NJ Transit OKs purchase of new campus buses
New Jersey Transit Corporation approved the purchase of a dozen new buses
for Montclair State University at its Nov. 12 meeting, noting that "this
is a service improvement that allows for the purchase of 12 new transit
style buses that will replace Montclair State University's aging fleet
and expand the fleet to provide additional transportation opportunities
to students, employees and the community."
President Susan A. Cole expressed to the Board of Directors her gratitude
"for the extraordinary partnership that has grown between Montclair
State University and New Jersey Transit. This Federal appropriation will
mean that many more people can benefit from the excellent educational
opportunities at Montclair State University. It will help alleviate traffic,
congestion and air pollution. It will help bring people from the surrounding
communities to the University for cultural and recreational activities,
and it will facilitate the use of mass transit by both commuters and students.
Multiple good purposes will be served, and NJ Transit has been just splendid
in facilitating this important initiative."
All the buses will be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant
lift-equipped vehicles. They will service various locations on and around
the campus and from the NJ Transit Montclair State University train station
being constructed along Clove Road.
The buses will be purchased using a $1 million grant from the Federal
Transit Administration that was secured by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell. Montclair
State provided a local match. Total cost of the buses is $1,051,156 plus
five percent for contingencies for a $1,229,600 total.
When the grant was announced in May, Pascrell, a member of the House Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure, said, "I was proud to secure
$1 million for the purchase of new buses to allow Montclair State to extend
its routes into the surrounding communities and eliminate the need for
many individuals to drive their cars to campus. We need to be creative
in getting cars off the road wherever possible. With the new fuel-efficient
bus system, we are helping Montclair State be a good neighbor by helping
lift some of the burden off local community roads."
Coccia Institute names director
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| Gina Miele |
Following an extensive national search, Gina Miele of Middletown has
been named director of the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience
in America.
"Dr. Miele is a true Renaissance woman," said Cav. Joseph Coccia,
who established the Institute along with his wife, Elda, in October. "She
combines an outstanding academic background—including a Ph.D. degree
in romance languages and literatures from Harvard University as well as
a year of study at the University of Florence—with first-rate teaching,
research and administrative skills." Miele's research interests include
Italian-American literature and history, Italian and Italian-American
folklore and Dante studies. "We are thrilled that such a knowledgeable
scholar will be the director of our Institute," Coccia said.
"I am honored to be selected for this prestigious post," said
Miele, who earned a B.A. in Italian Studies, magna cum laude, from College
of the Holy Cross. "To my director's position, I bring a love and
a professional passion for the dissemination of knowledge about Italian-American
heritage, culture and literature. I am convinced that the Coccia Institute
for the Italian Experience in America will be a leader in its field. With
the strong support and encouragement of Joseph and Elda Coccia, Dean Richard
Gigliotti of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and my colleagues
at the University, I am positive we will be successful."
Gigliotti described Miele as the catalyst who will make the Institute
prosper. "Her wide-ranging interests and her passion for all things
Italian make her the perfect person for this position," he said.
"With Gina as our director, I see no limits as to what we will be
able to accomplish in the coming years."
Miele was the lead teaching fellow for the Harvard Study Abroad Program
in Calabria and Sicily in 2002. She also served as senior thesis adviser,
as coordinator for Teaching Fellows, and as a teaching fellow and as a
tutor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard.
She was founder and president of ed=Gm2, educational specialists; and
has consulted and translated for various companies in New York City and
Massachusetts. Miele, who also studied at Rutgers University's Italian
Program in Florence in 1994-95, has garnered an impressive number of honors
and fellowships, including the Maurizio Vanicelli Prize in Italian Studies
from the College of the Holy Cross, the Travel Study Prize for Excellence
in Teaching at Harvard University as well as the CUE Teaching Award at
Harvard's Derek Bok Center.
She is a member of the Modern Language Association, the American-Italian
Historical Association and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
The Coccia Institute has an ambitious agenda with both public outreach
as well as academic components. The Institute focuses on the historical
and contemporary interplay of Italian people, culture and society with
American culture and society. It is a central resource for organizing
and presenting lectures, conferences, seminars and cultural programming;
for initiating professional development programs and resources; and for
fostering research relevant to the Italian experience in America. The
Institute works collaboratively with other regional and national organizations
in the common cause of promoting an understanding of the important links
between the peoples and cultures of Italy and America.
Miele said the Institute will begin sponsoring events starting next month.
"Additionally, we have tentative plans for 'Heritage Weekend' in
the spring, which will include conferences, lectures, cultural programming
and perhaps a film festival," Miele said. "Also in the works
are readings by prominent Italian-American novelists, essayists and poets,
and a jazz concert featuring an Italian musician."
Miele also said the popular Scuola Pinocchio will be offered in the summer
as a three-week program. Scuola Pinocchio provides instruction in the
Italian language and culture to children of the community. The program
will be led by its two founders and organizers, Enza Putrino and Carmela
Lattanzio. Both are Montclair State graduates and teachers of Spanish
and Italian in local public schools. Registration will begin in March.
Coccia, past national president of the Italian-American service organization
UNICO National, and his wife, Elda, made a generous pledge to MSU to establish
and maintain the Institute in perpetuity.
Gallery presents "The Garden State as Art Material"
The Art Gallery will present "Earth, Sand and Water: The Garden State
as Art Material," a site-specific exhibit featuring works by Nisha
Drinkard, Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman, through Dec. 20. The three
artists utilize New Jersey's natural indigenous resources to create their
installation pieces. The opening reception is Friday, Nov. 21, from 6
to 8 p.m. The gallery also will host a roundtable discussion with the
artists Thursday, Dec. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m. Teresa Rodriguez, acting director
of the gallery is the curator.
Drinkard is creating two pieces for the exhibition, "Blue Waterfall"
and "White Waterfall." "Blue Waterfall" will be located
in the gallery's outdoor Sculpture Garden. The piece is made of eight
panels, each 150 feet long, of cotton cloth dyed in indigo, which vary
in width from 11 inches to 30 inches. "White Waterfall," which
will be installed inside the gallery, includes eight panels of silk dyed
in tea, onion skins and madder. The piece extends from one end of the
gallery and cascades to the floor. The silk is 150 feet long, creating
fabric puddles along the floor. Drinkard finds inspiration for her installations
as she drives.
"The waterfall I drive by every day to work changes from summer
to winter. I see the waterfall in all kinds of weather," she explained.
"In the winter it is covered with ice, in the spring the buds start
to block my view of the waterfall and by summer, leaves mask my view of
the falls."
The collaborations of Andro and Glicksman are a hybrid of their individual
aesthetics, crossing disciplinary lines of painting, sculpture and photography
through the use of video, mirrors, fabric, sound and scent. In using the
Garden State as art material, this collaborative team has selected subjects
that inspired three multi-media installations that explore nature.
"The Flow" uses video images of the Great Falls of Paterson
projected on a sculptural form and is accompanied by an original soundtrack
by Jim Papoulis. "Habitat" examines the ecological relationship
between the migratory Red Knot and the horseshoe crab through images of
the Delaware Bay reflected in shaped mirrors. "Down the Shore"
explores the phenomena of the ever-changing tide and shoreline.
Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday
11 a.m.-4 p.m. The Gallery Gift Shop is open during regular gallery hours
and features fine art and craft items handmade by national and international
artists. Admission is free.