THE!MAGAZINE!OF!MONMOUTH!UNIVERSITY!» !SPRING!" # " $ LEARNING TO LIVE WITH IT Our experts weigh in on what a future with COVID-19 may look like. page 30 THE AFROFUTURE IS NOW THE RESILIENT ONE MARLEY & ME A primer on the movement that’s One Hawk’s journey from A former WMCX DJ recalls the sweeping pop culture. homelessness to his Ed.D. reggae legend’s last interview. page 08 page 40 page 54 LOOKING IN HAWK’S-" EYE"VIEW A moment of relative calm on the quad in front the Great Hall. photo!!!MATT!FURMAN photo!!!NAME!NAME Spring 2021!!MONMOUTH!!#$ SPRING 2021 » CONTENTS Features Departments The Front The Back Currents tides PLAY Class Notes RESEARCH!&!REFLECTION CULTURE!&!COMMUNITY SPORTS!&!FITNESS ALUMNI!LIFE 08 THE AFROFUTURE 20 ALL GOOD THINGS 14 50 IS NOW Marilyn McNeil, a champion Your primer on the movement for gender equity who trans- that’s sweeping pop culture. formed Monmouth athletics, calls it a career. 11 BRIDGING THE GAP 23 GAME ON Keeping refugee children Keeping Hawks teams and play- connected to their heritage. ers healthy enough to compete during a pandemic has been no 12 ANSWERING small task. THE CALL 24 TWO ON THREES Students deliver telecounsel- ing services to the region. The Hawks’ new and former career three-point record holders talk about life beyond the arc. 12 24 14 AMERICAN 50 A FORCE DREAMING FOR CHANGE One senior is fulfilling the Eileen Gavin is helping to promise of the generations shape how we tackle public before him. health issues. 54 MARLEY & ME 16 CAMPUS BRIEFS Jeff Steinberg recounts being The scene at West Long the last person to interview Branch: new healthcare sim lab, Bob Marley before his death Monmouth adds a third doctor- 40 years ago. al program, and more. 61 UP TO THE TEST 18 AN INSTITUTION Adele Beegle leads production UNTO HERSELF at a Roche facility that makes 26 30 40 44 Pa"i Swannack reflects on 46 250,000 COVID-19 tests per AHEAD OF THE NEXT NORMAL THE RESILIENT ONE OUR MAN IN years at Monmouth. week. THE CURVE What will a post-pandemic Damon Colbert spent his THE PENTAGON Entrepreneur Krish Ra- world look like? From phar- teens and 20s homeless and Christopher Lowman is makrishnan has made a maceuticals to photography, ba"ling personal demons. helping to modernize the career of being in the right faculty weigh in on how Now he helps at-risk chil- U.S. Army. The Rest place at the right time. COVID-19 will leave its mark. dren realize their potential. Looking In, 01. President’s Note, 04. Le&ers, 05. Pop Quiz, 25. Above and Beyond, 47. Alumni Roundup, 52. Celebrations, 57. In Memoriam, 62. Remembrances, 63. Looking Out, 64. #"!!MONMOUTH!!Spring 2021 photo!!!JOHN!EMERSON Spring 2021!!!MONMOUTH!!#% President’s Note letters “ ideas from members across our University community, I While we am confident that we have pro- have been duced an ambitious yet achiev- Moving on to the letter from I disagree with the opinions stated carefully able blueprint for Monmouth Fred Dente ’65, “Woodrow Wil- in the le"er “Woodrow Wilson managing University’s success now and son Flunks Out of Monmouth,” Flunks Out of Monmouth.” Wilson for generations to come. I feel his assessment is more was not a warmonger. Just the the day-to- While the importance of inte- opinion-based than historically opposite! In fact, he avoided our day details grating excellence and access accurate.... Let us remember that entering World War I for three of operat- has been embraced and popular- the 1918 H1N1 flu is well docu- long years despite the sinking of ized by many colleges and uni- mented as the Spanish flu. But the Lusitania, the number of U.S. ing in a versities over the last decade, I true to current revisionist tactics, merchant ships continually sunk, pandemic, am convinced that Monmouth Mr. Dente places opinion-based and the many U.S. civilian lives we also has all the makings of becoming blame on America, writing taken. Does the writer not see a bona fide leader in this endeav- that the flu “was likely to have the continual taking of American have been or. Our high rankings in various originated in American training lives as a “definitive or convincing keeping our third-party publications point to bases and was then exported reason” to enter World War I? sights the measure of our excellence, to Europe on crowded troop There are an incredible number and our commitment to serving ships.” In truth, actual historical of challenges facing Monmouth firmly a high number of Pell-eligible Black Women and and epidemiological data are not University and other similar-sized focused and first-generation students is the Struggle for adequate to certify the origin schools, especially this year. How- on the evidence of our accessibility. of the Spanish flu. It was early ever, the “canceling” of Woodrow Our new strategic plan, which Civil Rights identified not only in America, Wilson will not solve them for us. future. ofcially launches on July 1, de- Thank you for the insightful but also in France, Germany, and What we need is astute manage- ” tails through six central themes interview with Dr. He"ie Williams the UK. ment by our leadership and an the many innovative ways in (“The Long Struggle”) in which she I’d be interested to see reliably incredible amount of support from Renewable which we plan to become both discussed the ongoing struggle for sourced, pre-2000 documenta- our alumni and friends. more excellent and more accessi- Black equality. I agree wholeheart- tion rather than the popular and —Paul W. Corliss ble. Through an institution-wide edly with her point that the civil shameful trend to blame Amer- Resources commitment to these virtues, rights struggle is about much more ica for everything and see what POSITIONING THE UNIVERSITY FOR our ambition is for Monmouth than just Black Lives Ma"er. Black sticks. Stating something as fact CONTINUED SUCCESS RELIES ON ITS University to become the most people, especially Black women, in one form of media does not Let’s UNFAILING COLLECTIVE SPIRIT. highly ranked institution with very o$en face racism in the make it true, although our country our access measures in our cat- workplace. It can take many forms: is suffering dearly from just that Connect TELL"US" ust over a year ago, the World Health Organization egory, anywhere in the country. unequal pay, unrealistic expecta- means of spreading fake informa- For more content Your ongoing support of Mon- tions, harassment. I know this from tion. There are more than enough and photos, follow WHAT" declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and the state mouth will help us both to rise in personal experience. The struggles revisionists and cancel culturists us on Twi"er and Jof New Jersey announced a public health emergency the rankings and to ofer the dis- that Black people face are indeed mostly doing more damage than Instagram: YOU" in response to this growing threat. This has been a tinctive Monmouth experience real, and much work remains to good, but where are those who @monmouthumag to deserving students of all back- be done to end systemic racism in would preserve our history as year that has tested our resolve, but together, we have grounds. America. I’m proud to see my alma wri"en, as something to learn THINK faced these unexpected challenges with great patience, I am grateful that we have mater addressing it in this way. from rather than erase? Email us at magazine@ flexibility, and fortitude. reached this point of the semes- —Lyreshia (Hailstork) Bonds ’04 Buying in to revisionist histo- ter with so few disruptions to the ry and the destructive cancel monmouth.edu, or write I am confident that these whelming desire of our students academic experience. Togeth- In Defense culture, Monmouth’s Board of us at Monmouth strengths, coupled with the re- to return more fully to campus. er, we have persevered through Trustees caved on renaming silience of the Monmouth spirit, While we have been careful- an unprecedented year in mod- of Wilson the former Wilson Hall based magazine, Monmouth will help us successfully navi- ly managing the day-to-day de- ern history, and together, we will Regarding your Fall 2020 maga- on negative sensationalism of University, 400 Cedar Ave., gate through the next several tails of operating in a pandem- find our way in a post-pandem- zine, I am disappointed with your Wilson’s life and administration. West Long Branch, NJ months and transition into a ic, we also have been keeping ic world to best serve the evolv- choice of cover artwork. Is it not Rather than taking an in-depth post-pandemic reality that more our sights firmly focused on ing needs of our students and enough that the mainstream media look at the context of the period, 07764. Submissions for the closely resembles our pre-pan- the future. Though we paused their families. As we hope for a is constantly showing scenes of the board partnered in the tragic Letters page are subject violent riots under the guise of rewriting of historical facts to demic living and learning envi- our strategic planning eforts safe return to near-normal oper- to editing for clarity and ronment at Monmouth. As we last spring when the pandemic ations in the fall, I look forward “protesting for equal rights”? Mon- adapt to today’s hot-button develop plans for the upcom- first emerged, we have spent the to reuniting and thanking you in mouth University is supposed to issues, destroying an import- length and must include ing academic year and beyond, past several months reenergiz- person for your steadfast com- be an educational institution for all ant part of Monmouth’s legacy the writer’s name, address, we are encouraged by increased ing our work in developing the mitment to our exceptional uni- in a broad range of occupational for those of us who used to be and phone number for surveillance testing, widespread University’s next five-year plan.