Six panelists discuss immigration and its effect on their lives
Student Joseph Materia is searching for an identity.
Materia was born in Brooklyn, where he lived until he was 18 months old when his family emigrated from America to northern Sicily. They stayed there for seven years, but came back to the United States, Materia said, for financial reasons.
He came back to the states at age 8 speaking Italian, but eventually mastered the English language through an ESL program, which he hopes to teach one day. Over the years, Materia, who is studying Italian and linguistics, said he often looks for answers to the question: "What am I?"
"When I'm in Italy, I'm considered American, but here, I'm considered Italian," said Materia, who was among the six members of the campus community shared their immigration experience last week during a panel discussion organized by the Steering Committee on the Immigration Lecture Series and sponsored by the Center of Pedagogy, Educational Foundations and Anthropology.
Others on the panel were Nicholas Michelli of Education and Human Services; MSU President Susan A. Cole; Maryann Rogers-Wright of Student Development and Campus Life; Tete Tetens of Counseling, Human Development and Educational Leadership; and Marina Cunningham of the Global Education Center.
Both of Michelli's parents were children of immigrants. His maternal grandparents came to America from Lipova and his paternal grandparents came from Calabria, Italy in the 1890s. He remembers as a child being fascinated by the concept of immigration.
"The idea of people moving so far led me to a lifelong interest in the social sciences, geography and language," he said. "There is nothing more fascinating than immigration and it has affected all of us in our lives."
Michelli recalled his father's parents-who lived in the Little Italy section of New York before moving across the river to West New York and finally settling in Clifton-not being interested in talking about Italy. "They came here for a better life," Michelli said. "My father was one of nine children and none of them spoke Italian. My grandparents spoke Italian to each other, but never to their children. They wanted to be American citizens." But not all the stories were about coming to America for a better life. Rogers-Wright, who has been in the United States for 22 years, is a first generation immigrant. She came here from Serra Leone as a political refugee. "If I did not come I would have been destroyed like my father and brother," she explained. "I came for a safe haven."
Although she fled for safety, Rogers-Wright left behind an upperclass lifestyle. "I had mixed feelings. There was gratitude, but also I realized what I left behind," she said. "I had to reinvent myself. I was no longer part of the elite and had to adopt the status of being an African-American in America."
Tetens also left his home country of Germany for survival. Soon after he was born, his parents "escaped to Switzerland" and then moved to Argentina before settling in the United States. "My life has been shaped by the fact that my parents believed in freedom and democracy and all it means," he said. "To think of myself as American is too narrow. I think of myself as a world citizen who lives in the United States."
President Cole, whose parents each came from Russia to the United States where they met, said there are three themes of immigration that have impacted her life-change, language and identity.
"People fear and hate change," she said. "But the immigrant experience is about change, radical change. Embracing change is what the immigrant is about and says a lot about his or her personality."
She then talked about language as the root of our identity. Her father, she explained, spoke Russian, but once he arrived in America, her grandfather forbade him to speak it. Her father learned Yiddish and then eventually English. Cole's mother also spoke several languages before coming to America where she had to learn English. "My parents embraced English like their lives depended on it," she said. "That is all they spoke in the house and to their children. The first 16 years of my life my parents made sure I had no accent.
"Language and identity. The immigrant changes it over and over again." Cole said as the child of immigrant parents who had to make these changes, she had create her own identity. "I had to create the fabric out of whole cloth," she said. "There was no established identity in my life."
Cunningham described herself as a "double immigrant." Her parents emigrated from Russia to China, where she was born and lived until age 12. "We were one of the last Jewish Russian families to leave China in 1957," she said. Her family couldn't move to the United States because of the quota on Russian families, so they moved to Hong Kong for a short period and then to Ecuador where she lived and was schooled until age 17. "When Kennedy became president he lifted the Russian quota and we moved to the United States," she said.
Cunningham talked about the importance of connecting with the past. "I did not have continuity in my life," she explained. "I went to English schools in China, and when I went to Ecuador as a teen-ager, I had to learn Spanish and their customs."
She said visits to China to see the home where she lived and to talk with people who knew her and her family have helped her make a connection with her past. In 1992, a trip to Russia resulted in her meeting a cousin who had not seen a member of his family in 50 years.
George Bernstein of Educational Foundations, who moderated the discussion, summed up the essence of the talk. "When you talk about immigration experiences, you get to the heart of human life," he said.
Montclair State University's Service-Learning Program has not only forged meaningful partnerships between the University and the community, it has formed lasting friendships. Students, faculty, staff and community leaders who gathered recently for the first Service-Learning Partnership Meeting said the program that melds classroom experience with community service has made a tremendous impact on their lives.
Joan Fisch of the United Way of North Essex, a community partner in the Service-Learning program, said the students are an integral part of the organization. "Service-Learning students don't enter a ready-made program," she said. "The students are my partners, they are partners with the United Way, and they have to work out problems with us."
MSU President Susan A. Cole, who spoke at the meeting, said a genuine partnership is one that can be sustained. "It can literally change our part of the world," she said. "We can make a difference, which is the essence of citizenship. An institution must be connected in the most intimate way with the community that supports it and gives it its meaning." Part of that intimate partnership manifests itself in the marriage of academics to problem solving. It brings community problems to the University for analysis and academic expertise into the community for application.
The spirit of community, interdependence and the mutual benefit for all involved in the program were discussed.
"Service learning has changed my approach to teaching," said Richard Peterson of Information and Decision Sciences who teaches a Service-Learning course titled Systems Analysis for Business. "I'm trying to develop in students a passion for learning, and I've found that there is no substitution for hands-on learning."
Fisch said she has gained a lot from the program. "I provide the service vehicle, but I also am learning from the University," she said, adding one other benefit: "My Service-Learning faculty partner, Richard Peterson, has become my best friend."
Three faculty who have had the opportunity to travel and study abroad recently discussed how their experiences have impacted their teaching, scholarship and feminism.
The panel discussion, "Travel, Identity and Scholarship," sponsored by the Women's Studies Program, featured Fawzia Afzal-Khan and Sally McWilliams of English, and Carla Petievich of History.
McWillams spent five weeks in China this summer on a Fulbright Fellowship as part of a 16-person delegation hosted by the University of Beijing. She talked about how women there are prone to the same gender discrimination as women in this country. Her sensitivity to women's issues provides her with insight into how larger issues affect women. "As China moves to a market economy, gender and class equality have become a greater issue," she said. "There are actually fewer women in the workforce. As state-run industries collapse, women are losing old jobs and not being trained to perform new ones."
Petievich, a Fulbright Scholar who spent seven months this year in Pakistan and India, talked about women in the workforce in Pakistan. "Rural women have always worked, but in urban life, especially domestic businesses, you won't see women in the workforce," she explained. "You may see women working for multinationals, but they are usually English educated and not representative of the local population. The status of women in other societies (outside the United States) is highly gender segregated and it's almost impossible not to be highly gender conscious."
Afzal-Khan is a frequent traveler to Pakistan, where she was born. "I feel I occupy an insider/outsider role where ever I go," she said. "I feel that I belong to several places, not just one."
The English professor spent six months in Pakistan this year to continue her studies on street theater and its connection with the contemporary women's movement. She has participated in these performances herself and is interested not only in the aesthetics of performance art but in "art as a means of social change."
All three professors talked about the importance of the self and how their travels have had an impact on their own identity and how they judge others. They also bring what they have learned through their experiences into the classroom.
"Most students don't realize that we are vast resources for contacts around the world," McWilliams said, adding that she stresses to her students the importance of coming to terms with their preconceived notions about other cultures. "I encourage my students to be more self critical about those assumptions."
Stanley Walling
director, Center for Archaeological Studies
Stanley Walling and a team of archaeologists have discovered a valuable archaeological find. It's not a pyramid or lost city in some remote desert on the other side of the world. They're excavating right in our own back yard in Feltsville, an historic community located in the Watchung reservation in Union County. In 1996 the Center for Archaeological Studies, in conjunction with the Department of Anthropology, began investigating the site as part of a field school for students interested in historical archaeology. "The site is known as 'the deserted village' and is part of a park that's open to the public," Walling explained. "We're doing archaeology in the midst of a suburban region." He's excited because the team recently uncovered something archaeologists are usually excited about-an outhouse.
INSIGHT: What is historical archaeology?
Walling: An investigation into the roots of our own society. When you look at colonial or 19th-century artifacts, you're looking at historical material directly related to what is going on today. Events in the United States since the arrival of Europeans are well recorded with historical documents such as court records, diaries and wills. Archaeology supplements those written remains. People don't record every aspect of their lives, and often what they record represents the ideal rather than the real. Documents don't record the character of the middle and lower class, either. Historical archaeology answers some very basic questions about culture. It's a rich field that has not reached its full potential.
INSIGHT: Tell us about Feltsville.
Walling: It's a community that was established in the 1840s by New York entrepreneur David Felt. He created a planned community that was built around a papermaking and book manufacturer. Felt regulated his community the way parents regulate the lives of their children. He lived in a mansion with a bell that he rang to tell the community when it was time to go to work, take a lunch break and go home. He even instituted a curfew so people wouldn't be out too late. The community thrived for 15 years, and at the beginning of the Civil War, Felt sold the property, which underwent several transformations. It became a resort town known as Glenside Park, and during World War I became an artists' community until it was purchased by Union County in 1929.
INSIGHT: What makes this community a valuable excavation site?
Walling: It represents something that doesn't exist anymore, and it serves as a laboratory to study the evolution of a community and industrialism. It also gives us a view of the lives of relatively recent immigrants working as laborers in the 19th century. Many of the structures built in the 1840s are still in tact. We can study homes, a building that was used as a post office, a church and a store, and a large barn from the 1880s. There's also evidence of a Native American village on or near the site. We've found several stone tool flakes and pieces of pottery dating between 1000 to 1500 A.D. So this site has had long-term occupation starting with prehistoric times.
INSIGHT: Why is an outhouse a valuable archaeological find?
Walling: Before mechanized transportation, people didn't dump their garbage far from home. Household garbage that people wanted out of the way would be collected into a bucket and dumped into the privy, which would become a depository for artifacts. This year we found hundreds of artifacts including an intact newspaper from 1915 at the bottom of a privy.
INSIGHT: What can you learn from trash?
Walling: We use household debris in the area to reconstruct the day-to-day lives of average workers from a certain period in the history of this country, and we hope to determine ethnic backgrounds of the community. I anticipate that we may find evidence of a group of former slaves imported from the south just after the Civil War to grow tobacco.
Archaeology traditionally looks at subjects from the top down-elites, nobility, decision-makers. The material in Feltsville gives us insight into the daily lives of the working class.
Opera singer Paul Plishka will be the featured performer at the annual Beatrice C. Crawford Memorial Concert Music Celebration on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium. Plishka will be accompanied by pianist Thomas Hrynkiw.
The program features selections from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" and "Don Carlo" and Mozart's "Don Giovanni" as well as music by Rachmaninoff, Sonevytsky, Bowles, Ives, Duke and Hageman.
Plishka's extraordinary voice and impeccable artistry combine to make him one of the world's foremost singers, praised by critics for his smooth, beautiful bass and polished dramatic skills. A leading member of the Metropolitan Opera since 1967, Plishka-who attended Montclair State before beginning his musical career with the Paterson Lyric Opera Theatre-appears regularly with major opera companies throughout North America. In Europe, he has performed in Geneva, Munich, Milan, Hamburg, Barcelona, Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, Paris, Lyon, Marseille and London.
His artistry was recognized in 1992 when he received the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and when, several years earlier, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great American Opera Singers at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Plishka has sung more than 1,000 performances, but his voice is most often associated with Italian opera, especially "Don Carlo," "Ernani," "Simon Boccangegra," "Aida," "I Vespri Siciliani" and "La Forza del Destino."
He has an extensive discography on Angel, ABC, Columbia, Erato and Vox records. His recording of the Verdi "Requiem" with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony won a Grammy Award for the best classical album of 1988.
The concert is made possible by a generous grant to the School of the Arts from the Keating Crawford Foundation in memory of former Essex County resident Beatrice C. Crawford, a noted patron of the arts and avid participant in musical arts in New Jersey. The purpose of the celebration is to develop collaborations with University musical groups to develop a high level of musical presentations for the surrounding community. Master performers and conductors serve as artists-in-residence and offer enriching musical and educational experiences for students in MSU's music program.
"This generous gift from the Crawford Foundation will allow the School of the Arts, designated by the New Jersey legislature as a Center of Excellence for the Arts, to further develop its mission in two ways," said Geoffrey Newman, dean of the School of the Arts. "First, by fostering exposure to and collaboration with professional artists, we enhance the School's goals as an institution dedicated to professional training. Second, by bringing such a high level of quality performances to campus, we enrich the musical and cultural life of northern New Jersey."
The concert is free, but tickets are required. Call the Box Office at 5112.
Joseph Attanasio of Communication Sciences and Disorders has had his article, "Representativeness Reasoning and the Search for the Origins of Stuttering: A Return to Basic Observations," published in the November issue of the Journal of Fluency Disorders, the official journal of the International Fluency Association. Attanasio's co-authors are Mark Onslow and Ann Packman, both of the Australian Stuttering Research Centre, University of Sydney.
Candace Clark of Sociology gave a lecture, "Sympathy Entrepreneurs," at a workshop with fellows at the Center for Working Families at the University of California at Berkeley. Clark spoke about how her research on the sociology of sympathy relates to the Center's concerns with cultures of care in contemporary American society.
Diana Guemárez-Cruz of Spanish and Italian read a paper, "Memorias de Leticia Valle de Rosa Chacel: las memorias de una 'imaginativa,' " at the International Symposium at the University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo campus, honoring Puerto Rican scholars Luce and Mercedes López-Baralt. She also conducted a workshop, "Literature and Society: Some Cases in the Spanish Literature," at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus.
Jack Gaynor, Ann Kindfield, Scott Kight, Lee Lee, Bonnie Lustigman, Mike McCormick, Quinn Vega, Dirk Vandeklein and John Small of Biology, and students Margret Brown, Willel Fanfan, Farah Khan, Cynthia De la Fuente, Ryan Caballes, Imane Elateri, Victor Mazza, Fausto Ramos, Carolyn Eadie, Mary Batino, Zhen Zhang, Rony Dorelian, Marc Morresi, Sherri Olageshin, Jeff Jones and Inna Gutman made presentations at the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists.
Warren Heiss of Communication Sciences and Disorders was an editorial consultant for the Books for Young Readers division of Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for a recently published book about a teen-ager with Attention Deficit Disorder. Heiss also was the featured speaker at the fall meeting of the Sussex County Speech-Language-Hearing Association. His topic was "Language and Learning Disorders: Neurological Conjectures."
Eileen Kaplan of Management and director of the MBA program was selected as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Program Venture Capital Board at Columbia (University) Business School.
MSU Foundation chairman and president passes away
Harry Mahler, chairman and president of the Board of the Montclair State University Foundation, passed away Nov. 27.
Mahler joined the board in 1989 and was elected chairman and president in 1995. During his tenure, Mahler served as a member of the Nominating, Investment and Budget committees. He was chair of the Foundation Annual Fund Drive and a member of the Steering Committee of the MSU Capital Campaign.
"Harry was a wonderful man whose enthusiam and dedication helped guide the MSU Foundation for several years," said Greg Waters, vice president for Institutional Advancement. "He was quite remarkable for his great joy for life, his kindness and his strong interest in the University's programs. We will miss him."
Theatre and Dance present 'As You Like It,' Dec. 10-12
Shakespeare's light-hearted comedy, "As You Like It," is transformed to the 1960s in a new offering from the Department of Theatre and Dance. The play will be presented in the Studio Theatre on Dec. 10, 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. with a 1 p.m. matinee Dec. 11 and a
2 p.m. showing Dec. 12.
Rosalind, one of the Bard's most loveable heroines and the idyllic forest of Arden set the mood for this 400-year-old favorite. Shakespeare's humorous tale revolves around the life of people who leave the busy world for an enchanted forest, filled with opportunities to sing, philosophize and fall in love.
The student cast includes Mike Bellina, Julianne blake, Raine Brown, Matt Carlin, Jonathan Chavis, Brian Cichoki, Will Coles, Carmine Covello, Ralph Cozzarelli, Victoria Cozzolino, Kristen Drake, Jim Festante, B.J. Gallagher, Alan Niebuhr, Tony Grosso, Matt Kawczynski, Amy LaPosa, Justin Lloyd, Denyse Owens, Larry Phillips and Aaron Schurgin.
"As You Like It" is directed by Susan Kerner with set design by Randy Mugleston, lighting design by Tim Stefanoski and costume design by Therese Bruck and Corrine Kholmann. The stage manager is Brett Klein.
Tickets are $9 standard; $7 for faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for students. All seating is by general admission.
For tickets, call the Box Office at 5112.
The University Bookstore is looking to hire temporary cashiers for the beginning of the spring semester. Training begins the week of Jan. 4 with the position open through Jan. 26, depending on sales. Pay is $6 per hour. Day and evening shifts are available. For more information, call Karen or Debbie at 4485 or 4489.
The MTS MAC units in Dickson Hall, Room 281; Partridge Hall, Room 113; Richardson Hall, Room 110; and the Student Center have been upgraded with new MAC G3 desktop computers for use by all faculty in these buildings. In addition, all 10 MTS units now have an Anchor Power Speaker that enhances the computer audio quality.
Joanne Walsh of Human Resource Services is collecting donations for this year's adopted family. The family includes four girls, ages 9 months to 9 years old. For more information, call Walsh at 4398.
A Kwanzaa celebration, sponsored by the African-American Caucus and the African-American Studies Program, will be held Thursday, Dec. 10, from noon to 2 p.m. in the Student Center, Room 417. There will be food and entertainment, including a film about the history of Kwanzaa.
The campus community is invited to a holiday party sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus on Friday, Dec. 11, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Student Center dining room. Participants are asked to bring a dish for the pot luck dinner. For more information, call Nadeem Firoz at 7446.
Mass for the Holy Day of the Feast Of The Immaculate Conception will be held Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 12:15 p.m. in the Student Center, Room 411-414. Thursday Advent Mass will be held Dec. 10 and 17 at 12:15 p.m. in the Student Center, Room 418. Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated Thursday, Dec. 24, at 5 p.m. in Russ Hall, Kops Lounge. All celebrations are sponsored by the Newman Catholic Center.
CORRECTION: In last week's issue of INSIGHT, the front page story, "President Cole: If we work together, we will be unstoppable," incorrectly called the Justice Studies Program the Criminal Justice Program. We regret the error.
Steve Smith
director, Campus Recreation and Intramural Services
Montclair State University attracts students from across the entire state. This year's full-time undergraduate students come from all 21 counties as far south as Cape May, as far west as Warren and as far north as Bergen.
For more information about position announcements, see bulletin board outside the Personnel Office in College Hall or visit MSU's web site at www.montclair.edu.
Promotional Announcements: Painter. Salary: $26,767.50-$36,637.58. Data Processing Input/Output Control Specialist 2. Salary: $28,001.26-$38,373.98.
Recitals. Held in McEachern Recital Hall unless noted otherwise.
Home games only are listed. Schedule is subject to change. For more information, call the Athletic Office at 5234. (Mens and Women's Track Meets are all away)
ONGOING Public Telescope Nights. 8-9 p.m. clear Thursdays through Dec. 10 (excluding Nov. 26) in front of Richardson Hall. The moon will be featured Oct. 29. For more information, call Mary Lou West at 7266.
Movies. Free movies and popcorn every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Commuter Student Lounge, Student Center, Room 104.
ON 'CARPE DIEM'
The weekly television show produced by broadcasting majors features Montclair antiques dealer Jay Braneck and collector Patricia Headley describing the difference between antiques and collectibles, and discussing the style and value of some of the items in their collections. Produced by Christine Bonilla; directed by Steven Bloomfield; and hosted by Jamie Drapczak. Airs Dec. 8 at noon on Cablevision and 9 p.m. on COMCAST. Also airs Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. on CTN. Check your local listings for the channel in your area.
& MORE Dec. 9: Global Expo. Noon-2 p.m., Memorial Auditorium. Sponsored by Speech Communication. For more information, call Beverly Friedman at 7471.
Board of Trustees' Meetings. The public session begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Center, Room 419. Retreat meetings are held off campus. Dec. 10, Feb. 11, March 13 (retreat), April 8, June 10, July 8.