December 20, 2020President's Post #194: Spring 2021 Reduction in Fees

Dear Students and Families,

Student fees for Spring 2021 at Ramapo College of New Jersey will again reflect a 30% reduction. The coming semester will surely bring with it continued challenges and the College recognizes that, due to the restrictions placed on us by the pandemic, we cannot provide our students with the full range of in-person student activities and programming that you have been traditionally accustomed to receiving.

I wish to reiterate, however, that, as Ramapo College continues to navigate through the pandemic, we remain committed to ensuring that we deliver on our promise of a high quality personalized educational experience. This commitment includes:

• deploying state of the art technology and pedagogical practices to support virtual learning and hybrid instruction;
• delivering creative and thoughtful programming to enhance extracurricular and civic engagement;
• maintaining routine health and compliance measures to ensure safe environments for work, study, and personal growth; and
• facilitating the accessibility of essential student support services such as advisement, counseling, and tutoring.

We have learned a great deal about individual, organizational, and community resilience throughout the past several months. Our students have demonstrated remarkable dedication to their academic careers despite the range of challenges and stressors posed by the events of 2020. Further, our faculty, staff and administrators have doubled down on their shared commitment to advance student success.

I continue to be immensely proud to serve as President of Ramapo College of New Jersey and I remain grateful for your continued trust, support, and optimism.

Looking forward,

Peter P. Mercer, President

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March 27, 2020President's Post #165: Video Message from Dr. Mercer

On March 27, 2020, President Mercer shared a video message with the College.

“We are Ramapo College,” he said.

“We exhibit the tremendous human qualities of ingenuity and perseverance and those will be brought to bear in ways that will vanquish the foe that is the Coronavirus.

I want to ask each of you to continue to keep faith with that effort, to do all that you can not only to support yourself and your immediate family members, but also those around you who may not have such supports.

If we can do that, and if we can continue to focus on all the aspects of college life which still exist and which will enable us to celebrate your successes and rites of passage, then we will all look back on this with a measure of satisfaction, and I wish that for all of us in our daily lives.”

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January 27, 2020President's Post #155: Welcome to the Spring 2020 Semester

Dear Students, Colleagues and Friends,

Welcome and welcome back to campus.

It was a joy to welcome 231 new Roadrunners to our College during the Winter Arching Ceremony last week. These new students join us from across the State and region and I am most pleased that they have selected Ramapo College for their undergraduate education because our College continues to achieve great things, to name a few:

• Last week we launched the Ramapo Roadrunner Express, a free service providing the College’s first direct link to public transit hubs at the Garden State Plaza and Bergen Community College.
• Earlier this month, we were recognized by Applied Behavior Analysis Programs as one of the best small colleges in the nation – and the only New Jersey institution – for students on the Autism Spectrum.
• Later this evening, the Board of Trustees is scheduled to approve a series of new academic programs: new minors in Human Resources Management and in Sports Management, a new concentration in Higher Education in the Master of Education Leadership Program, and a new Master of Fine Arts in Creative Music Technology.
• Our Dean of Students, Melissa Van Der Wall, was among those honored by the YWCA of Northern New Jersey during its annual Tribute to Women of Influence ceremony. Dean Van Der Wall was commended for developing a vibrant, resourceful and inclusive community within her direct areas of supervision, which include Residence Life, Student Conduct, Specialized Services, Violence Prevention, Health and Counseling Services, and the Center for Student Involvement.
• Our Center for Health and Counseling Services has launched a Multicultural Student Advisory Committee focused on fostering attentiveness to the unique issues faced by culturally diverse students.
• Our College earned a Gold Seal from the All In Campus Challenge for having a 2018 campus voting rate between 40-49% in the 2018 midterm election (up significantly from 15.6% in 2014) The College was honored at the Newseum in D.C.

These achievements are apropos given that we are at the halfway point of our yearlong 50th Anniversary celebration. Please join the festivities at our February 5 Spring Kick Off in the Konica Minolta Spectator Lobby of the Bill Bradley Recreation Center beginning at 4:30 p.m. where activities will abound for the family and stick around to cheer on the women’s and men’s basketball teams as they tip off against Kean University (5:30 and 7:30 respectively). At halftime, applaud the introduction of our new fight song!

I encourage your participation not only at the Spring Kickoff, but in as many of the 50th Anniversary programs as possible. The 50^th Anniversary Task Force has worked to create a thoughtful schedule of events that will be appealing and informative for all of us.  Additional activities are highlighted below and more details can be found on our website:  www.ramapo.edu/50/calendar .

Last but not least, our Middle States self-study efforts will come to a crescendo February 23-26. Our visiting team, led by Dr. Ron Nowaczyk, looks forward to meeting in small groups and large forums with representatives from across our campus. Please take some time to review our Self Study, acquaint yourself with our General Education curriculum, and take stock of our progress under our Strategic Plan: Fulfilling Our Promise by visiting Dashboard 2021.

Best wishes for a fruitful semester.

Peter P. Mercer
President

Colloquium Series – The School of Social Science and Human Services
February 13, 2020 @ 4:00 p.m.- Padovano Commons
Join Professor Howard Horowitz for his lecture, “Making Sense of Place at Ramapo and in the West.” As a geographer, Professor Horowitz has always worked on developing an appreciation for “place.” This has included focusing on the local area through the Ramapo River Watershed Conferences, learning about the American West through 25 unique field programs, and examining cultures through the shared interdisciplinary course “The West Discovers the World.”

50th Anniversary Millicent G. Anisfield Lecture Series
March 11, 2020 @ 4:30 p.m. -Trustees Pavilion
Join William F. Dator, Chair of the Ramapo College Board of Trustees, Thomas W. Dunn, member of Ramapo College Foundation Board of Governors, and Edward Saiff, Dean of the School of Theoretical and Applied Science and 50^th Anniversary Task Force Co-Chair, for this conversational program, “Ramapo College and Mahwah: 50 Years Together.”  In March 1970, Mahwah was selected as the site for Ramapo College.  Hear our panelists share their stories about this special fifty-year relationship between the community and the College. Audience participation is highly encouraged in this program.

Learning Commons Topping Off Ceremony
March 25, 2020 @ 4:00 p.m. – Learning Commons Construction Site
From the groundbreaking ceremony to placing the last beam of new steel, join us for these milestone occasions to herald in the new Learning Commons.

Colloquium Series – The Anisfield School of Business
March 26, 2020- Padovano Commons
Details forthcoming.

Day of Giving
April 13, 2020- The Grove
Build picnic tables that will be donated to local community organizations. The first 100 volunteers will receive a free t-shirt.

Colloquium Series – The School of Contemporary Arts
April 23, 2020- Padovano Commons
Details forthcoming.

50^th Anniversary Dinner Celebration
April 29, 2020 @ 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. – Indian Trail Club, Franklin Lakes
Celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Ramapo College! $50 tickets available beginning February 5.

Colloquium Series – The School of Theoretical and Applied Science
May 5, 2020-Padovano Commons
Details forthcoming.

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November 13, 2019President's Post #153: Fall 2019 Communications Meetings

On November 13, 2019, President Mercer joined members of the administration, faculty and staff for Communications Meetings. A summary of those meetings follows:

Dr. Stefan Becker, Provost and VP of Academic Affairs, welcomed the group.

Canvas: New Learning Management System

Provost Becker shared that Canvas will replace Moodle as the College’s learning management system (LMS). He noted the findings and recommendations from the Task Force for Online and Hybrid Learning, the LMS Task Force, and the Instructional Design Center.

The Provost advised that faculty can begin building their courses now in the Canvas sandbox and the Instructional Design Center is available to provide training and assistance. In addition, the gradebook is a wonderful new feature in Canvas and faculty are encouraged to use it. Canvas can begin being used in winter and spring 2020, Moodle will be retired in summer 2020.

Provost Becker noted that, at the heart of student success and engagement, is the experience that students have in the classroom. This experience is defined by how instructors connect with students, the nature and quality of assignments, the opportunities for dynamic feedback, and the organization of course material. A strong LMS helps shape this experience and replacing our LMS helps advance Fulfilling Our Promise Objective 3.1: To facilitate curricular innovation and to ensure that curriculum remains relevant, founded in the liberal arts, attuned to students’ needs, and responsive to the economic environment; and Objective 3.3: To optimize technology and software to automate functions and expand the capacity of existing systems for reporting and assessment.

Canvas also fosters innovation by enabling a number of different options for content delivery, assignment development, and research exploration. The system features the ability for instructors to develop modules with a variety of tools and apps designed for communication and collaboration.

Academic Masterplan

Provost Becker shared that an Academic Masterplan is under development. The goal of the plan is to provide concrete curricular direction and objectives for the next 5 years. It must take into account the interests and needs of Ramapo’s diverse faculty and students, now and in the immediate future, and it must feature the evaluation of current programs and consider the development of new programs.

Provost Becker commended the many new curricular initiatives that have been brought forward. He highlighted several new programs that launched in fall 2019, are planned for fall 2020, and several that are still in development.

Provost Becker went on to report that curricular development and program review go hand in hand in advancing our Strategic Plan: Fulfilling Our Promise. He highlighted specifically, that these initiatives advance Objective 3.1: To facilitate curricular innovation and to ensure that curriculum remains relevant, founded in the liberal arts, attuned to students’ needs, and responsive to the economic environment, and Outcome 3a: New academic programs are evaluated and offered, as appropriate. He added that Dashboard 2021 also tracks program review in Indicator 36.

Enrollment Update

Chris Romano, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, advised that the College received the highest number of applicants for the Fall 2019 class and enrolled 1,030 students, which exceeded our goal. The goal for next year is to grow modestly and bring in 1,050 students.

VP Romano thanked Peter Rice for his efforts in recruiting the Class of 2023. He commended him as the face of Ramapo Admissions from 2008-2019 and wished him the best in his new role with Institutional Advancement.

VP Romano noted that the College’s recruitment and retention activities are driven by Fulfilling Our Promise. He noted specifically that strategic enrollment management practices drive Outcome 1a: Strategic management of student enrollment in line with the College mission, program capacities, and budget and demographic projections. He noted that 20 of NJ’s 21 counties are represented in the Class of 2023. The College continues to enroll a strong percentage of students from Bergen County which is, in fact, among the most heavily recruited counties in the country. The College also welcomed students from NY, CT, PA, KY, MO, NC, and NH. In addition, international students join Ramapo from Belgium, China, Georgia, Nepal, South Korea, and Spain.

Also driven by Fulfilling Our Promise and tracked in Dashboard 2021, VP Romano advised that the College has also made real strides in enrolling a diverse student body. VP Romano thanked the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Compliance for its support at Open Houses and other recruitment events.

 

VP Romano went on to note the top ten majors at Ramapo are: Music, Marketing, Communication Arts, Accounting, Elementary Education, Psychology, Computer Science, Biology, Nursing, and Undeclared. He noted that Elementary Education is a new major and has seen considerable enrollment. This marriage between program development and enrollment is noteworthy and is tracked in Dashboard 2021 via Indicator 37: Total number of new major programs/new transfer, freshmen, or graduate students enrolled per year in major programs established since Fall 2017. Growth in undeclared students, he added, is a positive sign for Ramapo because we have a very successful track record of advising and assisting these students in a small class environment toward major programs. Undeclared students benefit from faculty mentoring and the College’s low student: faculty ratio.

He closed by highlighting important admissions dates and elements of the changed competitive landscape of recruitment in light of the repeal of NACAC ethical guidelines. Significant dates include: November 1 for early Admissions; December 15 for Early Action, Priority Deadline, Nursing and Biology; February 1 for new student deadline; March 1 for Generic Transfer Nursing Applications; May 1 for all Adult, Transfer, and Re-Admit Applications. In addition, he reviewed the following fall 2020 graduate admissions dates adding that 4+1 programs in graduate studies are yielding strong enrollment.

Middle States Self Study

Dr. Stephanie Sarabia and Dr. David Nast, Middle States Steering Committee Co-chairs, and Dr. Michael Unger, Director of Assessment, provided an update on Middle States. Our evaluation team chair, Dr. Ron Nowaczyk, President of Frostburg State University, visited campus earlier this month and provided constructive feedback. He stressed the following:

• the self-study report is very well-written,
• Dashboard 2021 should be the college’s signature element.
• Middle States is looking for trend data and systematic, direct assessment being used to inform decision making across campus

Employees across campus are encouraged to tell their stories of using data to inform decisions/ improvements. These stories can be submitted online and may generally apply to decisions made on issues such as general education, the student experience, and administrative assessment.

Submit Your Story Here: https://www.ramapo.edu/self-study

Dr. Unger provided an overview of the General Education program noting that the program was significantly redesigned around keystone courses, and keystone and distribution categories.

He shared an example of assessment and trend data relevant to GE noting that such trend data has informed decisions on curriculum development and delivery ultimately leading to measured improvements in student learning.

Dashboard 2021

Dr. Dorothy Echols Tobe, Chief Planning Officer, presented on Dashboard 2021. She described Dashboard 2021 as a visual mapping of the College’s Strategic Plan: Fulfilling Our Promise. It includes 63 indicators that are mapped to the goals, objectives, and outcomes in the Plan. She reiterated with attendees the format of the Dashboard noting that the inverted pyramid links the goals to indicators and tracks them year over year. She noted that the indicators are updated as data becomes available and notices of those updates run in the Daily Digest and elsewhere.

Awareness across campus of our progress under Fulfilling Our Promise is imperative to our shared success and to our accreditation. We should be looking at these indicators and using these indicators to inform our unit planning, allocation of resources, and other decisions, she said. She also advised that Dashboard 2021 is posted on the Strategic Plan website and is linked to from the websites for Institutional Research, Institutional Effectiveness, and in SPOL.

Visit Dashboard 2021 Now

Dr. Echols Tobe went on to highlight a few examples from the Dashboard noting that the source of the indicator data is cited in each indicator. Those sources are varied and include National Survey of Student Engagement, Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, the College FactBook, Audited Financial Statements, etc.

Capital Update

Kirsten Loewrigkeit, Vice President for Administration and Finance, provided the Capital Update. She noted that the 2013 Campus Facilities Master Plan is consistent with our Strategic Plan goals but does merit a refresh just as our Strategic Plan was refreshed in 2018.

VP Loewrigkeit encouraged the audience to listen to the sound of construction nearby noting that it is the sound of progress on the Library renovation and the new Learning Commons.

Loewrigkeit also described the Lodge Court Renovation noting that it was advanced two years ago and is in keeping with providing student-centered areas on campus.

Announcements

Dr. Peter P. Mercer, President, thanked the presenters. He shared that Ramapo was recognized in the top 3 in New Jersey for job placement success of its graduates by Zippia.Com. He stressed the importance of this type of recognition in a competitive market.

President Mercer also commended our student athletes, advising that the Men’s Cross Country Team recently won the NJAC Championship and the Women’s Volleyball Team won the ECAC Tournament Bid.

He also announced that “Confronting the Climate Crisis: Ramapo’s Reckoning with Reality,” will be on Wednesday, November 20th from 9AM to 3PM, provisionally, in Trustees Pavilion 2 & 3.

Q&A

11.13.19 Full Slide Deck

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February 8, 2019State of the College Address: February 2019

President Mercer delivered the spring 2019 State of the College Address on February 6, 2019. A summary of that address follows:

The state of the College is strong but we are on a precipice of sorts. The State budget looms ahead as does the release of the Secretary of Higher Education’s Plan. We continue to grapple for our share of students as well and their financial need continues to grow. Indeed, our reputation is strong, but fragmentation within the State, including now four designated research institutions and legislation that favors 60-credit associate degrees, place challenges on our capacity to continue to compete successfully in a shrinking market.

(Transcript not available.)

This is the time for us to innovate.

With respect to our academic programs, I am pleased to share that we have several new developments. We understand that we must continually evolve and actively strive for student success, and for that reason our exploration of fully-online programs continues. This is a re-envisioning of our delivery and one that will not only help us meet the needs of today’s students who often rely on the flexibility and convenience of online learning, but also, frankly,  provide a new revenue stream for the College, consider firstly the potential growth to our summer enrollment. Programs in nursing, business, and education have been tapped to be our first step into this arena, and we expect to launch the first fully-online program for a Fall 2019 cohort.

In addition to online programs based on our current offerings, during this academic year we launched:

• a new Philosophy major;
• a new Sustainability major;
• Management, Marketing, and Finance majors;
• a minor in Museum and Exhibition Studies; and
• a certificate program in Spanish for Healthcare Professionals

There are several other new programs under various stages of development as well. This is important. It is what we need to do. As a member of the N.J. President’s Council, I see our peers presenting new programs but look behind the curtain a bit and many times they are actually introducing old win in new bottles. That’s not good enough. We must be introducing new ideas and new programs.

Among the four goals of the College’s Strategic Plan: Fulling Our Promise is to “Advance Innovation as the College’s Promise and Obligation to its Students, Community, and the State of New Jersey.” Fulfilling Our Promise is accompanied by a visual mapping of indicators tied to the goals and outcomes in it. This mapping, Dashboard 2021, features approximately 60 indicators that will be updated annually and made available to the campus. Dashboard 2021 represents not only our attentiveness to advancing the College under the new strategic plan but also our institutional commitment to assess and continually inform that advancement.

Turning now to Middle States, we are engaged in the MSCHE Self-Study process.  Working Groups have submitted the second draft of the self-study document which is currently under review by the Steering Committee.  They look forward to presenting the Self-Study draft document to the Ramapo community during the month of April for everyone’s review and feedback, and I mean everyone. The chair of the Middle States visiting team will be on campus in the fall followed by the entire team in the spring of 2020; and I have already received suggestions about who will chair the team.

Turning back to Innovation, I am pleased to highlight a few of the recent innovative contributions of our faculty:

• Professor Iraida Lopez has been selected for a 2019-20 Fulbright Scholar award which will allow her to teach postgraduate courses in Fall 2019 at the University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile. Our track record with Fulbright scholars is truly impressive and speaks to the talents of our faculty.
• Professor Amanda Roberti will receive the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research in Women and Politics. The prize comes with funds for research on a project on conservative women state lawmakers and abortion regulations.
• Professor Naseem Choudhury set up a new virtual reality lab on campus. The lab is an interdisciplinary effort (with psychology, neuroscience, computer science and visual arts) to train students in creating interactive three-dimensional stimulus environments within which responses can be recorded.  This is a dynamic testing and training environment that offers students the option to develop and carry out experiments that are not available using traditional techniques. The future integration of VR technology with brain imaging provides our students with experience in a cutting edge and innovative technologies that makes them competitive for entry into graduate and professional programs.
• Professor Ashwani Vasishth f brought Dr. Biswajit Mohanty to campus several months ago to discuss local grassroots movements in India. The discussion illuminated the adverse impacts of the forces of globalization that act upon local communities and to better understand the innovative ways in which communities of the rural south there react to and resist these adverse pressures.
• Professor Paul Reck sponsored “Driving While Black in New Jersey.” Seton Hall Law Professor Mark Denbeaux, several of his former law school students including Marquis Whitney, Jason Castle, Anthony Osei, and a study participant, Tevin Bell, presented their research on racially and geographically selective police stop and ticketing patterns of motorists in Bloomfield, New Jersey. A fascinating discussion that helped us understand the broader phenomenon of racial profiling in the United States, including how it occurs, why it occurs, and what the consequences are for those targeted as well as the society as a whole.
• A collaborative effort between HGS, TAS and SSSHS, the Cahill Center, Study Abroad and the Grants Office yielded a new Certificate in Spanish for Health Care and Human Services. The program is funded by a $155,000 U.S. Department of Education grant and I want to recognize Professor Natalia Santamaria and all involved in that work.
• Professor Michael Edelstein earned a $294,000 grant from a Hawaiian non-profit to study the Native Hawaiian geothermal psycho-social health impact. I have tremendous admiration for anyone who can secure a research grant in Hawaii.
• We are awaiting the final budget approval of about $400,000 from the NJ College and University Sexual Violence Awareness and Response Grant Program from the Department of Justice. Congratulations to Kat McGee, Marie Attis-Springs, Claudia Esker and the others who worked on this grant.
• Professor Kathy Hajo has had additional grants funded for the Jane Adams Papers
• Professor Sandra Suarez earned additional funding for the Upward Bound Math/Science Program.
• Associate Dean Kathy Burke earned a National Institute for Health grant for her work with the Ramapough Nation on health intervention.
• The Cahill Career Development Center received a $3500 grant from Enterprise Holdings Foundation to increase student engagement. Enterprise, a longtime partner of the Career Center, has over 20 Ramapo alumni working for their company in various capacities.

In 2019, the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts is celebrating its 20^th anniversary. The Center was the first building on our campus with a $1Million donation behind it.  The Center will host the Les Paul Festival, which is generously supported by the Les Paul Foundation,o n  February 16 and will feature guitarist Bill Frissell and Grammy-award nominated hip-hop producer and 2014 alum Brandon Korn. Concurrently, our art galleries will be filled with exciting and provocative work in our semester-long exhibition curated by gallery director Sydney Jenkins.  Entitled !!!PUBLIC ART??? INQUIRIES, ENCOUNTERS, the exhibit will include graffiti art by Lady Pink, works on monuments by Howard Skrill, and a series of lectures, performances, protests, and provocations around the campus, including a dance workshop from Black Lives Matter choreographer/activist Shamell Bell at the Arch on April 4. The very next day, our Theatre Program will present Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Sharp Theater. There is a nice symmetry here that the production will be directed by Professor Terra Vandergaw, who directed the same play as the first production on the Sharp Theater stage in 1999.

The College’s 13th Annual Diversity Convocation and Pre-Convocation Luncheon will take place on Wednesday, February 13th. Convocation will feature Emmy Award winner John Quińones, from the ABC News Program “What Would You Do?”  In addition, the Pre-Convocation Luncheon will feature Guest Speaker, Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, award winning author and education consultant.  All are welcome and there is no charge to either event, but seating for the Luncheon is limited.

As mentioned in the Fall, plans are currently being finalized for Diversity & Implicit Bias Training for all Staff, including Administrators, to take place in late May or early June. The training will be mandatory for all Staff and will last a minimum of two hours.  The training will be similar to the one provided to Faculty in April of last year and it will be offered at least two different times to accommodate employee schedules. A Bias Reporting Form has been set up online on the EDIC website. Individuals can now report claims of Bias on campus anonymously. In addition, the Bias Response Team that was announced last fall will have its first meeting within the next few weeks.

Banner 9 is fully live with Banner 8 having been decommissioned as of the start of the year and the Ramapo College “BUG” (Banner User Group) had its inaugural meeting in early January and will continue throughout the year. ITS has also been instrumental in advancing Mobile Print campus wide.  You can send an email to print@ramapo.edu and print the attachment in any computer lab, including in the Fishbowl, by swiping your Ramapo ID. ITS is also rolling out a new help desk ticketing system that will greatly increase the visibility of requests and provide feedback to clients at every step of the resolution process, with the ability to create requests with an email, from a web site, or even an app on your phone.  WiFi upgrades will be coming to Overlook over spring break and once Overlook is complete, The Village is up next, with WiFi upgrades planned there for the summer.

The College was recently inspected by NJ Department of Environmental Protection for compliance with hazardous and medical waste. The College was found to be in full compliance. In addition, we completed a Public Employee Occupational Safety and Health (PEOSH) safety consultation to assure safe roof work for employees. All of the recommendations from that consultation are now in place.

Other physical enhancements to campus include Ramapo’s much anticipated Dunkin’ which officially opened in the Fall semester, after a complete renovation of the Adler Cafe over the summer break.  The grand opening was held on November 28^th and for the total of four weeks that Dunkin’ has been open, here are the results: 13,939 Total Customers serviced, 4,860 Donuts purchased, and $61,385 in Gross Sales. What I like most about this bit of news is the anecdote that opening Dunkin’ was not born from an institutional desire to get you to spend more money, but rather to simply spend the money you were already expending elsewhere here on our campus.

The Potter Library moved to its temporary location in Linden Hall over the winter break and opened on time on January 22nd. The lovely renovated space is fully open, providing all regular Circulation and Research Help services, computer labs with new printers, group study rooms, study spaces, Interlibrary Loan, and print book collections. If you have not yet walked through the space, do so. The beauty and ease of it exceeds its transitional status.  The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies is on the 1st floor and The Center for Reading and Writing is on the 2nd floor.

Further, the Learning Commons project is currently on schedule and hitting all of its milestones. The 90% Design Plans are currently under permit review by the DCA, and bids for the interior demolition work in the existing Potter Library building were received on January 17th.  Contract award is expected by February 15th, with construction activity starting by the end of February.  You will witness the building peeled back to its studs, it will be transformed, but it will also be noisy. The Learning Commons Campaign has now reached more than $9.5 million in gifts and pledges toward our goal of $15 million. I am most grateful to the Board of Trustees for their 100% participation in the campaign and their $1 million Challenge Grant to attract new alumni donors who have never given a restricted gift before.  We also are working with our Campaign Cabinet on a special 50^th Anniversary Appeal to support the Learning Commons at the $50,000 level.

This year nearly $1Million will be awarded in student scholarships, faculty support and college support through endowment income and annual scholarships. Students receiving more than 480 named scholarships will be honored by the Foundation on April 9^th at the Annual Scholarship Dinner.  Further, we are pleased to share that total gift income for both current operations and capital purposes, as reported on the Voluntary Support for Education (VSE) / CASE Higher Education Survey grew by 25.2% from 2017 to 2018.

The Student Governors and SGA will be hosting our Annual Day of Giving next week. An interesting factoid, February 12^th, 1969 was actually the date the Ramapo College Board of Trustees met for the first time but they didn’t actually know that they were the Ramapo College Board of Trustees at that time because the college was not yet even officially named. Student Governors, Jennifer Noctor and Ryan Greff, are working with the Foundation to organize this effort which begins February 12 and will run just beyond February 13. Faculty and staff may wish to know that anybody who donates by February 13 will be entered into a raffle for a parking space.

The Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey recently recognized Ramapo College and the Foundation at its 5^th Annual Best Practices Conference saluting innovation in the workplace.  Our Allocations Grants Program was cited for its innovative way to create “workplace heroes at all levels.”  This program provides an opportunity for faculty, staff or student organizations to advance a project with an emphasis on leadership, engagement and diversity.  In the last five years, grant awards have increased by more than 30%. The successful spring grant recipients will be announced on February 28th.

As part of Ramapo’s continued commitment to addressing campus sexual violence, the College applied and was accepted to join NASPA’s Culture of Respect Collective. The Collective is an ambitious two-year program that brings together institutions of higher education who are dedicated to ending campus sexual violence and guides them through a rigorous process of self-assessment and targeted organizational change.  The program is grounded in an expert-developed public health network, cross campus collaboration, and peer-led learning to make meaningful programmatic and policy changes.  As part of our participation, we will receive strategic support and technical assistance throughout the process, as well as detailed documentation of campus-initiated changes that support survivors, prevent sexual violence, and communicate that violence is utterly unacceptable. Ramapo College of New Jersey will be connecting with 40 other institutions, both national and international, in this third cohort of the program.

In Fall 2018 and for the third semester in a row, the All-Greek GPA average, All-Greek Women’s GPA average, and All-Greek Men’s GPA average was higher than the undergraduate average. Further, in the fall, the Greeks completed 5,278 hours of community service and raised over $17,000 for numerous causes.

In November, the Civic and Community Engagement Center hosted the annual OXFAM hunger banquet.  The event explores the global issues of food insecurity, poverty and injustice. Approximately 101 students and staff attended the dinner this year.  The participants experienced world poverty firsthand through a simulated event whereby they were placed in high, middle or low class income brackets and experienced classism while partaking in a meal.  The participants experienced the imbalances of food distribution and access to food and processed how they felt going through the simulation as the event transpired. The College has almost doubled the number of participants who experience the dinner, as the 2016 dinner had 60 participants. The event also offered discussion around Ramapo’s We Care Program (food pantry and student emergency relief fund), as well as the Hunger Free Campus bill promoted by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin.

In January, 10 students and 1 trip leader, attended the CCEC’s first-ever Alternative Winter Break to India.  In the city of Bengaluru, the students worked with and learned from some of the most dynamic non-government organizations advancing equity and human dignity in South India.  The students also worked with Fireflies, a center promoting Earth spirituality, the resolution of ethnic violence and deepening civil society in India.  Students drove through a safari and a forest that is home to wild bison, tigers, and elephants.  There was still 10 that returned.

On January 20, students and staff from the Center for Student Involvement attended the Apollo Uptown Hall: Unsung Champions of Civil Rights from MLK to Today where they participated in interviews and panelists discussed Dr. Kings’ legacy and its impact on modern social justice movements.

As I mentioned earlier, the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education hosted three forums about higher education in New Jersey to help inform the state plan. According to OSHE, the forums focused on affordability, preparation for post-college employment, and student success. SGA President, Stephan Lally, served on the panel at Rowan University on November 19, 2018 and the College hosted a live stream of the event.

On November 10, 2018, the College Programming Board and Student Government Association hosted the College’s most successful concert to date.  A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie (known as “A Boogie”) performed in the Bradley Center to a sold out student crowd of 1300 individuals.  A Boogie is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter.  In the weeks leading up to the event, the Center for Student Involvement hosted 2 student auditions for the house DJ and opening act.  A student was selected to be the house DJ for the event where music was offered while students were welcomed to the arena and in between sets.  Omiette Allisson, a junior majoring in Music with a concentration in Music Production and a minor in Music Industry, competed against 9 other student acts and was selected as the opening act for A Boogie.

Implemented with the Registrar and ITS, the Center for Student Success is developing customized degree plans for all first-year students using U. Achieve software.  Faculty will be invited for continued training through the Academic Advisement Council and their Unit Council meetings.

Via our Transfer Advising Corps (TAC), Enrollment Management, Student Success and Admissions continue to focus on advancing the College’s efforts to partner with county colleges in order to facilitate a seamless transfer of students from the Associate’s degree to the Bachelor’s degree.  This semester, we have added both Raritan Valley Community College and Hudson County Community College as our newest partner institutions in the transfer advising corps model.  In this model, we continue to have a Ramapo staff member spend one day per week at the county college building brand and meeting with students in an attempt to increase the number of transfer students from each partner school.  This has also been identified by the new Secretary of Higher Education as a key priority and so Ramapo is positioned well to support this state initiative.  VP Romano and I are also in conversations to begin advancing this work with Passaic County Community College this spring.

A special acknowledgment to our Public Safety, Facilities and Housekeeping teams who helped when a pipe burst on Jan 24th and flooded parts of the 4th and 3rd floors of Gwing. Residents of Gwing greatly appreciate the work of Public Safety, who was on site within minutes of the alarm, Facilities for the repair, and Housekeeping for the spectacular cleanup, as well as the Dean of Students and the Registrar who found alternate classroom and lab spaces for us. After the cleanup, the TAS lab staff made sure that all equipment was up and running and safe to use.

The Honors Program took four students to the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Boston in November. Junior Finance major Stephanie Guzman won second place in the national poster competition. Her research examined the use of migrant labor in the US agricultural industry. The Honors Program is sending fifteen students to Nepal for the first Honors Alternative Spring Break, and taking ten students to the Northeast Regional Honors conference in Baltimore in April.

The President’s Committee on Campus Sustainability is launching a survey to assess the opportunities and possibilities open to the College in our campaign to become a leader in sustainability. The College is participating in the 2019 RecycleMania Contest, to improve our recycling rates and to reduce the volume of solid waste and trash we are generating.  It would be really helpful if we could all pay particular attention to how much stuff we throw away and how effectively we recycle.

Professor Neriko Doerr has launched a Fair Trade Campaign, with help from Professor Ashwani Vasishth and the support of the President’s Committee on Campus Sustainability. They will be hosting a series of events–starting with a film screening during Valentine’s Day week. Students, staff and Faculty can now share rides using Wheeli, a Ride Share App and your Ramapo College email address. For any questions, concerns or suggestions with regard to sustainability at RCNJ, send an email to ramapogreen@ramapo.edu.

The Krame Center for Contemplative Studies and Mindful Living has been working to imbue mindfulness and stress-reduction strategies for Ramapo Faculty, Staff and Students. Everyone is welcome to the free weekly meditations in ASB 420. There are now 5 and 30 minute meditations being held in classrooms.  To support faculty, there is a Mindful Fellows Program with the deadline for sign ups this week and convening group meditations beginning next week.

Finally, the Ramapo Staff Association is continuing to undertake efforts to build community and staff cohesion and provide professional development activities.  In January, RSA partnered with Human Resources to host “Personality Styles at Work” and RSA extends an invitation to all to join them at Biggie’s tomorrow after work for Happy Hour.  See you there.

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January 26, 2016President's Post #91: Welcome and Welcome Back

Dear Students and Colleagues:

Welcome (and welcome back) to campus.

Institutions of higher education have changed dramatically since their origins as training grounds for the clergy or the children of the bourgeoisie. Yet, despite the magnitude of those changes over time, higher education has managed to hold fast to many of its storied traditions. This commitment is known as commensalism, a word originally used to describe the practice of dining together but whose broader modern definition denotes, “the means by which a sense of community and long-term institutional loyalty is created.” It reflects our determination that academic training must be completed by providing students with broader social experiences. These social experiences often become significantly represented in institutional traditions.

Last week we welcomed 300 new students to Ramapo. Despite the bitter cold, the students, faculty, and staff rallied together and processed under the Arch in keeping with Ramapo tradition. Pursuant to another Ramapo College tradition, I will deliver my State of the College Address on January 27 at 1 p.m. in Friends Hall (SC 219). Please join me to hear about the many wonderful continuing achievements as well as the challenges ahead. Opportunities to come together over the next few weeks include:
• An information session on January 27 at 3 p.m. in SC157 regarding the revised Sexual Misconduct Policy Governing Students.
• The kickoff of African Ancestry Month on February 1 at 12:30 p.m. in Trustees Pavilion (space is limited.)
• The national tour of the 35th Annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival will come to campus on February 12 at 8 p.m. in the Sharp Theater.
• The Diversity Action Committee’s Diversity Convocation on February 24 at 3:30 p.m. in the Auxiliary Gym featuring Dr. Marc Lamont Hill.
• The President’s Advisory Council on February 26 at 11:30 a.m. in Trustees Pavilion.

Again, welcome to a new semester at Ramapo College.

Peter P. Mercer
President

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December 21, 2015President's Post #90: A Season for Inclusion

Dear Students, Colleagues, and Friends,

At this time of year when exams, essays and holiday events compete for our attention among the regular demands of everyday life, we are all conscious of the need to take a half step backwards and reflect on the closing of another year. It is my hope that, as members of Ramapo College, we share a unique sense of community that follows from Ramapo’s particular values and traditions that emphasize inclusion and mutual respect for one another’s differences.

Recent terrorist incidents threaten to abrade that fundamental communitarian element in ways that we must all resist. It is important, as we enter the holiday season, to reinforce our commitment to inclusion by reaching out to peers who may be feeling lonely or even alienated. Our Muslim colleagues, in particular, need to hear that they are valued just as all of us recognize that same need within ourselves. Now is the time to stand up and actively affirm the principles and beliefs that unite us.

I am proud to serve as your President and I thank you for your efforts in support of the College while wishing you the most tranquil and restorative of holidays.

Sincerely,
Peter P. Mercer
President

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September 24, 2014State of the College: Dr. Peter P. Mercer, President

September 17, 2014

Welcome.

It would be easy to conclude from surveying the popular media that higher education generally is in a desperate state. For example, this month’s Atlantic magazine has emblazoned on its cover the apocalyptic question “Is College Doomed?” It tells the story of the Minerva Project, whose aim is to replace the liberal arts college.

The author, one Graeme Wood, states that Minerva’s long term goal “is to radically remake one of the most sclerotic sectors of the U.S. economy, one so shielded from the need for improvement that its biggest innovation in the past 30 years has been to double its costs …”

Stuff and nonsense – Wood, it pains me to say, is actually a Canadian apparently of the sort who tosses off observations about the U.S. without much investigation or reflection. He is also a 2001 graduate of Harvard University, an experience which apparently has not worn well, at least for him. Doubling of costs over 30 years – since 1984 – pick an item – a restaurant meal, a pair of shoes, an automobile – and compare their cost profile over 30 years. Consider also higher education’s unending strata of accountability compared with most other field of business endeavors and our institutional adaptability has been remarkable. Of course we can do better and, yes, the environment is fiercely competitive but the broad brush doomsday scenarios are over the top and tiresome. Or as one might say in Newfoundland, only a “dotterel” would accept them at face value.

We continue to work at keeping our financial house in order as the College moves ahead on many fronts.

Allow me to highlight some of our more recent successes.

Some of you may have noticed that we are growing increasingly visible with our legislators. Last week, we hosted Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senator and Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, at a ceremony honoring the memory of those lost on 9/11. The Senators also toured the G Wing renovations, which are funded, in part with bond referendum monies and the Senators and I discussed the importance of another bond issue and more comprehensive approach to funding capital expenditures, as well as operating expenses at New Jersey’s public colleges.

This week I visited Senator Booker’s office in Washington, D.C. to make the case for federal support for public bus service to the College so that students from urban centers throughout the region can reach Ramapo. I am hopeful that something will come of these efforts in the relatively near future to help us meet our strategic goal of increasing diversity among our students.

Tomorrow, Governor Jim Florio will speak at the College in honor of Constitution Day and the 350th anniversary this year of the State of New Jersey. He will speak at noon at the Berrie Center’s Sharp Theater, and I encourage you to attend.

On October 8, State Senator Sandra Cunningham, chair of the Senate’s Higher Education Committee, will visit and speak during a campus-wide Voter Registration Drive. Students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to hear the Senator speak and register to vote at the Ramapo Arch from 1 to 2 p.m. We hope you can join us.

And on October 23, Ramapo College will hold its first-ever “RCNJ at the Statehouse” trip, a full day of activities to better acquaint students with our State government and issues affecting higher education. The trip will be held once a semester to ensure as many students as possible have the opportunity to participate.

We have also seen considerable developments to our physical campus. The third and fourth floors of G Wing are now open as well as renovated B Wing. A good amount of old furniture (desks, bookcases, etc.) from these wings were “free-cycled.” On Friday of last week, the Paterson School District brought a very large trailer to campus and picked up these goods. Special thanks to Steve Sondey, Claudy Jordain, and Aidan Murray for their support of this initiative.

The ground floor of the Adler Center for Nursing Excellence will have a gender neutral restroom. The space is scheduled for occupancy by April ’15. There will also be a gender neutral restroom and a Family Attendant room on the first floor of G Wing. Both spaces are scheduled for occupancy by the fall ’15 semester.

Also, the College Commons Working Group is now working with Ikon5, an architectural and engineering firm, on the site plans for the renovated carriage house.

Our impressive facilities are here to serve one purpose, student learning and our students continue to impress.

We received the largest number of applications and are home to the largest freshmen class in Ramapo’s history this year. This increase in demand has also yielded an increase in our average SAT score, has enabled us to maintain diversity at 30%, and has fostered an increase in out-of-state enrollment. We have also exceeded our graduate enrollment goal. In its first year, the MA Special Education program has even exceeded its targets. CIPL also exceeded revenue targets and has now generated positive revenue for the College for the first year.

This year will mark the first graduating class with Career Pathways in the Anisfield School of Business and the College is now launching the second Pathways program in the School of Humanities and Global Studies. I look forward to providing this meaningful program in all of our schools at some point.

The new Contemporary Arts Degree Completion Program launched this semester with a full cohort of sixteen students. The program uses the Contemporary Arts Contract major to offer a track in Professional Communication designed to build skills in the areas of written, oral, and visual communication.

And, the College was presented the Starfish Rising Star Award for the year 1 launch of Connect Advisement and Early Alert Software on Campus.

External recognition of our shared achievements has also been strong. We have increased a spot in the US News and World Report rankings and we were recently recognized as a “Public Ivy.”

Our visibility externally has also strengthened thanks to a purposeful and thoughtful social media strategy. Increases in our social media activity have been substantial and have included the #homesweetpo campaign, #capsoffRCNJ campaign from Commencement 2014, and a Twitter chat with Convocation speaker Sonia Nazario.

One additional note that I am particular pleased to share is that the Student Government Association has elected its first female president, Lauren Fuhring. Congratulations, Lauren.

In Academic Affairs we also have much to celebrate. Dr. Charles Steindel joined the Economics Faculty as a “Scholar in Residence”. Charles was formerly Chief Economist at the New Jersey Department of Treasury and before that he was a Senior Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The College reached an agreement with the New Jersey Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC) to open an affiliate office in ASB. The NJSBDC provides assistance to small business owners and entrepreneurs in New Jersey. In exchange for the support the College will provide to the NJSBDC of Bergen County (office space, clerical support, etc.) all Ramapo students and faculty will be able to take advantage of the Center’s seminars and consulting services at no charge.

In Nursing, Assistant Dean Kathy Burke was named an AACN/Wharton executive fellow and Professor Maisha Amen completed the Iron Woman competition on Sept 7 at Sandy Hook.

Dean Rosenberg has joined his family in publishing a chapter entitled “American Horror Story: Asylum and the Power of the Mad Monster” in Monsters in Society (Dauber (ed.), Interdisciplinary Press 2014).

The Gayle and Paul Gross Foundation recently awarded a $250,000 challenge grant to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. In recognition of this gift, the Center is now called the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Professor Ira Spar helped in the development of the new “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In addition, the fourth volume to Professor Spar’s Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which he co-authored with Michael Jursa, was just published.

Dean Stephen Rice and Professor Meredith Davis have received for a third time a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct two summer workshops for K-12 teachers on the history and culture of the Hudson River Valley.

Professor Ben Neill received a grant award in the amount of $46,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, for new performance works for his new music/theater piece called “The Demo.”

Out talented CA faculty have also been busy.  Fall 2014 marks the kickoff of the new Ramapo College Concert Band under the direction of Dr. Chris Wilhjelm. Open to all students, the band meets on Tuesday evenings in the H-Wing Auditorium.

In June, Professor Mack Brandon directed a choral performance with an eighty-voice chorus at the Tumon Bay Music Festival in Guam. In other news from Guam, Professor Lisa Lutter received the island’s highest award, The Ancient Order of Chamorri (pronounced like Samurai), which recognizes persons who are not native to Guam, “who shall have contributed substantially to the betterment of the people of Guam, or who shall have demonstrated real and sympathetic interest in the people of Guam, its history, cultures, traditions and problems.” Professor Lutter is one of four persons in the past four years to be recognized with this honor, which is awarded by the Governor and Speaker of the Legislature jointly.

Professor Warner Wada has been invited to photograph all of the buildings designed by LeCorbusier in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, India, using his pinhole camera technique, in a special documentation and exhibition initiative between the Ahmedabad Textile Mills Association and Ramapo College.

Professor Ann LePore is featured in the group exhibition, “Thou Art Mom,” opening tomorrow, September 18, at Pierro Gallery in South Orange.

As mentioned earlier, our students continue to push boundaries. A few examples:

Senior Danielle Corcione had her program proposal titled, “Diversity in Higher Education: A Student Perspective” accepted to present at the National Collegiate Honors Council in Denver, Colorado November 5-9, 2014.

In a state-wide initiative, Student Trustee Kevin Ng and Alternate Student Trustee Brandon Smith are connecting all of the student trustees in New Jersey. The goal of the initiative is to have a way for Student Trustees to communicate over the issues that state colleges are facing and to deliberate over how to best lobby for funding toward higher education.

In July, the College sent four students to Camp Pride, a summer leadership institute for LGBT students and allies that focuses on social justice action and inclusivity. Students returned from the camp with ideas on effective strategies toward helping Ramapo College sustain an LGBT-friendly climate. Student Vanna Garcia was selected to serve as a Pride Peer Leader for other students from around the country.

The Civic and Community Engagement Center hosted a successful Leaders-in-Service program. Over 30 first year students enrolled in the program, moved into the residence halls early, and engaged in a week of civic engagement activities and workshops.

The Center for Student Involvement hosted a tremendously successful Joint Student Leader Staff Training whereby over 200 student paraprofessional staff from Residence Life, CSI, CAAFYE, OSS, CHCS, Cahill, and SGA engaged in two-days of training about diversity, leadership, and communication.

Eddie Seavers, CSI, completed a year-long program leadership experience entitled Bergen LEADS. Eddie is the first Ramapo employee to participate in this highly regarded program.

It is no surprise that our impressive students go on to be impressive alumni. A few examples:

Theater program alumna Bethany Kay has a recurring role on this season’s “Boardwalk Empire.”
2014 Theater graduate Jessica Gouker is currently employed as Assistant Stage Manager for the National Tour of the musical “Beauty and the Beast.”

2014 Visual Arts graduate Jennifer Morrison participated in the June 2014 International Iron Conference in Riga, Latvia, with artists, professors, and students from around the world.

TAS reports that 50% of the 2014 graduates in Engineering/ Physics are in graduate school pursuing PhD’s on full scholarships at: Duke Medical, NJIT , Rutgers, and the University of Rhode Island.

Dr. Harshani Peiris, an RCNJ Bioinformatics Alumna recently published an article in an international peer-reviewed journal showing a correlation between immune system and tissue regeneration.

Dr. Garrett Dancik, an RCNJ Bioinformatics Alum, was the keynote speaker of the TAS Student Research Symposium (SRS) in April 2014. Garrett is now Assistant Professor of Computer Science/Bioinformatics, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eastern Connecticut State University.

There is no slowing down at Ramapo either. This month alone will be host a series of diverse events on campus including but not limited to:
Ellie Krieger, Food Network Star and NY Times best-selling cookbook author, will deliver remarks at the Havemeyer Edible Garden dinner tomorrow night.

Ben Jealous, former director of the NAACP will speak on September 22 at 4:30 in Sharp Theater.

The Men’s Tennis Team will enjoy a Championship Ring Presentation on September 23 at 1pm in the Bradley Center lobby.

Rigoberta Menchú, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and activist for the rights of indigenous people in Guatemala, will deliver a lecture on the benefits of student engagement on September 24 at 1pm in H Wing Auditorium.

The President’s Advisory Council will meet on September 26 at 11:30am in the Alumni Lounges.

BMW North America President Ludwig Willisch returns to campus as a guest lecturer in the MBA program on September 30 in ASB.

I hope to see many of you at these and other events.

Thank you for your contributions to the college and thank you in advance, for another successful academic year.

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