Heard (and Seen) on Campus
Politicians, journalists, dancers, comedians and a Nobel Prize–winner are among the high-profile recent visitors to campus who imparted words of wisdom to students on everything from dance to genetics.
In April, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin “Marty” Baron participated in the 2017 Terhune Journalism Lecture for a conversation with Merrill Brown, national media commentator and former director of Montclair State’s School of Communication and Media. Billed as “Untangling Fact from Fiction,” the conversation focused on the challenge and opportunity of covering the Trump Administration.
At an Earth Day press conference on campus, U.S. senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez announced legislation to prohibit potentially devastating seismic offshore fossil fuel exploration in New Jersey. In October, the senators and then U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. also hosted an education round table on New Jersey’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Menendez made a third visit to campus in March to honor women trailblazers. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards delivered a keynote address to a capacity audience at the Women’s History Month event.
At an Earth Day press conference on campus, U.S. senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez announced legislation to prohibit potentially devastating seismic offshore fossil fuel exploration in New Jersey. In October, the senators and then U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. also hosted an education round table on New Jersey’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Menendez made a third visit to campus in March to honor women trailblazers. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards delivered a keynote address to a capacity audience at the Women’s History Month event.
New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno was a special guest speaker at the Montclair State University Foundation’s Annual Scholarship Dinner in March; it was a return visit, as she also spoke during Women Entrepreneurship Week in the fall. And NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt, who won the DuMont Broadcaster of the Year Award, talked with faculty and students about the state of the news business in the Trump era (see story).
On Darwin Day in February, the University welcomed Princeton professor and Nobel laureate Eric Wieschaus as the keynote speaker at the First Wehner Student Research Symposium. The molecular geneticist discussed “Cell Mechanics During Early Embryonic Development.”
The spring 2017 Emerging Science Lecture brought Amicus Therapeutics CEO John Crowley to campus to share his quest to find a cure for Pompe disease, the deadly degenerative disorder affecting his children.
The Daily Show host and author of Born A Crime Trevor Noah and his editor Chris Jackson kicked off the Montclair Literary Festival in March by speaking to a sold-out Memorial Auditorium audience.
Award-winning choreographer Doug Elkins premiered two of his works on campus. Peak Performances commissioned and co-produced his dance O, round desire, while his film A Hundred Indecisions was part of the Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State series funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Choreographers on Campus Initiative. Elkins also taught a master class for dance students.