Special points of interest:

33rd Annual Scholarship Benefit Gala Raises Over $440,000

Wendel White to be Honored by Literacy Organization

Marine and Environmental Field Station Recovering Lost Crab Traps

Dr. Levy to become Fusion Liai-son Officer for Atlantic County

Bubbles for Autism Draws Re-cord Crowd in Fourth Year

Stockton Opens Woodbine Instructional Site Anne Azeez Hall

Volume 2, Issue 36 May 2, 2013

T H E R I C H A R D S T O C K T O N C O L L E G E O F N E W J E R S E Y

33rd Annual Scholarship Benefit Gala Raises Over $440,000 Over 720 guests helped raise more than $440,000 at the 33rd Annual Stockton College Scholarship Benefit Gala held Saturday, April 27 at Revel. The Gala pro-ceeds are part of the Stockton College Foundation’s fund-raising efforts aimed at reaching an additional $2 million goal for scholarships. The Benefit Gala itself has raised $5 million for scholarships in the past 10 years. The college’s first comprehensive fund-raising campaign reached its initial goal of $20 million, targeted in June 2014, in 2012. The swiftness inspired the theme of the campaign: “Let’s do more!” As of Saturday night, $950,000 had been raised to-ward the goal of $2 million for scholarships. The total comprehensive campaign has raised more than $22 million, which also goes to support academic pro-grams, student programs and facilities. Guests at the Gala were treated to a surprise musical performance by Eddie Money, provided by Revel. Money performed an acoustic set, leading off with his

hit, “Baby Hold On to Me.” Gala attendees also enjoyed music and dancing to “Don’t Call Me Francis,” a popular Philadelphia-South Jersey dance band for the past 20 years, and Stockton’s own Faculty Band. In addition to 20 scholarship recipient volunteers, 30 students from Dr. Michael Scales class on Hospitality and Tourism Management assisted Gala organizers, getting hands-on experience in their cho-sen field of study. A full review of the Gala, with a com-plete list of sponsors, can be found here. To view more photos, please visit Flickr.

Dr. Jung Lee, associate professor of Instructional Technology, and her hus-band Dr. Frank Cerreto, professor of Mathematics

(L-R) Michael Cagno, executive director of the Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College, Sara Gendlek, as-sistant director of the Noyes Museum, Dorrie Papade-metriou, director of Exhibitions & Collections, and Dr. Tom Papademetriou, associate professor of History

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Wendel White, distinguished professor of Art, will be honored by the Literacy Volunteers Associa-tion, Cape-Atlantic (LVA-CA) as a “Leader in Literacy” at their annual reception on May 6, 2013. The LVA-CA honors two community members each year with their Leaders in Literacy Awards to express their gratitude to the community’s efforts to help the organization promote literacy. The LVA-CA has been expanding the definition of literacy to include many different subjects, such as art. White was contacted by the LVA-CA board chair, Roseann Kobialka, about accepting the honor. The organization selected White in recognition of his works as an artist which tell the stories of communities in the area and beyond. White’s project, “Small Towns, Black Lives” is a record of his-

torically African American communities of southern New Jersey, including the Boling family featured in a Bjork Library exhibition. His idea expanded into another collection of works, “Schools for the Colored,” which features structures and sites that operated as segregated schools. “I also serve as chair of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, so it was clear to the folks at LVA that my interest in creativity, media and literacy has been a central concern for many years,” White said in regard to his selection. The LVA-CA is a nonprofit organization which trains volunteers to tutor adult students in all aspects of literacy. Tu-tors help students with reading, writing, spelling and comprehension. The LVA-CA also offers English as a Second Lan-guage programs.

Wendel White to be Honored by Literacy Organization

Wendel White

Marine and Environmental Field Station Recovering Lost Crab Traps Stockton’s Nacote Creek Marine and Environmental Field Station has partnered with the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Re-serve (JC NERR) from Rutgers to clean up lost or “ghost” crab traps in the Mullica River-Great Bay watershed, located in New Jersey’s Atlantic Coastal Plain. The ghost traps are crab traps that have been cut from their buoy ties and lie on the bottom of the bay, some for up to 10 years. The traps can pose a serious threat to boaters and marine life. “Stockton is using scientific-grade instruments to map the bay and coordinating five teams of commercial crabbers to remove derelict fish-ing gear that litter the bay bottoms and are a hazard to marine life,” said Dr. Peter Straub, professor of Biology. Dr. Straub had his class out on the bay learning to use side-scan so-nar when small squares began to pop up in the 3-D image of the bay floor. After investigating in diving gear, the class found old crab traps with severed ties buried in the muck. Sonar surveys suggest there may

be upward of 3,000 lost traps in Mullica River-Great Bay Estuary, with much of the bay bottom still not investigated. Steven Evert, assistant director of the Marine Science and Environmental Field Station, and Dr. Mark Sullivan, associ-ate professor of Marine Science, were aware of a similar cleanup project in the Chesapeake Bay that had been funded by federal aid and reached out to the organizers for advice on how to arrange the cleanup in New Jersey. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) granted Stockton and JC NERR/Rutgers $100,000 for two years to work with commercial fishers and the community to locate and salvage the lost traps and to educate the commercial and recreational crabbers and boaters about the problem. Dr. Sullivan is the principal investigator (PI) on the project. Dr. Straub, Evert, and Melanie Reding, education coordina-tor of the JC NERR, are co-PIs. The team has also started a related smaller pilot project in Barnegat Bay funded by the Bar-negat Bay Partnership and hopes to expand the cleanup to the southern Barnegat Bay area starting in December 2013. “Community volunteers from Stockton and the JC NERR got together April 6th to collect data and break down or recy-cle over 400 crab pots removed this season from the bays,” Dr. Straub said. “Part of the project is to develop best prac-tices for commercial and recreational crab fishers and for recreational boaters to prevent crab pot loss.”

Volunteers broke down and recycled more than 400 retrieved crap traps, and returned 125 to their original owners, on April 6 in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary.

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Dr. Marissa Levy, associate professor of Criminal Justice, will undergo training to become the Fusion Liai-son Officer (FLO) for Atlantic County under the purview of the New Jersey Regional Operations and Intelli-gence Center (ROIC). Fusion Liaison Officers are part of an initiative to strengthen information sharing and enhance partner-ships among law enforcement, public sector and private sector partners to help prevent crime as part of a Municipal Planning Board. The Municipal Planning Boards deal with issues such as drugs and violence from multiple perspectives, including a university sponsor. Stockton is the university sponsor for the Pleasantville/Atlantic City board.

Dr. Levy, a crime prevention expert, currently works with the Attorney General’s office to help local community groups, the police department, and interested citizens in Atlantic City and Pleasantville to design areas to help reduce crime, she said. The Pleasantville/Atlantic City Municipal Planning Board focuses on working with the Coalition for a Safe Community. Dr. Levy, Coalition President Perry Mays, and member Kaleem Shabazz recently performed a walk-through in Atlantic City neighborhoods with a high rate of crime, noting set-ups and landscapes that promote suspicious activities. They reached out to residents to come forward with information regarding crimes to help law enforcement personnel tackle these problems. The Coalition, formerly known as Stop the Violence of Atlantic County, began similar anti-violence walks in 2012. Dr. Levy will attend a training seminar on May 21 at Stockton’s Carnegie Center in Atlantic City.

The annual Bubbles For Autism event was held on Monday, April 22 outside between the Campus Center and the Main Complex near lower B-Wing. More than 200 faculty, staff, students and community members blew bubbles to raise aware-ness and offer support for families living with autism. This is the fourth year Stockton has held the event and was the larg-est turn-out to date. Robert Ross, assistant director of Counseling and Health Services, noted that many student organizations were involved in the promoting the event, and people across the campus who were not able to attend are continuing to donate to the cause. Faces4Autism, a nonprofit organization based in Ventnor, started Bubbles for Autism day in 2003. To view more photos, please visit Flickr.

Bubbles For Autism Draws Record Crowd in Fourth Year

Left: Heidi Hartley, a program assistant in Graphics, shakes Hemi’s hand with Officer Tracy Stuart. Right: Dr. Betsy McShea, associate professor of Developmental Math, and her daughter Katie, brighten up a gloomy day with bubbles.

Dr. Levy to become Fusion Liaison Officer for Atlantic County

Dr. Marissa Levy

Send Us Your News! We want to know about things going on in the Stockton community. Do you have an unusual hobby? Did one of your co-workers win an award or perform outstanding public service? Births, weddings, graduations and the like are

all good things to submit to the Stockton Times.

Contact the editor at (609) 652-4593 or e-mail StocktonTimes@stockton.edu.

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The college’s first Cape May County instructional site was formally opened on Monday, April 29 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Anne Azeez Hall in Woodbine. Anne Azeez Hall is a $600,000 addition to the Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage of Stockton, located at 610 Washington Ave. The 2,800-square-foot facility in-cludes two state-of-the-art, electronic classrooms, one of which holds 20-25 students and instructor; the other holds 35. When the dividing wall is open between the two, the multipurpose space can accommodate groups of 55 to 60. The Hall is adjacent to the historic Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage, named in honor of Anne’s beloved husband. Sam and Anne’s son, Michael, president of Unitel Wireless, donated $5 million including the original mu-seum property to Stockton in September 2011, the largest gift in Stockton’s history.

“With the addition of the classrooms, I hope that students in Cape May County will take advantage of the educational opportunities offered here in Woodbine,” Anne Azeez said. Current programs scheduled for Anne Azeez Hall include professional development workshops for K-12 educators hosted by the college's Southern Regional Institute and ETTC. Undergraduate and graduate courses will also be scheduled at the facility during the summer and fall. More than 200 attended the ceremonies and reception, including Stockton faculty and staff, representatives of the state, Cape May County and Woodbine, as well as people whose families were among the original settlers of Wood-bine. A full press release is available here, with additional photos available on Flickr.

Stockton Opens Woodbine Instructional Site Anne Azeez Hall

The Cape May County instructional site Anne Azeez Hall was officially dedicated on Monday, April 29 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Dr. Rodger Jackson, incoming Faculty Senate president, told the Azeez family that the Stockton faculty’s intention “is to honor your gift… Places like this allow us to connect with our students.”