story! I don’t think any of us from that virus. 7,300 volunteers wanted to leave I was never proud of my alma ma- It took George Floyd’s public lynch- 400 Cedar Ave., our host countries, but we were ter’s association with the name of ing to raise the consciousness and West Long given no choice. All of our hearts Woodrow Wilson. A disaster cap- the outrage, which have become are broken. italist and white supremacist, Wil- the catalysts of social, cultural, and Branch, NJ Jason Michael Walker son was known by many in his day political revolution in America and 07764. (@skywalker1640) via Twitter as a “liberal fascist”; a great friend around the world. Congratulations Submissions for of the KKK; and a power-seeking, to Monmouth’s Board of Trustees the Letters page This summer, Monmouth faculty researchers and students aboard the R/V Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe ego-driven war criminal. for unanimously voting to remove collected environmental DNA samples from the waters off our coast, part of their ongoing work Wilson abandoned neutrality Wilson’s name from the University’s are subject to A Voice for the pioneering a marine life detection technique.